Archives

Archives / 2006 / August
  • Zune MP3 player - DRM'ed or not?

    Here's a question for a debate. Do you think Microsoft's upcoming audio player, dubbed Zune, will play only DRM compatible content?
     
    If that is the case, I won't be touching it with a barge-pole; same reason I haven't got myself an iPod.

    If I have legal MP3 files, ripped them from CD's I own or bought them legally I feel I should be able to play this on however many devices I want, as long as I own them. That means my MP3 player, my phone, server, desktop, laptop, you name it - without restrictions.

    If Microsoft wants to have an edge over the IPod, they need to make sure it works without DRM mangled content. If not, it will flop. Big time.

    What do you guys think? 

  • ViewState, CheckBox, ControlState...errr...

    J. Michael Palermo writes about the CheckBox in ASP.NET maintaining its state regardless of the EnableViewState attribute to False in ASP.NET 2.0.

    Hang on - isn't that the same in ASP.NET 1.0 and 1.1? Oh yes.

    All web controls that implement the IPostBackDataHandler maintain their basic 'value-state' (for lack of a better description) using the HTTP POST form collection. Irrespective of setting the EnableViewState property for the web control to False.

    Nothing has changed in ASP.NET 2.0 as far as that is concerned. The CheckBox control along with TextBox and other controls that implement the IPostBackDataHandler interface, still maintain their basic value-state using their respective HTTP POST values. ControlState has nothing to do with this.

    ControlState is a way to allow more fine-grained control over individual portions or behavioural elements of a web control, which under the bonnet actually still uses the ViewState statebag. Fritz Onion's article outlines this nicely and in more detail.