kennywest

Ok, I must have been away from this world for some time. Apparently Microsoft's new game console will be called Xbox 360. You can read all about it here . A few years ago, when Microsoft released its first Xbox, there was some student analyzing traffic that was crossing the encrypted bus (between CPU and peripherals I think), for its thesis. As a result, different small companies released mod chips that were able to hack this bus. After mod'ing your Xbox, you were able to run copied games (not that I approve that). You could even run Linux on your Xbox. After all, the first Xbox was a normal PC, with some proprietary stuff from Microsoft. When the new Xbox will be released, the OpenSource community will be ready ... I can't wait ;)

For those of you interested in the history of Unix, OS2, Minix, Linux ... (or in short those decent OSes that don't originate from Redmond) there's a series of tales you can read on Groklaw. The latest is chapter 9 .

Ok, yet another Biztalk post. The other night, I was working for a client, trying to get a map right. Normally I don't use these things. I know XSLT well and tend to use this instead of the clumsy Biztalk Mapper . This time, however, I was obliged to use the mapper. My colleague was using it and I had to fix his map. Anyway, opening the toolbox startled me, as there were no functoids. After Googling for a while, it seemed I had to add Microsoft.BizTalk.BaseFunctoids.dll (which you can find near C:\Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004\Developer Tools ) to my toolbox. After that, everything was working as it should. I'm not sure how MS Visual Studio ever forgot about the location of my functoids ...

Ok, I admit it, I'm a nerd ;) This morning, at 00h10, I went to see the final part of the Star Wars saga. Better than the first 2, I must admit. Even though you know how it's going to end (you do know how it's going to end ... if not, were have you been the past 6 years or so), Lucas managed to bring enough entertainment, drama and suspension to keep me awake for almost 3 hours. So in short, a must see ... may the force be with you ...

In a recent post I was talking about duplicate message types deployed to the Biztalk management database. The following link describes duplicate message types in more detail.

Yesterday, a colleague had a problem setting the classpath for an application we use. Apparently, the length of environment variables is restricted in Win32. Unfortunately our application is using a lot of external jars , so classpaths tend to grow. While google'ing for a solution I came accross this post. There is another solution to solve this issue. Just add the following line to your config.sys file: shell=command.com /e:4096 I must admit, I like the Runner.class solution though ;)