Archive for September, 2008
jQuery and Microsoft
Posted by fr3dr1k | Filed under AJAX, ASP.NET, Web 2.0, Web Development
I susbscribe to The Code Project’s newsletter and today I got some great news, jQuery will be supported in Visual Studio 2008. Now this is some awesome news. Makes one wonder if the Microsoft AJAX library will become redundant.
You can read the full article on Scott Gu’s website.
Silverlight 2 Release Candidate Now Available
Posted by fr3dr1k | Filed under ASP.NET, Silverlight
So Silverlight has gone from Beta 2 to Release Candidate and this means that developer tools have to be updated again. This is a pain sometimes, but I guess it goes with liking to develop on a particular platform (.NET). You can read Scott Gu’s article here.
Chrome fades as users return to IE, Firefox
Posted by fr3dr1k | Filed under Browsers, Firefox, Internet Explorer
So Google released their own browser, Chrome about three weeks ago. As with many things in life if something is interesting and new everybody is likely to have a try, or look at it, but as soon as the shine wears off they will go back to their old habits. The same sentiment holds true for Google Chrome, which after its release had about 1% browser share, but now seems to be steadily losing ground and giving share back to Internet Explorer and Firefox. Does this mean that Google will stop the development of Chrome? Will they continue developing it? Was it a flop by Google to build a browser? Only time will tell.
You can read more about this in Computer Weekly’s article.
Windows I’m a PC Campaign
Posted by fr3dr1k | Filed under C#, General, Silverlight
Have you ever seen any of the Steve Ballmer videos on Youtube where he sells Windows? Well here is another one, but interestingly enough if you click through to the Windows I’m a PC Website you browse through a myriad of short video clips of people that say “I’m a PC”. This is Microsoft’s attempt to create a better image for Windows Vista, and I don’t know if it works and if it will work later on. Another interesting thing to note is that even Microsoft use Mac and Adobe products to develop the graphics for this campaign, as can be seen in this post. I admit that I love some of the Microsoft technologies that I work with, especially Silverlight, simply because it opens up opportunties for me as a C# developer.
Mindmapping using Cayra
Posted by fr3dr1k | Filed under General
Cayra
A useful way to model aspects of life, learning or business is through the use of mind maps. One could use pen and paper, which is great, but it is more effective to create a digital version of a mind map through the use of some software. A great tool for this job is called Cayra. I have been using it now for about six or so months and its a great way to visualise things and allow your mind to see things clearly. It does require .NET 3.0 to run.
Shine Draw
Posted by fr3dr1k | Filed under C#, Silverlight
I found a really cool Silverlight/Flash website that basically shows you how to do the same thing using both sets of technologies. The site is called Shine Draw. Its interesting to note that in all the projects the Silverlight projects’ file sizes were almost double in size.
What keeps you positive
Posted by fr3dr1k | Filed under Personal
I realised today that moving forward in life does not always involve immediate positive decisions. Moving forward in life often involves taking decisions that take you away from comfort zones and into less known areas. It happens.
Its also important as a professional to continuously strive to get better at what you do, and often you have to face brutal facts about yourself and the work you are doing. You have to constantly measure yourself.
So what keeps you positive, as a working professional?
Re-usable code for a Gridview and DropdownList
Posted by fr3dr1k | Filed under ASP.NET, C#, Web Development, Web Technologies
Both the GridView and DropdownList server controls provided in ASP.NET have DataSource and DataBind methods. This means that you could write the same code to populate both controls with data from a database. So first you would create a method for a class like this:
public DataTable GetData()
{
string strSQL = "select * from tblTest";
using(SqlConnection myConn = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyDB"].ToString()))
{
using(SqlCommand myCmd = new SqlCommand(strSQL, myConn))
{
myConn.Open();
using(SqlDataReader myReader = myCmd.ExecuteReader())
{
DataTable myTable = new DataTable();
myTable.Load(myTable);
myConn.Close();
return myTable;
}
}
}
}
And then in the codebehind for the page that contains the GridView or DropDownList controls you create a new instance of the class you created above and set the DataSource property for the control. So if you created a class called myClass your code for the Gridview would look like this:
myTestClass myClass = new myTestClass();
gvMyGrid.DataSource = myClass.GetData();
gvMyGrid.DataBind();
The only difference for the DropDownList would be setting the DataTextField and the DataValueField.
Do’s and don’ts for managing IT projects with wikis
Posted by fr3dr1k | Filed under Web 2.0, Web Technologies
Ok so here is the thing right, I have been using one or more Wiki’s as a modelling tool for my projects without anyone ever telling me to use it in that way, so amazingly I found an article that gives you the do’s and don’ts of using a Wiki within an IT project environment. I agree 100% that a Wiki is of no use if articles are not kept up-to-date. Updating and maintaining a Wiki is a conscious, disciplined effort. Don’t think that by creating some content on it once you don’t have to look at it again. The main gain from a Wiki comes from going back into articles and updating them and maintaining them. By consciously updating and maintaining your wiki you not only document processes and projects but you also allow yourself to be brutally honest at all times. There are times when I read something and I think to myself whether what I wrote there makes sense or not, or maybe it is just not relevant anymore.
At the moment I use two wiki’s, a php/open source one and an open source ASP.NET version:
