Archives
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What's happen to Sam ?
I surely missed a post but what's happen to Sam Gentile blog? -
Great job
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Laptop Raid
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Sars Vador
I promise t
his is the last one, but this one is really cool ;-) -
Startup Control Panel
If you are like myself, under the invasion of these pesky programs which start when your PC log on./start on, you can use this useful little app Startup control Panel -
Lord of the Rings musical
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Popup with .Net (The finale)
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Pocket PC keeps tabs on smoke
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Test your SQL skills
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Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Mobile Admin Pack Announced
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Content Management
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Laptop creativity
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Debate on IE
Wow, IE create certainly those days a lot of discussion !
See the friendly battle of arguments between Dan and Dave in one of my previous post.
It's look like the story of David (Mozilla) against Goliath (Explorer). -
GDI+ Graphic converter
Bewise had developped a small tool showing how GDI + can be use to write a graphics converter (in french).
They have also a lot of good articles on .Net (in french) -
Popup and .Net (Update)
Regarding my post on my issue with client side scripting and .Net, Jesse help me a lot on the subject. I still have to test his answer but this is what he suggest:
a better handler in the popup would look like this:
void MySubmitButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Do Some Processing
Page.RegisterStartupScript("__close", String.Format("<script>window.opener.{0}({1},{2}); window.close();</script>", Request["Handler"], Request["ControlID"], someValue));
}
So, what happens is a user clicks a button in your popup (for example, a "Save" button). You do some processing on the data, like saving it to a database. After you have done this, you send a javascript to the browser that fires calls a function on the parent window, and then closes the popup. The function on the parent window is responsible for making sure that the page refreshes. There are a million ways to do this. You could just use DOM with DHTML to update the page automatically, without a refresh. Or, you could use the __doPostBack function to initiate a postback event. Or, you could do something like "window.location = window.location". To simulate a page refresh. Personally, I like using DHTML to dynamically update the page best, but some times that is not an option and firing a custom __doPostBack event is best for those cases.
The only comment I would like to add is that I don't have any button in the popup window. I have no idea if and when the user will close the window, so I will probably include the code on a on load event (Javascript).
I will try this code and let you know if it's working. I'm sure it is, coming from Jesse, it surely is ;-)
Any comments? -
IE
Just my two cents on the frenzy blogs I read about Internet Explorer and his future.
I read that people start to think about using other browsers.
I think some people have a short memory.
Do you remember all the hard time to have a simple web page working for a lot of users just two years ago ?
The time where you have to deal with different browsers, Javascript or some obscure bugs in Netscape or IE 4.
I am personally happy with IE 6. It can be improve, but it does exactly what they say on the tin and it seem to be use by the whole Internet community.
I am not ready to come back again to the time where you have to test every single HTML code to be compliant with Netscape 3 or IE3.
I like having .Net doing the browser test for me, and maybe it's not perfect, but it works even on a Macintosh !
And for those who talk about Mozilla, how many versions should be there before having no more crash on my PC? -
That's why they call it Windows ;-))
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Sars messaging
Mankind have strange way sometime to show it's stupidity !
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CMS
If you are interested you can read the comments I received on my post about CMS, static or dynamic.
The debate now seem to go on the caching options.
I just commented about the difficulty to cache partially some elements of a page.
Maybe I am wrong so feel free to comment. -
Backup and Decompiling
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Code Recovery
Commenting my post about my unfortunate crash, Drew write:
I feel your pain. My HD crashed two weeks ago, on my first day in a two week trip to Japan. Ouch! My most recent backup was spotty. I have some demos and other projects that are not "production," nonetheless I put some significant hours into just before I left. Gone. Stupid me.
I didn't obsfucate any of the assemblies, so I'm going to try some decompilers. The word is they can produce some pretty clean code from .NET assemblies.
Does somebody know more about these tools. Am I able to retrieve something useful from the assembly ? -
Content Management Architecture
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Popup and .Net
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Crash
I didn't blogged too much recently. It was a bad day for me, my hard drive crash, and of course no recent backup.
So I have now all my projects running on my servers, but I ma unable to touch them, I don't have anymore the code behind.
The only thing I can do is updating the HTML pages, if I want to update some code, I would have surely to rewrite a lot of code.
I decided to send and pay for a data recovery. The company's name can't be more explicit, The Computer hospital !
Cross fingers that everything will be back on track, surely I need the code.
I am surely going to investigate the new save functions in Windows 2003 !
I know it's probably stupid but I regret a little bit (just a little) the time of ASP where everything were deployed and not just the half of it. OK, I know, it's not good to have the sources files on a production server, but now I have few orphans installed ! -
A Utility to Convert VS.NET 2003 Project Files
I found this small utility useful when I need to convert backward VS 2003 project to VS 2002 -
Hot'n'Sexy
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Win a MSDN subscription for life
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Blogging with Outlook
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Visual Basic .Net internals
You can learn a lot from this article, regarding VB and optimization. -
Frontpage extensions: change the name !
I'm going to use my blog to launch a request to Microsoft.
Many times I want to deploy somewhere a site, IT people are puzzled by Frontpage server extensions.
"Why do you need this if yoou don't use Frontpage ?" and all the time you wasted some valuable time to explain why you need them.
Because Microsoft is very good on choosing names ;-), can you please rename Frontpage server extensions to something else, I don't know for example Web extensions.
If some MS gurus read this blog can pass the message, thanks -
A spell checker for Internet Explorer
I am working with FreeText Editor for some content management.
It's a really good free development, and it has a nice function, spell checker.
This works with a product name IESpell, free for small use, with two optional languages pack. -
RiverWorld
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Configuring .Net 1.1 and IIS 6.0
Read it on ASP.Net -
Dotnetweblogs in Visual Studio
Another approach to the blog reader dilemna is... Visual studio ;-)
You can easily customize the start page to include any dynamic content you want and why not Dotnetweblogs.
The start page is indeed a combination of XML and XSL, and it's quite easy to create a custom page with tabs, filtered content.
You have also the choice between a Feed tag to dynamically read the content if the server is online, or Data to read a static content.
For the Feed option, the content is cached so if the server is offline, you still have the cache.
What better than that, if you are using Visual Studio.
If you want to give a try read this excellent article on MSDN. -
Free Textbox Editor
I just received a new version of Free Textbox editor.
For those who want an alternative (for free) to the excellent RichText Editor, this one now is a real competitor.
If you are happy enough with the tool, you can also donate ;-)
A free ASP.NET control written in C# implementing MSHTML in Internet Explorer. It can be validated using standard ASP.NET validators and has many options for customization.
The code can be download here, and the source code here -
Be productive
Roy wrote a good long post about productivity.
I say that his post should have the title : Be curious.
A developer must be curious, look everything that could increase his knowledge.
Excerpt from Roy:
Even a Tabbed browser instead of good ol' IE makes it easier to find information while removing lots of clutter from your desktop. AvantBrowser is a good free one.
On this I disagree. This is huge debate, but developers should work with a default browser, without any gizmos or fancy toolbars.
We must consider working in generic mode, and you can't guess what the final user has on their computers, neither their type of computers.
I had the recent experience to code a website fullscreen for 800*600 screen, and the client complain that he couldn't see the full page.
Everything was fine on my side, and I discover that he installed a toolbar under the normal one with google search and other fancy tools. -
Windows 2003 security
I can just say that Windows 2003 Securities are top !
I know I shouldn't use it as my development platform, it's a server OS after all, but believe me it rocks.
I use it on my old Pentium III 500Mhz, and it seems to be faster than winXP.
The point is that absolutly everything is locked, so it's a kind of cat and mouse game between me and Windows to remove some restricted access, like in Internet Explorer.
You really have to go deeper in IE settings if you want something working like a normal browser.
For example, I couldn't make my DHTML menus working properly.
I didn't realise that it was not my code to be wrong, but scripting is disable by default in Windows2003 !
OK I am aware about security risks, but why going so far in the details. Can you really use Javascript to wipe out a client hard drive ?
Anyway, I am not complaining at all, it's quite a real good platform, strong and I hope not see too many patches until few months ;-)
And the simple fact to have .Net and the new IIS 6.0 installed de facto is absolutly perfect.
By the way, I just start to play with IIS 6.0 and MS mad a good job on the settings.
I think I will do something with the config file, because it could be handy to manage the sites remotely. -
Hosting in UK
Thanks to Robert to help for hosting, and Frans (well I don't really understand dutch ;-)).
Victor give me apparently the solution and I will try them.
Hostinguk.net seems to be for me the first UK company to clearly talk about .Net 1.1 on their frontpage, that's good news. -
Windows 2003 : Everything you want to know
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It's Sunday ;-)
So what do you think your win os doing when you are going fishing ? ;-)
Watch this : -
Hosting
This is my Sunday rant against some hosting companies.
I don't know what's going on in US, but here in Europe, it's a disaster.
I absolutly needed a hosting company for a small .Net project.
I can't host this project on my own servers.
I was quite happy until now with my actual hosting company for ASP (no name here, that's not the point) but now it's a nightmare to have them running .Net.
Nothing is working as planned, I don't think they really setup their server properly.
I discovered that they just copy the ASP .Net client folder (1.0 and 1.1!!) in the root of the web application, and that's all. That's what they call .Net ready to use :-(
I don't know who's responsible there, the hosting companies or Microsoft.
But I think Microsoft should encourage their partners to embrace .Net, giving them some training on how to deal with this.
MS have to convince not only the developers, but also all the community.
What are you doing with a .Net webapplication if you cna't host it ?
Nothing is the same between ASP and .Net, and they still don't understand the differences.
And I don't talk about an isolated case, I heard already a lot of cases where developers have to abandoned .Net and go back to ASP for their projects if they don't host their site.
I am sure I can find a lot of good hosting companies in US, but I need to keep this project close to Europe. -
The Xmen list is growing :-)
So now we have our community growing:
Marcie the Datagridgirl
Roy the Regex Boy
Don the SVG Guru aka Barcode man
Scott the Weblogger
Sam the Interop bloke
UPDATE:
Jeff The Speedy bloggerman
Who's next ;-)
Tell me if I missed one of our 'mutants' ! -
Xmen Community
So now we have our community growing:
Marcie the Datagridgirl
Roy the Regex Boy
Don the SVG Guru aka Barcode man
Scott the Weblogger
Sam the Interop bloke
Who's next ;-)
Tell me if I missed one of our 'mutants' ! -
Barcodes
Don glad to see that Barcodes with .Net can be a subject for your presentation ;-)
By the way I am going to start now doing your recommendations with SVG, and I will let you know if my barcode reader recognise the printout -
Microsoft Action Pack
Get the latest Microsoft® software, marketing tools, resources, and information when you subscribe to the new Microsoft Action Pack Subscription for only U.S.$299 (CDN$469). You'll save a bundle on Microsoft software that you can use to run your own business, plus get the marketing tools and resources that you need to grow your knowledge, hone your skills, and help drive up your sales and service revenue. -
Rich text editor for all browsers
Christopher talk about java applets to make a rich text editor for different browsers.
That's a valid point. Why in .Net, we don't have the equivalent of applets ?
I see something for IE, but I would prefer a universal solution.
I imagine all the benefits I can have, not only for an editor, but to run some small .Net windows project through a browser. -
VS.Net Editor flaws
Frans Bouma mention the issues with the HTML editor in VS.Net.
But I can also add that I have also some issue with the code editor.
It happens quite often, that the indentation stop working for no reason, most of the time in loops, and I have to force the indentation. -
Matrix...
Just to say that I received a cool invitation by email to see Matrix next Friday in Dublin as a private projection.... with Microsoft Ireland ;-)
I don't have the email just there but they made a very good job about the graphics on this invitation.
Pretty cool... -
Coding performances
Jesse replied to my post:
You can cache at the control level. If you are using ascx files, the directive works the same as the page caching directive. If you are using custom/composite controls, then you have to do some footwork to cache the results, but the Cache object is both powerful and easy to use, so you can give whatever granularity you want without much difficulty. -
Managing business rules exception
How do you manage business rules exception?
I am curious to see how other developers or architects deal with some case scenario, where like the project I am working on, everything works fine except that now you have a rule specific for one feature.
I try to explain by an example.
I have a class to populate three dropdownlist from a database, following some established rules.
The dropdown are linked together working in cascade.
Everything's ok but for one case, I have to change the way that the first dropdown bind to the database.
So actually, I rely on a flag to switch between the rule and the exception, but I'm really sure that some other aproach should be possible. -
Codesmart 2003
I used before Codesmart before but there the last version is bluffing !
After installation on VS.Net it looks like a VS.Net 3.0 ;-) -
Mass Mailing without timeout issues
I am a big fan of ASPNetemail, because of the fact I can send 10000 emails without any timeout issues.
See there the details and the code.
Interesting too, they have a pretty good Javascript progress bar.
The mails are sent using a Thread, and I am sure it's possible to adapt this code to the native framework emails functions. -
Problem to read Sam Gentile stories
I have difficulties to read Sam Gentile's blog.
I am not sure why, but the right column (with all the links) come all the time over the story in the middle !?!?
Scott maybe a problem with the template -
Design patterns
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Creating barcodes in .Net
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Coding performances
Indexed positions are always going to be faster than string comparisons, not matter what the context of the collection is. Still, even faster would be to use protected members of your class, which ASP.NET will automatically set if you are using usercontrol or web forms. The style code isn't going to make much difference either way, but I would recommend setting the actual property (ie. BackColor instead), since the webcontrols support down level rendering when you use these properties.
If you are so concerned about performance that you need to be wondering about the impact of things like this, you might want to take a look at output caching or just bypass web controls all together and directly output HTML using the Render method instead.
From Jesse Ezell
First thanks for your comment. I will do as you say for the controls properties.
For output caching, that's another story.
the site I build is portal with a lot of things going on on each page.
I tried different options for caching, but it doesn't work very well.
I need a level of granularity for each object, and apparently I can't have on a same page very different cache functions.
Render HTML controls directly yes this is an option which I keep for when I will have time.
My post was also about finding something to help on performance checking.
It's not just tracing, but it's more about what the .Net community think about using a method rather than another. -
Coding optimization and performances
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ASP.Net lifecycle
Nikhil Kothari (member of the ASP.Net Team) posted this. I learned som from the slides and the code. -
Barcodes with .Net
Don write this comment to my post searching for barcodes with .Net
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Barcodes for .Net
I was waiting for a good barcode solution with .Net since few months. Now 123aspx mention this one, and I think it's the one I was waiting for. -
Writing is hard
Roy posted earlier something about the difficulty to write an article. It's so true.
I post here the comment I found very interesting that he received from randy
I would like also to know how you can do your daily job and doing some coding that you probably do for the fun. Where is the time ? ;-)
Get your ideas down on paper first, then let them sit for a period of time before you come back to them (could be a day, could be weeks in some cases). If the ideas don't seem solid, do a little more work and let them sit again. If they still seem valid, proceed by starting an outline to lay out the structure of your article. Depending on your comfort level with writing, it may need to be a detailed outline. If the article involves code though, have the code ready before you move past the outline. As things go in software development, sometimes the end result isn't exactly what you had imagined when you started.
Once you start writing, force yourself to complete it in sections that correlate to the original outline. Then review them as they are finished to ensure that you're comfortable. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Once you have the article completely written, review it several times in the same manner that you reviewed the individual sections. -
Spam
Interesting analysis on spam filtering and tools -
Pocket PC Samsung i700 available
i700 is one of the most amazing Pocket PCs (not only phones) of all times: it features GSM/GPRS, integrated camera, superfast XScale processor and SDIO slot to feature Wi-Fi and other input output cards.
[Source: msmobiles] -
Samsung Nexio S160
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2000 GB Hard Drive !
Those who need a lot of storage space: a 2,000 GB FireWire external hard drive from Googie. Mainly aimed at the video editing and desktop publishing markets, and those with insanely huge MP3 collections. -
The Matrix Phone
Don’t let the apparent bulkiness fool you—this phone is stocked with enough features to make even Neo smile. The screen is a 65,000 TFT LCD that boasts a very decent size (128×160 pixels). A feature not commonly seen on phones, but a must for the Matrix is included—GPS location.
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Recycling floppy drives !
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Interesting blogs
On this page you will find a list of the top 50 interesting blogs ranked by number of new links from blogs in the last 24 hours. -
Kaena
No this is not a new .Net tool, but a movie coming soon.
If like me, you are big fan of Final Fantasy, Kaena looks really cool.
And for one time, made by a french company ;-)
You have the trailer on their site. -
Microsoft Research site
Roy give the link to Microsoft Research.
I spent sometime recently on this website, just curious to know what they work on.
Well it's not really top defence or MediaLab stuff.
Add the fact that some web pages are built by the researchers themselves, sometime looking like dead ghost place.
I posted recently something about Project 7.
Does somebody know more about that ? -
Unsollicited maillist subscription
I would tend to agree with you that the proper way of going about things would've been a one-time email to the old list subscribers pointing them to where they could subscribe to the new list(s).
Whether or not the intent was pure, automatically subscribing people to a new list was, IMO, wrong both from the standpoint of netiquette, as well as from the standpoint of the rules of the Yahoo groups.
I know Scott from other venues, and I'm sure he meant well, but I do think the transition from old lists to new should have been handled differently.
from G. Andrew Duthie -
Unsollicited subscription
REgarding the above post, I was also on the SQL list at asp friends and used the SQL a lot to chat back and forth.
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UK hosting
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.Net hosting in UK
Unless I am wrong, it's not so easy to find a .Net hosting in UK.
In Ireland, not a single one. -
Being Digital
I was writing earlier about the tech situation in Ireland getting not bright at the moment.
And tonight, as a pure coincidence, I just finish reading an article in the Irish Times from a journalist name Karlin Lillington.
First time that I read clearly mentioned on an Irish newspapers the weblog address of a journalist !
Her blog is really interesting, full of personal and professional comments, and it's quite an exciting experience, from a journmalistic point of view, it give some flesh and blood to a paper character.
To come back to my story, she wrote about the new adaptation of the digital media firms in Ireland.
To be sure to respect her article, I will just repeat some parts. -
Look ma an alien PC !
No it's just an Alienware Area-51 PC my son ;-)
Exist in other colors. check it out -
MS confirms WinXP rightclick issue
Microsoft says in the note that when you right click a folder using Windows Explorer, the CPU usage flies up to 100% when the shortcut menu is displayed.
That means any file copy operation "may appear to stop responding", "network connection speed may significantly decrease", and streaming operations, like listening to music, can become distorted. I suppose its disappointing to see that a fix is in fact disabling (native) features but we can only hope this is solved in SP2 or a patch. Read more for the workaround.
View: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 819101
View: Explorer 100% utilization in Windows XP (26 April 2003)
News source: The Inquirer and neowin
It's happen to me so many times that at the end I was thinking this is normal.
Happy if this could be fixe soon. -
Wristphone
The first production run of that new wristwatch cellphone from NTT DoCoMo, the Wristomo I-mode, sold out in 20 minutes when it went on sale in Japan on Wednesday.
[Source: Gizmodo - The Register] -
Cellphone yes but with remote control
NEC's new cellphone doubles as remote control for a television or VCR, it's the perfect thing for those who can't be bothered to get up and find the real remote. The N504iS has a 1.9-inch color LCD screen, a built-in digital camera, and is only available in Japan.
[Source: Gizmodo] -
Bookshelf
Roy mentioned in his last blog a list of books he has on his bookshelf.
I will certainly order som of them missing in my library.
Bu Roy add this one on the VB.Net section:
Visual Basic .Net core language Little Black book
It's an excellent reference book -
New Book
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Yukon
I read carefully the .Net Magazine article on Yukon, thanks Randy.
If this is coming to life like that, most of the new things are for me exciting stuff.
I like:
- XML as native data storage.
- Intellisense in stored procedures with the future VS release.
That's pretty cool but I hope it could be also for T-SQL
- SQL Server Workbench
- VB and C# integration. globally it's a good idea. I am just a bit afraid about debugging.
I wonder how it will going debugging my application and the data layer !
- multiple results set on a single connection
- Varchar(max) if it's true this is a great new ! At last no more 8k limit
- Automatic notifications are a very good idea
- Recursives functions. This is excellent
- Try catch is a good combination to use with Transactions, if as I said below, it's ANSI SQL-3 standard.
- Reporting services as long as it's simple to use as in Access.
I dislike:
- XML format for big databases, how about performances ?
- Integration of .Net in SQL Server will make the product too much platform dependent.
With T-SQL it's not big deal to copy stored procedures, with few changes, to Oracle for example on Unix or Windows. What's about a stored procedure written in C#?
I have no problem to develop muy middle tier in .Net, but I like a kind of independancy with the data layer. A mismatch will not benefit Yukon.
Other features need to be seen. Is Array parameters can be a door to crosstables ?
I didn't read anything new about Cube or OLAP.
In conclusion I admit that I have more 'I like it' than 'I dislike it'.
That's not so bad at all and this new release seems promising. -
Pivot 2
In regard to my last Pivot blog, Scott Prugh replied:
Yes. It is a shame that TSQL doesn't have crosstab. I'm hoping for support like this in Yukon(plus a lot of over cool TSQL enhancements).
I don't know the specifics about what you are trying to solve but.....
Anyways, if you are doing a lot of sophisticated analysis, you may want to look at OLAP services. You can build a cube that allows you to pivot on dimensions in your data.
My answer is that OLAP services are too much complicated for something simple as Pivot. I hope too that Yukon will integrate some nicer features and break the limitations of SQL server 2000. This last one suppose to be much more powerful than Access !
It seems also that for some functions, Visual foxpro is also better than SQL Server.
So Microsoft, please no more parade with the fastest SQL engine in the world, with a lot of stats on how we can deal with zillions of records in 0.2548 microseconds.
No, just now some simple nice new features. -
Pivot
OK now I sorted out my problem with pivoting tables.
Thanks Access, no thanks to SQL Server :-((
It's a pity that you can do a so nice SQL Transform and Pivot function with Access and not be able to do it natively in T-SQL !
Other problem, and I reckon it was my first time on the matter, if you have to deal with stats, and I mean huge stats, it would be nicer to have a bigger number of columns, whatever the tool, Access, SQL or Excel.
By the way, if somebody know a spreadsheet application able to accept 3000 columns and 10000 rows, please let me know. -
24h of US air traffic
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Coool man ;-)
Some joker from New Zealand got busted at an Australian tech trade show for selling scented faceplates for Nokia phones that smell like pot smoke and have an image of marijuana leaf emblazoned on the front. He didn't do anything illegal, just offended the sensibilities of the Premier of New South Wales, and so the faceplates got the boot:
[Robert] Punch quickly switched to pushing the more politically correct chocolate and strawberry scented phone covers, but said the marijuana cover was "a stayer". He also said he had brought his phone covers through customs without attracting any interest from the drug-sniffing dogs on patrol.
What we can't understand is why anyone would want their cellphone to smell like anything.
[Source: Gizmodo] -
Office has its limits
A distinction that Microsoft is making between professional and standard versions of Office 2003 means that many customers will not get all the features they've been expecting, including broad support for web services and an opportunity to unlock their data from proprietary Microsoft file formats. -
Enum
Enum is a new internet address numbering protocol. -
Sham'e'rock Valley
Ireland tops the list of countries which are perceived by European technology executives to have the most potential to be the Silicon Valley capital of Europe, according to a survey.
Well to achieve this believe me, we are at the start of a very long road. -
What kind of thinker are you?
good Quiz on BBC site
I like this question:
Writing a journal or personal log - Does this include weblogs ?
I am a musical thinker !
Musical thinkers: -
Minute of glory
Cool cool cool!
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Software Architecture and Bill Gates
As I pointed out in yesterday's post, I'm very curious about Bill's role contribution to the software development process at Microsoft. While reading some blogs last night, I ran across Rob Howard's recap of an ASP.NET design review meeting with Bill.
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Ride the platform wave: .NET 1.1
Robert, your article is good, but what are you doing to people that everywhere you write something you trigger so much passion ;-))
Read one of the comments below your article:
Why are you so angry?
Side by side execution is very nice when we are talking about assemblies running under one platform.
But when it comes to the platform itself being subject to this SxS, then it's a nightmare:
How do I know that the platform I'm writing my code under has been installed in the target machin(s)?
This means I have to include with every program I package an installation of the framework my program runs under.
Microsoft wants ultimately to base the operating system itself on the .NET platform.
As such, it MUST be upgradeable, i.e. backward-compatible. Otherwise, side-by-side hell is more serious a problem than dll hell, imagine the multiplicity of "frameworks" splintering everywhere.
This is what I understood from what has been said so far about the matter.
If I'm wrong, that does not make me stupid or ignorant, as your angry, and unacceptably rude, language implies.
I think of other people on the TechRepublic or Builder.com sites as peers.
Peers help each other reach a better understanding, not (ab)use them to vent their anger.
I want to hear from you an anlysis why it's a good thing to have SxS EVEN for platforms,
and I want you to relinquish any use of irrelevant remarks about any member's understanding or the lack thereof. -
Pivot nightmare
I am quite busy actually on this b*** school census. It's a questionnaire that schools filled and sent back to us about a lot of things on ICT and their usage.
On the paper it's not so bad, divided in 6 parts from A to G,and about 60 questions per section, sometime more.
After some database coding, I have now the really painful task to export this database to be analyze by SPSS.
Well I don't know anything about this tool, not being myself a statistician, but apparently the version we have (10 I think) don't allow too much table manipulation.
Unfortunatly I absolutluy need to pivot my data, and it's truely slow boring and... painful !
The first idea is that our guy in charge of the stats ask first to have a huge unique table with evrything in it.
No way to do that,as I said to him, SQL or Access have some limitations on the numbers of fields.
Strangely, SPSS seems to be able to accept a very large number of columns(I don't remember exactly how much).
So actually I am going to create 6 tables multiply by 3 types of schools. Well,a bit more than that because I ran out of memory very quickly when I create the Pivot table in Access, and export this to Excel.
So I divided again in small data chunks, something like 4 to 6 parts each section, and I am going to merge that in Excel.
I said before that I ran out of memory and I have actually 768 Mb on my machine ! It's amazing now how much you need to manipuilate some big database.
It's a bit annoying that Access provide only an export to Excel from a pivot table.
I know I can write a Transform in the Querydef, but I would like to see Access give me automatically the SQL statement when I switch from Pivot view to Sql view.
Actually Access give me back my initial select statement :-(
OK now time to go back to finish this before I transform myself as a mad pivoting chair ! -
.Net Framework 1.1
Assemblies originating from the Internet zone—for example, Microsoft Windows® Forms controls embedded in an Internet-based Web page or Windows Forms assemblies hosted on an Internet Web server and loaded either through the Web browser or programmatically using the System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFrom() method—now receive sufficient permission to execute in a semi-trusted manner. Default security policy has been changed so that assemblies assigned by the common language runtime (CLR) to the Internet zone code group now receive the constrained permissions associated with the Internet permission set. In the .NET Framework 1.0 Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2, such applications received the permissions associated with the Nothing permission set and could not execute.
Somebody know some examples on how to embed Windows Forms controls in a Web page ?
I'm wonder if this works like a Java applet.
Update:
I received some nice comments on this subject. I didn't know that it was there on the 1.0. -
PS2
New version of the PS2 in Japan.
This is the official new ad targeted for the teenagers ;-)
This version can read now DVD-RW,so you can read now your own movies. -
Dell XPS
The Dimension XPS is built around Intel's new 875P chipset. Our version came equipped with the fastest Pentium 4 currently available, 1GB of dual-channel, 400-MHz DDR memory, and SATA support courtesy of a Promise FastTrack S150 TX2 controller. Dell also gave us an early treat by enabling a RAID 0 setup using a pair of 120GB Seagate Barracuda SATA V drives. Dell says it'll begin offering SATA RAID options with the Dimension XPS within a month or so of launch.
Specs: Pentium 4 3-GHz (800-MHz FSB); 1GB 400-MHz DDR; 2X 120GB SATA 7,200-rpm (RAID 0); Sound Blaster Audigy 2; 128MB Radeon 9800 Pro; DVD+RW; CD recorder.
Source: Techtv
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Smartbox to conenct your PocketPC to screen,mouse and keyboard
This looks like a very cool device.
Apparently, it enables your Pocket PC to be a complete interaction tool and is being sold in Japan.
Source: PocketPCThoughts -
Cardboard PC
From Japanese company Lupo, the PCBox, a computer case made of cardboard that you can fold and put together yourself. Just be careful to make sure it doesn't overheat
and catch fire.
Read on Gizmodo -
Electronic Paper
"In a step toward electronic newspapers and wearable computer screens, scientists have created an ultra-thin screen that can be bent, twisted and even rolled up and still display crisp text. The material, only as thick as three human hairs, displays black text on a whitish-gray background with a resolution similar to that of a typical laptop computer screen. The screen is so flexible it can be rolled into a cylinder about a half-inch (1 centimeter) wide without losing its image quality."
Source: PocketPCThoughts
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VPC
How about the butterflies you get in your stomach as you watch the OS installation format our virtual hard disk.
It's so freaky, yet it's so beautiful.
Works great. I've now got to install VS 2003 on this VPC.
Read on ScotG -
Access
Amazingly enough, all versions of Access prior to Access 2003 have no "Import XML" option!. Really. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. It seems someone at MSFT just overlooked it , since it is such a legitimate feature. Access 2003 ,on the other hand, handles this import easily, with no problems. It was a breeze to do and saved me the hours of coding a custom transformation and import tool (Not to mention more hours to come when the requirements or XML schema would change and so on..)
Roy Osehrove
Well Roy I think this is totally normal for a product which has is last real new version from 2000. XML at this time was not critical in business. -
.Net Framework 1.1
Assemblies originating from the Internet zone—for example, Microsoft Windows® Forms controls embedded in an Internet-based Web page or Windows Forms assemblies hosted on an Internet Web server and loaded either through the Web browser or programmatically using the System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFrom() method—now receive sufficient permission to execute in a semi-trusted manner. Default security policy has been changed so that assemblies assigned by the common language runtime (CLR) to the Internet zone code group now receive the constrained permissions associated with the Internet permission set. In the .NET Framework 1.0 Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2, such applications received the permissions associated with the Nothing permission set and could not execute.
Somebody know some examples on how to embed Windows Forms controls in a Web page ?
I'm wonder if this works like a Java applet. -
Yukon
I have spoken with folks who have seen 'Yukon' first-hand. This is one kick-ass product, quite simply nothing like it before. There are two features that'll redefine the database market - 'Reporting Services' (demise of Crystal Reports ?) and the embedding of CLR in the database engine (but no mention of using MC++). The latter feature will finally put to rest Oracle boasts on TPC scores.
Posted By S.B. Chatterjee
Good point! I hope this Reporting Services will solve my actual nightmare with pivot tables.
Olap analysis just sucks, too complex to use for a simple pivot function. So I deal actually with Access,and this is not the top. -
New eBook Helps Administrators and Programmers Secure IIS
The book is written in 16 chapters that cover threats to Web server security, IIS information services, server farms, Windows platform architecture, ASP.NET architecture, secure scripting, TCP/IP vulnerabilities, transaction-processing security, safety assurance for program code, ISAPI hardening, authentication, Trojan horses and root kits, certificates and encryption, publishing points, and baseline security proofs.
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Activesync 3.7
If you use a PocketPC, Microsoft just released a new version. -
Yes Bill use a Tablet in meeting ;-))
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.Net links compilation
Browsing for some specific infos, I found this link with a very long list of .Net resources, websites, documents.
At the very bottom , I discover a link to Microsoft Research with some interesting new languages development for .Net.
I don't know if this is still available. It's name Project 7 -
Steve Ballmer interview about Windows 2003
Read this on Information Week -
Multi language Addin for Visual Studio.Net
The Multi-Language Add-In provides extended support for creating global applications with a user interface in multiple languages using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.
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Online books
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Windows authentication
Scoilnet is now on the testing phase, but I have an issue with my testing platform.
I removed anonymous logon on IIS, and ask to use only Windows authentication.
I created a bunch of users (Windows 2000 OS). Everything fine for I could say 98 - 99% of the users.
But some have troubles to pass the logon box. I checked their settings, they all use IE 4+ with basic settings.
The only thing is that some connect by a proxy server. So I wonder if the reason why they can't have access is because of that.
Anybody have a clue ? -
Hyperlinks - Friend of Foe?
By designing these links to be more descriptive, the user will not have to guess: "Browse Used Cars", "Browse Used Trucks and SUV's", "Browse New Cars", "Browse New Trucks and SUV's", "Find a lender", "Find automobiles in your price range", "View price list of all models". These tell the user exactly what she can expect to find in the next page. ...
Dana Coffey
I agree Dana, but I also say that with some long links like that, how do you manage real estate on currently screen size people use?
It seems to be actually an average of 800*600 pixels screen size all around the place.
That's why I use short links, but you are probably right saying that they should be more descriptive.
Another thing also difficult is about underlining links.
It's ok if you don't have too much of them on the page, but otherwise it looks very clutter to have these links underlined all over.
I don't have a clue on the right solution, but for the moment I use a different color for the links, and underline them only on mouse over event. -
ValidateRequest feature
I must say that I completely disagree. Microsoft's job is to make their software as secure as possible right out of the box. They did an incredible job with Windows Server 2003 in this area and .NET 1.1 is part of that effort. I was bitten by this change on 3 websites, but it's pretty simple to add an attribute to the web.config and fix it. I think they did the right thing.
Eric -
Testing if a web page exist
On this site (in french) a good tip to test that a web page exist before calling the page (C#) -
Running ASP.NET 1.1 with IIS 6.0
I found this article useful to setup .Net 1.1 and IIS6 -
MSXML Service Pack 2
New service pack for MSXML 4 and if you want to know more, there you will find the release notes. -
Safari
Thanks to Sijin Joseph to provide this info about Safari. I think it's a very good idea.
Just want to add that it's sad that O'Reilly don't provide a real free trial registration. You must give your credit card number before having access to the 14 day trial period.
I would like to know more about this service, by trying it. I still like real books, but I think this is a good online reference and accessible when you don't have the book in your hand. How many times I have to carry my books all along !
I'll be glad to see if the books pages are a little bit longer onscreen than the preview version seems to show. -
Inside the new ValidateRequest feature
Victor Garcia Aprea has a great detail about the new validation request feature from Microsoft. -
Recharging batteries in a microwave oven
Australia's The Advertiser newspaper has reported that a Scarborough, Perth man was lucky to escape unharmed after he attempted to recharge his mobile phone - in a microwave phone.
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Windows 2003 Server launch in Ireland
I was this afternoon at the launch of Windows 2003 and VS Net 2003 in
My feedback on this:
I like the venue (unfortunately I didn't won an Xbox or a PocketPC !), but I found the format of the presentations a bit messy.
To explain a little bit more, I would say that as usual, Microsoft said we are the best, we made mistakes in the past, but now believe us, nothing can't be better.
Better than what? The next release maybe Windows 2005 or Windows 2010.
I think this kind of approach start for me to be outdated. I am in this business since 1979, and guys, believe me, I was at so many company meetings, where the
speaker said we have the best product, nothing can be better than this.
And few months after, again the same speech.
The focus was mainly on security aspect of Windows 2003, and after that session, if you don't know that Windows 2003 is hyper secure, you must be deaf!
The Microsoft speaker (I don't remember his name) tried to convince everybody that Windows 2003 has really 600 new features. Yes ok, but why spending so much time on a long and quite boring enumeration of all of them, every time back to a kind of comparison table with the previous version?
Something new for me is they have videos about some companies in Ireland, having already setup Windows 2003 Server, and all in the same coice saying that Microsoft did a very good job on all aspect, and of course security.
Quite surprising, when you know the product is suppose to be new with not really a huge base and some missing service packs.
How can they be so sure about windows 2003 without any experience on it? I have usually some doubts on this kind of testimony, -
Cool gadget
We are all carrying most a time a very useful thing, I mean a watch. So a german company Laks has just launched
a watch with a plus, memory !!
From 32 Mb to 128 Mb connected by USB. Cool ;-)