Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood have launched their hosted software model – StackExchange – a while back now, and we’re already starting to see a plethora of sites building theme-based discussion Q&A sites using StackExchange as the engine. This is a collection of a few of the interesting StackExchange sites I’ve come across so far. I intend to keep building on this list with stuff I find useful as I discover more of them.

The “Trilogy” (This is where it all began) – StackOverflow, ServerFault, SuperUser
Databases – OracleOverflow, Ask SSC
Microsoft Office – OfficeQuestions
Security – SecurityCrunch

Startups/Entrepreneurship – OnStartups (by Dharmesh Shah)

In the meanwhile, there’s also a massive dump of StackExchange sites that seems to be fairly up-to-date.

Razorfone Interactive Retail Experience from Razorfish - Emerging Experiences on Vimeo.

Creating a new Outlook .msg file programmatically in C#

This one has bothered me for years. Honestly I only have myself to blame for not doing something about it sooner. Like they say, its never too late and hence this post. If you’ve found yourself pulling out your hair every time you click a hyperlink in Internet Explorer, here’s how to be follicle friendly and turn that sound off.

1. Navigate to Control Panel > Sounds
2. Click the ‘Sounds’ tab
3. Scroll down until you reach the ‘Windows Explorer’ section and within it, search for the ‘Start Navigation’ entry
4. Set the ‘Sounds’ dropdown to ‘None’
5. Click Ok

Ignoring the items against the warning symbol (not that I particularly care about them), I got a clean chit.

Microsoft has released Windows Server 2008 Foundation (a low-cost variant of the Windows Server 2008 core). Paul Thurrott covers some valid reasons for Microsoft releasing a product that is squarely aimed at tiny businesses (15 people or less) and in doing so they are also taking a broad swipe at the hardcore enthusiast market. Notably these are the two market segments that have a predilection towards the use of pirated Windows OS products (be it client or server) and with this release, Microsoft is making it even easier to go 'legit'. There are a couple of more reasons which I believe led to the release of this SKU.

1) The Worldwide Recession - Lets face it, the global downturn is not going to be kind to sales figures and Microsoft needed to pull something off that would keep those cash registers ringing (and in doing so keep shareholder value intact) well through this time of economic prudence.

2) Linux -  This is actually related to my first point above. Companies not spending more often than not translates into companies looking to free software. Ubuntu has free fully supported enterprise server and desktop versions out every 6-months and they've got zero shareholders to worry about. That's the deep-seated Redmondian fear. I'm not even going to prod the 'TCO monster' with a 10-foot pole, but depending on how you look at it, the release of Server Foundation will likely act as a gravity well and pull those sitting on the fence back into the Microsoft product fold.

It will be interesting to see the final feature set of Windows Server 2008 Foundation. With no support for virtualization (as per the EULA I suppose) and single-processor-socket only support, I wouldn't look to it to run my "weather simulation" server, but as a low-end file/database server it seems like Microsoft may just have hit the sweet spot.

Came across this statement in the CIA World Factbook against the entry United States (background section):
"The economy is marked by steady growth, low unemployment and inflation, and rapid advances in technology."

Also, all the way at the bottom of the page it says: "This page was last updated on 19 March 2009".

Something is not quite right, or perhaps its just one of those rare instances where the CIA has its facts wrong. Just saying.

The title was supposed to be a play with words (in case you didn't get it). Anyway, you've waited for it and now its here, so don't just sit there reading this silly blog! Go out there and buy it, or something.

The Microsoft Security Engineering Center ('MSEC') has released an open source tool called the !exploitable Security Analyzer (pronounced 'bang exploitable') to detect and analyze security and crashes within software projects while they are in development. Designed around the familiar People-Processes-Technology frame of reference, !exploitable has been designed as a Windows Debugger (Windbg) extension and works on a rule-based engine to parse out and categorize crash dumps for further investigation.

Slides are also available for those interested in delving further into the gory details.