The really kewl techie!!

New Arena for My Blog !!

2006-05-09T03:19:00.000-07:00

Hi all.. I am moving my Blog to .Net Arena Domain and the Blog URL is http://www.dotnetarena.com/weblog

Reason for the Change : It seems better to be tagged under a technical website , as this Blog content is 99% technical..

Technology Roadshow - 2006

2006-02-21T04:18:00.000-08:00

I was there for Technology Roadshow - 2006 conducted at The Capitol, Bangalore. A full day interaction with Evangelists and Architects from Microsoft. The day started with a Session from Janakiram about new kool features of ASP.NET 2.0. A session with 3 slides and 1 hour demo. But didn’t get time to ask questions, time barrier. Next was from Nikhil Kothari, the person I was long expecting to meet., a good session on the Extensibility of ASP.NET 2.0. He explained nicely with a 'Content management' demo project.

Lunch !! A nice lunch from The Capitol.

The next session was from Vineet Gupta on Building Scalable and Reliable Web Applications. He described nicely about the new features of IIS 6.0. More things about Recycling , Application Pool etc. The next was the 'premier show' on Atlas, the AJAX implementation by Microsoft, by the Architect of Atlas, Nikhil Kothari, he explained some amazing stuff built using Atlas. So there ended a great technical seminar from Microsoft.

WCF Community Site Launches !

2006-01-19T21:11:00.000-08:00

Windows Communication Foundation Comminity Site has been launhed. Go http://windowscommunication.net

Café RSS

2006-01-18T00:56:00.000-08:00

Visit Microsoft India's Café RSS. Find out the RSS Feeds which you are looking for. A good collection of microsft related RSS Feeds.

The Community Rocks !!

2006-01-09T21:26:00.000-08:00

Let me post my first blog post in 2006
2006 January 7th and 8th. A very important day for Microsoft Developers in Bangalore. On these days the Mega event happened which we were expecting for a long time , organized by BDotNet. Two days filled with lots of tech info and interaction with Most Valuable Professionals in bangalore. This was the first UG Mega event in my life.

The first Session was from MVPs Saravna and Manoj about the VSTS. I used to scratch my head when people discuss about VSTS, Team Developer and Team Architect in tech forums and msdn Blogs. That session clearly described in depth what VSTS is, what is the role of that and what is need for that. That also described about Visual Studio Team Foundation Server.

Next session by Pooran Prasad MVP was about Team Architect from the perspective of an Architect designing an Application. That session explained how useful VSTS is for an Architect in the Team System.

As most of the UG members present for the Launch were developers, the next session about VSTS Team Developer was of great significance. This session was followed by a sumptuous lunch with The Geeks of the Industry. Post lunch I was feeling drowsy and my body was going in a sleep mode. I was little worried that I am gonna sleep through next sessions. But the live sessions on Smart Client application and ASP.NET New Features by Kalpesh and Chaithra kept my eyes and ears wide open. So many stuffs in VS 2005 to improve developer productivity!.. absolutely rocking!!
The next session on Team Test showed how important the VSTS was for a Tester. Thus ended the First Day of UG Launch.

I got up bit late on 8th Jan, as I was describing the events on the first day to my friends those who missed the event late into the night.

UG Launch Auditorium :
The First session was from Praveen Srivatsa on Business Intelligence. As a pure ASP.NET C# developer who uses Stored procedures written by someone else and knows only 'SELECT * FROM PUBLISHERS' I told my friend sitting next to me to nudge me if fell asleep. But the session turned out be a informative one. The session opened my eyes about BI. Next session from Srinivas Sampath on SQL 2005 was for programmers. At the end of the Session I was confident enough to tell my buddy SQL programmer that i need not wait for his stored proc to come, i can write on my own ;). DB programming is an interesting work unlike I thought before. Was Happy to know more about the XML Type, CLR integration, User Defined Types and Integrated Web Services.

What is Availability? That is a good Question. But why should I think about availability, for me it is available 24/7. No buddy, it is more important as MVP Vinod explained it clearly in the next session - SQL Server 2005 for Customers.

The session that followed explained how Security is important and how SQL Server 2005 improved in enhancing the Security features of SQL Server 2000. So many things like Schema, Cryptography etc.

SQL Server 2005 for Performance Tuning Session was the last session. The only thing I knew was Profiler. Learnt so many things from this session and at the end I realized that developers are clever people but the DBAs are more cleverer than us. Think twice before you mess anything in the Database :)

Thus ended 2 days long technical extravaganza. Did i mention about the most imp Event, Q & A session ? . It helped in clearing our nagging doubts and what more you get goodies for asking question. Now where do you get rewarded for asking questions?

Already waiting for the next event to come..

CSS Properties Window Add-on to VS 2005

2005-12-13T02:53:00.000-08:00

CSS Properties Window Add-on to VS 2005 has been launched. You can download it from asp.net Sandbox. If you wanna see the screen shots, please go here. Thanks to Mikhail

WCF Presentations.

2005-12-05T22:09:00.000-08:00

Here you can download the Presentation on the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). And here is the Demos. Thanks to Gourav Khanna

Start.Com

2005-10-18T05:47:00.000-07:00

Here is start.com, an "aggregator" web-site which consume feeds and provide the use of layout customization, an incubation experiment from MSN. Also provides the chances to the Developers for application extensibility. I think this is how msn implemented the advantages of 'Atlas' in Start.Com

More about Atlas !

2005-09-26T01:46:00.000-07:00

Found out new resource for the ASP.NET Atlas project. You can find out the new Server side and Client side controls introduced by Atlas.
Also you can visit this ASP.NET Forums

XQuery in Microsoft SQL Server 2005

2005-09-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 supports XQuery as the query language over such XML data using its relational infrastructure. XQuery is an emerging W3C recommendation for querying XML data. This paper describes how the Microsoft developers implement XQuery in Microsoft’s SQL Server 2005.

XML Editor in Visual Studio 2005

2005-09-20T20:17:00.000-07:00

Visual Studio 2005 contains a completely new XML Editor, which is entirely written in C#. It provides support for DTD, XSD and XSL. It offers the features like Full syntax coloring, Well formedness checking, Intellisense, Auto-completion of namespace declarations and more. You can read more from DotNet247

Happy BlogDay 2005

2005-08-31T07:08:00.000-07:00

Dudes...
Today is Aug 31st. Wish you all a happy BlogDay 2005. I couldnt add my contribution to BlogDay,(5 new blogs) as I was busy today.

GAC in CLR Verson 2.0

2005-08-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a series of 4 article talking about the Global Assemble Cache(GAC) in Common Language Runtime Version 2.0. Wonderful article for those working in Microsoft Technologies.

ILMerge

2005-08-19T02:13:00.000-07:00

Microsoft offers tool to combine .Net assemblies, ILMerge. "ILMerge is a utility that can be used to merge multiple .NET assemblies into a single assembly. ILMerge takes a set of input assemblies and merges them into one target assembly. The first assembly in the list of input assemblies is the primary assembly. When the primary assembly is an executable, then the target assembly is created as an executable with the same entry point as the primary assembly. Also, if the primary assembly has a strong name, and a .snk file is provided, then the target assembly is re-signed with the specified key so that it also has a strong name.", says Microsoft site. It is a freely available tool and you can download from Microsoft Download Center.

Vista™ for Developers

2005-08-09T05:37:00.000-07:00

Developer Platform of Windows Vista™ (formerly code name Windows "Longhorn") , makes it easier to build applications that are more secure, reliable, and manageable. We can describe it as Developer Platform for the Next Generation of Software.

Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability

2005-08-08T05:59:00.000-07:00

Found a nice article on improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability, in MSDN Library.

Avalon, Indigo and WinFX

2005-07-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

Avalon, Indigo and WinFX, Microsoft introduce these technologies as "The Pillars of Vista". New structure of the operating system includes the .NET framework, an application deployment engine, improvements to the installation of applications (Windows Installer/MSI 4.0) etc.
These are the definitions for these terms as in Wikipedia.
Avalon: a new user interface subsystem and API based on XML, .NET, and vector graphics, which will make use of 3D computer graphics hardware and Direct3D technologies.
Indigo: a service-oriented messaging system to allow programs to interoperate as part of the .NET framework.
WinFX: a new API to allow access to these new features, replacing the current "Win32" API (see Windows API).

Windows Vista - Arriving 2006

2005-07-26T03:02:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has announced that, the next version of Windows will be Windows Vista, formerly Windows code name 'Longhorn'. Windows Vista Beta 1, targeted at developers and IT professionals, will be available by August 3rd 2005.

I Suggest Google Suggest

2005-07-24T22:26:00.000-07:00

Google Suggest guesses, what you are typing and gives you some suggestions in real time. It is something like the 'Did you mean?' option that gives you some alternate spelling suggestions for your query, after your search. In Google Suggest, for example, if you type 'apple' it might give you the list of suggestions that include 'apple ipod' or 'apple mac'. You have the option to choose any one from the list by using up or down arrow keys or using the mouse.
They are using the upcoming technology AJAX(Asynchonous Javascript and XML) in order to implement this feature.

64 Bit Support in VS 2005

2005-07-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

Wanna know more??? Watch MSDN TV OR read the transcript.

Going back to Client side...

2005-07-21T06:50:00.000-07:00

Yep... Again an experiment with the client side programming language, Javascript. Today, I created an application to access a WebService using Javascript. This is with help of Microsoft htc file.

See the World..

2005-07-21T04:21:00.000-07:00

Google Maps is using the AJAX technology inorder to increase the performance. You can search for a location any where in the world and then zoom in into the map and drag and roll the map without needing to refresh the page.

AJAX with ASP.NET 2.0

2005-07-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

MS officially announced that AJAX will be supported in ASP.NET 2.0 with the "Atlas" code name.

Hooray... Finished my first Ajax Page..

2005-07-20T06:05:00.000-07:00

Yes.. my experiment with Ajax succeeded.. Today done my first Ajax page which utilises the advantages of Ajax. The main part of it is a child DropDown list driven by the selection from another DropDown list... It is working fine and I wanna add more complex things like ListBox to that Page.

YubNub..

2005-07-18T04:18:00.000-07:00

....a social command line for the web. For example, enter 'g microsoft' , it will search the word 'microsoft' using Google. If you wanna search using Yahoo, give it as 'y microsoft'. Also there are options to create your own commands. So start doing YubNub from today.

Where it is, in Stack or in Heap?

2005-07-18T01:53:00.000-07:00

You think I am going back to the basics again.. Yeah!! Here is a wonderful article explaining clearly, what the difference between Value types and Reference types is. He is trying to break the conventional thought "value types go on the stack, reference types go on the heap".

Finalizer - The .Net Battlebot

2005-07-15T06:06:00.000-07:00

Wanna fight with finalizer !!! See the Battlebot in action (powered by .NET)! Microsoft and ASPSOFT have created a BattleBot, called Finalizer !!! That will destroy everything in its way. You can also download the .NET source code that powers it!

Whidbey Conversion Tool

2005-07-14T02:20:00.000-07:00

If we are making new version of a Software, it should be compatible with the older versions or the outputs from the older versions. To accomplish this in Whidbey, Microsoft introduces a Conversion Tool. It translates the Visual Studio 7 Projects to Whidbey.

Changes in Whidbey

2005-07-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

See GotDotNet to know about the new changes made on the Whidbey Release of .Net

MSDN Chat

2005-07-13T21:53:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is providing a chat room for .Net developers. It helps you to be engaged in discussions about Microsoft products or technologies.

Some experiences in Project Management

2005-07-12T02:10:00.000-07:00

Here is an excellant speech by His Excellency, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, The President of India on his experience s in Project Management

Ajax !!!

2005-07-08T01:55:00.000-07:00

.... I was wondering how Gmail behaves wonderfully compared to other mail providers. Today while googling, I came across the word Ajax, aka Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It’s not a technology. It’s a combination of several, coming together in a powerful way. Traditional web applications work like this, the web server acts upon whatever was sent by the form, and then responds back by sending a new web page. A lot of bandwidth is wasted here. AJAX applications, on the other hand, can send requests to the web server to retrieve only the data that is needed, usually using SOAP or some other XML-based web services dialect, and using JavaScript in the client to process the web server response.
See how the Ajax model for web applications is working compared to the traditional model.

Instead of loading a webpage, at the start of the session, the browser loads an Ajax engine — written in JavaScript and usually tucked away in a hidden frame. This engine is responsible for both rendering the interface the user sees and communicating with the server on the user’s behalf. The Ajax engine allows the user’s interaction with the application to happen asynchronously — independent of communication with the server. So the user is never staring at a blank browser window and an hourglass icon, waiting around for the server to do something…

I got charged up... But why I am spending more time if it’s having nothing to do with .Net. So again my search engine started working. It ends up here. Yes… Microsoft has announced an AJAX based programming framework is being developed to provide asynchronous Javascript based callback for ASP.NET applications. This project, code named Atlas, will make use of existing callback features in ASP.NET 2.0 as well as new features such as multicast event handlers, new UI controls such as autocomplete text boxes, and a core framework of common functionality.

So we can wait for the AJAX era, but it doesnt mean we are going back to the purly client side programming.

Top ten features in Visual Studio "Whidbey"

2005-07-06T23:26:00.000-07:00

Dudes...See this informative article about "Whidbey" release in MSDN Library

The C# Whidbey

2005-07-06T22:12:00.000-07:00

Some New Features in C#

C# has always had a reputation as a clean language with lots of innovation.The Whidbey-release of Visual Studio .NET ships with a new version of the C# compiler that has a number of great new features. Some of them will be implemented as generic runtime features that will show up in other languages as well, and some are truly C#-specific.

Anonymous Methods

If you have developed in C#, you are probably familiar with Delegates.Delegates are objects that encapsulate references to functions. One of the most common uses of Delegates is the implementation of event handler code.Here is an Exampleprivate void button1_Click( object sender, System.EventArgs e){ MessageBox.Show("Hello");}
Actually in the form designer code we can see,
this.button1.Click += new System.EventHandler( this.button1_Click);
The event handler method has to conform to a certain signature (two parameters of type object and System.EventArgs in this case). This is defined in the System.EventHandler delegate.
Rather than instantiating a delegate and creating a method to point to, thecode for the whole handler method can be created inline. No method name is defined (hence the name Anonymous Methods), but parameters are still required.Here's what that syntax looks like:
this.button1.Click += delegate(object sender, EventArgs e) { MessageBox.Show("Test"); };
As you can see, what is assigned to the Click event is not a pointer to a method, but the entire method code itself including the parameters, and without a method-name. Note that there has to be a semi-colon at the end, because all of this is really just one line of code.

Partial Classes

In general, classes are defined in a single source file. Sometimes, this can lead to difficulties.
The new version of C# introduces a feature that can solve these problems: partial classes. These are classes that are defined in more than one source file. This way, part of a partial class could be maintained by the code generator and a second part of the class could be maintained by the developer. When the code gets compiled, the C# compiler performs what can be described as a fancy text merge operation that combines all parts into one class.
Here's a code sample. First, there could be one part of a class defined in one source file:
public partial class Class1{ public string Test() { return "Test"; }}
Then, there could be a second source file with the following class definition:
public partial class Class1{ public string SomethingElse() { return "Something Else"; }}
The significant part is the definition of the class. First of all, both class definitions sport the same class name. Secondly, there is the partial keyword, which makes the duplicate class name a valid construct, and instructs the compiler to merge the two parts together.

Generics

Creating specific collection classes for every possible type that occurs in the .NET Framework, as well as your own code, is not feasible either. You'd be doubling the number of used classes on the spot!Generics solve these issues. They allow creating code that more generic, but when the code is used, a specific type is assumed.
public class MyCollection{ public void Add(myType o1) { // ... }
public myType GetByIndex(int i) { // ... }}
In this example, the whole class is defined with a parameter called myType. This myType parameter (there could be more than one) is used to define the parameter type as well as the return type. Of course myType is not defined anywhere. Instead, the code that uses this class defines the "real" type that is to be used. For instance, if you want to use this collection to store integers, you use it like so:
MyCollection Col1 = new MyCollection();Col1.Add(1);
Internally, the collection now operates with integers. There is no boxing and unboxing. Also, values retrieved from the collection are integers without having to be converted. And on top of that, this instance of the collection is limited to storing integers. An attempt to assign a DataSet is trapped as an error during compilation. You could easily use the whole collection for DataSets as well:
MyCollection Col1 = new MyCollection();

Hi all

2005-07-04T23:50:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody!!!!
Welcome to the world of blogging..