August 2005 Entries
For the guys that read my blog and are interested in Navision programming, I want to talk a bit about a great Navision's feature: the temporary tables.A Temporary Table is created by C/SIDE when a record variable is created by setting its Temporary property to Yes. It is created with the same exact structure of the real table that is in the subtype property of the record variable. It is, however, completely empty (no data). This type of table can be used as a temporary workspace to insert records, manipulate them and then either put them into a real table or allow them to...
Yesterday (but I've discovered it only today) on the Community Server forum is appeared an interesting announcement: Telligent Software (the company famous mainly for .Text and now Community Server) has launched a new initiative that they've called ".NET Developer Community Program". What is this? In summary, it's a new initiative for all the .NET communities on the net: Telligent will provide you a license to make use of Community Server software and all Telligent made add-ons at no cost. This is a great idea and a big opportunity for all the .NET related communities on the web. Check it soon! P.S. I've to alert...
The anticipated news that
WinFS will have a preview soon is a reality now... with an announcement
on the official WinFS Team blog,
Microsoft has released the first Beta 1 of its new generation file
system, available for download only to MSDN Subscribers (about 76Mb).
The tool is on an early preview stage but it's wonderful to see that a first
Beta is out only to receive feedbacks from the real users (this is extremely
important).
Some important things to note:
The actual Beta 1 bits work with Windows XP
There's no a clear plan on how OS will be supported...
Do you remember how posts on blogs about the Microsoft's decision to cut off
WinFS (the next generation Windows file system essentially
based on an SQL
database layer that sits on top of the NTFS file system) from
the future version of Windows Vista? All the blogosphere was in a
revolution and the message sent to Microsoft was clear: we want WinFS for
all!
I'm always a supporter of this idea... I think that a new generation file
system, able to index different types of informations (files, email, audio,
video, documents etc.) and to query them like on a database is a necessity
that every...
How do you feel when you return to your office after a good holiday
period?
This morning I've spent an hour to re-organize my ideas, check the agenda,
checking the projects I've suspended before my holidays and try to build a new
schedule for them. Now I'm waiting to have a briefing with my colleagues about
the actual state of our works and what we've to do in the future days, then I'll
start coding again.
Holidays are finished, now it's time to restart the same life...
If you've tryed to install Visual Studio .NET 2005 on a Windows XP without SP2, you've encountered the warning message that you can't install it on a machine without the SP2 (I've found this message when I've tryed to install it on a old virtual machine under VPC).Visual Studio 2005 setup process does not have any technical requirements on XP SP2, but the block is in place mainly to encourage everyone to upgrade to SP2. If you are running into this block and really need to install VS 2005 on a system that is running Windows XP without SP2, Aaron Stebner...
After the euphoria of the Google Talk's launch, I think that some considerations must be done.Certainly, I think that most of us was waiting a revolutionary product from Google (the Google's brand keep us on this direction) but Google Talk at the moment is not revolutionary. Google Talk is the first pass on a clear direction, the direction of having a complete communication platform, fully connected, a first pass on an easy to use and totally widespread communication system like actually email is.Google Talk lacks on many features that actually the major Instant Messaging (IM) systems have and certainly Google has put its hands...
Google Talk is based on the open and standard Jabber/XMPP protocol, so there's (in teory ) the possibility to connect to it via other Jabber client (such as Gaim or Psi, only two of my favourite Jabber client).I've searched the net to find solutions to this and I've found the connection settings for Gaim. In the new account addition dialog box you've to provide the following details:Screen name: your gmail email id without @gmail.comServer: gmail.comResource: GaimPassword: your gmail account passwordAlias: your display name (as you want)Click “show more options”Check Use TLS if availableUncheck Force Old SSLUncheck Allow plaintext auth...
As I've predicted yesterday, the launch of the Google's Instant Messaging system is here today: ladies and gentleman, Google Talk is ready for you! Google Talk (based on Jabber) enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free–anytime, anywhere in the world. You need only a Gmail account (it's on beta stage) and you can keep in contact with your friends (Gmail contacts are pre-loaded into Google Talk so inviting or talking to your friends is just a click away). The tool has also some interesting VoIP features like Skype that I've not tested at...
Sharepoint is one of the central application on future Microsoft's integration strategies and today Microsoft has added a new step in this direction with the launch of Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Discovery Kit.The SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Discovery Kit includes a series of discovery labs that go beyond learning about a particular component of SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to understanding how to build a divisional portal site solution, how to deploy Web applications that integrate tightly with the portal site environment, how to use SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services to track and analyze portal site usage, and lastly,...
In these days seems that the Blogosphere's attention is pointed on one direction: AJAX. On every blog I'm reading in these days I see something about it: articles, tips, opinions etc. and seems that everyone must say something about this new technology. And what about me? If everyone are leaving comments, I think I can say what I think too... Certainly I'm not a big expert on Web Development but AJAX (or Asyncronous Javascript And XML) is in summary a "new" technology based on XMLHttp and Javascript, where the data exchangement between the web page and the server occours without postback.AJAX is new?...
Who reads my blog from a long time knows that I've always predicted that Google was working on a complete communication platform that could embrace email, messaging, surfing, desktop searching etc.Yesterday was the launch of Google Desktop 2 (and I've launched another prediction for this name's choice ) and today I see that the New York Times (on an article written by John Markoff) say that Google Desktop 2 is just one of two major product announcements, and the second could be a Google Instant Messaging system.This is the first time that the rumours are out officially on a big...
Google Maps is one of the coolest piece of software released in the last months and applications borned on top of it are a lot. One of the interesting usage you can have with Google Maps is a tracking system for visitors of your web pages and GVisit is a free site that offers a good service like this: you've only to insert the url of your site, add a little piece of Javascript on the page you want to monitor and you're ready to go... you'll have a wonderful visual map of your visitors.I've added it to my Blog and...
Today Google has released a new version of its desktop search tool, now called Google Desktop 2. Seems that the main news for this new release are a new sidebar that gives access to a lot of informations like news, weather, RSS feeds, it gives immediate access to your Gmail account and it has a Scratch Pad for quick notes and a Quick View section for the files and web pages you often access (this sidebar is totally customizable).This new version now has also a toolbar for Outlook (an add-in).Privacy problems? I hope Google has worked also on this field...
P.S. A little personal note: the new...
I've blogged this rumours lots of months ago and finally now it seems official: the future Microsoft Business Solutions suite (code name "Project Green") will be centered around Windows SharePoint Services platform.This is extremely important because now we could have a complete and totally integrate powerful platform, able to satisfy all business needs on the client side and on the web side.What about Navision? Rumours say that the actual (and poor) Commerce Portal section will be based on Sharepoint. This is so cool... we could write personalized web parts and customers could manage their business needs also on a powerful web...
Holidays are the time for relax your mind but also the time to finish or perform works that you've planned to do but that you've never find enough time to complete.In these months I've planned to refresh my personal website appearance and the best period to complete all the work needed is obviously this, my summer holidays. I've decided to give a new look to my site, a more simple look, without scripting or database but only a collection of presentation pages where to find informations about my activities. So, no DNN Portal (my old portal is again alive...
A good news just discovered from SysInternals website during a download of one of the tool I always install on my machines, Process Explorer: the last 9.21 version (released today) has now added the support for Windows Vista. What's new in Version 9.2:CPU history shown in tray icon CPU history colummI/O delta columnProcess security editingReports loaded 32-bit DLL on Windows 64-bit Support for Windows Vista Good to know it...
In these days I'm reading a lot about this question: what will be the future name for the actual feeds?Seems that the Microsoft's choice to use the term "Web Feeds" on the last Internet Explorer 7 has launched a battle for the name: someone tells that "Web Feeds" is a more appropriate name and someone tells that the RSS brand can't be changed.What will be the future? Personally, I think that the term "Web Feeds" is much more descriptive and intuitive name, expecialy for people that have not a technical skills. Everyone seeing the term "Web Feeds" can understand what...
In these first hours of my reconnection with the IT world, I've just discovered that the IE Team has refreshed the IE Logo for the forthcoming version of the new Internet Explorer 7.I like this new logo and I'm curious to see the new look for the Windows Vista™ version of IE. Why not launch a symbol with 3D effects?
Unfortunately my 10 days in the south of Italy are just finished and now I'm at home from few hours.A summary of this holiday? Sun, sea, swimming, lots of walking and photos, good food, no internet and a scoop: I've met in Capri a famous man with his last (or one of the last? ) girl... do you recognize it?
Today was the last day of work and tomorrow I will be on holiday for a week, an holiday without pc, internet, programming etc. but only devoted to relax the body and the mind.I will be in the south of Italy, at the Capri and Ischia island... I hope to have a wonderful period. My reconnection with the IT world will be only when I'll come back to home and I hope to see some good news (maybe Vista will change its name? )... See you soon and Happy Blogging to all... Have a nice holiday! ;)
This is a thing that I've to bookmark for the future (could be useful)...
The Longhorn Team RSS Blog has
published an article (not yet finished) about Guidance on how to create web pages and RSS feeds that
work correctly with IE 7 and Windows Vista and how to enable RSS
autodiscovery features.
In order to tell IE (and other browsers, for that
matter), that your page has an associated web feed, you need to add a link element inside the header of your web page.
<html>
<head> <link rel="alternate"
type="application/rss+xml" title="your feed title here"
href="http://www.company.com/feedurl.rss">
</head><body>...
Put the title of your feed in...
Today I've discovered one of the coolest web parts I've never seen...the idea comes from the mind of Carlos Segura and essentialy it's a Sharepoint web part that permits you to write and test code directly into your Sharepoint site. The code is Visual Basic .NET based code (Visual Studio for Applications code).More details about the usage are available on this post. This is really a cool idea, useful if you want to test little pieces of code that works directly with the Sharepoint engine.You can download the web part from HERE.
This is the last unpredictable present given us by Microsoft and expecially the Sharepoint Team... they have released a complete set of Sharepoint Templates ready to use.
They're a good starting point to easily build a corporate portal system and they are tailored to address the needs and requirements for specific business processes or sets of tasks for organizations of any size and I think this is one of the sign that Sharepoint has a central part on the present and future Microsoft tecnologies (and this is why Bill Gates has nomined himself as a product leader for Sharepoint ).
UPDATE: The...
I remember this series of programs when Visual Studio .NET was launched for the first time and they was my first source of information for learning .NET, so nice to see that they're renewed for the new version of Visual Studio 2005 and .NET 2.0.Ladies and gentleman, the 101 Samples for Visual Studio 2005 are here for you...
This morning I've done a quick tour on the new Microsoft Windows Vista Developer
Center website (why it's not so publicized on blogs?).
The site is full of interesting contents and explanations about the new
Windows architecture and programming model, but a section is missing in my
opinion... why not placing a SAMPLE section where we can find examples
of applications (open source obviously) written for Vista? I'm talking about
applications that works with the new programming model, with the new user
interface (AERO and XAML), applications written expecially for learning.
I know that the site is totally new (and young) and maybe...
Installing Windows Vista Beta 1 under Virtual
PC is not an immediate task and today the Virtual PC Team has explained
the main
problems, resumable as follow:
Windows Vista Beta 1 does not correctly identify the virtual hard disk
when it is not partitioned. To handle this you should start the installation,
get to the hard disk partitioning page, partition and format your virtual hard
disk, and then reboot the virtual machine.
Windows Vista Beta 1 does not have drivers for the VPC emulated
video card, SCSI adapter and sound card. The video...
Today an important technical writer like Paul Thurrot (a man that knows a lot about the Microsoft's world) has launched a terrible calls: boycott Internet Explorer.Thurrot exactly said that "My advice here is simple: Boycott Internet Explorer. It is a cancer on the Web, and must be stopped. IE is insecure and is not standards-compliant, which makes it unworkable for both end users and Web content creators".Words like this from a people like this weights like a mountain... IE is really so terrible? Are all the energy that IE Team is spending in these days to have a better browser...
Skinning .Text and now CommunityServer (CS)
is not an easy job, it requires an hard work with CSS and (expecially) a big
patience...
To help everyone performing this task, Jaxon
Rice has done an interesting creation: he has released Developer blog skin for
Community Server 1.1, a skin template that can be used to
start the creation of a CS skin (the picture below is the page layout on
this template).
The layout works in both 800x600 and larger
resolutions and the tool provides the main layout divs with different
background colours, so that designers can easily see where the layout goes and
can easily identify...
One of the coolest idea that the MSDN staff had in these years was the
creation of the famous Visual Studio Starter Kits, a set of sample
applications with complete source in C# and VB.NET.
I've always loved this idea: Starter Kits are useful for a beginner (that can
learn a lot by viewing the code and undertanding how it's organized) and useful
for the expert (that can observ what are the MS best practices to solve some
tasks).
With Visual Studio .NET 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0 the Starter Kits
tradition is growing: there's an official Visual
Studio 2005...
One of the coolest things in Firefox is the built-in
Download Manager: when you've to download a file, the Download Manager window
starts and you can start and stop your download, pause and resume it and in
general you can launch and queue multiple downloads at a time.
Why IE7 has not this feature? I think it's a big lack for a modern browser.
IE7, listen to me... if you want to maintain the leadership over Firefox, I
think you've a lot to do more...
Tiernan
has a tip to do with the new Internet Explorer 7 (Beta 1) one
of the things I've always done in Firefox: add a new search engine
to the browser's search interface.
To do this with IE7, just follow these steps:
Edit your registry (for example by using Regedit) and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Internet
Explorer/Search Scopes key.
Add a new key named as you want (for example "MSDN").
Add a string value called DisplayName that
is the name that is shown in the browser.
Add a DWORD called SortIndex which
should be 5 (but...