Worthless Comments

/// <summary>Gets the foo</summary>
/// <param name="bar">the bar</param>
/// <returns>the foo</returns>
Foo GetFoo(Bar bar) {
    ...
}

I'm not saying I've never done it, but I usually end up deleting them later.

Misleading WCF MSMQ Binding Error

I was getting the following error message when activating a WCF service with a net.msmq binding.

Binding validation failed because the endpoint listen URI does not represent an MSMQ direct format name. The service host cannot be opened. Make sure you use a direct format name for the endpoint's listen URI.

You'd think this had something to the endpoint URI, but you'd be wrong. A little sleuthing revealed WCF trying to validate that it could move the message to the retry subqueue in the event of an error. The queue is hosted on a Windows Server 2003 system, which doesn't support the retry subqueue. I'm testing my WCF service is on Vista. Solution: run the queue and WCF service on the same level OS and curse Microsoft for misleading error messages.

Smartphone Install Base

There's been a lot of buzz about Android's amazing growth in the last quarter. Assuming the vast majority of customers don't buy a new phone more often than every two years, the install base would reflect the sum of sales over the last 8 quarters.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by OS 3Q08-2Q10 (Thousands of Units)

Symbian	166,463.3	46%
RIM	69,370.6	19%
iOS	50,791.9	14%
Windows Mobile	30,596.9	8%
Android	22,619.2	6%
Linux	17,440.4	5%
Other	5,699.6	2%

Note this doesn't include business sales, which would likely boost RIM a lot and iOS a little. Nor does this include devices other than phones, e.g. iPod touch and iPad.