Comments on: Only in Silicon Valley http://breasy.com/blog/2006/01/07/only-in-silicon-valley/ Musings on design and technology Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:09:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Dan McKinley http://breasy.com/blog/2006/01/07/only-in-silicon-valley/#comment-76 Dan McKinley Sat, 18 Feb 2006 18:19:32 +0000 http://breasy.com/blog/2006/01/07/only-in-silicon-valley/#comment-76 I eventually used LeakDiag on it myself, and determined that Google desktop search is the problem. Unfortunately, that's way too useful to uninstall. At any event, not Microsoft's fault. I eventually used LeakDiag on it myself, and determined that Google desktop search is the problem. Unfortunately, that’s way too useful to uninstall. At any event, not Microsoft’s fault.

]]> By: Udi http://breasy.com/blog/2006/01/07/only-in-silicon-valley/#comment-75 Udi Sat, 18 Feb 2006 17:58:27 +0000 http://breasy.com/blog/2006/01/07/only-in-silicon-valley/#comment-75 Thanks Tom! Thanks Tom!

]]> By: Tom http://breasy.com/blog/2006/01/07/only-in-silicon-valley/#comment-74 Tom Fri, 17 Feb 2006 23:33:43 +0000 http://breasy.com/blog/2006/01/07/only-in-silicon-valley/#comment-74 The reading pane is probably redrawing for all the events that could trigger a redraw as it processes your rules. Clearly that wasn't the right way to do it. The redraw should only happen after an event is detected that requires the redraw. As for why the process gets so big, I actually did work on this... more specifically I managed the process by which we got the number of crashes in the product down by 90%. During that process we also got rid of about half of the hangs and heap corruptions, many of which co-occured with memory leaks. Now to catch memory leaks in the act is pretty difficult, usually you need people to be running a special heap/stack tool, and it slows down the machine considerably to do so. Testers were able to do this to an extent, but it was impossible to run this against all possible configurations (esp. taking into account 3rd party add-ins which often cause memory leaks). Anyhow, if the leak causes a crash, then you can trace some potential fixes based on looking up the bucket number under the crash event in the event viewer. If you have 3rd party add-ins, try uninstalling them to see if you can isolate one of them as the cause. Also try to install the latest office service pack. If those things don't work, then there's not much else to do... sorry about that. The reading pane is probably redrawing for all the events that could trigger a redraw as it processes your rules. Clearly that wasn’t the right way to do it. The redraw should only happen after an event is detected that requires the redraw.

As for why the process gets so big, I actually did work on this… more specifically I managed the process by which we got the number of crashes in the product down by 90%. During that process we also got rid of about half of the hangs and heap corruptions, many of which co-occured with memory leaks. Now to catch memory leaks in the act is pretty difficult, usually you need people to be running a special heap/stack tool, and it slows down the machine considerably to do so.

Testers were able to do this to an extent, but it was impossible to run this against all possible configurations (esp. taking into account 3rd party add-ins which often cause memory leaks).

Anyhow, if the leak causes a crash, then you can trace some potential fixes based on looking up the bucket number under the crash event in the event viewer. If you have 3rd party add-ins, try uninstalling them to see if you can isolate one of them as the cause. Also try to install the latest office service pack. If those things don’t work, then there’s not much else to do… sorry about that.

]]> By: Udi http://breasy.com/blog/2006/01/07/only-in-silicon-valley/#comment-69 Udi Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:34:40 +0000 http://breasy.com/blog/2006/01/07/only-in-silicon-valley/#comment-69 He was the interaction/experience designer. He didn't handle the implementation. Maybe that's why he left and came to Yahoo! ;) He was the interaction/experience designer. He didn’t handle the implementation. Maybe that’s why he left and came to Yahoo! ;)

]]> By: Dan McKinley http://breasy.com/blog/2006/01/07/only-in-silicon-valley/#comment-68 Dan McKinley Thu, 12 Jan 2006 14:32:23 +0000 http://breasy.com/blog/2006/01/07/only-in-silicon-valley/#comment-68 Ask him why the reading pane continuously updates after I open Outlook, downloading all of the images in emails while my spam rules process. The message displayed in the reading pane shouldn't change while rules are running. Also ask him why the process grows to well over a gig if I leave it open more than four or five hours. That's pretty irritating too. Ask him why the reading pane continuously updates after I open Outlook, downloading all of the images in emails while my spam rules process. The message displayed in the reading pane shouldn’t change while rules are running.

Also ask him why the process grows to well over a gig if I leave it open more than four or five hours. That’s pretty irritating too.

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