Microsoft Songsmith is fun (with some suggestions)

I have download Microsoft Songsmith today.

I guess most people begins their playing with this application by singing known songs, excepting it to perfectly redo the original music of their selected song.

So either I'm a totally bad performer, or it just doesn’t work.

the fun begins when you let yourself inventing songs with it.
The even greater fun is to do it together with someone!

My suggested improvements:

• Let the algorithm decide whether to put one or two chords in each bar separately (instead of setting it per the whole song)
• Let me change the “Happy” or “Jazzy” per section of the song.

Hope you’ll enjoy it.

.NET Framework 3.5 Family Update - My Peek inside the .NET 2 update

UPDATE:

KB 959209 has appeared! (was published on December 20, 2008).
This KB point you to 3 other KBs for the 3 parts of the Family Update:

• 958481 – .Net 2.0 SP2 update
• 958483 - .Net 3.0 SP2 update
• 958484 - .Net 3.5 SP1 update

(Those docs are very similar each to the other, telling about the same issues)
Better late than never.

ORIGINAL POST: 

As I stated in my previous entry, Microsoft has uploaded this Family Update, with the usual missing of a description document what went into this update.

The only thing they said was:

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Family Update provides compatibility roll-up updates for customer reported issues found after the release of Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

So I have decided to peek inside.

Notice:
I don't take any responsibility on the following information. I might have done something totally wrong in the way I have extracted the update and got wrong info from within. You take all the risk on yourself if you use this info.

Steps:

Now that we done with those legal issues, what I have done is extract the .msp file from within the the NDP20SP2-KB958481-x86.exe.

Then, using MSIX tool, I have extract the files from the .msp file.

Then, extract the patch.cab file.

Next step was renaming the dlls I have found to have the correct extension (which was missing)

Next, for each dll (only managed), using Reflector, disassemble and export the source files.
Doing the same last action to the original dlls from the .NET GAC.

Using Araxis Merge to compare the source.

Please remember that I have done the investigation only for the .NET 2.0 SP2 Family update.

Non managed dlls in the update: (can't say what was changed there)

• aspnet_wp.exe
• mscordacwks.dll
• mscorjit_dll
• webengine.dll

Managed dlls:

• mscorlib.dll
• System.Data.OracleClient
• System.Xml
• System.Web

Main changes in those Managed dlls:

(I will just write the changes in short, I don't have more info to share- this would required days of reading Microsoft's code).

System.Web:

• Better handling of IIS Rewrite Module in multiple classes(coockieless security, IIS7 worker request, HTML Form, Client Path)
• Process Custom Browser Files - ignores hidden files in the directory (at least this what it's look like)
• Something in state cache handling.
• Change in Sort entries in control builder.

System.Xml

• xml CanWrite check instead of GetSetMethod in one method.

System.Data.OracleClient

• RollbackDeadTransaction and some more Transactions code was added to a method .

mscorlib

• Handling Delegate & MulticastDelegate Combine null issue better

the Version was changed from 2.0.50727.3053 to 2.0.50727.3082.

wow, this was long.
Hope you enjoy it.

I still wait for the missing KB doc from Microsoft...

If it won't come soon, you might find here the same analysis to the 2 other updates (I don't promise).

Half baked Download page - .NET Framework 3.5 Family Update

UPDATE:

KB 959209 has appeared! (was published December 20, 2008).
but you can still watch the funny movie…

 

Original Post:

I'm monitoring the Microsoft downloads site for new download almost daily.

Today, I have found a new interesting download:

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Family Update

Actually, there are 3 files inside this page, one for each framework version part

• 2.0 SP2
• 3.0 SP2
• 3.5 SP1

What is inside those updates? 
Very good question.

This is what I meant by "Half baked"...

There is a reference to a knowledge base document...

Please see the Knowledge Base Article KB959209 for more information.

But at the writing time of the blog, this document doesn't exist!

So instead telling you what goes inside those updates, you can watch a very funny movie from the company I work for.

Funny commercial or TFS DB upgrade?

Hi again

This time I'm not here to speak about technology, but to tell you about a very funny commercial produced for the company I work for, about American travel to Paris...

You know what? maybe I'll use the opportunity to share with you some technology issues anyway:

I was in the middle of replacing the machine of our TFS Data layer server, and got to the step where you should tell Sharepoint Services that you have switched Database...

I was using the instruction from "How to Restore Data for Team Foundation Server to a Different Server" document from MSDN:

Type the following command:

stsadm –o renameserver –oldservername
OriginalDataTierServerName -newserver NewDataTierServerName

So I just copied the line from the doc, and paste it into the Command Line Console.
I have changed the old & new server names, and... It didn't worked.

I got "Command line error".

After struggling this for 15 minutes, I found out there is a mistake in the doc:
The second parameter should be "-newservername" and not "-newserver".

So now it worked? of course not!

Struggling again, until I found one comment in WSS Blog from that guy "paisleygo", who says:

There is also the issue with the "typing" the command rather than pasting it. That part is critical - the paste seems to mess up the hyphen character. - So once I fixed all the hyphens in my bat file - things worked great!

Thanks paisleygo!

So my teacher was right all this time: "READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!"
Yes M'em - it was written in the doc to TYPE the line - not to copy it...

what MIGHT be in .NET 2.0 SP1

UPDATE: The missing article was published!!! read my comment

I still wait Microsoft to release a document with list of fixes and changes in SP1.
but Microsoft hasn't answered yet... So we should do the job instead.

Here is a list of Hotfix knowledge base (KB) articles which contain (by Google search) the sentence:

"we recommend that you wait for the next .NET Framework 2.0 service pack that contains this hotfix"

This is by no means a guarantee that those hotfixes were actually fixed in SP1, it's only my best effort to predict what may entered into the service pack.

Actually, this is a list of all (I hope) the hotfixes microsoft publish for .NET 2.0.
I wish Microsoft at least had made an aggregation page like this.

Hope it will help someone out there.

 

UPDATE: The missing article was published!!! read my comment

 

915088
FIX: The .NET Framework 2.0 Thread.IsThreadPoolThread property always returns a value of false, and the SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services log file grows uncontrollably

919804
The Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 client closes a persistent connection to a Web server when you try to access a forbidden resource from the Web server that returns an HTTP 403 status code

921217
FIX: A deadlock may occur when you use COM interop cross-context interface marshaling in the .NET Framework 2.0

936707
FIX: A .NET Framework 2.0 managed application that has an Authenticode signature takes longer than usual to start

921968
FIX: The .NET Framework 2.0 does not serialize the AttributeGroup schema elements in the correct namespace

913047
FIX: A .NET Framework 2.0-based application may crash when you use HTTPS to download managed code from a source server computer

937780
FIX: Error message when you use a smart card CSP together with the "RSACryptoServiceProvider.SignData" method in the .NET Framework 2.0

924895
FIX: An application that is based on the .NET Framework 2.0 may crash unexpectedly

919514
FIX: When you use the MSIL Assembler in the .NET Framework 2.0 to generate a PE file from the MSIL code, the PE file may close unexpectedly, and you may receive an access violation error message

934839
FIX: You may receive an exception when you browse a .NET Framework 2.0 ASP.NET Web application

941386
FIX: Error message when you run an ASP.NET 2.0 Web application that is built on the .NET Framework 2.0 after you install the MS07-040 security update: "Type 'System.Web.HttpHeaderCollection' is not marked as serializable"

942086
FIX: Error message when you run an ASP.NET 2.0 Web application that is built on the .NET Framework 2.0: "The constructor to deserialize an object of type '<custom object>' was not found"

912884
FIX: Out of memory exceptions may occur when you run an application that is built by using the .NET Framework 2.0 in a high-load environment

928870
FIX: An exception is not handled correctly when you use a try-catch block to handle an exception from multi-threads in the .NET Framework 2.0

917882
FIX: A synchronized method that has security callouts may not save a return value after control returns to the calling function in an application that is built by using the 64-bit version of the .NET Framework 2.0

925076
FIX: Error message when you use the System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute.Namespace property for an anonymous Web Service type in the .NET Framework 2.0

942027
FIX: You may notice that the memory load is very high when you run an application that is built on the .NET Framework 2.0

929425
FIX: A memory leak may occur when you call a C DLL from a C# class that includes strings in the .NET Framework 2.0

922935
FIX: Message when you try to start a ClickOnce program in the .NET Framework 2.0: "Do you want to install this application?"

924289
FIX: The application process may unexpectedly stop when you run a managed application that is based on the .NET Framework 2.0, or the server may shut down when you run managed code in SQL Server 2005

927579
FIX: The System.Net.Security.SslStream class always calls the InitializeSecurityContext function by using only one input buffer in the .NET Framework 2.0

938276
FIX: The # Induced GC performance counter value increases quickly and CPU usage becomes high when you run an ASP.NET 2.0 Web application that is built on the .NET Framework 2.0

932602
FIX: You may experience a decrease in the performance of a .NET Framework 2.0-based application when you call the System.Web.UI.MobileControls.Style.GetValue method many times

934334
FIX: A memory leak occurs when a managed application uses a platform invoke call to call an unmanaged function in the .NET Framework 2.0

928563
FIX: The System.Net.HttpWebRequest class may not maintain a persistent connection to a proxy in the .NET Framework 2.0

921118
FIX: Error message when you try to compile a large intermediate language file by using the Ilasm.exe tool in the .NET Framework 2.0: "Duplicate global label '_MF_LIT_530223'"

913297
FIX: Error message when you try to run a Web application that was built by using the .NET Framework 2.0: "Overwhelming changes have occurred"

942084
FIX: Error message if you use the "CspParameters" class to programmatically set a password in an application that is built on the .NET Framework 2.0: "Incorrect PIN"

926595
FIX: Server garbage collector threads may enter an endless loop condition in the .NET Framework 2.0

923562
Error message when you use the System.Data.OleDb namespace in the .NET Framework 2.0 to retrieve data from the OLE DB Provider for SQL Server: "ICommandText interface is not supported by the 'SQLOLEDB' provider"

917447
FIX: An access violation may occur when a .NET Framework 2.0-based application calls the IWebProxy.GetProxy method

917952
FIX: Error message when you try to install a ClickOnce application that you created in the .NET Framework 2.0 onto a client computer that is configured to use a proxy server: "Proxy authentication required"

913382
FIX: Windows Error Reporting crashes when the Sos.dll file is loaded in memory in the .NET Framework 2.0

913766
FIX: A DateTime column that does not contain any data is incorrectly represented by a DateTime.MinValue field when a .NET Framework 2.0 DataSet object is deserialized on a client computer

928569
FIX: The first CLR thread pool worker thread is never initialized for COM+ in an ASP.NET Web application that is configured to run under the .NET Framework 2.0

918166
FIX: You may receive an error message when you try to generate a Web reference for a Web service by using the Wsdl.exe tool in the .NET Framework 2.0

933905
FIX: Multiple cookies may be merged under one Set-Cookie header in the HTTP response when a .NET Framework 2.0 application calls the "HttpListenerResponse.SetCookie" method

942708
FIX: You may receive a "SerializationException" exception when you use a class that implements the "INotifyPropertyChanged" interface in an application that is built on the .NET Framework 2.0

913753
FIX: You only receive notification for the first e-mail message when you send multiple e-mail messages by using the System.Net.Mail namespace in a .NET Framework 2.0-based application

917507
FIX: JIT compilation may take much longer when you run a .NET Framework 2.0 application on a 64-bit computer

943598
FIX: Error message when you try to run an ASP.NET 2.0 Web application if you do not associate the My_Computer_Zone code group with the "full trust" permission set: "Server Application Unavailable"

922674
FIX: The OracleDataReader.GetChars method may return the incorrect data in the .NET Framework 2.0

923781
FIX: You may encounter a System.NullReferenceException exception when you call a COM interface method in the .NET Framework 2.0

939731
FIX: A memory leak may occur when you create and then delete Windows form control objects in an application that is built on the .NET Framework 2.0

915980
FIX: You may receive a "security exception" error message on a Windows 2000-based or Windows Server 2003-based computer that is running an ASP.NET 2.0-based application

917493
FIX: Internet Explorer may freeze when you click a link to start a .NET Framework 2.0 client application in Internet Explorer and another file download is already in progress

944100
FIX: You cannot manipulate the data table that is used a transaction in a .NET Framework 2.0-based Web project when you run a long-running stored procedure or an SQL script in the project

937320
FIX: Error message when you call the "System.Xml.Xsl.XslTransform.Transform" method two times in a .NET Framework 2.0-based application: "Circular reference in the definition of variable <variable name>"

939783
FIX: The value of the ImeMode property automatically changes to the Off value in the .NET Framework 2.0

934593
FIX: Random values may be written to the float parameters of some functions in a custom application that you create by using the .NET Framework 2.0

915430
FIX: Not all paths that are specified in the DEVPATH environment variable will be considered by the .NET binding infrastructure (fusion) in the .NET Framework 2.0

916209
FIX: Parentheses may be added around every letter when you type a line of code in the Visual Basic 2005 Code Editor on a computer that is running the .NET Framework 2.0

937460
FIX: You cannot use the TAB key to change the focus in a .NET Framework 2.0-based Windows Forms application that dynamically changes binding sources

940104
FIX: Error message when you use an application that is built on the .NET Framework 2.0 to run a query: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object"

923325
FIX: When you use the Native Image Generator (Ngen.exe) in the .NET Framework 2.0, the size of the stack frames increases significantly

939670
FIX: Error message when a client application that is built on the .NET Framework 2.0 sends a request to a server that is running Windows Communication Foundation: "HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error"

936464
FIX: A client cannot determine whether a chunked HTTP response is completed when the connection is closed before the response is completely sent to the client

936757
FIX: A deadlock may occur when two threads call a fusion API to access the same assembly in the .NET Framework 2.0

941078
FIX: The performance of the drawing operation decreases in a Windows Forms application that was built on the .NET Framework 2.0

918181
FIX: You receive a ThreadAbortException exception in an ASP.NET Web application that is based in the .NET Framework 2.0 when the Async page directive property is set to true

940900
FIX: You receive the NullReferenceException exception when you call the String.IsNullOrEmpty function in an application that is built on the .NET Framework 2.0

932536
FIX: Error message when you record a Web test in Visual Studio 2005 Team System Test Edition: "Request Failed: Index and length must refer to a location within the string"

917833
FIX: JScript .NET script code that is running in a child scope cannot access variables that are declared in the parent scope in the .NET Framework 2.0

939525
FIX: Error message in a .NET remoting application when you use IPv6 addresses: "A socket operation was attempted to an unreachable host"

917752
FIX: The OdbcConnection object does not report an error when you specify a transaction isolation level that is not supported by the data source in the .NET Framework 2.0

940932
FIX: The System.Data.Index.CompareRecords method generates a System.NullReferenceException exception when you try to use code to modify a record in a data table in a .NET Framework 2.0-based application

913616
FIX: Error message when you try to send e-mail by using the System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient class in a Visual Studio 2005-based application

922271
FIX: You may receive multiple error messages and experience a significant delay when you use the MSBuild.exe tool and the .NET Framework 2.0 to build a Visual C# or Visual C++ solution

935287
FIX: A multipart/mixed MIME part is added unnecessarily when you use the System.Net.Mail namespace to send an e-mail message in the .NET Framework 2.0

943175
FIX: The XmlSerializer class generates an unexpected result when you use the XmlSerializer class to serialize the numeration attribute in the .NET Framework 2.0

922531
FIX: Error message when you check in files in Visual Studio 2005 Team System: "Attempted to read or write protected memory"