Archives
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ASP.NET Podcast Show #32 – Reflections of 2005 & Using a DataTable in “Atlas”
The real final show for 2005. Wally recaps on some of the highlights,
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Still book writing....
Its 12.30am, family is asleep, its now December 31st, the last day of the year, and I am still slogging away writing a chapter on our "Beginning AJAX Programming in ASP.NET book". I need to get this chapter in soon and my eyes feel like they are bleeding.
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ASP.NET Podcast #31 - I do a talk on WSE3 (and Merry Xmas)
Another podcast out the door! This is a pre-christmas show and may be (but depends on time) the last one for the year.
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Latest ASP.NET Podcasts #29 (Atlas talk) and #30 (Minimizing viewstate #2)
As Wally recently pointed out to me, I have been slack and not listed his last 2 shows on my blog. So to appease Sir Wally, below are the links to the latest shows:
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WSE3 and "Username over Certifficate" turnkey policy
I have been doing a bit of work with Web Service Enhancements V3 and its various turnkey security policies lately. WSE3 offers simplified policy implementation via the use of these "turnkey policies". Basically, WSE2 supported (as best as it could given the incomplete standards currently) for WS-Policy. WSE3 takes a different approach and doesn't really offer WS-Policy support, however offers direct support for these turnkey scenario's which are just implementations of some of the more popular WS-Policy implementations. Kind of like pre-packaged WS-Policy solutions.
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Atlas Presentation for the Sydney User Group
Last Thursday I did an Atlas presentation for the Sydney Deep .Net User Group. It was a packed house and the presentation went extremelly well. I was getting asked heaps of questions, and the mood of the presentation was light and entertaining (or at least I thought it was :-) )
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Setting up a custom user account to run ASP.NET V2.0
Most people are probably aware of the "aspnet_regiis" utility that exists in the "C:\WINDOWS\MICROSOFT.NET\FRAMEWORK\{versionNumber}\aspnet_regiis.exe" location. In ASP.NET V2.0, that utility has been enhanced to include a "-ga" switch (among other things). This switch will grant a specified user or group access to the IIS metabase and other directories used by ASP.NET. It does things that you previously had to do my hand like assigning the user to the IIS_WPG group, and other rights assignments. So you would use it like:
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ASP.NET Podcast Show #28 - Async ASP.NET
The latest podcast, this time, I actually do something....
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ASP.NET Podcast Show #27 - Books, products and stuff
The ASP.NET podcast show #27 is out and about, rather than me reproducing the entire show contents, go check em out at its new home here (http://www.aspnetpodcast.com/).
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Atlas "Wiki Sample Kit" released
The ASP.NET Atlas team have just released an "Atlas Wiki Sample Kit" based on the current Atlas build. This Wiki comes as a .VSI file that installs an "Atlas Wiki" template into your list of templates for Visual Studio 2005 (currently C# only).
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And I thought the VS2005 Launch was going to be big....
So here in Australia, the official VS2005, SQL 2005 etc... launch parties seem like they are going to be quite big. I have registered my attendance and looking forward to going along to these things. For us Microsoft centric techno-phobes, things dont get much bigger than a new release launch party like this one.... or so I thought... until I got this little gem in my inbox:
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ASP.NET Podcast Show #26 - Bob Beauchemin gets interviewed.
As you have probably already guessed, Wally has pumped out another podcast. I simply cannot keep up right now but am hoping to make some time and actually do something on the next podcast or two.
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BlogWorth
Not much posts from me lately, been busy finishing a chapter to an upcoming book on AJAX that I am working on with Wally McClure and Scott Cate.
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ASP.NET Podcast - #24 I think? Atlas here there and everywhere, Wally on books...
Well thats what I get for being slack, Wally has slipped in another podcast just after I posted up about the last one.
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ASP.NET Podcast #23 - Spang, Atlas and life....
How remiss of me. Wally has posted up about the latest podcast and I haven't done the same. You know how it works by now, Wally posts it, then I shortly follow (just in case you missed Wally's post). Well here it is.
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Atlas Declarative markup
Atlas has 3 main ways of specifying functionality and behaviours. Imperative (via std javascript which most people would be familiar with, particularly those with AJAX.NET experience), declaratively, and through server controls. Previous posts have dealt mostly with the imperative method, however this post will transition somewhat into the delcarative.
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ASP.NET Podcast Show #22 - Atlas with Shanku Niyogi and Nikhil Kothari
Well this podcast was one of the highlights of my visit to the United States as part of the ASPInsiders summit. Most of the communications between Shanku, Nikhil and Wally as well, is all virtual so its great to be able to interview Shanku and Nikhil personally, along with "Sir Wally" himself.
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Atlas Page Methods
Want to access a method within your page asynchronously using the Atlas framework? Its easy.
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ASP.NET Podcast - Show #21. Knights of the roundtable.
The ASP.NET Podcast show #21 is on the street. A bunch of ASPInsiders in a roundtable discussion (we'll actually sitting in a somewhat circular group in Wallys room) about some of the new .Net features.
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Atlas, scripting functionality and delegates
Atlas promises a lot of things, and one of the things I wanted to mention was the way it brings a familiar .Net development paradigm to the javascript world. Atlas makes the javascript look very much like its .Net server side counterpart in terms of development framework. What does that mean? Well lets take an example.
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MVP Summit complete, G. Andrew Duthie Singing
Well the MVP Summit is now officially over. The event proved very productive for me and I got to meet up with many other MVP's and Microsoft staff that I had previously not met, in addition to those whom I had previously at the MVP summit last year. The MVP party was pretty cool and was held at the Sci-Fi museum near the Space Needle. Quite a cool place with lots to look at like the guitar museum, Sci-Fi museum, and they even provided a special Karaoke section.
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GotDotNet Workspaces, MVP's and long flights
Arrived in Seattle yesterday afternoon after approximately 20 hours of travel, dropped of my luggage (thank you luggage gods for allowing my luggage to safely arrive with me) at the Hotel (Red Lion on Fifth) and went straight off to MS Campus with Mitch, Darren, and Troy (and met Martin Granell there) to go have a look at the future of GotDotNet workspaces. Like Jonathan Cogley has already mentioned, can't really say any more apart from things look very good indeed. BTW, take the time to check out the new CodeGallery site on GotDotNet.
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More WSE thoughts....
As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been working with WSE3 and in particular a SOAP routing/intermediary system that grabs SOAP compliant messages from the body of an email message, validates the encryption and signature, forwards on after transforming it and a bunmch of other things, all using WSE3.
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ASP.NET Podcast Show #20 - Interview with Kent Tegels
As I mentioned previously, Wally is firing hot. Check out the latest with an interview with (as Wally puts it) "the Oracle of Omaha - Kent Tegels".
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WSE3, MVP Summit, ASPInsiders devlab and the AJAX book
Just finished a harrowing stint doing some WSE3 work with a client that had to get up and running in 5 days. I haven't had time to scratch myself (well, just a little scratch, but not those deep scratches that really satisfy).
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ASP.NET Podcast - Show #19 - Minimizing the ASP.NET ViewState, Marketing Ideas, What not to do for Technical people.
I have been really quiet on the blog scene lately due to work but the ASP.NET Podcast Show is still going strong. Show #19 is out and Wally is back in fine form.
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Cool Atlas Server Control
I have been running through the Atlas hands on labs provided by Microsoft lately and really sinking my teeth into Atlas. In a previous post, I showed some of the declarative syntax that Atlas uses and how I thought it was kinda similar to Indigo. Nikhil Kothari commented that its actually much closer to Avalon and XAML bindings which obviously makes a lot more sense, given they are both technologies targetted at the user interface.
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Atlas declarative blocks
I have been playing with Atlas and running through the hands on labs. In lab 2, you create some 'Atlas declarative blocks' to associate async invocations with controls on your form and with a web service. It looks something like (from one of the labs) :-
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ASP.NET Podcast Show #18 - Wally on writing, My special Interview, HTTPListener tech talk
The ASP.NET Podcast show #18 is now live. Contained in this show:
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ASP.NET Podcast Show #17 - Book Authoring and more whidbey controls
Wally does a great job again with the latest podcast. In particular he talks about what is required to start being an author. The podcast contains:
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ASP.NET Podcast Show #16 - Interview with Miljan Braticevic (ComponentArt)
Wally has scored yet another good interview with Miljan Braticevic of ComponentArt. ComponentArt is working on a new set of components that provide support for Ajax style development. The podcast has Miljan talking about Ajax, their new components, and a Windows Explorer type sample from the ComponentArt web site at http://webui30.componentart.com/
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List of the keyboard shortcuts that are available in Windows XP
I only just found this and have found it quite handy. Apologies if its old news to everyone.
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ASP.NET Podcast - Show #15 - Interview with Michael Schwarz
While I have been off playing at TechEd, Wally has been busy with the podcasts. The latest one is available for download and subscription. Check it out.
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XBox ressurrected
Not long ago, a couple of days before TechEd actually, I posted about my XBox deciding to die for no obvious reason. Well I had 2 Xbox's so I butchered the good parts from one, and grafted them onto the other, and now I have a working Xbox again. My game collection is not totally lost.
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My TechEd HttpListener WebServer Demo
On Friday, the last day of TechEd, the very last session was a session called the GrokTalk session where Dave Glover, myself, Darren Neimke, Greg Low, Phillip Beadle,Bill Chesnut (aka Biztalk Bill), Mitch Denny and Adam Cogan all delivered a short 8-10 minute presentation on one of our favourite .Net V2 features.
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Another XBox dies, yet again.
A little while back, I posted about my only slightly older than 1 year old XBox dying. I was a bit peeved, but I had faith in MS and the XBox, given I make my living from MSFT technology. So I bought a new XBox, and its been good.... until today.
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TechEd on the Gold Coast
Well TechEd is finally about to start here in Australia, on the sunny Gold Coast. There is a huge amount of sessions available this year, many more than last year. I'll be hosting a Web Dev discussion in Cabana Room B on Thursday at 3:45 along with Brad Millington, Philipo Beadle and Sam Spencer. Come along and join in this open forum about all things related to Web dev in ASP.NET.
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ASP.NET Podcast - Show #13: Accessibility
Wally is back in the latest ASP.NET Podcast, show #13 which features :-
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ASP.NET Podcast - Show #12: Interview with Greg Low.
The latest ASP.NET Podcast is out. This one I do the whole introduction, as well as interview and give Wally a bit of a break. Hopefully you like it. As usual we welcome all feedback.
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ASP.NET Podcast - Show #11: Wally's Intro to AJAX
ASP.NET Podcast Show #11 is out.
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SecureString class in .Net V2 (Part 2)
A couple of days ago I blogged about the SecureString class in .Net V2. I mentioned briefly about some of its features and why it exists, then proceeded to measure some of the cost of its functionality in terms of performance. I took some liberties with how I was accessing the SecureString contents to make it simple to measure performance.
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Update to AsyncClientConnector control for ASP.NET V2
A little while ago I released a control that makes it easier to use Asynchronous Client Script callbacks within ASP.NET V2. The original post is here ( http://weblogs.asp.net/pglavich/archive/2005/05/11/406348.aspx ).
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SecureString in .Net V2
I have been playing with the SecureString class in .Net V2 lately (System.Security.SecureString). Its one of those incremental changes to the framework that is nice to have.
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ASP.NET Podcast Show #10 - Interviews with Sahil Malik and Hilary Cotter
Show #10 of the ASP.NET Podcast is now available for your listening pleasure. This week is a double interview special with Sahil Malik and Hilary Cotter. Wally McClure does all the hard work with this show and he does it well.
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Asynchronous Client Script Callbacks Article
An article by on Asynchronous Client Script Callbacks in ASP.NET V2 and a starter on how to use them, with source code included, is available here (http://www.simple-talk.com/2005/08/10/asynchronous-client-script-callbacks/)
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ASP.NET Podcast - show #9 - Nikhil Kothari Interview
The ASP.NET podcast, show number 9 is out. Check it out via Wally's blog or download is from here.
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ASP.NET Podcast - Show #8 - Darren Neimke Interview (Downunder Edition)
The ASP.NET Podcast Show #8 has just hit the streets. (Downunder Edition)
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Working on a book about AJAX
You might have already seen a post from Wally about a new book that Wally, Scott Cate and myself will be working on about AJAX and related technologies. I am really pumped about this and am looking forward to writing about all things AJAX.
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Creating Custom FXCop rules and altering existing ones - Part 2
In my previous post, I talked about creating custom FXCop rules for the latest (1.32) versaion of FXCop and a template/example project library that I have made available to ease that process.
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Creating Custom FXCop rules and altering existing ones - Part 1
Recently I needed to create a set of custom FXCop rules and started playing with the latest version, which is currently 1.32. It quickly became apparent that things were not as easy as taking a quick look at the SDK, implementing an example, modifying to suit and away we go. For a start, most of the documentation still revolves around the old 'Reflection' engine, and the current version uses a new 'Introspection' engine. So that fact, and I imagine a couple of others, means the API has changed from previous versions. Recently, John Robbins wrote a bugslayer article on writing custom FXCop rules for version 1.30.
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Another ASP.NET Podcast - Rob Howard Interview
Another ASP.NET podcast has hit the streets, this time an interview with Rob Howard, by Buddy Lindsey.
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Programming Indigo - Sample Chapters
There are 2 sample chapters from David Pallman's upcoming "Programming Indigo" book available on MSDN that are very interesting and informative.
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TechEd 2005 Australian Agenda Posted
I notice Charles Sterling has posted an agenda for the Australian TechEd this year on his blog. For those interested Aussies, go and have a look. I am listed as doing a presentation with Dave Glover which is the very last one on the last day of the conference. Looks like we'll have to come up with something special to keep people entertained seeing as its at the very end. Maybe we could both shave our heads and..... oh wait, we have already done that. Hmm, gotta think of something else...
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Warning: VPC and Hibernate mode
I was doing a presentation for the Sydney Deep .Net User Group (SDNUG) last thursday on the Asynchronous Client Script callback features in ASP.NET V2.0 and had some interesting problems using Virtual PC.
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Architecture, SOA and other fun things...
Just found an interesting article by Scott Bellware on architecture insights from TechEd 2005. All the big names seem to be present and speaking about different aspects on architecture and how SOA affects this landscape. Chrsitian Weyer, Ingo Rammer, Ted Neward, John deVadoss and a host of others are here. Its apparent that there is still a lot of discussion around the right way to do things in and around the fact that you have the potential to achieve similar outcomes (interface layered architectures, autonomous services, etc...) by the various technologies we have now. Its interesting to note the contention around some topics by some of the industry heavyweights themselves.
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Google Earth
I have been playing with the Google Earth application for the last few days, and I am absolutely blown away. This may be old news to some, but this app is just absolutely fantastic. Consider that you can literally search anywhere in the world, AND zoom in to unbeleivable levels of detail, all for FREE ! 20 years ago, this would have been something we could only dream about (from an average consumer perspective)
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ASP.NET Podcast #4 - Mitch Denny Interview
The ASP.NET Podcast show #4 is up and available for download from here. (direct download link)
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People in the .Net Community - ASP.NET Podcast
Check out the ASP.NET podcast that has been put together. Its early days for this particular podcast but it starts off big with an interview with Scott Guthrie.
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Microsoft Patents XML Serialization
Interesting little tidbit passed through my email today (well actually a day or two ago so I apologise if its already been mentioned). Microsoft has recently been granted a patent for the conversion of objects into XML files. See this tech article regarding the story. The patent itself is here. (Note: The patent listed in the article points to the wrong patent, use the one I have quoted here).
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More musings on Asynchronous client script callbacks.
I have been working more and more with the Asynchronous client script callbacks within ASP.NET 2.0, and will soon be releasing an article on the subject. I know the technology has been around a little while now, but only recently is it gaining mainsteam support and avid use. Google is experimenting with it via Google suggest and Google maps, people are writing about it, its got a funky acronym which is AJAX as well as a library to make it easier to use, and specifically a .Net version of the AJAX library is also available.
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Asynchronous Client Script support Control for ASP.NET V2.0
I have created and made available a control aimed at ASP.NET V2.0 (developed with Beta2) that simplifies the use of Asycnronous client script callbacks in ASP.NET V2.0. Currently, setting up async client scripting in ASP.NET V2.0 requires some fiddly server side code to get a callback event reference, wrap it in a function script, and register it.
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WebPartPageModeSelector Control Update
For anyone who has downloaded an ASP.NET 2.0 control I developed called the 'WebPartPageModeSelector' (see my previous post), I have posted an important update that improves its stability and performance.
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More CodeCampOz stuff
I particularly enjoyed the presentations from Joel Pobar and Dominic Cooney yesterday. Joel talked about all the "chunky bits" in the CLR and Dominic talked about managed performance. Dominic mentioned some interesting techniques to achieve some better managed memory performance (and therefore better overall performance). I found a couple of useful techniques he mentioned and shown some below.
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CodeCampOz is underway!
I am currently sitting in the presentation room here at CodeCampOz in Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia. This is the first code camp in Australia and it has enjoyed a fantastic turnout. Approx 300 people, and we have already seen some great speakers such as Mitch Denny on the Base class library, Greg Low on SQL Server, and Adam Cogan showing some ASP.NET features such as Databinding, Caching and numerous other enhancements.
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Steps in starting up with Subversion - moving away from Sourcesafe
As you may be aware, in my last post, I talked briefly about Subversion and Continuous Integration via CruiseControl.NET. This post is simply to list the steps I used in getting up to speed with Subversion and CruiseControl. It took a little time to research, read and get up to speed with all the new mechanisms and terms, so I thought I'd present it here, in one central location, for those who are thinking of doing the same.
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Steps in starting up with Subversion - moving away from Sourcesafe
As you may be aware, in my last post, I talked briefly about Subversion and Continuous Integration via CruiseControl.NET. This post is simply to list the steps I used in getting up to speed with Subversion and CruiseControl. It took a little time to research, read and get up to speed with all the new mechanisms and terms, so I thought I'd present it here, in one central location, for those who are thinking of doing the same.
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Source control and Continuous Integration
I have finally got around to installing SubVersion source control system and also installing CruiseControl.NET for continuous integration. I definitely like SubVersion but being a long time VSS user, it does take a little time to get the hang of. What I will say is that without the graphical tools that are TortoiseSVN (for windows explorer/shell integration) and AnkhSVN (VS.NET integration), then I would have ditched it very early. I am a lazy beast, and without the GUI add-ons, I don't think I would have had the time and patience to learn all the commands that go with administering it.
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WebParts and ASP.NET 2.0 Beta2
As some of you already know, Microsoft shipped a control called the WebPartPageMenu in Beta1 that allowed you to select the design mode of WebParts on a web part enabled page (eg. Edit mode, Design Mode, Catalog mode etc.). This control has been dropped for Beta2 and although it was a limited control, I still found it quite useful, especially when experimenting with WeParts.
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Converting Videos (MP4) - nothing so far...
Non .Net content to follow. Normal proramming will resume after this post.
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Converting Videos (MP4) from my XDA Iis to other formats
Totally non .Net related information (rant) to follow....
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ANTS Profiler article
An article I wrote that describes the ANTS Profiler tool for profiling .Net applications (desktop, web and services) as well as COM+ apps has just been published here.
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ASP.NET V1.1 SP1 - Potential performance problems
Dont know if this is old news or not, but got this link in my email from kbAlertz today (I think it was today - I have lots of unread mail). To quote:
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MaintainScrollPositionOnPostback Property - I love it.
With all the new features in .Net V2, its easy to miss things. You get busy looking at some of the more 'meaty' aspects, that you miss the small things. I have been enjoying and playing with lots of new ASP.Net V2 features such as the security controls, web parts. client callbacks etc.. that I never took the time to appreciate the ease and simplicity of a property in the System.Web.UI.Page object called 'MaintainScrollPositionOnPostback'. Sure, there is probably many of you out there who have already enjoyed the ease and simplicity of this boolean property, but its things like this that I really enjoy seeing.
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WSE2 and the weird "WSE453" Error
In our current project, we use web services extensively, and have built up all our external web service system communication using WSE2 and WS-Policy. Recently, on one individuals machine, they experienced the following error:
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ASP.NET Performance Part 2 - Some testing Strategy
As you may be aware, I am very involved in performance testing as of late with an application me and my team have been working on for some time. In a previous post, I mentioned an isolated form of performance testing or profiling, using the freely available CLR Profiler.
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ASP.NET Performance
I have been absolutely swamped lately with work, and in particular determining and rectifying performance issues with a major ASP.NEt application we are developing. Measuring, tuning, rectifying and reporting are all part of my current tasks. We are using only out of the box tools to do so, in particular, the CLR Profiler for memory profiling and Microsofts Application Centre Test for generating load. During this task, I have learned a couple of things. What is one of the most useful features of the .Net framework, but also one potentially one of the most dangerous?
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Web Service / WSE Resources
Just saw a post from Brian Groth regarding a new tool from MS researh called TulaFale, dealing with securing of web services. While I haven't yet tried the tool (but I do intend to), the page listed above for downloading the TulaFale tool also contains an absolute wealth of links to resources dealing with web services and security related aspects. I recommend visiting the page if for nothing else other than the resources listed on the page.
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Masterpage Feedback
You may have already learned of this, but the ASP.NET team would like your feedback on what Materpage templates you would like to see. Brian Goldfarb is trying to spec this out ASAP so if you have an opinion and want it heard please post to his blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/bgold/archive/2005/01/07/348656.aspx
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New Site, "WS-Test", bits and pieces...
I have finally put up a personal site devoted to technical content, all of which is pretty much ASP.NET and Web Service related. It contains links to technical articles that I have written, tools and code samples that I have released into the community (for such things as DPAPI, Web Service compression among others... full source code incl, please visit my Downloads section for full details) and an area that is titled "WS-Test". No, its not yet another standard in the WS-* family, its simply an area that provides simple web services for accessing, verification of operation and educational purposes when coming to terms with web services, SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and WSE2 (Web Service Enhancements).
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My New O2 XDA IIs
As a nice start to the new year, I have got myself a shiny new O2 XDA IIs PDA device. Its a real change from my previous device, a Sony-Ericsson P800 which was (and still is) a pretty cool and functional device. It has since been superseded by the Sony-Ericsson P910i which was my other choice in upgrades, apart from the O2. I originally purchased a P800 device because of its excellent form factor combined with functionality. Lots of connectivity all in a convenient phone sized device. However, I found that I used the PDA functionality a lot, and had a number of eBooks which I would read, and found the small size somewhat hard to deal with. The O2's larger screen (and much clearer IMO, even than the P910i) is much easier to read, especially for the eBooks and my most favourite viewer/eBook reader Repligo.