December 2005 Entries
I'm starting to feel in love with DopplerMobile, my new favourite RSS Reader for my Windows Mobile Smartphone. After testing the Beta 2 version, I've found and signalled to the staff (Erwin is a great and kind person!) the bugs I've discovered and today (only 2 days after) I'm happy to see that a new version (Beta 3) is out.This new Beta 3 version solves one of the bugs I've signalled, the problem on reading posts (the screen was blinking on Beta 2). This was a problem caused by the WebBrowser component and on the previous version can be solved by...
The end of the year 2005 is quite here and it's the time to launch on the air my best wishes for a wonderful end of year and a more wonderful beginning of a new year.Happy New Year 2006 to all of you!
The end of the year comes with this wonderful news I was missing... If you have a machine where Windows and Linux are installed side by side (like my Notebook), how many times you need a file which is stored on an Ext2 Linux volume? I think this can occour a lot if you work also under Linux. Now with the Ext2 Installable File System for Windows (freeware) you can handle all your Ext2 disks as standard Windows disks (and also you will be able to handle floppy disks which have been formatted with an Ext2 file system). This...
This evening I've tryed to play a bit with Doppler Mobile, all exciting to have found the mobile RSS Reader I need, but actually I'm a bit disappointed. Doppler Mobile is too much a beta, it's really a promising product but it has also lots of problems.I've installed it on my Windows Mobile Smartphone with success, then I've tryed to add a feed (in my test I've added the main feed of ASP.NET Weblogs, located at http://weblogs.asp.net/MainFeed.aspx. The feed was correctly recognized (the application on the main page of the subscribed feeds shows the feed title and the number of unreaded...
The application I need on my Windows Mobile Smartphone is a RSS Reader, to
check my favourite feeds when I'm on travel or out of office and I've not a pc
on my hands.
Unfortunately, I've searched a lot for a decent (and FREE) RSS Reader for
Smartphones but seems that there are few choices on the horizon (and not free!
). I was planning to write something by myself when, yesterday evening, a
light comes on my screen: Doppler!
Doppler is a RSS Reader, available for different platforms
such as Windows, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC 2003 and Windows Mobile...
This is a big revelation:
Google is planning to release an API for reading RSS
Feeds (the same API used for its Google Reader application) from
third-party applications.
The new APIs will include synchronization, feed-level and item-level tagging,
per-item read and unread status, as well as rich media enclosure and metadata
handling and the public access could be launched in the next months.
This new API will be extremely simple to use (no SOAP) and its flexibility is
shown on this reverse-engineering
analysis of the Google Reader backend. You could be able to build your own
personal feed reader on top...
I've never played with SQL Server Service Broker (one of the coolest feature on SQL Server 2005) but I'm sure that in the next future I'll have to keep in contact with him.SQL Server Service Broker is essentially a set of distributed communication patterns that adds messaging capabilities to SQL Server, where internal or external processes can send and receive guaranteed, asynchronous messaging by using extensions to Transact-SQL. This new feature allows the developers to build distributed applications delegating all the system level messaging details to the Service Broker itself.Service Broker's functionality management via a GUI tool could be a big help for a...
Francesco
Balena has an interesting post where he reveals a misterious assembly
attribute:
<Assembly:
System.Runtime.CompilerServices.SuppressIldasm()>
This attribute (where is the documentation???) can be used to obfuscate an
assembly from ILDASM.EXE (the .NET
Framework MSIL Disassembler). If you try to decode an assembly that has
this attribute, you obtain this error message:
Wow, an embedded obfuscator??? No... it's only a basic way to obfuscate
your code, because this attribute protect your assembly only from decoding
it via ILDASM. If you use other tools (such
as Reflector) your assembly will be decoded.
So... why this method? Only to have a basic obfuscator
feature?
The .NET Framework is a tree with so many branches that sometimes you
loose time on thinking how to implement a certaint thing and, after
that, you discover that "someone" has embedded the functionality you want into
the Framework itself.
Tomorrow I was thinking on how to check (on a Windows Form application) if
the OS was booted correctly or not and I've discovered the System.Windows.Forms.SystemInformation.BootMode
property. The task is so simple now: 1 Select Case System.Windows.Forms.SystemInformation.BootMode
2 Case BootMode.FailSafe
3 'Safe Mode
4 Case BootMode.FailSafeWithNetwork
5 'Safe Mode with Networking support
...
To all my friends, to all my readers, to all the Blogosphere and to all people in the world... _____ _,---' `-,_ * `-,_ `-, `-,@@@@@@@@@@ _ @@@@@@@@@@@ (( )) (\_ ;;### ###;; {} \\ // {} _*__ (\_c\ ;; O ( O ;; \\---\/,-{=\ /= /\ \\ \ \ ( ) ;;, (_) ;; ~~\\//~~ \\ // \ \ \\ \ @@@@@ ;;//~\\;;; (\_(\ {{=\\//=} ___\_\_\__| \ \ __ ;;;;;;;;_ / (o \\// [==='`____`__ \ / /\ ;;;;; \ \_ ) ) \ <`--'> |_ :~|~~~~~~|__/ /\ \ ...
Good news from the Office 12 world... Michael Affronti,
PM for Microsoft Outlook, today has
revealed the project of embedding RSS management
capabilites into the future Outlook 12.
Outlook 12 will have the capabilities to subscribe RSS feeds and manage them,
exactly like actual aggregators (but I hope something more ).
Interacting with RSS feeds will be extremely similar to managing your mail
items. RSS will be live within the mail module and they will keep the
standard look and feel of folders, hierarchies, and the drag-and-drop
support familiar to all users. Michael says that "RSS items
will be a derivation of the IPM.post message...
This is another myth that sometimes I observ on many database implementations
(here I'm referring expecially on Navision SQL Server databases): to speed
up queries, sometimes many developers create lots of separate indexes (I've
seen cases where there was an index for every column of the table).
It's true that many SQL Server indexes can permit to improve the select
performances, but they have also a big counterside.
On SQL Server you can have one clustered index (all the rows in the
table are stored in the order of the clustered index key) and many
non-clustered indexes (used for queries and stored as...
I'm not a maniac of extreme performance testing (expecially when writing simple code) but there are some personal rules learned during the years that I always respect.One of these rules was the way on how to test for empty strings with .NET. I've always learned that, despite all the simple methods provided by the .NET Framework, the most efficient and performant way to test for an empty string is to write something likeIf MyStr.Length = 0 Then(this code produce less MSIL instructions) but (as you know) new Framework = new instructions :P and today, after years and years of doing always the...
The myth that Microsoft was not using too much managed code for their
production products is revealed today on an interesting post by Darryl
Burling: the truth is that Microsoft is using lots of managed code on their
final products, and these are few data:
Visual Studio 2005: 7.5 million lines
SQL Server 2005: 3 million lines
BizTalk Server: 2 million lines
Visual Studio Team System: 1.7 million lines
Windows Presentation Foundation: 900K lines
Windows Sharepoint Services: 750K lines
Expression Interactive Designer: 250K lines
Sharepoint Portal Server: 200K lines
Content...
I remember that on my old personal website in the past, exactly in this period, to celebrate Christmas days I always placed a litlte Javascript on my HTML body to draw a snow effect on the main page of the site.Todd Bleeker has done exactly the same for Sharepoint in a more elegant manner: he has embedded a JavaScript code in a content editor web part that will draw the famous snow falling effects on your SharePoint site.To obtain this nice effect, just save the snow.dwp locally and import it onto the Web Part page. You're ready for snowing... So simple and so...
Some days ago on a post I was talking about how important is, on an
heavy load database environments (such as a Navision DB), to check the status
of SQL Server indexes on frequently accessed tables.
The examples given was for a SQL Server 2000 database
(actually the most common environment), but to be more precise and complete I've
to signal that on SQL Server 2005 the index management is
changed (but all the considerations on my post are obviously still valid).
If you are using the new SQL Server 2005, you've to remember that the
instructions DBB SHOWCONTIG, DBCC DBREINDEX, DBCC
INDEXDEFRAG...
I've said in the past that the new 4.0 SP1 version of
Microsoft Navision is not only a Service Pack (like someone
could imagine) but a new version with lots of improvements on the engine
(expecially on development and SQL Server optimization).
Navision 4.0 SP1 works with SQL Server 2005 and by using it
your performances will be increased a lot (for new projects that will start on
4.0 SP1 platform, start thinking on using SQL Server 2005). If you actually have
a project that works on Navision 4.0 platform, convert it to work under the new
4.0 SP1 platform is...
I've found this futuristic device on James
Kendrick's Blog but reading his article I've discovered that DualCor cPC is a reality!
DualCor cPC is a device that is able to run Windows XP for normal
computing tasks and switching to Windows Mobile 5.0 when the user needs
more PDA type functions.It has a dual processor design, a Via 1.5 GHz
processor running Windows XP 2005 Tablet Edition for standard computing
functions and an Intel chipset running Windows Mobile 5.0 Phone Edition
for handling PDA and phone tasks, with an 800x480 Touch Screen and all ports
that a standard PC has (3 USB 2.0 ports...
There was few news about it but between the various improvements that Google
staff has done on Gmail, one of this could have a big impact on our every day
business: Gmail
Mobile.
Now you can access your Gmail inbox also from a mobile phone that has a
browser able to open HTML pages (and Gmail will feets your screen resolution and
size).
Obviously, if you have a modern web-enabled phone you can access your Gmail
mailbox also via the standard interface (exactly like a browser on your pc), but
I think that the mobile interface could be more fast and...
I'm writing this post because I'm observing that who is responsible to
administer a Microsoft Navision database on SQL Server sometimes lacks on some
concepts that must be clear to have good performances.
Sometimes when the database is heavy load, your queries (expecially when you
have to join multiple tables) could become slow. What's the problem? Has your
Navision developer not written an efficient code?
Sometimes this could be true ( ) but in many cases it's only a problem
that can be solved by optimizing your SQL Server. Here I want to expose one of
the task that every database...
All modern browsers now have RSS Feeds autodiscovery feature: if you use IE7,
Firefox, Opera etc. when you reach a site that as an RSS feed available, an icon
shows you that you can subscribe the feed.
But... what icon? The old RSS orange icon is not the best choice for a
universal symbol, so the Microsoft RSS
Team about two months ago asked
the community what they think about a possible standard icon for feeds.
The possible choice was undoubtely interesting, but I remember that some of
us asked them to try to have a standard between browsers: a must to...
Sometimes you can't imagine how an utility can help you in your every day
work, and sometimes are the little things that makes you happy. This is exactly
the case of Folder Size for
Windows.
Windows Explorer has many lacks and Folder Size is a little addin
that permits you to solve one of this lacks: it adds a new column to the Details
view in Windows Explorer to show not only the size of files, but also the
size of folders. It keeps track of which folders you view, and scans them in the
background so you can see complete size...
This is undoubtley true... Microsoft is always more open to listen feedbacks
directly from its users and customers and channels that are assuming every day
more importance on this are Blogs and Forums.
I'm sure that someone on Microsoft is paying attention on what the community
says and thinks and I can say this words because I see often community's
requests that becomes reality.
The last things that makes me happy is this: I've always "spread the world"
by saying that Microsoft have absolutely to release Office
viewers for Windows Mobile Smartphone. It's unbelievable that,
if I receive an email on...
A good news
for who loves to blog on MSN
Spaces: now the MSN Blogging engine officially supports the MetaWeblog API.
You can now use your favourite blogging tool (MetaWeblog API-compliant) to
write posts directly into your MSN Space, without interaction with the site. A
feature too much asked but finally here...
If there's someone of you that wants to try the new Microsoft CRM
3.0, there's a good news for you: Microsoft has released a good Virtual
PC image with a complete MS CRM environment preinstalled.
In more details, the VPC image - contains a one-box installation of
Microsoft CRM 3.0 both server and client.- is built with Microsoft CRM 3.0
demo data (Adventure Works Cycle)- has been built on Windows Server 2003,
Exchange 2003 and SQL Server 2005.- blank Sharepoint page located at http://localhost:1919- CRM 3.0 server located at
http://localhost:5555- includes Visual
Studio 2005 Pro edition. - is time-bombed for...
I think that Google staff is working a lot on Gmail in these days... After the previous news segnalation, this morning I've discovered a new addition on Gmail: a built-in RSS Reader, placed on the top of your message list.The RSS Reader is totally cutomizable (just by clicking the Customize button): you can choose from a big list of predefined feeds or add your favourite feeds by yourself (by placing the feed url on the Search box on the left):This is a good feature but I think that it's not totally well-working at the moment (I was unable to add...
Tabbed browsing is on e of the coolest feature that a modern browser actually has, but why not adding it also on an email client? Why not having the possibility to open email messages in separate tabs?Myk Melez has think about this and he has launch a new (unofficial) release of Mozilla Thunderbird email client with tabs:With this Thunderbird version, you can open every email message on a separate tab, really useful when you want to work with different email messages that are not consecutive on the message list. Using the new feature is simple, just right-click a message header and select "Open...
I've just discovered 2 little news on my Gmail account:you can now view some attachments as HTML (I've tested only with PDF and Word documents). This is useful if you want to read quicly an attached documents without downloading it.You have a new button on the left side that permits you to call a friend via Google Talk. This seems to be only a spot for using Google Talk. Come on guys...
I'm happy to see that every Microsoft Team is starting to embrace the Blog
philosophy.
The last born is the ClickOnce Team Blog, announced
today. I'd like to read soon new and interesting things about one of the most
powerful and less known deployment tecnologies that Microsoft has given us.
I believe a lot on ClickOnce so... I'm one of the first subscribers!
I think that everyone of us will be excited to test the future Internet Explorer 7 under Windows XP, but after reading this post on the IE Team Blog I'm a little worried.The Team say that "We’ll post an updated pre-release build of IE7 for Windows XP publicly – no MSDN membership required – during the first calendar quarter of 2006.". So? We can't have a beta version to test until March 2006? This is not a good news for everyone involved on developing websites. Why all this time to release it?At this time I think that the IE Team...
I've received this interesting question after my post about my
Smartphone application called SmartBlog (that permits me to
post on a MetaWeblogAPI compliant blogging engine like .Text via a
Windows Mobile Smartphone): is it possible to post on .Text directly
via its user interface?
The response seems to be NO, because .Text login form uses
Javascript and seems that it's not compliant with Pocket IE (but I don't know
what are the reasons). The new Community Server instead seems to be
Pocket IE compliant.
However, I think it's a bad idea to write a blog post with a Smartphone or a
Pocket PC directly...
Finding the software you need every day on your Smartphone is not always so simple, mainly for two reasons:there are not too much applications written for Windows Mobile Smartphone but the main part are for the Pocket PC platform.Windows Mobile free software is not so widespread.so in my little free time I've decided to write by myself the basic applications I need to have with me.After having built the number 1 application on my virtual "To do list", SmartBlog (an application that permits me to write posts on my .Text blog directly from the Smartphone when I'm out of office,...
Microsoft Research Labs have released a new Outlook addon called SNARF (that stay for Social Network and Relationship Finder).
SNARF is basically an addon for your email client that can be used to sort your incoming messages by their importance.
But, what is the definition of "importance" for this tool? The number of emails that a certain person sent to you? The sender? Mmmm... I'm really sceptic.
It's so difficult to decide if a mail is more important than another based on these criterias I think. If my manager sends me a humor email and a person that I've not on my address...
December is always the month where bloggers are launching their predictions
for the new year and I see that someone has just started to spread its
prediction now.
I've never joined the game but maybe this year I could launch myself on it...
However, here one of my prediction for the future (I was talking about it in
these days with friends): we'll see soon the first form of viruses that will
spread themself via RSS.
RSS feeds are now an emerging technology and all modern browsers now have a
built-in support for them. When the new IE7 will be out,...
Today I've upgraded all my machines to the latest Firefox 1.5 version. No problem with my notebook and with my 2 machines at work, but today on my home desktop PC I've found a strange problem. This was the only machine with Firefox 1.0.7 previously installed (the other machines were not updated to this version). After the Firefox 1.5 installation, I've decided to update my previous themes and I've found a problem: installation can't start, on the screen appeared a message bar indicating that "software installation is disabled, click the "Edit Options" button to enable it...".Ok, maybe the famous "Allow web sites...