June 2003 Entries
I love Harry Potter books, I've just finished reading the new book, it's long but
it is a book which will keep you reading until the end (I've read it in a little over
12 hours). Very good book, which progresses the story in many ways (and doesn't feature
as much Quidditch for reasons you'll discover). This is very much a darker book than
the previous ones and yes, someone does die - I won't tell you who but it is a pretty
impressive death. Oh, and Dumbledores' Army rules - you will also find out what that
is - but it is pretty good and where they practise is exremely cool! Go, buy it, you
will not regret it! Oh, if you live in Scotland, have a look in the Supermarkets,
they have the best prices (you can save £7 just by shopping around)
Perhaps a true revolution is starting,
this
article from Wired basically points out that despite having significantly
fewer resources, Apple is still surviving - and prospering. This got me to thinking,
the Open Source movement thus far has been largely disorganised - there are exceptions,
Apache and Linux being notable exceptions. If the Open Source labour force becomes
organised and focussed on providing cohesive, real applications life could get interesting
for the likes of Microsoft. Take a look at projects like
Evolution,
basically an email client which duplicates the functionality provided by Outlook on
the PC - well thats' how it started, its' now surpassing the MS client in a number
of ways - the Groupware features being just one of them.
If Linux gets its' act together and focusses the project on providing a usable, simple
experience - as Apple has done with OSX for the PPC platform - it will rule,
the problem as I see it is that there's too many 'enthusiasts' working on the project
and it lacks real direction right now. I just wish some enterprising company would
really take on doing for the x86 platform what Apple did for the PPC - Apple just
isn't going to do it for the x86, the support costs and driver dev costs would be
huge! Could be interesting times ahead...
Over the years I've pretty much used every anti-spam measure in existence. The only
one I've found that actually works (and it is pretty much faultless, 100+ spams caught
daily, 0 false positives!) is SpamNet, this has recently become pay-ware ($3.99 a
month or $1.99 if you were a beat tester). I have recently bought two subscriptions
(work and home). It really is worth it...go on!
http://www.cloudmark.com.
Nope, not a porn site, remember the little expandable boxes on MSDN (before it went
all 1996)...this is doing pretty much the same thing...
http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/WebPartsControl.asp
The war isn't over. This is the best source I've found for whats' still happening
- http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/ ,
funny, honest and thought-provoking, if your only source of information about Iraq
is what the mainstream media portrays (for or against...), do yourself a favour and
have a look at this site...
Any English shopkeeper out there...read this..Scottish Money is LEGAL TENDER IN ENGLAND!!!
UPDATE: Was told this by a guy at work - no
bank notes are legal tender in Scotland - (checked it out and it appears
to be true!). So the guy in the shop who turned down a Scottish £20 was just dumb
- especially as the Scottish note is less likely to be a forgery than the English
ones (Scottish notes have more security features...)
Just got home after a very long day, was meant to be a short day but...well...
This was the day we planned to deploy the big site we've been developing for the past
8 months to its' final hosting environment. Unfortunately, the environment wasn't
configured as had been requested, so I spent the day trying to come up with workarounds.
Problem boled down to .NET Passport and its' wily ways. Essentially, Passport is able
to run in two modes, Pre-production - where you make your own key and can use what
is essentially a test mode for developing the functionality in your site - good
idea I think you'll agree!
Problem comes when you want to go live, basically Passport was developed with a single
way of working in mind - you're meant to use one set of servers for test (Pre-prod)
and another for live - you can only enter live when Microsoft have approved your site
and you've paid your license fee (which is a LOT of cash!). However, catch is (and
just show me where in the documentation it mentions this!), you can only have a Production
OR a Pre-production mode on a single server. Now you can have two keys for different
sites, in fact you can have dozens, it's just that the entire Passport Manager system
(which you install on your server) only runs in one mode or the other - the only indication
of this can be seen in the grab below - apparently some fields being grey indicate
that this change applies to the entire machne, not just this key! Talk about usability!
Now, I'm not saying Passport is a terrible idea which should be done away with, the
next version of Passport is supposedly going to be based on Web Services and be much
more compliant with the .NET way of doing things. Its' just the current version feels
half baked (the documentation for C# for instance is frequently wrong). Don't belive
me, go to http://www.passport.net then click
on the developer link...useful huh! If you are developing using .NET Passport in C#,
ignore the documentation, it's pretty much useless. You'll do yourself a favour (and
possibly save your sanity) if you have a look here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=910934cc-03ad-43e4-977e-235a06f7c3b5&DisplayLang=en
This is the Passport Proscriptive Architecture thing, it has all the code you need
to use Passport. Otherwise just wait a few months until the usable version is released!
UPDATE: Yes, I know the passport link redirects...to be it just indicates the general
lack of attention to the usability of this product (which again, you do have to pay
THOUSANDS OF POUNDS to use)
So, Microsoft is stopping development of IE on the Mac...http://tantek.com/log/2003/06.html#L20030613t1318.
It has also announced that no new versions of IE will exist before longhorn. This
is a very odd situation and the implications of this decision are showing already,
Mozilla is now on the rise (Firebird / Phoenix now seem like pretty appropriate names!).
The essential point of MS's arguement seems to be that they believe users want a more
intefrated experience than is currently possible in IE - umm...no, AOL which is just
that integrated experience is losing users in droves, all the big portals have closed
down. I have to disagree and I sincerely believe that MS are going to regret this
in the long run.
Update: Seems my opinion is shared by many: http://dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com/archives/003415.shtml
Got you interested! This site odd...but may prove very popular! »
link Hmm..must
get a camera phone...Found this through the little geoUrl link at the bottom of this
page on
this
blog...
Well, just killed my motherboard...more about that later when then hurt subsides :-P.
So, currently using my laptop foggy as my main machine (new MB on order!). I've been
thinking about what the future holds for me - priotiry one is get a social life again
- I only started learning the whole .NET thing in any serious way about 9 months ago,
and it's been a bit time consuming to say the least, unfortunately my social
life has pretty much fallen by the wayside over that period.
Priority 2 is to develop an application (probably WinForm and Web Service type) in
my 'spare' time, this may take the form of a new blogging engine - in fact, it almost
certainly will, all the current ones just aren't quite what I'd like.
Priority 3 is to learn to drive - I live right in the centre of Edinburgh so I've
been able to avoid driving thus far in my life, family circumstances have kind of
changed that recently..so I'll be joining the ranks of car owners as soon as I learn
to drive (so right around the time the first hover car hits the streets would be a
fair guess).
Priority 4 is to consider where my career is heading - I really don't know where to
go next / if to move at all. The job market in Scotland is pretty dead right now and
most of the interesting ones now require a 'good CS degree' - to what purpose, I don't
know but it does limit my choice of possibities - I don't particularly want to move
back down south right now...
So, sorry for the random ramble, its' 2am and I needed to write this stuff down (as
if you haven't guessed, I use this thing as a sort of diary - which will also change
'any time now', I need to finish off some articles I've been writing on various odd
but useful ASP.NET techniques which I'd have found incredibly useful when I was learning,
so other people might too. You never know!
Help...I'm in my 4th hour of watching Futurama. They have evilly put a Play All function
on the discs...ah well only 7 hours to go...oh and then I have to watch it again with
the commentary :-) Best series yet - go, buy it now
Just noticed, the final versions of the ASP.NET starter kits have been released, you
can find them
here.
These are useful starting points for many applications.
Whilst changing the site, I noticed a couple of comments, almost all were realy nice,
but one was a simple, dumb insult. To be honest I don't care what you think of this
site, nor do I mind if you never come back, with this in mind, I've decided not to
include comments in my future versions of the blog software (I say my versions, it
is of course just a modification of BlogX by
Chris
Anderson, I'm just changing bits to make it more appropriate for my needs).
Got a new book "Don't
Make Me Think!" by Steve Krug. This is a fantastic book and very short - important,
it means I'll actually read it. Along with a series
of articles by Joel Spolsky I think that this should be compulsory reading for
every web developer. Too many sites are ruined by being a pain to use.
I've started working on a modified version of BlogX. So you may notice a few features
disappearing over the next few days / weeks. You will also notice new features appearing.
I am disabling comments for the time being, if you feel a real need to comment on
something here and its' important, use the mail me link in the top right hand corner...
You can find some of the best 3d screensavers I've seen in a while
here.
They really are pretty amazing, and come with full source code - if you fancy writing
some yourself (oh and you can code OpenGL in C++)!
Sorry I haven't posted for the last day and a bit...we've been getting RC3 of our
Portal project ready for delivery. The Portal is able to support two authentication
mechanisms, Passport and Forms. Forms has worked perfectly from day one but the Passport
has been a real bugger. The Passport SDK says that to sign out you do this:::
<%@ Page Language="C#"%>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Web.Security"%>
<%
Response.ContentType="image/gif";
Response.Expires=1;
Response.Cookies("MSPProf").Value = "";
Response.Cookies("MSPProf").Expires = DateTime.MinValue;
Response.Cookies("MSPAuth").Value = "";
Response.Cookies("MSPAuth").Expires = DateTime.MinValue;
Response.AppendHeader("P3P", "CP=\"DSP CUR OTPi IND OTRi ONL FIN\"");
PassportIdentity.SignOut("images/signout_good.gif");
%>
So, fair enough, I implemented this (with an additional line or two to clear my own
roles cookie) - result, nothing! Passport signed out but the cookies were not cleared.
So, after about 7 hours of trying various things, I decided to move the Response.Cookies
lines after the call to the PassportIdentity.Signout method - this worked. My only
guess is that, for some reason, the Signout does a Response.Cookies.Clear() as part
of its' process. A most frustrating day!
One of the most frequent queries about dynamically added controls is how to get their values after postback... This is not as easy as it sounds if the value of these controls has a direct impact on the next set of controls bound to the page. There are various methods to do this - persisting the controls in Session state and reloading on init being one I've used in the past, there's also more code-intensive methods involving intercepting the postback event and reinding there. One of the most elegant methods I've encountered is Denis Bauers' Dynamic Controls placeholder »
link , its' not perfect but it is a really good solution to this all too frequent problem.
Martin Fowler has written about a little device called Slimp3..it looks amazingly
cool...just what I was looking for in fact. »
link
On of the worst omissions from .NET 1.0 and 1.1 is compression...and no-one has ever
really explained the reasons why we can't have it as part of the cor framework. Also,
why doesn't WSE include anything on message compression? Anyway, there is one way
to get compression in a totally .NET way (assuming you installed J#). This article
on MSDN explains how...»
link.
Now, who wants to rewrite the Blowerly compression module using this??? I might just
have to do it at the weekend...
I'd love to see a more complete explanation of this system »
link.
This type of system really appeals to my style of architecture. Only thing I would
be driven to ensure was that this system was secure...
WSel, got your attention...I found this entry really interesting regarding the future
(or not) of IE
link on
Scobles' blog...
I forget whos' blog I saw this on (post a comment and i'll link). This is essentially
the documentation and bits which .NET Passport should have always come with. The passport
toggler alone is totally indespensible for all developer using .NET passport. The
install is a bit buggy (some of the bits don't work for me).
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=910934cc-03ad-43e4-977e-235a06f7c3b5&DisplayLang=en
Just came across this blog
http://sqlblogs.com/salman/,
looks like it'll become a pretty useful blog for Sql...
On a trawl through my Sharpreader subscriptions...ShawnMors' blog had this link .
Some pretty cool toys for VS.NET...
Take a look at these – they are from Scott Swanson and Jason Weber, and the
VS IDE team…
I was looking up something on the VS.NET site
when I noticed a link to PowerToys
for VS.NET 2003. There are currently 5 PowerToys available:
-
VSTweak -
Allows you to modify some of the more obscure VS.NET options and settings
-
VSEdit -
Command line tool to load a file into currently running instance of VS.NET
-
VSWindowManager -
Enables you to design your own custom window layouts
-
Custom
Help Builder - allows you to create a custom help collection for your XML-style
commented Visual Basic or Visual C# class library. Integrates the custom help collection
into the VS.NET help system
-
VB
Commenter - XML-style comment tags for VB
Future tools include:
-
VSCMDShell Window - One window to access both the VS.NET Commands Window and
your external CMD.exe process.
-
VSMouseBindings - Assign all five mouse buttons to commands within VS.NET
-
VSTransparency - Make floating windows and pop-up UI semi-transparent in the
IDE giving you a better view of the code below
Sweet!
[Harry
Pierson's DevHawk Weblog]
|
Found this on Scobles'
blog...guidelines on UI design, I don't think any developers can read too much
of this stuff...if no-one can use it, why write it???
http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html
Noticed this over on Alex Lowes' blog,
link to the building
blocks page. Some very useful resources - I can see these being used more and
more in the community. We already use the Exception Management and Data Access Blocks
in our large Portal project, they really are excellent - and come with source, so
you can modify them at will (if only they were open source!)
Someone asked what happened to the new server I was going to build...Umm well...I
got all the bits, including a swanky new heatsink - all from Ebuyer ,
which is the best online store I've ever found for bits - can't find the link to the
heatsink right now, but it was a Coolermaster one with a heatpipe..So in my entusiasm,
I tried to set everything up but discovered the midi case I had had very little clearance
over the processor and so, the new heatsink wouldn't fit.
In a flash of inspiration, I recalled that the heatsink in my main machine (a 2400+)
was shorter than the new one, so I swapped them. One small problem was that
(well two problems)
-
I hadn't noticed the thermal compound in the new heatsink box
-
The heatsink didn't quite touch the processor
-
(I lied :-)) The motherboard thermal overload sensor was faulty (or for some reason
didn't work).
So, long story short, my lovely Athlon 2400+ fried...and my main machine now runs
the 1800+ I bought for the new one...Oh, and the new ones' PSU doesn't work...
So, the server is on hold until I regroup...I am now planning to switch web hosts
from Brinkster (expensive, unreliable) to WebHost4Life which
is cheaper, has more facilities and gives a Sql Server 200 DB with the package...
I write more later, but I found it very interesting (oh and it has a sex scene...well
kind of!). Lots of people have written that they found the bit with the Architect
incomprehensible...I found it ok to be honest. Oh, and stay until after the credits,
there's a trailer for Matrix Revolutions...but the credits are very long!
I'm late for work (this is not unusual, I work strange hours). Anyway, does anyone
have any opinions of Flash MX as a front end for distributed .NET apps. I plan to
spend some time looking at this, looks like you can do decent interactions with web
services.
I used to work for a compnay called Black ID (now sadly defunct), where we had some
of the best Flash developers on the planet working with us (two now work at a company
called Chunk Ideas). The stuff that can be
done with flash is pretty amazing...this may form the subject of a future article
(remember one from ASP Today about Flash MX chat service stuff). Right, coffee then
work (Guatemalan Pico Duarte today...anyone know where I can get Puetro Rican Yacuto
Selecto???)