.NET

3 .NET Goodies from Microsoft

Rai Umair — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 07:28:00 GMT

Free .NET Skills Assessment:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/assessment/default.asp

Free .NET online training & labs:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/using/training/seminarlabs/default.aspx

Free MEA Developer Support Center Support till April 30, 2004:
http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/developers/meadsc/form.asp

Microsoft Software Architect Tour, 2004 - Pakistan

Rai Umair — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 06:45:00 GMT

Microsoft Pakistan is organizing a ‘Software Architect Tour’ in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad on March 27, 2004, April 3, 2004 and April 4, 2004 respectively.

If you are serious about software development then this event is not be missed.

Call in at these numbers for Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore, For free registration please use ‘Rai Umair/INETA' as reference.

111-878-787 – Bushra Jaffer
111 11 – MSFT - Syed Wahaj
0300 8291049 – Abdel Cader

Registrations end on March the 20th, so register for the event as soon as possible and don't forget to pass the word.

INETA Community leaders get geeky gifts and more...

Rai Umair — Wed, 17 Mar 2004 01:14:00 GMT

INETA is sending in community kits from today… I was pleasingly surprised to be treated with 80 points which I get to spend for DNUG ordering cool ms press books and gadgets like webcams and USB drives…

Thankyou so much INETA. I wish MSDN Quarterly Kits could start coming in again too. I only got one last May 2003 and never heard from the staff responsible for the kits again.

Secondly I found this item very interesting… Have a look:

"What's the point of Mono and dotGNU?"
(http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/13/1416226&mode=thread)
and in The Code Project gives nine reasons not to use serialization
(http://www.codeproject.com/showcase/noserialise.asp).

3 cool resources worth checking out for sure...

Rai Umair — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 08:06:00 GMT

1. Design and Architecture get a boost in .NET, the gang of four design patterns book source code now available in C#, I even have a PDF copy of a book on design patterns in C#, but i guess the original one is the best: http://www.dofactory.com/Patterns/Patterns.aspx

2. The second resource, is some thing that I wish i get my hands on but I guess have to wait a long time before I do that, the worlds meanest number crunching desktop PC's: http://www.go-l.com/desktops/machl38/features/index.htm

3. Lastly the .NET road map in black and white from Microsoft is out last week after a revision, man it's so cool and efficient to know a year in advance of Microsoft's great plans, now thats some thing to cheer about :-):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/productinfo/roadmap.aspx

(via Ramesh)

WebServices HTTP Get in .NET 1.1 - Now not included in default.

Rai Umair — Sun, 14 Mar 2004 02:42:00 GMT

.NET Framework 1.1 saw a slight change for the web services, now the HTTP get is now not included in default in fact you have to override the default settings to use the Get behavior of the Webservice as was possible with framework 1.0.

All you have to do is add this entry to the Web.Config file in the same directory or above.

Add this code to your Web.Config file (this is case-sensitive):

<webServices>
 <protocols>
  <add name="HttpGet" />
 </protocols>
</webServices>

I found this annoying change of settings about eight months back but working on a new pair of Webservices for a new project I was surprised to find the problem again and this time I am writing in on my blog as to remembering it better.

.NET User Group Karachi Quiz – Security Symposium - INETA MEA

Rai Umair — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 23:11:00 GMT

I got 15 free passes to the security symposium and I am holding a quiz for my INETA based user group in Karachi, The initial response has been over whelming. I am currently thinking of some tricky questions that I will mail to all people on the DNUG mailing list by Monday, and the first 10 participants with all questions right will win a place to the Microsoft Security Symposium being held at Marriott, Karachi on Wednesday the 17th. More information about the event is available here.

I also mentioned about this on INETA Pakistan (dotnetPakistan.com) a website running but still under construction, I will finish it of as soon as I have the chance. Customizing the ASP.NET Portal Starter kit was piece of cake I even added my own RSS reader to download and show MSDN news (RSS) on the site but there’s something wrong with caching issues there, all the changes I make revert back to default values at random, I don’t know what’s going on even after going throw the source code again and again.

Lastly if you live in the (Microsoft’s) south gulf region visit dotnetPakistan.com for some very good free resources, Cd's and magazines. Lastly all INETA people can visit the INETA MEA (Middle East and Africa) site still under construction again as Zeeshan is not able to get access from the webmaster at INETA.

Content Idea #01 - For The User Group

Rai Umair — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 22:42:00 GMT

I run a INETA/MSDN based .NET User Group called the ‘.NET User Group Karachi’ and the task of moderating the online forum which we have on MSN Groups becomes a bottle neck for other tasks I am involved with namely my BCS degree and my obsession with software architecture. I want all the members to get fresh news and greater content, the reason they signed up for in the first place, but I can not do it manually so I have come up with this little idea, that I would also share here I guess.

Create an email account with a service that gives free forwarding (hotpop.com is really good) and subscribe to all the content (newsletters, flash etc.) and confirm their initial emails, once done with that register the email now with the group and voila instant content. The idea has some drawbacks like forced content and random removal by any one member can leave to no cent for others some times too but fore now on its working.

Another option is to configure a client to forward all messages with the word .NET in them to the group; you can do this in outlooks by using filters easily. I can’t run outlook all the time so I did not go for this better option.

I have tons of more content ideas in my head but as I have not slept in the past two days I will let me wait before i write them up.

MSDN - Without it you are nothing!

Rai Umair — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 20:47:00 GMT

MSDN the Microsoft Developers Network is a heaven for any self respecting geek or wonk who ever did something to do with windows.

When I give presentations I make one thing very clear to my audience. I tell them if you are a developer, an architect or no matter where your footings in the SDLC model, without MSDN you are always going to be a loser.

People don’t argue on this but even if they do they don’t realize that content they get from else where although in some cases better of and easier to understand always evolves from the MSDN.

A huge team of people work behind the scenes currently under the leadership of Sara Williams. She has brought some great features to MSDN lately.

MSDN now has Developer Centers catering to specific vertical topics. It’s a lot easier to find information on MSDN then ever. But the search is still poor as most Microsoft employees would agree with me. I know first hand that they use google instead (sometimes), I hope Sara’s reading this, the new search is a way better but still needs to go a long way. I suggest page ranking details to be merged with the current search algorithm.

The pre managed era content (c++, MFC, VB, COM and what not) has been cleaned of in its majority and the old MSDN or that part of MSDN is unfortunately not available online anymore. That’s a bad decision they should have kept it at least for history sake, I guess its right place will we a tech museum some years later.

Well that was just to introduce the MSDN to the novices, you will find all you need to know about 'your thing' there and when you don't you have the knowledge base or the ever popular news groups at your service.

Lastly professionals who do go there can save on a lot of typing by simply pointing to ‘MSDN’.com and not the long sub domain we knew before. Guys and gals get clicking. See you at the MSDN.

GotDotNet’s Workspaces: .NET’s Move to Open Source

Rai Umair — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 10:55:00 GMT

Workspaces provide a dynamic online environment enabling collaboration on software projects without the barriers created by geographical or network boundaries. It is an online shared development environment where .NET developers can create, host and manage projects throughout the project lifecycle. Its sort of GotDotNet (.NET projects) answers to SourceForge.Net (running to the tune of 90,000 projects for the Java, C++ and what not geeks).

I secretly feel that open source is the next wave to come, we have seen a lot of talk and promises in the past but this time around it’s different. It’s not going to be the holy pure stuff we think of it anymore. But with the changes in the model, all largly commercial. CTO and maintainability have big part to play in the evolution of the Open Source business model. Companies like MySql and Compere (ERP) although share their code for FREE (as i should be) but now they are also earning by giving formal contracts to other organizations who simply don’t have the in-house resources to customize the applications in addition the organisations seek live support, which is more money minting for the owners, once again.

What I see is that in the future is that code can put up for non commercial use and customization and products where the service rather then the value of code matters the license can be tweaked so that no commercial activity happens using the code for any 3rd party. What this does is gives the owners the right over there code but still lets the helpers benifit along the way.

http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/Workspaces/Directory.aspx