_MSC_VER Values

VC6 - 1200
VC7 - 1300
VC7.1 - 1310
VC8 - 1400
VC9 - 1500

WINVER and _WIN32_WINNT Values

NT – 0X0400
2000 - 0x0500
XP - 0X0501
Server 2003 - 0X0502
Vista - 0X0600
Windows 7 - 0X0601

Two ways to proof of 0.999… = 1

Long Division

1/9 = 0.111...
9 x (1/9) = 9 x 0.111...
1 = 0.999...

Digit Manipulation

X = 0.999...
10X = 9.999...
10X - X = 9.999... - 0.999...
9X = 9
X = 1

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0.999...#Digit_manipulation

Hex/int conversion in C

int –> Hex

int i = 10;
void* h =  (void*)i;

Hex –> int

void* h = 0xa;
int i = (int)((const char*)h - (const char*)0);

GMail targeting under 1sec load time with HTML5

According to Google, many of the upcoming features of GMail are going to be  HTML5-ready. They hope HTML5 will speed up loading and execution time of GMail. Google’s goal is to get their Web-based email service to load in under 1 second. While going through the original article I noticed a couple of interesting things.

Speed is a feature! – Truly it is. I do believe speed is one of the most critical decision factor when it comes to selecting a software application. To be honest I am very much happy about the load and execution time of Google, but they are looking for more. Interesting!.

Currently, the Gmail program is comprised of 443,000 lines of JavaScript, with 978,000 lines if comments are included. – I did actually not know that it was written completely in JavaScript in the first place. The interesting point is roughly each line of JavaScript is accompanied by one line of comment. That implies how vital the comments are in a software programming and of course how complex the GMail logic is ;-).

Qpid Site Gets a Major Revamp!

Apache Qpid site gets a major revamp. It looks really awesome. Great work guys!

Airplanes punch holes in clouds and make it rain

This is a very rare scene in the sky. A recent study reveals that these punches are formed by airplanes. According to scientists droplets in clouds exist in a supercooled state, well below freezing, yet remain in liquid form. When planes go through these clouds, they cause a drop in temperature that freezes these droplets. As a result part of the cloud gets converted into ice crystals forming a punch hole. These ice crystals fall to earth in the form of snow or rain. So, this is another way airplanes mess around with the weather.