Why Microsoft is Still in the Gaming Business?

Check out this interesting read about Microsoft and its XNA offering!

Enterprise Library 3.0–April 2007

The Enterprise Library application blocks help address the common problems that developers face from one project to the next. They are designed to encapsulate the Microsoft recommended best practices for .NET applications. In addition, they can be added to .NET applications quickly and easily. For example, the Data Access Application Block provides access to the most frequently used features of ADO.NET 2.0 in simple-to-use classes, thus boosting developer productivity. It also addresses scenarios not directly supported by the underlying class libraries.

Different applications have different requirements, and you will not find that every application block is useful in every application that you build. Before using an application block, you should have a good understanding of your application requirements and of the scenarios that the application block is designed to address.

Enterprise Library 3.0–April 2007 contains the following general purpose application blocks:

Caching Application Block. Developers can use this application block to incorporate a local cache in their applications.
Cryptography Application Block. Developers can use this application block to incorporate hashing and symmetric encryption in their applications.
Data Access Application Block. Developers can use this application block to incorporate standard database functionality in their applications.
Exception Handling Application Block. Developers and policy makers can use this application block to create a consistent strategy for processing exceptions that occur throughout the architectural layers of enterprise applications.
Logging Application Block. Developers can use this application block to include standard logging functionality in their applications.
Policy Injection Application Block. Developers can use this application block to implement interception policies that can be used to streamline the implementation of common features, such as logging, caching, exception handling, and validation, across an application.
Security Application Block. Developers can use this application block to incorporate authorization and security caching functionality in their applications.
Validation Application Block. Developers can use this application block to create validation rules for business objects that can be used across different layers of their applications.
Enterprise Library also includes a set of core functions, including configuration, instrumentation, and object builder services. These functions are used by all other application blocks.

Download it here

Silverlight to server right!

Microsoft is coming up with ServeLight product to target Adobe's Flash which is said to be installed 98% of personal computers. I believe it will be an interesting technology. If Microsoft can combine vector graphics of flash with the powerful .Net framwork then it should be a really valuable offering to the web development community.

Silverlight(formerly known as code name “WPF/E”) is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. Silverlight integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight media capabilities include fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality audio and video to all major browsers including Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer running on the Mac or on Windows. By using Expression Studio and Visual Studio, designers and developers can collaborate more effectively using the skills they have today to light up the Web of tomorrow.

For more details click here

Connected Services Sandbox

The goal of the Connected Services Sandbox is to unite developers, partners and service providers to rapidly bring to market great new communications services. In the Sandbox, the Microsoft Connected Services Framework provides the environment for aggregating, provisioning and managing service mashups. Participants in the Sandbox are provided with the components necessary to create innovative services that can be taken to market rapidly.

check it out here

Shortcuts to career suicide

Interesting read

Top 10 Hidden Gems in SQL Server 2005

Check out Top 10 Hidden Gems in SQL Server 2005

SQL Server 2005 Table Partitioning

I just read this interesting article on Technet Magazine for March 2007:

In the past, database administrators managing tables containing millions of rows of data were forced to create multiple tables. Once those tables were partitioned, the administrator had to tie the tables back together during the execution of many of their queries. Tying partitions together involved creating a partitioned view or a wrapper stored procedure that figured out where the data lived and executed another stored procedure to hit only the partitions needed to return the dataset. The Enterprise and Developer editions of SQL Server™ 2005 let you partition large amounts of data contained in a single table into multiple smaller partitions that can be managed and maintained more effectively. The ability to create data segments that are accessed through a single point-of-entry reduces many of the administration issues that came with the old way of doing things. Using a single point of entry (table name or index name) hides the multiple data segments from the application code and allows the administrator or developer to change the partitions as necessary without having to adjust the code base.

Continue reading here

Gulf Geeks Pictures and content published

Can you spot me?


Downloads:
http://www.gulfgeeks.com/

For new check out!
http://www.aitnews.com/index.php?option=newsDetails&nid=5715
http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20070402064600
http://www.ameinfo.com/115475.html

this.MVP.YearCount++;

I have been awarded MVP status for the 3rd time in as many years. I am really happy about it.

XML Notepad 2007

Check out XML Notepad 2007 thats avaialble free for download. Following is a list of cool features!

• Tree View synchronized with Node Text View for quick editing of node names and values.
• Incremental search (Ctrl+I) in both tree and text views, so as you type it navigates to matching nodes.
• Cut/copy/paste with full namespace support.
• Drag/drop support for easy manipulation of the tree, even across different instances of XML Notepad and from the file system.
• Infinite undo/redo for all edit operations.
• In place popup multi-line editing of large text node values.
• Configurable fonts and colors via the options dialog.
• Full find/replace dialog with support for regex and XPath.
• Good performance on large XML documents, loading a 3mb document in about one second.
• Instant XML schema validation while you edit with errors and warnings shown in the task list window.
• Intellisense based on expected elements and attributes and enumerated simple type values.
• Support for custom editors for date, dateTime and time datatypes and other types like color.
• Handy nudge tool bar buttons for quick movement of nodes up and down the tree.
• Inplace HTML viewer for processing xml-stylesheet processing instructions.
• Built-in XML Diff tool.
• Support for XInclude
• Dynamic help from XSD annotations.
  Goto definition to navigate includes and XSD schema information.

WCF LOB Adapter SDK

One of the best things that I got to know during MVP summit and specially during my stay @ Redmond was WCF LOB Adapter SDK. This was something that I have been looking for long. Its an awesome development from WCF Team. Microsoft was already offering BizTalk adapter sdk for custom adapter implementations for legacy systems. But the fundamental problem was that those were typically for BizTalk and if you wanted to develop some thing similar without really using BizTalk then you would have to do your own custom implementation. I was told that there were more than a couple of different SAP adapter implementations within Microsoft. That is the scenario you would like to get rid of. You would rather want to have consistent means of developing & consuming those typical LOB adapters across different range of technologies, i.e. you would want to have a similar adapter being plugged into MOSS, or BizTalk or custom desktop applications. That's exactly where WCF LOB Adapter SDK comes into the picture. I would like you to read this post written by Sonu, who showed us first bits of WCF LOB SDK. Though she was ruining out of time and Clemens was tight on time keeping but still the message was conveyed pretty well!

VSTO Presentation

So as i posted earlier that I will be attending Geeks Conference as well doing a presentation on developing office clients using VSTO SE. So I did the presentation and i believe it went well. I was just short of time in the end and had some issues with display unit as well. But overall it was fun being there. Audience was visibly smaller in number as compared to the last time. I am told that presentation will be made available soon on the conference web site. However if you are interested in getting the slide deck or demo code then feel free to leave your comment with your email address and i will get back to you as soon as i can.