Lavanya Deepak

mohanchoti.com -- Definitive Recruitment Portal

Shikshaplanet, the leading recruitment IT consultants have recently launched a IT dedicated recruitment website called mohanchoti.com. They have launched it as a very informative and very effective route for job seekers to seek thier opportunities with lesser strain and pain.

Check out the website and do spread the word about the same to your friends too.

Comprehensive Interview Aide for .NET

While casually surfing the Internet, I came across a website called SyncFusion and it seems to provide a good collection of Interview questions that would surely help aspiring developers who would like to enter programming careers with .NET.

Here are a few quick links from the website:

1. ASP.NET FAQ
2. Windows Forms FAQ

I am sure this would be a comprehensive resource for any aspiring .NET developer.

Autoformatter -- Tool to convert RTF to HTML

Recently I came across a nice tool which helps easy conversion of RTF documents into HTML documents. It requires .NET Framework 2.0 to run.

Check out the tool from here.

UltimateZip -- Ultimate Desktop Utility

Recently I needed to help my friend with a quick backup tool. He could'nt afford for heavy backup storage architectures since he was hailing from a very small organizations. After a brief research and recall of using a similar tool in my previous organization, I recalled about UltimateZip. The latest version has increased its features multifold including support for CAB, RAR etc archive types.

We were typically interested in the Backup Script feature which would backup using Windows Scheduled Tasks a particular folder and keep in the selected location. The file also would be named with date and time (timestamp).

Check out and download UltimateZip from here.

Learning Service Oriented Architecture Technologies for the Enterprise from the Legend

I wanted to share the information I recieved from iCMG.They are organizing a one-day workshop on "Service-Oriented Architecture in Action" by Clive Finkelstien, who is being celebrated by iCMG as Father of Information Engineering.

The following are the details:

1. Chennai 12th March 2007
2. Hyderabad 13th March 2007
3. Bangalore 14th March 2007
4. Delhi 16th March 2007

Contact Details:

1. Chennai Ms.Nidhi nidhi (at) icmgworld.com / +919880621207
2. Hyderabad Ms.Satyai satya (at) icmgworld.com / +919901679634
3. Bangalore Ms.Shubha subha (at) icmgworld.com/ _919901679634
4. Delhi Ms.Devika devika (at) icmgworld.com / +919945801008

Course Contents:

1. Learn structure of an SOA, its essential and optional elements in a very compact format
2. Web services technologies and WS-* specifications & how they interrelated
3. Key pragmatic design principles to solve the problems of data and process integrity in an SOA environment
4. Modeling the workflow and effective business process management
5. How a successful SOA implementation tackle issues such as asset consolidation, reusability and governance
6. How application design and integration practices change as architects seek to implement the "agile" enterprise.
7. How to recognize critical success factors for implementing Enterprise

Cleaner and Faster Windows Profiles

After using the desktop for a while, we could have observed that our Windows desktop profile became fatter and also this would mean slow response of the system. We normally backup favorites and other important things, login as a different user and then expunge the profile. Then create a new one.

Now, there is an elegant Windows Service from Microsoft called "User Profile Hive Cleanup Service", which attempts to address this issue starting from Windows 2000 and higher.

This download is available for Genuine Windows users and they have to pass through Windows Validation. You can access the download from here.

ObjectConnections RulesEngine

The newer version of .NET based RulesEngine has been launched by ObjectConnections. A comprehensive RulesEngine provides a seamless and efficiently architect product providing scalable solutions for the business. This one seems to be new and is downloadable from here.

The other good RulesEngine is from Yasu Technologies. I have been using this in my previous organization and is quite friendly. The tech support is also quite fast.

There are a few good open source rules engines too. A few of them are:

1. NxBRE
2. SRE

Student-Specific Discussion Forum

Following up my post on Microsoft Academic Project 2006-07, while I was deep traversing and browsing Microsoft India Students website, I came across an innovative discussion forum dedicated to students from different metropolitan cities of India.

Unlike the other discussion forums which are frequented by eminent developers well-versed in the field, these discussion forums under the name of Samvaad are targetted to serve the students community.

Here is the Samvaad Student-oriented discussion forum URL.

Microsoft India Academic Projects Year 2006-07

It is an aspiration beyond any doubt of a computer science or other discipline graduate to work on cutting edge and state of the art technology to get hands on experience on software process methodologies that are being followed in IT industries.

Microsoft India Students has brought in this Microsoft India Academic Projects Year 2006-07, This program would be immensely beneficial for both academic institutions and students to hone and finetune thier skills in software greatly.

Project Management Course in Chennai by PMAC

I recieved a newsletter from PMAC (Project Management Advanced Center) regarding a four-day workshop on Project Management, in conformance with Project Management Institute (PMI) of USA. I would like to share the details with other interested readers for thier benefit.

Course Contents:

The organizers have given the following address in the newsletter for contact and registration:

Mrs.Pranava Latha–Business Manager - PMAC
Flat No: 401,
Sreemaan Vikas Residency,
Plot No.135 A,
Street No1 ,Lane No 2,
Teacher's Colony,
East Marredpally ,
Secunderabad-500 026

FastCGI for PHP

PHP is an excellent powerful scripting language that has been around in the Unix Worlds. With its advent to Windows World due to threading implementations, PHP installers recommend running it as CGI process for safety of the webserver. However the downside of CGI is that each request spawns a unique process and hence more memory is consumed thus slowing down the web server.

Fortunately, there are two implementations of FastCGI for PHP, the URLs of which I would like to share with other readers.

1. Caraveo Opensource FastCGI for PHP/Perl
2. Technical Preview of FastCGI for IIS 6.0 from IIS.NET

Quick Online Currency Convertor

Sometimes our applications might need an automatic currency conversion. It is normally a tedious process to maintain such data within the scope of our application since the values have to be maintained by us and this is a very tedious process.  For one of the application of my friend, while assisting him, I encountered this situation and came across two elegant webservices that solve our problem. I would like to share the URLs with others.

1. 62NDS Online Currency Convertor
2. XE.com Universal Currency Convertor

The latter website also offer currency convertor applet for websites to promote visitors for sites.

Fighting Phishing with Microsoft Tools

Sometime back we were discussing about a freeware called SpoofStick that protects us from phishing attacks. Just recently my friend installed on his home computer Internet Explorer 7. I was fiddling around it for a while. Internet Explorer 7 greatly enhances web browsing experience by bringing in Tabbed Browsing besides elevating the security strength of the web browser.

A tour around the web on Internet Explorer and playing around the installation, there are two antiphishing tools from Microsoft. I would like to share the URL with interested readers.

1. Microsoft Phishing Filter Addin for MSN SearchBar.
2. Phishing Filter in Internet Explorer 7.

Windows Vista Retail Contest

It was a usual junk advertisement which my Naviscope knocked it down but accidently I observed it. It seemed to be a good advertisement of Windows Vista product headed on a Retail Promo. There is a unique contest on the website and I wanted to share the URL for others to participate too. Check out First In Billion.

A brief investigation through the website revealed that First In Billion is hosted and managed by Quasar Media (advertising company) for Microsoft and hence the reader is advised to use some secondary email id to participate since advertisement companies in Chennai might do some sort of spam harvesting of email addresses too.

Good Online WAP browser

WAP and mobile-based development is getting hot with mushrooming of handheld devices in every country and every moment. After having Nokia 6030 with GPRS enabled from Airtel, every other day, there would be some service message showing some junk URL. There are some good ones like today I got a URL for downloading Swami Ayyappan ringtones and wallpapers. Here is the WML URL.

This is a multipart post. First I am describing the tricks of some local operators and then I would discuss about the good technical sites which overcomes this problem and also helps WAP-based developments.

But the catch is that Airtel is so tricky that sometimes direct download URL would be given and if you even click it, you would be paying some INR 100 even after you opt canceling the download prompt in your mobile.

Now coming to a technical solution, here is a simpler approach. Don't retrieve the URL directly. Launch a simpler and faster online WAP browser. The most convenient one is from Wapsilon. It shows all the links first and then if you are genuinely convinced by the push WAP link, you can use it. Furthermore, online WAP browsers like this greatly help in production troubleshooting of our own WAP applications too. They are browser-based and are fast compared to troubleshooting from the device.

FireFox to protect your browser sessions

A web browser session that typically lasts from the time you launch the browser till the final instance of the browser process shutting down, can now be persisted and lengthened selectively, thanks to the SessionSaver plugin for Mozilla FireFox.

This promises to restore browser sessions exactly as it was left before. Check out Mozilla FireFox 1.5 compatible "SessionSaver" addon from here.

Elegant Encryption Routine

Securing information from prying eyes has always been a concern of a project architect. The perils waiting to prey on an unsecured information is aplenty. .NET comes with it a vast amount of rich Cryptography libraries. Now the next problem that confronts an architect is:

1. Which algorithm to choose?
2. What is the strength of encryption to use?
3. In future, if algorithm or strength changes, how easy and flexible is the implementation?

I have been trying out various encryption logic and then I came across a library called XCrypt from CodeProject.  I feel that this is a very good feature-rich wrapper of .NET Cryptography API. Also, there are implementations for algorithms like BlowFish, which does not have API in .NET BCL. It also comes with a rich Windows application that helps us troubleshoot encryption and decryption with specific keys in a easy way. Let us thank pdwolf for the really excellent encryption library.

Extending the Task Manager

Most of us are quite familiar with the Task Manager application that helps us to monitor the memory and CPU usage of the programs besides checking the applications to bringing into control from running amuck. There are few things that are dreamt by heavy users like File Handles, Process Handles etc.  The default Task Manager does not give such a granular control. 

For such users, we have an application called 'Process Explorer' and can be downloaded from the same site which weighs about 1.5 MB.

Taking it still further and deeper, there is one article/code from CodeProject, which integrates a plugin into Windows TaskManager. I found this to be very handy and without need of launching another application. Check out TaskManager extension from here. You can download both source and binaries from CodeProject after registering over there.

Google Page of LavanyaDeepak

Google's logo is really very innovative and excellent one. They illustrate all the important festivals and international celebrations by appropriate icon modifications on those days in Google logo. Now Google has brought out an innovative Google MyWay. You can create your own text and that would appear as website logo. You can also set that page as 'Default Homepage of your web browser'.

Check out Google Page of LavanyaDeepak over here.

Also related, if you have a Google Account, you can optionally personalize the normal Google page. You can find 'Personalized Home' and 'Signin' at the top right of every Google page. I guess, they are stored as Cookies in the web browser.

SpoofStick -- To Keep Off Phishing

There has'nt been a day when our inbox does not meet at least one phishing or spoofing email claiming from some remote UK bank like Barclays PLC or eBay.  Nowadays, even HSBC spoofs have also not become uncommon. I came across a simple browser toolbar, supporting both Internet Explorer and FireFox that shows what website that we are currently navigating in, as a big bold green text.

So in case the link that has been clicked goes to a different website, then we can be sure before entering any of account-confidential information to the website. Download spoofstick for your browser from the following URL: http://www.spoofstick.com/

1. Softros
2. LanTalk.NET
3. LanToucher

Workflow Engines in .NET

I was looking out some sort of workflow architecture in .NET and I came across quite a few very interesting solutions on the same. I would like to share with you a few:

1. Skelta -- Embeddable Workflow Engine
2. K2
3. Windows Workflow Foundation

I would try to cover more in detail as I explore these avenues further. Stay Tuned!

Good Handshake -- Professional and Smooth Relationship Building

Be it a congrats giving or a business meet, the professional gesture is to give handshake with the other party. In Chennai, I have encountered people, who resort to handshake in a hurry without even caring a moment for it. Handshake is not just about shaking of hands. It is almost like a rhythmic musical note and needs to be followed religiously and helps the parties to develop good rapport and build evergreen eternal and long-lasting mutually beneficial relationships.

Just thought, I would do a brief research and compile a few tips on what makes a good handshake.

1. Ensure that you have a firm eye contact with the other party. Pictures worth thousands of words and eyes draw millions of pictures per second. Let your eye convey your good intentions and wishes first.
2. Smile comfortably. It makes you and your other party greatly comfortable.
3. Have as much firm grip epicentered from your thumb of your left hand while giving your handshake. But ensure that the the firmness does not cross the line of control of being uncomfortably strong and squeezing.
4. The shaking gesture should be preferably up and down and not swinging back and forth.
5. A few prefer short durations and others long durations. If you have watched national ambassadors meeting, they prefer long durations. Be compatible with other parties' gestures.

Adapted from http://venus.va.com.au/suggestion/hand.html and with the guidance of my friend working for WebHealthCenter.

Winner of Community-Credit in December 2006

My www.Inbox.com had some very good and glad prize awaiting. I have been chosen as one of the prize winners in Community-Credit.com for the month of December 2006. You can check out the list of prize winners in Community-Credit at this URL for prize winners: http://www.community-credit.com/CommunityCreditPrizePage.aspx (You need to select December 2006 in the dropdown and scroll a bit down to see my listing)