Pet Toy: Ball shooting robot

Recently I've thought about a kit toy which can throw table tennis ball into the air. An easy solution I end up with is the rotation of the motor to be transformed somehow into the kinetic movement of the plastic ball.

BASICish C#

Below is the C# code.

public static IEnumerable<T> AsEnumerable<T>(this System.Collections.IList source)
{    return from object item in source select (T)item;
}
Doesn't it smell Basicish?

IMediaExtension::SetProperties(IPropertySet*) in WinRT/C++

Media foundation transform (MFT) is initialized via

// IMediaExtension
SetProperties(STDMETHODIMP SetProperties(ABI::Windows::Foundation::Collections::IPropertySet *pConfiguration);

To get values from pConfiguration:
1. Convert it to IMap<HSTRING, IInspectable*> interface.
2. The value of each KeyValuePair is also IInspectable. To get the actual value of it - unbox it by converting value to IReference<T>. For strings this approach doesn't work: the documentation states "T must not be a delegate type or an HSTRING". So the IReference<HSTRING> is not possible. The workaround is to convert the value to IPropertyValue<T> and then chat with it to get actual value. Below is a helper method which implements it.

HRESULT SetProperties(ABI::Windows::Foundation::Collections::IPropertySet *pConfiguration)
{
 if (pConfiguration == nullptr)
  return E_POINTER;
 INT32 skipSampleCount;
 if (tryGetValue(*pConfiguration, L"SkipSampleCount", skipSampleCount))
  m_skipSampleCount = skipSampleCount;
 wstring formatStr;
 if (tryGetValue(*pConfiguration, L"Format", formatStr))
  m_format = formatStr;
 return S_OK;
}
template <typename ValueType>
bool tryGetValue(ABI::Windows::Foundation::Collections::IPropertySet& propertySet, const std::wstring& key, ValueType& outValue)
{
 // query for IMap

 Microsoft::WRL::ComPtr<ABI::Windows::Foundation::Collections::IMap<HSTRING, IInspectable *>> pMap;
 HRESULT hr = propertySet.QueryInterface(IID_PPV_ARGS(&pMap));
 if (FAILED(hr))
  return false;

 // construct key

 HSTRING_HEADER keyHeader;
 HSTRING keyHstr;
 if (FAILED(WindowsCreateStringReference(key.c_str(), key.size(), &keyHeader, &keyHstr))) 
  return false;
 
 boolean found;
 if (FAILED(pMap->HasKey(keyHstr,&found)) || !found) 
  return false;

 // lookup

 IInspectable *valueAsInsp;
 hr = pMap->Lookup(keyHstr, &valueAsInsp);
 assert(SUCCEEDED(hr));

 //HSTRING inspName;//
 //hr = valueAsInsp->GetRuntimeClassName(&inspName);//
 //UINT32 len;//
 //auto strOut = WindowsGetStringRawBuffer(inspName, &len);//
 //hr = WindowsDeleteString(inspName); //

 return tryGetValue_ExtractValue(valueAsInsp, outValue);
}

template <typename ValueType>
bool tryGetValue_ExtractValue(IInspectable *valueAsInsp, ValueType& outValue)
{
 // cast IInspectable value to IReference

 Microsoft::WRL::ComPtr<ABI::Windows::Foundation::IReference<ValueType>> valueRef;
 HRESULT hr = valueAsInsp->QueryInterface(IID_PPV_ARGS(&valueRef)); // <REFIID, CComPtr>
 if (FAILED(hr))
  return false;

 hr = valueRef->get_Value(&outValue);
 return SUCCEEDED(hr);
}

template <>
bool tryGetValue_ExtractValue(IInspectable *valueAsInsp, IInspectable*& outValue)
{
 outValue = valueAsInsp;
 return true;
}
template <>
bool tryGetValue_ExtractValue(IInspectable *valueAsInsp, wstring& outValue)
{
 // HSTRING case is handled here because IReference<HSTRING> is not possible

 Microsoft::WRL::ComPtr<ABI::Windows::Foundation::IPropertyValue> pPropertyValue;
 HRESULT hr = valueAsInsp->QueryInterface(IID_PPV_ARGS(&pPropertyValue)); // <REFIID, CComPtr>
 if (FAILED(hr))
  return false;

 ABI::Windows::Foundation::PropertyType propType;
 hr = pPropertyValue->get_Type(&propType);
 if (FAILED(hr))
  return false;

 if (propType == ABI::Windows::Foundation::PropertyType_String)
 {
  HSTRING valueHstr;
  hr = pPropertyValue->GetString(&valueHstr);
  if (FAILED(hr))
   return false;

  UINT32 valueLen;
  PCWSTR valueStr = WindowsGetStringRawBuffer(valueHstr, &valueLen);
  outValue = wstring(valueStr);
  return true;
 }
 return false;
}

Note: Bool values are actually expanded to unsigned char in C++, so it makes sense to transfer it via byte or int types.

Windows 8 x64 driver installation error - signature test fails

When you install the driver for Hitron BRG 35302 cable modem on Windows 8 x64, you get an error message "The hash for the file is not present in the specified catalog file. The file is likely corrupt or the victim of tampering". Then the installation process stops.

To solve it, turn the Windows 8 checking of the driver's signature off.