A Novice On Writing

Back after a long break!!!

2011-06-07T11:59:00.001+05:30

After a long break I am back in to the blog world...I hope to post regularly from now on(atleast one post a week)... :-)

Microsoft WEBDAY at Chennai

2007-05-29T21:47:00.000+05:30

CNUG is organizing the Microsoft WEB-DAY at chennai on 3rd June, 2007, Sunday. If you are interested in the latest Microsoft Web Technologies, visit the CNUG homepage and register yourself.

WPF/E from now on aka Silverlight!!!

2007-04-23T17:15:00.000+05:30

WPF/E is now Silverlight. I don't understand why the name Silverlight. Visit the site here...

Contract-First or Code-First???

2007-04-20T08:55:00.000+05:30

Just stumbled over this blog entry this morning. Quite interesting. Give it a read here...

Web Service Software Factory for WCF

2007-04-03T09:54:00.000+05:30

The second version of the Web Service Software Factory has released. This new release has everything the first one had with the addition of loads of new stuff specifically for building WCF Web services using VS 2005. Though this was released in Jan itself, I couldn't peep into it for quite sometime.

The new features help you apply message-level security, construct services from WSDL/XSD, perform design-time code/config analysis, apply message validation, and migrate from ASMX services. If you're building WCF Web services, you would surely want to check this out at Web Service Software Factory.

Prescriptive Guidance for VSTS available now

2007-03-27T08:54:00.000+05:30

The Patterns & Practices team at MS have come out with a new prescriptive guidanse for VSTS and can be available at http://www.codeplex.com/VSTSGuidance. Here you can find information on Practices, Source Control/Versioning, Extensibility, Project/Process Management, TFS, build, work items, reporting and much more.

Via: J D Meier

Implementing STS for Infocards

2006-08-02T10:41:00.000+05:30

I have been trying to use Infocards in my WinFX app and had some problems in using them. I was not able to import my self-created Infocards into my identity store. The problem was that when importing the infocard into the identity store, it was checking for the provider address where an STS(Security Token Service) needs to be running which was not the case in my system. Searching for a solution came across this STS implementation in Martin Gudgin's blog.

Adobe Illustrator to XAML Export Plug-In

2006-08-02T10:22:00.000+05:30

Michael Swanson has created an Adobe Illustrator Plug-in that exports images to XAML for use in Avalon. With only a few minor color saturation issues, the plug-in is able to faithfully reproduce almost any image from Illustrator into XAML.

Michael Swanson has done a really amazing job. Actually I was searching for a way out to provide a dynamic UI builder for my WPF app and ended up in this plug-in. The plug-in gives out XAML syntax that is compatible with the February 2006 CTP and later (including Beta 2).

Read more about the plug-in here...

Download the plug-in here...

US-CERT Cyber Security Bulletin for 2005

2006-07-07T11:08:00.000+05:30

Happened to read the US-CERT cyber security bulletin summary. It reads...

"...The information is presented only as a index with links to the US-CERT Cyber Security Bulletin the information was published in. There were 5198 reported vulnerabilities: 812 Windows operating system vulnerabilities; 2328 Unix/Linux operating vulnerabilities; and 2058 Multiple operating system vulnerabilities..."

However, they have put a disclaimer stating that the results are an aggregation of reports from various sources.

TechEd 2006

2006-06-20T09:09:00.000+05:30

I had the opportunity of attending the TechEd 2006 at Chennai. That was great rocking TechEd. However, when compared to the previous TechEds, I felt the liveliness was missing. More so, could be due to that instead of a live keynote session, this time they had a video played which didn't help to kick start the enthusiasm.

The Architect track sessions were more in a Business Process perspective, had little of technology. I request the oprganisers to please note that architects in India are techies who love to understand the new technologies and use them in their solutions. And due to this, the people who had registered for architect track, actually attended the developer track.

WinFX sessions where good. Mostly they were kind of introductory sessions rather than deep dives, except for the session on WCF by Gaurav Khanna. His session on CLR hosting was an eye-opener to understand the way CLR worked and how to extend the CLR capabilities in v2.0.

The security sessions by Vineet Gupta was very useful in the sense, developers got an idea of the things they could do out-of-the-box to aid security, showing security is not something outside the app, but something that runs through the app from the presentation layer to the DB.

For people who missed the TechEd 2006, you could get the presentations downloaded from http://www.techedindia.com

Vista is amazing!!!

2006-03-03T08:53:00.000+05:30

For the past one week I am at Bangalore attending a training for Windows Vista.

We used to struggle to get a nice, jazzy UI for apps, which is far easy in WPF and I was amazed to look at getting all the UI gimmicks I would love to with just XAML... thanks to the declarative programming model introduced with WPF.

On WCF, exposing an app as a service is just for a few configurations and you are done... I have been working with SOA kind of appa for quite sometime, with WCF it is become so easy...

Thank you MS, for giving us such a nice technology.

Let's Rock the Community Launch!!!

2006-01-01T09:06:00.000+05:30

The community launch of VS2005 is up at CNUG!!!

For more details check www.cnug.net. Registrations open at http://groups.msn.com/chennainetusergroup/communitylaunchsignup1.msnw

Awaiting to rock the community Launch!!!

Update: We had a Rocking Community launch with around 400 participants. Good thing was almost 80-85% of the crowd were developers.

VS 2005 Developer Launch - Chennai

2005-12-13T21:27:00.000+05:30

The developer launch of VS2005 is happening at Chennai this Thursday(15/12/2005) at Le Royal Meridien. I just got the confirmation for my registration. I feel excited about attending the event and eagerly looking forward for the day!!!

Breaking Changes from Beta2 to RTM

2005-11-06T15:21:00.000+05:30

MS has published the details of the breaking changes from .NET2.0 Beta2 to the RTM version.
The list goes like this:

Breaking Changes Overview

.NET Framework Version 2.0

Threading Cancellation Functionality
INullableValue Interface
System.Nullable
Boxing and Unboxing of Nullable

.NET Client

MenuCommands Class
Behavior Class
ColumnWidthChangedEventArgs Class
BindingContext Class
DataGridViewRow Class
DataGridViewCell Class
Client Application User Settings
Application Settings Serialization
TreeView and TreeNode Classes
BackgroundWorker Class
MaskedTextBox Class
GetPreferredSize Property of Form Controls
Windows Forms API Changes
CancelRowEdit Event
AsyncCompletedEventArgs.Error Property
RadioButton.TabStop Property
MDI Automatic Merging
BindingSource.Items Property

.NET Compact Framework

EventArgs Classes

Common Language Runtime (CLR)

XCertificateUI Class
System.Threading.Thread Class
KeyValuePair Class
AssembliesVisibleTo Attribute

System.Data Namespace

SqlDataReader.GetSchemaTable Method
SqlNotificationEncryptionType Enumeration
System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlStreamChars Property
SqlDataReader.GetSqlValue Return Type

Globalization

Persian Calendar Class
DateTimeFormatInfo

ClassVisual Studio Tools for Office

VSTView Interface

Visual C++ Programming Language

ATL Server — CAtlHttpClient Class
Floating-point Control Word Support Functions
Dynamic Cast from Private Base
MFC Wrapper for LoadLibraryEx()
MFC -bit Message Map Support

C# Programming Language

Compilation Error Due to Implicit Conversion
Checked and Unchecked Expressions
Nullable Does Not Satisfy IComparable Constraint Error
Cannot Form a Delegate Over Nullable Error
Operator "is" Returns true for T and Non-null T?

Visual Basic Programming Language

TypeOf Statement
Non-CLS Compliant Return Types
Overriding Object Members in Structures
Namespaces with Different Casing
Implementing MustOverride Methods
AppActivate Case-insensitivity
AppActivate Right-Hand Title
CreateObject Case-insensitivity
Zero-Based Collection Object
FileIO Enumerations
FileLogTraceListener.CustomLocation Property
FileLogTraceListener Date Format

ClickOnce Runtime Process

ClickOnce Store Change
WebBrowser Permissions

Visual Studio

Visual Studio Settings
Machine.config File Changes
Visual C++ Beta Project Open Error
Errors When Deploying Device Projects to the Device Emulator

ASP.NET

Unique Class Names
HTML Default Validation Schema
Events for Non-Visible Controls
ICallbackEventHandler.GetCallbackResult Method
ASP.NET Personalization Database Schema
Page.CreateStateFormatter Method
Aspnet_regiis.exe Utility Argument Change
WebPart File Format
System.Web.UI.IPageHeader
Relative References in the Configuration File
Web Project Global Settings and Project Policy Settings

Check the Breaking Changes in Visual Studio and the .NET Framework for complete details. Just went through the document to have a bird's view of the changes, sounds good.

New Generation MS Certifications

2005-11-05T19:25:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has come up with new certifications based on .NET2.0 technologies. Have a look at the details at The New Generation of Microsoft Certifications.

Case Study on Application Development with Whidbey & Yukon

2005-11-05T03:45:00.000+05:30

Polaris Software Lab Triples Developer Productivity with Microsoft is a brand new case study that details the company's experience with one of its product Intellect-Collect that was ported to .NET from Java. The case study sounds pretty good. Just have a read and share your thought about it.

Hiring Good Programmers!!!

2005-10-01T15:40:00.000+05:30

Stumbled over this article Hiring Good Programmers Matters. Was a good read and indeed true... Check it out.

Via: Sudhakar

Kid's Programming Language

2005-09-30T17:15:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has signed on to promote a new programming language intended to replace BASIC as the first step students take towards learning how to code.

The Kid's Programming Language, or KPL, was developed under the direction of Jonah Stagner, and his colleagues, ex-Microsoft program manager Jon Schwartz and former NCR engineer Walt Morrison. The three run the software consultancy Morrison-Schwartz Inc.

"One of the things we realized is that we all learned programming on some flavor of BASIC when we started. You're not going to learn how to program in BASIC anymore," said Morrison, in an interview. "We wanted something that isn't 20 years old; modern technology that uses an integrated development environment, so we can take our kids and move them directly from this to the .NET environment."

KPL has its dedicated website and a descriptive article has been posted at MSDN's Code4Fun site.

Via: Yahoo News

Openings with Polaris

2005-09-28T10:22:00.000+05:30

Polaris is looking for .NET developers with 1+ years experience who have a flair to work with the bleeding edge technologies. If you are one of them, you could send in your CVs to mahalakshmi.n@gmail.com.

WSS and Sharepoint Portal Server

2005-09-23T11:39:00.000+05:30

I got an opportunity to learn Windows Sharepoint Services(WSS) and Sharepoint Portal Server. Pretty interesting. Searching for more resources and samples to understand better. If you have any good resource, please share.

Interesting Post on Method Overloading

2005-07-18T21:17:00.000+05:30

A pretty interesting read on Method Overloading.

You Can Do It! (But that doesn't really mean that you should)

Via: Brad Abrams

Usage Rules for NULL

2005-07-01T22:12:00.000+05:30

A useful article Four rules on Nulls. Was a good read.

The article starts with explaining what NULL actually is and puts forth four rules on NULL usage.

Rule #1: Use NULLs to indicate unknown/missing information only. Do not use NULLs in place of zeroes, zero-length strings or other "known" blank values. Update your NULLs with proper information as soon as possible.

Rule #2: In ANSI SQL, NULL is not equal to anything, even other NULLs! Comparisons with NULL always result in UNKNOWN.

Rule #3: Use SET ANSI_NULLS ON, and always use ANSI Standard SQL Syntax for NULLs. Straying from the standard can cause problems including portability issues, incompatibility with existing code and databases and returning incorrect results.

Rule #4: The ANSI Standard COALESCE() and CASE syntaxes are preferred over ISNULL() or other proprietary syntax.

Via: Anand

Recommendations for using Strings in 2.0

2005-07-01T21:41:00.000+05:30

I read an article in MSDN by Dave New Recommendations for Using Strings in Microsoft .NET 2.0. Extract below:

Code owners previously using the InvariantCulture for string comparison, casing, and sorting should strongly consider using a new set of String overloads in Microsoft .NET 2.0. Specifically, data that is designed to be culture-agnostic and linguistically irrelevant should begin specifying overloads using either the StringComparison.Ordinal or StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase members of the new StringComparison enumeration. These enforce a byte-by-byte comparison similar to strcmp that not only avoids bugs from linguistic interpretation of essentially symbolic strings, but provides better performance.

Recommendations for String Use
When developing with the 2.0 version of the .NET Framework, keeping a few very simple recommendations in mind will suffice to solve confusion about using strings.

Do's:

Use StringComparison.Ordinal or OrdinalIgnoreCase for comparisons as your safe default for culture-agnostic string matching.
Use StringComparison.Ordinal and OrdinalIgnoreCase comparisons for increased speed.
Use StringComparison.CurrentCulture-based string operations when displaying the output to the user.
Switch current use of string operations based on the invariant culture to use the non-linguistic StringComparison.Ordinal or StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase when the comparison is linguistically irrelevant (symbolic, for example).
Use ToUpperInvariant rather than ToLowerInvariant when normalizing strings for comparison.

Dont's:

Use overloads for string operations that don't explicitly or implicitly specify the string comparison mechanism.
Use StringComparison.InvariantCulture-based string operations in most cases; one of the few exceptions would be persisting linguistically meaningful but culturally-agnostic data.

A read of the article would surely give an insight towards best practices for string comparison.... excellent article...

A No Mouse-Click WebSite!!!

2005-07-01T21:38:00.000+05:30

This site is cool.... visit http://www.dontclick.it you will know it!!!

Via:Sudhakar

Problem with IIS

2005-06-26T11:04:00.000+05:30

I renamed my PC and now find that my IIS is not starting. It gives authentication failure error. I tried starting the PC with the last best known configuration and starting in Safe mode etc. but in vain. Looking for a solution to this problem...

VS.NET 2005 Beta2

2005-06-26T10:59:00.000+05:30

After some hiccups I was able to successfully install Beta2, but now facing problems in compiling Beta1 code in Beta2. Would post my experiences with Beta2 soon.

TechEd 2005

2005-06-26T10:58:00.001+05:30

TechEd 2005 just happened in Chennai and, unfortunately, I couldn't attend the meet. Waiting for thr presentations to be uploaded, so that I can download and get a feel of the sessions.

WSE Series III : Sending Attachments thru Web Service

2005-06-26T10:58:00.000+05:30

There are three different methods of sending attachments naely,

Base64 Encoding
SOAP attachments
DIME and WS-Attachments

Base64 Encoding:

In this method the attachment is included as binary data encoded in Base64 format inside a SOAP envelope. The XmlTextWriter class can be used to generate Base64 encoded attachments. The XmlTextReader class can be used to decode that binary stream back into the original data format. This mechanism is very resource intensive and the size of the encoded data is much higher than the actual data size. Say for example a 14KB binary file can become a 19KB text when encoded. Base 64 encoding has been around for some time and has probably received a bad rap for the opaque data problem. Base 64 encoding has some extremely nice benefits, such as its seamless integration in SOAP envelopes, it is a well-known standard, and it has better size efficiency than structured XML.

Interoperability: Excellent. Base-64-encoded data is understood on every platform that understands XML. Whether the opaque data included is in an interoperable form may be another question that is not already positively answered, like it is with the XML Representation approach. However, if you are sending opaque data and you are doing so with a Web service, then the interoperability issue has probably already been positively addressed.

Composability: Excellent. The fact that the data lives within the SOAP envelope means that all the WS-* specifications that Microsoft has developed with its partners will work seamlessly with a base-64-encoded XML element.

Efficiency: Modest. Although base-64-encoded data is usually more efficient from a message-size perspective than structured XML, as mentioned earlier, it still bloats the data by about 33% even when only single byte characters are used. The character set for base-64-encoded data does not require multi-byte characters, so if you can use UTF-8 encoding you can avoid the extra 100% increase in size. Of course you cannot mix single and multi-byte encodings within a single XML message, so if the rest of your SOAP envelope requires multi-byte encoding, then you have to live with the two-fold increase.

When to use: Base 64 encoding is probably the best way to pass opaque data if transport size efficiency is not your first concern. It will work seamlessly with higher-level WS-* protocols and is smaller than a standard XML encoding.

SOAP Attachments:

This is a much familiar method of binding a SOAP message with MIME enabling the usage of MIME encapsulation. In this mechanism there is a primary SOAP message and one or more attachments. SOAP with Attachments was the first attempt by Microsoft (along with Hewlett Packard) at solving the opaque data/attachments problem.

Interoperability: Potentially decent in the future with some notable exceptions. SOAP with Attachments is simply a W3C Note; it is not a W3C Recommendation or even a W3C Working Draft. Presumably, after the profile is final and conforming implementations are available, they should be interoperable. The problem is that when it comes to the attachments profile, WS-I is ignoring the fact that SwA breaks the Web services model. Among other issues, SwA specifically does not work with WS-Security at this time.

Composability: Poor. Without an encompassing SOAP envelope to build upon, SOAP with Attachment messages do not compose well with the WS-* specifications. In particular, a non-SOAP-message-based transport cannot support the recently finalized OASIS WS-Security specification.

Efficiency: Good. Although not as efficient and streamlined as the DIME and WS-Attachments approach, opaque data can be sent in its raw form without base 64 encoding. There are issues with buffering incoming data due to the lack of a length header on the message sections, but it is a viable solution to the problems around sending potentially large, opaque blocks of data.

When to use: If you have interoperable SOAP with Attachments implementations on all the platforms that you might want your Web service to be accessible from, then you might consider using SwA. If you find you are really only communicating between computers running the same platform, then the reason for using Web services (interoperability) is moot, and you might as well use a proprietary communication mechanism. Finally, you will specifically want to avoid SwA if you need OASIS-compliant WS-Security type signatures or encryption on your opaque data.

DIME and WS-attachments:

Direct Internet Message Encapsulation (DIME) is a lightweight, binary message format that can be used to encapsulate one or more application-defined payloads of arbitrary type and size into a single message construct. Each payload is described by a type, a length, and an optional identifier. Both URIs and MIME media type constructs are supported as type identifiers. DIME and WS-Attachments is a faster and more efficient solution to the attachments approach to opaque data compared to SOAP with Attachments, but has the same composability problems as SwA.

Interoperability: Modest. Although DIME is a simpler protocol than MIME that would bode well for its interoperable possibilities, efforts for creating widely interoperable DIME and WS-Attachment implementations have stopped. As with SwA, there is no recommendation for DIME or WS-Attachments at this time. Microsoft tools currently only support a DIME approach to attachments.

Composability: Poor. As is the case with SwA, a non-SOAP envelope approach to messaging like DIME and WS-Attachments limits the ability of the higher-level Web service specifications to properly work upon a message.

Efficiency: Very Good. DIME is a simple binary format for transmitting raw data and has support for such efficiencies as chunking and jumping easily between message records.

When to use: Web services are all about interoperability, and if DIME and WS-Attachments does not provide wide interoperability, then there is little reason to use it. If you are not interested in interoperability but believe DIME is attractive for its performance reasons, then you would probably be better off using other proprietary, high-performance solutions such as .NET Framework Enterprise Services. DIME and WS-Attachments also suffer from the same limitations as SOAP with Attachments, in that it is only viable if you do not require higher-level capabilities for your Web services. At this point the only real reason to be using DIME and WS-Attachments would be to interoperate with an existing DIME and WS-Attachment implementation.

VS.NET 2005 Beta2

2005-05-24T10:13:00.000+05:30

I received my VS.NET 2005 Beta2 DVDs which I had ordered online last week. The pak includes VS2005 Team Suite, VS2005 Team Foundation Server and Yukon Dev Edition Evaluation CTP valid for an year.
Yesterday I tried to install Beta2, but the directions said I have to remove my previous 2.0 Beta1 installation. I was not sure... so postponed the installation to this weekend...

Indigo Book on Blog

2005-05-18T21:13:00.000+05:30

Scott Seely, Yaniv Pessach, and Brian Nantz are writing a book on Indigo for Addison Wesley and have taken a new approach suggested by Robert Scoble. They are posting portions of the book for public feedback on a blog so that the rest of the world can watch as the book takes shape and to guide the content to the most useful information.While the blog contains a lot of links to Indigo information on the Internet, they have also released portions of book content such as Indigo instrumentation, Indigo configuration, and most recently the first portion of the manageability chapter.Watch the book take shape and get lots of other great Indigo information at ThatIndigoBook Blog.

Via: The ServerSide .NET

Look and Feel changed

2005-04-10T09:30:00.000+05:30

I changed the look and feel of my blog yesterday. I felt though the previous look and feel was good, it was taking some long time to load the page, an impact of the extensive use of images. Now the page opens faster that it used to...

Back Again to my Blog World...

2005-04-06T22:35:00.000+05:30

I am very very happy to return to my blog world. All these days I had to do my blogging either from my work place(due to tight schedule, that has become impossible) or from some net cafe outside(that too became impossible since I reached home late). Thanks to my parents who got me a net connection at home (got connected yesterday). I hope to blog atleast one new post everyday. Thanks for all who have had the patience to look for my second article on the WSE. This long pending article was in draft and completed it today and published(the article is published backdated since I drafted it long back).

Presentation Skills

2005-02-23T21:54:00.000+05:30

I was going thru Karthik's blog, he has started blogging very recently. He has posted on this session and I found this link on Presentation skills very useful. It is a blog entry of Mr.Venkatrangan , MSRD.

WSE Series II: WS-Security

2005-02-21T19:57:00.000+05:30

Web Services sound great with all its Discoverability and Interoperability, but this involves data transmission through the Internet as SOAP messages. While SOAP provides a standardized interface for accessing Web Services, since SOAP messages are transmitted as a stream of human-readable XML, intercepting the message or tampering it becomes much easier. Also requirements of some Web Services mandate access control to its services. This speaks the need for designing the Web Services from the ground up to use the best available security features and best practices. Until recently there were some gaping deficiencies in the Web Services domain, particularly in the Security like ability to handle security, authentication, encryption, digital signature, routing and attachments at the message level, rather than using out of band or OS-proprietary techniques.

With WS-Security, getting down to the business of providing interfaces and programming toolkits that all "speak the same language" has become easier and developers can begin to use the benefits of these efforts. A SOAP message, on its own, can be authenticated, its integrity verified, and it can be encrypted in whole or in part using the mechanisms defined in WS-Security. The architectural model of WSE is built on a "pipeline" of filters that process inbound and outbound SOAP messages. This is built on the pre-existing SOAPExtension classes, and developers who have experimented with SOAP Extensions for compression, encryption, logging and other purposes will find the implementation familiar.

WS-Security and the WS-Security addendum are published at http://msdn.microsoft.com/ws/2002/04/security and http://msdn.microsoft.com/ws/2002/07/Security respectively. Since the release of WS-Security it is emerging as the primary industry standard for secure Web service communication. This spcification fully leverages the existing XML signature and XML encryption protocols and optimizes them for use in SOAP message-based Web services environment to support the transmission of security tokens as well as encryo\ption and digital signatures. WS-Security describes the folowing SOAP header elements:

Security - the root WS-Security element in the SOAP header
UsenameToken - A child element that supports simple username and password authentication mechanisms
BinarySecurityToken - A child element that supports binary-based security tokens such as Kerberos tickets and X.509 certificates
SecurityTokenReference - A child element that supports referencing remote security tokens that are available at a URI
KeyInfo - A chil element that supports inclusion of key information (derived from XML signature)
Signature - A child element that supports signing one or more parts of a SOAP message (based on XML signature)
ReferenceList - A child element that supports referencing one or more encrypted elements in the body of a SOAP message (based on XML encryption)
EncryptedKey - An element that supports encryptionspecifically for keys (based on XML encryption)
EncryptedData - A child element that supports including additional encrypted data in a SOAP header (based on XML encryption)
Timestamp - The WS-Security Addendum specification that supports including timestamp info in the SOAP header that can be used to prevent replay attackes when an attacker tries to reuse an ols message.

The subsequent posts we will discuss the other WSE specifications.

Being out of date helps at times!!!

2005-02-15T20:43:00.000+05:30

Just read a post at Logu's blog on how implementation of standards across browsers has helped a hacking idea that was lingering for past couple of years (from 2002) is now implemented practically. This is about a security threat posed by the implementation of a standard called IDN(Internationalized Domain Names) by browsers. All URL's are vulnerable especially when accessed thru Mozilla-based browsers, Safari, Opera and Omniweb. This is basically a URL-spoofing thing, but the good part is Internet Explorer is free from this vulnerability, just because it has not yet implemented this IDN.

For more read HOMOGRAPH ATTACKS.

Via Anand.

WSE Series I: Introduction

2005-02-07T20:06:00.000+05:30

I have decided to post my understanding on WSE as a series of posts starting with an introduction today.

What is WSE?
The Web Services Enhancements aka WSE is a .NET class library that augments the .NET Framework and related technologies to provide an implementation of various WS-* specifications including WS-Security, WS-SecureConversation, WS-Trust, WS-Policy, WS-SecurityPolicy, WS-Addressing, and WS-Attachments. WSE allows you to add these capabilities at design time using code or at deployment time through the use of a policy file.

What are the specifications covered by WSE?

WS-Security
WS-SecurityPolicy
WS-SecureConversation
WS-Trust
WS-Referral
WS-Addressing
WS-Policy
DIME
WS-Attachments

We shall look into each one of them in future posts.

Contract First Web Service

2005-02-02T20:40:00.000+05:30

I have now got a chance to study Contract First Web Services and WSE. I hope to post my understanding on these soon. By the time if anybody comes across information on these I would thank you if you could share your knowledge with the community.

Immediate Opening

2005-01-11T18:57:00.000+05:30

There is an immediate opening for the role of Project Managers at Nigeria. Interested please post your CVs to mahalakshmi.n@gmail.com immediately.

Update: Now they require Tech. Leads, Project Leads and developers too. .NET/SQL2000/Oracle/C# or VB.NET. Need to have good ASP.NET skills.

Google used to spread Virus!!!

2004-12-28T18:45:00.000+05:30

I was amazed when I read the article "Santy worm makes unwelcome visit" in BBC News site that speaks about the Virus SANTY that used Google to search for website bulletin boards and defaced them and spread itself across the net. According to this article Santy is not the first such Virus, but atleast for me this was a News. Anyhow once Google started blocking these search queries the rate of infection tailed off sharply.

Booch on Software Factories Vs MDA/UML

2004-12-16T21:45:00.000+05:30

A Software Factory is a development environment configured to support the rapid development of a specific type of application. While Software Factories are really just the logical next step in the continuing evolution of software development methods and practices, they promise to change the character of the software industry by introducing patterns of industrialization. This is a methodology developed at Microsoft called Software Factories.

More on Software Factories at:

Grady Booch fires back on Software Factories in an article on IBM's developerWorks, responding to many of the claims put forth over Microsoft's software factories advantages compared to MDA using UML. Citing factual innacuracies and a confusion of the use of tools versus language definition, he points out several statements that he considers false. Read the complete article here.

Information Via: ServerSide.NET

Asia Blog Awards 2004

2004-12-16T20:09:00.000+05:30

There is happening a Best Asia Blog Award Poll hosted by Simon for which Anand's blog has been nominated for the Indian Blog category. I just voted and thought of blogging this info. More information on the poll can be read at Asia Blog Awards 2004: Introduction and Rules. There are many categories and your vote can be cast at Asia Blog Awards 2004.

The Battle of the DVD

2004-12-10T18:07:00.000+05:30

Further to my post on BluRay-The next Generation Optical Disk I got updates from Sudhakar on the HD-DVD/DVD Combo Disc released by Toshiba. Seems like there a tough competition between the two technologies Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, a battle between the two rather. Read the complete story here...

Thanks to Sudhakar for the links.

Meeting the VB.NET Team

2004-12-06T21:39:00.000+05:30

I got the opportunity of meeting Steven Lees and Alan Griver of Microsoft in a session that was arranged for the VB developers of our organization. Though I am a C# developer I got this chance because I am a .NET professional. To be right I generally don't appreciate VB much, but after today's session on VB to VB.NET migration and a session on VB.NET 2005, I think I have started to think something positive about VB. :-))

Great good RAD features demonstrated again. But one thing that I greatly appreciate about VB.NET 2005 is the "My" class that is not there for C# developers. That is really a good thing that reduces much coding on File operations, app config access etc. C# developers are surely missing it.

Avalon Community Technology Preview Released

2004-11-24T18:06:00.000+05:30

Microsoft released a Community Technology Preview of "Avalon," the new presentation subsystem for Windows.

The following are the highlights of this new release though there are a couple of caveates to this release:

Support for today's operating systems.
Layout and control features.
3D drawing enhancements.
Continued refinement.

To read more on this release visit Avalon November 2004 Community Technical Preview.

Evolution of Computer Languages

2004-11-23T16:53:00.000+05:30

I happened to read this interesting article that explores the way Computer Languages have evolved and how the layering of the computer users has happened. Thanks to Anand for the link.

Google launches Google Scholar

2004-11-19T13:20:00.000+05:30

Google has launched a new search service aimed at scientists and academic researchers. Google Scholar is a free beta service that allows users to search for scholarly literature like peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports. The new service accesses information from resources such as academic publishers, universities, professional societies and preprint repositories. because the service automatically analyzes and extracts citations and presents them as separate results, users can find references to older works that may only exist offline in books or other publications.

I am now working on a project that involves a lot of reading and documentation work. Today, I tried using this new search tool and found the result very useful in locating whitepapers and other document resources. This tool proves to be a better option than google search for people who do research oriented development and documentation.

Read the news article here...

Access Google Scholar Search Service here...

Interesting thread on Array Vs ArrayList

2004-11-16T16:30:00.000+05:30

Here is an interesting thread on the Array and ArrayList data structures in the Microsoft newsgroup. Have a good read... :-)

Inside the Guts of CLR!!!

2004-11-08T18:29:00.000+05:30

"Inside the Guts of CLR" - this was the topic of the MSDN session held on November 3rd Chennai, India. M Anand, MVP presented this Level 400 session and these days he is becoming the regular presenter for the MSDN sessions in Chennai. the session was quite informative and interesting. The crux of the presentation was CLR hosting and GC. A short listing of the things discussed:

CLR Hosting - CLR hosting basics and advanced concepts like manually hosting CLR through COM. Actually it was interesting to learn that the infrastructure of the CLR is completely COM based.
Garbage Collection - Basics of Memory handling, .NET GC algorithm, Object Finalization, Strong and Weak references etc. A demo on GC process using a simple string concatenating application was really informative. Infact I/we were amazed to see the GC differences when building strings with usual string concatenation and StringBuilder. This demo also helped to understand the best practice for string building.
CLR enhancements in Whidbey - EnC and Generics.

Interesting Power Wattage Calculator!!!

2004-11-02T17:33:00.000+05:30

With the new components of today, everyone wanting to upgrade to the latest and greatest, it goes unrealized that we might be overloading the power supply in our computer.

With all the high end mainboards, super fast processors, extra hard drives for storage, and case mod items such as LED fans, cathode lights (not to mention all the USB devices hanging off today's PC), people don't stop to think about all the wattage being used. However, the power supply is a very important and often overlooked component.

Check here to see if your power supply is large enough to take care of your power-hungry computer!

FxCop 1.312 Released

2004-11-01T16:02:00.000+05:30

The FxCop team has released FxCop 1.312. Major features of this release:

Simplification of report xml.
New Fix Categories: Each message is marked to indicate if the suggested fix will constitute a breaking change for previously shipped code.
User Interface Improvements: windowing behavior has been made more consistent
Auto Update: Sign up to get notified when a new version of FxCop is available.

New rules in the areas of Design, Interoperability, Mobility, Naming, Performance, Portability, Security and Usage has been introduced. To read more on this release visit What's New in FxCop and download the tool here.

For people who ask what is FxCop, it is a code analysis tool that checks .NET managed code assemblies for conformance to the Microsoft .NET Framework Design Guidelines. It uses reflection, MSIL parsing, and callgraph analysis to inspect assemblies for more than 200 defects in the following areas:

Library design
Localization
Naming conventions
Performance
Security

FxCop includes both GUI and command line versions of the tool, as well as an SDK to create custom rules.

Blu-ray : The next-generation optical disc format

2004-11-01T15:37:00.000+05:30

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD) is the name of a next-generation optical disc format. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition television (HDTV). The name Blu-ray is derived from the underlying technology, which utilizes a blue-violet laser to read and write data. The name is a combination of "Blue" and optical ray "Ray".

The format was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Founders (BDF), a group of eleven leading consumer electronics companies:

Hitachi, Ltd.
LG Electronics Inc.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Pioneer Corporation
Royal Philips Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Sharp Corporation
Sony Corporation
TDK Corporation
Thomson Multimedia

To read more on this visit Blu-Ray.

Smart Client Architecture and Design Guide Released

2004-10-28T17:24:00.000+05:30

MSDN has just released a new architecture and design guide for Smart Clients which provides information on several topics for those creating smart client applications. Issues addressed include data handling, connection state management, security, and threading.

The definition of "smart client" is dependent on requirements and implementation details but all share the following characteristics:

Make use of local resources
Make use of network resources
Support occasionally connected users
Provide intelligent installation and update
Provide client device flexibility

To understand more on Smart Clients this article by David Hill would be helpful.

Access the Design Guide here...

Free Components!!!

2004-10-27T19:59:00.000+05:30

People at Compona have given some really good free components.

SyntaxBox
ExplorerBar - FREE
Layout Containers - FREE
Common Controls - FREE
Compona Editors - FREE
Compona Grid
Math Lib - FREE

Thanks to dredge for this piece of info.

Templates and Generics

2004-10-20T18:05:00.000+05:30

Generics is a feature that has been added to .NET2.0. I have been recently attending lectures on Generics where I heard people saying it is a .NET version of C++ Templates. But these articles contrast on this. From the explanation given I am now in sync with the fact that Templaets and Generics have a very minimal overlapping in their functionality else are different from each other. Read the articles at Are Generics in .NET like Templates in C++?, Comparing .NET Generics and C++ Templates and Templates & Generics.

Enums and Performance

2004-10-20T17:05:00.000+05:30

Enumerations provide a convenient way to work with sets of related constants and to associate constant values with names. It is a is a special form of value type, which inherits from System.Enum and supplies alternate names for the values of an underlying primitive type.

While doing some study on this area I came across this interesting post that speaks about Enums and its performance implications by Wesner Moise. Until I read the article I didn't have the least idea that an enum would have performance implications.

Edit & Continue for C#!!!

2004-10-16T18:17:00.000+05:30

At last Microsoft has decided to extend the Edit & Continue feature for C# also. Many C# developers including me have been looking for this option that is available in Whidbey for VB.NET and C++, but not for C#. Thanks to Micrososft for this decision.

For people who ask what is Edit & Continue, it is a debugger feature that allows you to pause an application being debugged, make changes to the code, and then continue without a full project recompile.

Read more on this and other VS .NET 2005 features here...

HTTP module to check for canonicalization issues with ASP.NET

2004-10-13T21:25:00.000+05:30

Few days ago a Security vulnerability in ASP.NET was discovered. Canonicalization issue as it is known, is that an attacker could send specially crafted requests to a Web server running ASP.NET applications and bypass forms based authentication or Windows authorization configurations, and potentially view secured content without providing the proper credentials. Initial investigation has revealed that all versions of ASP.NET could be affected, independent of the installed IIS version or IIS components. Read more on this issue at What You Should Know About a Reported Vulnerability in Microsoft ASP.NET.

Microsoft has now released a HTTP module that implements Best Practices for Canonicalization to check the vulnerability. More details on the HTTP module here...

Directly download the MSI package here...

It is recommended that all ASP.NET users invariable of the platform or ASP.NET version, apply this Validation Path module.

Method Overloading in WebServices

2004-10-06T15:47:00.000+05:30

Web services are also classes just like any other .NET classes. Nevertheless they have methods marked as WebMethods that can be exposed by the WebServices to be consumed by the outside world. Apart from these WebMethods they can also have normal methods like any other classes have.
Since a web service is a class it can utilize all the OO features like method overloading. However to use this feature on WebMethods we need to do something more that is explained in this article.

Creating WebMethods:

Let us create a simple WebService that has the following overloaded methods:

public string GetGreeting()
public string GetGreeting(string p_Name)
public string GetGreeting(string p_Name, string p_Message)

All these three methods return variants of a Greeting message to the WebClient. Let us now mark the methods as Web Methods. To acheive this apply the [WebMethod] attribute to the public methods.

[WebMethod]
public string GetGreeting()
{
return "Hi Guest";
}

[WebMethod]
public string GetGreeting(string p_Name)
{
return "Hi " + p_Name + "!";
}

[WebMethod]
public string GetGreeting(string p_Name, string p_Message)
{
return "Hi " + p_Name + "!" + p_Message;
}

This would compile fine. Run the WebService in the browser. That should give an error saying that the GetGreeting() mthods use the same message name 'GetGreeting' and asking to use the MessageName property of the WebMethod.

Adding the MessageName property:

Add the MessageName property to the WebMethod attribute as shown below:

[WebMethod]
public string GetGreeting()
{
return "Hi Guest";
}

[WebMethod (MessageName="WithOneString")]
public string GetGreeting(string p_Name)
{
return "Hi " + p_Name + "!";
}

[WebMethod (MessageName="WithTwoStrings")]
public string GetGreeting(string p_Name, string p_Message)
{
return "Hi " + p_Name + "!" + p_Message;
}

Now compile the WebService and run in the browser. You can see that the first method is displayed as GetGreeting wherein for the second and third method the alias we set using the MessageName property is displayed.

4 Essential C# Tips

2004-10-01T11:59:00.000+05:30

1. Program to Interfaces Whenever Possible

The .NET Framework contains both classes and interfaces. When you write routines, you will find that you probably know which .NET class you're using. However, your code will be more robust and more reusable if you program using any supported interfaces instead of the class you happen to be working with at the time

2. Use Properties Instead of Raw Data

With the addition of properties as language elements, there is absolutely no reason to declare data elements with any access level greater than private. Because client code will view properties as data elements, you don't even lose the convenience of working with simple data elements in classes. In addition, using properties gives you more flexibility and more capabilities. Properties provide better encapsulation of your data elements. Properties let you make use of lazy evaluation to return data. Finally, properties can be virtual. They can even be abstract. You can also declare properties in interfaces.

3. Use Delegates for Producer/Consumer Idiom

When you create a class that implements the producer idiom, use a delegate to notify consumers. This will be a more flexible way to implement this idiom than interfaces. Delegates are multicast, so you can support multiple consumers without creating extra code. Also, you lower the coupling between classes by using the delegate model rather than a full interface model

4. Pay Attention to Initialization Order

The C# language adds the concept of initializers on member variable declarations. These initializers get executed before the body of the constructor gets executed. In fact, variable initializers get executed before the base class's constructor gets executed

Read the complete article here...

Microsoft announces new MVPs!!!

2004-10-01T11:44:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has announced new MVPs and here is the list from India.

Hari K. Prasad, Trivandrum
Dhamayanthi N, Chennai
Sanjay Vyas, Mumbai
KS Naveen, Bangalore
Sarang Datye, Pune
Tarun Anand, Delhi

Hearty Congratulations to them...

Thanks to Vishal and Arun for the info.

Find Memory Leaks and Optimize Memory Usage in Programs Written in C#, VB.NET or Any Other .NET Language

2004-09-30T13:52:00.000+05:30

This post is an update to my previous post on Circular References / Memory Leaks /other baddies.

Having a garbage collected runtime removes one of the biggest sources of program errors, memory allocation errors. Unfortunately, memory leaks are still a reality. A memory leak can occur if an instance is unintentionally being referenced from some other long-living instance, or from a static field. In this case the instance cannot be garbage collected. A very common unintentional reference is an event handler that is never removed.

Here is a .NET Memory Profiler as claimed by the vendors, that helps locate instances that are being referenced unintentionally, and it will tell why the instance has not been garbage collected.

Circular References / Memory Leaks /other baddies

2004-09-30T13:38:00.000+05:30

In a garbage collected environment such as .NET, it is possible to unwittingly leave objects in a state where the garbage man will be "on vacation". A good article at EggHeadcafe by Peter Bromberg. Also a related article in Ian Griffith's blog. Both these articles give a good insight to the GC and strongly referenced objects.

THE TECHWEB SPIN: The Best Technology Blogs

2004-09-29T11:34:00.000+05:30

Weblogs are in such profusion that it would be impossible for one person to do a survey, unless that person drank massive amounts of coffee and devoted many months to the project, full-time.
An interesting article on blogs by Mitch Wagner at TechWeb.

CNUG Celebrations Experiences

2004-09-27T18:35:00.000+05:30

This post is an update to my post on CNUG's Anniversary celebrations in my other blog. The event was a great success with 300+ students and developers attanding the Technical Sessions and other events. Though the number dwindled in the afternoon sessions, the reponse was quite good.

Vadivel, a .NET MVP speaks his observations about the event in his blog - CNUG 2nd year celebrations ...

I would like to share the credits he gives with JD Arun, without whom I would have not been able to work for the event's success. Thanks to Anand, for giving me an opportunity to be a part of the event.

.NET 1.1 SP1 breaking existing apps reported

2004-09-27T11:59:00.000+05:30

.NET v1.1 SP1 is reported to break existing apps.

Check the details out at .NET 1.1 SP1 breaking existing apps reported

How do I become an Architect

2004-09-23T17:57:00.000+05:30

This is one of the basic questions that has been pinching me for a long time, 'What do I need to become an Architect?' Many I times I have wondered to whom I can pose this question and get answered. After I read this post I understood that there are people who are baffled just like me and yes, I got answered.

Plethora of Information on XP SP2

2004-09-23T13:57:00.000+05:30

Came across this page on the net while surfing. A good collection of links and info on XP SP2, JMF's XP Service Pack 2 Page

This post in my other blog gives a hint on an Undocumented XP SP2 issue - XP SP2 vs. Intel Prescott.

Efficient paging of recordsets with T-SQL

2004-09-22T18:34:00.000+05:30

One of the challenges the Developers face is implementing efficient paging mechanism in case of large data. Jeff gives an efficient solution to Efficient paging of recordsets with T-SQL.

Adding to this, Richard is giving a code-based solution here.... Both have their own advantages and disadvantages as listed by Richard in his blog.

Top 10 Reasons .NET is better than COM

2004-09-21T18:54:00.000+05:30

Why is .NET better than COM? A Serverside presentation gives top ten reasons as an answer for this question. Top 10 Reasons .NET is better than COM

Microsoft to share Office code with govts

2004-09-21T14:45:00.000+05:30

Today's Times Of India NEws reads like this.... "Microsoft Corp has said it would share source code of its MS Office desktop software with more than 60 governments, including China and Russia."

Read the full story here...

DSML Services for Windows

2004-09-16T15:12:00.000+05:30

Directory Service Markup Language combines directory services technology (LDAP) with XML syntax to provide an easy way to share and use personalized data across company and technology boundaries.

DSML Services for Windows (DSfW) extends the power of the Active Directory® service. Because DSML Services for Windows uses open standards such as HTTP, XML, and SOAP, a greater level of interoperability is possible. For example, in addition to the already standard Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), many devices and other platforms have other alternatives to communicate with Active Directory. This provides a number of key benefits for IT administrators and independent software vendors (ISVs), who can now have even more open-standard choices to access Active Directory.

Blogging with DotNetJunkies

2004-09-16T09:50:00.000+05:30

I have started my second WebLog Mahalakshmi Natarajan with DotNetJunkies.

I am actually planning to post regularly in both these blogs with interesting and useful information as I have been doing in this blog all these days.

Model Driven Architecture(MDA)

2004-09-14T14:18:00.000+05:30

This post intends to give info on MDA, further to my post on Formal Methods, UML & OCL.

MDA stands for Model Driven Architecture. It is framework defined by OMG for software development. It is an approach to creating designs that can cope with multiple technology deployments of a software system and is based on widely used standards like the Unified Modeling Language (UML). The intention of the MDA is to create machine-readable models that can be understood by automatic tools that generate schemas, code skeletons, testing models, test packs, and integration code for multiple platforms and technologies.

The central idea of the MDA is to develop and maintain an abstract design of a system that can be automatically transformed into multiple platform designs and finally transformed into the code that will realize those deployments. The core of the MDA depends on the three models that are created as part of the software development process, namely,

Platform Independent Model - The PIM is a highly abstracted model that is independent of any implementation technology. It describes a software system that supports a part, or the whole, of business. The PIM may include generic functions, scenarios and class descriptions.
Platform Specific Model - Using the PIM as a foundation it is then transformed into one or more platform specific models, which describes in detail how the PIM is implemented on a specific platform, or technology. Depending on the platforms across which the software system is going to be deployed PSM's will be created - one per platform, or technology. It is common to have many PSM's per PIM.
Code - The detailed designs defined in the PSM's are then transformed into code in the final step of the MDA software development process.

The whole basis is MDA is a tools-based approach. While one or two hardy pioneers have implemented MDA using only a UML modelling tool, a text editor and a steely determination to keep their code and models synchronised, most of the benefits of MDA actually come from having generators to create code, test scripts, database schemas and other development artifacts directly from models. Some researchers and consultants have built their own model transformation tools, and there are some interesting work from a couple of people on using XSLT to transform models expressed in OMG's XMI (XML Metadata Interchange) exchange format. However, for most people, implementing MDA involves buying a vendor's MDA tool. However, because MDA is based on standards like UML, XMI and MOF (Meta Object Facility), buying a tool doesn't mean that you're permanently locked into using only one vendor's product.
When the visions of the MDA are realized there is a number of benefits it would bring to the software development community. The two main benefits are:

Productivity - The developer will focus on the development of a PIM. From the PIM the PSM's and Code will be automatically created via transformations. Because the focus is on the PIM, quite a lot of the technical details of the underlying technologies and platforms do not need to be considered. The Majority of the code will be created through the automated transformation process and as such relatively small parts of code will need to be written (Yes! Coding will still happen). With less focus on the coding and detail design for specific platforms, the developers can spend more time in accommodating business problems. This will ensure better business fit and hopefully a happier user community.
Portability - Portability is achieved via the PIM that is transformed into PSM's for the multiple platforms on which deployment will take place. With the transformation between PIM and PSM automated the PIM becomes totally portable.

There are a number of downsides to the MDA as it exists currently. They are:

Current tools (if they exist?) for automatic transformation from PIM to PSM are not yet sophisticated enough. These automated transformation tools will rely heavily on transformation definitions and rules.
The PIM's, if defined loosely, might not deliver the systems required. To ensure that the PIM's and subsequent PSM's and Code align with business requirements, the PIM's need to be defined precisely. Imprecise definitions will lead to faulty and incomplete systems that may create a huge maintenance overhead.
Portability (in the future), trough transformation from PIM to PSM will probably be cater for the popular platforms, but for the less popular platforms may still remain an issue. Emerging technologies may also be plagued by not having automated transformation tools available in early stages of release

Early-adopters are already using MDA very effectively on real applications, and this will increase over the next few years as major suppliers like Sun, IBM and Microsoft ship MDA tools to their customers. Sun and IBM already provide some MDA support via Netbeans and Eclipse, and there are strong hints that Microsoft will soon ship model-driven tools, including this speech by Bill Gates.

MS Releases Authentication & Access Control tool for ASP.NET

2004-09-14T09:53:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has released a new tool to help identify authentication and access control issues in ASP.NET for Web sites, FTP sites, virtual directories, Web directories, and files. This tool not only will help to identify current issues but can be used to monitor authentication failures as they happen.

Read More Here...

Download the different versions here...
X86
IA64
AMD64

Object Spaces and NHibernate

2004-09-13T16:32:00.000+05:30

Database interaction via the FCL centers around retrieving a static snapshot of some portion of the database and manipulating it via the dataset, which mimics the RDBMS in almost every way. The problem with the dataset is that it doesn’t fit particularly well with modern object-oriented application design. Whereas datasets have tabular data, we tend to code using objects. Datasets have foreign key relationships, our domain objects use references. Where we want to use only methods, datasets require a certain amount of SQL code. Of course, some of these problems can be solved through the use of “strongly typed” datasets, but the fact remains that you are changing modes as you move from your domain model to your data access and back again. Depending on how you choose to layer that data access code into the application, changes to the data store can have enormous ripple-effects on your codebase.

The key to any enterprise application today is the domain model that needs to be transparent. It is in these classes that your customers’ problems are addressed; everything else is just a service to support the domain, things like data storage, message transport, transactional control, etc. Transparency means that your model benefits from those services without being modified by them. It shouldn’t require special code in your domain to utilize those services, it shouldn’t require specific containers, or interfaces to implement. Which means that your domain architecture can be 100% focused on the business problem at hand, not technical problems outside the business. A side effect of achieving transparency is that you can replace services with alternate providers or add new services without changing your domain. Coding directly against the dataset breaks the transparency. It is obvious inside of your code what storage mechanism you use, and it affects the way your code is written. Another approach to storage is the use of an object-relational mapping tool. Microsoft is in the process of building such a framework, called ObjectSpaces, but recently announced it would be delayed until as far as 2006.

NHibernate, an open source solution, is available today and solves the same set of problems. With NHibernate, your code and your data schema remain decoupled, and the only visible indicator of the existence of the O/R layer are the mapping files. With HNibernate, you’ll see that these consist of configuration settings for the O/R framework itself (connecting to a data source, identifying the data language, etc.) and mapping your domain objects to the data tables.

NHibernate Article on TheServerSide.NET

Read more on Object Spaces here...

Download the Source from SourceForge.NET

A Quick Scripting Tip

2004-09-10T10:15:00.000+05:30

I have been trying some WMI scripting recently and thought could post the scripts that I found useful and the ones that I succeeded executing. Here is one. This script helps the Administrator to find out which scripting technologies have been installed in the PC.

On Error Resume Next
WScript.Echo "WSH Version: " & WScript.Version
Wscript.Echo "VBScript Version: " & ScriptEngineMajorVersion & "." & ScriptEngineMinorVersion
compName = "."
Set wmiServcObject = GetObject("winmgmts:" &"{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & compName & "\root\cimv2")
Set colWMISettings = wmiServcObject.ExecQuery & ("Select * from Win32_WMISetting")
For Each objWMISetting in colWMISettings
Wscript.Echo "WMI Version: " & objWMISetting.BuildVersion
Next
Set shellObject = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
adsiVersionIns = shellObject.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{E92B03AB-B707-11d2-9CBD-0000F87A369E}\Version")
If adsiVersionIns = vbEmpty Then
adsiVersionIns = shellObject.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ADs\Providers\LDAP\")
If adsiVersionIns = vbEmpty Then
adsiVersionIns = "ADSI is not installed."
Else
adsiVersionIns = "2.0"
End If
End If
WScript.Echo "ADSI Version: " & adsiVersionIns

If you want to have the latest versions of the Scripting Technologies:

ADSI:http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/server/evaluation/news/bulletins/adextension.asp WMI:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=18490
WSH/VBScript:http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/list/webdev.asp

An Introduction to WMI

2004-09-09T18:26:00.000+05:30

I have been involved with CNUG's IT chapter for quite sometime. Recently we had a session on Windows Scripting, since then I got interested in exploring it. I was browsing the net for some script help, I came across this link. A good article for An Introduction to WMI.

SQL2K Record Concurrency Control

2004-09-09T16:43:00.000+05:30

When many people attempt to modify data in a database at the same time, a system of controls must be implemented so that modifications made by one person do not adversely affect those of another person. This is called concurrency control.

Concurrency control is usually implemented in two ways:

Pessimistic concurrency control
A system of locks prevents users from modifying data in a way that affects other users. After a user performs an action that causes a lock to be applied, other users cannot perform actions that would conflict with the lock until the owner releases it. This is called pessimistic control because it is mainly used in environments where there is high contention for data, where the cost of protecting data with locks is less than the cost of rolling back transactions if concurrency conflicts occur.

Optimistic concurrency control
In optimistic concurrency control, users do not lock data when they read it. When an update is performed, the system checks to see if another user changed the data after it was read. If another user updated the data, an error is raised. Typically, the user receiving the error rolls back the transaction and starts over. This is called optimistic because it is mainly used in environments where there is low contention for data, and where the cost of occasionally rolling back a transaction outweighs the costs of locking data when read.

In real world application Optimistic Concurrency Control is preferred than Pessimistic Concurrency control, except for situations stated.

I happened to read a solution based on timestamps for optimistic concurrency control implementation at Vadivel's blog. Read it here...

Throwing Exceptions

2004-09-08T16:05:00.000+05:30

A quick tip on catching and throwing exceptions.

General way of throwing exceptions:

try
{
-----------------------
your code
-----------------------
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
----any clean up activities-----
throw ex;
}

Recommended way of throwing exceptions:

1. If you want to just do some cleanup when an exception occurs, you should re-throw the caught exception using this code instead:

catch(Exception)
{
---- clean up activities -----;
throw;
}

This preserves the original calling stack. Nobody knows you were involved, and they can trace back to the exception from its true origin without being diverted into your cleanup code. the above examle belongs to this category.

2. If you want to be part of the exception chain, then you should re-package the exception with your own, and assign the old one as the inner exception:

catch(Exception exception)
{
---clean up activities -----;
throw new MyException(exception);
}

You turn the general exception into a specific one, while preserving the original inner exception so that it can continue to be traced back to the origin.

Convert Java ByteCode to .NET IL

2004-09-08T14:35:00.000+05:30

IKVM.NET is an implementation of Java for .NET. It has the following components:

A Java Virtual Machine implemented in .NET
A .NET implementation of the Java class libraries
Tools that enable Java and .NET interoperability

IKVM.NET includes ikvmc, a Java bytecode to .NET IL translator. If you have a Java library that you would like to use in a .NET application, run ikvmc -target:library mylib.jar to create mylib.dll.
For example, the Apache FOP project is an open source XSL-FO processor written in Java that is widely used to generate PDF documents from XML source. With IKVM.NET technology, Apache FOP can be used by any .NET application.

Microsoft's Biggest Competitor

2004-09-08T13:29:00.000+05:30

This is an entry in Sriram's blog today all about computerization. A good read and thought provoking...!!!
Read it here...

WebSites and Programs you can't live without!!!

2004-09-07T18:17:00.000+05:30

Cool entries in Scott's Blog

Web Sites Can't You Live Without
Programs You Can't Live Without

Why the name Whidbey for Visual Studio 2005

2004-09-07T16:29:00.000+05:30

Happened to visit Arun's MVP blog where I found this interesting post including the answer to the question Why the name Whidbey for VS 2005.
Blog from ArunGanesh_ MVP: Session - Whidbey - Visual Studio 2005

Also more Microsoft codenames from here...

Deepak talks on Localization support in WinXP

2004-09-07T15:35:00.000+05:30

Deepak Gulati a localization freak talks about its support in WinXP here. The first time I listened to him speaking on this topic is at the CNUG's first year anniversary celebrations last year and after that a couple of time at Microsoft events. Here is a video in which he demonstrates his favorite topic.
Deepak Gulati - Working with ISV's in India

Chasing the hash code

2004-09-07T13:02:00.000+05:30

An interesting and useful entry at Sriram's Weblog.

Madurai Usergroup in THE HINDU

2004-09-07T11:58:00.000+05:30

India's leading Newspaper has spoke about Kaushik, a Microsoft Student Ambassador from Madurai and the USergroup he moderates. Read this at http://www.hindu.com/lf/2004/09/02/stories/2004090200560200.htm

Thanks to Sriram for this info.

Upgrade to SQL Server 7.0 from Yukon!!

2004-09-07T11:12:00.000+05:30

I was going through Anand's Blog where I found this... funny indeed!!!

.NET From India: Upgrade to SQL Server 7.0 from Yukon!!

XML style guidelines for leveraging schema validators

2004-09-03T16:30:00.000+05:30

Used correctly, XML Schema validation can dramatically reduce the effort necessary to perform basic data validation tasks. Additionally, validation rules that are centrally located in an XML schema can help users to better understand your system. It takes the right XML structure, however, to leverage a schema validator. This article discusses proper XML structure as well as best and worst practices for defining data validation rules in XML Schema.

How do you keep invalid data from getting into your system? Should you hand-code validation routines that perform bounds checking? With the XML entry points into your system, XML Schema validators can save you an incredible amount of time in this area. This goes for DTD validators as well as those for XML Schema.

Read more here...

Formal Methods, UML and OCL

2004-09-03T16:21:00.000+05:30

I am now studying formal methods wherein I have come across something interesting I thought I could share with people.

Formal Methods is the application of logic to the development of "correct" systems. They are mathematical foundations for many technologies and practices that software engineers use. Joseph Goguen says that formal methods are “syntactic in essence but semantic in purpose.” A more narrower definition could be "A formal method in software development is a method that provides a formal language for describing a software artifact (e.g. specifications, designs, source code) such that formal proofs are possible, in principle, about properties of the artifact so expressed."

UML is one of the tools Engineers use to design more formal systems. This language fits Goguen’s description of a formal method. It is syntactic in essence, offering a well-defined way to construct a model. It is also semantic in purpose — that is, it is designed to convey meaning. Much information can be encoded in a UML model. But it is not always easy to construct syntactically correct and semantically rich models of software using just UML diagrams. The rules for which type of arrowhead and which type of connector to use for which purpose can be just as confusing as the syntax for a programming language such as Java. And then, even if you can construct a correct UML diagram, there is much information that it will not convey.
However, OCL, a formal specification language that is part of the UML specification, enables you to annotate models with expressions that clarify meaning. In UML 1.1, the main purpose of OCL was to identify the constraints on model elements. More on this...

Helping the Small Blogs...

2004-09-03T13:01:00.000+05:30

There are by some estimates more than a million weblogs. But most of them get no visibility in search engines. Only a few “A-List” blogs get into the top search engine results for a given topic, while the majority of blogs just don’t get noticed. The reason is that the smaller blogs don’t have enough links pointing to them. But this posting could solve that. Let’s help the smaller blogs get more visibility!

This posting is GoMeme 4.0. It is part of an experiment to see if we can create a blog posting that helps 1000’s of blogs get higher rankings in Google. So far we have tried 3 earlier variations. Our first test, GoMeme 1.0, spread to nearly 740 blogs in 2.5 days. This new version 4.0 is shorter, simpler, and fits more easily into your blog.

Why are we doing this? We want to help thousands of blogs get more visibility in Google and other search engines. How does it work? Just follow the instructions below to re-post this meme in your blog and add your URL to the end of the Path List below. As the meme spreads onwards from your blog, so will your URL. Later, when your blog is indexed by search engines, they will see the links pointing to your blog from all the downstream blogs that got this via you, which will cause them to rank your blog higher in search results. Everyone in the Path List below benefits in a similar way as this meme spreads. Try it!

Instructions: Just copy this entire post and paste it into your blog. Then add your URL to the end of the path list below, and pass it on! (Make sure you add your URLs as live links or HTML code to the Path List below.)

Path List

Minding the Planet
Luke Hutteman’s public virtual MemoryStream
Mohammad.Abdulfatah, Chronicles Of
Anand M, DotNet From India
Mahalakshmi N, Mahalax's Blog
(your URL goes here! But first, please copy this line and move it down to the next line for the next person).
(NOTE: Be sure you paste live links for the Path List or use HTML code.)

Sun, Microsoft Take Different Tracks on File Systems

2004-09-02T19:52:00.000+05:30

Sun has come out with a File system what they call DFS(Dynamic File System).

At a release event on Tuesday, Sun Microsystems made a number of announcements about its latest operating system, Sun Solaris 10, including the official announcement of its new DFS (Dynamic File System). Solaris 10 is still in beta, and is available to customers via the Sun Software Express program. I am yet to read about this DFS and its way of resource management, compatibility and performance.

You could have more info here...

Windows XP SP2 affects SQL/MSDE access

2004-09-02T19:24:00.000+05:30

Windows XP SP2 is the most recent service pack for the Windows XP operating system. Windows XP SP2 includes fixes and updates that include a set of security technologies designed to help reduce the risk of malicious attacks against computer systems. Windows XP SP2 includes Windows Firewall, an enhanced version of the component previously known as Internet Connection Firewall (ICF). Windows Firewall is a host-based, stateful, filtering firewall that discards unsolicited incoming traffic through TCP/IP version 4 (IPv4) and TCP/IP version 6 (IPv6) connections. Windows XP SP2 enables Windows Firewall on all network connections by default.

All above these Windows XP SP2 security features affects SQL Server and MSDE.

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/administration/2000/security/winxpsp2faq.asp

Microsoft strips Longhorn of WinFS

2004-09-01T18:45:00.000+05:30

Just came across this news today

http://www.newratings.com/new2/beta/article_462483.html

The most awaited LongHorn release for its WinFS, Avalon and Indigo... Now that Microsoft has said that Avalon and Indigo will be available with XP and Win2K3 and is stripping of WinFS from LongHorn, then what is going to so special of LongHorn.

Locality of Reference & Performance ??

2004-08-31T14:55:00.000+05:30

Was just surfing the net and came across this blog entry of Rico

http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/ricom/permalink.aspx/c5e117b6-8f8c-4e07-b941-c6fa4d3413d8

That was a good article to understand Locality of Reference and Performance...!!

GMail Goodness

2004-08-31T10:07:00.001+05:30

Last week I got an invitation for GMail. I clicked the link to create my account and to my surprise it gave me an alert when I tried creating a GMail account about the enabled Popup blocker(It opens a new window for singning a new account). Whenever there is an error in sending a mail or performing some action on my mailbox fails, it immediately gives a message alert.

I had this experience with MSN WebMessenger too. It has popup blocker detector that detected my enabled Popup Swatter and informed me about that.

CNUG Meeting last week

2004-08-31T10:07:00.000+05:30

There was a session from Chennai .NET User Group last week on Polymorphism by Dhamayanthi N. That was quite a good session.
CNUG also started off a Infrastructure Chapter for IT Professionals called CNUG IT. The inaugaral meet of this chapter happened on the same day at the Chennai Microsoft Regional Office. I spent lot of time on the CNUGIT inaugural session work.
Shu Fen Cally Ko, Regional Director, APACGC, Unmanaged Communities, Microsoft, had come as a special guest for the evening. She talked on Microsoft's communities intiatives and how that will help CNUG & CNUGIT grow.
Abhishek gave us some good info on Community Star and MVP programs.

A Novice On Writing

Back after a long break!!!

Microsoft WEBDAY at Chennai

WPF/E from now on aka Silverlight!!!

Contract-First or Code-First???

Web Service Software Factory for WCF

Prescriptive Guidance for VSTS available now

Recommended Reading: NULL Vs NULL

Implementing STS for Infocards

Adobe Illustrator to XAML Export Plug-In

US-CERT Cyber Security Bulletin for 2005

TechEd 2006

Vista is amazing!!!

Let's Rock the Community Launch!!!

VS 2005 Developer Launch - Chennai

Breaking Changes from Beta2 to RTM

New Generation MS Certifications

Case Study on Application Development with Whidbey & Yukon

Hiring Good Programmers!!!

Kid's Programming Language

Openings with Polaris

WSS and Sharepoint Portal Server

Interesting Post on Method Overloading

Usage Rules for NULL

Recommendations for using Strings in 2.0

A No Mouse-Click WebSite!!!

Problem with IIS

VS.NET 2005 Beta2

TechEd 2005

WSE Series III : Sending Attachments thru Web Service

VS.NET 2005 Beta2

Indigo Book on Blog

Look and Feel changed

Back Again to my Blog World...

Presentation Skills

WSE Series II: WS-Security

Being out of date helps at times!!!

WSE Series I: Introduction

Contract First Web Service

Immediate Opening

Google used to spread Virus!!!

Booch on Software Factories Vs MDA/UML

Asia Blog Awards 2004

The Battle of the DVD

Meeting the VB.NET Team

Avalon Community Technology Preview Released

Evolution of Computer Languages

Google launches Google Scholar

Interesting thread on Array Vs ArrayList

Inside the Guts of CLR!!!

Interesting Power Wattage Calculator!!!

FxCop 1.312 Released

Blu-ray : The next-generation optical disc format

Smart Client Architecture and Design Guide Released

Free Components!!!

Templates and Generics

Enums and Performance

Edit & Continue for C#!!!

HTTP module to check for canonicalization issues with ASP.NET

Method Overloading in WebServices

4 Essential C# Tips

Microsoft announces new MVPs!!!

Find Memory Leaks and Optimize Memory Usage in Programs Written in C#, VB.NET or Any Other .NET Language

Circular References / Memory Leaks /other baddies

THE TECHWEB SPIN: The Best Technology Blogs

CNUG Celebrations Experiences

.NET 1.1 SP1 breaking existing apps reported

How do I become an Architect

Plethora of Information on XP SP2

Efficient paging of recordsets with T-SQL

Top 10 Reasons .NET is better than COM

Microsoft to share Office code with govts

DSML Services for Windows

Blogging with DotNetJunkies

Model Driven Architecture(MDA)

MS Releases Authentication & Access Control tool for ASP.NET

Object Spaces and NHibernate

A Quick Scripting Tip

An Introduction to WMI

SQL2K Record Concurrency Control