MS Web Platform - SPARK

This week tech bite is MS Web Platform - SPARK , develop Web application / Web site free of cost .

What it will do:
Microsoft Web platform gives you framework, web server, database and tools you need to build and run websites and applications on Windows. All these tools are free license for small companies and Individual developers.

How it Works:

You can download a free tool from Microsoft (Web Platform Installer) , which includes IIS, SQL Server Express, .net framework and Visual Web developer, Expression. It allows Microsoft to compete with open source.

http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx

When it is coming: It was released on Sep 24th , 2009.

What are the Features :

Easy to get and free to use

All the power of dot net free of cost. Database, MVC and many other useful tools handy for web developers.

Default templates available for blogs, forums and for generic website formats.

Google Wave

This week tech bite is Google Wave , Experimental email and instant messaging from Google Australia.

What it will do:
Wave can start a message like an e-mail, and then see it become a chat or IM conversation, and then go into collaboratively editing a document . All this is possible through one medium called Google Wave. This is more of communicating and collaborating at the same time. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

How it Works:
In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it . They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. Operational Transformation (OT) is the primary algorithm that manages Google Wave. Google Wave API is open source, you can add new features by coding the API.

When it is coming: It is available in sandbox for limited users now.

What are the Features :
It includes a rich text editor and other functions like desktop drag-and-drop .

Google Wave can also be considered a platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services.

The Google Wave protocol is the underlying format for storing and the means of sharing waves, and includes the "live" concurrency control, which allows edits to be reflected instantly across users and services .

MS Office Online

This week tech bite is MS Office Web Apps Live, Store documents online and modify them in your browser.

What it will do:
It is alternative option for Google Documents. You can edit MS office products like Excel, PowerPoint, Word etc., in browser. You won't have MS Office applications like Access and Outlook though.

How it Works:
You need NOT have MS office installed in your Desktop or Laptop and no need to worry about version of MS Office. You can store documents in Windows Sky Drive (Storage space of 25 GB is free) and you can edit them over browser.

When it is coming:
It is coming in First half of 2010. Beta version is available for Windows Sky Drive users.

What are the Features :

The Office Web Apps are being certified to work in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari

Sharing and collaboration made possible though this, editing documents over online for free.

MS office web version provides close look and feel of MS office desktop based version.

Windows Home Server

This week tech bite is Windows Home Server , connects more than one PC up to 10 within home on small businesses.

What it will do:
It will connect all the PC's in your home at one place and can be accessed from anywhere including internet.

How it Works:
All the PC's in your home or in your small business will be connected to Home Server. You can access the content from any PC connected to this network and most importantly you can connect from internet to your Home Server. All the PC's connected to the Home server can utilize 3 services like backup restoration, files sharing , remote access.

When it is Coming:
Its available i market for around $400 .




What are the Features :

Backup your data
Access anywhere
Expandable storage space and share.
Connect all your electronic media at one place.

Windows Phone

This week tech bite is Windows Phone , mobile phone OS from Microsoft to fight with the current smart phones in the market like iPhone, BlackBerry.

What it will do:
Windows Mobile 6.5 is an Operating system for mobile phone. This version has more upgraded OS features.

How it Works:
Phones running Windows Mobile 6.5 will include phones running on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless .

When it is Coming:
Windows mobile 6.5 is coming on Oct 6, 2009.



What are the Features :
It includes features such as improved Web browsing and conversation threaded e-mail, as well as a new Windows Marketplace app store . Netflix (preview and manage), Face book, and a variety of games are also available.
Find My Phone feature helps in tracing the lost phone.

Mobile OS and Apps

This week tech bite is Mobile OS . Market Share of Operating system for mobile phones .

What it will do:
Mobile Operating system controls Handheld devices like mobile phones or smart phones. This is just like windows or Linux for your PC.

How it Works:
Applications are developed on these mobile OS for running things like GPS, Wireless internet access and other user friendly applications.

Who are the Major Players:
In the market we have six major players like iPhone, Palm, RIM, Android, Symbian, and Windows. Out of this six players, 49% of Mobile OS applications developed are targeted on iPhone.

RIM - Research In Motion is OS for black berry. Android is from Google, Windows OS is from Microsoft. Symbian OS is used in Nokia, LG, Motorola, Samsung and Sony.

The below pie chart shows the market share of applications developed on Mobile OS Platform. YES, Apple's iPhone is dominant in the market.




Apart from Search Engine , PC OS business, smart devices , Mobile OS is the latest business arena for corporate war between Microsoft, Google and Apple.

Caffeine - Google New Search Engine

This week tech bite is Caffeine , new search engine from Google.

What it will do:

This is new version of Google search engine providing better search results faster. That means search results will be more accurate. Fake sites will be de-indexed by new version.

How it Works:

The new infrastructure sits "under the hood" of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences in speed and accuracy. There are so many technical changes underlying this new version, results will be indexed in real-time as the search engines of Twitter and Face book.

When it is Coming: Developer’s preview available at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/ (When I tried it was unavailable). Full blown version will come soon.

Where is this useful: Envelope on size indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.

Hyper V

This week tech bite is Hyper V. Previously codenamed Viridian , is a Virtual machine technology for Windows Server 2008.

What it will do:
Enables one or more operating systems to run simultaneously on the same physical system .

How it Works:
A core component of Hyper-V, Windows hypervisor is a thin layer of software between the hardware and the OS that allows multiple operating systems to run, unmodified, on a host computer at the same time. It provides simple partitioning functionality and is responsible for maintaining strong isolation between partitions.

When it is Coming: Available in market since Oct 2008 .

Where is this useful:
Several servers can run side by side on a single machine. Helps in server consolidation.
Development and testing environments can be consolidated to one.
Virtualization can be done from Desktop to Datacenter level.
Legacy application re-hosting. Legacy operating systems and applications can run on new hardware along with more recent operating systems and applications.

This week tech bite is Windows Azure Platform. Azure is a Cloud service platform hosted in Microsoft Data Centers.

What it will do:

You need not purchase Software, Hardware. No need to worry about maintenance. You can host applications on Azure platform just the way you are using your Enterprise LAN center now. It can also be used as development environment for Application development. Connectivity, storage, uptime and data availability are promised at 99.95% in Enterprise Service Level Agreement.

How it Works:

Pricing will be based on usage , storage, transaction etc., Give a look at the pricing model comparison between three major Cloud providers, namely Microsoft Azure, Amazon, Google App. Engine.



When it is Coming: Second half of 2009, hopefully Nov 2009.

Where is this useful:
Reduces Tedious and expensive Infrastructure planning.
Additional computing & services capacity is available easily.
The services platform manages critical OS updates and management tasks.
Existing applications in other infrastructure can also be moved and maintained easily.
Happy Learning !!!

(Courtesy Infosys Blogs & Microsoft Azure websites)

This week tech bite is Google Alert.

What it will do:
Google Alerts are emails automatically sent to you when there are new Google results for your search terms.

How it Works:
Google Alerts currently offers 6 variations of alerts - 'News', 'Web', 'Blogs', 'Comprehensive', 'Video' and 'Groups'. We can define the frequency of the alert like 'once a day', 'once a week', 'as it happens' .
You can create up to 1000 alerts.

Where is this useful:
monitoring a developing news story
keeping current on a competitor or industry
watching for new videos that match a specific topic
keeping yourself updated about the happenings on your interested topics

This week tech bite is Google Chrome OS. Till now Microsoft and Apple are the only major players in Desktop / Laptop OS, Google wants to enter this turf.

What it will do:
It will be open source like Linux . While Microsoft is trying to attack on 65% Market Capitalization of Google search with Bing, Google is trying to attack on 90% OS business domination of Microsoft with Chrome OS.

How it Works:
Google has already developed Open Source OS called Android for Mobile Phones. Chrome OS will be lightweight and just loads the browser, your OS will be present in Web(Cloud) but not on your desktop or Laptop. Browser will connect to the OS on the web and performs all OS activities. Google Claims, Chrome Operating System will be faster, smoother and lightweight.

When it is Coming:
Note books / PC's running on Chrome OS will be available by 2nd half of 2010.

Where is this useful:
Cheaper, no cost involved in buying OS for Hardware Manufacturer. They save $50 which they generally pay to Windows for its OS.
Just like all other Google applications it will be faster.
Lightweight OS, Desktop need not carry any heavy OS like Vista or Windows 7.

Microsoft Surface

Take a look at the cool demo's on Microsoft Surface home page.

http://www.Microsoft.com/surface/


What it will do:
The Surface is a coffee-table-sized touch computer that can respond to natural hand gestures and real-world objects. It utilizes a vision system with five cameras to sense input. The 30-inch diagonal display allows a number of users to see the screen while surrounding the table, enabling highly collaborative experiences. The users can interact with the content by touch, "grabbing" digital information with their hands. Surface can recognize many points of contact simultaneously, not just one finger as with a typical touch screen .

How it Works:
Hardware: For Input it uses Camera-based vision system with LED infrared direct illumination. 2 GB Ram, 250 GB Hard Disk, Intel 2.13 GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

Software: Microsoft surface applications can be written in Dot net WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation).

When it is arriving:It is already available in the market for purchase. Costing around $12-15 K.

Where is this useful:
It is useful in enhancing the customer experience in industries like Retail, Automotive, HealthCare, Financial Service etc.,

Apart from this you can try implementing this wherever you you require Direct Interaction, Multi touch, Multi User experience, Object Recognition.

MVC in .NET

Some useful links to MVC development.
www.asp.net/mvc
www.stackoverflow.com
www.tinyurl.com/cjfbs5 (codeplex-asp.net v1.0 source )
blogs.tallan.com


MVC is out with dotnet3.5 sp1
Model - data objects
View - output
Controller - performs action

Ajax, silverlight, Flash - shifts the complexity of application development.

Models
Entity Famework
LINQ to SQL
NHibernate
.nettiers (codesmith)
LLBLGen
subsonic

Views
Depends on models, not on controller

Controller
Depends on models and calls views
Data can be returned in HTML, RSS, JSON, Javascript, text, etc.,

Routing is new feature in .net 3.5 for MVC to hide the extension in website url. It includes Controller, action and id in the url.

extension methods : new in 3.5
We can use ent library validations with MVC, logging and exception handling as well

ActionFilters:
Decorators for actions / controllers
These handle error handling, authentication and authorization.

Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

Silver light is subset of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
Silver light separates UI and Business logic.
It can be hosted on desktop or webbrowser or mobile (soon).
It has visual aspects like 2d, 3d, graphics, animation, audio and video.
WPF is preferred than windows forms from VS 2008, .net 3.5 and expression blend.
WPF can run in web as well. Soon it might replace asp.net.
GDI invented in 1984. No MDI (multiple windows), No build-in datagrid.
Bubbling, tunneling and Direct are the event handlers.
Silverlight has its own CLR, it can not directly talk to .net. ex: System.data is not available, something like silverlight.data is availble.
XAML desing and http protocol.
Silverlight exentsion will install all the controls for drag and drop
All data calls in Silver light are asynchronous.
Page.XAML and page.XAML.CS are the file extensions you see.
This session i have gone through is more of code session than theory and PPT.
Visual studio project can be opened in Microsoft Expression Blend. This is editor for Silverlight.
visual studio 2008 and silverlight 3.
Vector brings lot of difference in Silverlight. Even if you zoom the image you will not loose the clarity like pixel fromat.

SQL Server 2008 New Features

FILESTREAM:
Feature of SQL Server 2008, which allows storage and efficient access to BLOB data using a combination of SQL Server 2008 and the NTFS file system.
Filestream updates are part of transactions insert, update etc.,
Filestream need not be backed up along with the database. You can do it either way.
There is separate log for Filestream transactions.
Dotnet 3.5 sp1 required for for system.data.sqltypes.sqlfilestream class
Database mirroring is not possible with filestream.

Sparse column:
New way to store NULL columns or data columns
When you declare column as SPARSE it will not take up disk space for NULL column.
space is reduced for NULL columns but cost is overhead for retrieving non-NULL values.
Some columns like ntext, image etc., can not be SPARSE columns
when the column is not null SPARSE takes more space, typically 4 bytes per column.
SQL Server management can suggest you with the space it takes with each datatype column. It gives the % of space with each data type.
On million rows, if you used it for right column it might save at least 10 MB.


Filtered Index:
Which row to include in the index and which row to drop out of indexing.
You can define the rows you want to index in where clause
Must be non clustered index
Created filtered statistics for filtered indexes.

Several new data types introduced in 2008
Till now datetime is one datatype.
now we have 4, date, time, datime2 and datimeoffset
Each date variable takes 3 bytes.
Time data type stored only time on 24 hour clock
fraction of seconds is 7, instead of 3 earlier.

VSTS 2008 - Automation of Dotnet Code Build

VSTS is set of tools. It contains the below list of tools
Project management tool
Reporting Tool
Design Tool
Build Automation Tool
Testing Tool
Database Tool
Visio for UML diagrams

It integrates Sql Server Reporting Service.
It has Architecture edition, DEVelopment Edition, Database edition, Testing editions.
It has sharepoint inside it. (WSS not MOSS)
Email alert system for check in, checkout kind of events. It can alert on any update activity.
5 users per license around 10 Grands. There is limitation on clients, no limit on web access. It has both client and web access tool.
Team Foundation Server has an application through which you can check on IPhone, you can monitor build results.
Security features like who can build the code etc., are present.
You can schedule build every night or on the event of every checkin.

Deep dive in to MSBuild now:
MSBuild is microsoft build engine
Independent tool for .net application.
TFS service identity is used to run the build project
Core target file contains build errors and success logs.
You can overwrite the before and after targets in the xml of build, not the core target.
We can Debug and test build project
The build process is windows service (VSTF build service), windows build agent should be enabled.
You can use command line tools to get builds on to different locations.
we can import values of properties at shad timm's blog
Create, remove etc., web directories directly.
We can ftp the website build directly to webserver remote.

MS test is test tool like NUnit.
We can add database project into build.
Team build doesnt deploy db project
Visio is integrated with VSTS.

Overall Simple things made simple, complex things made possible with this.

My experience with Code Camp

Today for the I attended Microsoft Code Camp at Connecticut chapter. Its all about upcoming things in Microsoft technology. I got some cool gifts too :-)

There were nearly 30 speakers. One thing is common to all of them, passion for technology. They demonstrated their examples on the new technologies and versions that are rolling out in 2010.

We have chose between series or parallel topics and attend one, which interests you.
I attended VSTS, WPF & Silver Light, SQL Server 2008 New Features and ASP.NET with MVC.

Some of them were good, some were extra ordinary. All in all its new experience and new path. Checkout your local Microsoft chapter for these kind of events, they are really cool.

May be after my school, this is the first time I sat patiently in class room for 8 continuous hours. I will be publishing each class content as one article in the same blog. Enjoy Reading !!!

New technology is like teenage girl, its always exciting till it becomes old.

MORRO

Microsoft Free Antivirus software for PC's code named MORRO (code-named after Morro de Sao Paolo beach in Brazil).

How it Works:
Morro will work by routing all of a users Internet traffic to a Microsoft datacenter, where the Morro application will process the traffic and identify and block malware in real-time, by examining all of the rerouted traffic.

What it will do:
Microsoft has said it will provide protection from several types of malicious software including viruses, spy ware, rootkits and Trojans.

When it is arriving:
In the second half of the June. Microsoft will be discontinuing its Windows Live OneCare.

Why I need this:
When used in conjunction with the ongoing security and privacy enhancements of Windows and Internet Explorer, this new solution will offer consumers a robust, no-cost security solution to help protect against the majority of online threats.

Google Wave - Going to create waves !!!

Today I was introduced to something extraordinary collaborative technology called Google Wave. It redefines the collaboration and live conversations existing today.

Google wave merges Mail and Chat together with so many cool features. It is a client with Mail box kind of look and feel. Here are some cool features of it...

First of all Its open source.
Powerful things that can be done in browser with different instances are together as one product now.
This is from the developers of Google maps.
Its developed in Sydney, Australia.
It is in its early form now.
Google wave will be launched by this year end.
This is a product, platform and protocol. Three P's.
Wiki, emails, chat, social networking sites, new feed of sites, blogging sites everything at one place.
Instant messaging and mail together. We can see the every character being typed by the other party as he is typing. Need now wait for him to hit enter.
We have play back feature where , instant messages between two parties is played back as the conversation happened.
Wave client is embed in Orkut and blog spot.
It works on Mobile also.
You can use it for collaborating documents also.
Documentation source control is also available in online edit way.
N number of people can edit the same document online, while seeing the each character changed by other person as they are doing.
Its completely developed with google web tool kit for html 5.
You can inter-link wave conversations within another wave.
Automatic spell check in Wave.
Google search can be done from inside google wave, you can drag and drop the links on to wave client.
Any open source gadget can be fit inside google wave client.
You can play chess, sudoku kind of games inside Google wave collaboratively.
You can include maps inside wave client.
It can be integrated with YouTube, you can play videos inside it.
There is a gadget for translation of 40 language word by word, while you type in.
Two people from different languages can chat with each other in their own language, while the translator making the translation word by word.

There is excellent video of one hour on google wave.
http://wave.google.com/

One more miracle from the same team after google maps in 2005.

Windows 7 on Virtual PC 2007

Today I experimented Windows 7 on Virtual PC 2007. Its great experience to be short.

Here is how it went.
First install Virtual PC 2007 on to your computer.
Create a new virtual machine.
Download windows 7 from Microsoft site.
Download ISO Buster to identify the image file downloaded from MS site. (Optional)
Start virtual PC 2007, make sure it has RAM not less than 1 GB.
In Virtual PC windows, go to Capture ISO image and select the downloaded file from MS.
After few minutes it will ask to reboot. Turnoff the virtual PC and start it again.
It will automatically start installing, and just go ahead with next...next options.
You may have to restart your Virtual PC one more time during the installation process.

Within a short while Windows 7 is all yours. Enjoy the new OS coming in Christmas 2009. By the way if you are interested in stock market, buy Microsoft shares. It seems after Windows 7 release share might shoot up !!!!

Some notable features :
Improved boot performance (Really short boot time). I loved this feature.
Calculator is much enhanced.
Task bar is visually bigger.
MS paint is also little differe with respect to options.
Some more things added and removed.
The most disappointing thing is Windows Movie Maker is removed.

Yet to explore other features.......

Code Digest Updates.....

This month Code Digest Updates.....
                                                                   
                                                                   
                                                                   
                                           

CodeDigest For the Month 3\2009

New Articles Published
Using JQuery in ASP.Net AJAX Applications–Part 2
In Part 1, we have seen how to make AJAX calls through POST and GET method using JQuery library. , In Part 2 of this article series, we will see some of the advanced usages of JQuery with ASP.Net AJAX application. 
Search Content Sources
Part 1 of 3 part SharePoint Search Customization series by Sveta Yerpilev a SharePoint consultant and trainer for KWizCom Corporation.
Sveta gives a clear overview of SharePoint search and how to create the results you want.
How to create a website using 3 tier architecture
In this article, i will explain how to implement a website using 3-tier architecture in a beginner point of view. After reading this article, you will understand how to create a simple 3-tier based architecture project using Visual Studio 2005.
Load Your SharePoint "View" Page Faster
Roi Kolbinger, a SharePoint Consultant for KWizCom Professional Services explains how to load your SharePoint "View" page faster in this straightforward "how to" guide.
Search Scopes & Contextual Search Scopes
Part 2 of 3 part SharePoint Search Customization series by Sveta Yerpilev a SharePoint Consultant for KWzCom Professional Services..
Sveta gives a clear overview of SharePoint search and how to create the results you want.
How do I save a publishing site as a template?
Shai Petel, KWizCom's VP R&D explains how tto save a publishing site as a template
C# Constructor and its Types – A Detailed Look
IntroductionIn a simple words Constructor is nothing but a method, a special kind of method of a class, which gets executed when its (class) object is created.Now, let’s take above in broader sense, a constructor is a class method automatically executed whenever class’s object is created or whenever class is initialized. Consider following bit of code:
State Management in ASP.Net
The State or Cache Management is nothing but the way to storing the data in Client-Side and in Server-Side using preity small memory.
How to Add a web part to your web parts gallery using a feature
Igor Goldshtaub, KWizCom's VP Professional Services explains how to add a web part to your web parts gallery using a feature.

New Codes Published
Calling a Serverside Method from JavaScript in ASP.Net AJAX - PageMethods
Prevent the Page Flickering with AJAXControlToolkit Rating control using JQuery
Enable/Disable Validator controls in ASP.Net
Creating Watermark TextBox in ASP.Net using JQuery
Custom Paging Using Sql Server 2005
Get the ScriptManager Object in MasterPage from ContentPage in ASP.Net AJAX
Get the Element that raised the Asynchronous Postback in UpdatePanel in JavaScript
Open an Outlook window from JavaScript with Pre-populated Subject and Body
A Simple CAPTCHA Image Verification in C# and ASP.Net
How to Refresh a Set of Controls or DIV without Refreshing other Controls Inside UpdatePanel control in ASP.Net AJAX?
How to Add, Remove ListItems from one ListBox to Another Using JQuery?
Display Progress or Loading message without using UpdateProgress Control in ASP.Net AJAX
A VideoPlayer - Custom Control

New FAQs Published
How to Convert an Existing ASP.Net Application to ASP.Net AJAX application?
How to Configure ASP.Net Membership Providers to Use Our Own Database?
Why do some of the characters in DIV tag gets repeated in IE 6.0 ?
How to increase default File Upload size in ASP.Net ?
How to Inject a JavaScript method from CodeBehind Class in ASP.Net?
What is Windows Workflow Foundation(WWF)?

Last Month Winners
Winner:Gaurav Arora
Transcend 2GB Pendrive
Contribution Done:3 Articles or 5 CodeSnippets

Code Digest Updates.....

Here are the latest updates from code digest:

Thanks to Sateesh for introducing me to this......

New Articles Published
Using Roles in Forms Authentication in ASP.Net 2.0Authentication is one of the essential parts of any asp.net application we develop. Using authentication, our site visitors can be restricted to access private contents anonymously. Forms Authentication is one of the authentication mechanisms that can be used to authenticate users. With the introduction of 2.0 we have a handful of controls that helps in implementing role based forms authentication very easy with the primary support of Providers in ASP.Net 2.0.
ASP.NET Social Networks—Making Friends (Part 1)In this article by Andrew Siemer, we will cover the most important aspect of any community site—making friends. We will divide this article in two parts. This part starts with the discussion of Problem, that is, what we need to do to achieve success for the article's topic—finding and inviting friends to your network on a community site. It then moves to Design part where we decide on our requirements, and finally the article reaches Solution part where we begin discussing how to actually implem
ASP.NET Social Networks—Making Friends (Part 2)In the first part of this article we concentrated on two aspects Problem and Design. We started with the Problem, that is, defining what we need to implement the Friends concept, finding and inviting friends to join our network and developing an alert system. We then moved to Design wherein we actually finalized the requirements. And finally we began with the Solution, that is, actually implementing the features. In this part of the article by Andrew Siemer, we will continue with the solution pa
How to add content to SPList Item view formExcellent "how to" article written by my company VP R&D.
Custom GridView Paging with ObjectDataSource Control with ASP.Net 2.0ASP.Net is packed with many data bound control to present the data in tabular form to the users. In GridView control, we can enable the inbuilt paging by setting AllowPaging and PageSize property. In this approach, it will fetch all the records from database to display the records in any page. This will affect the performance when the number of records is really huge. It will be good, if we fetch only those records which are required to display in that particular page. This article will help us
Want to add a rating field to MOSS search results? Here's how! KWizCom's VP R&D explains how to add a rating field to MOSS search results.!
Using JQuery in ASP.Net AJAX Applications – Part 1JQuery is a light weight JavaScript library which provides fast and easy way of HTML DOM traversing and manipulation, event handling, client side animations, etc. One of the greatest features of JQuery is, it supports an efficient way to implement AJAX applications because of its light weight nature. This article series will help us understand the usages of JQuery in implementing AJAX applications.
How to import data from AD to InfoPath 2007 Form Template (code free) Excellent how to guide written by my colleague Shai Petel, KWizCom's VP R&D, explaining step by step how to import data from AD to InfoPath 2007 Form Template (code free!)
New Codes Published
Fit Popup window Size to the Image Size using JavaScript
Fire Validator Controls Before JavaScript Confirm Box Fires in ASP.Net Page
Validate For Invalid File in ASP.Net FileUpload control
String.ReplaceAll function in JavaScript
Display multiple spaces in HTML
Printing ASPX Page by Hiding Some of the Page Elements Dynamically
How to Pass Date from Calendar Pop-Up control To Parent Window in ASP.Net ?
Using the JQuery Library hosted by Google CDN (Content Distribution Network) in ASP.Net Applications
New FAQs Published
How to Host ASP.Net AJAX site on a Server that does not have ASP.Net AJAX Installed ?
What is the difference between Label and Literal Control in ASP.Net?
What is SharePoint?
What is WSS and MOSS? Explain How Sharepoint Works?
What is site and site collection in Sharepoint? And What is the main advantage of using site collections?
What is the concept of virtual path provider in sharepoint?
What is the concept of ghosting and unghosting in SharePoint?
What is the concept of safemodeparser in ASP.NET?
What is the concept of Site pages and Application pages in Sharepoint?
How should I find the temp tables are exists in database?

Happy learning..........

Powered By Cloud : Up coming seminar

Folks,
Here is information about one of the rare sessions on "Cloud Computing". Its difficult to find such a great set of industry experts expressing their vision on latest technologies like Cloud Computing. This program is happening in London.

If you have a chance my advise is don't miss it. Here you can find further details about the session and registration.

http://www.poweredbycloud.com/programme/programme.aspx

Its targeting the below audience:

CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, strategy heads and senior executives of:
- cloud computing providers
- potential clients of the cloud industry
- hardware equipment and packaged software vendors
- the wider telecommunications industry
- Internet service providers
- data centres
- leading cloud-computing start ups
- private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund investors
- business and technology media

Dates of Conference :
2-3 February 2009

Thanks to Philip (philip.low@broad-group.com) for informing me about this seminar. Reach him for any discounts with my reference :-)

Happy Learning !!!

KODU - Programming Language for Gaming

KODU - Design your own Video game -

How about designing the video game you imagine. This cool feature is being researched by Microsoft under name "KODU".

This is a visual programming language for creating games. Even children can develop a game under KODU and run on XBOX.

Some features of it are as below....
It is entirely Icon Based and has programming user interface.
You can design a game basing on rules, conditions and actions. You can add Vision, hearing and Time control characteristics.
Uses Xbox 360 controller for gaming input.
You don't need a Keyboard. I think the first programming language in the world which doesn't need a key board !!!!
20 different characters with different abilities.

So Game lovers, start imagining your own game, create it and play it !!! Its all yours.......

F# Language

Microsoft Cambridge Research center is coming up with a new language called F#, where F stands for Functional.

I was going through Microsoft Research blogs and found this one interesting. So here are some cool things about F#:

F# is all about leveraging the benefits of both typed functional programming and .NET.

F# is Interactive with Visual Studio. This allows F# users to develop fast, accurate code using Visual Studio’s background type-checking and Intellisense.

F# lightweight syntax inspired by Haskell and Python.

F# is functional language like BASIC, simplicity is the core concept.

A good functional program is like a beautiful poem: you see the pieces of a ‘solution’ come together. - Don Syme MS Research, Cambridge.

F# really enables the .NET platform to reach out to new classes of developers, and appeal to domains where .NET is not heavily used. This is especially true in data exploration and technical computing. We’re also exploiting functional techniques in parallel programming.

Many programmers choose to explore a problem in F# because it lets them focus more on the problem domain and less on programming itself.

In his interview, he gives an example of Scientist using F# to solve his functional domain problem.
Happy Learning !!!

Microsoft Blueprint

In continuation to my effort of bringing new age technologies from Microsoft, here is the latest "Microsoft Blueprint".

Microsoft is working on a new Factory based architecture that is nothing but MS Blueprint. Infosys is also partnering with MS on this new architecture development.

A software blue print is a step by step guidance and code generation capability for different layers like Data Access, Security, Smart Client etc.,

Guidance Automation Toolkit (GAT) is the predecessor for MS Blueprint. The basic use of this is to build guidance packages and make them available within Visual Studio Dotnet.

MS Blueprint has an advantage over GAT with versions. Whenever a new guidance package is available with GAT we have to uninstall old one and install new one. But with MS Blue Print you can get updates like RSS feed. It will check over Internet for newly available factories and makes it available integrated with Visual Studio.

Blueprint gives tight integration with windows work flow foundation. Each phase of work flow can be integrated with MS Blueprint. Guidance is build on top of the WWF.

Writing code generation logic in C# or VB.NET makes it simple than the GAT XML structure.

Infosys Work on MS Blueprint: Infosys created a silver light software factory demo, which internally contains three additional blue prints, Silver light Blueprint, WCF Blueprint, LINQ Blueprint.

Infosys Silver light blueprint gives factories/Guidance to implement logic layer of Silver light.

LINQ blueprint is for data layer. WCF Blueprint is for service interface layer.

Happy Learning !!!