More about less

Debugging network issues using raw packet data is slow and painfull at best and slows down progress toward resolving those issues significantly.

I encourage the use of tools designed for such investigations so that we may leverage existing network debugging tools to speed up those resolutions.

Here's some links to a couple of tools I've found useful:

From Microsoft

Netlog info: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/wcecomm5/html/wce50grfnetlog.asp

Network Analyzer Info: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=081c6401-49d4-4506-a03b-c41bc76c2f51&displaylang=en

From Ethereal

Ethereal Info: http://www.ethereal.com/

It's inevitable that with each new technology that gets squeezed into the ever decreasing physical footprint of mobile devices that there comes a potentially significant rise in power consumption. 

Increasing the size and weight of a device is not generally an option in the heavily competitive mobile devices market, so we need to get creative and discover new ways to reduce power consumption and hence increase battery life.

If you are a technological optimist, you might hold out hope that given time and market pressures a new, lighter weight and\or more compact battery\power technology would be sure to come along and save the day.  Problem with that theory is that the device manufacturers will no doubt use this new feature to reduce the size and weight of their devices still further, so we are back at the same problem of conserving power consumption, for at least the foreseeable future.

So... that's one of the many adventures that I will be engaged in off and on for the next few months - minding my milliwatts.

I hope to understand how other folks can find the time to keep a blog updated semi-regularly, but I make no promises.

Ten steps to a successful blog

1. Find your blog

2. Figure out how to log in

3. Change your password to something you might remember

4. Wish you'd had some content prepared

5. Go back to your day job

Beyond Compare at Scooter Software. 

A fantastic GUI file comparison tool.  Works wonders when searching for the frequently elusive clues hidden within a pair of debug output logs.  

Fortunately I don't get the opportunity see many unhandled prefetch aborts, but because of that I don't always remember what the heck a Prefetch Abort is.  

Problem:  Remembering the definition for Prefetch Abort.

Solution: I find that if I make the effort to write something down, some part of my brain decides that it's actually worth remembering.  So here goes...

A Prefetch Abort occurs when you've attempted to execute code at an invalid memory address.

For a deeper technical understanding I found the following documentation at http://www.arm.com to be useful:

http://www.arm.com/pdfs/DUI0203E_rvct_developer_guide.pdf

Exciting stuff indeed! [:)]

One of the better reviews on the new Portable Media Center (as recommended by blogger extraordinaire Robert Scoble):

http://www.engadget.com/entry/9377496751773606/

...and so it happened that an otherwise unassuming cog in the ever expanding corporate machine went "squeak".