Moving a ClickOnce Installation

A while ago I needed to move a ClickOnce installation to a new URL based on an update I was performing. Now, anyone who is familiar with ClickOnce knows you can migrate an application to a new URL inside Visual Studio by setting up the new "Update Location" in the settings dialog below: In the...

Read More

Load balancing TCP/IP traffic using HAProxy/Nginx

Despite all our best efforts, problems can and do happen in production. If you are practicing CI/CD and continually pushing new code to a server, bugs can sometimes creep in. When that happens you want to be able to inspect, debug and even step-through the code to identify and fix the problem. However,...

Read More

Commodore 64 Basic

Well, that was a nice trip down memory lane! I have just come across the C64 Mini over at https://thec64.com. It's not being released until 2018 but it's a mini replica of the Commodore 64 with USB and HDMI ports. The Commodore 64 was my very first computer. Of course I played the games! Buggy Boy...

Read More

Reading the contents of emails in an inbox.

The .NET framework comes with a SMTP email client to send out emails in the box and is simple to use: var msg = new MailMessage("oceanairdrop@gmail.com", toList, subject, messageBody); var client = new SmtpClient(server).Send(msg); But recently, I wanted to be able to read the contents of emails in an inbox. Thats when I went searching in the framework only to find out there there is no support...

Read More

C++ 2017

Wahooo!!! C++ 17 has now been published as an ISO standard!! I haven't used C++ for a long time as C# is my daily driver these days. But I will always remember when I moved from C++ to C#, being so much more productive as the language was a more safer environment and there was less things you had...

Read More

INotifyPropertyChanged & Fody

We all know what the INotifyPropertyChanged interface does. It can be used to raise an event when a property of a class changes. Then in another section of code we can subscribe to these events and perform certain actions based on the application needs. It's all very cool but also old hat and pedestrian. But the thing with this interface is that you can end up writing a lot of boiler plate code!...

Read More

Professional Winform Controls & Libraries

Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking. Winforms development! But… Erm… Isn’t Winforms dead? I wouldn’t say Winforms is dead - let’s just say it’s “been done”! It’s complete. Whilst the Winforms framework is not as hot or current as it once was, it’s still very capable for a lot of business tasks...

Read More

Programmatic Analysis of Wireshark Log Files using C#

The other day, I wanted to perform some Wireshark filtering on a .pcap file to obtain a count of the packets found for a large number of IP addresses. I wanted to find out the number of tcp retransmissions for a specified IP address, as well as the count of TCP resets for each IP address. And finally,...

Read More

Using Redis as a Data Caching Server

Everyone knows how important caching is in computing. We are surrounded by caching managers here, there and everywhere. You've got your CPU caching in the form of L1 and L2 cache which stores the next bit of data the CPU needs. GPUs have a cache. All hard drives come equipped with an on-board cache....

Read More

Code and Music

Do you listen to music when you code? I do. For me, there is no better experience of falling into a code-hole while being wisked away by a backing track of your liking. I find the two compliment each other. If you have a sufficiently meaty problem and an inkling of how you're going to solve it, music can sweep away time. You tumble down that code-hole and before you know it, you look up and...

Read More

SeriLog & Application Diagnostic Logging

Show me an application that doesn't log anything and i'll show you an application which is hard to debug. Every application we write should have a healthy sprinkling of diagnostic logging embedded throughout its logic. A trace to show us what's happening on the inside from the outside. In the past,...

Read More

Data Modelling and Diagramming Database Schemas

So, I have recently been designing a schema for a new database system. As everyone knows, this is a technical process and requires a good understanding of the problem domain to make sure you collect all the business concepts and relationships. For these kind of things, you can't beat a good entity...

Read More

Another Year. Another Year's Checklist!

Ahhh yes… Another year! Another fresh start and set of goals for the year. So many good intentions. On this blog I try to detail my meandering adventures in technology, so I thought I'd write up the tech-subjects I've had in the back of my mind but never got around to looking into. You never know, maybe this is the year I can tick some of them off!! Truth be told, I have had this laundry list...

Read More