So, RIM made a gesture and sent me new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet for free. I really appreciate that, thank you, RIM.

Now, about the device. What's good:
1) It's well made. The display is superb, the case is sound.
2) It has 16Gb memory on it, no SD card slot though.

What's not so good:
1) It's pretty heavy. Bot since the case is covered with rubber plastic, there is no problem to keep it in hands.
2) Although it has on the most capacious battery in the class, it discharges very fast, even when the tablet just lays on the shelf doing nothing (and wifi is off). And there's no way to replace the battery.
3) It does not support regular android applications. Even if the application package is converted and signed, there's a high probability, the app will refuse to work properly. And I think it was a bad idea to let the recent application icons be shown in the android player after an android application has closed. It makes the android applications look like foreign pieces and not desirable when an user searches for an application in the AppWorld.

I wish RIM will review its vision and make the Android platform the primary, leaving the ability to run the AIR applications as well.

passing an array from vbscript to .net

.net < 4.0 does not support passing an array to its COM visible method by reference.

So, if there is a .net method in an object:
void f( object ary );

from VBscript it has to be called this way:

dim aa(1) : a(0)=1 : a(1)=2
obj.f( (aa) )

Note the extra parentheses around the array variable!

emulator's system partition

To put some extra files to android emulator's /system partition, do not run the emulator from eclipse or the AVD manager.
Instead, use the following command line:
emulator –avd youravdname –partition-size 128

http://www.cuteandroid.com/tips-for-android-developer-failed-to-copy-file-to-system

IIS IP binding

If IIS7 does not listen the incoming connections trying to be made to a particular IP address,
even if the binding is set up correctly, check the output of the following command:
netsh http show iplisten

The IP address must be in the list to respond the requests.

To add an IP, type in the following command:
netsh http add iplisten x.x.x.x

It seems, that data is stored in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\HTTP\Parameters

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954874 for more detail.

Translation the visualStudio2010 UI names to the human language

EnvironmentBackground - the status bar and the BG of tabs on floating tools
EnvironmentBackgroundGradient* - the backround of the field where the tabs are shown
EnvironmentBackgroundTexture* - pairs of 1px pattern on it
CommandBarMenuIconBackground - the left padding of the drop menus
CommandBarMenuBackgroundGradient* - drop menus backgrounds
ThreeDFace - dialogs
AutoHideTabBackground* - tabs of hidden panels
TitleBar* - the title of a utility panel
CommandShelfBackgroundGradient* - the space where the toolbars reside
CommandShelfHighlightGradient* - the menu bar
ToolWindowTitlebarText - inactive floating tools tab

Picture viewer

A simple yet effective picture viewing application for android (but sadly removed from the market)

Root it now

Good step-by-step guide how to root a Nexus One
Recovery image which let to install a zip file (and many other features)