Fabrice's weblog

Sesame Data Browser for OData tour

2011-11-26T10:02:00Z

Lohith G N (aka Kashyapa) has just published a tour of Sesame Data Browser for OData on his blog. He did an excellent job! I strongly advise you to head to his post to learn what Sesame Data Browser has to offer and how to use it.

50% off ASP.NET hosting

2011-11-24T07:45:00Z

I haven't blogged for a long time because I'm busy working on an exciting new project. It's too early to tell you more. I'll provide details in a few months.

Meanwhile, I wanted to write a quick post to share an excellent offer with you.

It's that time of the year when you can get deals on many things, including web hosting. I'd like to remind you about Arvixe, a great web hosting provider for Windows (for ASP.NET) and Linux.

For 48 hours, between Thursday November 24th at 00:00 PST (08:00 GMT/UTC) and Friday November 25th, Arvixe will be offering 50% off all of their shared hosting products. This will be for all new accounts, for life (as long as you continue to renew the account)!

I've been using Arvixe for my websites for more than one year and a half now, and I highly recommend them.

Here is an overview of what I get for a very good price:

Unlimited diskspace
Unlimited data transfer
Unlimited domains
Unlimited POP3 and IMAP mailboxes
Unlimited SQL Server 2008 databases
Unlimited MySQL databases
.NET 1.1, 2, 3.5 and 4
Dedicated application pools
Full trust
IIS 7
Daily backups
and more...

And now, you can get that too for half the price. Just go to Arvixe.com and secure your own hosting account now by using the coupon code "Black Friday" during checkout.

Disclaimer: the links to Arvixe are affiliate links that may bring me some money home if you sign up. Still, I recommend Arvixe because I use them and I'm very happy with what they offer.

Développement Facebook (sondage)

2011-05-19T23:20:00Z

Avec Tuneo Events, j'ai acquis de l'expérience en développement d'applications Facebook.
Je peux vous aider dans ce domaine. N'hésitez pas à me contacter pour de la formation ou des missions.

J'ai créé un sondage rapide pour en savoir plus sur vos besoins en terme de développement Facebook.
Cela prendra moins d'une minute de votre temps : Sondage Développement d'applications Facebook.

Merci.

Facebook development survey

2011-05-19T23:11:00Z

With Tuneo Events, I gained experience on Facebook applications development.
I can help you with this subject. Feel free to contact me for training or contract jobs.

I created a quick survey to learn more about your needs in terms of Facebook development.
It will take less than one minute of your time: Facebook application development survey.

Thank you.

OData Shared Vocabularies, Annotations, and Sesame

2011-04-16T11:12:00Z

During MIX11 this week, Pablo Castro, Software Architect in the Data and Modeling Group at Microsoft, gave a talk named "OData Roadmap: Services Powering Next Generation Experiences".

Pablo gave demos of what's cooking for OData and what to expect over the coming months.

One thing that he demonstrated was extensibility with Shared Vocabularies. This allows tools and applications to offer a richer experience through annotations on OData feeds.

Pablo used Sesame Data Browser as an example of how Shared Vocabularies can be used. With annotations on the MIX11 Speakers and Sessions feeds, Sesame is able to display visit cards (VCards) for speakers and a calendar view containing sessions.

I invite you to watch the video recording on the session's page. The demo starts at 0:52:34.

: Annotations

: Calendar view

: VCard view

Vocabularies for OData were introduced on the OData blog. The current stage is exploratory and implementation is open for discussion in the OData mailing list.
Note: this feature is not available in the currently public version of Sesame Data Browser (1.0.7).

Cross-posted from http://sesamedatabrowser.wordpress.com

Telerik and Azure DataMarket case studies

2011-04-14T22:31:00Z

Some time ago I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Microsoft and Telerik about Sesame. The results are two case studies.
I was impressed by the job done by the interviewers and the editors.

The first case study covers Sesame Data Browser's support for OData and Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket - No doubt... that's a Microsoft product name. It was called Dallas previously. I just call it Azure DataMarket.

Short version: Real World DataMarket: Interview with Fabrice Marguerie, Owner, metaSapiens
Full version: ISV Optimizes Data Browsing Tool for Online Data, Expects to Enter Global Marketplace
Word version

The second case study is about how the Telerik RadControls for Silverlight product was useful for creating Sesame Data Browser.

Case study

Sesame update: recent connections, videos, feedback and more

2011-04-13T14:00:00Z

Sesame Data Browser has just been improved with new features.

Here is what you get this time:

Most recently used connections remembered
Support for videos
Complex types are not displayed by default any longer
Ability to use with no Internet connection
UserVoice forum for feedback
Additional sample services suggested
Improvements for Azure DataMarket, née Dallas
Bug fixes and small improvements, as usual

Let's focus on the main improvements:

Most recently used connections remembered

You no longer have to enter the same addresses again and again. Sesame Data Browser will now remember the addresses you used and suggest them to you the next time you want to open a connection.
The authentication settings are restored for each address you reopen.

Hint: pressing the Enter key will make re-opening a connection even faster.

Support for videos

Until now, Sesame offered support for pictures, but not for videos. I'm pleased to announce that videos can now be displayed right inside Sesame.

You can give this a try with the INETA Live service (http://live.ineta.org/InetaLiveService.svc/), for example. If you open the LiveVideos feed and click on the "View Video" button for a video, that video will start playing.

Changes for complex types

Complex types are not displayed by default any longer. A click on a button is now required.
Displaying all complex types immediately consumed to many resources.

If you want to see this change in action, open the Netflix service and select the Titles feed. You will see a View button for the BoxArt, Instant, Dvd and BluRay columns. Clicking on this button reveals the content of the cells.

Ability to use with no Internet connection

Previously, Sesame Data Browser wouldn't work with no Internet connection because it loaded the OData support from a dedicated package from metaSapiens.com each time. This package is now embedded in the main package, so no additional loading is required when Sesame Data Browser is installed on the desktop.
Of course, this is useful only when you browse local services with no dependencies on remote services or data.

UserVoice forum for feedback

Finally, because your feedback is important for the future of Sesame, you can now use a UserVoice forum to suggest improvements and to report issues.

This feedback forum is also available from the Sesame Data Browser preview page via the orange Feedback button.

Please try the new version now and let us all know what you think.

Cross-posted from http://sesamedatabrowser.wordpress.com

Scheduling events on Facebook with Tuneo

2011-04-12T14:00:00Z

My new project reached the beta stage a few weeks ago. The first version of Tuneo Events is a Facebook application that allows you to easily schedule events with friends.

Tuneo Events is already used in more than 20 countries. I invite you to use the application and to leave us your feedback.

You can find all about Tuneo and Tuneo Events using the following links:

Tuneo Events is built with ASP.NET and the Facebook C# SDK. Feel free to contact me if you need help to create your own Facebook application.

SDC2011 slides for "How to detect and avoid memory and resources leaks in .NET applications"

2011-04-05T16:48:00Z

The slides and the source code for the session I gave at the Scandinavian Developer Conference today are available:

This presentation is based on my article How to detect and avoid memory and resources leaks in .NET applications. You'll find more information and resources in this article.

The French version of this presentation with Yann Schwartz is still available.

I'll take this opportunity to thank the Iptor team for organizing this event, for inviting me as a speaker, and for the warm welcome we received here in Gothemburg/Göteborg!

MVP in 2011

2011-04-01T14:17:00Z

I just received an email from Microsoft telling me that my MVP status has been renewed :-)
I'm an MVP since 2004!

I'm still very busy this year and I don't see this change soon. I already have a lot of things on my roadmap.

It will start with a session at SDC 2011 next week and a new release of Sesame Data Browser soon.

Quick survey: Social activities with friends

2011-01-13T17:09:00Z

Tuneo - a new startup of mine - has published a quick survey. The goal of this survey is to better understand how people organize get-togethers.

Thank you in advance for your help. It should take less than one minute of your time :)

Speaking in Sweden in April

2011-01-06T15:57:00Z

As this is my first post in 2011, I wish you all the best for this new year. I don't know for you, but it will be a year of changes for me. I'll tell you more about that when the time comes.

For the time being, I just wanted to announce my next speaking engagement: I'll be presenting at SDC2011, the Scandinavian Developer Conference. This event will take place on April 4 and 5 in Göteborg, Sweden.

My session will be based on my article about memory leaks:

How to detect and avoid memory and resources leaks in .NET applications
During this session we will analyze the most common leak sources in .NET applications and we will see how to detect them in practice. We will demonstrate with live examples several tools that can help you to troubleshoot your applications. The goal of this session is to help you fix and avoid leaks in your .NET applications, whether they are built with Windows Forms, WPF, Silverlight, ASP.NET, or as console or Windows services. You will also get advices on how to improve your applications so they become less greedy.

I hope to see you there if you're around in April :-)

Silverlight 5 roadmap announced

2010-12-02T19:28:00Z

With the confusion that followed the PDC, Microsoft had to announce their plans for the future of Silverlight. This has been done today during the Silverlight FireStarter event.

A beta release of Silverlight 5 is expected for Spring 2011, and the final release for the end of 2011.
I won't re-post the list of planned features here. You can get all the details on Scott Guthrie's blog.

50% discount on web hosting today

2010-11-26T00:45:00Z

I have good news if you need a web hosting solution, ASP.NET or not.
Arvixe, which I recommend for your web hosting needs, has a very special offer for you: Only today, get 50% off all shared hosting products for life. Yes, read that again!
You just have to use the coupon code "black friday" during checkout.

Read what I think of them before you jump on the offer, or just visit arvixe.com.

Gmail, Fmail, what's next?

2010-11-14T22:31:00Z

We had Gmail, and tomorrow we'll have Fmail. I know what the next big thing will be and I will start a business around it right now: Email.