blog dot northwindy dot com

Well I downloaded and installed Microsoft Shell (MSH) codenamed "Monad", and I must say I am thoroughly impressed with the new features. The majority is written in C#, which I have no experience in, but a lot of the syntax is the same as the Linux BASH shell. Microsoft has not come out with a new command shell since the inception of DOS, and it has become a bit obsolete. What I like so far about MSH is the added commands and scripting capablities it provides. Reading data from the registry is just as simple as changing drives 'cd HKLM:/'. In addition, MSH provides commands that previously could only be found on a linux machine, such as 'ps' for viewing processes and their ids and 'kill' to easily terminate processes. It supports regular expressions as well, which was a powerful tool in Linux that DOS never implemented. MSH is like a combination of DOS and linux. Previously in DOS, to change folders, you would type 'cd\folder', but now that command has been altered to conform to the linux standard of 'cd /folder'. It treats the path as a string literal. The folder listing also gives much more detail, and can be pruned however you want. A DOS dir command would display something like:


C:\temp>dir
Volume in drive C is HP_PAVILION
Volume Serial Number is 74D3-1DD3

01/25/2006 05:21 PM <DIR> .
01/25/2006 05:21 PM <DIR> ..
09/19/2005 01:25 PM 479,962 BASE_CONTENT_53BCCAB3.RTP
09/20/2005 09:08 AM 5,911,266 BASE_EXE_E8B81D84.RTP
09/20/2005 09:08 AM 5,911,557 BASE_EXE_F8F7645C.RTP
09/19/2005 01:48 PM 865 ENGLISH_LANG_6FF7E76C.RTP
07/20/2005 03:29 AM 286,720 gpgupdate.exe
09/25/2001 11:05 AM 1,707,856 InstMsiA.Exe
09/11/2001 02:04 PM 1,821,008 InstMsiW.Exe
01/25/2006 05:21 PM <DIR> KbdSw
02/28/2005 08:10 PM 205,824 patchw32.dll
06/11/2005 08:48 PM <DIR> photosmart
11/06/2005 11:01 AM 117,488 Setup.Exe
11/09/2005 11:30 AM 36 Setup.Ini
11/06/2005 11:01 AM 1,082,880 Setup.msi
11 File(s) 17,525,462 bytes
4 Dir(s) 95,253,647,360 bytes free


An MSH ls or dir command would list it like this:
MSH C:\temp> ls

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 9/19/2005 2:25 PM 479962 BASE_CONTENT_53BCCAB3.RTP
-a--- 9/20/2005 10:08 AM 5911266 BASE_EXE_E8B81D84.RTP
-a--- 9/20/2005 10:08 AM 5911557 BASE_EXE_F8F7645C.RTP
-a--- 9/19/2005 2:48 PM 865 ENGLISH_LANG_6FF7E76C.RTP
-a--- 7/20/2005 4:29 AM 286720 gpgupdate.exe
-a--- 9/25/2001 12:05 PM 1707856 InstMsiA.Exe
-a--- 9/11/2001 3:04 PM 1821008 InstMsiW.Exe
-a--- 2/28/2005 8:10 PM 205824 patchw32.dll
-a--- 11/6/2005 11:01 AM 117488 Setup.Exe
-a--- 11/9/2005 11:30 AM 36 Setup.Ini
-a--- 11/6/2005 11:01 AM 1082880 Setup.msi
d---- 1/25/2006 5:21 PM KbdSw
d---- 6/11/2005 9:48 PM photosmart

As you can see it is much cleaner and more like the linux 'ls -l' command:
$ ls -l
total 1516
-rw-r--r-- 1 HP_Owner None 12 Jan 14 01:23 #.plan#
-rw-r--r-- 1 HP_Owner None 1 Mar 27 23:54 #fork.c#
-rwxrwxrwx 1 HP_Owner None 656 Jan 24 23:32 activity.sh
-rw-r--r-- 1 HP_Owner None 113 Mar 27 23:55 fork.c
drwxr-xr-x+ 8 HP_Owner None 0 May 14 2005 irc2.11.1
-rwx------+ 1 HP_Owner None 770428 Mar 11 19:55 irc2.11.1.tgz
-rwxrwxrwx 1 HP_Owner None 770458 Mar 11 19:56 irc2.11.1p1.tgz
drwxr-xr-x+ 2 HP_Owner None 0 Mar 22 00:29 public_html

Another new feature to MSH is pruning of results like if you only want the names of the files in the folders, just pipe it to a select statement (like in SQL).
MSH C:\temp> ls | select 'name'

Name
----
BASE_CONTENT_53BCCAB3.RTP
BASE_EXE_E8B81D84.RTP
BASE_EXE_F8F7645C.RTP
ENGLISH_LANG_6FF7E76C.RTP
gpgupdate.exe
InstMsiA.Exe
InstMsiW.Exe
patchw32.dll
Setup.Exe
Setup.Ini
Setup.msi
KbdSw
photosmart

I think the only thing I was really disappointed with in MSH is the lack of dynamic file linking like from Linux. That was a very powerful tool for using files that are commonly accessed. I mean why would you want 10 different libraries that are exactly the same on your computer when you can link them to one?

http://www.tacticsarena.com/forum/printthread.php?t=5769&pp=40

Haha... this guy is soo full of himself... I was googleing my screenname, and of course I dominate the name, but look on this site at the posts by Northwind. No, they are not my posts. Someone else using Northwind/Northwindy screennames. It's dated 2004.. about a year after my site came online. Anyways, the guy is soo full of himself. I needed a laugh.

I guess it's been pretty busy lately with school so I haven't had a chance to update my blog. Well here's your update.

School of course has been all I've been up to the last couple of days. I've had several programs I've had to write for my classes, an essay, and a big quiz in lab. Hehe I found out I got a 97 on that quiz and its 10% of my entire lab grade so I was happy about that. This weekend, I've had to work on my C programs that are due on Monday. Right now, between the two, I'm about 70% complete with the assignment. I also have an exam on Thursday I should start studying for soon.

As for my workout, Friday was my last day of working out until after spring break. That's two week without working out. This last week I was suffering from overtraining. How do I know this? For one thing, I was about 20% weaker on most exercises. Several exercises where I used to be able to lift 110 lbs x 12 reps I had to decrease to 90 lbs x 12 reps. This happened on a lot of my exercises. I could barely get through 7 or 8 reps of 110 this week. Another sign of overtraining was that I was constantly fatigued halfway though the day throughout this week. I would have to come home and nap for 1-2 hours after class! Plus I began to feel sore again for longer. From what I've read, a few weeks of rest will give my body time to adjust. After all, all muscle is built outside the weight room. I also stopped those fat burning pill thingys about 2 weeks ago. I think I may buy one more bottle after spring break when I start working out. Ever since I stopped taking those, the speed at which I was burning body fat seems to have slowed. I can't start now because my body had adapted to the caffeine levels in those things, so 4 weeks ought to be enough before starting back up on them. I'm at about 11% body fat right now and I still can barely see my abs! I still have a ways to go though. Supposedly, 3% more will be enough, but it could take a few weeks.

Anyways, this has probably been enough of an entry. I'll post another sometime during or before spring break.