Windows 8 keyboard short cuts

New year, new OS.  I made the jump to Windows 8 over the xmas period.  Still getting used to it, spend most of my time in desktop mode, like the fact that the task bar is extended across multiple monitors.  Being a keyboard junkie I found the following list of keyboard shortcuts really useful.  New years resolution is to practice them…

Win : switch between the Start screen and the last-running Windows 8 app
Win + C : displays the Charms: the Settings, Devices, Share and Search options
Win + D : launches the desktop
Win + E : launches Explorer
Win + F : opens the File Search pane
Win + H : opens the Share pane
Win + I : opens Settings
Win + K : opens the Devices pane
Win + L : locks your PC
Win + M : minimises the current Explorer or Internet Explorer window (works in the full-screen IE, too)
Win + O : toggles device orientation lock on and off
Win + P : switch your display to a second display or projector
Win + Q : open the App Search pane
Win + R : opens the Run box
Win + U : open the Ease of Access Centre
Win + V : cycle through toasts (notifications)
Win + W : search your system settings (type POWER for links to all power-related options, say)
Win + X : displays a text menu of useful Windows tools and applets
Win + Z : displays the right-click context menu when in a full-screen app
Win + + : launch Magnifier and zoom in
Win + - : zoom out
Win + , : Aero peek at the desktop
Win + Enter : launch Narrator
Win + PgUp : move the current screen to the left-hand monitor
Win + PgDn : move the current screen to the right-hand monitor
Win + PrtSc : capture the current screen and save it to your Pictures folder
Win + Tab : switch between running apps

DevWeek 2013

Schedule for DevWeek 2013 is now out RSK will be presenting a range of materials from distributed systems, C# 5 threading , debugging, HTML 5 , and some of the future stuff such as Roslyn.  Dr Rockman will be present in the exhibition area to answer any of your technical questions.

 

Look forward to seeing you there

 

First install of Cisco based CAT

The furniture is currently being installed for our first Cisco Video Advantage based CAT solution for Harrow Council.  Rich and myself will be installing the software on Tuesday. 

 

Harrow are currently rolling this out to three libraries initially, allowing residents to access housing services from a convenient local location.

How much packaging

Richard and myself receive a batch of Microsoft Windows Embedded licence keys.  Having only ordered four we were a bit amused by the size of the box they came in .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M47ZbefpQbY&feature=plcp

Pet USB Keys

A friend of mine has designed some dog USB keys. I'm sure they will be a hit with dog lovers and kids alike

You can buy them online

http://www.petstar-tech.com/
"Designed in Farnham assembled in China"

Double check locking

At my recent Async talk at DevWeek I built an Asynchronous queue that enables the consumers to take advantage of async and await keywords available in C# 5.  You can download the code here, the final step in that implementation was to make use of double check locking.  A delegate came up to me afterwards and said my code wasn’t thread safe, in that I could end up with a partially completed object.  This was due to the fact that the CPU can re-order write operations to optimise memory bus, and that is true of some processors.  In that the reference to the object could be flushed out to main memory before the data associated with the object constructor.  This certainly was the case in .NET 1.1 with certain chip sets not true for your classic x86 and x64 but the Itanium I-A64 family of processor.  The work around was to make the pointer to the constructed object volatile forcing the compiler to place the appropriate memory barrier instructions.

However in .NET 2.0 the CLR team enforced a more strong memory model since they didn’t like the idea of managed code behaving so differently on the final target hardware.  Here is a link to the write up from MSDN mag by Vance Morrison the compiler architect of the .NET runtime explaining why you don’t need to use volatile from .NET 2.0 onwards.

DevWeek 2012 Demos

Just to say my demos from DevWeek 2012 are now available for download here

Devweek 2012

Had a great conference as ever. Thanks to everyone who attended the RSK talks. I literally left the conference and went on holiday. Will be back tomorrow so will upload the demos to the website on Tuesday 3rd

If you want a refresher on the asynchronous talk we have screencasts on the site that cover some of the aspects