Debug.WriteLine to the rescue of 'e is not declared but not used ...'

Debug.WriteLine to the rescue of 'e is not declared but not used ...'

While using C# as our prime programming language and with try catch statement, we often end up having a compiler warning like the exception variable is declared but not used. Having a compiler warning is like dangerous since we saw sometime back that we should treat compiler warnings as errors as a good programming practice. But in this case, to handle this elegantly, we can make use of System.Diagnostics namespace which has a class called Debug

try
{
//Your code block ...
}
catch (ApplicationException ee)
{
Debug.WriteLine (ee.Message);
}

By default, Debug.WriteLine is wired to your output window of Visual Studio IDE and hence this would also be easing your debugging effort. I hear that a few would be thinking that we can use catch without the parenthesis. I strongly discourage this practice since during debugging and if you are to examine the exception, this becomes a little trickier.

Easy and Flexible Hexadecimal Conversion in JavaScript

Easy and Flexible Hexadecimal Conversion in JavaScript

Recently, I came across someone asking about converting a number to its hexadecimal equivalent using JavaScript. I just thought of sharing what I helped them with other readers since it involves a very simple function toString() in JavaScript but lesser known to all.

The following simple code snippet demonstrates the ease of conversion of decimal to hexadecimal in JavaScript:

<script language='Javascript'>
var intSrc = 25;
alert (intSrc.toString(16));
</script>

Other conversions:

1. toString(2) establishes decimal to binary conversion
2. toString(8) achieves decimal to octal conversion

The Ternary Operator in VB

The Ternary Operator in VB

Similar to C# and JavaScript, we can actually have the powerful ternary operator in VB also. The ternary operator is an elegant way of replacing multi-line if else elseif statement blocks. For example in JavaScript

if (blnIsTrueFalse)
t = 'true'
else
t = 'false'

can be compressed as

t = (blnIsTrueFalse)?'true':'false'.

Quite interestingly there is a lesser known function in VB called IIF which supports this too. The syntax of the function is

IIF(expression, truepart, falsepart).

Unfortunately, VBScript does not support this feature and hence we may need to simulate the IIF function manually by wrapping the if then elseif block using a custom function.

Scripted Input Form in WebPages

Scripted Input Form in WebPages

I just came across a query in a forum where a user was asking about getting input from the user through a built messagebox like InputBox in VB. A few replies I observed were negative.. I just thought of sharing this with other readers that JavaScript does support something similar to InputBox in VB. It is called 'prompt' function.

Example:

<Script Language='JavaScript'>
var strUserName = prompt("What is your name?", "Internet User");
</Script>

This puts up a dialog for the user with the question 'What is your name' and the textbox is prefilled with the default value 'Internet User'. The user can edit the value and click OK. If the user presses CANCEL or hits ESCAPE button, a NULL is returned to the caller.

Warning: Web browser would warn and stop the script with a popdown information bar on encountering a scripted input and a user-level confirmation is required when this control is used on a webpage.

Visual Studio Spell Checker AddIn

Visual Studio Spell Checker AddIn

Broken code irritates and intimidates the compiler. Similarly broken languages irritates us. When a developer writes a code with variable names and comments having a very substandard language, people who get to see the code and maintain it get disturbed very deeply.

I just thought I would share a quick and easy spell checker addin that could help us tide over this menace:

Software: StudioSpell
Vendor: http://www.keyoti.com/products/studiospell/

Features:

1. Quick Summary Screen
2. Prechecks the files before running through any documents.
3. Checks the API documentation
4. Checks even the string literals with C# or Javascript
5. Hyperlink URLs are Ignored
6. Duplicate Word warning
7. Customizable

The software is not free but it is really a very useful value addition for any development environment.

Visual Studio way of reminding you to complete sections of code ...

Visual Studio way of reminding you to complete sections of code ...

Sometimes in a hurry we might have given a sample implementation or a temporary workaround to a problem in the code and would be planning a full-fledged implementation at a later date. But in a complex and busy schedules we would normally forget it.

To avoid those cases, Visual Studio lends a great helping hand by way of TODO tokens. We can simply have a //TODO comment and the Visual Studio TaskList can help us to review the list of TODOs in our project at a later point of time.

This way, we can ensure that the code does not get left with assumptions and hardcodes for a longer period and such syndrome are addressed on priority as we get time.

JavaScript -- The Definitive Guide (A Quick Review)

JavaScript -- The Definitive Guide (A Quick Review)

Webpages are growing to be more interactive in every form and feature. To enable this requirement, JavaScript is the most essential form of interactivity that any developer can think upon. For those beginners and advance programmers alike, having a good handy JavaScript reference for a quick lookup is normally a great boon. I just thought I would share a book which fills this gap.

JavaScript -- The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan (Oreilly Publishers)

The book is really impressive and innovative in bringing any one to levels and then enhancing their standards since it has a defined approach mentioned in the Table of Contents:

1. General Introduction to the Language like constructs, loops etc.
2. Interoperability with Web Browsers
3. Utility functions
1. Page Validation
2. DHTML Effects
3. Data Persistence using Cookies
4. Introduction to AJAX
5. Client Side Graphics using SVG, CSS and VML
6. Interoperability with other technologies like Flash and ActiveX

The book has a simple language with which it progresses and hence makes the developer feel comfortable in going through the same.

You can simply get pages of the book for preview from Google Books. Once you are satisfied, grab a copy of the book from either Amazon.com or your local bookshop.

Quick Tip to workaround Ad Signatures in Mail To Blogger

Quick Tip to workaround Ad Signatures in Mail To Blogger

Many of we bloggers who have activated the 'MailToBlogger' feature with http://www.blogger.com/ suffer from one issue. When we send an email to blogger from a free email service like MSN Hotmail, the web service appends an advertisement footer.

When you continuously post using MailToBlogger and over the period of time if there are more number of advertisements, there is a chance that Blogger might think of your blog as commercial advertisement.

The previous weekend, I found out a very good Google Blogger Help Page article which overcomes this menace. You can check out the tip over here.

Just put #end at the end of your post and the signature would not appear in the blog entry that is posted to your blog.

Quest Connect 2008 -- Global Virtual Event on October 22nd and 23rd 2008

Quest Connect 2008 -- Global Virtual Event on October 22nd and 23rd 2008

I learnt from Quest Software website that they are planning to organize Quest Connect 2008, a global virtual event on 22nd and 23rd of October, 2008. At least noting down from the events page, the following are the topics of interaction and learning:

1. Active Directory
2. Desktop and Server Virtualization
3. Identity Management

They have also planned to give hourly gift cards from Amazon and various other online shops. The registration is free. Check it out here.

[Software Review] Picassa Albums

[Software Review] Picassa Albums
I was just searching for some good desktop photo organizer. The latest Picassa from Google seems to have got enhanced to a greater extent. Some of the cool new features that impressed me are:

1. Automatic WMV Movie Creation from the Photos
2. Sync with the Website

Picassa 3 which is currently in BETA also seems to have good Video Tutorial from Google Channel. You can check out this from here. Now, it also supports MAC tools for Apple OS users. Check out about the same here.

The Flock Social Web Browser

The Flock Social Web Browser

For those Netscape fans, it has been a little sad news after Netscape browser got discontinued by AOL a few months back. But there is some solace or comfort for them since AOL continues to support a new browser called 'Flock', built on Mozilla FireFox.

You can check out updates to Flock over here. As observed from The Flock website, it also ships with a lot of addons to extend the basic browser functionality.

Free OpenSolaris CD from Sun Microsystems

Free OpenSolaris CD from Sun Microsystems

Whilst casually browsing the Internet, I came across the FREE OpenSolaris CD offering from Sun Microsystems. Of course, if you afford to have a fast Internet Connection, they do have a download opton to avoid delays due to mailout. If you are interested in the FREE OpenSolaris CD, check out this page for more details.

The delivery schedules, as mentioned in the website are as below:

1. US Delivery - 2 to 5 days
2. Europe - 5 to 7 days
3. Latin America - 2 weeks
4. Asia/Africa - 4 weeks

Microsoft India's 'Dial A Software'

Microsoft India's 'Dial A Software'
I was casually browsing Microsoft India website and came across the new service initiative called Dial a Software. This seems to be a really good promising initiative from Microsoft from the following perspectives:

1. Easy and flexible availability of software across the country
2. Minimizing the Software Piracy since now genuine software resellers are spread across the subcontinent.

I just thought I would share this with other readers so that people can now take benefit of this initiative without succumbing to illicit merchants trying to sell you pirated software.

Get a sneak preview of 'What is new in InstallShield 2009'

Get a sneak preview of 'What is new in InstallShield 2009'

I just learnt of a webcast download from Acresso Software on the new features that are being planning to be launched in InstallSheild 2009. Some of the quick and cool features promised thereto are:

1. Support to latest Windows technologies
2. Cost-Effective Installation Solutions
3. Ease of Use

Towards encouraging more downloads, the download page at CodeProject also provides for $50 (Canadian Dollars) if you stand to win the contests. Check out the register and download page at CodeProject over here.

Professional Developer Conference 2008 between October 26 and October 30 at LA Convention Center

Professional Developer Conference 2008 between October 26 and October 30 at LA Convention Center

I recently came to know of the PDC 2008 registrations opening up for the conference that is organized from October 26, 2008 through October 30, 2008 at LA Convention Center this year. The organizers have setup this exclusive website over here, to provide for more information on this conference on the following topics like

1. Agenda of the conference
2. FAQ
3. Registration Details
4. Charges

Perhaps I just thought I would share this news with other readers so that people who can able to schedule to participate can register and benefit from the conference.

IndiaStudyChannel launches Community Website Program

IndiaStudyChannel launches Community Website Program

The premiere Indian educational service website, http://www.indiastudychannel.com/ catering to the requirements of college admission seekers and helping out people with information on higher education, now has brought out a new concept in their website called 'Communities'. You can check out this from their website here. As far as I could analyse the following are the salient features of this program:

1. Exclusive Community website for our school, college or neighborhood
2. Free Registration and Management of Communities
3. Revenue generation options through 'Revenue Sharing Programme' of India Study Channel
4. Customized Discussion Forum within the Communities

I just thought I would share this with other readers so that more people can get benefitted from the same.

Google Developer Days -- Worldwide Events

Google Developer Days -- Worldwide Events

I was just casually browsing through Google Code website and came across the worldwide developer days events that Google is trying to organize the whole of September and October. You can actually check out this URL on Google Developer Days 2008 for more details.

They are planning to cover topics on Google Gears, Maps and other Google Labs products. Let us try to register at the venue which is closer to us and benefit from the same.

Silverlight Tutorials from Dotnetspider

Silverlight Tutorials from Dotnetspider

Dotnetspider has again brought in an innovative set of tutorials on the most promising technology from Microsoft -- Silverlight. The premiere Indian technology website, aimed at fresh graduates and helping them to grow up in their software development and career upliftment skills has brought in another set of world class tutorials on this technology, in an easy to understand fashion.

You can check out the silverlight tutorials in dotnetspider.

Standard TrackBack for Blogs and Websites

Standard TrackBack for Blogs and Websites

There are so many different blog engines and websites. Whilst a significant of them support trackback concept, there has been a small gap that a small learning curve exists in getting to know the depth of trackback mechanism whilst attempting to fully use them. Taking it further, if the blog service does not support it, then those authors become sad.

I just came across a free service from http://www.trackbackr.com/ which offer TrackBack service for any blog or website and it just needs the author to insert a snippet of code without any necessity of complicated programming. I am sure this would be of tremendous help to everyone.

"Best Kept Secrets of Peer Code Review" -- Free Book

"Best Kept Secrets of Peer Code Review" -- Free Book

I just got to know of from a tech newsletter of CodeProject about a free book campaign that is being launched by SmartBear Software.  Within USA and Canada, they are offering this book free of charge and the submission page says that the book would reach the recipient within 15 days. International deliveries are charged at $10 per order.

Check out the book ordering page over here.

Panda Online Virus Scanner

Panda Online Virus Scanner

Panda Antivirus has launched an online antivirus scanner which supports the following features:

1. Online Scan
2. Scan History
3. Cleaning up of the infections

You are required to register at the website to proceed with the scan. Check out the ActiveScan website here.

Translation between English and Hindi is now a breeze...

Translation between English and Hindi is now a breeze...

I was just wondering to translate a piece of stuff in Hindi to English and stumbled upon Google Translate website. I just learnt that they have enhanced the translation engine to cover Hindi as well.

I have just put a small test sentence like "Google Translate now works between English and Hindi too. " and it works sweet. Check it out here.

With a greater amount of Hindi (Indian Language) software coming out now, I am sure that this is a great news for developers.

XAML Fest -- Exciting Two Day WPF Event at Houston, TX

XAML Fest -- Exciting Two Day WPF Event at Houston, TX

I was just trying to find out tech events that I can attend in my current region and found out an exciting WPF, Silverlight related event that is scheduled for October in Houston, TX.

I just thought of sharing the same with other interested developers so that more people can register and benefit from the program.

It is a Level 300 two day program in Houston, TX targetting architect and developer tracks.

Check out the event page and register yourself here.

Definitive Guide for VB.NET developers coming from VB World

Definitive Guide for VB.NET developers coming from VB World

For VB.NET developers coming from VB World, I would really and strongly recommend the following book "Upgrading Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 to Microsoft Visual Basic .NET w/accompanying CD-ROM".

The book has an elegant coverage on the differences between the two world, seamless migration path, redesign related issues and points to be taken care with respect to the COM component.

You may also like to check out the free download of the eBook that ew discussed sometime back over here.

Check out Amazon page of ordering the book here.

VB to VB NET Migration Guide

VB to VB NET Migration Guide

I just came across a good download resource from Microsoft Download Center which explains about Migrating from VB to VB.NET. It is actually a free eBook with 21 chapters as a free download.

Check out the download here.

Draco .NET :: CVS Based Auto Build Tool

Draco .NET :: CVS Based Auto Build Tool

I was actually searching for WinCVS tools for c# and came across this excellent tool called Draco .NET. This seems to be a promising tool for developers using WinCVS. It offers to run as a Windows service monitoring the CVS continously. When there are changes, the tool builds the project and emails the reports to you.

You need NANT to run this tool. Besides CVS, it is also able to monitor VSS, PVCS and a lot of more source control solutions.

The tool is licensed under OpenBSD and you can download from Sourceforge servers.

SpellServer -- Spell Checking for websites

SpellServer -- Spell Checking for websites

Sometime back, we discussed about spell checking tool for Windows Forms developers over here. I just thought I would also review about a similar tool from the same vendor for the benefit of ASP.NET developers.

They offer a product called SpellServer which is oriented towards ASP.NET developers. Some of the advantages of the tool are:

1. Comprehensive spell checking for the website
2. Customizable for the individual website theme
3. All of inhouse dictionaries that are built along.

Check out product homepage here for download details.

SpellText -- SpellChecker for Windows Forms

SpellText -- SpellChecker for Windows Forms

There is some good news for Windows Forms developers. Chado Software has brought out a nice elegant spell checker which helps in good and fast spell checking from within the scope of your windows forms.

Some of the quick advantages of the tool are:

1. Check as you type
2. Customizable Dictionaries
3. Customizable Context Menus

The product is not free but the cost is one time but lifetime free technical support and life time free updates.

Check out SpellText website here for download and purchase details.

GhostDoc -- Visual Studio AddOn

GhostDoc -- Visual Studio AddOn

I just came across a cute little addOn for Visual Studio, which helps us with the XML documentation comments in C#. It pulls the comments of base classes and also uses the name and type of the method on which the comment is being desired.

Advantages:

1. Freeware
2. AddOn to Visual Studio. Hence the learning curve is less.
3. Quick and smaller download footprint.
4. Supports C# in entirety. VB.NET support is currently experimental.
5. Vista compatible

Download URL: http://www.roland-weigelt.de/ghostdoc/download05.php?version=2.1.3for2005

Internet Quiz

Internet Quiz

I just came across a cute Internet Quiz in this website. It just has some about thirty questions on basic Internet. And they score you besides giving you a nice badge to put up on your website too.

Created by OnePlusYou

QueryExpress Branch in SourceForge

QueryExpress Branch in SourceForge

Whilst casually browsing Albahari.com website, I came across the QueryExpress project having its own branch in Sourceforge now. Check out the Sourceforge project (Query ExPlus).

For those who are new to QueryExpress, I would suggest my previous review post on QueryExpress over here.

New Programming Tip Section

New Programming Tip Section

You would have seen a new series of posts in this category and the posts being tagged as 'programming tips'. We are glad to introduce this new section to share with everyone about valuable programming tips and best programming practices that we come across in every day life.

The following are the reasons of launch of this label (category):

1. For beginners/starting programmers, this would be a very useful guidance in ensuring that their programming styles are corrected at tender age and they are trained to write rock-solid code.
2. We learn a lot of programming tips everyday from various sources and from our experiences too. We can not just keep remembering everything. This would serve as a record.
3. Each one learns programming tips differently. One candle lights another to make the entire atmosphere still brighter. This would be a great way of learning and sharing the knowledge with one another.
4. The inspiration of this section was the Tamil Sindhu Bhairavi. In Sindhu Bhairavi, the singer JKB used to tell like this "I am getting irritated by people who can not understand and appreciate the greatness of music. Now with your (Sindhu) sayings, I realise that they are not at fault. They are to be sympathised for their inability to understand and appreciate because of language in which the musical songs are there. It is our (singers) responsibility to ensure that message in music reaches the masses in their language".  I think this message applies to our programming too. It is our responsibility to ensure that next generation and peer developers are guided properly to best programming practices and to harness the benefits of the programming frameworks for world class products in business solutions for everyone.

Initialise the Variables

Initialise the Variables

 

A good programming block would always ensure that any variables declared would have gone through a neater and standardized way of having them initialised to suitable value. Even if it is NULL, better specify it as an explicit NULL.

This ensures a lot of advantages for everyone

1. The runtime clearly knows the values.
2. Proactive handling of the values and the variable at a later point of time and reducing the risk of failure/breakdown of code.
3. Easy maintainability of code.

Bad Bad onBlur and onFocus Alerts in Webpage Validations

Bad Bad onBlur and onFocus Alerts in Webpage Validations

I really get irritated when I see alert popup windows that come up in web pages that I browse and fill particularly following the onBlur of one textbox and onFocus of another control. Having such a flow is kind of irritating and erroneus for the following reasons:

1. A reckless placement of validations might cause a race condition. Blur of A calling Focus of B. Blur of B might call Focus of A. This might your web browser to freeze and the user would be forced to kill the browser with Task Manager. If the user is not techsavvy, he might only resort rebooting his PC losing his unsaved changed.
2. Valuable user time is wasted.

I would recommend an elegant solution would be to buffer the validations for the submit button for the webpages or a due button click.

The Lovely C# Switch Case

The Lovely C# Switch Case

One of the sweet things with a switch case statement in C# is that you have to specify the break statement or a goto statement and the fall through is a strictly no-no. The compiler would yell at you if skip the break statement.

Missing a break, continue statement is a common pitfall in switch construct is byfar the most common programming error that brings with it complicated debugging efforts and hidden bugs. With this cool power that C# compiler enforces, I think, we should also try ensuring that our programming practices in Java and JavaScript follow the same for cleaner and robust code.

Handle your exceptions

Handle your exceptions

 

When you write a program, ensure that you have a good framework being implemented to accomodate for unforeseen circumstances and unhandled conditions. Having unhandled exceptions lead to many problems. A few are:

1. Unhandled exceptions left to the runtime actually are severe peformance penalty for the application
2. It presents a very bad image of you in the eyes of your user.

For starting developers, I would always recommend that along with the minimum using directives, always have the first simple try catch statement and then appropriate exceptions being handled with care.

Let your code record its activities ...

Let your code record its activities ...

1. Writing a diary is a good practice
2. Blogging is a great hobby

These serve to enhance your memory and recall about incidents and events at a later point of time. Let us extend this habit to your code too. Your program should normally get cultivated with a practice of recording (logging) its activities lucidly without swamping the resources.

That way, we get to reap a lot of benefits. A few are:

1. Troubleshooting problems with the application
2. Statistics about the application

There are excellent log frameworks available for any one to get started with minimum effort. A few are:

1. Log4Net
2. Enterprise Library Logging Application Block from Microsoft

Career Opportunity at Photon Infotech

Career Opportunity at Photon Infotech

One of my friend who works at Photon Infotech, a fast growing IT consultancy firm in Chennai wanted me to share with others regarding their current lookout for ASP.NET technical leads.

I just thought I would share with others who might be interested towards the same.

Quick Job Profile:

1. Enterprise Architecture/SOA
2. OOAD/UML Design Patterns
3. Languages: C#/VB.NET, ASP.NET
4. SQL Server 2005

They expect at least 6 to 9 years of relevant experience. If you know some one, you can check with Raajanand at +919841163836 or shoot out your profile to raajanand.r (at) photoninfotech.net

The Lovely Perl way of braces { }

The Lovely Perl way of braces { }

In Perl programming language, it is always mandatory that even a single statement in a conditional block be encompassed within { } unlike C# and other programming languages where only multiple statements are mandated for the curly brace blocks.

But I would say, the Perl way is really excellent we should follow this strictly for other languages also. This makes our code look cleaner and neater. We know where the control starts and stops and would enable a cleaner debugging too.

Magic Numbers in the Code

Magic Numbers in the Code

When you write a code and somewhere down the line, you are using an arithmetic constant like PI, have it defined as some readOnly constant string and use the string instead of hardbinding the number value in the code. There are good advantages of avoiding magic numbers in the code:

1. Isolating the magic numbers into a single place labeling them with a variable would help in adjusting the precision value later.
2. The code appears cleaner and neater without beguile numbers spread across the code and confuse a new person maintaining your code.
3. Troubleshooting problems because of values to these constants is easy.

Comment your code ...

Comment your code ...

For any programmers, it is always strongly recommended to have explicit comments to strategic sections of the code. Commenting a code is very important for many reasons:

1. It would serve as a valuable memory into what the particular code does. You may not know that down the line, after five years, when you see the code without comments, the same code might sound greek and latin.
2. A good commented code can easily enable a peer developer to start maintaining it without bothering you for pesky queries on the same.
3. Where possible, try using summary commenting like in JavaDoc and C# Xml commenting features.

When not to comment?

1. If you are replacing a logic with another logic, do not comment the older logic and append the new one, as far as possible. That would only serve to increase the file size and complicate the maintainability of the code. To maintain history, use a good Source Control rather.
2. Avoid explicit and greater detail comments in clientside scripting code like JavaScript which only increases a great pagesize.

"Treat warnings as errors"

"Treat warnings as errors"

I just thought of sharing this as a good programming practice for beginners to cultivate. Compiler warnings are actually a flag for you to indicate a potential problem. It might be a simple deprecation warning or an = assignment when == is being intended.

As long as your compiler supports an option of having the warnings treated as errors, I would strongly recommend anyone to turn on this feature. That way, we can have our programs robust and resilent without any latent errors hidden anywhere.

[Book Review] Wings of Fire

[Book Review] The Wings of Fire

In August first week, I had a very excellent book from library which kept me really busy every moment. The book was:

"Wings of Fire :: An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam"

The book is a must-read for everyone. It clearly brings out in simple terms his humble beginnings, hard work and patience. It provides us with a lucid introduction to the great works that are going on in our space laboratories.

There is also a Tamil version of the book called 'Agni Siragugal'.

Amazon Link: Check out here.

India's cheapest laptop and desktop from Zenith Computers

India's cheapest laptop and desktop from Zenith Computers

Zenith Computers, premiere PC manufacturers from the Indian subcontinent has ushered in another innovation of bringing cheapest laptop and desktop now.

1. The laptop is priced at 15000 INR and is loaded with Microsoft OS.
2. The desktop is priced at 11000 INR.

Source Courtesy: Rediff
Vendor Website: Zenith

Google Voice Search in India

Google Voice Search in India

Whilst casually surfing the Internet, I came across the news post about Google pioneering to bring out Voice Search in India. You can simply call a toll-free number through your mobile phone and get your search results for free. We have enough providers like JustDial in India but these folks get your mobile number in return and record them. Google promises that your mobile number would not be required to use their service.

Currently, Google project seems to be collecting voice samples in Hyderabad and New Delhi to automate the voice search services.

Source Courtesy: Telecom Tiger

Yahoo Mash Closing down

Yahoo Mash Closing down

We discussed about SpotM a while back. But not many of you would be knowing that Yahoo was already having another lesser known social networking community called 'Yahoo Mash'. It had been running around for an year till now but only on a invite-only try for members.

Unfortunately, last week, Mash members have started recieving emails regarding closing down of Yahoo Mash community with this september and their mash profiles would be cleaned up after that.

Mash was actually an upgrade of 360 but this close down, according to various news source should not be affecting 360 in any way.

Source Courtesy: eFluxMedia

Yahoo Glue Search in India

Yahoo Glue Search in India

Yahoo India has pioneered in bringing out one another innovative search product called Glue Pages.  Unlike the traditional search, here you would be requiring to signon and as you type in your search keywords relevant search results along with Wiki/Video are pulled in to save time.

The service seems to be currently in BETA and there is also an offer to invite business entrepreneurs to be listed in their Glue Pages.

Check out yourself on the new webservice initiative from Yahoo India.

SpotM -- India-specific Social Networking website

SpotM -- India-specific Social Networking website

Check out Yahoo SpotM, which is Yahoo India's latest venture of social networking site targetted at Indian communities in the age range of 16 to 30.

Check out the website and signup for a BETA invite to participate in the early offerings from the website.

Google Phone to enter India in December

Google Phone to enter India in December

It is good news for Indian techies after a long time. The much awaited Google Phone is set to enter Indian shores coming December.

Some quick bites:

1. This is launched by HTC (High Tech Computer), a Taiwanese handset major.
2. The cost of the phone would be around $180.

Source Courtesy: Business Standard

Free Sample Chapters (eBooks) from Microsoft Press

Free Sample Chapters (eBooks) from Microsoft Press

Here is a unique opportunity to take advantage of and get a sneak preview of three great books and then to go for the purchase of the same.

Microsoft Press seems to be giving out free eBook (Sample Chapters) of the following books:

1. Programming Microsoft Linq
2. Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 2.0
3. Programming ASP.NET 3.5

Check out the eBook Page here.

Google Toolbar making your system faster ...

Google Toolbar making your system faster ...

I recently came across an interesting error message display in my system when the Internet Connection died out. Instead of the web browser displaying the harsh 'Can not find server' and then freezing the system with that Internet Detect ActiveX Control, the installed Google Toolbar made the experience pleasant and also offering a more flexible way to initiate a web search.

A screenshot of the error message (sample) is below:

 

Managing Bookmarks Easily

Managing Bookmarks Easily

 

Bookmarks (or Favorites) has been a very useful feature in the web browser (the Internet Enabled Device). But with the number of different browsers we use every day and with the number of different systems we have to keep switching and considering the amount of travel, we have the great aspiration to see if our bookmarks could also travel with us.

There are good solutions to these from a lot of websites. I was just thinking of sharing a few for the benefit of other readers:

1. Google Bookmark
2. MSDN Social
3. Del ICIO US

All these are online solutions and hence should lend a great helping hand for you particularly when you are on move.

10th Birthday of Google

10th Birthday of Google

Visit http://www.google.com/ and you would find an inspiring link called 'Google's 10 Birthday'. Let us wish Google 'Many Many Happy Returns of the Day'.

The birthday page of Google is truly inspiring since it lists chronologically the various achievements Google has accomplished from the date of its launch.

Besides this Google Birthday Page also has a rich mention of history and various other informative and interesting news.

Quick Clip Information to your Emailbox

Quick Clip Information to your Emailbox

Despite the fact we have dedicated software like OneNote, TurboNote etc available to hold information, we still cling to having a quick note typed in our Inbox, which we find comfortable through our email client search. Many a times, we are forced to login to our web email application to send an email to ourselves with small amount of information like phone number of a friend, dinner time etc.

I just came across a good website called Note2Email, which seems to be innovative in enhancing our practice. A quick review of this webservice as follows:

1. Clip any information to any email account in the world.
2. No logon required whatsoever.
3. Optional Encryption key to scramble the text that is being submitted.
4. Simple plain text can be sent and hence no Web-Bugs and so free of any type of malware emails.

Bookmark the URL and try visiting it for your day to day needs.

Iterasi -- Your Personal Web Archive

Iterasi -- Your Personal Web Archive

How many times we know a particular website that we used to go but reach a parked domain page or a redesigned page with the older links hitting on the big wall. Iterasi.com seems to have brought out an innovative solution to this problem. The website is all about an innovative web archive solution where you can get to offer your personal websites, in full form along with your bookmarks.

So next time you need to search the service provider website, you can logon to your personal web archive in case the vendor resource is unavailable.

Check out Iterasi here.

Historical Currency Convertor Tool

Historical Currency Convertor Tool

Everyone of us know about getting the currency equivalents today by just navigating to Google and typing something like 1 USD in INR (which would give how many Indian Rupees are required to purchase 1 US Dollar and similarly).

But how many of us are comfortable in getting data on historic currency conversion rates like "What was the currency exchange on 2nd March, 2008 between 1 UK Pound and 1 USD.

Fortunately, there is a very good and useful utility available from Oanda Corporation, which helps out with such requirements.  They have a very good online free tool here, that helps us to convert between wide variety of global currencies.

InstantBird -- Instant Messenger Communication Tool from the house of FireFox

InstantBird -- Instant Messenger Communication Tool from the house of FireFox

I was casually browsing http://www.mozilla.org/ and I found out an innovative product called 'InstantBird'. It seems to be a promising product in that it it is opensource like other products of Mozilla. The main objective of the product is to offer instant messaging support for widest range of networks including Windows Live, Yahoo, AOL, Google Talk and ICQ.

I think it would be a good tool compared to heavier shareware alternatives right?

Free Online Document Viewer from Zoho

Free Online Document Viewer from Zoho

The inherent fear and apprehension with Office documents are the following:

1. Bulky downloads
2. Fear of outbreak of viruses because of macros
3. Cluttering of the system
4. Eating of storage space unnecessarily

I feel it is time to be free of these headaches, as there are online innovations by Zoho with their launching of Zoho Online Viewer which offers to facilitate viewing of Office Documents online.

URL: http://viewer.zoho.com/

Features:

1. Upload a document from your hard disk
2. Grab a document from the web
3. Ability to hold a document for a period of a day to do not expire at all.
4. Good list of supported file types as enumerated here.

Google Indexing now includes Audio too...

Google Indexing now includes Audio too...

If you have had a sneak peek of what Google labs is offering latest, you would be really amazed. It offers a service called GAudi, which seems to be indexing audio in its video sharing website ("YouTube").

Currently this webservice is still part of Google Labs research venture and hence you would be finding that the webservice might be constantly evolving till they announce it into a stable beta phase.

Talk Free -- Anytime and Everytime :: Technology makes Telephony Affordable

Talk Free -- Anytime and Everytime :: Technology makes Telephony Affordable

Away from home and away from your near and dear can no longer make you feel lonely. Nowadays there has been hundreds of technological innovations mushrooming to help you out in two ways:

1. For you to communicate without any hindrance.
2. For you to extend itself for your own flexibility and customizations.

At least, this is true when you travel to US since your near and dear can call you for free.  Some of the Talk-Free gadgets that I just evaluated and found useful alongside being interesting were:

1. Google Talk -- [It also has a good VoiceMail feature]
2. Jaduka Labs

I remember AOL was providing something like a local telephone number when you signup for a Screen Name somewhere in 2007 but now I could not find out that link. If some one knows about it, feel free to share the same for the benefit of other readers.

Your movies and videos can now be powered by Silverlight Streaming ...

Your movies and videos can now be powered by Silverlight Streaming ...

As promised, Microsoft Silverlight truly lights up the web. The latest offering from Microsoft as part of their Windows Live Platform is Silverlight Streaming.  I just thought I would review a few features about this innovative service for the benefit of other video bloggers and artistes:

1. A new technology to showcase your talents upon to the world.
2. Free 10 Giga Bytes hosting space in Windows Live Platform.
3. No additional signup other than your Windows Live ID.

I tried a couple of small custom-created videos and they are really amazingly fast, at least in its beta stage. Check it out for yourself.

An Online Movie Creating WebService

An Online Movie Creating WebService

Gone are days when you could only share static photos of your memories travelling across the globe. Now, you can sit down and gather your green memories to your near and dear as talking movies, thanks to JumpCut, a Yahoo Service.

I recently came across this webservice. Although, little restricted than what your Windows Movie Maker (on your Windows XP) could offer, they have tried their best to offer whatever should be possible from a webpage (as a hosted edition).

Check out yourself. It is free. It does require a registration to use the service. However, your Yahoo ID holds good too.

New Innovative Email Solution

New Innovative Email Solution

With the advent of Google Mail, there had been a real revolution in email technology with a lot of innovations and players entering the arena. I recently came across an interesting provider called 'GMX.com'. I just thought I would review about a few features offered by this provider for the benefit of other readers:

1. Desktop Look and Feel
2. Whopping 5 Giga Byte Storage
3. Pulling up of Email from Multitude of Players like Windows Live, Yahoo, Google Mail, AOL, Inbox.com
4. Audible alerts on new mail arrival
5. Upto 10 Email Aliases of different types like Gmx.Fr, Gmx.com, Gmx.Sg
6. POP3 and IMAP accessibility to your emailbox
7. AddOn Services:
1. File Storage upto 1 Giga Bytes
2. Scheduling Services (Calendar)
3. Address Book
4. Powerful Spam Protection
5. Proactive Antivirus Security

Just thought I would share with other readers so that you can try out the new service if you would like it.

Let your desktop travel across the globe with you...

Let your desktop travel across the globe with you...

When you are travelling across different places, it is always a difficult thing to access your home system or work place system in a reliable and secure manner. Also, when it comes to sharing of desktops between geographically distributed locations, there are only costly solutions available.

I recently came across two elegant solutions which are offered for free for commercial use and easy to manage. I just thought I would share it with other readers for everyone's benefit:

1. Teamviewer
2. Zoho Meeting

The former does not even require any installation and you just download the program on both sides and run.

The Browser War?

The Browser War?

Not sure whether this can be controlled by any preferences setting or a registry key, but the two big browsers across the browser camps have a distinctly opposite behavior.

Situation: Have an hyperlink in a HTML Page that has target=_blank option set.

1. Navigate the HTML Page in Microsoft Internet Explorer (till 7.0) and it opens a new window.
2. Navigate the HTML Page in Mozilla FireFox and it opens a new tab.

Both the browsers give an option in the context menu for hyperlinks to open in new tab or new window. But why is the default behavior varying so much without letting the users to control the same?

http://www.skweezer.com/ -- Fastest Mobile Search

http://www.skweezer.com/ -- Fastest Mobile Search

 

I was actually casually browsing the internet in the evening and came across an interesting website called http://www.skweezer.com/. This seems to be offering promising features for mobile phones in browsing and fast searching on various results.

Besides the normal services, they also seem to be offering a number of other value added services. A few of them are:

1. Online Translation
2. Click To Call
3. Multi Lingual Interface
4. Strong SSL (device dependent feature)
5. Image Support
   1. Turn On/Off (Toggle)
   2. Image optimization
6. Integrated RSS Reader

Check out the website from your mobile (GPRS).

'Project of the Month' Section in SourceForge

'Project of the Month' Section in SourceForge

I used to remember visiting http://www.sourceforge.net/, which used to be packed (jam-packed) with so much of information that you have to search for like anything. Not any more. Now they have made a very simple page and very fast loading website too.

I was actually inspired by the section 'project of the month' where they choose one project every month and feature it on the homepage. We can actually check out the 'projects of the month' here.

You may also like to check out Sourceforge 2008 Community Choice Awards post.

Sourceforge 2008 Community Choice Awards

Sourceforge 2008 Community Choice Awards

We all visit sourceforge.net for various opensource software downloads. There is something interesting going on in SourceForge website.

Check out the 2008 Community Choice Awards programme going on here. You may like to check out the various best software that has been chosen for the awards.

It is really an exciting section of sourceforge.net that you would be inspired to contribute to opensource right?

Free Opensource Download Manager

Free Opensource Download Manager

We just discussed about Orbit Download Manager. While I could just drink some water and turn back, a little more Internet research got me into another free download manager called 'Free download manager'. I could quickly evaluate it for a while and could get the following results for you:

1. Free
2. Small Download
3. Resumability support
4. Besides the normal HTTP and FTP, this also supports downloads through BitTorrent protocol
5. Video download capabilities
6. Opensource (GNU GPL)
7. Check for safety of files against other peer FDM users. There is a small button called 'Malicious?', which checks the quality of files as reported by other peer users.

Free Download Manager URL: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

Orbit Download Manager -- The Power Premiere Download Manager

Orbit Download Manager -- The Power Premiere Download Manager

Whatever be the download ability and bandwidth capability of the internet connection, it is always recommended to go through a good download manager. We ourselves have discussed about a number of cool download managers here.

I just came across one more free one called 'Orbit Downloader' but this one seems to have added advantages of efficient video downloading from YouTube.

Some of the good elegant features of Orbit Download Manager are:

1. Free
2. Smaller Memory Consumption (even when it runs its sister program 'Grab Pro')
3. Seamless integration into the web browsers (IE and FF) to download any logged on resource effectively.
4. Efficient mirror selection
5. Enhanced Download Speeds
6. Support for all streaming media like RTSP, MMS and RTMP
7. Easy User Interface

The new JavaScript Engine (v8) to rule the world

The new JavaScript Engine (v8) to rule the world

People used to ridicule when we talk too much the greatness of JavaScript. At least I recall from Chennai software industry, people feel proud of restricting themselves with little validation controls provided by the software framework that they are using and afraid of thinking forward.

We all (they all) use Google Mail and the excellent products of Google for their utility values. But we fail to appreciate the engine and life that Google breathes into each of its product -- the powerful and innovative DHTML and JavaScript.

We discussed a few days before about Google Chrome. Going by Google's help pages, they say that it is powered by V8 -- an innovative new JavaScript engine.

Some of the cool new features of V8 are:

1. Open source JavaScript Engine
2. Written in C++. Hence you can expect a superfast execution.
3. Used in Google's own Chrome browser. What else you expect to certify the greatness of it?
4. Implements ECMAScript (ECMA 262)
5. Supported Platforms:
1. Microsoft
1. Windows XP
2. Vista
2. Apple
1. Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
3. IA 32 or ARM Processor-powered Linux systems
6. Supported modes of execution:
1. Embedded
2. Standalone

Google Chrome -- A Revolutionary New Browser

Google Chrome -- A Revolutionary New Browser

The browser wars are going to be hotter with Google putting its new kid (Chrome) into the forefront. Just about a week back, Google seemed to have launched their innovative browser software called 'Google Chrome'.

I just thought I would try it out a bit and write a few points about the same for the benefit of other readers:

1. Quicker download
2. Smaller memory footprint
3. The Addressbar itself is a little search companion now. :)
4. Speedier and Faster browsing of web pages
5. Desktop shortcuts for Web Pages
6. Thumbnails for websites
7. Browser Task Manager: No more erring websites can crash your entire browser. Now Google Chrome offers you a choice to kill the particular tab alone which is causing trouble
8. In Cognito browsing mode to prevent URLs from being recorded onto your browser history bar.
9. Strict and Safe browsing against wandering into dangerous websites.
10. One of the link in Google Chrome says about a new JavaScript engine called V8 powering chrome. Check out more about V8 here.

Free Video MP3 Extractor

Free Video MP3 Extractor

Sometimes we get to view cool videos in public domain hosted with Google Youtube. Subject to copyright restrictions, you may be allowed to download them. But remember video files are expected to be very heavy cluttering up your hard disk and gobbling up the available space very greedily. Many a times,for devotional songs, you may like to have only the audio portion of the same but till this point, you may be left with no option other than to bear the heaviness.

Look no further. Jodix has a cool freeware called 'Free Video MP3 Extractor', which offers to pull out the audio component of major video format files and save them as MP3 file for you.  I just thought I would write a brief review of the same here for the benefit of other readers:

1. Works on most video formats
2. Smaller download footprint
3. Little memory consumption and hence faster.
4. Easy and friendly interface
5. Ability to edit and update the meta information in the audio file that is being created.

Download URL and System Requirements can be found here.

Free WMA to MP3 Convertor

Free WMA to MP3 Convertor

This is a sister product of RA to MP3 convertor that we discussed here. I didn't want to clutter the single post with multiple distinct software and hence chose to keep this separate.

WMA files are Windows Media Player specific. Those who are fond of lighter WinAMP and those using operating systems other than Microsoft Windows may be at loss from being able to play these files. No longer. I came across a tool from Jodix which offers to convert WMA files to MP3 and it is free to. It is called Jodix WMA to MP3 convertor.

Some of the lucrative features of

1. Free
2. Very light-weight
3. Quick and Fast download, without pinching the network and bandwidth (thereby saving a hole on the wallet)
4. Stable throughout heavy conversions
5. Simpler Interface
6. Ability to update meta information in the files being converted.
7. Cleaner uninstall
8. Comprehensive HTML Help
9. Check out the download from here. Make sure you also read through the various system requirements that you need to satisfy to run this program.

Free Real Audio to MP3 Convertor

Free Real Audio to MP3 Convertor

I got a cool prayer song from one of a website download but it was in Real Audio format. For some reason, I always have a hatred for Real Audio. What are they?

1. Heavy player download
2. Constant nagging of Real Player to have itself in Windows Startup and slowing down my PC.

I had two options to play the file in that case:

1. Real Alternative
2. RA to MP3 Convertor: I came across a free convertor from Real Media files to MP3 (which is supported by all media players worldwide now). This is called Jodix RM to MP3 convertor. Some of the good points about this tool are:
   1. Free
   2. Very light-weight
   3. Quick and Fast download, without pinching the network and bandwidth (thereby saving a hole on the wallet)
   4. Stable throughout heavy conversions
   5. Simpler Interface
   6. Ability to update meta information in the files being converted.
   7. Cleaner uninstall
   8. Comprehensive HTML Help
3. Check out the download from here. Make sure you also read through the various system requirements that you need to satisfy to run this program.

C# Basics -- Book Review

C# Basics -- Book Review

.NET is a promising technology now. Even for fresh graduates just out of college, they feel that they should take up a .NET course to get a lucrative opportunity in a good software organization. Traditionally, I always feel we should have a good book to learn about things in minute details.

I just thought I would have a quick review of Vijay Mukhi's book 'C# Basics'. Some of the good interesting features of this book are:

1. Easy style of writing
2. Simple language
3. Simple to understand examples
4. Web Companion for the book
5. Moderately priced and available in most stores of India besides BPB Online.

Snapvine -- Voice Blogging ...

Snapvine -- Voice Blogging ...

I just came across this website called Snapvine, which supports a new innovation in blogging called VoiceBlogging. I just signed up for an account and posted my first voice post too.

Check out my profile here.

Photosynth of Dasavatharam (Sri Vishnu Dashavatharam)

Photosynth of Dasavatharam (Sri Vishnu Dashavatharam)

Microsoft Photosynth is a good inspiring website where you upload your photos and it would automatically make it appear as 3D set. I just thought of giving it a shot. To start with, I have uploaded the photographs of Lord Vishnu (of his ten incarnations, known as Dashavatharam).

 

You can check out the Synth URL here. You need to have the Synth Runtime and ActiveX installed before you can view the same.

Helping Freshers in the IT Field

Helping Freshers in the IT Field

http://www.questpond.com/ has pioneered to bring out a thirty-minute DVD to help out fresh grads out of colleges looking out for opportunities in the IT field to discover themselves, streamline and re-orient them in the direction that the IT field is aspiring them for.

They have given two contact email addresses to whom enquires can be directed regarding the DVD:

1. questpond (at) questpond.com
2. raju_bist (at) questpond.com

P.S.: To enhance security against spammers, the email addresses have been expaneded instead of using the @ symbol.

Learning Design Patterns from QuestPond

Learning Design Patterns from QuestPond

While casually browsing http://www.questpond.com/, I came across a new section that they have launched with the title "Free Design Pattern Videos". Design Patterns are really a very important entities in a good software architecture.

We should really thank QuestPond for taking lot of pains in bringing out this excellent material. The QuestPond URL for DesignPattern videos is here.

Video-based Learning on Securing our Networks from QuestPond

Video-based Learning on Securing our Networks from QuestPond

While casually browsing through http://www.questpond.com/, I found a good collection of Video series that they have prepared which are entitled "501 Attack Patterns by Hackers". The videos are hosted with Google YouTube and they provide a very good learning on a variety of security related techniques.

Let us bookmark the URL, learn about the variety of security techniques and ensure that our networks and web applications are safe.

Free PHP AddOn for Visual Studio 2005 and 2008

Free PHP AddOn for Visual Studio 2005 and 2008

I came across this free software called DevExtraPHP from Top Ten Software which serves as a valuable addon for Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 as a syntax highlighter for PHP keywords.

I felt of sharing this URL with other PHP development fraternity with the intent that it would be really a great tool to help in their development efforts.

Thawte Scavenger Hunt 2008

Thawte Scavenger Hunt 2008

While browsing Codeproject casually, I came across a cool contest called Thawte Scavenger Hunt 2008. All we have to do are the following:

1. Download two whitepapers from Thawte website (the URLs are mentioned in the contest page hyperlinked above)
2. Read them.
3. Answer the quiz questions in CodeProject website.

As per the contest page, the contest runs till September 30, 2008 and lucrative Amazon gift cards are being offered as prizes. I hence thought I would share this with other readers for their benefit and information also.

Mentors Program in Dotnetspider.com

Mentors Program in Dotnetspider.com

Dotnetspider.com, which is a premiere .NET technology lookup website in India has brought out an innovative program called 'Mentors', which I came across whilst surfing the website recently.

For Experts, they can register for the program, help others and earn revenue through the Google AdSense API-driven payment scheme of Dotnetspider. For new members, help is available at a nominal cost through simple instant messaging communication tools.

Check out Mentors page over here for more details.

QuestPond brings Free Online Testing

QuestPond brings Free Online Testing

We have been discussing about QuestPond which provides interview and job assistance questions on a variety of topics sometime back. I just visited the website sometime back and found out, they are also offering now free online testing of your skills after a quick and simple registration.

You can register and take your free online examinations over here.

Online Vault -- Bullet Proof Password Manager from Inbox.com

Online Vault -- Bullet Proof Password Manager from Inbox.com

We have been trying out dozens of Password Managers since we have zillions of passwords to remember and at least a million that we are forced use on a daily basis for a variety of purposes. Some of the keynotes with respect to the password management tool are:

1. The tool should be free of spyware and it should not steal your passwords.
2. The tool should be having strong password generating ability.
3. The tool should save the passwords with sufficiently strong fortress on the local disk.
4. The tool should be affordable.
5. The tool should be easy to use.

On quick analysis, I observed that OnlineVault from Inbox.com seems to a befitting tool to answer the above simple requirements and rather exceed our expectations with a friendly GUI and more advanced features like the following too:

1. Spyware Terminator Certified Application which states that OnlineVault is a clean and safe-to-use application.
2. Strong Password generation utility
3. The tool protects the password stored with a master password.
4. The tool is free to use.
5. Flexible and easy to understand GUI.

I hence thought I would share about this tool with other readers for everone's benefit.

System Protect -- Surestop File Guard from Inbox.com

System Protect -- Surestop File Guard from Inbox.com

Today whilst browsing Inbox.com products section, I came across System-Protect freeware, which elicited my interest. I just installed it and tried the same. It seems to be cute and innovative with respect to the following features.

We would be normally having Password Protection, Duplicate Backups etc. This one provides multiple types of protection for operating system and also user files so that the system remains ultra-stable without any type of downtime haunting us.

And as with Inbox.com, for common users, this comes as a free software. Check it out. This tool, I feel, should be like a insurance for our software and desktop.

Spyware Terminator -- The Definitive Terminator for any Spyware under the Sun

Spyware Terminator -- The Definitive Terminator for any Spyware under the Sun

Today, following the dreaded virus attack in the morning, I discovered about the greatness of Spyware Terminator from Inbox.com. It is so lovely that it automates the deletion of spyware on reboot at the OS Splash screen without we needing to bother going into Safe Mode and disturbing the system.

It also has a rich set of features like 'Host File Tamper Protection', bad program launch protection and more. It sits in the system tray and helps with RealTime protection.

Some of the features I came across the tool were:

1. Fast, Full and Custom Spyware scanning
2. Realtime Protection
3. Host File Hijack Protection
4. Antivirus Integration
5. Scheduled Scans
6. Free for Personal and Commercial use

WebSecurityGuard from Inbox.com -- The Invincible Protection Tool

WebSecurityGuard from Inbox.com -- The Invincible Protection Tool

During my previous visit to Irving, TX in Feb - May 2007, I had troubleshoot a virus attack in one of my friend (Tharun Kumar)'s system. I tried to take a quick help of WebSecurityGuard as a preventive tool for him in his system so that he would be warned when navigating to dangerous websites.

WSG comes from the house of Inbox.com, who pioneers in bringing innovative world-class products for the benefit of internet users. I just thought I would share the word about WSG for the benefit of other readers as well:

1. Allows users to rate a website on the safety features.
2. Prevents infection on the computers.
3. Flags the safety of the websites on the search results pages from major search engines itself, so that we can avoid clicking them.
4. Proactive halting of spyware from entering our systems.
5. FREE for all.

I hence thought I would share about this tool with other readers so that they can browse safely.

Parental Guard from Crawler.com (Inbox.com Family)

Parental Guard from Crawler.com (Inbox.com Family)

Sometime about a month back, my colleague (Senguttuvan Haridoss) was asking me regarding some software that can enable his kids to browse the Internet from home but at the same time prevent them from surfing on to malware websites. Whilst, I immediately suggested him Squid NT, today morning my encounter-experience with virus introduced me to Parental Guard from Crawler.com (Inbox.com family)

i just loved this tool for the simply cool features like below:

 

1. Dual Password Protection
1. Startup requires Parent Password
2. Uninstall request Master Password
2. Bad word block
3. Good number of bad sites categorized in its control panel which gets blocked automatically.
4. Configure time spent on computer
5. FREE for personal and commercial use.

Dreaded Virus/Trojan Attacks -- Thwart Defeated!

Dreaded Virus/Trojan Attacks -- Thwart Defeated!

It had been rather painful days of slow connection since most of the Internet bandwidth was being used by mysterious viruses and trojans in my system. This is a fresh new PC and I still surprised how just hooking on to the network can bring in plethora of virus infections in a jiffy. I could recall two devastating viruses that took a significant chunk of time last week. They are:

1. AntiVir XP. This is famous of presenting false positive messages like 'Your system is infected with spyware'. It goes to the extent of setting a wallpaper on the desktop with this nagware alert and popping up a system tray message every two minutes
2. InfoStealer.Banker.C. This collects information from the compromised computer and sends to an unknown Russian domain website.

This sends a flag of warning to us that whenever we have a new system configured, the first and foremost software that needs to go in are the Security and Antispyware software. I recommend the following tools from Inbox.com which helped me in cleaning up my system:

1. Web Security Guard
2. Spyware Terminator

We may think that the system security process is cumbersome and is unnecessary. But if the system is infected the downtime and remedy is still more cumbersome. Prevention is better than cure right?

My Article about 'Sri Krishna Bhavan' in Go-Ergo

My Article about 'Sri Krishna Bhavan' in Go-Ergo

Go-Ergo is a unique tabloid that gets delivered in Chennai to almost all IT companies in the morning. This tabloid comes from the publishing house of 'The Hindu'. Go-Ergo really helps us in staying up to date in what is going on in the society rather than just locked up before the systems, debugging some mundane application/software.

They have an interesting column called 'Namma Chennai' and a section therein for Catering. They try to publish about small eatouts in Chennai in various parts of the city along with the special cuisines over there. They also invite readers to share about various eatouts so that they can feature them in the columns.

During my regular weekly Triplicane temple (Sri Parthasarathy Temple) visits, I knew about a restaurant opposite the temple called 'Sri Krishna Bhavan', which I wrote to them. The section editor called me to get more details and after verification, a small writeup about the eatout along with a cool photograph appeared on Go-Ergo on 23rd Wednesday 2008 (Page 2). You can find a brief online posting about this over here. I also came across an archive of the magazine in Scribd which can be downloaded from here.

My Frequent Date with the Mouse

My Frequent Date with the Mouse

Currently, these days of computing with GUI like MAC OS/X and Windows Vista, using a computer without a mouse would be like summing 1 and 2 and expecting 4 as a reply. Most of the applications that get developed these days expect the user to be comfortable with this point-and-click hardware more than keyboard and other accessories.

I have two little encounters (or experiences) or in romantic terms (date) with this point-and-click hardware. I had little problems with the mouse, which fell down and got damaged from the first floor about a month back. I had to allot some time to go to a computer shop and purchase one afresh.

Today I had another experience. For some reason, the workplace computer had divorced its mouse. When I unlocked my system, I found the mouse not working. It was actually detacted because someone seems to have pressed its tail hardly. I had to take some help from some one (since it was like a novel model) and get my system convinced for another healthy relationship with the mouse. Things work fine now. The voyage through Windows is now steering clear with the Captain Mouse.

There is another salient learning from these incidents. We should, as developers, ensure that our applications are geared to support the user with no point-and-click hardware. Most of the things are achievable with keyboard accelerators and touch-screen hardware right?

Renewal of Microsoft MVP Award

Renewal of Microsoft MVP Award

It was a pleasant surprise today morning to recieve an email from Microsoft MVPAward on their renewing my MVP for another year.

A few things to recall -- I have been MVP since 2003 respectively in the areas marked thereto:

1. 2003-04: .NET Framework
2. 2004-05: C#
3. 2006-07: ASP/ASP.NET
4. 2007-08: ASP/ASP.NET
5. 2008-09: Just got renewed. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Microsoft MVP selection team for considering my humble contributions towards this recognition.

You can find my MVP Profile being linked to from the right navigation widget of this weblog.

Winner of Guru T-Shirt in Experts-Exchange

Winner of Guru T-Shirt in Experts-Exchange

I am glad to publish the news that I have been chosen as the winner of Guru T-Shirt in Experts-Exchange. I am currently in the Guru rank in ASP.NET topic areas. For more details, you can select the 'My Experts-Exchange Profile' in the right navigation widget of this weblog.

I am publishing the Experts-Recognition appreciation email that I have recieved to this effect sometime yesterday.

TreeSize Freeware

TreeSize Freeware

Prathiba had a strange problem in her system. Her Windows folder was showing a different size from right click of the node on the tree and the figure was just varying when we did a select all of the object on the right hand side. We tried all ways of displaying hidden fields but to no avail. I put the question onto CodeProject forums here and Mike Dimmick (CodeProject MVP) helped us with TreeSize tool from JAM software along with a tip that 'Operating System files' are to be displayed.

I just checked the free edition of TreeSize and feel that it is a very good tool to be part of our Windows toolbox. Some of the good features are:

1. Quickly tell where is the freespace being hiding under.
2. Windows explorer shell-integrated
3. The folder scanning is done in a separate thread and hence it is very user-friendly.
4. The tool is a freeware
5. The tool is available for a diversified range of Windows including 9x, 2000, XP and Vista.

Check out the tool website here and the tool also has a paid commercial version with more features

[Website Review] IndiaStudyChannel -- A definitive guide to college and higher studies for Indians

[Website Review] IndiaStudyChannel -- A definitive guide to college and higher studies for Indians

I just casually learnt about an interesting and an informative website called IndiaStudyChannel. The website seems to be a very good free information lookup for aspiring students who are looking out to get into colleges for thier higher studies. A few of the good things about this website are:

1. The website is currently managed by the webmaster of Dotnetspider (Tony John). With a proven experience in managing high traffic websites ranging from technology specific (Dotnetspider) to WebHosting (AspSpider) besides managing his offshore technology consultancy (SpiderWorks), IndiaStudyChannel is for sure a good information repository for students.
2. With a quick tour, I could collect the following features on the website:
1. Indepth information on various educational institutions
2. Examination Results (Placeholder Webpages)
1. CBSE 2008
2. ICSE ISC 2008
3. SSLC 2008
3. Mock (Model) Entrance Examinations
3. Model and Previous Question Papers
4. Rewards for participants and contributors

This is a very informative website to be bookmarked and to be visited often.

[Book Review] PMP Exam Prep: Accelerated Learning to Pass PMI's PMP Exam--on Your First Try!

[Book Review] PMP Exam Prep: Accelerated Learning to Pass PMI's PMP Exam--on Your First Try!

The following three people have been instrumental in encouraging me to enter the PMP world. They are:

1. Ramesh Kumar Nagarajan
2. Senguttuvan Haridoss
3. Balaji Pitchumani

I just thought I would share about an interesting book which makes the reading for PMP a breeze besides being an excellent source of information towards exam and for general project management practices too. Some of the interesting features of this book are:

1. Friendly and interesting reading of the book
2. Clear and concise without ambiguity
3. A friendly companion to the other book PMBOK
4. Easy availability through Internet book stores like Amazon.com and your local reseller.

Prevent IE from Stealing Focus

Prevent IE from Stealing Focus

As part of the Sunday Learning, another useful software that I tried to start using today was 'TweakUI' for Windows XP. There is a brief review about it here also. TweakUI facilitates with an exclusive node for 'Focus' on one of its left tree options and when selecting it, you are presented with options page with the option 'Prevent applications from stealing focus'. Alternatively, the flash bar of the application aspiring active focus would flash demanding the attention of the user. But eternally flashing windows are again irritating. Hence there is are options to control whether the window should keep flashing and stop flashing after a specified number of times.

TweakUI has more options to configure and optimize Windows. It is an inevitable tool for anyone.

"Why we should stop clicking links and use Copy Paste?"

"Why we should stop clicking links and use Copy Paste?"

Today afternoon, I was quite annoyed by my Internet Explorer that kept jumping between Windows without allowing me to type anything in the address bar of a new opened one. I did a quick Internet search on how to prevent focus stealing in Internet Explorer. One of the forums there was a mention about some solution with TweakUI which I would discuss separately. However, they have mentioned Microsoft Support KB the URL had been misspelt as mocrosoft. See this URL: http://forums.hexus.net/operating-systems-applications/4031-prevent-ie-stealing-focus.html

The Learning:

By mistake, I clicked the link. However, the little desktop utilities in my system screamed alerting me of a possible Phishing Attack. I got a Sunday learning today that we should stop clicking links henceforth unless we are sure of the source and get practiced to copy and paste of the same. While copy-paste, for sure, our eye would scrutinize the spelling typos right?