May 2004 Entries
Currently, if you do a google search for Waffles you get John Kerry's presidential web site - top of the list. Courtesy no doubt of another google spoofing. http://www.google.com/search?q=waffles
Also from google, the following definition of Waffle: http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+waffle
pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness; "Authorities hesitate to quote exact figures"
www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn
or alternatively:
An edible baked item whose shape led to the outsole of many inedible Nike sneakers. Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman invented the design.
sneakers.pair.com/gloss-w.htm
Huh?
Microsoft have released a WSE add-in for Visual Studio .NET. From the web site:
WSE 2.0 simplifies the development and deployment of secure Web services by enabling developers using Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework to more easily apply security policy, establish long-running secure conversations, retrieve and validate security tokens and more. New features include a policy framework, enhanced security model, message-oriented programming model, and support for multiple hosting environments.
Download it from http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/building/wse/
Ever wondered why you get some extra members displayed with intellisense when using c# compared to vb? Including things as basic as the ToString method on the Object object?
Well the vb team decided that some members of classes are "Advanced" and not worthy of the average programmers eyes.
Avoid this nonsense by selecting Tools > Options > Text Editor > Basic > General and deselect that "Hide advanced members" checkbox now!
It seems that the Mobile Device profiles provided by Microsoft for asp.net are somewhat lagging behind the market. The latest Device Update 4 (which was released in January), does not provide support for the XDA2 or Smartphone SPV E200. This is a bit of a shame since both of these devices are exciting platforms for .net development.
Help is at hand to a certain degree though - you can profile the devices yourself by going through the Device Profiling steps here: http://www.asp.net/mobile/profile/default.aspx. Help info can be found here: http://www.asp.net/mobile/profile/Help.aspx
However it would be far nicer if there was a central up-to-date repository for the device profiles. Wouldn't it?
bbits have a new Sql Server 2000 training course focused for .net developers. It includes all the usual sql server 2000 training items such as table design and performance but also has sections on Visual Studio Database Design tools, database projects etc. Take a look at the full outline here:
http://www.bbits.co.uk/Services/training/default.aspx?sql2000net
If you ever installed asp.net 1.1 over 1.0 you will know that it changes all the mappings in IIS to 1.1. You then have to run aspnet_regiis -i to correct it on the sites you want back at 1.0. That's fine but it is a bit of a hassle.
And with Whidbey and .net 2.0 available as a technology preview in MSDN downloads, you will need to be aware of the same issue. When you install it all your sites will become mapped to asp.net 2.0 You can correct it again with aspnet_regiis, but there is a cool little utility from Denis Bauer at http://www.denisbauer.com/NETTools/ASPNETVersionSwitcher.aspx that makes this a breeze. Well worth a look.
Fantastic story on the BBC news site reports:
Software giant Microsoft has won apple patent rights - not those of its arch-rival Apple computer - but a special variety of fruit tree.
And goes on to explain:
The US Patent Office mistakenly granted it the rights to the "Burchinal Red Delicious" apple. US Plant Patent 14,757 was supposed to be granted to Robert Burchinal of East Wenatchee, Washington, instead.
Life is stranger than fiction...
See the full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3686387.stm
If you have dabbled with Smartphone 2003 Smart Device Applications using Visual Studio.Net you may have been frustrated with the fact that the DataGrid appears in the toolbox and can be dragged onto a form, but if you then try to compile you will get an error:
Type: System.Windows.Form.DataGrid is not defined.
When I first saw this I googled it and found messages to the effect that DataGrid is not supported on the SmartPhone which was quite a disappointment to say the least.
Luckily though, it is not true.
All you need to do is add a reference to the DataGrid dll in your Visual Studio 2003 installation folder. Typically:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\CompactFrameworkSDK\v1.0.5000\Windows CE\System.Windows.Forms.DataGrid.dll
And then you have a DataGrid for your Smartphone. Simple once you know, which is why I have posted this.
I hope that the next release of Visual Basic has compiler warnings like c# does, but I couldn't see anything about them in the road map (http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/productinfo/roadmap.aspx#language). For example on vb.net courses that I run, a common mistake is to forget to return something from a function - I know it's an obvious thing, but it's something that people just seem to forget occasionally when using vb. A compiler warning (just like in c#) would be a a great way to stop these silly errors.
I don't know why but this one has passed me by and it's such a useful feature! To explain:
When you right click on a method, variable etc in vs.net editor you can select "Go to Definition" - which is a great way of viewing the relevent code. But how do you get back to where you were after you have finished viewing that code? VB 6 used to have a "Last Position" option on the short-cut menu but that is not in vs.net by default. I've been making do with manually finding the last position or by optimistically closing the window and hoping I'd end up in the right place. But of course that is way too much work!
Instead you can just select Navigate Backward from the View menu or press Ctrl + - (that's Ctrl and the - key) - life will be so much simpler now. The View menu also reveals a Navigate Forward (Ctrl + Shift + -) which is useful too. And blow me there are even a couple of buttons to do the same on Standard Toolbar - I can't believe I have missed this!
Zone-h have another interesting report on this issue, which they conclude as:
In fact, nowadays many of the intrusions are performed at database or application level.
Regardless the OS.
Regardless the web server.
Sql injection and file inclusion are the most used tecniques in the latest months. This is happening because the usual "availability" of exploiting codes has been constantly decreasing over the last 12 months since groups like Teso has stopped to release to the public.
The moral is, in this historical period of the Internet, don't trust anybody who is "lecturing" about the inherent vulnerability of a particular Operating System.
This makes a lot of sense to me. The focus on security comes down to the developer and the dba and the designs they have chosen and the o/s is less important.
Read the full report here: http://www.zone-h.org/en/winvslinux2
bbits have produced a new 1 day MCMS training course aimed at end users rather than programmers.
http://www.bbits.co.uk/Services/training/default.aspx?mcmsuser
This goes hand in hand with their developers course which is here:
http://www.bbits.co.uk/Services/training/default.aspx?mcms
Neat article here that provides a script for precompiling any asp.net sites:
http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/PreCompileAspx.asp
Cheers
Take a look at Chris Garty's blog for details on the release timing for Whidbey, straight from the mouth of Scott Guthrie.
For those of you who did not get the PDC release then this should be an exciting oppotunity to start playing with all those cool new features (www.asp.net/whidbey)