The default Application Pool Identity in IIS 7.5 is AppPoolIdentity

With the appearance of Windows 7 the IIS application pool isolation has moved to a different level. The one found in IIS7 had a major change in that it allowed the user to run your application pool as AppPoolIdendity, but the default one remained unchanged i.e. NetworkService. In the latest version 7.5 of IIS the AppPoolIdendity becomes a default. Having said that, the scripts previously expecting permissions for their application pool identity to be set to NetworkService will have to be changed to IIS AppPool\<app pool name>" - the user account create for each new application pool.

Thus, to set permissions for the DefaultAppPool, the scripts will need to set ACLs for "IIS AppPool\DefaultAppPool".

The incentive behind this change was to enforce the improved concept of process isolation through separate user accounts generated for each application pool identity.

To see other options that you can choose for your application pool identity, go to IIS Manager, Application Pools and right-click on the pool you want to configure, select Advanced Settings and Identity in the dialog that opens. You can choose one of the built-in accounts for your application pool identity:

Here is a list of built-in accounts and their corresponding usernames to use when setting permissions:

LocalService:                Service
LocalSystem:                System 
NetworkService:           Network Service
ApplicationPoolIdentity: IIS AppPool\<app pool name>

You can also specify an existing custom account (local or domain):

To read more about how to configure Application Pool Identities refer to this iis.net article: Application Pool Identities
To read about changes in application pool identities with regard to NetworkService account, read this blog post: Goodbye Network Service!

How to enable Page Level Tracing for your ASP.NET pages?

A useful feature of ASP.NET is the page level tracing, this can be used for debugging or for the analysis of you application. Tracing can also help you see which control is using more view state, start/end of init or of render. Enabling tracing at page level gives you a bunch of information that can be useful while debugging your application.By default this feature is disabled.

One can enable tracing at Page Level and also at Application Level

To enable it at Page Level select DOCUMENT in Property grid and set it's Trace property to true as shown below.

This will add Trace="true" in your page directive as shown below.

<%@ Page Language="VB"  Trace="true" %>

You can also add TraceMode attribute to specify if you want the trace messages to be SortedByTime or SortByCategory.

You can now run the page and see the details as follows:

You can enable Application level tracing in the Web.config file of your application's root. By doing this you will get trace information for all pages in your application. In this case you can set page level tracing to false if you do not want tracing information for particular pages.

<configuration> <system.web>

<trace enabled="true" requestLimit="40" localOnly="false"/>

</system.web></configuration>

Also, know that the page level trace setting overrides the trace setting at the application level.

New Memory Revolution: Memristors

HP has announced on Thursday that the design of a new class of microscopic switches capable of replacing transistors, has been completed. 

The memristors, or memory resistors, were created in 1971 by Leon O. Chua, an electrical engineer from UC, Berkeley, but were not even considered until two years ago when an HP lab unearthed them.

They are so much simpler and cheaper to produce, than semiconducting transistors, can store information in the absence of an electric current and they can by used for both processing and storing data.

The researchers have reported in the proceedings of the National Academy of Science that they created a new method of storing and retrieving data from a vast array of three-dimensional memristors. The design will free the environment from thousands of switches, and nodes and will start the era of new ultra dense computing devices.

The concept of a memristor-based system will be a biological-like one. Thus analog computing systems will approach the design of a brain, according to Dr Chua. "Our brains are made of memristors" he said referring to the biological synapses. " We have the right stuff now to build the real brain".

In a brief note, Stan Williams, an HP physicist, said that the two years that passed since they began work on this project. In this period his team increased the switching speed to match today silicon transistors, and they will increase it exponentially. The researchers had tested them in the laboratory, he added, proving they could reliably make hundreds of thousands of reads and writes. That is a significant hurdle to overcome, indicating that it is now possible to consider memristor-based chips as an alternative to today's transistor-based flash computer memories, which are widely used in consumer devices like MP3 players, portable computers and digital cameras. "Not only do we think that in three years we can be better than the competitors," Dr. Williams said. "The memristor technology really has the capacity to continue scaling for a very long time, and that's really a big deal."

As the semiconductor era has approached fundamental physical limits in shrinking the size that represent digital 1's and 0's as on and off states, it has touched off an international race to find alternatives.

New generations of semiconductor technology typically advance at three-year intervals, and today the industry can see no further than three and possibly four generations into the future.

The most advanced transistor technology today is based on minimum feature sizes of 30 to 40 nanometers — by contrast a biological virus is typically about 100 nanometers — and Dr. Williams said that H.P. now has working 3-nanometer memristors that can switch on and off in about a nanosecond, or a billionth of a second.

He said the company could have a competitor to flash memory in three years that would have a capacity of 20 gigabytes a square centimeter.

"We believe that that is at least a factor of two better storage than flash memory will be able to have in that time frame," he said.

The H.P. technology is based on the ability to use an electrical current to move atoms within an ultra thin film of titanium dioxide. After the location of an atom has been shifted, even by as little as a nanometer, the result can be read as a change in the resistance of the material. That change persists even after the current is switched off, making it possible to build an extremely low-power device.

The new material offers an approach that is radically different from a promising type of storage called "phase-change memory" being pursued by I.B.M., Intel and other companies.

In a phase-change memory, heat is used to shift a glassy material from an amorphous to a crystalline state and back. The switching speed of these systems is slower and requires more power, the H.P. scientists say.

Apple's iPhone OS 4

In an invitation only event hosted by Steve and Apple, on April 8, the few lucky ones that got invited where part of the sneak peak of the new iPhone OS 4.0. Of course the update won't be available until end of 2010, but at least we know it's coming. 

The last update brought a few major features into the iPhone OS 3.0, while some of the old features where dropped. 

The biggest feature will be the multitasking ability, but I guess this feature will be even better suited for the iPad.

According to Engadget, the path of developing the new os has been split in three versions. Which shows that there will be differences between the devices. 

Of course the most wanted feature, the ability to play Adobe Flash, is still under question, as nobody knows if it will come in the new release.

Google Said to Work on TV With Intel, Sony, Logitech (Update1)

Google Said to Work on TV With Intel, Sony, Logitech

March 18, 2010, 12:00 AM EDT

March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. is working to bring Web software to televisions through a partnership with Intel Corp., Sony Corp. and Logitech International SA, according to two people involved in the discussions with the companies.

The project, called Google TV, uses Intel chips, with Switzerland’s Logitech developing a keyboard that operates as a remote control, said one of the people, who declined to be named because the matter isn’t public.

Google, expanding beyond its main Internet-search business, would challenge Yahoo! Inc., TiVo Inc., Rovi Corp. and Microsoft Corp. in delivering the Internet to TVs. Intel, meanwhile, is counting on the consumer-electronics market to bolster sales of its Atom chip, which already powers netbooks. The company aims to get Atom into TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes.

“It’s a sign of the legitimacy of Internet connectivity moving well beyond the PC and mobile spaces, which Google has tackled already,” said Kurt Scherf, an analyst at industry researcher Parks Associates in Dallas. “It completes the third leg of the stool.”

Google entered the mobile market in 2008 with its Android operating system, which now runs on phones from manufacturers including Motorola Inc. and HTC Corp.

Gabriel Stricker, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google, declined to comment, as did Greg Belloni, a U.S.-based spokesman for Sony, and Pamela McCracken, a spokeswoman for Logitech. The New York Times reported yesterday on Google’s plans. Intel spokeswoman Mary Ninow said she was unable to confirm or deny the report.

Advanced Models

Google rose 0.1 percent to close at $565.56 on the Nasdaq Stock Market yesterday, while Intel advanced 1.1 percent to the highest level since Sept. 2, 2008. Sony gained 0.9 percent to 3,455 yen as of 12:51 p.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

“If you have two TVs almost the same price, one with Google functionality and another with nothing, you are more inclined to go with Google,” said Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at Collins Stewart LLC in San Francisco. “Google has a much bigger role to play on TV now than maybe three to four years back. In addition to advertising, they can provide a lot of user utilities.”

Sony, the No. 3 TV maker after Samsung Electronics Co., and LG Electronics Inc., plans to introduce an “advanced” TV model as part of its efforts to turn around its TV business, the company said Nov. 19. The maker of Bravia sets said at the time it aims to make its TV operations profitable in the 12 months ending March 2011, the first time in seven years.

Not Unique

“This kind of thing won’t be unique to Sony. If Sony doesn’t do it, Apple may step forward and take the lead,” Yuji Fujimori, a Tokyo-based analyst at Barclays Capital said by phone. “It’s hard to tell how the new product will help Sony yet.”

More than one-quarter of TVs purchased by U.S. consumers in January already are capable of linking to the Web through a Wi- Fi or Ethernet connection, according to researcher ISuppli Corp.

Web-enabled TVs currently on the market allow users to watch YouTube videos, view online photo albums, play games and stream movies from Netflix Inc. Yahoo’s TV software is installed in models from Sony, Samsung, LG Electronics and Vizio Inc.

TV Web Surfing

Rovi, formerly known as Macrovision Solutions Corp., developed a program called TotalGuide designed to let consumers navigate Web content on their TVs. The Santa Clara, California- based company will announce partnerships with manufacturers in May for products that will enter the market next year, Chief Executive Officer Alfred Amoroso said in an interview last week.

“We’re enabling the industry,” Amoroso said. He called the service an “entertainment portal for the home.”

To strike deals with TV manufacturers, Google needs to show that it can bring its advertising technology to TVs and is willing to share the revenue, Parks Associates’ Scherf said. Google has struggled to generate revenue from TV ad software that it started testing in 2007. The program included a deal to sell ads on EchoStar Communications Corp.’s satellite-TV service.

For Santa Clara-based Intel, which generates 90 percent of its revenue from PC chips, Google TV is part of a broader effort to get its processors into home electronics. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, CEO Paul Otellini demonstrated a set-top box containing a processor from Intel. Instead of the traditional text program guide, users could see a display with multiple live programs showing at once.

Intel Executive Vice President Dadi Perlmutter said earlier this month at a conference in San Francisco that a “big announcement” would be made later this year.

“Many things are going to happen to make TVs an Internet device, a computing device,” Perlmutter said.