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Blog moved to www.chakkaradeep.com
2008-08-13 22:22:00
www.chakkaradeep.com is now live and from today I would be blogging over there It was a tough decision to choose between WordPress and Graffiti CMS. At the end, I chose Graffiti CMS This blog will not deleted and will be here with all the posts for your reference. Please do visit www.chakkaradeep.com - my new home

SQL Server 2008 is now RTM
2008-08-06 23:51:00
The long wait is over! SQL Server 2008 is now RTM and is also available in MSDN for MSDN Subscribers! Cant wait to download and play with it

Generating WCF Proxy using SvcUtil.exe
2008-08-06 14:29:00
Visual Studio 2008 has made our WCF life a lot easier with the ability to self-host the services and also allow debugging in our service. What if we were pushed to a situation wherein we need to use the tool svcutil.exe to create our proxy for the client…hmm… To do so, we need to have our service running. Once the service is up and running, we could generate the proxy by the following command (replace the tags correspondingly) : 1: svcutil /t:code http://<service_url> 2: /out:<file_name>.cs /config:<file_name>.config Here is my example : 1: C:UsersChaksDocumentsVisual Studio 2008ProjectsMyServiceMyServiceHost> 2: svcutil /t:code http://localhost:8731/Design_Time_Address es/MyService/WcfService/ 3: /out:MyServiceProxy .cs /config:MyServiceProxy.config 4: Microsoft (R) Service Model Metadata Tool 5: [Microsoft (R) Windows (R) Communication Foundation, Version 3.0.4506.648] 6: Copyright (c) Microsoft Corpo...

Bloggers Dinner @ TechEd
2008-08-06 03:17:00
I got my invite yesterday for the Bloggers Dinner @ TechEd. Bloggers @ Tech Ed is designed to help the New Zealand blogging community with both practical advice and an exclusive opportunity to network with other key bloggers in New Zealand. The dinner will be held on September 1st at Sky City Convention Centre, Auckland. The best part of the event is that its being hosted and keynoted by Scott Hanselman See you there

ASP.NET Ajax CalendarExtender and Validation
2008-08-01 01:52:00
ASP.NET Ajax toolkit has a CalendarExtender control which is very cool as you can associate the CalendarExtender to a a TextBox and also to a Button/ImageButton so that you can popup the calendar. Below is the code to get started with CalendarExtender: <asp:TextBox "TextBox1" runat="server" width="300pt" /> <asp:ImageButton "btnCalenderPopup" Width="16" Height="16" runat="server" ImageUrl="~/images/calender.bmp" CausesValidation ="False" /> <ajaxToolkit:CalendarExtender "CalendarExtender1" runat="server" TargetControlID="TextBox1" PopupButtonID="btnCalenderPopup" Format="dd/MM/yyyy" /> And here is the output: and, Wait! What’s that grayed text in the textbox that says - Enter the Date of Birth (dd/mm/yyyy) Certainly that’s not the part of CalendarExtender , but part of ASP.NET Ajax Toolkit . We can use the TextBoxWatermarkExtender which can display watermarked (grayed) texts on controls. Below is t...

Windows Server 2008 is my Desktop Workstation
2008-07-26 14:32:00
After hearing lots of good stuffs about this new SERVER product from Microsoft called Windows Server 2008 , I took the decision to move from Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition The good thing is, Windows Server 2008 can be configured as a fully featured desktop workstation. Your one stop guide for completing this ‘awesome’ task is here Below is my laptop configuration: 1) Apple Macbook 2.4 GHz 2) 4 GB RAM I have Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 Edition installed Below is the list of software installed: 1) Apple Bootcamp 2) Microsoft Office 2007 3) Microsoft Visio 2007 4) Mozilla Firefox 5) Skype 6) Apple Quicktime 7) Apple iTunes 8 ) Windows Live Live Writer Live Messenger Live Photo Gallery 9) Foxit PDF Reader 10) Flashget Download Manager 11) Virtual PC 12) Kaspersky Internet Security 13) tWhirl 14) Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 This server is Fast, Sleek, and Customizable (in Features and Roles). That’s a huge benefit over Vi...
More About: Workstation

Random Post : LINQ to XML
2008-07-14 12:28:00
Thought of refreshing my LINQ to XML skills and here is the outcome - another blog post today! Here is our sample XML file (never mind where it came from or why it is complex) <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <Output_Message> <Dataset> <Row> <Persons_Current_Name> <Name> <Surname>John</Surname> <GivenName>Samuels</GivenName> ; </Name> </Persons_Current_Name> <Persons_Name_At_Birth> <Name> <Surname></Surname> <GivenName>John</GivenName> </Name> </Persons_Name_At_Birth> <DateOfBirth>1865-07-31</DateOfB irth> </Row> </Dataset> <StatusInformation> <Status>OK</Status> <Alive&g...

Interested to work for Intergen?
2008-07-14 10:32:00
To all of my friends who want to work or looking to work @ Intergen, below is a list of additional perks along with the exciting job that Intergen Offers $400 + GST towards the purchasing of a new mobile phone and a discounted phone plan of which Intergen will pay up to $110 per month towards Free monthly massages Drinks and nibbles every Friday afternoon Free Life Insurance cover of 3 times annual salary Free Income protection Insurance for 75% of salary for up to 5 years Free Travel insurance (for you and your family) Additional Maternity Package to Government Assistance (after one year of employment) Banking benefits from ASB Bank Employee Assistance Programme Option to join a discounted Health Insurance Scheme Technology purchases at dealer rates - computers, TVs, stereos, electronics Option to join the Superannuation Scheme with admin fees paid by Intergen Free soft drinks including Coke, V, Just Juice So, if you are looking for an exciting job, you can look here at our ...

Team System Unit Test and Output Directories
2008-07-14 07:49:00
I always use NUnit to write my unit tests but now at Intergen I also use Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Unit Test s. Today I was stuck by a very basic problem and here it is. I have a XML file in my project which is added to the output directory when compiled. When I was running my unit tests against this, Visual Studio threw me this error saying that it couldn’t find the file! (click to enlarge) I was really surprised as my XML file is said to copy to output directory and the test fails saying that there is no such file. Checked my Test Solution’s output directory and found that there is indeed the Templates folder and the XML file. So, whats the problem? Why is my test failing? Well, the VSTE has a separate directory where it stores all its test results. The directory can be found in your root directory of your solution under the name TestResults. The TestResults also have various folders for each test run you do. If you refer back to the error image that is att...
More About: Directories

How I Got Started in Software Development
2008-07-13 09:28:00
I have been memed! Thanks James How old were you when you started programming? 19 How did you get started in programming? I got introduced to programming and computer languages in my high school. It got into me from then and when I joined my University, I was fully ready to rock myself in programming What was your first language? C/C++ What was the first real program you wrote? A DirectX game in Visual Basic 6.0 What languages have you used since you started programming? C/C++, Visual C++ 6.0, Visual Basic 6.0, HTML, Javascript, ASP 2.0, Python, PyGTK, PyQt, Qt (C++), ASP 3.0, C# What was your first professional programming gig? A tool for Telecommunication and Telemedicine for one of the projects at ISRO If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming? YES! If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be? 1) Blog, Communicate 1) Analyse whatever you are doing 2) Dont hurry - Relax, Think and Code ...

NDepend
2008-07-13 08:10:00
Its really hard to summarize what is NDepend in few words as this tool does a lot and its really useful when you have a big project and had to do code analysis, code usage, code metrics etc., etc., So, to make things simpler, lets take what their website says NDepend is a tool that simplifies managing a complex .NET code base. Architects and developers can analyze code structure, specify design rules, plan massive refactoring, do effective code reviews and master evolution by comparing different versions of the code. With NDepend you can analyse a set of .NET assemblies and that was the first step for me in using NDepend. Another highlight of NDepend is that you can use Code Queries to query to analyse and get results. More on Code Query Language here. Here is a small screencast on NDepend introduction from me. Its in .swf format and just open it in your browser

Silverlight and WCF
2008-05-31 10:34:00
With the release of Silverlight 2 beta 1, now developers can use .Net to create Silverlight applications To be more precise, developers can use XAML and VB.NET or C# as the back-end code language. To know more about Silverlight and what tools you need to start developing Silverlight applications, visit my post here. This post focuses ...

Resharper 4.0 - Lambda Support
2008-05-25 16:31:00
Resharper 4.0 beta was out few days back. I found an excellent feature which I think should be blogged Here is small test code snippet which uses RhinoMocks unit testing framework You can see that Resharper has issued a warning against Call(delegate { mockSubject.Remove(subject); }); And the warning message is as follows, You can see that it is ...
More About: Support

ReSharper 4.0 Beta is out now!
2008-05-23 03:08:00
Resharper 4.0 Beta which supports C# 3.0, LINQ and Visual Studio 2008 is ready for download now! This is THE best addin for Visual Studio and I would recommend it to everyone who uses Visual Studio Here is an article which compares Plain Visual Studio 2008 Vs Resharper 4.0 Visual Studio 2008 You can download the ...

C# 3.0 Language Enhancements for LINQ – Part 3 – Expression Tre
2008-04-14 05:24:00
We saw more about Lambda Expression in our Part 1 of this series .Wonder how those were compiled or how those expressions parsed? To do so, we need to get into Expression Trees! So what is an Expression Tree? Expression trees are nothing but those which represent the query itself. Let us take a simple example. ...
More About: Language , Part 3

C# 3.0 Language Enhancements for LINQ – Part 2 – var Keyword, E
2008-04-12 17:11:00
The var Keyword We come across this new keyword called var when we use LINQ, what does this var keyword do? The var keyword is used to declare and initialize anonymous types That’s really confusing! – What are these anonymous types? To understand the var keyword, we need to understand what really anonymous types are, and to understand anonymous ...
More About: Language , Part

C# 3.0 Language Enhancements for LINQ – Part 1
2008-04-09 20:01:00
LINQ is a new feature added to C# 3.0. For an introduction to LINQ, please visit here So, how are we able to use LINQ seamlessly with C#? Thanks to some of the enhancements that were made to C# for LINQ. They are as follows, 1) Lambda Expressions 2) The var Keyword 3) Extension Methods 4) Part ial Methods 5) Expression Trees This ...
More About: Language

A simple Twitter client to demonstrate BackgroundWorker
2008-04-05 05:40:00
We have always had problems when we want to execute some operation that might take long time in a separate thread and at the same time updating UI components. With BackgroundWorker class, we can simplify this process and makes it very simple for us to do asynchronous operations. We initialize the BackgroundWorker and register for their events ...
More About: Simple , Twitter , Client , Demonstrate

Mocking Events [With RhinoMocks]
2008-04-03 12:37:00
Suppose we have an Inerface called IFooDatabase . Think this Interface as our gateway which will provide us with basic database operations. Now, how does Mocking come here? - My friend is still working on this database layer but he has given me already the Interface with which he is implementing the Database Class, so ...
More About: Events

Microsoft DevJam Session @ Otago
2008-03-14 05:49:00
Yesterday we had Microsoft DevJam 2008 at University Of Otago. It went pretty well and the turnaround was good. The session explored the possibilities with PopFly, Silverlight and XNA Gaming Model. We have got good feedback from Students and sure can do even more better next year with these feedbacks! Thanks to all Students who participated ...

An update to TimePicker control in AvalonsControlLibrary
2008-03-12 12:15:00
I hope many use AvalonsControl Library in their WPF projects , if not, do have a look! It has got really very useful WPF Controls - Thanks to Marlon Today I did a small update to the TimePicker control. I added another Property called CurrentlySelectedTime which can be used to get the current time ...
More About: Update

What’s new with IE 8 Beta 1
2008-03-06 11:50:00
There are many posts now in the Internet explaining the new features in IE 8 Beta 1 and here is mine too First and foremost, I found a small change in the Toolbar. Its bit bigger and spacious (and nicer???) than in IE 7 The Search Provider tab now shows the Search Provider Icon ...

WWTelescope
2008-02-28 13:41:00
1) Want to tour the Universe? 2) Want to pick some Astronomer as your Guide? 3) Do you know your own way in the Universe and want to create a new Tour? Then, don’t look further than the Microsoft Worldwide Telescope! This is truly amazing! You can watch a video tour of WWTelescope at Long’s blog. ...

When will these Linux users change?
2008-02-26 11:34:00
My last post was an interview with Paul Lo of Microsoft New Zealand regarding the DreamSpark initiative And one Linux user in Geekzone came up even bashing that (so sad for these users, as that seems to be their primary job!) I wouldn’t mind speaking back, but I am not a Linux user One of my ...
More About: Change , Users

Microsoft DreamSpark Explained
2008-02-26 01:54:00
I thought it would be best to ask Paul Lo from the Developer & Platform Strategy Group, Microsoft New Zealand, about the DreamSpark initiative. You can read the full interview here

More goodies from Microsoft to Students! :)
2008-02-19 07:01:00
Bill Gates just announced something really very important for Students Microsoft DreamSpark enables students to download Microsoft developer and design tools at no charge. Now, for the first time, Microsoft is giving its valuable software developer and design tools directly to students worldwide at no charge! This site enables students like you to download ...
More About: Goodies

Summer Road Trip - @Dunedin
2008-02-18 06:10:00
  Today, Microsoft Summer Road Trip , which is the Community Launch Wave for Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 was here at Dunedin The session was great and Chris, Jeremy & Beric gave a good worthful presentation on how you could do awesome stuff from Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 ...
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Intel Core 2 Duo == 64 bit
2008-02-12 20:00:00
Well, I knew this only today When I fired up Windows Experience Index details page, I saw something which made me to do a research on this. Here it is, System   Manufacturer Dell Inc. Model MM061 Total amount of system memory 2.00 GB RAM System type 32-bit operating system Number of processor cores 2 64-bit capable Yes My processor is Intel (R) Core (TM)2 CPU T5300 @ 1.73GHz And ...
More About: Intel Core , Intel Core 2 Duo , Core 2 Duo

Microsoft NZ Student Newsletters
2008-02-11 22:43:00
Wow, I found this at our Microsoft NZ Student s’ Blog From March 2008, Microsoft New Zealand will be including a Student’s section into both of our bi-weekly technical newsletters; TechNet Flash newsletter for IT Pros, and MSDN Flash newsletters for Developers. This section, dedicated to our Student community, will provide you will relevant information about new ...
More About: Newsletters

RocketDock!
2008-02-07 12:02:00
Earlier I blogged about ObjectDock and their Flyout Menus, but there is another application which is really better and good It is RocketDock . Its sure better than ObjectDock in terms of Performance and memory usage. And there is lot more to enjoy RocketDock! The Mac Leopard Fan and Grid menu! Here are some screenshots, Grid Fan ...