Strange Funny Bug?

Introduction

I was working on a straightforward app on Thursday, July 26, 2016 when I observed something strange. This was around 11 pm. I had just built the solution, a part of which contained the source code shown below.


When I ran the project, I got this:


In case you haven't figured out what the bug is, somehow the period I typed as the last character in the string literal on line 48 became the first character of what was supposed to be the same string when I ran the code.

As a tried different stuff to understand what was happening, it soon became clear that most other punctuation or non-alphanumeric characters where exhibiting similar traits.



I started trying more things to understand what was happening. The images below show how the strings in my source code came out differently on the form.

I tried debugging it but still couldn't figure out what was happening.

I changed the control from System.Windows.Forms.Label to some other similar controls like System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel and System.Windows.Forms.Button, all to no avail.

And then stranger things started happening..

Necessary Info

• I wrote this project targeting .NET Framework 4.0
• I have not tried building this project targeting any other version of .NET Framework, and I have not been able to reproduce it in any of my projects targeting other .NET version

I tried searching for the bug online but it is really hard when you don't know how to describe it to Google (or Bing ☺)

 I have since tried reporting this issue to Microsoft.


The reason I decided to post this issue here is to find out if any other person has come across the issue or something similar. Am I missing something? Am I doing something wrong?

Starting a Company - The Little Things that Matter

Why do little things matter? Because they can make a huge difference.

Starting a company is both exciting and challenging. The perceived freedom, the feeling of "creating" something, of bringing something to life, the daydreams about future recognition are some of the most exciting feelings you will ever get in your professional life.

On the other hand the uncertainties, the perceived lack of progress, the sense of confusion, of being busy without being productive, the struggle to bring projects to completion, the fees (rent, power, water, legal, tools, ...) are some of the big challenges that can weigh you down physically and emotionally.

Amidst these big issues it's easy to lose sight of little things. But these little things can be equally as consequential as their bigger cousins.

Today I want to enumerate some of the little challenges that matter but are easy to overlook when planning for the future.

1.  Office Design
      
   
   So we got an office space. And we renovated it. That's fine but we had no intention of working in a "box". We wanted an office whose very design inspired the highest levels of creativity. We got in touch with some friends of ours. Some architects. Some furniture makers. What was really amazing was the length of time spent on the office design. You see, it was a small space, and we really wanted to do something cool with it. We wanted to split the main working area into two unequal parts, and we wanted to split it with an S-shaped divider, with an opaque bottom half and a transparent (or translucent) top half. We also wanted to design the office furniture so that they wouldn't look like your regular office chairs and tables. After all the deliberations and designs (we even made computer-aided designs of how the office should look), we simply went with a straightforward design, for both the office and the furniture.
2. Working Hours
    9-5? It's easy to impose working hours when you pay your employees. But as a start-up with very limited resources, we couldn't afford a paid work force. Everybody was working in their volunteer mode. After some unsuccessful attempts to fix work hours we simply gave up on that. You came when (and if) you wanted. You left when you wanted. The only condition: complete your task. If you were given a task to do, it wasn't too important if you showed up at all, as long as you met your deadline. Funny enough, this flexible working hours philosophy has become part of our corporate culture (which is not strange in tech start-ups). Certain people, however, must show up early to keep the office in good shape ahead of a busy day.
3. Religion
    A good number of the founding members of Karabow where YWAP members and Christians, so, naturally, there was (and still is) a very strong Christian culture at Karabow. In those early days we had prayers in the morning, before work officially started. But there was an elephant in the room: Not all members of Karabow were Christians. This wasn't an issue that was spoken out loud, but it was, nevertheless, an issue. Karabow may be founded by Christians, but it was a secular technology company, and we had to own up to that fact. We had to realise that there was a time (and place) for everything, and you wanted to make all employees equally welcomed. Today, nobody stops you from praying in the office, but it is no longer a "company activity".
4. Personal or Company Computers
    Computers are some of the most important assets at Karabow. it was important that employees had a system to work on. And most people did. Most. Not all. For various reasons, we had to buy computers for certain people. The issue was: did the company own the computers, or did the company give it over to the employees to own? The thinking was: if the computers belonged to the company (which was taken as quite self-evident), then they should reside at the office. The problem: developers don't work only at the office, they work even more at home. The solution: The computers belonged to the company, the desktops resided at the office, while the laptops were taken home by those that needed to work at home. Quite frankly, with this arrangement, we have to constantly remind ourselves that such systems are the company's properties. But it gets the job done letting people take them home.
5. Product and Project Names
      
   
   
   So you have the idea clarified. You have the implementation figured out. The team is chosen. The timetable is drawn. Complete with expected milestones and deadlines. All that is left is to put everything down in a formal document. And then you realize you can't type a single word. Not because you don't understand the idea. but rather because you don't have a name for it. It is amazing how many meetings we had, and how long these meetings lasted, just to come up with names for products and projects. And we could never agree on a naming scheme. Should we pick our names from landmarks, planets, animals, colours, local languages? You would think this should be by far the easiest part.
6. Waste Disposal
    Yeah, that is one of the smallest issues that deserves attention. When your office is located in a building with no centralized waste disposal system, and with no plans or intentions to discuss the issue, this small issue can become a big one. Lucky for us the office to far away from a central waste dump site that was regularly kept in check by government workers.
7. Toilet
    I think everyone would agree this is of great importance. It may not be at the top of the list of necessities when looking for a place for your start-up, but you ignore it at your own peril. Once again, we were fortunate to have our own office toilet, complete with the lock and key.

There are a host of other small issues that had to be resolved. Issues like employees' transportation to and from the office, the need (and search) for an office secretary, payment for bill boards, etc. Sometimes we get carried away by the big things, we forget these little things that matter.

All in all, 2015 was a lovely year. Full of memories and experiences. But 2016 is already shaping up to beat it by far.

FUNDY TABLET PC

FUNDY TABLET PC

Research shows that children in early ages when exposed to mentally stimulating and visually educational materials tend to advance faster and further intellectually, than those that are not. Research has also shown that children are drawn to the use of tablets and phones.

Fundy Tablet PC is a fantastic tablet PC designed to improve learning by making study fun (fun + study). Fundy is developed by Karabow (Karabow is a technology startup that has the long term goal of pushing back the frontiers of technology in Africa. We are a group of innovators who believe nothing is beyond the ability of an African. Karabow exists to develop innovative technologies to improve the lives of millions of people in Africa. Our unique focus of creating phones designed to meet the needs of the people in communities gives us a unique advantage over our competitors.

www.karabow.com).

Fundy Tablet PC is a must-have device in every home where the welfare and development of children are important to their parents or guardians.

Though this device has the capability to be used by everybody (considering that it is an android powered quad-core tablet), the Primary Target beneficiaries for this mobile device are the Children below 13 years of age.

Features of Fundy Tablet PC include;

•        Account Management: Fundy gives parent full control over its usage by their children.

•        Educational Operating System: Fundy comes with a fully functional Operating System dedicated for child education and entertainment. It holds the most versatile and visually engaging child learning applications on the Android platform.

•         Child Protection Mode: Fundy tablet PC offers parents the administrative authority to control their children’s use of any installed application. Parents can set limits to their children’s usage of this tablet and even time between uses. When the usage time is up, the tablet will lock automatically. Only parents can use their password to unlock the tablet. When the set break time is over, the tablet will unlock automatically. This forces children to take breaks and helps with their overall mental growth.

•        Camera + Photo Editor: To spark the endless creativity of children’s mind, Fundy comes fitted with a 2mp front facing and a 5mp rear facing camera, with functionality built into the operating system. It also holds a rather powerful children photo editor that seeks to promote artistry in developing minds.

User Log Settings: This is a feature that allows parents check the activities of each of their children’s accounts and adjust as appropriately. If a child is found to be spending too much time with the music player, parents can shorten the time allocated for listening of music and lengthen the time for the use of other seemingly profitable apps.

•        Music Teacher: To spark the endless musical creativity of children’s mind, Fundy comes with an elementary music learning app that seeks to promote artistry in their developing minds.

•        Long Lasting Battery Life.

•        LCD Colour Screen (Widescreen).

•        Clear Front Facing Stereo Speakers.

•        Bluetooth.

•       MP3 Audio Player and MP4 Video Player.

•       Micro USB Port.

With all the above listed features of this amazing tablet PC, below are the immediate benefits.

 Children can;

1. Have fun learning about things that aid their mental growth.

2. Ignite their creativity as they learn Visual Arts and Music.

3. Get accustomed to comfortable learning as compared to using other non-specific Tablet PCs.

4. Read interactive story books and learn spelling in English.

5. Listen to their favourite songs and watch their favourite shows.

6. Visit websites and learn online (as permitted by parental control settings).

7. Take pictures and record videos.

Parents on the other hand, enjoy the following benefits.

They can;

1. Monitor their children’s usage statistics

2. Have full control over how their children use the Tablet PC.

3. Restrict children access to any feature they do not want.

4. Schedule Tablet PC usage f0r their children.

5. Copy any video they deem suitable for their children.

6. Ensure that children are not doing activities that do not build them mentally.

7. Enjoy world class educational software for free.

Fundy comes in four colours (Pink, Aquamarine, Yellow, and Emerald) that makes studying fun. 

Visit our website now @ www.karabow.com/fundy_tab or whatsapp 09026200681, 07036970545 and Get Fundy tablet PC today for your child, the best premium gift ever!!!