Finally, The new and very much improved Blogger is out of beta. I had my blog hosted on blogger since the beginging and used the beta since well....beta. The main issue was API changes and there fore clients had to adjust whenever google made a backend change. Now that its out, hopefully, client support will improve as well.
Now if only Windows Live Writer can support all the blogger functionality and get to the RTM stage.
Reading Microsoft Blogs, I saw a great example of compiler optimization. Apparently, C# compiler is able to optimize case statement that is based on string constants. Once the number of cases reaches a specific level (example was with 7 cases including default) , the compiler switched from using if statement, to pre-populating values into a dictionary and doing a value lookup.
It really is amazing how good compilers are these day and proves once again
After a few days calls with Microsoft and submitting what seemed to be the first support incident related to Office 2007, I am up an running.
There was a problem with importing a NULL key in the old Outlook ergistry settings
The final solution was to remove (rename) the old Outlook key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook.
Update: According to the final report from MS, the problem was with the PONT_STRING key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\General] "PONT_STRING"=hex:33,32,2c,00 00 was the error value. Removing the key should have solved the problem as well.
I've been developing SQL Server based project in the office and on my laptop. Synchronizing the database changes both schema and data is complicated and I was looking for good tool to help with it. Well, now there is one.
Microsoft released a 2nd CTP of SQL Server Hosting Toolkit. Its soul purpose is to create a script to recreate schema and data of a SQL serve database. All it takes is two clicks using the wizard.
Now that .NET 3.0 is finally released, I am putting in some hours to see how it can be implemented in our infrastructure. Up front the power and flexibility of the framework is a bit overwhelming, however, the tools that are included are great. For example Service Configuration Editor has a great way to specify every setting required and optional for setting up WCF communication.
One of the components that I was looking to replace is a MSMQ Message Processing application. Basically it is a custom written MSMQ Trigger service. Well.. here goes.
WCF includes a binding for interconnecting with non-WCF MSMQ implementations. I've created the final prototype from the basic service sample, and created a ServiceContract interface and implementation class
[ServiceContract()]
public interface IMessageProcessor
{
[OperationContract(IsOneWay = true)]
void ProcessMessage(MsmqMessage<Stream> msg);
}
public class MessageProcessor : IMessageProcessor
{
public void ProcessMessage(MsmqMessage<Stream> msg)
{
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(msg.Body))
{
MessageBox.Show("Hello: " + sr.ReadToEnd());
sr.Close();
}
}
}
The next step is to setup the app.config configuration file.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.serviceModel>
<behaviors>
<serviceBehaviors>
<behavior name="Throttling">
<serviceThrottling maxConcurrentCalls="2" />
</behavior>
</serviceBehaviors>
</behaviors>
<bindings>
<msmqIntegrationBinding>
<binding name="NewBinding0" exactlyOnce="false" serializationFormat="Stream" />
</msmqIntegrationBinding>
</bindings>
<services>
<service behaviorConfiguration="Throttling" name="WCFMQListener.MessageProcessor">
<endpoint address="msmq.formatname:DIRECT=OS:.\private$\testqueue" binding="msmqIntegrationBinding" bindingConfiguration="NewBinding0" contract="WCFMQListener.IMessageProcessor" />
</service>
</services>
</system.serviceModel>
</configuration>
The most time I've spent was to figure out how to read the non-xml formatted message. The key is to declare the method as
void ProcessMessage(MsmqMessage<Stream> msg);
and to adjust binding in the configuration file
serializationFormat="Stream"
The message can be read just as easily as a binary array.
I took a plunge, and installed Office 2007 RTM on my office PC. Here's the picture of my Outlook starting up
Yesterday, I heard a great Japanese saying
"Because of a nail, a horseshoe was lost Because of a horseshoe, a horse was lost Because of a horse, a message was not delivered Because a message was not delivered, a war was lost"
Its a great way to reiterate the importance of the weakest link. It is something to apply in development, architecture, work in general and pretty life as a whole.
One of the new security futures available in IE7 is a warning to correct your security settings if they are not considered "Secure Enough"
Microsoft does not give a good way to disable a warning, and for a good reason. The warning can only be disabled via a registry setting usually set by the group policy.
Here's the setting:
Key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Security\DisableSecuritySettingsCheck KeyType: DWORD Value: 0x1
I've tried to convert some of the projects from using NANT to MSBuild process, however, the lack of available build tasks was always preventing my from converting any of the advanced scripts.
Now I stumbled upon MSBuild Community Tasks. It covers a lot of the tasks supported by NAnt or NAnt contrib projects. There are still a lot of things to be desired, however, it provides some of the key tasks to make project creation easy. Together with tasks provided by MSBuild, the functionality is very comparable to NANT combined with NANT Contrib. Very, very impressive.
Here's an important yet easy example: Autoincrement version number of the build:
- Open the .csproj file in notepad or your other favorite text editor
- Add import directive to the one that already exists in the .csproj file
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets" />- Uncomment BeforeBuld and AfterBuild targets located at the end of the project
- Add Version task to the BeforeBuild:
<Version VersionFile="version.txt" RevisionType="Increment"> <Output TaskParameter="Major" PropertyName="Major" /> <Output TaskParameter="Minor" PropertyName="Minor" /> <Output TaskParameter="Build" PropertyName="Build" /> <Output TaskParameter="Revision" PropertyName="Revision" /> </Version>- Add AssemblyInfo task to the BeforeBuild target
<AssemblyInfo CodeLanguage="CS" OutputFile="AssemblyVersion.cs" AssemblyVersion="$(Major).$(Minor).$(Build).$(Revision)" AssemblyFileVersion="$(Major).$(Minor).$(Build).$(Revision)" />- Remove AssemblyVersion and AssemblyFileVersion from AssemblyInfo.cs file
- Add AssemblyVersion.cs file to the project
Now compiling the project will adjust version number in version.txt, and use the new version in generating AssemblyVersion.cs
Easy and Extremely Useful
Some Related Links:
Two main items the release
The second item is requires installed MSBuild Community Tasks from http://msbuildtasks.tigris.org/
More on that later
Now that Internet Explorer 7 is finally released, I've tried it again as my main browser. I'm using it, and I'm liking it.
The UI is a bit different, and it takes me a few seconds to find the new STOP button. The menu is also in a different place. The interface is nice and clean. The tabs are finally an integrated part of the UI, instead of an ugly addon from MSN Toolbar.
Really no complains so far.
Check it out at http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/queryexplus
I've now officially merged code for the Query ExPlus 2.0 into the sourceforge repository. Look for the new release under www.sourceforge.net/projects/queryexplus
Here are some main highlights of the release:
All new development is done on the 2.0 branch. I am not planning to backport new functionality unless I feel that it is very critical to the application use.
Please check out the source and the compiled appplication. As always, any comments are welcome.
The Microsoft trip was a blast. Great campus. Technology is everywhere. Very, very cool. I really liked the idea of providing every guest with a tablet PC loaded with OneNote. As you take notes or jot things down on the screen, everything is saved to a USB key chain. At the end of the trip, you take the key chain with you.
Some points from the trip:
I got a chance to visit Microsoft in its Seattle headquarters. so a few notes to follow.
But first thing first: Airline travel sucks, especially domestic airline travel. Just when I thought its impossible to cramp more seats onboard an airplain, Continental Airlines proved me wrong. I trully felt like a sardine for a bit.
Well enought complaining. I got a chance to finish some functionality in the Querty - Query Analyzer Alternative. New functionality includes: OleDB connectivity option, Copy from grid, more UI enhancements, and some bug fixes. I trying to use Querty as much as I can internally and future set is prioritised based on my need. The next to come is probably Find/Replace functionality.
It really looks close to be able to merge the code with the Query ExPlus as a version 2 of the trunk. Check out the download, any feedback is appreciated.
I am really, really impressed with the foldershare software. It does exactly what I need it to do - synchronizes folder(s) between two computers across Internet. It does it well. It doesn't ask too many questions, but is not completely dumbed down. And it has some features that I didn't expect - ability to download files from my remote computer without having to install folder share on my local machine. I have a feeling everyone will need to use a software like it sooner or later. Bookmark the link so you don't forget: http://www.foldershare.com/ 5 stars!!!
After downloading Query Express, I got in touch with the developer, Joseph Albahari, and asked him to put the project on SourseForge. A few more emails later regarding the Licensing (Source Forge does not support permissive free license), and a few days later, the Query ExPlus was born. Check it out at http://sourceforge.net/projects/queryexplus/
Steve Irwin - The "Crocodile Hunter" was a great naturalist and a TV personality. His sudden death is a tragedy and he will surely be missed.
Did you ever wonder where did you spend your 8 hour work day? Well, Here's a little utility I wrote to find that out.
Where Is Time?The project is in C# - .NET 2.0. You should have no problem compiling it in 1.1 either. It has an example of how to use multi-threading with Windows forms, and .NET Interop.
Any comments are welcome
Two other usefull scriptlets for the powershell
First function filters for only CLR files
Second returns CLR version that the assembly was compiled against.
function IsClr() {
process {
trap {continue;}
$asmb = $null;
$asmb = [System.Reflection.Assembly]::ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom($_.FullName);
if ($asmb)
{ $_ }
}
}
function ClrVersion
{
param ([System.IO.FileInfo] $fileInfo)
$asmb = [System.Reflection.Assembly]::ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom($fileInfo.FullName);
$refAssemblies = $asmb.GetReferencedAssemblies();
foreach ($refAssembly in $refAssemblies)
{
if ($refAssembly.Name -eq "mscorlib")
{
$refAssembly.Version
break;
}
}
}
Use Examples
dir | Clr
dir | IsClr | foreach-object{$V = ClrVersion($_); $_.Name + " " + $V.ToString()}
This is one I did not expect. Joshua Flanagan has a blog entry enitled Formerly known as Atlas. It seems that Atlas framework has gotten a new name: it is is now officially called ASP.NET 7.0.
First of all, what ever happened to ASP.NET 3.0-6.0 (Joshua's blog explains the story). Second - I thought Atlas is about AJAX. Does it mean that Microsoft is using whatever left over projets it has to and calls them new versions of the software. May be not, may be it will have some more enhancements outside of Ajax. We'll just have to wait and see.
Recently I started to use two new beta pieces of software for blogging. A few days back, I started to use Windows Live Writer The tool rocks. It did exactly what I need it to do, had a simple and clean interface, connected to blogger, and worked both in the corporate network and at home. Two days ago, I switched my blogger account to the new Blogger Beta - the second beta software. This experience was much less pleasing. I was planing to take a look at the new features. However, to use most of them, you'd have to switch your layout, and therefore loose the customizations that I had previously. The more serious issue that I've encountered was that my Windows Live Writer no longer worked! Apparently it is a known issue, Windows Live Writer is not compatible with Blogger Beta. I think its just an example of google not wanting to play nice with others. Too bad.
Powershell (used to be Monad shell) is the great new command line shell from Microsoft. Now in RC1 with RC2 soon to come. Not only is it written in .NET, but .NET framework is at the core of the Powershell functionality. The shell is extremely scriptable, and even thought the language is not 100% C#, it gives you ability to tap into most of the .NET features.
Some things that you were only dreaming about doing in the old command prompt become extremely easy.
I wrote a simple script to let me check which assemblies are compiled with debug.
function IsDebug() {
process
{
trap {continue;}
$asmb = $null;
$asmb = [System.Reflection.Assembly]::ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom($_.FullName);
if ($asmb)
{
$Attribs = [System.Reflection.CustomAttributeData]::GetCustomAttributes($asmb);
foreach ($attrib in $Attribs)
{
if ($attrib.ToString().StartsWith("[System.Diagnostics.DebuggableAttribute") -AND
-NOT $attrib.ToString().StartsWith("[System.Diagnostics.DebuggableAttribute((Boolean)False") )
{
$_.Name + " Is DEBUG " + $attrib.ToString();
}
}
}
}
}
After the script is loaded, all I have to do is pipe a dir commandlet to IsDebug function like
dir | IsDebug($_)
I have a reputation for asking direct questions, and today was no different. I vendor that my company is dealing with has a product that is designed for our customers. So of course, they would like for us to talk about their product, and hopefully recommend it over their competitors. That's when I asked: "What's in it for me?" No, I don't mean, me personally, I mean for my company. How would proposing a third party vendor would makes my company stand out. And why do I have to ask a this question in a conversation about a business "relationship"
Lets look a the bigger picture. There are strong business relationships and there are weak ones. In a weak relationship, two companies work together by not stepping on each others toes, at least not too much and not every day. I can mention an unrelated product, I might even provide positive feedback, may be even recommend it to my customers. But all that comes without any direct benefit to my business.
In a strong business relationship, two companies work together to provide a better business solution for their customers. This relationship has to work both ways, and has to have a very clear and visible benefit to everyone involved. It has to be a wide, two way street.
This is happens all the time. Software and Hardware vendors communicate all on regular basis through these relationships. DELL and HP partner with Microsoft to make sure their hardware and software is tested for compatibility. Oracle partners with Sun to make sure they can properly scale and utilize the technological advances. Game developers work with console vendors to create games, and console vendors support game developers so their consoles have popularity.
So lets all work together for the benefit of both teams, I am all for it. I'll just make a note to myself, to always make sure I tell the other party what they will get out of a business relationship with me during the presentation. That way I'll avoid the question "What's in it for me?"
I am trying out the new Windows Live Writer. You can download it from the link above.
I really like the clean interface, the way that it integrated with my blogspot account and the .NET plugins. I have a good feeling about that I will be adding it to the list of my Toolset
Hey. I just got published on DevX
Gain Control of your .NET Logging Using log4net
Don't build logging capabilities for your applications from scratch; you can get robust and flexible logging functionality for your .NET applications with the free open source log4net framework, and then extend it to support custom needs.
Bush - The next Oprah. How many pounds did he loose / gain this week :)
Bush in good health but gains weight | US News | Reuters.com: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Tuesday he had gained four pounds (2 kg) because of 'too many birthday cakes,' but said he was feeling fine after his annual physical."
My history on the net :) My oldest news post I was able to find was from on November 4th, 1994 - more then 12 years ago. Niiiicceee.... 1MB SIMMS
A pretty large chunk number of applications are use daily are opensource applications. A list I'll try to keep up to date is here.
Being an active user of opensource software, being a not-so-active contributor so open source projects (I've submitted a few patches to some projects), and even having a project on SourceForge, I've been putting a little bit of thought into what starts and keeps OpenSource software going.
There a few reasons that I can think of:
The reasons above can be split into two categories: Projects that have commercial backing and products that don't. So the question I'd like to raise is how long will projects without commercial backing survive, and what will be the reason for survivor or their demise. Will they survive when corporations will put their resources to create commercial product against a free alternative. I've noticed the same questions asked by others to the project coordinators as well.
NUnit - "The Death of NUnit Revisited"
NDoc - "NDoc 2 is Officially Dead"
Considering how fierce is the competition between comercial products, will the OpenSource projects that are developed by some great developers during their spair time using their own resources, be able to stand up to the competition? Or will the projects live only as long as they are not good enough to be considered a competition by the coorporations, and die as soon as they become a threat (or atleast a competition)?
It is very exciting to hear that Microsoft considers .Java a beat. I would like to see some stats that would back that up though. Microsoft: .Net Beat Java, Who's Next? On a related note, it is very interesting how the focus shift for Microsoft technology will effect us. This relates to everything from Microsoft focusing a lot of its attention on consumer products (XBox 360, Zune, etc...) and Microsoft possible focusing on enterprise product development while considering the .NET Framework to be a great base to build on. I guess we will see soon
It is great when you learn something new, especially when its a little information that makes a huge difefrence. I used to have a multiple number of addins to provide the basic right click functionality, however, in VS 2005, it is available out of the box. Right Clicking on the file tab now provides you following options Close All Close All But This Copy Full Path Open Containing Folder Copy File Locaton in Solution Explorer -- jfo's coding : TIP: Try right clicking on the filetabs in VS 2005
Microsoft made a shift in distribution of its MSDN Library. It is now available for free download from MSDN Library Download Previously, MSDN was available for download only for MSDN Subscribers, and there was actually a subscription level that provided only MSDN library.
Sysinternals was aquired by Microsoft. Does tat mean that Process Explorer will finally replace Task Manager? For now, Sysinternals site is so slow (probably with everyone readin the news, I can't even login to retreive the blog entry :) Read it on CNet for now
Ethereal - Now WireShark is a great tool that I've been using for a while to look at the network traffic and troubleshot all kinds of issues. Everything from remoting to FIX, to just browse through the traffic that is going on on the network port. The new homepage is at www.wireshark.org
This is a list of the utility software that I have running on my development desktop
| Windows Utilities | |
| Toolset from SysInternals | A requirement for system management. Process Explorer, Event Viewer, File Monitor, Registry Monitor, etc... |
| UltraEdit | Trully great programmers text editor |
| Notepad++ | Another great text editor - OpenSource and Free |
| FireFox | Sometimes I feel like IE, some times I don't |
| WinMerge | Great file/folder compare tool |
| SlickRun | A nice, small, and very usefull Quick Run utility |
| Console | Command Prompt Enhancer |
| TaskSwitch Pro | Free ALT+TAB Replacement |
| PowerToys for XP | PowerCalc, Tweak UI, etc... |
| CygWin toolset | Unix utlities (includng XWindows) on windows |
| FolderShare | Syncronize and access your files across the internet |
| WinDirStat | Drive / Folder usage statistics with a nice graphical view of the used space |
| Windows Live Writer | Blogging utility that from Microsoft. Quickly becoming my favorite |
| VMWare server | Virtual Server software for VMWare |
| Daemon Tools | Open any ISO file as a virtual CD drive |
| PureText | A small utility that removes markup from clioboard text. The result is the same as pasting into notepad |
| Development Utilities | |
| Reflector | .NET assembly viewer |
| PowerShell | .NET Command Line Processor |
| NAnt | Build Script Processor |
| NUnit | Unit Test Framework |
| NDoc | Help file generator |
| NSIS | Nullsoft Scriptable Installation System |
| MSBuild Community Tasks | A colleection of MSBuild tasks. Many of them are so great and usefull, that should have been in included with MSBuild from the begining |
| Snippet Compiler | Compile and run .NET Code snippets |
| CoolCommands VS Addin | Add lots and lots of cool commands to the Visual Studio menus |
| Subversion | Because it is a real surce control that happens to be free |
| TourtoiseSVN | Because it makes my source control work in windows, the way every source control should |
| SQLPrompt | Intellisence for SQL Editor. This really should be a part of the microsoft SQL tools |
| mtail | Free graphical tail utility |
| LogParser | Command line tool that lets you run SQL queries against a variety of log files and other system data sources |
So Bill Gates decided to step down from his active role at Microsoft. I think that this is a pretty big event. An end of an era for one of the greatest companies (not just in technology) Here's to the new beginning. To the "Microsoft 2.0"
This is probably one of the coolest news stories that I've seen. There is a new ringtone that is used by teenagers but can not be heard by adults. There is a real science that is behind the ringtone. The range of human hearing shrinks with age about 2 decibels every 10 years. The ringtone is just outside the range of an average teenagers (just above 17-18 khz). The hearing of an adult end usually ends around 14-15 Khz and therefore ringtone is generally not heard by the adults. Check out more info here: Smartphone Thoughts :: View topic - Teen Buzz, A Ring Tone That Only Teens Can Hear!
This seems awsome. This is a great example of taking the web to the next level, and might be a perfect solution for DMZ environments. ASP.NET Enterprise Manager on Steroids: Ajax, Multiple DB types, And open source!
WinFX is getting renamed to .NET Framework 3.0. And it will be shipped together with Vista. And it will be available to XP and 2003. And it should not delay Vista any more (should is the key :) Yeee haaaa.
Microsoft just made a public a new site: msdnwiki.microsoft.com. There is quite a bit of press around it from the Microsoft bloggers. This is definetely something to keep a close look at.
Finally, Intellicense for SQL Query Analizer - Free http://www.red-gate.com/products/SQL_Prompt/index.htm Get it now (free until September 1st)
I am extremely impressed with the latest developments of the web. It is definitely taking on a 2.0 format, where I clearly see the next level of usability and usage advances. First of all the use of AJAX is finally making the web pages usable without going trough the regular "Fill the form" -> Submit -> Wait -> "Correct the Form" -> Repeat procedure. I finally see interfaces that resemble usability of the rich UI that we are all used to in the think client applications. No, there is still room to grow, and SmartClient applications are still safe, however, Web 3.0 might change that completely. Second, I am VERY impressed with the competition that google is receiving. Don't get me wrong, google is great. Search is amazing, I love the pluggable homepage, I use GMail and think that it's a truly great thin email client. However, the competition is getting really close. Even though I like the pluggable webparts, I still like the design of my.yahoo.com better. I prefer to have a two or three section design. I love the site, the idea of tags is just amazing. GMail works, but it is still hard to file the emails, I'd love to be able to have return receipts, multiple tags for emails, etc... Desktop search from MSN Toolbar, has a cleaner interface with the outlook then Google deskbar does. Overall, competition created a lot of great software that can be utilized. Third, I am really, realy, really impressed with the online communities. del.icio.us, Blog explosion, Flicker, WIKIs, etc.... It is really amazing how the community is driving the advances in the technology, and it is no longer a vendor who is making application happen, but rather the people who are using the application. The application is no longer the software that a you as a user gets to use, it is the content that is provided and the way that the content is created and organized by others within the community. Each application is like a giant ant farm, that with the proper display ca become a living and breathing form of art. well, what Web 3.0 will be we can only dream of, Or is it that we can change the world to make it happen :)
It's been a while since I've written a post, but this topic has been on my mind for a while. I've always been in favor of Agile project delivery, the Simplicity and "you are not going to need it" principals. I've seen it time and time again, that projects are overarchitected, overdesigned and are overpromissed. Teams spend months upon months on design meetings, requirements gathering, architecture comeeties. Then before the project is even close to the stable beta stage, multiple things happen:
The article in the computerworld reflects on these issues, and I found it to be very comforting that I am not the only one thinking about this. http://www.computerworld.com/ managementtopics/management/story/ 0,10801,110951,00.html
I've been reading some of the old saved blog entries on bloglines, and came to one very interseting entry by Chris Sells. http://www.pocketmod.com/ Provides a analog solution that is extremely simple and might (I've not tried it yet) be very good at orgonizing the simpe daily actions in your life.
