Well, this was long overdue. I had promised to upload my article that won a contest by osnews.com. I finally found a little time to upload it here, though the formatting is still a bit screwed especially on the code snippets. You can read the article . If you would like a pdf version of the same let me know and I can either put it up here or email it to you. Here is my blurb from the article: ...

Thanks to Chris who accidentally pointed me to this. This is an update to my earlier post on Lookout. Seems like Lookout is now part of the MSN Sandbox and you can download it from there which is pretty cool of Microsoft to offer it soon after acquiring that company. If you use Outlook 2000 or later (not Outlook Express) then this is a highly recommended add-on. ...

In Visual Studio 2005, if you have a windows form and have a fair amount of threading going then that things can get pretty frustrating. As you know, because of the way that Windows handles its user interface, you should only be updating the user interface from the main thread. If you try to do it on other threads, bad things happen, and they can be pretty hard to track down. Windows forms includes some code to detect when that is happening, but it can’t do it in all cases. When you get in this situation, you need to call Invoke() on the form, and pass it a delegate to the function that you want to be called on the main thread. Eric discusses this in detail which is a recommended read if you play with a lot of threads on your Win Forms. ...

I guess it had to happen one day, but as of this morning Google’s search engine is not working - atleast not here in Bay Area, USA which is also where Google is Headquatered. CNN has also picked up on this story and mention that in addition to the US, France and UK are also having issues. When I try and search on something I get the error an Error -27 as shown below. You can click on the image to see the full size. ...

If you don’t know what Wings is, then read the earlier part of this series. There have been a number of changes since Part 1 and this part, namely the release of a new Longhorn build. For the Assemblies you will usually need the System.Storage.WinFS.dll assembly in most of your projects. It represents the basic interfaces and classes (for example, Item and ItemContext). In addition, System.Storage.Core.dll is required for most Wings work. Once you have both of those assemblies, most of the functional groups are separated into separate assemblies. For example, if you are working with Contacts, you will need the System.Storage.Contacts.dll assembly; if you are working with Files, you will need the System.Storage.Files.dll assembly. On some rare occasions, you will also need the WindowBase.dll assembly. This assembly contains much of the core Longhorn-specific content. All the Longhorn assemblies are now located in one place: \Microsoft.NET\Windows\v6.0.4030 (depending on the current version of the Longhorn assemblies). ...

Well as you can see I uploaded a new build of the blog that incorporates a new skin called LuxInterior by Gosatango. I have made some minor tweaks to this and there is still one bug that I need to resolve, though there is a workaround uploaded for it, so hopefully you would not see any issues. I would like to know if you want me to change anything in this e.g. personally I don’t like the headings of the posting in ALL CAPS; I would rather keep them in the same case as I entered them. But do let me know what you think, and also if there are any problems/issues, etc then I surely want to hear those. ...

Microsoft has the RC now available for download (its free) their new Virtual Server 2005. Virtual Server 2005 guest virtual machine environments are optimised for Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows NT 4.0 Server, yet enables users to run a broad range of x86-based operating systems. Although this Virtual Server 2005 download is in the release candidate phase of its development, it includes all the features of the final version, such as SCSI support, 2-node clustering, and an enhanced COM API for improved control. The product will be available in two flavours with the Standard Edition supporting 4 CPU’s and the Enterprise Edition supporting upto 32 CPUs. Note that the per the licence, the RC is an evaluation copy only and cannot be used in a production environment. ...

I don’t know how this happened, but one of my old posts now shows up in the top 10 when you google on “ Bangalored ”. This has generated not only a lot of traffic to the weblog but also some people just not getting my original intent of the post - which was a Joke. Oh Well, you can brood over it and let me know your feelings too. ...

As Ramesh writes in an old post , the Class Designer is not a UML tool but uses the notation. He goes on to say the prime audience for this tool is the Developer then what do the Architects use? Is there a different version? I personally am a bit cheesed off by this. I love UML and have used it extensively and know the value (and pains) it can bring, like with everything else there are pros and cons. Like I said in mu comment, what is Microsoft’s issue in supporting UML? Is it more politics since Rational was bought by IBM or is there some other “real” reason? ...

Anatoly has a pretty funny post to which I can totally relate. I login to my MSN account because of the various passport accounts and also messenger. If it was not for those service I would totally ditch Hotmail. Yahoo and GMail have so much user experience, though I gotta admit I love Outlook 2003 if you have not seen the new interface its worth a spin. ...

Wired is running a story that interview’s a former senior manager who shares his firsthand knowledge of the device’s development, the glitches that almost killed it, and the extraordinary steps Apple took to keep the iPod a secret. You can check it out here .

Microsoft has a site dedicated towards Architects geared towards VSTS where if you are an Architect (or an aspiring one) then you can learn more on this and also provide feedback back to Microsoft. Of interest on the same lines would be the following blogs too: Keith Short R Ramesh Stuart Kent Here is an excerpt from the site: ...

As theofficeweblog writes Lookout ver. 1.2 is available for download until 1200 hrs PST today after which you would need to find a friend or wait till Microsoft decides how they want to release it. Sure, I would love to download it but what is Lookout? Well, that is the exact same reaction I had when I first read this in the papers yesterday. Basically, Lookout is an extension to Outlook written in .NET for doing really fast searches. With Lookout installed, you can search the entire contents of your mailbox in less than a second. It works on Outlook 2000 and up and requires ver 1.1 of the .NET Framework. Just enter your search and press enter - the results are instant. Lookout will find your search terms hiding nearly anywhere in your Outlook mailbox - subjects, bodies, phone numbers, addresses, etc. With Lookout you can search for: ...

Unfortunately it is not. The UI is better - but that is just the new resource files used with cooler icons (compared to the previous version), but VSS itself is as limiting a product as it has been till now. I remember asking one of the product managers of VSTS on VSS when I was in Redmond, and they had said that it will be a completely revamped product - something which Microsoft internally will (or can - I forget now) use in the product development teams and should be able to compete with ClearCase, CVS, etc. But I guess, Beta1 ships with the same old useless source control. ...

Since a String class, is immutable and when it is not needed, it cannot be programmatically scheduled for GC or in other words, it is not possible to predict when it will be deleted from the memory that can be a security risk especially if the string contains sensitive information such has credit card numbers, passwords, etc. This is where a new class in .NET 2.0 which ships with Visual Studio 2005 called SecureString comes in. It represents text that should be kept confidential and is encrypted for privacy when being used, and deleted from computer memory when no longer needed. ...

Found this interesting link which has all kinds of DVD Hacks for most DVD Players (including my cheap-no-brand-one). You can also enter codes to make your DVD Players region free - neat! Update: This link was broken its been fixed now. Thanks to my lovely wife - Meenakshi for finding that. She does need to read my blog every now and then especially when I am quizzing her. *grin* ...

My friend Wai pointed me to this and you will knock you socks off listening to it. Make sure your speakers are turned on and all the way up. :)

Found this of Karan’s post . Max Min (with way too much time on his/her hand) created IMHO an awesome Flash Application that can make George W Bush deliver a speech you always wanted to hear. Just type in an alphabet and pick one of the suggested words which later you can move around or delete. You can also save your creations and let others vote on it! ...

The System Definition Model (SDM) provides the basis for the underlying metamodel used by DSD . The SDM describes distributed systems as four layers: Applications Application hosts Network Topology OS and physical hardware or devices. For each layer, the model describes the connections between systems and their configurations. By adopting a common model for all these layers, the model makes it possible for you to define and express requirements and policies across these layers. For example, an application can require a certain authentication mode or that other resources need to exist on the logical server that hosts the application. A logical server can also require that the application it hosts must support a certain authentication mode and that it disable specific features that present a security risk. ...

Distributed System Designers (DSD’s) are an integrated set of graphical designers which are part of the new Visual Studio 2005. With these designers which you can use to visualise and define applications, compose systems, design classes, model logical representations of datacenters, and bind systems to logical servers in the logical layout of the target datacenter. Their high-level goals are: Support designing and implementing applications Composing applications into deployable systems Modelling logical representations of the target datacenter Defining and validating deployments of the systems you compose against the logical datacenter models. The designers help software architects and designers, developers, and operations analysts resolve the following high-level goals: ...

I thought of changing the skin to see if there is another one that is better. What do you guys think of this one? I would probably be uploading a couple more this weekend and trying out those also sometime next week. Let me know your feedback.

As Jim Fawcette who had had this interesting entry writes, we’re starting to see Microsoft’s strategy for serving different market sectors with the preview of Visual Studio Team System (VSTS), the enterprise version of VS 2005 and the various Visual Studio Express (VSE) Editions. What hasn’t been discussed widely yet is that Microsoft’s approach is fundamentally different from what we’ve seen for development tools. Historically, design focuses on the high-end tool, then all other versions are essentially crippled versions of the “real” release, with levels of features simply turned off with little or no attention being paid to the unique needs of each market sector. From what Microsoft has shown us so far, the Whidbey release will be a welcome change with each version specifically designed to meet the needs of its target user. ...

I wanted to walk you through a quick demo on some of the enhancements for data access in Visual Studio 2005. Please note that though I have a bunch of screen shots, the application here is pretty simple. My goal is not to show you the power of the new stuff that makes the developer more productive and a lot of it is the small stuff - which all adds up to a fair amount of FTE’s. So, lets start. ...

Now, not sure if this error is supposed to be smart or cheesy, or did a programmer at Google just have too much sugar, but I got this error a few times tonight and the first time I have seen it.

I got a bit of time this weekend to play with SQL Server Express (SQE) and here are some more details on it. I installed this part of Whidbey 2005. By default the setup installs this under the SQLEXPRESS instance name, so to connect to it you would use something like “machinename\SQLEXPRESS”. The API set for SQL Server Express is the same as SQL Server so upgrading from one to the other would not be a problem. A new GUI tool called SQL Server Express Manager (XM) will be freely available as a separate Web download. XM will allow easy database management and query analysis capabilities, will have a small download size, and will be freely redistributable. XM is a lightweight tool built on top of the latest version of the .NET Framework and the new SQL Server System Management Objects API. ...