March 2006 Entries
I don't know if someone of us has experienced this problem with the
Visual Studio 2005 Designer, but for me it's not the first time
that it occours.
I have an application that uses some user controls between different forms
and on one of these user controls I've added a TabControl with different TabPages. Every TabPage is set to have a specific
BackColor (on my case, the color with RGB=196;
218; 250).
If I want to add a new TabPage, Visual Studio 2005 creates the new tab with
the default BackColor of "Transparent", so I have to correctly set the BackColor
of...
Also on a big company like Google there's someone that makes little
"disasters"...
Some days ago Google's
Official Blog appeared hacked by someone, but the real things was
different (as admitted by
Google itself): "We've determined the cause of tonight's outage. The blog
was mistakenly deleted by us (d'oh!) which allowed the blog address to be
temporarily claimed by another user. This was not a hack, and nobody guessed our
password. Our bad."
In summary, for an error, someone inside Google has deleted the blog, so a
user (Trey Philips, after having found
the 404 "Not Found" HTTP error) has tryed to...
I've just finished to read with interest the last
post of Maurice de Beijer
after his speaking called "Visual Basic or C# battle".
The main argument is always the same story: what are the advantages of using
C# vs VB.NET or vice-versa?
Maurice posts some interesting points of analysis:
When Visual Basic has an edge:
Office/VSTO development.The Office object model was created with
optional parameters, a feature of VBA, in mind and makes heavy use of it. As
Visual Basic supports this it has an advantage over C#, unless of course you
like typing Type.Missing :-)
...
Yes, the cross line is reached: today I've officially joined the Microsoft Certified Application Developer's community! Today I've passed my last exam, 70-310 (Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework), and now I'm an MCAD.The exam is difficult (at least for me that I don't work too often on all the topics covered) and experience counts a lot, expecially to have an high score (I had an high score on web services and service component topics but I've lost pounds on tracing and debugging topics). However, the final score was...
I don't know if this
news will be really true, but if (as it seems) Microsoft will release in the
next weeks its new Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 for
free, it could be a big step against the new VMWare strategy (VMWare
Player and future VMWare Server free of charge).
I think that, for a real big step on the virtualization market, Microsoft
will have (on a near future) to integrate a virtualization software into Vista,
but for the moment this is a big news for all users...
Today I was talking about "1st April's Fishes" (why not
organize some fools on my office? ) and the discussion is fallen on
what could be the biggest jokes on the Internet this year.
I'm surely waiting for a big surprise (or a joke) from a big company, maybe
not from Microsoft (Microsoft's guys are not so opened to these
jokes and Origami was launched some weeks ago without waiting
the 1st of April ) but maybe from a company like Google, always
ready to these types of launches on this day (I remember stupidity like Pigeon Rank or
big things like...
Using SQL Server Reporting Services from Microsoft
Dynamics NAV is a feature that is extremely interesting, expecially
with consideration of all the features that the new Reporting platform
inside SQL Server 2005 actually has.
To help this integration, Microsoft has released in these days a set
of predefined report to use with SQL Server 2005 Reporting
Services, and this new set includes also 22 predefined reports for
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 4.0.
Bookmarked for feature tests...
As many of you already know, Google is working on a renewal of its search
engine interface (and the work is ready for testing to all the authorized
people).
An italian guy, Salvatore Aranzulla, has posted an interesting trick that
permits you to use the new Google UI for searching. The tricks is on a cookie
that permits you to see the new Google interface, so you've to set this cookie
appropriately and here are the right steps:
1) Open Mozilla Firefox and install the Add
N Edit Cookies extension (an extension that permits you to edit cookies
on your system). After that, go...
I don't know if this project will have a great future or not, but it's really an interesting initiative: a guys is trying to integrate Microsoft's Enterprise Library into Visual Studio. The project is called Enterprise Library Integration Pack and it's exactly what I hope for the next future: Microsoft have to integrate Enterprise Library and Composite Application Block into the Visual Studio Environment.Here's a first look: We'll have it a day? I hope so... for the moment, good work guy!
This is a question that I've received today from a customer and the answer is
YES.
If you have a .NET Web Service http://www.mydomain.com/myservice.asmx and you
type this url on your browser, a default page (provided by the .NET Framework)
is displayed to you: here you can see all the methods provided by your Web
Service. But how you can obtain a personalized page to the Web Service URL?
The answer is simple and comes from one of the many .NET methods that are not
so famous: the wsdlHelpGenerator element.
This element (placed on the Web.config file) permits you to specify the XML
Web service...
I've just received this interesting news (interesting for all who have an I-mate smartphone with Windows Mobile 5): a new operating system upgrade (version 2.6.331.2) is available and it contains a lot of major features:
Microsoft Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP): Addition of the MSFP allowing Direct Push email, remote device wiping, security policy enforcement and Global Address List Lookup for customers using a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 with Service Pack 2. File beaming over Bluetooth: It is now possible to beam files over Bluetooth using the file manager.
Improved radio functionality:
Microphone level has been boosted.
Cell Broadcast display...
Today there's an important news: Jim Allchin has announced that
Windows Vista will be made officially available to consumers in
January 2007, while making Windows Vista available to businesses only in
November 2006.
Microsoft is working a lot on Vista's functionality and stability and I can
say that I've never seen Beta releases with this level of functionality like
what we have actually on Vista Beta 2. The actual Vista Beta 2 is
rich of features and more stable than the standard MS's betas, so if I think
that I'll have to wait 9 months to see Vista released to the general...
The first CTP
of SQL Server 2005 SP1 was released yesterday and it promises to
correct bugs and add (or complete) features present on the actual build of SQL
2005 (for example full
database mirroring), but at the last SQL Server 2005
Workshop we had 2 days ago on Microsoft Italy, I've listen that someone is
waiting for a patch that corrects a problem (??) that affects an interesting SQL
Server 2005 feature: cryptography.
The problem is essentially that you're forced to declare a column type of
Varbinary on colums that you
want to crypt.
Is this a problem? Why are...
What will be the amount of .NET code into Windows
Vista is a question that everyone that loves the .NET
Framework has asked at least once, but I hope that someone is not waiting for a
new Windows version totally based on managed code: it's pure fantasy!
I've read the interesting
research conducted by Richard Grimes and the reactions around the results
make me thinking that someone is waiting for a new ".NET Windows"... If this
is so, forget it for the moment...
This is a summary of Grimes'research that shows how much .NET code there's
under the Vista builds:
Windows Longhorn PDC03 build:...
This is exactly what I was waiting to see the real "jump" of the Ultra Mobile
PC technology: Microsoft has released a software
emulator for UMPC that permits you to test your application's
layout and screen behavior as it appears on an UMPC.
Essentially, the tool shows how your program, which is
designed for a standard graphic user interface (GUI), appears in the typical
resolution of a UMPC. The UMPC Display Emulator simply
intercepts all of the Win 32 functions that include display, positioning, and
resolution information and then returns the UMPC resolution.
Now the next steps we're waiting is an integration with...
For all the guys that in these days has leaved me here feedbacks or emails by
asking invites for Windows Live Messenger, now you're served: The
Windows Live Messenger Beta experience is open for the general
public.
You can download the new application from here. Please
stop the requests now...
Origami (or should I say Microsoft Ultra Mobile
PC?) is undoubtely a revolutionary product that has all the power to change
the mobility needs that actually we have (we can have a mobile pc always with us
with a low cost), but analyzing in details the particulars that was unveiled in
these days, there's a thing that makes me sceptic: its embedded Virtual
Keyboard.
Origami has a new concept of keyboard called Origami Touch Pack
Interface, that essentially permits you to have a circular virtual keyboard
on the two sides of the display. Will this keyboard so easy to use? Will...
With Office 2003 Microsoft has done a big work on user interface's improvements (Office 2003 has really a nice look, actually the "de-facto" standard for the windows applications), but with the future Office 2007 the work actually done is really impressive!!!Jensen Harris has published today a wonderful preview that I want to propose here for my readers:Word 2007 - Click to enlarge pictureExcel 2007 - Click to enlarge picturePowerPoint 2007 - Click to enlarge pictureOutlook 2007 - Click to enlarge pictureAccess 2007 - Click to enlarge pictureWord 2007 Ribbon - Click to enlarge pictureExcel 2007 Ribbon - Click to enlarge...
All the rumours around the Microsoft's Origami Project are now revealed: on this new section opened on Microsoft's website you can see all the details.Origami is a new concept for an ultra-mobile pc, based on the Tablet PC platform. From the first preview, seems that Origami will have processor with 1Ghz clock, full x86 compatible architecture, integrated graphics capabilities (DirectX 7, DirectX8 Level) with a native resolution of 800x480 and a 7inch display (like a normal DVD player). It has all the standard ports you can find on a notebook (USB, WiFI, Bluetooth, Ethernet, VGA, Compact Flash etc.) and also an hard...
If you've tryed to install Business Analytics on Navision 4.0 SP1 with SQL Server 2005, I think you've found a serious problem: the system is unable to locate Analysis Services. Relax yourself... this is not an installation error but a Business Analytics problem and it's explained by Microsoft:Customers that are running Microsoft Dynamics NAV on SQL Server 2000 and Business Analytics should reconsider moving to SQL Server 2005 until further notice.The problem is that Business Analytics DTS packages etc. do not function on SQL 2005 components as these use the SQL 2000 object models. The Business Analytics DTS packages were...
Greg Schechter has explained us his work on the new Windows Vista User Interface.A new pleasure for our eyes is waiting us. What's my favourite UI gadgets?The Live Thumbnails on the Windows Taskbar (useful if you love to open multiple windows simultaneously):and (obviously) the new 3D vision:
With all my countermeasures that I've adopted in the past against Blog's spamming, I've totally reduced the spamming posts that can enter into my blog and the spamming phenomenon seems to be avoided but... today, when checking my mailbox, I've seen 26 emails that comes from my blog! All the Blogosphere wants to contact me today? No, nothing about this... The emails comes from a spammig website and are full of links to avoid. Is this the new way to spam? No link posting on my blogs (useful to index spam's websites on search engines) but a direct send of...
.NET WebServices are always more an important part of my every day work: they permit you to build distributed infrastructure and are a good way to permit different systems to talk together.One of the useful tricks to increase WebService's performances is to use some sort of caching. Lots of times a WebService will return always the same results over multiple calls, so in this scenario it's recommended to cache the data retrieved to speed up the communication.When developing .NET XML Web services you can take advantage of the ASP.NET output cache by adding the CacheDuration attribute to your WebMethod declaration. The CacheDuration parameter indicates the number...
Carlos Segura has posted an interesting installer in order to have a Sharepoint Webpart Template on Visual Studio 2005.In order to use this template you need install MsBee and the .Net 1.1 Framework. SharePoint_2003_VS2005_WebPart_Template.vsi V2 corrected version (537,63 KB)
This is a question that was out today at the SQL Server 2005 Meeting in Microsoft and that is connected to what I've said in the past about CLR integration into SQL Server 2005: what are the CLR advantages against Extended Stored Procedures? And what about security?Extended stored procedures (normally with the xp_ prefix) calls external DLL (physically reside in a DLL file) that are built with unmamaged code (C, C++) and, as you know, this could cause some security problem on the system (imagine a wrong pointer on memory...).CLR integration is more secure because the code is managed and...