https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

System Internals at Microsoft has a large toolkit of pretty capable tools.

Process Explorer is a much more capable version of task manager.

Rootkit revealer can help uncover more sophisticated malware that isn’t caught by defender.

The sysinternal suite link downloads a single zip file with most of the sysinternals tools.

These tools can give visibility into the internals of windows and diagnose problems. Doing diagnosis successfully will require a good bit of learning curve and digging but the more you learn the more you can do and much of that knowledge comes in handy when doing system level coding as well.

Starting a new week and still spread out on tech topics to visit but a little more focused after the weekend.

Looking at a week of OpenGL, OpenCL, WPF, WinForms, C# and Java as I keep at my tech refresher work on things I haven’t touched recently.

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I keep running into opportunities where embedded and UI are both relevant. Some also add in 3D rendering. I have done a modest amount of work in both, but generally as a prototyping/tooling/home project thing and it has been a while since I dipped my toes in there (the crypto work at Draeger was pretty intense). The most recent home project work has involved VR and Unity rather than the lower level APIs so that doesn’t necessarily translate directly.

I ramp fast so part of this is refresher and part of this is a demonstration (if all goes well). This will still be a bit spread out as there have been quite a few areas that job descriptions have pointed to.

At this point I’m planning to spend most of my 3D-ish time in OpenGL and OpenCL as Vulkan and Direct3D 12 seem to be more appropriate to high performance video games and I’ve done some work in the past using OpenGL and done substantial reading on OpenCL.

On the UI front I may very well do a little MFC work to support the OpenGL coding as the sample frameworks in C++ that are provided by the books I have (‘OpenGL Superbible: Comprehensive Tutorial and Reference 7th Edition’ and ‘OpenCL Programming Guide (OpenGL) 1st Edition’) are pretty rudimentary. Once I have C++ based code running I’ll probably step over to trying some things in WinForms (on place seems to really want WinForms and 3D) and WPF using PInvoke or helper DLLs in C++.

I’m also going to look at back-filling some areas of C# where I’m weak…particularly LINQ and the async/await patterns.

Java has come up on the cloud side lately as well. Since it has been a few years since I wrote any Java I picked up the latest ‘Core Java, Volume I: Fundamentals, 12th edition’ and ‘Core Java: Advanced Features, Volume 2, 12th Edition’. Looks from a quick scan as if Java has changed less in recent years than C++ or C# so some refresher exercises and reading seems like it should do. I haven’t really used my IntelliJ IDEA license in some time (other parts of the JetBrains Toolkit have been of great value) so this will be a welcome chance to get that up and in service as well.

Finally have an upgraded gaming machine. I’ve been putting off as video cards stayed crazy expensive and I was doing ok with the only but capable machine on my desk (beside really). I finally took the plunge this spring to get moving on something more modern. Nice to have a more responsive machine that isn’t slowly aging out 🙂

Now I’m helping my sister’s son spec out parts for a machine of his own. Should be at the point soon where he can order parts as well and I’ll help him handle the integration process.

Next steps (see pandamallet where that sort of stuff lives) will be to get some Unity coding going, put together some WebGL stuff and see where things can go in terms of fun coding.

Up in the Franconia notch area for the weekend. Having a slow and quiet weekend up here…not far from the hike up Mount Lincoln and Lafayette where Lorna and I first met.

We’re at the Wilderness Lodge for our last few days of vacation. Going low-key on this stretch. Pool time and food and a few rides here and there. Continue reading Back at Disney for a last few days →

Had a great time at the Yacht Club at Disney. We hit all of the parks at least once, had some great meals and last night saw the current version of the star wars fireworks and dessert party (ate the dessert, did not just see).

We’re now packing up and going to grab breakfast at Epcot France before picking up the rental car to head for Cocoa beach for a few days.

Great weather and a beautiful place to stay so far. Right between Epcot and Hollywood Studios (within walking distance of each).

On the walk to Hollywood Studios we could see thee  pylons that will support the new skyway that Disney is putting in. I expect that to be pretty cool and hope to have a chance to ride it sometime soon after it goes into service.

No pictures yet as I’ve not had time to post-process anything…barely have them in LightRoom (and this laptop has an older version of LightRoom so the G7 pictures don’t process at all). Once we get to Cocoa Beach, we should be running slower and thus have time to dip into the shots and post process a few selected one.

Looks like there may be a space-x launch happening this afternoon (had been scheduled for yesterday, but appears to have been delayed) so if everything lines up I may get some more launch photos.

…but at least there isn’t any snow.

Looking to be another busy week. Still wrapping up the stray ends of my previous program and working to get up to speed on my new one. Vacation coming up soon (couple of weeks till May 7) and many things on my plate to learn along the way. Continue reading Still colder than April should be… →

I base-coated a couple of spare spheres and did a practice run for a Stitch and Cheshire face. I think the Stitch face came out better than the Cheshire one but I’ve got a few possibilities for the final version that may improve things…

First steps are done with the initial coat of paint. More to come as I add details to these, clear-coat and then assemble with the bottom part that Lorna created some time ago. We’ve got Mickey heads for the ends and Cheshire and Stitch to hold the body on to the stick part.

Continue reading Working on the hanger for our cruise ‘fish extender’ →

I’ve played wargames and role playing games for a long time (though not very actively in recent years as time and other players become a problem).

I’ve recently been paying more attention to gaming though time hasn’t become more available :). I have a pretty complete Star Fleet Battles set that covers the Star Trek end of things but I have tended to ignore Star Wars as I haven’t been aware of any credible attempts to build games around that universe.

I recent saw the pre-order announcement for Star Wars: Legion and it looked like it might be an interesting attempt to put some rules behind the world of bumbling storm troopers and wise cracking dead shot heroes in that universe. My copy just arrived and I expect to give it a dry run, solo sometime soon.

I also picked up the tactical ship to ship game Star Wars: Armada offered by the same company and have quickly read through the rules but no more.

I’m hoping that these two work well as games and capture the feel of the Star Wars universe. I’ll post more about them when I’ve had time to dig in a bit deeper.