Fat People on Escalators

If you don’t like politically incorrect statements, don’t read on.

Every so often I encounter overweight/obese, well, let’s just say it as it is: fat people that take the whole width of an escalator that others want to walk up.

If they would stand to one side I could possibly squeeze through somehow, but to make matters worse they (try to) walk themselves. So I have to adapt to their “pace”, which is usually one step every three to five seconds – I guess each step takes new deliberation.

People, it is adorable that you try to exercise, but couldn’t you do this in a gym? Besides not holding up other people it may be a good idea to loose some weight without straining your joints by putting your whole weight on them. Once you have lost some weight, you will be able to walk up stairs without the longer pauses, and if you stand to the side, other people can pass and don’t have to squeeze through – so it’s good for both sides.

And while I am a beating up others: could those people who don’t know how to walk (even if they are not fat) stand to the side so others can pass? And could you step to the side before you reach the end of an escalator if you don’t feel you can just continue walking off of it? Thank you.

Am I having a good day? Of course I am – bad people always do :-)

Visual Studio Remote Debugging Pitfalls

Setting up remote debugging with Visual Studio is fairly easy and ever so useful. This article describes the basic setup: http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/visual_studio_remote_debugging.html

I have walked into two traps that I would like to mention. May it help someone else:

• the PDB file needs to be deployed with the application – if you use a setup project, just add the debugging information to it. If you forget this, the debugger will complain about not being to load the symbols, even though it has them locally!
• the machine, which you run the Debugging Monitor on, needs to run the NetBIOS protocol; if it does not you will be able to connect without authentication only. In order to enable NetBIOS, just install the Windows File and Printer Sharing service through the properties of the network connection.

And this is probably obvious, but I’ll mention it anyway: the builds of the software on your machine (where the debugger runs) and the machine to be debugged (where the Debugging Monitor runs), need to be exactly the same. If you have several builds out in the field, make sure to keep full copies (source, EXE, and PDB )of all builds that you plan to debug.

And one last hint: don’t use “No authentication”: not only is it unsecure, it also will not let you debug managed code, which is probably what you need to do.

Good luck finding that bug!