My blog crossed 100
Though i had this blog since long time, until the 18th of september i wrote nothing technical. I started writing technical from the 18th onwards and then i also added a counter to my site ;). I found that my site had got 100 hits until this day since 18th. Wow!! its a good thing and that motivates me to write more .

2 Bad my aggregator gave up on me.. my aggreagator has failed and i am still setting up my servers (oops!! commerce server, biztalk in my virtual PC). It took me more that 3 hours and i am now installing my SQL server this is project specific so in the main server. I think my day is gone!!

How to check whether .NET Framework 1.1 is installed

I Installed the .NET framework, then i installed the 1.1 upgrade, suddenly one of the chaps who report to me told that, mine is still 1.0 and not 1.1 (smart chap!!) he went to the IDE, help-about, but it still displayed 1.0.

So, was wondering how to prove him that 1.1 is installed.

The first step is given in the link
the second one which is very basic is
go to c:\winnt\microsoft.net\framework check if you have a folder v1.14322 then
it means that it is installed ;).

Technosis

I was reading the trivia of techtree i found this word
That goes like this :

In their book 'TechnoStress', it is mentioned that the growing dependence on technology affects us negatively, and that we count on our machines to do so much that when something goes wrong with our technology, we are thrown into a tailspin. Some people become so immersed in technology that they risk losing their own identity, a syndrome called technosis.

Back to technical

Virtual PC

I just installed the virtual PC which i downloaded from my MSDN subscriber download. man! thats the coolest one. I had earlier worked on VMWare, probs jus becoz its from Microsoft now i had started liking virtual PC. I installed the windows server 2003 in it and it now yet to be activated. My host is w2k and my guest ins w2k3 server. I got to install biztalk , commerce server and see the servers in action now :).

Smart Worker Vs. Hard worker

The couple of days (today & yday) had been terrfic. yday was the first part of teched, and today happen to be a special meet with Deepak on WML (word markup language) and Infopath. Boy!! those are really cool. I liked it and thanks a lot to deepak. Infact the best thing was the smart tags, those were literally brilliant. I wrote a smart tag @ my PC, whenever it sees a word called Ajay it showed up the tag saying "Want to browse ajay's blog?" and "want to browse ajay's teched experiences" or want to search for ajay. Believe me , when i saw its more purpose i was flabbergasted.

Anyway thats not the topic what i wanted to discuss. I had been telling my guys @ verizon about Hardwork Vs. Smart work. There are always two kinds of programmers one who wrote teh entire code of hellolo world in 16 different languages or one who wrote a webservice and consumed it in the 16 langauges. Both did the same job , but one did a lot of hello world writings ,the other one learnt just 16 ways of consuming webservices, both were good @ programming and gave the output what i want, tell me who is smart ?

Instead of going to incidents, i would tell you what i wanted to tell you. Knowing a technical knowledge is pretty difficult task if you donot understand why you would require it. It is same for any technical persons yday or tomorrow or today to me. I wont understand the real purpose of any language if i dont see the practical usage of it (my theory is why learn something which is not usable), and my friend said why not learn ? Learning it and if you do not know the real purpose and when the real purpose comes and you do not to use it , then the entire excercise of learning it is a waste.

Working from 9 Am - 5 Am is very common in this technical industry and what one has not seen is a person working for atleast last one year from 9 AM - 5 PM (i am talking only about indian s/w professionals). The amount of research he is involved in technology is quite good. He works smart and other who work 20 hrs a day understanding what he got to understand in 4 hrs is working hard. Both achieves the goal. So, i wanted to ask the 9-5 guy on how he manages his research and also his other work. It all happend due to the stern belief of something called as Knowlege sharing.
When you share your knowledge your knowledge doubles and your beliefs doubles while when you dont its halved. I dont know who said this. Today, i believe it more strongly.

When we started our Chennai .NET users group , i remember there were hardly very few guys who were working on .NET and today the CNUG itself has 1200 fellow members in the group. The usual span of any new language which requires a different paradigm talks nearly 5 years for us (technical guys) to master it. VB was there for lonnnnnnnnng time and the no of people who actually mastered it are still very few. But today the people who know .NET are much more. Earlier guys worked very hard to understand the technology and it took much time to learn and much time for people to grow, and the learning was very difficult. Now, in the advent of the new paradigm the understanding and assimilation of knowlege happened in no time. There is a huuuuuge market and the people are nearly enough to fill in. The Gap is narrowed down, This is what i call smart working. If people had to work hard to learn technology, then the projects that needs to come would have not come. The Smart working of many others who saw potentially sharing of knowlege as a medium to narrow the gap made the Indian Industry a big one .

This is what i call smart working. Ok, my articles (the articles i write) needs to carry a message. Hard working is required when you are the early goer (that itself is smart) and smart working is required when there are more than one guy to lead. With hardworking you can earn 100 bucks where as smart working 1000 bucks (ask a economist or mail me, i shall blog the justification).

Working hard to learn technology is a big deal. But when someone has invented the wheel, why the hell are you trying to do it. When eric describes on how to write multi-dimensional arrays, why do you want to re-write the whole article just point it to the right address.. will it not do?

Teched - I & Architecture

The teched part I of III is complete. Yeah!! it was not the best of the teched's which i had gone, but still it was fun. The cool one!! though it was little disappointing on new Gadgets for display ( I was expecting the SPOT on display). But only it was presented on the screen. Whidbey was fine, longhorn still got to wait :(.

Infopath was good, but ML for word * will it not confuse Wireless if i write as WML * was even good. I remembered the sufferings when i wrote a report writer using a tier architecture.

Word (as front end)

Component (for Business processing)

DAC (Data Access Components)

SQL Database

made the report generator architecture. I know the sufferings was that much. I wondered why does not MS give me a readable format of docs instead of Binary docs. Anyway, WML gave a better readable version. Now atleast i dont need to see 4 unknown junk characters.

The check for compatability with Browsers in whidbey took away the honours. hmmm. Not bad, Microsoft is listening to its users (jus pulling the legs). But yukon was old stuff. There was no significant information which i could hear to.

But the most intersting stuff in the Data track was Pravin srivastav's indexing, tuning and partioning . I seriously liked the Horizontal partioning concept in yukon. It really make me feel that it will be a better choice on performance.

what to do, only had the chance to attend 4 sessions ( including the keynote). More on next blog...

Geek Horoscopes

I personally dislike horoscopes.. But this one, is fun and almost true. Infact the keyword is my fav one.. Anyway happy horoscoping .

Indian Govt blocks YAHOO GROUPS

For once indian government showed what its powers are. The Anti-indian statements made in the yahoo groups made the indian govt angry. It had asked yahoo to remove it , and yahoo refused it. So voila Indian govt banned yahoo groups. Though this is you might say little brash, but the reality is indian govt had been accomadating such taunts and it displayed today what is called as courage and did a right step one step forward. Good Show!!

Something non-technical Equinox

The phenomenon of equinox could be understood by developing some insight into our solar system. We all know that the earth undergoes two types of motion namely the revolution around the sun and rotation about its own axis.
The earth revolves in an elliptical orbit around the sun. But the equatorial plane of the earth is not the same as that of the elliptical plane in which the earth revolves around the sun. The earth's rotational axis is tilted by an angle 23.5° with respect to its orbital plane. If the earth’s equatorial plane is extended into the space, it is known as the celestial equator in the scientific language.

The imaginary plane containing the earth’s orbit around the sun is known as the ecliptic plane. The celestial equator in space intersects the ecliptic plane at two points. In case of Spring Equinox, the Sun lies on one of the points where the ecliptic and celestial equator intersect.
On this day, the Sun travels across the sky along the celestial equator northwards. On autumnal equinox the Sun again lies on the ecliptic and celestial equator at the second place where they intersect, this time heading southwards for the winter.

There is a significant fault in western astrology where the periods of vernal equinox are said to fall in Aries (March 21 - April 19). But it currently falls between Pisces and Aquarius. Same is true about the autumnal equinox, which now actually should be in Virgo instead of proclaimed Libra (September 22 - October 22).
This is due to the western astrologers following the solar system. Indian astrology is free from this defect because of being based upon the lunar system.

Modern astronomy aside, people have recognised the vernal equinox for thousands of years. There is no shortage of rituals and traditions surrounding the coming of spring.

The date is significant in Christianity because Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. It is also probably no coincidence that early Egyptians built the Great Sphinx so that it points directly toward the rising Sun on the day of the vernal equinox.

There are some folklores and superstitions attached to the event like the one about balancing eggs on their ends during the Equinox; it is outright unscientific. The event is certainly of importance in meteorological studies but has no negative effect on earth’s atmosphere. It is just as usual an event as occurrence of usual days and nights.

courtesy: Sify

Building my own blog site

Hey...there is an article in the MSDN magazine. This talks about building yuor own site using ASP.NET Javascript and OLEDB. Hmm...now u can build your own blog site and have it up and running on any of the free providers.

Smartphone 2003 debuts in Taiwan

For more info. .

Verisign...refutes

Verisign had refused to pull down its sitefinder software despite the legal battle. Read my review down below(to be true, i dont remember the exact location). now ICANN had asked the verisign to bring down its software and verisign has refused to do so . Its would be interesting to see who wins !! lets keep our toes crossed!!

Google....goes local

Google is experimenting with search results tailored to a person's geographic location, following a similar move by rival Overture Services. more news on ... Cnet

For each.....vs.....For in

Eric is making me do bonkers. I am becoming an ardent fan of eric...His article on For each...& for in throws a light on the scripting techniques for the humanoids like me.

hmmm...Multi-dimensional Arrays

I got pretty interested in algorithms, and was speaking to my friend arun (he has no blog!!), i was telling him it does not matter if a person knows .Net or J2EE if he is good @ fundamentals. I noticed Eric's blog on multi-dimensional arrays. It was pretty intersting to notice the difference between the rectangular and the ragged arrays.

Morning again.....

Tomorrow is the Teched in Chennai , the place i come from (was born and brought up here. I also blog about teched . Anyway, i am pretty thrilled. I shall update more on teched after attending it ;)

My last last blog for the day...ok! i think the day will beat me

Its 11.45 pm and what mad fellow will sit and blog at the end of the night, i never took blogging to be serious. Now i am infact blogging mad. I think i will end up blogging . Anyway, i went over to Microsoft watch site, i thot i will give u the website for those who do not know about it . sleepy eyes and a splitting headache makes a person mad,madder and maddest. So signing off for the day . But make sure you visit Microsoft Watch site for all updates on Microsoft.

My last blog....Why do developers work hard

I always believe in smart work, but Brian has a different view point. But he just puts the vanilla truth in this harsh manner and disappoints me :( boo!! brian i am a smart worker, i dont write much code, but i hang on technology, and he means that i am still working hard ..how bad !

Only..for Mobile device developers

Hey.. you are not really upto date on mobile device support from microsoft if you dont visit this site. It gives the latest of mobile technology from Microsoft. It also has a forum to post !! So, what go ahead and solve your queries. If you are like me, then go ahead and solve the queries ;)

Longhorn....will the news ever stop?

Gusy...microsoft has a new page for Longhorn . Its called MSDN Longhorn Dev Centre...wonder what do they display there ?? Read the graf(paragraf) by sells (Chris sells).

Now its MVS (Most Valuable Students) turn

Project Hurricane Ships !

Read more on the blog of Gavin King

Load form vs. Load File

Suzzane in her article has given us a indepth understanding and the purpose of using Load form vs. Load file. Have a look,.Betcha!! its good !

Cool Glasses

My ex-boss NAT uses the word cool, whenever he wanted to say this is hi-fi technology. So, i got hooked on to the word cool for something really great technology. I read in the BBC that there is a glass that has been invented with the camera. Wonder how many tiems you felt sic!! i wish i would have a camera now..

These cool glasses comes inbuilt with a camera and will picturise it whatever we look @ .. Cool!! i can record memories and playback and say i saw it 10 years back ;)

New Web Matrix

A new webmatrix with lots of features and a sneak preview @ nikil's blog. Boy! these guys are working wonders.

Obfuscation

Hey..... Ivan has a nice intro and a nice article on obfuscation and obfuscator. For those , who are not aware of obfuscation ---- you can read ivans article and it will clear what it means. So dont worry whether you know obfuscation or not. But make sure, you know .NET.

Mobile payment

On the otherday i was referring about the Kevin's blog on paypal. I just thot i did not make my concept very clear. Its more like the microsoft's video on webservices and getting integrated with the mobile phone & smart card.
But to make it clear, the significant part where it differs and where i would want to concentrate is the Security aspect of it. Its a kind of fantasy i had it for long time. This has a story and i would like to tell you here.

I was infact writing code for the online & mobile banking system of Commerzbank AG (Frankfurt) as a consultant to Accenture. I thot why dont these guys do a money transfer if they can browse for their balances. I thot if customers can register their mobile no's for that to check their balances thro' SMS why cant they do it for shopping also. You know i am a lazy guy who wants to travel tension-free. If i lose my wallet and if i have 2 credit cards stored in the wallet, then i am screwed (ich bin screwen)..

So, whats the next thing instead of credit card but can act like a credit card is a smart card or something nearer to that. Then the thot came why not SIM Card ??

This is the story i had dreamt every now and then,

Step 1 : Customer buys a mobile from (now i am back to India, so i woud say a local service provider like RPG).
Step 2: The user can choose to register his SIM card with a bank (say my bank, Citibank).
Step 3: Whenever I call a number say 2484 (CITI), i get a msg saying please enter your passcode
Step 4: User types in his Passcode and gets validated. One sequence

Step 5 : Scene 2- User goes to shopping and buys worth of Garments ( i am a shirt maniac) for say 7000 (nice 4 louis phillippe shirts)..

Step 6: Customer calls 2484 and says shopping bill for amt : 7000
Step 7: Citi online asks for the phone number to transfer
Step 8: Customer types in the shopkeeper's phone number
Step 9: Citi online generates a public encryption number (say 87@#1340!**&23)
Step 10: Customer gives the number to the shopkeeper and the shopkeeper will call citi on his mobile
Stpe 11: Shopkeeper confirms his pending transaction with the number given by the customer
Step 12: Citi transfer the amount from customer to shopkeeper.

Ok...where the security catch??

The number generated by citi, and the number got by the customer and the number has to be given to the shopkeeper. So, when a wrong transaction happens if the customer types in a wrong phone number, the wrong person cannot enjoy the benefit becoz the transaction is not complete (the public encryption number is not known to the wrong person).

also, the customer does not lose money when either he does a mistake or the shopkeeper does a mistake.

But if either the shopkeeper or customers are from 2 diff banks. The synchronicity has to be maintained, there is a lack of depondency check and it has to be implemented by almost all the banks, but this was the scenario of teh first credit card right ??

Well...I shall write more on the dream and can write forever and i will be pleased to answer you if you have any questions / suggstion on my thought process. I am also looking out for a VC whoever will be interested to fund me for this technolgy to be put in place :).

Bye for now!!

Encrypt credentials in ASP.NET

There is a wonderful article in the Kbase site of microsoft.

Description :
This step-by-step article describes how to use the Aspnet_setreg.exe utility to encrypt credentials and session state connection strings. ASP.NET version 1.0 requires that you store plain text credentials in configuration files if you want to do any of the following:

Hope you will find it useful.

Tough Day

Its been a very tough day. i have a split ..may be, i need some rest. I am totally dehydrated and has lost lots of liquid.. Went for my driving test, and believe me i got thro'. Its a pathetic time taking process. One guy got failed due to over-confidence , and i got thro' had a nice chat with the Inspector...uff!! what a relief. i can drive my car pretty well now ;)

Checklist for the factors to secure ASP .NET

Hmm...a pretty intersting article.. . It gives an detailed info and the checklist for what needs to be checked if an ASP .NET app is secure / not.
It reminds me that i am still not complete with the Writing Secure Code Book... Got to finish