February 2008 - Posts
[Looking for opinions, links, articles and so on]
How do you implement LINQ to SQL in a classic 3-tiers (presentation, BAL, DAL) app? A simple question, right?
So, if I create my LINQ to SQL DataAccess classes in a DAL, this is where the transport objects will reside. I usually create a layer just for that so each layer can reference those objects. Now, the presentation layer must reference the DAL directly. Yuck!
OK, so let's return POCOs to the presentation layer instead. Well, I'm losing all the change tracking stuff provided by LINQ to SQL. Yuck!
What if I need to expose my BAL layer as a set of WCF services? Well, I'm also losing the change tracking. Yuck!
And what if I want to data bind my grid? Using the designer, I need to point to the DataClasses sitting in the DAL. Yuck!
OK, I'll lose the change tracking stuff. Now I'll have to reload each record before saving it? Yuck!
The way I see it, the only way you can possibly use LINQ to SQL is if you develop your app in a single layer. I must be wrong. I must miss something. This can't be real. Stunned!
Infragistics NetAdvantage 2008 Volume 1 is now available. Besides new features, it provides support for Visual Studio 2008 + AJAX.
I was confused when downloading this release because you can download either NetAdvantage for ASP.NET 2008 Vol.1 for CLR 2.x and also NetAdvantage for ASP.NET 2008 Vol.1 for CLR 3.x. If you download NetAdvantage for .NET (includes both WinForms & Web), it's labeled for CLR 2.x and does not contains ASP.NET CLR 3.x. OK but what do you need to download & install to get everything?
If you subscribe to NetAdvantage for .NET, install this one first then the ASP CLR 3.x (don't think the order is of any importance).
You can install both ASP.NET versions side by side but you can't use the two versions in the same project because you'll have conflicting namespaces.
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http://www.infragistics.com/Default.aspx
Laurent Duveau is featured as the MVP Insider in this month MSDN Canadian Developer Connection. Way to go le Français Québécois!
http://blogs.msdn.com/cdndevs/archive/2008/02/20/laurent-duveau.aspx
In many companies, there's an unwritten policy to wait for the release of the first service pack of a product before deploying it. With Windows Server 2008 just out, you won't have to wait for SP1, it's already built in!
Seriously, Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 (SP1) are now sharing the same core.
Here's a great post by Ian McDonald explaining everything:
http://blogs.msdn.com/iainmcdonald/archive/2008/02/15/windows-server-2008-is-called-sp1-adventures-in-doing-things-right.aspx
SkyDrive is no longer in Beta and finally available in Canada. What's SkyDrive? It provides 5GB online storage for free. It's a great way to share and exchange large files.
http://skydrive.live.com/
Yep, they did it again. Mix08 is now sold out!
Great news! My good buddy Mario Cardinal will speak at TechEd Dev 2008 in Orlando. Congrats Mario!
Professional Developer and Designer for students tools at no charge
DreamSpark is simple, it's all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools
at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career.
Who can get this right now?We are kicking this off in 11 countries/regions, giving DreamSpark to millions of students in the United States, the United Kingdom,
Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium. If you are not residing in one of the countries listed keep checking back, we will be adding more countries throughout the year.
Does that mean that I might not get in?Possibly, if you are not residing in one of the countries listed, not attending an accredited university or not a member of one of the student organizations that we're connected with. But keep checking back, as we're working on adding more ways to verify your student status all the time.
What do I have to do to get this software? Not much really, just select a product and follow the steps below.
- Sign In with your Windows Live ID. If you don't have one, go get one here. Pretty basic stuff.
- Get verified as a student. The system is linked to schools and organizations around the world that can confirm student status. Simply choose your country and school, enter your info and hit submit.
- Download your products. Now remember these are professional tools. This means they are pretty big files so make sure you have the bandwidth and space to bring them to your machine. We support the latest versions of both Internet Explorer and Firefox for your download.
https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/Default.aspx
I did a little research for some antivirus/antispyware utilities so i thought I'd share my findings.
On one of my computers, I had some problems with occasional spikes on CPU usage. I was not suspecting a virus since I had Live One Care installed and running. However, I became tired of those spikes so I looked at antivirus reviews over the Web. PC World did a review of the latest security suites and Norton Internet Security 2008 got the top score.
I was a long time Norton antivirus user but high CPU usage convinced me to ditch it a few years ago. This reviewer for a local newspaper noticed high CPU usage (20%!!!) after installing Norton Internet Security 2008 so I was convinced not to go that way again. (French but with many screenshots)
After giving up on Norton, I used the free version of Grisoft’s AVG antivirus. While free and low on CPU usage, this version is for non-commercial use only and it places this message in each email you send:
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.20.4/1277 - Release Date: 2/13/2008 8:00 PM
What I was looking from an antivirus was:
- Simple antivirus program (not an entire suite of blotted software)
- Simple way to turn it off (I don’t need it most of the time)
- Very low CPU usage
- Cheap (even better if the license could cover 3 machines)
After searching a little bit, I found that BitDefender AntiVirus would fit the bill so I downloaded an eval version and did a scan of my PC. Guess what? It did found some kind of trouble in a file called smss.exe located in the \system32\drivers directory. Live One Care didn’t detect that one.
After a few days of use, I came to the conclusion that it was meeting my needs. I was about to buy it online when I was puzzled by the pricing. Basically, the site shows you this pricing: 1 year/1 PC for $25. However, if you dig a little bit, you can find a page that shows 1 year/3 PCs for $30. Grrrr!
I then noticed that Staples/Bureau en Gros had a sale for the Internet Security Suite at $40 for 3 PCs for 2 years so I decided to go with the suite and to disable the functions I didn’t need.
While searching online, I noticed that PC World gave top marks to PC Tools’ Spyware Doctor so I decided to investigate. Always, be careful with these magazines showdown. Does the fact that the PC World Website is crammed with Spyware Doctor ads was a factor in the high rating? Can’t say but ;-)
You can buy it online at PC Tools Website for $40 for 1 computer but if you look at the different versions available, you’ll see a link for a “starter” edition available with Google Pack. That version is free but with some disabled features, mostly the real time protection stuff. However, that version has the ability to cleanup problems, the eval version does not.
This is a screenshot of the starter edition. Notice that OnGuard protection is limited and there's one action required...upgrading ;-)
You can enable the real time protection by upgrading for $25. I decided to give the starter edition a try and guess what? It did find one problem that Live One Care didn’t find. Being happy with this version (you can disable it easily and it's very low on CPU), I didn’t want to upgrade to the full version until I saw it at Costco at $20 for a licence covering 3 PCs, so I bought that one. But why does PC Tools charges $40 per PC if you buy it from their Website? And why does it cost $25 if you go thru Google Pack?
One thing I found strange is the fact that you pay much higher prices if you buy direct even thought there are no CDs, no boxes and no manuals involved. Go figure!
Oh, BTW, no more CPU spikes! :-)
Well, looks like the HD format war will end in 2008. I bought the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player a year ago but I only bought about 5 movies knowing that it was foolish to invest in high prices HD movies while that stupid battle was taking place. Looks like I'll have to buy a (gasp!) Sony product at some point in the future.
http://gear.ign.com/articles/852/852769p1.html
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