Hardik Shah [Guru]'s official Blog world

SharePoint 2007: Using WSPBuilder for rapid deployment

2011-01-14T20:10:00.301+05:30

Assuming the readers of this post are not new to SharePoint development, it’s a known fact that SharePoint development isn’t as easy as developing on ASP.Net. Contrary to ASP.Net development where pages developed can be viewed by right-clicking on it and viewing it in browser; SharePoint takes much more than that! A matter of fact, a SharePoint WebPart takes around 11 steps right from developing it to deploying it, populating it in WebPart Gallery before getting it displayed on SharePoint pages. And surprising it might seem, even some of the most experienced SharePoint experts err while following this procedure ... ☺ ☺

Talking about real-life scenarios in service-driven companies where SharePoint developers do not have access to production servers; the only way deployment happens is through client’s onsite SharePoint Administrator. This makes developers write a painful and lengthy deployment document along with all source-code files bundled. With WSPBuilder, deployment becomes a click-once process or call it a single-command process. WSPBuilder helps to make a Solution Package (i.e. a .wsp file) using Visual Studio 2005/2008.

Solution packages are the preferred mechanism for deploying WSS components. The solution package itself is a compressed CAB file with a .wsp extension, and it contains one or more WSS components along with any dependent files that need to be deployed on each front-end Web server.

A simple solution package might contain just the files needed to deploy a single feature. A more complex package could contain the files for multiple features, applications pages, Web Parts, list definitions, event handlers, and a site definition. You decide what goes into a solution package according to what set of components it makes sense to deploy as a single unit.

The WSS runtime provides a built-in installer component that runs on each front-end Web server and is responsible for uncompressing the files inside a solution package and properly installing its components.

The Solution package tells the installer to perform other important deployment procedures, such as registering features with the WSS runtime, adding assembly DLLs to the Global Assembly Cache (GAC), and updating the web.config file with SafeControl entries required in Web Part deployment.

Requirements: WSPBuilder Extensions

Current version: WSPBuilder Extensions 1.0.6
(supports MOSS 2007 x86 / x64 bit, IIS6 / IIS7 on VS 2008)

Date: Jul 29, 2009 Status: Stable

Other awaited release: WSPBuilder Extensions 2010 BETA 1.4
(supports SharePoint 2007/2010 x86/x64 bit, IIS6/IIS7 on VS 2008/2010)

Release Tracker: Here

Issue Tracker: Here

Example: Deploying a MOSS 2007 WebPart with ASP.Net Web User Control (i.e. .ascx) using WSPBuilder

Check this blog post of mine Here on how to create SharePoint 2007 WebParts with ASP.Net Web User Controls.

Step 1: Create a new WSPBuilder project in Visual Studio 2008

Step 2: Create the folder hierarchy as required and copy the required files within the folder structure

Once created, you will witness the folder structure in the Solution Explorer as follows. Note the following points:

The 12 hive in Solution Explorer corresponds to the 12 hive where Microsoft SharePoint has been installed. The subsequent folders like GAC, TEMPLATE/LAYOUTS, TEMPLATE/FEATURES, TEMPLATE/XML, etc have to be created explicitly underneath the 12 hive which correspond to the existing locations. The files kept in these folders will be deployed at the exact locations on all front-end servers relative to their 12 hive.

The GAC hive in Solution Explorer corresponds to the GAC (Global Assembly Cache) on all front-end servers. A DLL kept here would be copied to the server’s GAC when the Solution Package is installed.

Add reference to libraries as required in the WSPBuilder project. As an example, you’ll need to add reference to ‘System.Web’ library in the project for a successful build if you have an ASP.Net Web User Control added.

The WSPBuilder.exe.config file plays the same role as that of web.config but for the WSPBuilder project. This file is not present by default when the WSPBuilder project is created so it has to be manually copied into the project. A sample wspbuilder.exe.config file is present at the install path of WSPBuilder in /Program Files/WSPTools/. Please make sure you don’t modify that file there and that you copy this file to your project and then make modifications to it. One of the <appSettings> attribute in the config file is <add key="Includefiletypes" value="cs" /> which means it’ll allow files with .cs extension to be bundled into the Solution Package which by default it doesn’t allow. Check the below snapshot for details.

For the purpose of this example, I have created the required folders below the 12 hive and copied the Web User Control underneath it. Also, the DLL for the WebPart has been copied under the created GAC folder. A point to note, please make sure you follow the naming conventions and rename the folders appropriately and as per convention.

Step 3: Build the project and create a WSP

If you have any files added to the directories which need compilation then Build the project by pressing F5. When done, right-click on the solution > WSPBuilder > Build WSP. On successful completion, a .wsp file would have been created at the project location.

Step 4: Deploy the WSP using the stsadm utility

Open the command prompt and traverse to the location where the .wsp file is located. Run the following command making sure the filename is exact.

stsadm –o –addsolution –filename Sample_WSPBuilder.wsp

Step 5: Deploy the solution from the Operations Tab of Central Administration Site

Browse to the Central Administration Site > Operation Tab > Global Configuration > Solution Management

Click on sample_wspbuilder.wsp in the list and click on ‘Deploy Solution’ in the following page.

Once clicked on ‘Deploy Solution’, the following page will display the time when you want your solution to be deployed and which Web Applications to target. The default time is now and all content web applications. Click OK to proceed.

The solution package is now deployed which is evident from the snapshot below.

Once deployed, the following actions have been achieved:

WebPart’s DLL has been copied to the GAC. Also to the bin folder of the SharePoint virtual directory with its .pdb file.

The ASP.Net Web User Control (i.e. .ascx and .ascx.cs) files have been copied at the “12/TEMPLATE/LAYOUTS/PhotoGallery/” location.

The necessary SafeControl entries in web.config have been made automatically and the previous web.config file has been backed up with .bak entension.

Step 6: Following the required steps to view the WebPart

Make sure you follow the required steps of populating the WebPart Gallery and adding the WebPart to a SharePoint page.

Any questions, please feel free to put them in the Comments section.

Note:

The solution can be undeployed in the similar fashion by clicking on the Solution package name in Solution Management and then ‘Remove Solution’.

If you want to remove the solution package at Farm level then first undeploy the solution using the previous step and then use the following command. Note that this would uninstall the DLL’s in GAC and delete the subdirectories in 12 hive (as created by the WSP when installed) from all front-end servers.

stsadm –o –deletesolution –name Sample_WSPBuilder.wsp –override

You can download the source code Here:

Key Learning SharePoint component deployment can be made easy with WSPBuilder. Once the WSP is created, developers should try deploying the same on their development environment and when successful, handover the same to the SharePoint Administrators for deployment on production servers.

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SharePoint 2007: Accessing a SharePoint List programmatically

2010-12-17T02:06:00.002+05:30

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 offers the best portal, collaboration and content management for an enterprise. Teams using a SharePoint portal can collaborate using Document libraries, lists, picture libraries, discussion boards, surveys, etc. Amongst those I mentioned, document libraries are the most used allowing a team to share documents(of Office 2003/07) and stay synchronized with the latest one allowing real-time collaboration. These lists and libraries can be accessed programmatically in C# using the SharePoint Object Model(SOM). Though SOM can also be used to access different entities like Workflows, Site Features, etc; in this post I'll be focusing on accessing lists/libraries using SOM.

Following will give you a quick gist of how we can access a SharePoint list present in a SharePoint site based on the hierarchy.

Hierarchy	Class
• SharePoint Site Collection (i.e. top-level or parent site)	SPSite
• SharePoint Site (i.e. target or sub-site)	SPWeb
• SharePoint List under the target site	SPList
• List Items in the List	SPListItem

In my following example, I’m trying to access images in a Picture Library named ‘PictureLibrary1’ present at the URL http://ram2003svr:8080/PictureLibrary1. The List Items existing in the ‘PictureLIbrary1’ are ‘Name’, ‘Title’. I have used an ASP.Net website for this example, so make sure you have the following three libraries added as a reference to your project.

• Microsoft.SharePoint
• Microsoft.SharePoint.Security
• Microsoft.SharePoint.intl

You can copy the DLL’s from your GAC using this link Here.

CODE Snippet:

using System;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
 
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages;
 
public partial class Image_Library_Webpart_Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    
    /*
        We're trying to access a 'Picture Library' located at below URL.
        URL: http://ram2003svr:8080/PictureLibrary1
      
        The below process is similar for accessing a Document Library or Lists like 'Tasks','Announcements', etc.
    */
    
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
 
        //SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges() is mandatory since a user might not have sufficient privileges to access this list.
 
        SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
        {
 
            //SPSite returns the Site Collection object for the URL
 
            using (SPSite spSite = new SPSite("http://ram2003svr:8080/"))    
            {
                /* Returns the object of the site (takes relative site URL after the top-site) which we want to access. 
                In this case, it is BLANK since the site is a top-level site */
 
                using (SPWeb spWeb = spSite.AllWebs[""]) 
                {   
                    //Returns the List object for the Picture Library. Takes the List Name as an argument.
 
                    SPList spList = spWeb.Lists["PictureLibrary1"];
 
                    //Iterate through the SPListItems in the List.
 
                    foreach (SPListItem spListItem in spList.Items)
                    {
                        
                        //You can access the various attributes in the list like 'Name','Title'
 
                        Response.Write("Name of image file : " + spListItem["Name"].ToString() + "<br /><br />");
 
                        Response.Write("Title of image file : " + spListItem["Title"].ToString() + "<br /><br />");
 
                        Response.Write("URL of image file : " + "http://ram2003svr:8080/PictureLibrary1/" + spListItem["Name"].ToString() + "<br /><br />");
                        
                    }
 
                }
            }
 
        });
 
    }
}

You can download the source code Here:

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SharePoint 2007: Creating WebParts using ASP.Net Web User Controls

2010-12-10T01:01:00.006+05:30

WebParts can be used as an add-on in MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) 2007 or WSS (Windows SharePoint Services) 3.0. You can include ASP.Net functionality into SharePoint using Web Parts as well. Web Parts as developers know, does not have a front end when developed, we have to add controls to it dynamically for it to be displayed on SharePoint page. In such cases, to make the development effort easier and faster, ASP.Net Web User Controls (i.e. .ascx) can bear the Web Form layout. The Web Part can be made to use this Web User Control for displaying it on a SharePoint page. A matter of fact, developing, deploying and maintaining WebParts is one of the most tedious tasks for a SharePoint developer. Following steps will help you leverage a ASP.Net Web User Control with a Web Part.

Step 1: Creating the ASP.Net Web User Control

Create an ASP.Net web site and get your Web User Control (.ascx and .ascx.cs files) developed and tested as per your requirements. If you want your Web User Control to interact with SharePoint Object Model then you have to add references to the following 3 DLL’s:

• Microsoft.SharePoint
• Microsoft.SharePoint.Security
• Microsoft.SharePoint.intl

You can copy these three DLL’s from GAC using this link Here.

Keep the following points included in mind for certain cases:

◘ If you want to insert a custom JavaScript file specially for the ASP.Net User Control you can either use the <script></script> block in the .ascx file or use the following approach:

• Place an ASP.Net Placeholder in the section of the SharePoint Master page. Name it as per your convention.
• Use a Literal control (say 'Literal1') and add the <script src=" ... " type="text/javascript"></script> code for JavaScript or <link href=" ... " rel="Stylesheet" /> code for CSS to the ‘Literal1.Text’ attribute in the Page_Load event of the ASP.Net User Control.
• Access the Placeholder with the ID from the Page_Load event and add the Literal1 control to it.

◘ The JavaScript or CSS file so referenced in the Web User Control can either be a file visible in SharePoint 2007 Designer or in the ‘_layouts’ folder. Choosing the former option would be wiser.

◘ If you need to access a <ConnectionString> or <AppSetting> attribute from the Web User Control, make sure you make the required entry in the 'web.config' file.

Step 2: Placing the Web User Control in the '_layouts' folder

Place the ASP.Net Web User Control files (i.e. .ascx and .ascx.cs) in a folder created (name it wisely) in the ‘_layouts’ folder of your 12 hive where Microsoft SharePoint 2007 is installed. Place your JavaScript or CSS files here as well if you have chosen to reference them from your Web User Control here.

A majority of posts on the Internet will advice to keep the Web User Control files in the ‘_controltemplates’ virtual directory but believe me and my experience; I prefer the ‘_layouts’ virtual directory. In my example mentioned below, I have used a Web User Control named 'Photo_Gallery.ascx' placed in the folder 'PhotoGallery' in the '_layouts' folder.

Step 3: Creation of WebPart

Assuming you have your development environment ready, create a Web Part project in VS 2005/2008 using SharePoint Extensions for Visual Studio with the following code snippet:

 
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
 
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages;
 
namespace WP_PhotoGallery
{
 
    [Guid("c3417aa5-e282-42c8-a8b8-769d1f66af31")]
    public class SogetiPhotoGallery : System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart
    {
 
        Control c;              //Variable for the Web Part Control
        String err;             //Will store the Exception
 
        public SogetiPhotoGallery()
        {
            /* Will allow to export the WebPart. Not mandatory. */
 
            this.ExportMode = WebPartExportMode.All;
        }
        
        protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
        {
            
            /* SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges block is required to run the Web Part with additional privilegs. 
             * This BLOCK is recommended to avoid user authentication/authorization issues. */
 
            SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            {
 
                try
                {
                    /* Render the Web User Control */
                    
                    c.RenderControl(writer);
                }
 
                catch (Exception e)
                {
                    /* Store the Exception in 'err' is any */
                    
                    writer.Write(e.Message + " : " + err);
                }
        
            });
            
        }
 
        protected override void CreateChildControls()
        {
 
            SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            {
                
                //Create all associated child controls necessary for display //
                
                base.CreateChildControls();
                
                try
                {
 
                    this.Controls.Clear();
                    
                    //Load the Web User Control (.ascx) and add it to the Page. //
 
                    c = this.Page.LoadControl("~/_layouts/PhotoGallery/Photo_Gallery.ascx");
                    this.Controls.Add(c);
                }
                    
                catch (Exception e)
                {
                    err = e.Message;
                }
                
            });
            
        }
 
    }
 
}

Step 4: Deployment of Web Part, populating it in Web Part Gallery and using a Web Part page to display the Web Part on a SharePoint page

Make sure you follow the required steps for deployment of Web Part. If you face any issues, please post it in the comments section.

As a reference for beginners, you can learn how to create, deploy and install Web Parts using this article Here.

You can download the source code Here:

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Unicode special characters at your advantage

2010-11-25T17:15:00.109+05:30

I’m sure you would have come across Facebook status updates and Tweets having special characters which you don’t find them on your keyboard. These special characters convey expressions, feelings and adorn your text from aesthetics point-of-view.

Examples: ☺ ♣ ♥ ◘ ♫ ¿ ► ↔ » ☼ ■ ± √ ¼ Ω Ü £ ░ ... many more

Check the following examples on Facebook and Twitter –

These are called Unicode Special Characters and there are many of them. You can use ALT codes to get these characters on screen. The idea is to keep the ALT key pressed and then type the CODE from your numeric keypad. Check the following Unicode special character list along with its equivalent ALT code. For language specific characters check Here.

Note:

You need the numeric keypad on your keyboard layout to use these codes else use the Character Map in Windows. Apple Macintosh users can refer this link Here for using Unicode special characters. The ‘Character Map’ equivalent in Macintosh is known as Character Palette. You can read more on both of them below.

The ALT key has to be released once the code is typed.

■ How do I use Unicode special characters in Web Pages?

There are several ways you can type or import Unicode text, but each page must include a encoding meta tag specifying the utf-8 Unicode encoding, so that browsers render the text correctly. See the code below:

 
<head>
 
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
...
 
</head>

■ Use 'Character Map' in Windows if you don't have access to Web or can't remember ALT Codes:

Start → Run → charmap ↵

■ For Apple Macintosh users:

The ‘Character Map’ equivalent in Macintosh is known as Character Palette. Read more on it Here.

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Why Google’s Blogger is the best blogging service according to me

2010-11-08T18:52:00.002+05:30

There are many options available for having your Blog like Wordpress, Blogger, LiveSpaces, etc. But the best I'd recommend is Google's Blogger. Some of the prime reasons I rank it above WordPress, LiveSpaces –

Provides customizations to the best possible extent including adding Scripts, custom HTML, etc to the template.

Publishing a post subsequently indexes the same on Google Search instantly. Check it out for yourself.

Has a lucid and user-friendly interface making it easy for any beginner to quickly get started.

Provides publishing over FTP or E-Mail. FTP publishing literally means publishing your blog to your personal website with content hosted over Blogger. E-Mail publishing offers making posts by sending an E-Mail to a E-Mail address which can be configured from the Settings Tab.

Direct integration with Google Picasa Web Albums and YouTube which provides a central repository for storing your images and videos respectively.

Support for both RSS and Atom(default) feeds with ample customization possibilities over the following things:

»» Templates – Here
»» Customization Scripts –Here

Check out Google’s Blogger Here:

My personal suggestions

• Once registered with an ID say ' abc ' you'll have your blog in this fashion - www.abc.blogspot.com

• Before registering, please think as to what subject you'll be focusing on for your blog. Choose an apt title for your blog and any posts you make so that search engines index your blog appropriately depending on your quality of content. This way you'll get some decent readers VIA search engine results.

• Blogger offers some cool features like a rich text-editor, 1GB image storage space over Picasa, comment moderation, Blog publishing via E-Mail, FTP hosting on your personal web-site, importing previous posts, various templates, etc.

So start blogging ... (just make it a habit)

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Microsoft BPOS Suite: Getting started with the 30-day Evaluation

2010-10-25T01:02:00.171+05:30

Assuming you know about Microsoft BPOS Suite, it's time to get started with the 30-day Evaluation. You can read my previous post Here in case you want an overview of it. Following are the requirements for getting started with the 30-day evaluation:

A Windows Live ID (can be created if you don’t have one)

An internet domain with full access to administration panel (mandatory)

Now let’s get started with the registration process.

Step 1

Check out BPOS Suite under Products menu

Step 2

Clicking the Free Trial »» link will open up a modal dialog suggesting the three steps to followed for the entire process. Read them carefully. You can click on ‘Get Started Now >’ to proceed.

Step 3

Clicking on the button will take you to the Microsoft Online Services Sign up portal.

As depicted in the above image, you can you can click on 'Sign Up' to create a Windows Live ID and then register or click on 'Sign In' to register using an existing Live ID.

Step 4

On successful registration, you will be redirected to the Microsoft Online Services Customer portal.

You will be asked for the following two fields:

Promotion code (not required)

Company Name (make sure the name/alias is available and is named appropriately)

By default, you will be the Administrator of the Microsoft Online Services account and will also have access to the Microsoft Online Services Administration center. In future, you can create more users and elevate them to be administrators.

A point to note, by default the Administrator of the Microsoft Online Services account will have his username –
admin@CompanyName.microsoftonline.com

In future, the subsequent users added will have their usernames - @CompanyName.microsoftonline.com.

The users will have access to their allotted MOS services via the MOS Customer portal Here.

On completion, of all the fields and before clicking I agree image button you will see the following screen.

Step 5

We are almost done with the Microsoft Online Services 30-day Evaluation. You will see the following page which means you will receive a confirmation E-Mail with login credentials and Administration center link from msonlineservicesteam@microsoftonline.com. Make sure you check your junk/spam folder in case you don’t see the E-Mail in your Inbox in 15 minutes.

You need to Login into the MOS Administration Center with your login credentials as provided in the confirmation mail and then get started with verifying your domain.

Note:

In case, you don’t see any E-mails in your Inbox and Spam folder, you can send a request for the same at -
msonlineservicesteam@microsoftonline.com

Step 6

The confirmation Mail will of the following format with Login credentials and Administration center link.

Now you can sign into the MOS Administration Center and start with the following:

Verifying your domain for Microsoft Online Services.

Stay tuned for a post on the same on my blog.

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Microsoft BPOS Suite: An overview

2010-10-10T23:25:00.199+05:30

What is it?

Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) is Microsoft’s SaaS (Software as a Service) offering which offers day-to-day messaging via E-Mail, peer-to-peer audio calls, video conferencing, team collaboration via portals, presence availability via Communicator in the form of tools like Exchange Online, Sharepoint Online, Office Communications Online and Office Live Meeting Online. So its four software services bundled together for your daily business and collaboration requirements for large, medium or budding enterprises. These software services are hosted by an array of data-centers at Microsoft's privy sites.

Check out the comprehensive visual demo of BPOS below.

Why enterprises should look forward to it?

Large, medium or budding enterprises who don’t want to invest in having on-premise infrastructure for their day-to-day messaging via E-Mail, peer-to-peer audio calls, video conferencing, team collaboration via portals, presence availability via Communicator, etc.

Enterprises can leverage business rich capabilities without the need to deploy and maintain software and hardware on-premise. These services can meet your needs for user productivity, high availability (Microsoft assures 99.5% and above up-time), security (read here) and 24/7 reliability.

It’s a subscription or pay-per-use based service which means you can back out from using it as per your own discretion. All your data can be backed up on-premise in that case.

Having said that, even enterprises having their infrastructure present on-premise can look forward to BPOS when they intend to scale up their hosted applications without investing in infrastructure (including floor space, H/W and S/W), reducing expenditure on maintenance and administration, renewing software licenses, etc.

How should I upgrade to BPOS?

Don’t have an on-premise infrastructure ready: If you are an enterprise or a start-up firm who doesn’t have an on-premise infrastructure, it’s going to be a fast adoption and a learning curve to look forward. All you have to do is:

Pen down your requirements from the BPOS suite of tools with the no. of users you wish to have. In future, it won’t be difficult to scale up your requirements/users coz it’s a subscription based service and you pay-per-use.

Go through the buying options carefully Here and select the right plan.

Check the Administration center, start and configure all the services you need. Make the necessary settings like adding users, giving the requisite permissions to the user, etc.

For connecting Microsoft Outlook to your Exchange Online Inbox and other configurations you’ll need Microsoft Online Migration Toolkit.

On the user side, the Microsoft Online Services Sign-In client can be used which acts as a front-end for BPOS services.

Have an on-premise infrastructure ready: This case deserves a separate blog post from me as there needs to be a clear strategy which an Architect has to design considering existing infrastructure and its tolerable capacity, critical data, security, co-existence expenditure, etc. A lot of case-studies and best practices exist for this case but one of the best amongst those which I found and which all experts recommend - co-existing your on-premise infrastructure with your cloud based service.

Stay tuned on this blog post as I'll be putting up some relevant links here later.

Try a 30-day evaluation of BPOS Here.

About the pricing?

There exists a separate offering for both new and existing customers and both of them are quite attractive. At the same time, it’s important that you think twice before you enroll your users coz its per-user-per-service pricing per month and not all features which we had in our on-premise set-up are there in BPOS. Check the image below for an idea.

Services preferred	Price
• Entire BPOS Suite which includes: - Exchange Online - Sharepoint Online - OCS Online - Live Meeting Online	10$ user/month
• Exchange Online	5$ user/ month
• Sharerepoint Online	5.25$ user/month
• Office Comunications Online	2$ user/month
• Office Live Meeting Online	4.5$ user/month

Check this calculator for BPOS cost calculation:

BPOS Success story (over Google Apps in a way)

Some of the biggest names in the Fortune 500 list have started taking to SaaS platform and many more are following.

Check out some customer experiences on BPOS Here.

A wild thought I get while writing this – Microsoft just unleashed a wave which it is set to conquer.

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Mumbai IT Pro - The inspiration behind it and my thoughts on it

2010-09-26T23:12:00.094+05:30

IT industry has been one of the most sought after industry for the current generation in INDIA. But, the right people with the right skills and technical proficiency have always eluded companies and private organizations. Add to it, people who work in large organizations always find themselves falling short of skills and knowledge to deal with their project work. And the ones’ who possess both are fighting to find people of their caliber so they could network with them. A point to note, as per NASSCOM - 70% of graduates passing out are unemployable (including those passing in IT and computers branch).

Enter Mumbai IT Pro – A technology based user-group, founded by die-hard Microsoft fanatics and partly funded by Microsoft has primarily focused on the above mentioned critical issues which the current folks have been facing. We impart education (the practical form) in the form of sessions including hands-on-labs, videos, guides, etc. Some of the best in this business including corporate trainers, Microsoft MVP’s (Most Valued Professionals), IT Specialists, etc are a part of this team and share the same view. Apart from imparting education, users of this group are also enlightened to some of the most precious products about to release, preview programs, offers, quiz, etc.

Example : Microsoft Windows 7, Office 2010, Sharepoint 2010, etc.

The sessions are very dynamic including Q&A’s, social networking, quiz, etc. In short, the audience always find themselves in a win-win situation from fun way-of-learning to winning some goodies for themselves. Every quarter, a kind-of mega event is organized called as Community Tech. Day which is held at a neutral venue (other than Microsoft Kalina office) where we get an opportunity to get in touch with more passionate people and get them involved in our activities. The Tech. Day witnesses audiences over 500 with more than 800 streams online. A record in a way. Till date, Mumbai IT Pro has around 5000 members with around 1000 members online over their portal every day. Our very notion ‘ Connect + Share = Grow ’ says the entire story. Adding to it, making people realize the idea that working isn’t just for earning but it’s actually fun and can be relishing and enjoyable.

From my contribution P.O.V., I have been an active and regular part of this group since 2008 and since August 2009 on their portal. I always had this opinion that writing articles, blogs and guides on important technical topics/products would not only come handy to users but would always stay on record of the search-engines on the web and on the Mumbai IT Pro website. Hence writing has been my primary focus. Secondly, I hold the position of social enthusiast in the user-group, which means I contribute towards the evangelism and marketing of all events and activities over all popular social networks including Twitter and Facebook. A matter of fact, I’ll always be seen at all of the events volunteering in all possible sorts and sometimes getting desperate to win some goodies for myself …. ☺ ☺

Over time, I’ve won some accolades for myself from the community and have been absent for some periods due to my personal/professional commitments …. ☺ ☺

Following are some of them ::

My profile over Mumbai IT Pro Here.

Blogger of the month award – June 2010 Here.

'Tech. Ed. on the road event' on 15th May, 2010 :: Here & Here.

One of the samples guides (E-Book) I wrote for the user-group Here.

I’ll be more than pleased to mention some of our prominent members from Mumbai IT Pro team :

Ashwin Kini (Chairman of Mumbai IT Pro, MVP, IT Specialist)

Shabbir Ahmed (CCIE, MVP and one of best speakers we have)

Aviraj Ajgekar (MCSE, MVP and speaker)

Ankit Jain (MCSE, IT Specialist at IBM)

Cyril Thomas (MS Exchange specialist and in-charge of events/sessions)

Mohit Panchal (in-charge of events/sessions)

Chirag Panchal (MCT, MCPD, speaker, Corporate Trainer)

Hari Maurya (in-charge of newsletters/banner designs)

For more details on Mumbai IT Pro E-Mail :: info@mumbaiitpro.org

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Web Designing: CSS Box Model approach and some examples

2010-09-11T20:31:00.004+05:30

I have been doing my bit on Web Designing for Web 2.0 concept for quite some time now. Some related posts on the same :

• Web Designing: Opting for XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0
• Web Designing: Faster Websites means more Business

In this post I’ll be now covering a very basic Web Designing topic on CSS Box Model which will pave the way for you to think in the boxed approach and harness the power of CSS to get simpler designs while at the same time not losing the charm and looks of your design.

CSS Box Model

As you can make out, a Web-Page is composed (from CSS point-of-view) of several parts starting from outside. The idea for Web Designers and UI enthusiasts is to think in this approach while designing their layouts or writing a code snippet.

Some basic selectors of CSS like margin, outline, border and padding should be known to put things in place. A point to note, the above selectors are known as short-hand selectors and can help you save the effort by specifying the style, width and color in just one go. Check the following example:

• padding: 25px; //All four paddings are 25px

• border: 5px solid red; //Can mention the [width], [style] and [color] all together

Now trying some full-fledged examples to prove what I had mentioned previously - Using the CSS Box Model approach.

• Example 1: The basics

This example uses the CSS Box Model and the CSS attributes to style a DIV element. Check the CODE below. The CSS selector:property combination used:

• background-color: #F7F6F3;
• border: solid 4px White;
• outline: #E6E2D8 Solid 4px;
• padding: 20px;

CODE Snippet

<div style="background-color:#F7F6F3; border:solid 4px transparent; outline:#E6E2D8 Solid 4px; padding:20px; margin:20px;">
 
        This example uses the CSS Box Model and the CSS attributes to style a DIV element. Check the CODE below.
 
</div>

• Example 2: The Gmail style

This is the perfect Gmail Login page style if you might have noticed.

CODE Snippet

<div style="background-color:#E8EEFA; border:solid 4px transparent; outline:#C3D9FF Solid 1px; padding:20px;">
 
            This is the perfect <strong>GMail</strong> Login Page style which you might have noticed.
 
</div>

• Example 2: The W3Schools style

This is the perfect W3Schools style.

CODE Snippet

<div style="outline:double 4px #98bf21; background-color:#E1EFBB; border:solid 4px transparent; padding:20px; margin:20px;">
 
            This is the perfect <strong>W3Schools</strong> style. 
 
</div>

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Web Designing: Opting for XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0

2010-08-13T21:18:00.008+05:30

Creating Web sites is no more a new thing for the current generation. Considering the fact that here in Mumbai | INDIA even a 9th standard student is taught HTML and making web-pages in school explains the fast transition the Internet and web in particular has made. Moving ahead and to the point, choosing the right version of HTML and CSS surely makes sense and speaks volumes while answering questions in future on compatibility, code maintenance, leveraging W3C and browser standards, performance tuning, etc.

Hence the topic – opting for XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0.

A nice practice

The best part about opting XHTML for your design over HTML 4.01:

It is a stricter and cleaner version of HTML.

Provides a rational methodology of writing CODE where XHTML bears the data and CSS bears the styling. Both of them should not be interchanged.

All tags should be closed (including inline elements like <br>)

Tags should be properly nested.

The presentation part of the design/layout should be handled by CSS (internal/external/inline).

The single part attributes in HTML 4.01 should also have values (example: selected=”selected” in <option>).

Now read the following point over the above carefully :

XHTML 1.0 is W3C’s recommendation over HTML 4.01. XHTML 1.0 became a W3C Recommendation on January 26, 2000.

All browsers currently (including IE6) support XHTML. Going ahead, it would be XHTML 1.0 and HTML 5 (implicitly follows XHTML) that will have it's presence on the web.

Developing the design in XHTML makes it easy for others to understand the code and maintain it later. This in fact, is one of the top reasons why you should go for XHTML in place of the now obsolete HTML 4.01 and its variants.

Quite a lot of elements, attributes have been deprecated. Check the list Here.

CSS 2.0 isn’t a shift in approach like XHTML was from HTML 4.01. It has some fine feature additions and enhancements over CSS 1.0. Here are some of them :

CSS pseudo classes like :link, :visited, :hover, :active, :focus, :before, :after, :first-child, :first-letter, :first-line.

The behavior attribute for Internet Explorer to customize events has become prominent.

Border and Outline : Custom styling w.r.t. color, width, style for top, bottom, left, right border and outline.

Text : Introduced the ‘ text-shadow ‘ property. This attribute ceases to work as expected in IE. This property is not recommended for use.

Absolute positioning : The ‘ position ‘ selector can now take ‘ absolute ‘ property. You can use the top, bottom, left, right selectors to specify the coordinates and position an element on a page.

A good practice in using CSS is to use external style-sheets. This not only keeps the CODE compact but also helps making future modifications faster for the entire Website. Make sure you avoid internal style-sheets as much as possible.

Some interesting facts which you might not have noticed :

Google recommends and advocates the use of XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0 but a closer look at the code of Gmail, Orkut and Blogger says a different story.

One of the primary goals and concerns for a Web-site from a client’s perspective is to convert the existing code-base to XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0. This explains the reason why you should keep up to both the version for any new code.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) yields positive results if done on a code-base written in XHTML 1.0, CSS 2.0 and validated from W3C Markup Validation Service.

Microsoft’s site is one of the fewest I found amongst the technology heavy-weights which correctly implements both the standards.

No matter which programming language you use like PHP, C#.Net, Ruby, JSP, etc. on any platform say ASP.Net, J2EE, Ruby-on-Rails, etc. – what you eventually receive on the side of client is HTML, CSS and JavaScript (irrespective of versions).

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Web Designing: Faster Websites means more Business

2010-08-13T18:43:00.043+05:30

Complex things are always easy and trust me (and Google), this proverb always stands true in the tenets of Web Designing. Increasingly, companies/projects/designers are opting for a Web 2.0 design but keeping the winning formula of Google in mind –

" Faster Websites means more Business "

If the Web stats. and most prominent examples are quoted like Facebook, GMail, Yahoo the above formula of Google indeed is true.

A matter of fact, your site speed also helps in Search rankings.

Read more on it Here.

One thing you’ll notice from the above article over the link - you don’t always have to go for fancy images, JavaScript, Flash content, etc. to attract the notice of your visitor. Using the above approach means using more space and bandwidth on the Web Server, and on the client side keeping him waiting for the entire thing to load which for everybody is frustrating and hence not recommended. Perhaps, that approach might work for your personal websites or blogs which witnesses at the most 1000 users per day but the same for enterprise projects isn't true!

Web Users have now matured and are looking for content moreover of their interest and trying to get their intent completed ASAP. Hence the approach –

“ A good and compelling design with faster loading ”

Perhaps, after the advent of XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0, things have indeed changed in approach and practice. You can read my post on it Here.

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Inception – The film’s idea and my view

2010-07-18T16:27:00.003+05:30

The film’s named Inception and it indeed lives to its name. Directed by Cristopher Nolan, the maestro behind ‘The Dark Knight’ comes out with another screen-scorcher and action-packed thriller. Long time since I saw a film like that, the last one being - The Dark Knight … :)

My disclaimer

I intend to write this post not as a review but as a base for those who’ll be watching this film after reading this post. The film’s tied up in a dream and anachronism right from the start which makes it difficult to comprehend for our die-hard Hindi film viewers (even I’m one of them). Probably, they have another reason to give this film a miss, but that’s what I don’t want to happen. The film is an extra-ordinary one with a great story, cast and some heart-stopping sequences. I’ll rate it a must watch for all boys! For girls/women - since they are moreover emotional animals than social, it would be your man’s call … :)

The core idea

The core idea of the film lies in the fact that to get a human-being to do something he has to have a perception regarding it or say he has to make a decision. But getting a stranger to have a perception when he's awake isn't a child's play and hence only a planned inception into human’s mind can help. That’s inception!

An individual has to be put into a dream or hallucinated (the same dizzy feeling when you smoke or get drunk) by some way. And once that's achieved, you can give the mind the feeling of the unrealistic ambience around him and force him into a trap to achieve our motive. That’s the dynamic of the story!

You can read more on the film at IMDB Here.

You can check out the following trailer which will give you the gist of it.

My view

Now the story in the film falls into place with Leonardo DiCaprio in lead role and the one who plants the inception. He along with his accomplices uses all possible sophisticated technology, planning and the right people to get the job done. In the way, you’ll see some breath-taking sequences filled with action, mature humor, thrilling scenes and romance (oh yeah !).

My rating : 5/5

Watching the film on VCD/DVD at your home will take the joy out of the entire experience and also won’t do justice to the idea of the film! So do watch it at a Multiplex nearby ….

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Web Development: Printing a DIV tag using JavaScript

2010-07-08T23:55:00.005+05:30

A majority of times, web developers have to print an existing content on their web page. To be practical, you target the contents of a <div> tag. While a majority would choose to search for a string like ‘Printing a DIV tag in ASP.Net’ or ‘Printing a DIV tag in PHP’; the right search string should be ‘Printing a DIV tag using JavaScript’. This is because irrespective of the server side programming language used, using JavaScript would be the most apt solution. Following method will help you achieve the same using simple and effective JavaScript. You can get the LOC(lines of code) to negligible if you implement the same using jQuery.

Step 1:

The <div> tag to be printed should bear the id="DivToPrint". Following HTML snippet depicts the same with comments(do read them carefully). The Button is used to execute the ‘PrintResults()’ function on Mouse click.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
 
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <title>Example for Printing a DIV</title>
 
    <script src="PrintScript.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
 
</head>
<body>
<br />
 
    <!-- The contents of 'DivToPrint' will be printed. Avoid giving any styles to this <DIV>. -->
 
    <div id="DivToPrint">
        
        <!-- All content here onwards will be printed -->
        
        <div style="text-align:center; margin:50px; border:double 4px BLACK;">
            
            <br />
                This is the Content which will be printed.
            <br /><br />
            
        </div>
        
        <!--  *************************************** -->
        
    </div>
 
    <button onclick="PrintResults()">Click to Print</button>
 
<br />
</body>
</html>

Step 2:

Import the JavaScript file which contains the ‘PrintResults()’ function. The Script contains code for printing the DIV tag which follows the following procedure:

Read the DIV tag with id="DivToPrint" and access its HTML content in a variable.

Create an additional DIV tag which will have your custom HTML content to be printed. Add the custom HTML content to this DIV tag.

Create a pop-up menu using ‘window.open()’. Open the document stream to this document and add the contents of both the DIV tags and close the stream. This Window when opened will open up the print window. On successful print operation, this window will terminate offering no user intervention with the window. You can remove the ‘window.close();’ code if you want this window to persist.

Following is the JavaScript code with detailed annotations as present in PrintScript.js

 
/* JavaScript function to print the contents of the DIV */
 
function PrintResults() 
{
         
    //alert("Function Entered!");   /* Test if the function is entered */
    
    /* We can create a DIV with custom content dynamically to be printed. */
    
    var elem = document.createElement("div");
    elem.innerHTML = "<div style='text-align:left;'>"
                        + "<br />This is the custom CONTENT.<br /><br />"
                    + "</div>"
                    + "<br /><br />";
    
    var content1 = elem.innerHTML;      // content1 has to HTML code for our Custom DIV
    var content2 = document.getElementById("DivToPrint").innerHTML; // content2 has to HTML code for our 'DivToPrint'
    
    var win1 = window.open("", "Print_Results", "scrollbars=yes,width=800,height=700,toolbar=no,resizable=true,status=false,location=false");
    
    //win1.moveTo(150, 100);        /* Use this to move the Window to a specified location  */
    
    //alert(content1 + content2);   /* Will show the entire HTML CODE to be printed in alert Window for Test */
    
    //Open the stream to the win1 for adding the CODE
    
    win1.document.open();
    
    win1.document.write("<html>"
                        + "<head><title>Window to be Printed</title></head>"
                        + "<body onload='window.print();window.close();'>"
                            + content1 + content2 + 
                        "</body></html>");
    
    /* You can remove 'window.close();' to avoid closing the Window if you want. */
    
    win1.document.close(); //Closing the stream is mandatory
    
}

You can download the source code Here:

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Web Designing: Getting CSS pseudo-classes to work with Internet Explorer

2010-06-26T23:39:00.092+05:30

One of the best advent in CSS 2.0 (check my post on it here) are pseudo-classes. These classes come into act on mouse hover/focus/active events on any HTML elements including links, images and text. Mind you, this isn’t similar to Javascript events but does the same thing. Some of the scenarios where you can use it:

Getting a mouse hover effect on an image

Getting a <div> or say a HTML region to be highlighted on mouse hover

Getting a text link to depict a particular color when it has been visited or active

Using CSS pseudo-classes for the above named scenarios is very apt for a designer coz it is not only easy to use it but also easy to maintain the code from maintenance and readability point-of-view. As fate might have it, different browsers react in a different way to CSS pseudo-classes. Fortunately, since Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari are Webkit based browsers, they don’t have any issues working with it. This leaves behind – Internet Explorer, which behaves awkwardly to CSS pseudo-classes. Following are some scenarios which I’ve personally witnessed in which CSS pseudo-classes cease to work in IE:

If applied the :hover class to an image, it doesn’t work sometimes.

If applied the :link, :visited, :hover and :active class to a text anchor, it behaves awkwardly.

Taking the above issues into consideration and knowing the fact that Internet Explorer runs on more than 65% on computers worldwide, designers have taken back to using special JavaScripts and jQuery to get their effects running on all browsers. But truth be told, this isn’t fair afterall! Not using pseudo-classes for the sake of a browser’s exceptional behavior isn't justified.

So enter – whatever:hover, an open-source project to fix up this quirk with Internet Explorer. It uses the behavior attribute in CSS (works only in IE) to refer a '.htc' file which is a script defining a special behavior to perform. This behavior attribute has to be declared for the <body> tag so that it runs for the entire web-page.

A short example you can try for a Horizontal Menu using CSS pseudo-classes Here.

CODE Snippet:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "">
<html>
 
<head>
    <title>Sample Web-Page</title>
    
    <style type="text/css">
        body
        {
            behavior:url('./csshover3.htc');
        }
        
        /* --- Your CSS pseudo-classes come Here --- */
        
    </style>
    
</head>
 
<body>
 
<!-- Your HTML CODE comes Here -->
 
 
</body>
</html>

You can download the .htc file (behavior file) Here.

Read more on CSS 'behavior' attribute Here.

More on the whatever:hover project and its progress Here.

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Why you should start blogging ...

2010-06-14T15:45:00.108+05:30

For all those who don’t know the reasons why you should start blogging or intend to take up blogging as a hobby/part-time job and have now realized (too late infact) the power of Web (not Internet to be precise) to appeal to the masses - Blogging is indeed one of the best and the most powerful means. I’ve got a lot of points to prove the title of this post so just read on ...

" Human thoughts, skills and imagination are priceless even if they might be stupid. Don't loose your thoughts, skills and imagination for free coz some of the elite businessmen are highly paid for spilling their thoughts and imaginations during a meeting.

A blog is a central repository where all your thoughts, skills and imagination stay recorded and preserved. Some day someone or probably you might just go by your posts and smile happily over your own thoughts. "

-- Hardik Shah

Categories of blogs and which one you should focus :

1.    Evangelism

You know a skill (might be technical or something other) and would like to share the same by enlightening people about it. The Web can be the best medium to do that coz a post of yours can reach hundreds of people (actually more) and get them in touch with you with their comments. Also, people can be made to contribute to an existing idea in the form of BETA programs or say PLATFORM PREVIEWS.

Some of the brands which do that : Microsoft, Google, Apple

Example : Chakkaradeep’s Blog, Aviraj’s Blog

2.    Reviews/Updates

You might have attended an event/exhibition/road-show/showcase where you were introduced to some cool gadgets, like-minded people, etc or probably you just had the best time of your life. You would like more people to know about it and join the same. Blogging on the same would not only update them with it, it might also make them to think whether they would like to join you the next time.
Now this has actually become a trend which can be witnessed in the form of Online Marketing with a view to get more business over the web. If combined with a regime of search-engine analytics, follower/visitor statistics with a monetary budget over a particular duration it’s known as SEM (Search Engine Marketing).

Example : CNN iPhone App Review

3.    Publishing

Now this might sound similar to evangelism but it actually differs in motive and the way-of-writing and presenting. Evengelism is moreover from an enlightenment P.O.V. whearas this means providing a comprehensive coverage on a particular topic (which is in most of the case small). The primary intent is to provide a kind of how-to/what-is-it guides or articles which covers everything right from the title to its sub-topics and case-studies involving the topic. The secondary intent is to keep your published article on record. A google on a keyword based on your topic will be handy for the audience.

Example : Microsoft KB Article

4.    Being myself or multi-faceted

Now this category is quite interesting and actually may include all of the above three types. Depending on an individual, his/her likes/dislikes and his interests he might want to focus on myriad of topics spanning across deferent subjects. You might want to just express your thoughts over a particular cricket final or say a product or one of the best trips you just had. My take on this – this is one of the most difficult categories of blogs to manage but if done well you can literally get yourselves hoards of honest followers and fans. Add to it you can get acclaim and respect (infact, over the web as well).
A point to remember, you’ll be promoting yourself more and not your brand/company. So do keep this thing in mind before you realize your audience is diverging its interest into what you don’t want them to !

Example : My Blog

The above were some classic reasons and examples why you want to blog if you haven’t started. It also gives you a reason while reading this to rethink your strategy again if you have been writing for long and haven’t got your dues paid from your readers.

Winding back the clock for some time, blogging had officially started (as far as the Web guys claim) by folks at CNN and ZDNet to promote their softwares put up for paid/free download on their portals. And then came blogging services like Wordpress, Blogger, LiveSpace, etc which offers free blogs with content management and moderation features which put blogging open for all on the web. More and more audiences came to know and then followed more blogs.

So how has blogging evolved now ? How will it be in the future ? Is it just about writing coz I need some more fun attached to this activity!

The answer makes the question even interesting coz there lies more than just blogging. Just read on ...

•    Social Networks integration – Allows to update all you contacts on Facebook, Twitter, etc with your recently published post with a view to get more readers and comments.

•    Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Its optimizing your code of your blog (coz afterall whatever you write and see on your blog is HTML and CSS) with a view to comply to search-engine standards so it gets indexed and gets reflected in search results. A point which you’ll realize later in your blogging cycle – Search Engines is the primary source of readers and followers.

•    Web Analytics – It’s basically the web-science pertaining to how your readers ended up reading your blog post and what he clicked, visited, viewed. Depending on the results, you decide your future course of actions like new blog posts, the topics, links to be posted, ADS to be posted, etc. A point which you’ll realize later in your blogging cycle – Better visualization of analytics means more readers and hence business (if you’re into SEM as well).

•    Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – It’s a science based on promoting your brand/business on the web, afterall it’s the biggest medium, even bigger than TV, Newspapers and Radio. You can get your Web Analytics results into account plus focus on the right keywords and content on the page, based on which ADS will be rotated which a user might click-on. The client is billed on the per-keyword rate basis and this is how the client will get readers on its portal/blog. So it’s business for both parties.

If you’ve read carefully the above points, understood it and still do not have a blog than you should be scratching your head by now …. ☺☺☺

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Mozilla Firefox : Why businesses and users should adopt it for better ...

2010-05-31T19:21:00.014+05:30

I’m a proven big-time fan of Mozilla Firefox and in this post I’d like to enlighten you about the same. So starting this post with a couple of things which I’d like to accomplish and what’s already accomplished in your minds :

Firstly, something about me :

I’m an IT enthusiast with more than 15 years of desktop experience at home. I do not convince people or prove things to them with statistics, pie-diagrams, charts, POC (proof-of-concept), etc which can literally be made understood with a simple blog post !

What I would like to prove with Firefox :

It’s ready and meant for businesses. Can be deployed on a Corporate Network without any concerns.

With speed and ease comes productivity and hence acceptance.

Browser is not just about surfing across web-pages in this generation but beyond everybody!

The per-user settings can be replicated onto another location or platform (i.e. OS).

Requires the same amount of RAM as all of the prominent browsers today (I won't take names) varying across threaded and non-threaded applications.

The fallacies about Firefox :

It’s not business ready. Cannot be deployed on a Corporate Network.

It’s moreover a fancy browser and not meant for productive business.

Requires a lot of RAM.

We’ve seen it running only on Windows.

What do you gain personally if you use Firefox :

The best possible web experience with the best possible speed.

With the above, follows productivity and hence profit.

Experience the innovation, flexibility and ease brought about by AddOns/Personas/Plugins developed on the most widely accepted platform.

Searching your required data was never difficult with integrated Search Box with auto-suggestion.

So start your voyage my readers …

Starting with Corporate Networks, it’s moreover Internet Explorer because of the ease of deployment/availability (inherent with the OS), file/registry/profile virtualization across the organization and ease in update/hotfixes being pushed through your LAN by your IT Administrator. Add to it, a majority of service driven companies are supporting legacy applications of their clients on Internet Explorer 6 and they obviously cannot let these projects go. Now this makes them handicapped to look for other options. My take on this ..

Regarding deployment, Firefox’s binary size is 8 MB (50% less than any prominent browsers existing now) and IT Administrators can pre-bundle it in their system-images/ghost-images.

Regarding updates, it’s a one-way solution. Firefox doesn’t support push-updates across the network but supports direct updates via Internet from Firefox dedicated servers.

If you feel you still cannot do without Internet Explorer browser on Windows platform then relax, I’ve got a solution for this in the form of AddOn. How about emulating IE’s page rendering in Firefox. (Read below regarding the same)

Features of Mozilla Firefox :

Fastest rendering of pages with a high-performance and optimized JavaScript engine. Smart tabs, design and options.

>>> The only way you can convince yourself is by tasting it !

Inherent support for Add-Ons, plug-ins, download manager, bookmark organization, etc.

>>> There are myriad of AddOns for all types of users. Check out the complete library Here. I'll put light on some must-have AddOns :

For developers/designers Here

For Yahoo/Gmail/MSN/POP3 E-Mail users Here

For Facebook users Here

For Twitter users Here

To run macros or automate your work Here

And the most-awaited one :

For die-hard IE users, running IE on Firefox Here

Inherent support for Google/Yahoo/Wikipedia search with auto suggestion and query caching.

>>> Press Ctrl+E, type your search query and hit ENTER. For a subjective search on Wikipedia/Answers/Amazon/eBay, select the search provider right from the search box and hit ENTER.

Best possible rendering of HTML and xHTML. All standards compliant (including HTML5 and CSS3).

>>> I do a bit of Web development & designing and you can take my word on this.

Available and runs flawlessly on all platforms (including Windows, Macintosh, Linux) since it's written in Python and Ruby.

>>> Deploy per-user Bookmarks (also portable) on any PC in the organization with the advent of file/registry virtualization.

Smallest size of the Binary – 8MB.

>>> 50% less than any prominent browsers existing now.

Themes, known as Personas in Firefox hits your eyes well and thus making a lavish surfing experience.

>>> Myriad of Personas are available (Firefox 3.6 onwards). Check the entire library Here.

Shortcut keys on Firefox make life easier to the maximum possible extent.

>>> Move over Ctrl+T (Open new Tab) and Ctrl+W (Close the current tab), there are many more. Ctrl + Shift + T – Open a recently closed Tab. Ctrl + U – To view the source code of the current page. And so on ...

All major parameters in Firefox are ' tweakable ' via its Advanced Settings (by default hidden).

>>> Type ' about:config ' in the address bar and hit ENTER. Check out all the parameters.

Toggle browser.search.openintab – To open your search results in a new tab.

Toggle browser.tabs.closeWindowsWithLastTab – To keep Firefox running even when the last tab is closed.

Toggle browser.tabs.warnonclose – To make Firefox avoid asking for a confirmation when it is closed with many tabs running.

Toggle plugins.hide_infobar_for_missing_plugins – To avoid getting the irritating drop-down pop-up asking for a new plugin installation.

Type chrome://browser/content/hiddenWindow.xul in the address bar and hit ENTER – To get an entire Firefox browser running under a tab.

Now having said about the ease-of-use and features which Firefox has, it obviously makes sense for all users and businesses to use Mozilla Firefox and leverage its power.

Try Mozilla Firefox now :

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Windows 7 development overview @ MUG

2010-05-12T20:14:00.018+05:30

Speaker : Sanjay Vyas
Session organized by : Mumbai User Group
Special Thanks : Dhaval Faria

Windows 7 has released (for folks who don’t know) since more than 6 months and has already tipped past 100 million copies in sale. So the proclivity for Windows application developers would be to flood the market with Apps. to make their mark now. Also, with improvements in Aero, Muti-point support, security, UI, better taskbar (now called super-bar), etc it gives you more reasons to develop on Windows 7 platform. Even if you’re a developer who has started with Windows Forms Application development on .Net or someone who has been developing since long then focusing on Apps. leveraging the API’s and features of Windows 7 should be on your priority list. And believe me, the results will shoot past your expectations.

Well, now getting straight to the point – Windows 7 SDK was there and now there’s Windows API Code Pack for developing on Windows 7. So what’s the difference ... ? Read on …

Windows 7 SDK

Offers documentation, libraries, header files, tools to develop Windows Applications using Win32 and managed technologies (i.e. .Net Framework).

Online articles suggest the version 7.0 is meant to run on Visual Studio 2008. Windows 7.1 SDK (to be shortly released) will support .Net Framework 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010.

Meant for native Win32 development and hence supports only VC++.

Apps. developed on it runs only in Windows 7 but the Apps. can be developed on Win XP/Vista.

For download, requirements and instructions : Here

Windows API Code Pack (I’ll be focusing more here)

Provides a source code library to develop Apps. running on Windows 7 leveraging a majority of features on Windows 7.

Acts as a wrapper for Windows 7 API using managed code.

Supports C# and VB.Net for writing the code.

Works well with both VS 2008 and VS 2010.

Is open-source

More revisions underway as more features are being added.

The features supported in the Windows API Code Pack :

Taskbar animation support

Jump Lists, Icon Overlay, Progress Bar, Tabbed Thumbnails, and Thumbnail Toolbars

Windows Shell and libraries

Muti-touch API

Other Windows 7 enhancements :

Services & task scheduling

Version checking

Install detection

User interface privilege isolation

Session 0 isolation

Windows Instrumentation

Requirements for Windows API Code Pack :

Windows 7 RTM (some features work on Vista as well)

.Net Framework 3.5 SP1 or above

Visual Studio 2008/2010

Windows 7 SDK (if the Windows Ribbon is used)

For more features, download, instructions, videos, examples, blogs : Here

Forums for Windows API Code Pack : Here

Windows Ribbon

Previously known as Windows scenic Ribbon, Windows Ribbon for WinForms is a .NET wrapper for Windows 7 Ribbon control – inherently supported in Windows 7 API. It will allow WinForms developers to use Microsoft Windows 7 Ribbon control in their WinForms applications.

The Windows Ribbon holds some minute details as follows :

Developed by Microsoft and imitates Office 2007 Ribbon.

Not a part of Windows API Codepack but is a wrapper built on top of it.

Uses XAML as the mark-up language as the presentation layer for the Ribbon.

Supports three versions - MFC Application (using VC++), WPF application (C# & VB.Net) and Win Forms (C# & VB.Net).

Is open-source.

For feature additions, issue-trackers, source-code, forums, sample examples and downloads : Here

Note : You also need Windows 7 SDK for compilation of the project source-code offered over the above link.

For a complete how-to guide on Windows Ribbon : Here

Well if you’ve noticed, the developers of Windows API Code Pack have offered the entire project source-code for download. But things can be made pretty much simple by just compiling these projects and referring their resulting DLLs when developing your Applications instead of keeping the Windows API Code Pack project source-code in our project.

You can download this DLL pack Here.

Now the same with Windows Ribbon is difficult but their developers have come out with a difficult compromise here.

So what are you waiting for .. ? Follow the below mentioned three steps for developing your App. leveraging the features of Windows 7 :

1. Add the above offered DLL pack ‘ As a reference ’ in your Windows Forms Application project.

2. Refer the examples here to learn the code specific to the feature you want to use.

3. Add the requisite namespace and use the code.

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Using the Google Chart API/Tools

2010-04-27T18:55:00.021+05:30

Just when the world was raving madly about Internet and its power to influence, enters a very powerful player - Google. Is is only a search giant .. ? I won't answer, you see it everyday !

Developing a service and making its subsequent APIs (Application Programming Interface), developer tools and technical resources available to the masses to leverage the same has been the motto of all the players who've made it big on the Web. No doubts Google has had a good foresight and hence they have come with myriad of APIs' over http://code.google.com. A quick glance on the categories on the left over the above link will leave you in a spell ! Yes, the numbers and the topic of the APIs’ are just surprising !

Today I'll enlighten you about one of them - Google Chart API. It won’t be a comprehensive coverage on the subject like my blogs have been but a quick and a simple glance on what it has to offer. Enough for developers (even designers) to leverage them.

Google Chart API :

What is it technically ?

>>> Its basically a web-service written by Google web-developers. All the pertaining info (type of chart, no. of sections, sections titles, etc) in the form of key-value pair is passed in the URL (that’s GET and even POST is possible) and the web-service hosted on Google servers parses the same and gives you the response in the MIME type - image/jpeg (i.e. your chart).

Available types :

>>> Image Charts :

-- 2D/3D charts with proportions, titles, etc but no events supported.
-- User only needs to ping with the URL to get the chart.
-- Very fast (much less than one second).

Check out some Examples Here.

>>> Interactive Charts :

-- Same as image charts with dynamic response based on mouse-hover/mouse-click/pre-defined events using Javascript.
-- User has to manage some code in Javascript.
-- Takes up to a few seconds (for complex charts).

Check out some Examples Here.

A basic example :

Check the following Image Chart and its subsequent URL :

Legend :

cht - Chart type (p - 2D, p3 - 3D)
chd - Chart data (proportion of each data sums into 100)
chl - Chart Labels (to be depicted on the chart)

chdl - Chart Design Legend (seen at the right depicting the labels)
chp - Angle in radians to be rotated (default starts from 3:00 PM. Possible values - 3.14,0.628 and so on)
chs - Chart Size (width x height in pixels)

Now for the above example we have used the GET method to get the Image chart but if the parameters passed are long and the URL length goes past 2000 characters than you can opt for the POST method.

I'm sure you loved this simple image chart. It's all very easy and there are many more in both types of charts. Check the links given above for more image and interactive charts and its documentation.

Some other Google API's to watch out :

Google Authentication API over Here.

Google Client Login API over Here.

Google Public DNS over Here.

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Office 2010 Overview @ Mumbai IT Pro

2010-04-12T15:31:00.037+05:30

Learning Microsoft’s Office suite could have always helped me fill up the void created by too much of development, designing and SEO skills which I possess. Add to the fact, that MS-Office is an indispensable skill as seen during most of the recruitment drives. I was through with some basics on Office 2003 but the very idea & UI of Office 2007 kept me at a distance from having more interest to learn it further. Finally it was me who lost out on the skills. And this sentiment and regret was always running in the back of my mind but little I could do to spend time on it and reach a point where I can proudly reflect it in my CV and use it to accelerate my productivity. Missing out a chance to catch up on Office 2010 Preview community launch held last month in Mumbai just added to my woes and regrets.

10th April, 2010 – this time it was a perfect match with my schedule and adding to the cake was a fine cherry, the speaker – Manan Kakkar. Boy !! He introduces himself as a desktop guy, blogger and an MVP but that’s the biggest deception you can get about him. For those who know him and have read his blogs will surely perceive one thing – I’m talking about his technical prowess in his subject and his ability to preach on it using all possible facts, statistics and conviction. The session was organized by Mumbai It Pro user group at Microsoft, Windsor, Mumbai | INDIA. It was a good one in many sorts coz I got a chance to reunite with some of my user group buddies and clear off dozens of my doubts in the Q&A session as well. Not to forget the best was to learn what I had come here for – Microsoft Office 2010. Following are some key milestones, issues and features which Manan put light on and some which I’ve added based on my Home-Labs :

MS Office Works >> MS Office 2010 Starter Edition :

MS Office Works is basically a scaled-down version of Microsoft Office suite and is moreover meant for novices’ or those requiring only a very basic Word processor, Excel and database functionality. Previously, it came preloaded in Laptop and Desktop PC’s from all prominent vendors but now it’ll be replaced by Office 2010 Starter Edition which will have the stripped-down versions of Word 2010 and Excel 2010. Stripped-down here means basic document viewing and editing only.

Versions/Editions of Office 2010 :

>> Office 2010 Starter (Meant to be preloaded and not for retail)
>> Office 2010 Home & Student
>> Office 2010 Professional
>> Office 2010 Professional Academic (It’s the Professional Edition but for students at discounted rates)
>> Office 2010 Professional Plus (It’s the Professional Edition but for volume-licensing enterprises)

For the official comparison and pricing, click Here.

A point to be noted here, when you buy any version of Office 2010 (leave out Starter Edition), you’ll be getting a serial number for 3 users (which means 3 licenses). Also to be noted is this fact - Visio 2010 and Project 2010 will be separate products altogether and won't come bundled with any of the editions of Office 2010.

With Office 2010, Microsoft also introduces a different choice of availability –

Boxed version (Off-the-store)

Product Key Card version (Off-the-web)

The boxed version is our conventional buy-from-the-store or order-a-pack-online OEM packs in which you get the CD, serial number and the manual packaged in a beautiful box whereas in the product Key Card version you are actually buying an online account with three licenses of a specific version of Office and can be procured by downloading it from the web (sorry you won’t get a box here). So basically, as highlighted above it’s an off-the-store and off-the-web story.

The design, theme and icons for the components have been revised noticeably and this is how they look now :

Some prominent and noticeable features in Office 2010 :

Backstage (The very first tab in the Ribbon. Check image below)

Print (Setup everything without opening a print window)

Document Information (Password protection, implement editing restrictions, document summary, etc)

Save as PDF/ To Web (SkyDrive or Network Drive)/ Sharepoint Workspace

Support for themes

Language translation

Equations (moreover used in Excel and Powerpoint)

From Office 2007 onwards, the UI followed a Ribbon interface (criticized by many) but with Office 2010 it has been reworked and now it indeed hits the eye well. The way it has been done now it seems justified. The first tab in the ribbon is known as the Backstage with some common powerful tools embedded under its body. This is how the Ribbon and Backstage looks :

Ribbon Interface

Backstage Interface

Now it’s time to get up, close and personal with the prominent feature additions and enhancements in Word, Powerpoint and Outlook 2010. Read them all closely …

Microsoft Word 2010 :

o Screenshot (Insert one which is taken live)
o Image formatting (Translucent effects, drop-shadows, etc)
o Add visual effects to Text
o Remove image background
o Protected Mode (i.e. Read-Only)
o Restricted Editing (With or without a password)
o Speak (Let Word 2010 speak the document for you)
o Co-authoring (Multiple users can work on the same document without leaving Word)
o Word Web-Apps (Edit documents using the browser)
o Recover lost work (Even if you haven't saved)
o Hide ribbon (If the above features still don’t interest you then better hide it)

Microsoft Powerpoint 2010 :

o Create a video (High/Medium/Low quality w/o specified timings)
o Broadcast Slideshow (multiple clients can view the presentation online synchronously with you)
o More transition and animation effects (check them all by yourself)
o Animation Painter (copy details of an object to another)
o More templates (this is something to watch out for)
o Send using E-Mail (as an Attachment/PDF/XPS/Fax)
o Package presentation for CD (create a standalone presentation for viewing on a PC not having Office)
o Create Handouts (convert the slides to a Word soft copy for circulation)
o Presenter View (display presentation on one Monitor and timings & notes on another)
o Record Slide Show (Insert live audio, laser pointer, slide and animation timings into the slide)
o Insert a video (Insert only the required part as trimming is allowed live)

Microsoft Outlook 2010 :

o Ignore/Collapse/Delete Conversations
o Live Meeting (now integrated)
o Polling and Quiz (Integrated in mails)
o PST file can grow beyond 2 GB

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My Windows Mobile story ...

2010-03-24T16:24:00.003+05:30

A month and a half since I joined Capgemini and when so much of misconceptions, fun and work pressure wasn't enough to please me, here comes another bombastic event !!! Call it a feat, event or an achievement but it will surely go down as the best in my memory list and my friends who witnessed it. Microsoft India's evangelism wing had scheduled Microsoft Community Tech. days in Capgemini Mumbai, INDIA. It was a three day Tech. event (6-7-8 March, 2010) to showcase Microsoft’s incoming product line and enlighten the crowd with parallel sessions on developer, designer and architect tracks by Microsoft MVP’s (Most Valued Professional) and the other best known in this business. One thing which is to be noted and which was of prime importance - this was the very first time Microsoft had entered into a mutual pact with Capgemini and this guaranteed the presence of some of the top honchos of Capgemini and Microsoft. Adding to the guest list was Capgemini India’s CEO Mr. Baru. High stakes in the event and Microsoft’s organizing team made little mistakes in publicizing this event. Details of the Tech. day sessions found its mention on hoardings put up nearly in all prominent corners of Capgemini Mumbai and Bangalore and also in our Inboxes in the form of newsletters. ADRENALINE RUSH here … For sure !!

The day was 6th March, 2010 and I was to attend my .Net training (running since 20 days now) in my training room with my batch-mates and it meant a loss for me of all sorts coz I had to give the Tech. days a miss. Also, missing all three days was a total pain. Just when I lost all hopes, here enters Ms. Aziza – Capgemini Mumbai’s L&D head. “Capgemini’s CEO would be here to kick-start the Tech. days so we would like the AC’s to be there till that time. I’m sure Alankar, you don’t have any issues ?”. The answer was an obvious “No” from my trainer and this brought our entire clan in the cafeteria hall. Ohhh !!! We’re right on time it seems and the Microsoft product showcase began and it started from AutoCollage, then SongSmith, Office 2010, etc. This showcase was followed by a much anticipated keynote by Mr. Baru and then by the MD of Microsoft India and towards the end we were ready to make an exit. But then, MS India’s architect advisor Mr. Ramnish Singh took over and the crowd was just ecstatic with his well timed humour and don’t know for some reasons we were not asked to leave. So here is where the JUICY part of the story begins …

Ramnish Singh acknowledged the fact that he was pleased with the crowd’s appreciation during showcase and he had no doubts that people here love Microsoft products.

“But is there somebody over here who can do anything for the company, anything for Microsoft? He’s in love with the company since birth and can do anything, if asked to.”, asked Ramnish.

He said that with a very powerful conviction and the crowd was stunned and sat dumb-founded. This spurned a myriad of thoughts in my mind. It’s true that I’m a Microsoft fanatic and I can’t stand anything against it, I love whatever it does and I tend to think the way it does. I love Microsoft and all its products since I was a kid. So the grunting shout came out from my mouth – “Yes” and my hand popped up. Probably 20 seconds of silence passed by after the question and finally Ramnish Patel was thrilled to see a hand going up. So the entire crowd along with him gave me a stare, a frightening one actually !!!

“Are you sure you can do anything? Anything .. ?”, asked Ramnish.

“Yes”, I shouted again.

“Ohh! A huge round of applause for this guy. Can you please come on stage.”

And I obliged.

Ramnish : Please introduce yourself my friend ?

Me : I’m Hardik Shah, I’ve joined Capgemini as an Associate Consultant about a month back.

Ramnish : Ok good. Do you have a mobile phone ? Can I have a look at it?

Me : (I popped out my Samsung X210 and was about to give it to him when I noticed a curious Ramnish waiting to check whether it’s a Windows Mobile) I’m so sorry it’s not a Windows Mobile phone !!! (The crowd burst out with laughter)

Ramnish : What !!! You’re a Microsoft enthusiast and you don’t have a Windows Mobile .. ?

Me : Actually I was about to buy one but was awaiting my next month’s salary. (The crowd again burst out)

Ramnish : When did you buy this phone ? You seem to be attached to it even now.

Me : I bought it two years back when I was in my 3rd year of Engineering. It’s worth more than 20,000/- bucks for me coz I bought it with my first salary when I was working as an intern. (The crowd gave me an applause again)

Ramnish : Ohh !!! Can you please keep this phone here (he pointed towards the pulpit)

Me : (I obliged and kept the flap-type phone opened up on the pulpit)

Ramnish : What if I break this phone with a hammer.. ? (He shouted and the crowd burst out)

Me : (I was just clueless as to what he’s upto and what’s going on. I had a puzzled and anxious face)

Ramnish : What if you have to break this phone with your own hand ? (The crowd burst out) Ok. Get me a hammer now !!! (And to my surprise a guy from back-stage got a hammer and passed it over to him) You said you can do anything for Microsoft right .. ? Now break your phone with this hammer. (and he handed the hammer over to me)

(The crowd laughed and rioted as though I was trapped but I was just not aware of this as I was in my own thoughts. It’s true that I value my phone but the love for Microsoft started even before the love for my mobile began and that’s the ANSWER !!! I raised the hammer in the air slowly with fear, anxiety and courage, all together and wacked it towards the phone. Don’t know why, but Ramnish put his hand in between and obstructed the hammer when I was centimeters away from hitting my phone. I was totally confused.)

Me : You only wanted me to break the phone right .. ? (I meant it very seriously but Ramnish and the entire crowd laughed and shouted very hard. I just stood there confused.)

Ramnish : (He started nodding heavily and then said) Ohh !!! Round of applause for this guy. This guy can really do anything for Microsoft and for this I’ll give him a small prize. It’s an HTC Phone with Windows Mobile 6.1. You deserve this !!! It’s a brand new phone and you can even collect the warranty card from that guy later if you want. (As he pointed towards a guy standing back-stage)

Me : (I was thrilled but still confused and don’t know what to say) Thanks. Thank you. Thank you !!! (I was holding the HTC phone and posed for a couple of photographs there before walking out slowly towards my place. The crowd just kept clapping and shouting throughout these moments … )

In more ways than one, I feel victorious, happy, gifted and proud to say I’m mad. And this Microsoft madness just won’t fade, even if I want to kill it !!!

That’s the story and I’m sure all my readers enjoyed it. The story is all true with whatever I remember …

Thanks and Regards,
Hardik Shah [Guru]

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Arms race killing economies more than politicians, diseases and recession

2010-03-07T02:02:00.020+05:30

Wacky topic and I surely got to start with a wacky and an eye-catching caption for the same. But big promises also mean big expectations which are a strict no-no, so I’ll better keep it simple. :) :)

"Did you know that India spends 20 BILLION DOLLARS as its defense budget considering the fact that hundreds of our civilians and soldiers just die by the day and through the year ?"

Add to the above caption a very shameful and shocking fact that India doesn't even retaliate against the perpetrators, even when it has something-to-be-proud-of defense budget. So what’s the point spending a BOMB on something which we’re not in a position to use ? Surprising it might sound, but this is the case with some of the most developed countries. Need some examples to quote – Russia (know Chechnya ?), Israel, India, etc. So why is that .. ?

Well, a lot of reasons actually and a majority of them might sound puerile and they indeed are. Those who are reading newspapers regularly it’s a revision for them albeit in a humourous manner. The points which I’ll be enumerating will surely remind you of the cat fights we used to have in our childhood days and the very simple do’s and dont’s which we were taught to wear during our school days but unfortunately we swear not to abide by them when we grow up. Still confused and guessing, read the mindset theories behind spending billions on unutilized defense budget …

1. The theory of Deterrence :

The very obvious proclivity here is to have an even more powerful toy to keep the opponents in check and at bay.

2. The Threat theory :

Just because everything is calm and in peace means some precarious disaster is anticipated.

3. Dominance in the region means stripping others of the rights which we possess :

I have a patent to manufacture a BOMB so for obvious reasons you cannot and if you oppose I’ll impose sanctions.

4. A firm ingress into external matters means more grip on the current situation :

A smart sportsman is the one who not just knows his own game but even his opponents’.

But don't you think some of the best graduates from the most premier colleges who are running our countries know this ? Yes, they indeed do but as usual with majority of minds even they don't want to slog that extra bit to mitigate this matter and the others have just surrendered to this situation assuming there’s no solution.

So the natural question arises - am I going to provide any solution ? Well not exactly but yes I've got steps to resolve this. I guess it’s a very critical thing to resolve especially knowing that even a bit from that billion of dollars could do enough in areas where it’s actually required. Negotiations, consensus on a particular solution and a commitment to resolve this is the need of the hour.

But who's going to advocate those in power to follow the above paradigm. The answer is " We ". Yes, we can indeed push this initiative and we've got the Web and Google Uncle to back us. So blog about it, tweet it and do whatever is possible.

That's because I still believe it's ~~impossible~~ - I am possible.

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What better could social N/Ws have .. ?

2010-02-27T20:50:00.011+05:30

My last blog was on Social Networking - Now & How ? - Here. But it's still not over for me. There's more which is going in my processor even now. So moving ahead - what’s falling short in the most prominent N/W’s like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn ?

So here I go with my analysis :

Twitter :

Made on ROR's (Ruby on Rails) light-weight framework, it is the numero-uno choice for socialites, celebrities, business tycoons and even a common man who wants to make their presence felt or heard using a 140 character text. Additionally you can include URLs, hash-tags and cross-mentions.

Has caught the eyes of all with 3 lakh new accounts created everyday.

But being developed and running on ROR is itself turning out to be a curse for Twitter with down-times, overloads, multi-threading delays in browsers, scalability problems, etc. ROR is a light-weight framework which cannot handle images/videos under high load. So they have to do away from the Rails Framework and probably migrate to PHP, Java, etc before it's too late.

Also, the web-interface of Twitter has always given an unpleasant and slow experience for users and hence Web-Apps. leveraging the Twitter API spawned and have taken prominence. If this continues, Twitter soon will find users eating their food in other’s plate which is not a very good thing for them. Agreed that finally it's their own API which is being used but they're losing on the revenue which the App-makers snatch from Ads.

140 characters – The biggest subject of criticism. Some people could just not get their vocabulary, grammar and URLs’ within this available space. Incrementing it by 20 characters would negotiate this problem for now. Yes, its desperately needed.

Getting tweets to have comments below it (like in Facebook) is another much needed feature addition. Opening the page for @Username to view the replies is too cumbersome.

Also, if tweets can be bundled with a photo/video/link, exactly in Facebook style would have been even more enjoyable.

LinkedIn :

It started off as a professional network and slowly collaborated Twitter and other services but it still remains a choice for a selected few. While some claim to have benefitted personally, others are totally dismissive about it and label it as a place where you should just have your professional profile!

Frankly speaking, it hasn’t evolved at a speed it should have (or say as we expected). Its motives are still vague and don’t justify its purpose.

Has started collaborating with other social engines like Twitter, Facebook, etc with some Apps. and services, but still a lot has to be done in the long run for it to stay in the dominating league.

Just having professional contacts in your network doesn’t mean anything, probably if CHATTING would have been embedded then having a live conversation would have made sense. Add to it, the need for getting the organization to which a user is affiliated to come more into picture.

Also, the IntelliSense engine of LinkedIn doesn’t suggest anything fruitful to the user, except some related users and groups.

Improving and adding on all of the above points, plus innovating on some more would surely help it grab a good share. And mind you LinkedIn, socializing features has to be packaged to the user even if it intends to be just a professional network.

Facebook :

Apart from being a billion-dollar enterprise currently, it has previously turned down acquisition proposal of giants like Yahoo and is currently bearing a 1.7% stake by Microsoft. It has literally held the interest of all Internet users. No surprises, surfing and being on Facebook is now synonymous.

As per a survey, businesses are being affected due to their employees spending an average of an hour on Facebook and Twitter. Add to it, Facebook Apps. has added the tang which was just unimagined. Remember Farmville and Mafia Wars .. ?

Facebook's user-friendly and well-documented API’s like Facebook Connect is a boon for web developers like us and more of these just keep coming!

Facebook is in such a success stage when nothing seems to be competing against it – no full-fledge social N/W (forget about Orkut, etc). The only thing which users feel hurt with it are its bugs - which are ample. But, I guess the speed at which it has proliferated its wings just dwarfs this issue.

Getting Office documents for sharing and collaboration across users is already on the anvil with Microsoft’s Fuse Labs in BETA. Getting the notion - Work & Socialize - to come into picture would be awesome. It’s just gonna redefine the wheel.

Themes, customized home-page would be welcome coz the Home-Page is just too loaded with items and updates which not all would like to view all the time. Getting it to be as per users’ wishes would just add more action and productivity.

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Social Networking - Now & How ?

2010-02-14T20:37:00.009+05:30

The social networking scenario is currently hot & abuzz and just refuses to die. Bad for some critics and who made predictions - by 2010 it’ll die the way the DotCom bubble had burst after its initial apogee !!! Take my judgement on this – it’s just gonna get better and better. The social networking is at its peak in this generation and hence it’s better for novices or skeptics to rework your psyche on this. It’s time for people to get their pie out of the web by getting to connect with their old buddies, their idols, their wannabe mates or potential business contacts. The benefits are ample. Web 2.0 has made sure you don’t have any room to complain – there’s Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, LinkedIn, etc – everything to satiate the thirst of all. It’s just that people got to learn which form of networking suits them.

As for me, personally, I’ve benefitted from all P.O.V. - business, social and personal. Call me a cynic, but I feel social networking is one good platform to win over and impress the one’s you desire by showcasing your innovative vocabulary, creativity, chatting and impromptu skills. And believe me, I am able to tickle their bones using all what I’ve just listed. People do get amazed, leave comments or give you an applause. And that motivates you to do it even better next time. Ya, you can call it an addiction, but for better if you got time to spend.

But people may differ in my above mentioned views !!! Just read a blog post of my 16-year old friend cum entrepreneur and he’s of the opinion that social networks are to be used for socializing or for the purpose – what are you doing right now ? Now, frankly speaking he’s true to some extent but not completely and he’ll never be. Primarily, because you can never bet or define rules on the web. Secondly, the very reason the web has grown manifolds is due to its liberty which it offers (which some exceptions exploit). One good example to quote here, which all have witnessed - Twitter. Did anyone predict that Twitter which spawned as a small socializing-via-update service would grow so big and drive other applications on the web like online video/audio sharing, URL shortners, micro-blogging, etc. A less know matter of fact among those who still are not on Twitter – even jobs, life partners, shopping items, contests and profanities are being traded on it.

So what are you waiting for .. ? Start your social-networking voyage with no prejudices if you haven’t started as yet.

Use it to your advantage.

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Me, myself and Apple PC

2010-01-30T20:02:00.008+05:30

Apple's products have been eluding me since years now(including school & college days) and the biggest pain wasn't about not being able to afford when your friends could but not being able to taste the sweetest thing in Technology. Truth be told and for all to agree - Apple has some revolutionary products under its arsenal and their class is EXTRAORDINARY. Now having expressed my anguish and love for it, I had to move on but AVAILABILITY is still a factor for Apple products here in Mumbai | INDIA. Not to be surprised, my friends having Apple iPod Touch or iPhone get a jumping ovation followed by the curiosity of others(including me) to get their hands on it. So people possessing Apple stuff are considered privileged here, better have them if you're visiting my country.

Some retailers here in Mumbai have now officially started selling Apple products claiming they are the lone official Apple reseller but I'm not interested in that and I consider just barging in to get my hands on the Apple products. Looks, quality, functionality and ease of the Apps., H/W, etc is something I look for and I did manage to get all of these at CHROMA | Bandra | Mumbai. Snapping was strictly prohibited but liberal I am and so I managed to get some. The Apple iMac MC207(we PC enthusiasts can also call it as "Apple Desktop Computer"), Apple Macbook Pro MC950 and Apple Macbook Air retails at 56,900/-*, 64,900/-* and 1,07,000/-* respectively. * Local VAT extra.

All my pictures come with a strict DISCLAIMER :

" I'm not endorsing myself with Apple PC. It's only [ME with Apple PC]. "

[Apple Macbook Pro MC950]

[Apple iMac MC207]

Me with [Apple iMac MC207]

[Apple Macbook Air]

Me with [Apple Macbook Air]

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Insertion problems with single-quotes in MS-SQL and case insensitive comparison in .Net

2010-01-20T20:15:00.011+05:30

Problem 1 :

Anybody working with Microsoft SQL Server as the back-end face this annoying issue while using insert statements, especially when they want to insert values containing single quotes within them. Now to clear the concept regarding this issue, the way Microsoft SQL (or say MS-SQL) works is that it treats anything between two single-quotes as a string and hence if the string itself has a single quote then it'll throw an SQL Exception.

1] Consider the following case wherein a simple string is inserted into a column :

INSERT into Student(name) VALUES(' Hardik ');

1 Row INSERTED successfully.

2] In the following case, a string containing a single quote is inserted which throws an SQL Exception :

INSERT into Student(name) VALUES(' Hardik's ');

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException : Incorrect syntax near 's'. Unclosed quotation mark after the character string ')'.

Solution :

The problem as seen above is silly and so is its solution. If you want to include a single quote included in a string then use the single quotes twice. The single-quotes used twice is treated as a single-quote in MS-SQL. So the solution to the above SQL Query will be as follows :

INSERT into Student(name) VALUES(' Hardik''s ');

1 Row INSERTED successfully.

Now having done with the problem and the solution, a real challenge would be to implement the same in projects using our own programming skills. Now the challenge is to have the single-quotes twice when we have to insert a string containing a single-quote and not when we don't have a single-quote. An important method in .Net and Java which can be used here is the 'replace()' method. The replace method accepts two arguments where the first is the character which you want to replace and the second being the character which you want to replace with.

CODE Snippet in C# :

 
String s = "Guru says Lolz !!!";
 
s.Replace("!", ".");
 
Console.WriteLine(s); // OP : Guru says Lolz ...

If you felt that the above example still doesn't suffice then consider a real-time example in use with SQL.

CODE Snippet :

 
String s = " Hardik's ";
 
try
{
    SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(conn); // where conn is the Connection String
    SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("INSERT into Student(name) VALUES('" + s.Replace("'","''") + "')", con);
    con.Open();
    
    cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
 
    con.Close();
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Exception : " + ex);
}
 

The string [Hardik's] will be successfully inserted in the Column [name] of the Table [Student]. The case of having single-quotes in it is also dealt with appropriately.

Problem 2 :

Another very simple problem which people come across in .Net is when making case-insensitive comparisons between strings(or say its alias "Strings"). If the Itellisense feature in Visual Studio is used wisely then you are not away from the solution but still a lot of people are found searching for the solution over search engines. Also for people who are well versed with Java might recall the 'equalsIgnoreCase()' method but what about its equivalent in .Net?

CODE Snippet :

 
String s1 = "Guru";
 
if (s1.Equals("guru", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) == true)
{
    Console.WriteLine("The String comparison was successful.");
}
 

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Sending E-Mails in .NET effectively

2010-01-13T18:16:00.014+05:30

The intent of this blog is to enable you to send E-mails leveraging all the features available in .Net Framework. Probably, if you already know how to send an E-mail in .Net then hold on and keep reading because you'll learn some other not-so-usually-known aspects/properties while sending an E-mail. You should be having your IIS configured with your SMTP details on your web-server OR should mention them explicitly in the [web.config] file before sending your first E-Mail. The former option is possible only in fraction of the cases since developers do not have access to the IIS Console on the web-server and hence the latter is the only option which a majority of developers use. The [web.config] method to declare the SMTP details has been included in this chapter. Note that the third option of declaring the SMTP details explicitly in the CODE is also available but as such it is vulnerable to exploits and it also contradicts the very concept of ENCAPSULATION.

The classes and methods for sending an E-mail are defined in the "System.Net.Mail" namespace and are accessible in both Windows and Web Forms(i.e. ASP.Net). The three main classes in use from the namespace while sending an E-mail are the MailAddress, MailMessage and SmtpClient.

The following are the attributes which will come into play while sending an E-Mail :

To address
CC address
Bcc address
From address
Body of the mail
Subject of the mail
Priority of the mail
Attachments (if any)
Does the body have HTML(as in case of Newsletters) ?
ReplyTo Address

Make sure the the requisite namespace [System.Net.Mail] is referenced in your code-behind.

CODE Snippet :

 
try
{
    MailAddress to = new MailAddress("reciever@microsoft.com", "Mr. RECEIVER");
    MailAddress from = new MailAddress("sender@microsoft.com", "Mr. SENDER");
    MailAddress cc = new MailAddress("cc@microsoft.com", "Mr. CC");
    MailAddress bcc = new MailAddress("bcc@microsoft.com", "Mr. Bcc");
    MailAddress rto = new MailAddress("donotreply@microsoft.com", "DO NOT REPLY");
 
    MailMessage mm = new MailMessage(to, from);
 
    mm.CC.Add(cc);
    mm.Bcc.Add(bcc);
 
    mm.Subject = "";
    mm.Body = "";
 
    mm.ReplyTo = rto;  //Specifies the E-Mail address of the SENDER which will be seen if the RECEIVER decides to reply to the mail
    mm.IsBodyHtml = true; // "true" if your body has some Html content. DEFAULT is "false".
    mm.Priority = MailPriority.Normal; //Possible values are "High/Normal/Low" depending upon the priority required. DEFAULT is "Normal"
 
    mm.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(Server.MapPath("./files/image.jpg")));
 
    SmtpClient sc = new SmtpClient();
 
    sc.Send(mm);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    Response.Write("Exception : " + ex);
}
 

[web.config] CODE Snippet :

You can also store some requisite variables like the recipient's address, sender's address, signature or say any values in [web.config] for access at runtime.

[web.config] CODE Snippet :

To access this global variable from CODE-BEHIND:

 
String from = System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.("FromAddress");
 

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String literals in C#

2009-12-25T10:56:00.009+05:30

I'm sure a quick peek at the subject of this blog post might make C# enthusiasts think of a mundane topic with nothing to offer. But contrary to that, it has much more to enlighten you. So just read on ...

Lets clear some of the dare-bare basics regarding Strings(which we thought we knew) in C# :

Strings are reference types used to contain Unicode text.

C# supports two forms of string literals :

1] Regular string literals

A regular string literal consists of zero or more characters enclosed in double quotes, as in "hello", and may include both simple escape sequences (such as '\t' for the tab character) and hexadecimal and Unicode escape sequences. This is the most general form of String which we all use everyday in our work.

Some examples :

String s;

-------------------------------------------------------------

--> s = "This is String";

O/P : This is String

-------------------------------------------------------------

--> s = "Hello \t world";

O/P : Hello world

-------------------------------------------------------------

--> s = "My name is \"Hardik " + "Shah\"";

O/P : My name is "Hardik Shah"

-------------------------------------------------------------

As noticed above the following backslash character constants are used frequently while getting a particular O/P in your required format :

| \n | \t | \v | \b | \f | \\ | \" | \' |

Also if you have a large string than you have to append string parts using the '+' operator.

To win over this situation, we have another type of String literal i.e. Verbatim string literals.

2] Verbatim string literals
A verbatim string literal consists of an '@' character followed by a double-quote character, zero or more characters, and a closing double-quote character. So here we have the added advantage that the characters present between the two double-quotes are rendered the way they are and no white-spaces are truncated. Also a lot more ....

Some examples :

String s;

-------------------------------------------------------------

--> s = @"hello world";

O/P : hello world

-------------------------------------------------------------

--> s = @"Division is (a\b)";

O/P : Division is (a\b)

-------------------------------------------------------------

--> s = @"append this type " + @"in this way";

O/P : append this type in this way

-------------------------------------------------------------

Note : ["] in Verbatim string literal is [""] or [\""]

Applications of verbatim string literals :

1] Include a large paragraph of text without using '+' operator.

2] Multiple lines of HTML code can also be used using this type.

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Product Review : The Google Chrome OS

2009-12-20T19:23:00.024+05:30

A very bold and unexpected announcement by Mr. Sundar Pichai, Engineering Director, Google on 7th July, 2009 made headlines in the I.T. industry worldwide and subsequently across all forms of media. That was the announcement of the Google Chrome OS. You can read about it Here and Here. The OS is set to release in the second half of 2010 initially for Netbooks but the buzz currently is so high that you see every Tom and Jerry coming with his version of the story. But indeed, the topic is so very intuitive and exciting. Developing an open-source and freeware OS which boots in seconds and delivers rich surfing experience with the Google Chrome browser at the heart of the OS is surely worth an applause. Add to it, Google also offers other valuable web services spanning across E-mail, online storage, ads, custom search, socializing, feeds, source codes, etc.

Guess what, whenever the offering is free unlike Microsoft's offerings, people forget the skepticism and the anticipation is great. And it's true in this case as well, even before the working ALPHA of Google Chrome OS hits the tester's basket rumors of Google having talks with H/W vendors like Dell, Acer, HP, etc regarding support of its OS to launching its own version of its Netbook bearing its OS just refuse to die. Google just released its source code developed till date on its Chrome OS and a couple of enthusiasts were quick to compile it and get a VM(Virtual Machine) image out of it. It also happened very quickly that a friend of mine passed this very precious stuff to me and I was prompt to try and put a review on it, though it took a lot of annoying time to get things to work. So before I start with the review I think reading a bit to clear some fallacies about Chromium projects, Chromium, Chromium OS and the Google Chrome OS would help. Perhaps this link Here will suffice.

So here I go with my very first review of Google Chrome OS :

The built is that of Linux on GNOME environment(written in Gtk+) with source code procured by Google from the open-source community under the GNU and GPL.
The OS currently boots with the presumption that you have an active Internet connection and you are kind of an user who spends a major part of his time over the Internet.
The OS boots up with the login screen which takes your Google Account and password to begin. When done the browser shows up, which cannot be escaped and it logs you straight into your Inbox(if you have one).

The browser works in a Sandbox architecture which is a core part of the OS to enforce a strict security regime. So no OS level or desktop applications tolerated like in Windows !!! But the browser comes equipped with all basic features like bookmarking, download manager, incognito mode, crashed tabs recovery, proxy settings, etc.
The browser has a special tab on top-left for access to all valuable web services like Google Apps, Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc and others if needed can be added to the list. So needs like working over Office documents, mails, viewing video, social networking are easily sufficed.
The user doesn't have access to the system files explicitly but he can save and access any files there if he wants from the browser.
The browser can also bear a Theme from many possible sources.
So eventually, it's the browser which becomes the cynosure.

SHOCKING TRAUMA !!!

What was really surprising when I checked the additional configuration options deep down in the browser was that the OS keeps room for the user to install other browsers like Firefox, Opera, etc and you can even set them to default.

The second piece of surprise was that the Google Chrome browser offers a choice on the default search provider. Yes, it's true !!! You have a choice of Google, Yahoo! and Bing at the moment.

Well if the above two surprises does survive to find its place at the FINAL than all fingers up for Google for developing an unbiased and altruistic piece of software for the user community.

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A Guide to SQL Server Management Studio 2005

2009-12-19T10:25:00.007+05:30

Like a lot of my friends and followers knew from my Twitter and Facebook updates, I had enrolled for a Seven Saturday series on System Administration courtesy - MumbaiIT Pro. The series which has its final session today saw some of the most prominent professionals from India's I.T. industry leaving their footprint in the minds of the audience with their enlivening and comprehensive coverage on the topics of their strength. The audience on the other hand were also enthralled and kept alive with contests and other Q & A sessions. Such a huge party in town and how can I stay behind? Having said this I had my intuition going strong before the start of this programme and hence I decided to volunteer in it with contributions in the form of Twitter updates and technical write-ups inspite of my jobbing blues and busy schedules.

The right time and the topic came and I decided to write in brief on SQL Server 2005 which I guess was a topic of my strength since I've been developing on ASP.Net using Visual Studio 2008 IDE and SQL Server 2005 Express as my back-end. So here I sat using all Office and web tools to get a writeup done but the climax turned out to be much more interesting - I just went on & on and ended up making a guide on the topic which now even included SQL Server Management Studio 2005 and a lot many sub-topics below it. A special thanks to Mark O'Neill - Managing Director of MakeUseOf whose "A Complete Guide to Twitter" was a very good source of inspiration to me and I emulated it quite well using Microsoft Office Word 2007. What ensued was that I have even applied for the post of a Writer on their portal.

Table of Contents in the Guide

1] Introduction

• What is SQL Server 2005 ?
• Anatomy of Database files
• Types of databases in SQL Server 2005
• A quick overview of the SQL Server Management Studio 2005 Wizard
• How to Login ?
• How to create a database using the Wizard ?
• How to execute a query ?
• Using diagnostic SQL Queries

2] Backup and Recovery

• Types of Backup
• Anatomy of Backup files
• How to take a backup ?
• How to restore from a backup ?

3] Security

• Creating Logins

You can download the Guide : Here

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Transparency and Hover effects using CSS

2009-12-04T13:11:00.012+05:30

We all have witnessed the transparent and hover effects on websites. The very common approach which web designers and developers follow is that they make the object [transparent] when a mouse hovers above it. This transparency varies depending upon the canvas/button/image upon which the effect is to be applied. Myriad of Javascript codes are available over the web to apply these effects but it's even much simple to understand the concept behind it and use it by yourself. All you need is a few basics of CSS & HTML and that's it you're done !!!

Problem Definition : Apply transparent effect to an Image when mouse hovers above it.

Theoretical Approach : Under normal situation the transparency is absolute i.e. 1.0 (For Others) and 100 (For IE). When the mouse hovers above the image it should set the transparency to 0.4 (for Others) and 40 (For IE).

Practical Approach : Define two CSS classes which do the above i.e one for applying the transparency and the other for setting it to normal. The event handlers for [onmouseover] and [onmouseout] can be handled by inline Javascript.

CODE Snippet :

     <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

    <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
    <head>
        <title>** Transparency Effect Example **</title>

        <style type="text/css">
        .fadein
        {
           filter:alpha(opacity=40);
           opacity:0.4;
        }

        .fadeout
        {
           filter:alpha(opacity=100);
           opacity:1.0;
        }
        </style>

    </head>
    <body>

    <img src="Search.gif" alt="Search Image" onmouseover="this.className='fadein'" onmouseout="this.className='fadeout'" />

    </body>
    </html>
 

Note :

Internet Explorer takes the 'filter' property as mentioned in the CSS class to render the transparency. Rest all browsers accept the 'opacity' property.

Maintain the order of the property as mentioned in the CSS class. Interchanging it will result in the effect ceasing to work in IE.

Avoid using double quotes ["] for the properties in CSS as it malfunctions in IE.

More HOVER effects using CSS pseudo-classes : Here

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Different ways of accessing a CSS class

2009-12-03T15:04:00.024+05:30

CSS(Cascading Style Sheets) in an asset to our web. Apart from being ubiquitous it's also indispensable for enterprise level web projects. No surprises, web designers and developers find themselves facing questions on it when they appear for an interview. Yeah, it's that important !!! If you've still not seen what CSS does then you go [Here]. Quite frankly, CSS 2.0 has evolved very well with a lot of new properties added to it along with new concepts like Pseudo classes, etc. A majority of 21st generation browsers like IE 7, Firefox 2.0, Chrome 2.0(stable), Safari, Opera 8.0 and above have inherent support of CSS 2.0 and some even support v2.1. The only exception to the rule is IE 6 which I don't believe stands in the league but if you still feel otherwise then you seriously need a dose of Mozilla Firefox !!!

I've seen numerous examples of internal and external CSS being explained over forums and across many websites but rarely does any of them explain the different ways by which you can access a CSS class. So I'll explain it here...

Option 1 : You can define a class named after the type of the HTML [container] element

Result : The style will be applied to all the elements of the same type

Example : The DIV and SPAN tags

CODE Snippet :

         <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

        <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
        <head>
            <style type="text/css">
                span
                {
                    font-family: Calibri;
                    background: Aqua;
                    text-align: center;
                }
            </style>
        </head>

        <body>

        <span>Example 1</span>

        <br />

        <span>All SPAN tags will have the same attributes</span>

        </body>
        </html>
 

Option 2 : You can define a class using an identifier prefixed with a '.' operator. Do not include spaces in the identifier and keep it unique. You can then access it using the 'class' attribute of the element to whom you want to apply this style to.

Result : The style will be applied only to those elements which [reference] this identifier

CODE Snippet :

    CSS :

   .style1
      {
             background: Aqua;
             text-align: center;
      }

   HTML :

      <span class="style1">This is Example 2</span>
 

Option 3 : You can define a class using an identifier as above but prefix it with a '#' operator. You can then access it using the 'id' attribute of the element to whom you want to apply this style to.

Result : The style will be applied only to those elements which [has] this identifier

CODE Snippet :

     CSS :    

    #style1
       {
              background: Aqua;
              text-align: center;
       }

     HTML :

    <span id="style1">This is Example 2</span>
 

Now having learnt the above three methods of accessing a CSS class, its time to apply multiple classes at the same time.

Option 4 : You can define multiple classes with unique identifiers as in Example 2 and then apply the classes to the elements in their 'class' attribute seperated by a space.

CODE Snippet :

     CSS :

    .style1
       {
           background: Aqua;
           text-align: center;
       }

       .style2
       {
    font-family:Calibri;
       }

HTML :

   <span id="style1 style2">This is Example 2</span>
 

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Product Review : Zenith Z-Book

2009-11-25T18:27:00.014+05:30

Zenith seems to be living to its old caption -- MNC quality, Indian prices. With its current range of products it's set to achieve a good share in the end-user laptop and desktop segment. Add to it that the company already has some trusted customers in many educational institutions and enterprises where it offers a volume discount and other benefits in the form of license software. And just when I say this, it has come out with another revolutionary product - The Z-Book.

So why is it revolutionary ? Many reasons actually, starting right from a new concept to this-is-what-customers-always-needed to it's-the-next-best-thing at an unbelievable price. Put into simple words, it's a PC-cum-Laptop at a very nominal price. For those cynics and skeptics who cannot hold back thinking about the price, it's into the nervous twentys. Now getting into the skin of the product because that's where all the magic lies. It's actually an Atom processor powered Netbook weighing just 1.1 kg which can be docked on a docking station so as to be used as a desktop. So what big is this rocket science .. ? Hmm, you guessed it right but it does have something in it to be called a revolutionary product. For example, the LCD is a 22" wide screen LCD which has inherent support for TV viewing. So obviously you don't need to pay for a TV Tuner and the LCD becomes a TV when the Laptop isn't docked. A good point to note which even you'll notice from the looks of the Netbook -- It resembles the Apple Macbook. Below is the configuration of the Netbook :

Intel Atom Processor 1.6 Ghz
Intel 945 Mobile Chipset with integrated graphics
1 GB DDR2 RAM
160 GB SATA2 HDD
10.2" wide LCD
2 USB ports, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Web-Cam, Inbuilt Mic, Memory card reader

Currently, this product is available across retailers affiliated with Zenith in Mumbai, INDIA. To contact one of the retailers follow Here.

Below are some of the snaps which I've taken just to ease out the experience of my readers regarding the product under discussion.

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Sun MS's VirtualBox 3.0.10 is out

2009-11-08T12:20:00.007+05:30

In contrast to all other VMs including Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007, Cisco's VM Ware - Sun Microsystem's Virtual Box surely reigns supreme. Probably it may be the size of the BINARY/INSTALLABLE or its platform independent trait or its ease of use or its stability, everything is just CLASS EXTRAORDINARY. Speaking on its EASE-OF-USE it's very easy to say - Any computer literate individual can use it and run MULTIPLE OPERATING SYSTEMS over your current one.

And with it is latest release - version 3.0.10 its become even better. Probably is you're not a Windows fanatic and running Apple Macintosh or Linux Ubuntu 9.04 or say any other OS, the latest release has got bug fixes and stability added to its CORE ENGINE without its size getting inflated. So a lot of reasons why you should migrate and if you're a begineer than you should better get your hands on VirtualBox 3.0.10 then its previous versions.

Do not forget to backup the .xml file containing to configuration settings of your current VM from your "Default Machine" folder while migrating to the latest version. You can maintain your previous VM settings and avoid any inconvinience while deploying it in the latest version.

Now just to let my readers know, I've got my own portal Here where I go LIVE with all my stuff like DOWNLOADS, BLOGS, TWEETS, ARTICLES, etc.

You can DOWNLOAD VirtualBox 3.0.10 in the following manner:

Navigate Here ---> Navigate to "Developer Tools"

Read more on the BUGS FIXED in version 3.0.10 Here.

My Windows 7 Club Party experience

2009-11-03T21:22:00.018+05:30

My friends will pronounce me a SINNER if I don't share my Windows 7 club party experience. The party was strictly-by-invitation despite being opened to the public for registrations. At the most, only 25 early bird registrations were approved from general public. Lots of surprises, shockers and bouncers expected by everybody since the party was held at an exotic location - The Boat Club, Mumbai during evening and the audience were explicitly asked as to what their dinner preferences were - Veg. or Non-Veg. Also the audience were given to choose over the web-site whether they would like to participate in installing Windows 7 which never really manifested. So many parameters set before the party and did it live up to it's surprise ... ? Yes, with a lot of BOOZERS, SHOCKERS, SURPRISES and much more...

Firstly, the party venue turned out to be a chill-out hotel and a bar with a kind of a Jacuzzi theme. Surprises surely for everybody coz they(including me) previously thought of a gigantic hall in their mind. Secondly, the organizers had Tablet Laptops and touch-based LCD-cum-PC to let the audience experience the very touch capabilities of Windows 7. Surface Lagoon, Microsoft Maps, Windows XP Mode, Office 2010, Aero interface, Live Essentials, Security Essentials, etc were the other Apps. and features which the audience were enlightened about. From delicacies and relishment point-of-view we had starters and a choice of beer/cold-drink/juice. The crowd was quite sophisticated owing to the very fact that the party was held in Bandra, Mumbai. Overall I'll rate this party 4/5. A nice treat indeed.

Now witness the party scenes in PIXELS :

It’s going to be a war of Operating Systems this November

2009-10-29T23:15:00.015+05:30

Having put the title of this blog it’s very easy to predict what I’m after. But I can’t resist myself from writing this blog, I’m at the matrix of witnessing a very fierce competition in the OS market. Yes, it’s true and the participants are some very aggressive, muti-billion dollar companies like Microsoft Corporation, Apple Incorporation, Canonical Ltd., Sun Microsystems, etc. Now when you have so very powerful competitors it’s bound to generate sparks and it’ll reflect in all parts of media. Frankly speaking and the way its visible for the moment, there are three parties vying for a share in the OS market – Microsoft, Apple and the open-source enthusiasts. The latter among the three is just growing upon time with backing from some big Fortune 500 companies like Sun Microsystems, IBM, Canonical, etc. So without wasting much time let me put a glint on what each participant has got.

Microsoft Windows 7 :

The Lucky 7 bells have already started ringing at the world’s number ONE company and the leading software giant in Operating Systems. With Windows 7 it again intends to steal the show and it seems it’ll succeed probably in a better fashion than at the time of Windows Vista. Virtualization, dynamic UI, robustness in terms of security, speed and much better hardware available this time in contrast to Vista is enough to conclude that Microsoft is all geared up to reign supreme after failing last time. Truth be told Microsoft has played all cards of the game this time very shrewdly cause -- The BETA, RC and RTM of Windows 7. And the people loved & relished testing it and won the hearts of all. From marketing point-of-view its free Windows 7 upgrade for a part of a crowd and discounts for the underprivileged. Furthermore, propping up Windows 7 are products which are Microsoft’s own creations – Visual Studio 2010, IIS 7.5, .Net Framework 3.5 SP1, Live Messenger, Office 2010 and Web Installer. Also if the leading I.T. survey giants like Gartner and IDC are to be believed Windows 7 is just inevitable for all. A very good point to be noted in their report, with every dollar spent on Windows 7 it’ll return a corresponding 8.4 $.

Apple Macintosh Snow Leopard :

One common thing can be easily drawn out between Apple’s CEO Mr. Steve Jobs and Macintosh -- Both are CLASS EXTRAORDINAIRE. And who’s there to challenge this wise saying especially when Apple has already proven itself by becoming the best stock performer of 2009 and that too in the times of depression. It’s also a matter of fact that Apple has just not changed the meaning of software with Leopard but has changed the entire way of computing. No doubts Apple's Macbook and iPhone are an asset of the privileged class and it’s fan followers just hate even thinking about Windows. Also acknowledge the very fact that Apple has a very limited footprint in OS market but a very strong and cent percent footprint in whatever it does, let it be the hardware or software. Add to Apple’s advantage that it has cent percent control over its Macbook hardware and hence can choose to cater to only the privileged class and demand a good ransom. But it has done really well till now and with Snow Leopard available as a petty 29$ upgrade it's set to ROCK ON AGAIN. Personally speaking, I feel really impotent while speaking on the very genetics of Apple’s OS since I myself don’t have an Apple Macbook.

Linux and its many variants :

For a majority of PC users, its just a handful of users in case of Linux but underestimating it will be the biggest mistake. True with whatever I’ve said the OLD WINE just keeps on getting better and better with refinements, feature additions and a much better hardware support. So many variants are available in Linux that I’m short of time and thoughts as to which DISTRO I should write on. Talking about Ubuntu 9.10 which is one of the most liked versions of Linux, it is set to be released this 29th October, 2009 and it’s a much awaited release since a majority of features are set to be revised. Inherent features like Voice-over-Messenger, Open-Office, Mozilla Firefox 3.5.3, etc are a treat for the open-source followers, cost-cutting enthusiasts and those who believe in the very notion that software is our birth right and should be available free. Long live the ideology of Linux developers and its followers which are just growing day-by-day. Adding to the Linux party, even Google with its Google Chrome OS will be seen as a credible and a prominent competitor within a year.

My last blog on Windows 7 before it releases tomorrow

2009-10-21T22:14:00.009+05:30

Windows 7, Windows 7, Windows 7 and on & on goes the poem. Sometimes I feel I had enough of it since January(when the BETA released) but the very moment I get my hands on it the learning curve and the experience just keeps on getting better and better. So Windows 7 enthusiasts and it's bitter critics just watch out this blog coz I'm having stuff for both of you and even who stand out as an exception !!!

Such is this peace of OS and written so well by it's developers that it has spurned a myriad of threads on all Forums regarding the very granularities of it's features. Features like Aero, Home Network, Win XP Mode, etc has invoked a sense of curiosity and desperation among application developers and even those on web to replicate the same in their projects. And guess what, to cater to such a vast audience Microsoft has played indeed well - thanks to it's Windows 7 SDK, Visual Studio 2010 and Web Platform Installer. Propping it side-by-side is another very inherent feature in Windows 7 which most of the audience including the developer community tend to forget - .Net Framework SP1. Yes, you read it well, no need to read that line back but if you still want to, here you go - .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 goes native on Windows 7.

Trust your intuition, prediction and your wildest judgement and they all are going to be true - Microsoft is planning to flood .Net Apps to complement Windows 7 bigtime. Infact, it's not in the planning stage but the planning has already manifested cause - Microsoft has launched "Windows Market Place" and "CodePlex" for Mobiles and PC's. So all roads leading to the very inevitable conclusion - "Windows 7 is going to be one of the biggest release in the history of software". Well cynics still won't agree ... !!! So here's the official IDC report and the Gartner report to substantiate my claims.

So with Windows 7 set to release tomorrow I enumerate some very obvious and not-so-obvious facts and bits on Windows 7 :

A majority of audience who've tested it has labelled Windows 7 - "It's Windows Vista made perfect".
With Windows 7 Microsoft intends to grab it's lion's share in OS market after Vista sapped it. It might sound really surprising but Microsoft considers the fact that Windows 7 will succeed because of the success of Windows Vista.
Analysts, volume-licensing partners and other major vendors say Windows 7 is the most polished version of Windows ever and that businesses should not wait to deploy it till it's SP1 get's released.
The world's leading information technology research and advisory firm - Gartner has termed Windows 7 inevitable for all. With every dollar invested in Windows 7 businesses world-wide will earn a corresponding 8.4 $.

AMEN.

Pre-compilation and code-hiding in ASP.Net

2009-10-18T01:54:00.016+05:30

ASP.Net fanatics here comes something to relieve you from the pain and frustration. Do you always wanted to get your ASP.Net application/web-site loaded faster or you always wanted to hide your code from your not-so-very-trusted-client or say both ? Tough questions have the simplest of the answers and I'm not going to contradict that proverb by any chance. But before I dive into the question just let me clear some of the much needed basics. So just read on....

The very first time a request is sent for an .aspx page the .Net Framework residing on the computer which physically hosts these files compiles it and generates the corresponding .dll files i.e. assemblies which are the results of JIT(just-in-time) compilation.

In other words, the .aspx page has been serialized in the form of a .dll file. These .dll files are used in subsequent requests by de-serializing them to render the HTML to the user by the .Net Framework.

So the real catch is whether you can avoid the initial compilation and if yes the code i.e. your .aspx page can be hidden or not ?

Now assuming that you have Visual Studio 2005 or higher and IIS configured with your .Net Framework you can follow the below mentioned steps in Command Prompt to get the pre-compilation done :

1] You have to navigate to the right destination of your .Net Framework 2.0 :

cd "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727"

2] You have to then compile your project/web-site folder with the following command :

aspnet_compiler -v /GuruSample -p "C:\GuruSample" "c:\Output"

where,
-v /GuruSample --> The virtual path to the project/web-site
-p "src" "target" --> The absolute physical path to the project folder and the location of the target files

NOTE:

Giving the "-p" switch means the IIS metabase will *not* be referenced during pre-compilation. Also it means the target path is mandatory.

Once the above command is executed the following files and folders will be generated at the target location :

PreCompiledApp.config

Web.Config

GuruSample.sln

Default.aspx

A "bin" folder will also be generated which will be having the pre-compiled .dll file(s).

Your process of pre-compilation is done and now you can safely copy the target files and folders to the "wwwroot" folder of your IIS directory if you're currently experimenting it in your own PC. You can view the .aspx page using the "http://localhost/Default.aspx" switch in your browser.

NOTE:

1] Any changes made to the above files or folders needs re-compilation with all the above mentioned steps.

2] The .aspx file after pre-compilation need not be present. This helps in code-hiding.

3] You can download my "sample project folder" as used in the above explanation Here.

For MSP's - How to clear the probation period

2009-10-09T10:31:00.009+05:30

Congrats and regards to all new MSP's. Sorry to be so straight to the topic but for you the intent is very much clear for now -- Score 150 points to stay in the league of MSP's.

'150 points' that's what the ADMIN have asked for and from my experience I can tell you that I had to literally screw my schedules apart to get it. The result - Bad performance in ACADS and a lot of sleepless nights. But that was the story then but I can assure you that you will surely not have to go through this - COURTESY ME.

Following are the list of activities(in the order of less work and more points) which you can pursue to see yourself besides me i.e. a permanent MSP (till you graduate) and then an MSP Alumni. So here I go ...

1] Imagine Cup 2010 :

Imagine Cup is a wonderful initiative and a technical competition held every year to promote display of expertise in various fields and learning to get there. Any active student can participate in it. Some of the categories include:

--> I.T. challenge
--> Software design
--> Inter-Operability
--> Software development
--> Game design and many more...

For more information you can check out www.imaginecup.com.

Registering for Imagine Cup in any of the above categories and going past the 1st round can get you a whopping 100 points. EASILY said then DONE but try yourself and see for yourself. Though not many qualify past the 1st round and those who do cannot cope with the 2nd round. A matter of fact, I qualified to the 2nd round of I.T. challenge which clashed with my Exam dates !!!

Coming back, you can also get participants to join this competition(in groups of 40) and win points from it.

You can create your own account with student-partners E-Mail and your ID part of your E-Mail becomes your "Referral code". For example, in my case "hardikguru".

I had penned down a blog on the same probably last year to promote it. You can check out Here.

2] Sessions :

A variety of sessions can be conducted to promote the MSP program, initiatives of Microsoft, any particular technologies of Microsoft like .Net/WPF/Silverlight/etc. The target audience can be students or even teachers.

But do keep in mind that if you conduct these activities under your colleges' Tech-Club than you would be at any added advantage i.e. you can keep your Tech-Club abuzz. Also on having a particular amount of activities in your Tech-Club you are entitled to BENEFITS so keep that in mind. Proofs in the form of PHOTOS, feedback forms, etc are required so check out the ACTIVITES TAB of our student-partners web-site.

Many other forms of sessions are there which include DevCon wherein you've got to conduct a day-long session on myriad of topics with a team of speakers and the mass audience should go into hundreds. Assistance in any form can be procured from "studpart@microsoft.com".

Other forms like Rhythm Sessions, HOL(Hands-On-Lab), etc can be learnt and understood from the ACTIVITES TAB of our student-partners web-site.

3] Microsoft Live@Edu and MSDN-AA campaign :

For Live@Edu you can check out my own blog dating back 10 months(At a time when I was learning to BLOG) Here.

You can also check out videos and any materials for the same Here.

Any questions on 'How-to' and 'What-to' can be forwarded to "livein@microsoft.com"

For MSDN-AA you can check out Here.

You get 140 points for deploying any of them in your own college or any of your peer.

Note :
Any pre-requisites for any activities are mentioned very clearly in the "ACTIVITIES" TAB of our student-partners web-site.

Besides this blog I'll be coming with another BLOG later on the benefits which you derive being an MSP. But for now don't even think about it coz that might lead you astray. FOCUS on the points and enjoy all the activities. Grab what you can.

"Do you have it in you to make a difference ?" -- The MSP Program caption

Outsmart your college/office FIREWALL now....

2009-10-05T17:11:00.003+05:30

Are you miffed with the Systems Administrator blocking all your downloads and the so-very-important social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc and Torrent clients in your college or company ... ?

If yes, then just read on and crack the LOGIC behind the BARRIER and harness the same LOGIC to KILL it. Colleges/Organizations usually have a SQUID firewall installed on their Linux Server through which all your HTTP requests get parsed. Such extra-ordinary and powerful is this piece of software that it deserves a blog on it. Here are some of the salient features of SQUID firewall from knowledge point-of-view:

It can populate all hosts currently on the N/W with their N/W statistics like the last request they made for a particular link and so on.
Specific permissions can be granted and revoked to hosts on the N/W based on their IP, Subnet Mask, port, etc.
Basically all HTTP requests are routed through the SQUID firewall so it can censor all URL's which the hosts demand. Specific keywords like xxx, orkut, game, facebook, s*x can be blacklisted so the URL's will be blocked.
File level access-lists can also be defined to block/allow certain formats like '.exe', '.avi', '.wmv', etc.

I'm sure by now you've understood why you get the 'Permission denied' or 'Access denied' warning when downloading files with the above mentioned formats or while surfing through URL's which contain keywords which are banned. Excellent logic right .. ? But do not forget that there is another part of the world who live to challenge this piece of software and the citizens here also have their own band of followers including me. :)

So now that we're through with the LOGIC let's work to reverse-engineer it. At first glance this challenge might look really invincible but that's the way challenges are supposed to be right ... ? Let's risk an attempt and than we'll decide our own fate.

1] SQUID firewall like I had emphasized above screen the URL's of hosts. So the very obvious solution is that we need something to encode them. Let's move further.

2] Assuming URL's are encoded than what about my file downloads which I have to download? OK so let's make an exception in this case or say an 'if else' clause comes into picture if you're kind of an programming freak. So if files are there in the URL than they should be rendered as they are.

3] Furthermore, there may be more constraints as well which may have been defined at the SQUID firewall by the developers and kept secret, so to escape that you need to route your traffic through a completely different channel than the conventional one.

Now to apply all of the above points either you can use a service provided VIA a web-site or VIA a desktop application. You can also setup your browser to do the above (not all of the above but it may do the trick in some cases).

There are web-sites available which can come to your rescue like www.avoidr.com, www.123hideip.com, www.forextail.co.cc, www.netbypasser.info, etc. These are proxy web-sites which offer free service to you. Just paste the link in the web-site and OFF YOU GO. You can search for more on Bing for better results.
You can use desktop Apps. like UltraSurf to so the same. You can download more Apps. of the same subject Here under the 'Hacking and Sniffing Tools' section.
You can also setup your browser's N/W configuration to manual with the following settings:

HTTP Proxy IP : 192.168.0.201 Port : 3128
Use the above settings for all possible protocols like SOCKS, SSL, FTP, etc.

Note:

Apps. and certain web-sites have their own restrictions like files exceeding 20 MB in size cannot be downloaded.
Beware while searching for results which include keywords like 'Proxy' coz the keywords might themselves be banned by your Admin.
You can use the same technique of setting up your N/W configuration using a HTTP proxy IP and proxy port with Torrent clients like uTorrent, BitComet, Bear-Share, Limewire, etc. The settings are available beneath any of the menu-items so be patient. You can get more proxy IP's and ports Here and Here.
SQUID firewall usually are installed on UNIX/Linux but it's equivalent on Windows platform also work on the same LOGIC so the above SOLUTION is applicable even there.

Windows 7 Starter Edition attracts the ire of critics and bloggers

2009-09-16T23:27:00.008+05:30

Windows 7 is about to release a month later on 22^nd October and Microsoft has played it’s pre-intentional gambit with Netbook users albeit in a very harsh way. The current cynosure is that the Netbook segment has grown leaps and bounds despite the bad economic scenario. All thanks to Microsoft’s Windows XP Home Edition coupled with Service Pack 3 that won the hearts of Netbooks users. Add to it the very winning idea of Microsoft leasing out Windows XP at 30% of it’s actual price to volume-licensing partners like Acer, Dell, Lenovo, etc which made the price of Netbooks a very affordable one. Now getting back to Windows 7 Starter Edition :

Windows 7 Starter Edition will be having all the essential and core features of Windows 7 like the Jump Lists, Pin, Snap, and Windows Search all make using a small notebook PC simple and easy.
It’ll be supporting an excellent feature known as Home Networks for PC’s running Windows 7 and comes inherently with support for Wireless-LAN and Internet Explorer 8.

Looking through Microsoft’s eyes, it intends to again steal the Netbook show with it’s meant-to-be-for-netbooks show-stopper Windows 7 Starter Edition but looking through the pragmatic eyes of critics, bloggers and myself it pours a very gloomy picture – cause -- the policy, constrains and restrains on Windows 7 Starter Edition. Here I enumerate them as follows:

Cannot run more than 3 applications (read below for more enlightenment on the same).

Does not support Aero Glass, meaning you can only use the “Windows Basic” or other opaque themes. It also means you do not get Taskbar Previews or Aero Peek.
Inability to switch between users without having to log off.
No Multi-monitor support and DVD playback (in either case I use VLC player).
No Windows Media Center and Domain Support for Business customers.
No Windows XP Mode for running XP applications natively.

"So put into simple words it’s Windows 7 ULTIMATE EDITION minus Aero Glass, Win XP Mode, BitLocker, language pack, Media-Center."

Now getting a bit up, close and personal with the not-more-than-3-application constrain. Apps. like Anti-Virus, startup utilities, windows explorer, control panel, etc live outside the three-app limit, also opening multiple tabs in one browser is not counted as 8 or say 9 but only 1. But if I’m surfing on IE 8, I’m active on Live Messenger and I’m listening to my songs on Windows Media Player(which is a very usual case for everybody) than I’m done … ? Yes and if you still try to surpass the limit of 3-Apps. then the following annoying screen pops-up.

This gambit is really nasty and it hurts me. Microsoft did it round the time of Win XP Starter Edition and now again the same blunder with Windows 7 Starter Edition .. ? Why Microsoft’s got to do this .. ?

I tried searching for the answer and I got one(a very clear and to-the-point answer) on the official blog of ‘The Windows Team’. You can follow it Here. The answer seems very difficult to gulp down the throat previously but I can’t afford to play FOUL with Microsoft and have to contemplate. Microsoft does acknowledge the limitations in Windows 7 Starter Edition and it also confesses that it’s for beginners especially Netbooks users who pre-dominantly are working over the browser. But if the constrains are not acceptable to them then they should better consider going for Windows 7 Home Premium as it offers way forward features than the Starter Edition. Not only this, Microsoft also intends to get the volume-licensing partners acknowledge this and follow suit.

Hmmm, JUSTICE seems to be done for the moment but will the people abide by Microsoft’s terms … ? That remains to be seen.

SIGNING OFF.

Guru says Lolz … !!!

=========================================================

My above blog has invoked a lot of steam and hence it has reflected in the comments as well.

Click Here to read them.

Windows 7 Enterprise Edition now available for download

2009-09-10T09:50:00.017+05:30

Previously, Microsoft released the RTM version of the Windows 7 for MSDN and Technet subscribers only. Surely with this, Microsoft seems to have forgotten it's actual audience - Corporate users. But justice be done, Microsoft has now released it's RTM for them (known as the Windows 7 ENTERPRISE Edition). What's even more interesting is that they are offering it even to the masses. So basically, even a home user can download and try it.

This version is actually meant for volume-licensing partners like DELL, LENOVO, etc as suggested by bloggers over MSDN but Microsoft has now released this 90-day trial to all. Microsoft recommends using the above release mainly for enterprise and business use, so they can gauge the feasibility of their latest OS release and plan in advance as to when they can upgrade their current OS over their machines.

Some salient and worth noticing points on the Windows 7 ENTERPRISE EDITION:

Windows 7 Enterprise Edition is not available as a Retail Copy.
You don't need a Serial Key to install the above ISO.
Microsoft recommends installing Windows 7 as a clean installation (please do not install it over any existing OS's over your computer)
It's a 90-day trial and activation period is 10-day as in contrast to the usual 30-day period.
Your PC will shutdown every hour after the 90-day period expires or till the moment you do not ACTIVATE IT OVER THE INTERNET,
The release is VALID till the end of 2010 (this means you'll not be able to run it after this date).

Try Windows 7 Enterprise Edition:

NOTE

Downloading the above COPY is recommended over Internet Explorer 8. The download can be resumed, if paused for a few hours.
If downloaded over Firefox, it's recommended you use a 'Download Manager' either in the form of a software or an ADD-ON.

A sweet little POEM for my DEPARTING FRIEND

2009-08-24T18:10:00.007+05:30

This is dedicated to my childhood pal who left this Thursday for New York City, U.S. to pursue his M.S. (Master's in Science) at NYIT (New York Institute of Technology) in C.S.(Computer Science). Jinal Shah, that's the name by which his family and close friends know him and Mr. INVISIBLE is the name by which I know him. No prices for guessing what's his status when he signs into Yahoo Messenger. Wonder what kind of flings he's had that he has to remain INVISIBLE. I hope now that he's reached a SAFE HEAVEN he does remain VISIBLE. One more thing, sorry dude, I had to write this post pretty much before you left but you know I'm good at procrastinating (nobody can actually do it better than me in this department) and that's what I've done this time round. Truth be told I had embarked on writing this blog a week before you left but my draft got to have something special, so it lay back there. Hence I guess the title of this blog should actually be 'DEPARTED' from 'DEPARTING'. Hmmm, in retrospect I still remember the treat which you threw the night before you left but the CHEESE MASALA DOSA is already flushed by now so no point mulling over that. What I relish is memories of our friendship right from our school days, Junior K.G. - to be precise. Junior college was a bit embroiling for us because of our schedules but our engineering days made sure we do remain in touch and with a brisk excitement every time we met or talked over the mobile. HTML clipboardAll thanks to you, for making a very good choice by getting the MTNL Dolphin scheme. Surely, a round of applause to you for that.

When I was in my 12th standard I read this sweet little poem at the back of a book and was so hooked to it that I read it everyday twice for a month. It meant so much to me in my heart for my friends. And now when you're leaving I wish the same for you. Decipher what you can, and rest I'll explain it over the messenger. Here it is as follows:

If I would ever need you,
I know you would be there,

Your smile makes me smile,
your pain makes me hurt.

I'll never stop being your friend,
don't ever stop being mine.

AMEN.