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April 2006 - Posts

The Mosaic: Ajax fun

The Broth is a “Global Mosaic”, a massively multiplayer Web 2.0 application based on Ajax, Php and Mysql.

The Global Mosaic is made of 1,000 colorful tiles that are shared by everyone. When someone moves a tile, others can instantly see it move on their screens

 

Posted: Apr 29 2006, 07:34 PM by help.net | with no comments
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Make session last longer than 20 minutes

Gevorg has posted a good tip on CodeProject about sessions expiration.

Yes of course you can change the settings in IIS if you want to increase the length of a session, but his idea is quite good, a self refresh page to keep the session going on. You close the window and the session close too.

 

Posted: Apr 29 2006, 01:15 PM by help.net | with 1 comment(s)
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Google SketchUp

Another free tool from Google. They bought SketchUp some time ago and now you can test your 3D modelling skills with this free version. You can even mix your models with Google Earth!

 

Posted: Apr 28 2006, 01:34 PM by help.net | with no comments
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A free control to upload and resize images
Uptuwm is free ASP.Net control. Current version: 1.0

Features:
  • upload images, jpg only
  • resize, create thumbnail images
  • print watermark

Download control

 

Posted: Apr 28 2006, 11:04 AM by help.net | with 1 comment(s)
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Activesync 4.2 Beta

Microsoft has announced a new version of Activesync 4.2. Not sure yet about the new stuff but you can check by yourself here

 

Posted: Apr 27 2006, 06:09 PM by help.net | with 1 comment(s)
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How to destroy a user group...

Warning, this is my opinion and of course nobody has to be agree.

<rant>

Two years ago when I founded this new Irish community, INDA, I did it with the unique objective to help my fellow .Net developers in Ireland. Having a space where in a true sense of community, we can share ideas, resources, etc...

Recently I had to step down from that and for me now it's back to square one, where I started two years ago when I was ranting about the lack of .Net community in this country.

So why really I moved away?. Well if I was a diplomat, maybe I could use some twisted ways to say I was tired or I wanted to let other to do the stuff. But I am not a diplomat, and when things goes wrong I like to express myself, even if I have to lose some friends on the way.

This whole idea of community is flawed (I am talking for what I know in Ireland, no idea if this is the same in other countries!).

A lot of people have used INDA as a platform to launch their own career and they are doing too much noise around that. I helped some of them and now they are destroying what I was trying to build in two years time.

It's a sad situation but behind the doors a lot of nasty things happens which I regret because they are unfair and include a deep lack of respect for me but also for the few I know who are really committed to this user group.

Next week the INDC will be a failure. Asking at the last minute to people who don't really care about this conference to join in is wrong. Only people who want to help and promote the event long time before it happens should be part of the gig. Sadly I heard too much double language even from some people I trust.

Yes I am proud to say I was the one to have this idea of an Irish PDC and I started to talk about it last year. Nobody really took that seriously at the time. Now suddenly INDC is now a matter of urgency for both parties, Microsoft and the communities. It means that this is prepared in the total confusion without any thoughts on the ideas behind, just to be sure that it's done.

No matter who will be there it has to be done, event if I believe at the end registrations will be free to fill the huge conference room.

This is not the Ireland National Developers Conference I was dreaming about. At the end of the day because it's so badly done, I know for a fact that no more than 60 to 70 people will have pay 50 euros for something that doesn't worth a penny.

The only positive note is the quality of one or two speakers including Scott Guthrie of course. The objective was also to open the sessions to new speakers with fresh subjects and a broader audience. Now you will find again the same bunch of speakers talking about (almost) the same subjects, and with only one thing in mind, to satisfy their ego.

Sorry you won't see me there because no way I will associate with this non event.

Back to square one...

</rant>

Posted: Apr 27 2006, 12:18 PM by help.net | with 2 comment(s)
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Anthem.Net another good Ajax Library

Anthem.NET is a free, cross-browser AJAX toolkit for the ASP.NET development environment that works with both ASP.NET 1.1 and 2.0.

Check here on SourceForge

 

Posted: Apr 26 2006, 02:46 PM by help.net | with 1 comment(s)
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Debugging Javascript in Visual Studio .NET

Just a reminder to myself but this can be useful if you are dealing a lot with Ajax stuff!

- Open in Internet Explorer Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced tab.
- Deselect the following (make the checkbox unchecked):

[ ] Disable Script Debugging

- Restart IE.
Now just add the following line of code to your JavaScript - it'll work as a breakpoint:

debugger;

Visit your page with the javascript using your fresh instance of IE, a window should prompt you to select a debugging environment. Select the MSVS.NET instance you have opened (or you could select 'New instance of Microsoft Development Environment'), and click 'Yes'.

Another window will prompt you to 'Choose the program types that you want to debug:' - make sure 'Script' is the only option selected, and click 'Ok'

Enjoy!

Posted: Apr 26 2006, 02:38 PM by help.net | with 6 comment(s)
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Datagrid, Ajax-style

Before I start to jump on .Net 2.0 and Atlas, I still have to maintain some projects in .Net 1.1, so I am looking at some ways of mixing Datagrids and Ajax for a better user experience.

Well I found some cool free code already written by Jason Diamond. Do you know something else?

Jason's post:
http://jason.diamond.name/weblog/2005/05/25/datagrid-ajax-style

Jason's example:
http://staff.develop.com/jdiamond/CoolGridDemo.aspx

Jason's code:
http://staff.develop.com/jdiamond/coolgrid.zip

 

Posted: Apr 26 2006, 02:24 PM by help.net | with no comments
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Resharper 2.0 Beta

A new version of Resharper an add-in for Visual Studio 2005 and 2003 will be launched due in May.

You can try already the Beta 2 of this excellent refactoring tool by JetBrains.

 

Posted: Apr 25 2006, 11:43 AM by help.net | with no comments
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