.NET From India

From the India Advocates Day

Landed up in Goa on ca cloudy hot day yesterday and had some Limbo dance in the night, which included a lot of fire-eating etc. Am sure some photos will be coming once I get back home.

Did a session today morning on what is new in VB 2005.. More coming later...

India Advocates Day

I am off to attend the Microsoft India Advocates Day at Goa tomm. Will be back only on Monday night. So may not be able to post much.

This is a gathering of people who are influencers in the MS community and includes MVPs and RDs.

Orkut Error Message

This was an error message I got when working with Orkut today. Shows that it is not an 100% professional thingy and people working on it do have a nice sense of humour..:-)

More on Extending My Namespace

In reply to my previous post on extending My namespace, PaulV had pointed out that My.Computer was really a class and not an namespace.

Joe Binder had further commented on how to extend this using partial classes. The real secret is knowing the exact class name that is used, in this case MyComputer.

I tried out what Joe had suggested and it works ok. Intellisense still seems to have a problem picking up the new stuff that I had added(this maybe due to the fact that I was using the same project to both extend and use the class), but then the compiler had no problems linking stuff up.

But I still think this is not a clean way to do this.

What I would really like is something like a config file in VB 2005, where you say something like

<My.Computer.DigitalCamera>Company.Namespace.DigitalCamera,AssemblyName </My.Computer.DigitalCamera>

And VB is able to link both of this up. The cool thing about this approach is that in VB, I get to give the developer easy access to this library via the My namespace, while for C#, I just let them use the normal assembly and namespace.

Visual Studio 2005 Team System

MS has announced a new product for modelling and team based development using VS 2005 called the Visual Studio 2005 Team System.

Learning Security

Microsoft has released a new elearning course on Security for developers. They are offering this course free.

Clinic 2806: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training for Developers

This online clinic provides students with knowledge and skills essential for the creation of applications with enhanced security. Students will learn about the need for implementing security at every stage of the development process and best practices for applying security principles. Students will also learn how to use established threat modeling methodologies and tools with other best practices to minimize vulnerabilities and limit damage from attacks. Finally, students will learn how to implement security features to enhance security for Web applications and Web services that are built by using Microsoft ASP.NET.

They also have two courses for IT professionals

Hacker vs. Hacker

An interesting story (Hackers hacked by hacker) on a Hacker group being hacked...:-)

via Michael Howard's Blog

Why Windows 2003 Escaped Blaster?

Micheal Howard, the Writing Secure Code Guy, talks about why Window 2003 was not affected by Blaster.

Interesting to see how the security push inside Microsoft is slowly having its impact felt.

Defense Against Virus

Reacting to the slew of viruses infecting Windows, MS has announced The Antivirus Defense-in-Depth Guide

Whether the availability of the guide will lead to better protection is questionable, but it alteast provides you with enough information to go and do something to protect your and your companies computers.

The Antivirus Defense-in-Depth Guide provides an easy to understand overview of the assorted types of malware, their risks, characteristics, means of replication and payloads. The solution also details the considerations for implementing a comprehensive antivirus defense for your network, servers and clients which goes beyond simply installing antivirus software into the related tools which will help reduce your risk of infection. Lastly, the solution provides a comprehensive methodology for quickly and effectively responding to outbreaks or incidents when they occur.

MSDN Session today

I am off to do a MSDN Session on Remoting today at Chennai.

New Security Hole

Another Security hole has been found, but this time in the Mac OS X. This security hole could potentially allow hackers to access a user's files—and even delete them.

eweek report: New Security Hole Found in OS X

(via @blake)

Open Source the solution to Outsourcing??

That seems to be the idea behind this LinuxWorld article.

Open Source, Not Outsource

Filtered HTML from Word

There are times when you want to save your document as an HTML document. Word 2003 offers two choices - HTML and Filtered HTML. The former has a lot of extra tags that allow Word to retain the same visual fidelity as a .doc file, the latter just gives you clean, light html. If you are on an older version of Word, say Word 2000, you can download this little add-in which allows you to save filtered HTML:

Office HTML filter

Hope this comes in handy!

Another Worm is out there...

Just got an alert on a new Worm making the rounds..

Below is a "low" risk worm alert for "Wallon".

Microsoft is aware of reports of a new mass mailer worm named Wallon that attempts to entice users into visiting a spoofed web site. If visited, a malicious Windows Media Player file, "wmplayer.exe" is downloaded into the user's machine which overwrites a user's existing Windows Media Player file. The PC becomes infected and the malicious Windows Media Player executable file is immediately launched. This allows the worm to then send itself to all contacts in a computer's address book. Customers running Windows Media Player 7.1, Windows Media Player for XP and Windows Media Player 9 Series on any version of Windows that have not installed MS04-013 are impacted by Wallon if they have received the email and visited the malicious website which appears to users as www.security-warning.biz.

This worm exploits the vulnerability fixed in Microsoft Security Update MS04-013 on April 13, 2004.

Customers who have applied MS04-013 are protected from infection by Wallon. The MS04-013 security update is available at www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-013.mspx or through Windows Update.

VB Team Blog

Atlast, the VB.NET team has got itself a blog. They did talk about doing it during the MVP summit and I was not too happy with that idea.

Why??

Because an individual blog adds a personal touch which a team blog rarely does. One of the reasons Rob Green gives for a team blog is that individual blog only gives info about the area that person works in and that the team blog will give the full picture. Why not just aggregate all the individual blogs into a team blog, so that you have the full picture, but still retain the personal touch?? This is like the difference between a Microsoft blog(the nearest to a MS blog I can think of is their Press Releases :-)) and Robert Scoble's blog.

Anyway, this is still a very good first step. Hopefully as the VB.NET Team members get more interested in blogs, they will start their own indiviual blogs...

My.Computer.Network Goodies

Early Adopter posts about the goodies hidden in the My.Computer.Network namespace. Interesting stuff.

.NET Tutorial from Indian MVPs

Sometime last year a few of the Indian MVPs got together and wrote a Tutorial for .NET. The aim was to provide a simple to understand document that will help you get started with .NET. This was distributed as a part of the .NET Primer Kits at User Group meets etc. The .NET Primer kits are not available anymore and so I thought I will upload a copy of this tutorial here so that people can have access to it. Remember, that this was writtten when .NET 1.0 was the version out there. Most of it should still be useful.

Download Tutorial.exe

The war over email space has started

It started with Google talking about offering 1GB space for users of gmail. That started off a big rush to get a gmail account even though it is still in Beta.

Now Yahoo has taken the jump according to CNet. Looks like it will offer 100MB for its free service and unlimited storage for paid usage.

Will Hotmail be the next??

Thanks to Sriram for emailing the info about Yahoo.

SharePoint 2003 and STSFLTR.DLL

Maxim talks about the STSFLTR.DLL that gets installed when Sharepoint Portal Server(SPS) 2003 or Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS)is installed and how to remove it from intecepting calls into your ASP.NET application.

Free Webservices

Came across a site called http://www.webservicex.net that has a collection of free webservices. Even one that will allow you to send SMS to mobiles in India...:-)

Pong with IE

Interesting stuff...

Uses popups, so disable popup blockers..

(via totzkeeee's Blog)

Comments in Blogger

Blogger has now added comments to its blogs (atlast). Anyway, they seem to want you to either have a blogger id to post or be completely anonymous. If I log in and post the comment reflects my blogger nickname and site, while anonymous means there is no name at all..

I understand that it is necessary to have protection against comment spam, but this is too drastic. Why do you force me to have a blogger id to post a comment? Does Google want to show a high number of blogger members for its IPO.

I would prefer if they have maybe a comment registration system. I would gladly sign up so that I can comment at blogger based blogs.

Easy Pinvoke

If you want to/already do Pinvoke then this site should be a must visit...

PInvoke.net

VB.NET Session @ TechEd USA 2004

PaulV posts about VB.NET session happening @ TechEd USA 2004.

Elections on Monday

Elections are happening in my part of India on Monday, so I am off to do my duty for my country..:-)

I am registered to vote at Coimbatore(where I was born) and so have made the trip over the weekend and am staying over the extra day to vote. Will be back in action from Tuesday...

New Profile Photo

During the MVP Summit, they offered to have a profile photo taken. I agreed and two days back a copy of that photo arrived via email. So I thought I will use it in my blog and have uploaded it to Typepad. So you should be able to see a professionally taken photo of mine in the about page..:-)

WinHec Longhorn version

If you are interested to know what is new in the WinHEC bits check out Chris Sell's post.

This version is also going to be shipped to MSDN subscribers (gonna be any MSDN subscriber, not Universal only). It is avbl for download from the subscribers download.

SuperCharging the Run Dialog

I use a lot of the Run dialog as I like to type out program names instead of search for them via the Start menu. Came up against this wonderful blog post on how to add commands to the run dialog. The first to get added for me was of course n mapping to notepad..:-)

Some Photos

Uploaded a few of the photos I took during the trip to Munnar last month.

If you want the high res pictures(I am using one of the Evening Views as my wallpaper now), mail me...

Orkut Down??

I have not been able to access Orkut from morning. I keep getting a DNS error. Has been down for more that 6 hours as of now.

More on MSDN Connections

If you thought MSDN connections was interesting, then you can check out what Abhishek Kant, the guy behind MSDN Connections - India, has to say about it.

MSDN Connections is also available in multiple countries. You may want to check out if it is avbl in yours here.

MSDN Connections come to India

Microsoft has now extended the MSDN connections program to India. This has been launched during the current DevDays event in Bangalore (It was a staggered launch with Mumbai getting it during Devdays there, two days before).

This is a loyalty program system, that will reward you for your work with MS technologies and community work. More information avbl at the site...

(Photos from Devdays in a day or two)

Want a free copy of VB.NET 2003 Standard Edition??

Well all you have to do is watch movies...:-)

Check out VB@the Movies

But why is this offer restricted to United States only?? Are there no VB developers outside the US??

Please do make those movies downloadable, so that I can watch them offline...

Extending My Namespace

Duncan has a good article on what the "My" namespace does in VB 2005 in MSDN.
So what if you want to add some of your own objects into the My namespace. It is very easy and all you need to do is to create your class in the namespace My and lo behold, you class too appears in the My namspace.. :-)

Namespace My

 

    Public Class Camera

    End Class

 

End Namespace

 

The only problem is that if I use the namespace My.Computer for my class, then the default My.Computer is replaced by the current definition, instead of my class being added to the existing My.Computer namespace. I am sure (hopefully), this will be rectified in a later beta or in the release version.

Free XDN membership for .NET Bloggers

Looks like a cool offer...:-)

FREE XDN Professional for .NET Bloggers during May 2004
Mike Schinkel, president of Xtras.Net, made an offer on his personal blog of a free XDN Professional membership (http://www.xtras.net/xdn) during the month of May 2004 for anyone that blogs about .NET frequently. If you are a .NET blogger, see Mike's post for how to get your free XDN membership.

(Via Vasanth)

COM+ but no Serviced Component

What is I want to put my .NET component into COM+, but then I need it to be inherited from a custom base class? For regsvc to put a .NET component into COM+, it has to be inherited from ServicedComponent and so it cannot inherit from my custom base class.

"Regasm2.exe – The .Net/COM+ Installation Tool" registers your .NET component into COM+, even if it does not inherit from ServicedComponent.

Office 2003 - Student Teachers Edition

Geetesh, a fellow MVP, sent a mail on MS planning to release a special version of Office called the Student, Teachers Edition.

Priced lower than the normal version at Rs.6950(approx $155), this is supposed to give easy access to Office for Students and Teachers.

I think, this is still too high for the general student to afford and I really doubt how many colleges will buy this for thier teachers to use.

Why would anyone buy this when a pirated copy costs as little as Rs.500(approx $11)? I expect people will pay a small premium for original software, but this is more than $100 costlier than the pirated equivalents.

But I still think this is a good move forward, as it shows that MS understands the problem and is looking at ways to tackle it.

Devdays

DevDays is happening this week in two cities in India.

I will be at Bangalore on the 5th for the Devdays there. Will be spending quite a bit of time at the community stall there... If you are gonna be there, drop in..

WinHEC Longhorn out??

Looks like peices of the LongHorn build to be distributed during WinHec has escaped into the wild..:-)

NeoWin has some details.