Another performance improvement in the forthcoming 6.6 release is due to a change in our default choice for locking primitives on most platforms. Note that the perf improvement is small and, according to our testing, it doesn’t materialise on all hardware (though there’s no performance degradation seen). The change is to switch from using CRITICAL_SECTION objects to using Slim Reader Writer Locks in exclusive (write) mode. You can read about the differences between these two locks in Kenny Kerr’s MSDN article here.

I’ve been pretty happy with moving to Windows 8. I’ve got used to the “new” UI, it was a pretty painless transition once I learned the new shortcut keys and I actually think that the new “start menu” is better, you don’t have to worry about complicated trees of folders, it’s all flat and you just start typing the name of what you want… So for me, a developer with two monitors and no touch interface using the desktop pretty much as I always have done, Windows 8 works well.

I’ve been working on a “big” new release for some time, too long actually. It has steadily been accumulating new features for over a year but the arrival of my second son in July last year and masses of client work has meant that it has repeatedly been pushed on the back burner. Well, no more, Release 6.6 is now in the final stages of development and testing (so I won’t be adding more new features) and hopefully will see a release in Q2

We are building a server for a security company who would prefer to remain nameless. The server will manage communication for networks of tens of thousands of smart alarm panels using The Server Framework. In addition to the M2M communication aspect, the server also manages the management control connections that are used to send data to and from the devices.

I’ve just released new versions of my Lock Explorer tools, LID and LIA. This is quite a big release as it increases the number of locking APIs that the tools instrument from 1 to 3. We now track Slim Reader Writer locks and Mutexes. Arguably the tools should always have tracked these, and possibly more API calls, but the tools have always been first and foremost to assist in the development and testing of The Server Framework and, well, we only use Critical Sections.

Once again the new year has started with us very busy with work for our Industrial Control Client but since they needed to get us SC level security clearance for this project if we told you any more we’d have to kill you… We’re also looking forward to doing lots more work with our secretive Online Gaming Company. Their cloud-based SAS gaming server is doing well for them and their clients and we’re continuing to be closely involved with the ongoing development.

Version 6.5.9 of The Server Framework was released today. This release contains one bug fix for write sequencing bug which has been present in The Server Framework since at least release 5.0 but which, thankfully, is very unlikely to occur. It also contains a bug fix for the TCP flow control filter, some bug fixes for the WebSocket code, hardening of the WebSocket code to help it resist denial of service attacks and a small amount of new functionality in several other libraries.

I have clients asking me about this all the time. This article is pretty concise about the tools that you need to use to map an open port to the process that has it open.

I’ve had a little stand alone RAID device for several years now. It’s a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ and it works quite nicely. I’m sure I could have something better but, I haven’t yet upgraded it apart from adding some memory and changing drives every now and then. I have a second ReadyNAS at my dad’s office and my office backs up critical data to that via rsync and a VPN; the one at his end does the same, though most data flows from me to him.

Version 6.5.8 of The Server Framework was released today. This release contains one bug fix for a bug which has been present in The Server Framework since at least release 5.0 and one change to work around a bug in Windows 8 and Server 2012. If you plan to use AcceptEx() on Windows 8 or Server 2012 or you have connections which run for a long period of time, use sequenced sockets and issue more than 2,147,483,647 writes on a socket then you need this release.