Agile Web Development with Rails - Third Edition

This is my current read. I want to see how Rails development is different from ASP.NET and how Rails enables Agile Web Development.

Current Read

UNIX Shell Programming by Stephen Kochan and Patrick Wood

NAnt Intellisense in Visual Studio 2005

Kevin Miller has a great tutorial for getting Intellisense working for NAnt under Visual Studio 2005.

AnkhSVN and VS Command Shell

Add the following tools to your toolset if you're doing doing Continuous Integration with your .NET projects:

AnkhSVN - A Subversion SourceControl Provider for Visual Studio. The software allows you to perform the most common version control operations directly from inside the Microsoft Visual Studio IDE. With AnkhSVN you no longer need to leave your IDE to perform tasks like viewing the status of your source code, updating your Subversion working copy and committing changes. You can even browse your repository and you can plug-in your favorite diff tool.

VS Command Shell - VSCmdShell provides users with a shell window inside the Visual Studio IDE that can be used for Visual Studio commands as well. Current version allows user to use either Windows Command Shell (cmd.exe) or Windows PowerShell.

IIS 6 Fix for UrlRewriter.Net

Make sure you add a Wildcard application maps entry under Application Configuration for UrlRewriter.Net to work without file extensions, e.g. http://localhost/show/users.

Could Not Load File or Assembly Issue

Problem:

Could not load file or assembly 'System.EnterpriseServices, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. System could not find the file.

Cause:

System.EnterpriseServices.dll is missing in the GAC or there exist different versions of this dll.

Fix:

Drag and drop "<windows_directory>\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.EnterpriseServices.dll"
into the "<windows_directory>\assembly\" folder.

Source: http://forums.asp.net/t/956018.aspx

Projects

These are some of my latest projects, which I take great pride in posting.

Tools used: ASP.NET, C#, ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit, Javascript, CSS

Create/Edit New Foods

Grocery List

Eight 8-oz Glasses of Water

Edit Nutrition Goals

Development Tools

If you manage a start-up, and can't afford to pay for software development tools, then these are for you. They are very popular in the open-source community. There is also plenty of help on these tools on the web to help you get started. I am currently using these for my projects as well, and they're really good.

NUnit

NUnit is a unit-testing framework for all .Net languages. Initially ported from JUnit, the current production release, version 2.4, is the fifth major release of this xUnit based unit testing tool for Microsoft .NET. It is written entirely in C# and has been completely redesigned to take advantage of many .NET language features, for example custom attributes and other reflection related capabilities. NUnit brings xUnit to all .NET languages.

NAnt

NAnt is a free .NET build tool. In theory it is kind of like make without make's wrinkles. In practice it's a lot like Ant. A

TortoiseSVN

Subversion client, implemented as a windows shell extension.

TortoiseSVN is a really easy to use Revision control / version control / source control software for Windows.
Since it's not an integration for a specific IDE you can use it with whatever development tools you like.
TortoiseSVN is free to use. You don't need to get a loan or pay a full years salary to use it.

DBVisualizer

DbVisualizer is a database tool useful for developers and database administrators to aid develop and maintain their databases. It is the perfect solution since the same tool can be used on all major operating systems accessing a wide range of databases.

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) is a free, downloadable version of the world's most capable relational database.

Oracle Database XE is easy to install and easy to manage. With Oracle Database XE, you use the Database Home Page, an intuitive browser-based interface, to administer the database; create tables, views, and other schema objects; import, export, and view table data; run queries and SQL scripts; and generate reports.

Oracle Database XE includes Oracle HTML DB 2.1, a declarative, graphical development environment for creating database-centric Web applications. In addition to HTML DB 2.1, you can use popular Oracle and third-party languages and tools to develop your Oracle Database XE applications.

Links

http://www.nunit.org/index.php
http://nant.sourceforge.net/
http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/
http://www.minq.se/products/dbvis/
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/xe/index.html

Firefox 3 Broke My Code

Yesterday, I had to install Firefox 3, because my most recent work stopped functioning properly in the new Firefox. I wanted to wait a little longer for Firefox 3 to be more stable, but had no other choice. Who would have thought the new version of my beloved Firefox would break my code? Basically, it had to do with my 3 Javascript functions that I wrote: OnMouseOver, OnMouseOut and OnClick. In the OnMouseOver function, I used the innerHTML property to replace some div text. I'm not sure if anybody else had this problem with the new Firefox, but the innerHTML property prevented my OnClick function from being called. I figured this out using my favorite Javascript debug method: alert('test'); It took me the whole day yesterday debugging and researching on Google, but still came out clueless. I ended up throwing away the innerHTML code and used the image src property instead. From experience, I've found sometimes it's best to throw away my current non-working solution and start fresh.

Ray Allen is Back

Congratulations to the Boston Celtics. I'm really glad to see the Celtics won their 17th championship against the Lakers last night. They deserve it. Most importantly, Ray is back to his former self. Last night's game was one of the most exciting games I have seen in a long time. Can't wait to see them come back next season to defend their title.



Source: NBA.COM

NBA Playoffs 2008

I like to root for the underdogs, so this season I'm rooting for the Utah Jazz and the New Orleans Hornets. Well, if you have watched them playing, they're not really the underdogs. I did not watch many NBA games in the regular season, because honestly I do not have a favorite team or a favorite player. Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson were my two favorite players.

I started to watch the NBA Playoffs a few weeks ago, and I found the Jazz and the Hornets were fun to watch. The Jazz's #5 Carlos Boozer and #8 Deron Williams play great together, while the Hornets' #3 Chris Paul is becoming one of the League's best point guards. I'm rooting for the New Orleans Hornets to make it all way and win the 2008 NBA Playoffs.

Summer Has Arrived

Another semester has gone by and summer is finally here. Took SWE 637 final yesterday. I think it went well. The class is on Software Testing and taught by Professor Paul Ammann. It turned out to be more interesting and useful than I expected,and I learned quite a lot from this class.

I also took SWE 621 this semester. It's on Software Design and taught by Professor Robert Pettit. I learned to use IBM's Rational Software Architect software to design a racing system, which is a concurrent and real-time application. Got an opportunity to sharpen my UML skills as well as software design knowledge.

I would highly recommend both classes.

SWE 621 - This is a course in concepts and methods for the architectural design of software systems of sufficient size and complexity to require the effort of several people for many months. Fundamental design concepts and design notations are introduced. Several design methods are presented and compared, with examples of their use. Students will undertake a term project working in small groups addressing the design of a relatively complex software system.

SWE 637 - Concepts and techniques for testing software and assuring its quality. Topics cover software testing at the unit, module, subsystem, and system levels, automatic and manual techniques for generating and validating test data, the testing process, static vs. dynamic analysis, functional testing, inspections, and reliability assessment.

The Semantic Web is Next

Source: TechCrunch.com

George Mason University Commencement 2008

I have finally become an E-Commerce master. :)

2008 IT&E Convocation
When - Thursday, May 15, 2008
Time - 6 - 7:30 pm
Where - The Patriot Center - George Mason University
Speaker - Marc Willebeek-LeMair, Ph.D, Chief Technology Officer for 3Com

Schedule:
5:15pm Processional Preparation
5:30pm Processional
6:00pm Call to Order and Welcome
6:15pm Commencement Address
6:30pm Presentation of Diplomas
7:30pm Reception

Commencement 2008
When - Saturday May 17, 2008
Time - 10 am - noon
Where - The Patriot Center - George Mason University

The 41st annual George Mason University commencement is scheduled for Saturday, May 17th, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. in the Patriot Center. The complete schedule of all graduation ceremonies will be online. Graduates are requested to arrive at the North Plaza, near the George Mason statue, for assembly promptly at 9:00 a.m. on May 17th. Patriot Center doors open for guests at 9:00 a.m. The ceremony begins at 10:00 a.m. and lasts approximately two hours.

Twitter Me Up

Finally give in to Twitter. :)

Must-Learned Semantic Tools

One of my interests is in Semantic Web. The following tools are great if you already know .NET, C#, RSS and RDF, and want to do more with Semantic Web.

Semantic Web/RDF Library for C#/.NET

SemWeb is my Semantic Web/RDF library written in C# for Mono or Microsoft's .NET 1.1/2.0. The library can be used for reading and writing RDF (XML, N3), keeping RDF in persistent storage (memory, MySQL, etc.), querying persistent storage via simple graph matching and SPARQL, and making SPARQL queries to remote endpoints. Limited RDFS and general-purpose inferencing is also possible. SemWeb's API is straight-forward and flexible.

ASP.NET RSS Toolkit

RssDataSource control to consume feeds in ASP.NET applications:

• Works with ASP.NET data bound controls


• Implements schema to generate columns at design time


• Supports auto-generation of columns at runtime (via ICustomTypeDescriptor implementation)

Caching of downloaded feeds both in-memory and on-disk (persisted across process restarts)
Generation of strongly typed classes for feeds (including strongly typed channel, items, image, handler) based on a feed URL (the toolkit recognizes RSS, Atom and RDF feeds) or a file containing a sample feed. Allows programmatically download (and creation) of feeds using strongly-typed classes.

LinqToRdf

LinqToRdf provides a full-featured LINQ query provider for .NET using both local triple stores with Graph Matching and SPARQL queries on remote stores. It also provides graphical design tools for visual studio 2008 that provide a UML style design surface for the production of both ontologies and .NET domain models.

Voiceless Future

This seems like the title of a Sci-fi movie, isn't it? Well, it's not. It could happen in our very near future. Check out the following video and this article. It is an amazing piece of technology.

Google Sites

Google Sites looks good. Will give a try soon.

Happy 1st Birthday to Melody!

Relatives Visit and Other Stuff

MT's Birthday Party - Saturday 2/9

DC Tour - Sunday 2/10

Richmond Visit - Friday 2/15

Peking Duck Dining - Friday 2/15

Georgetown Outing - Friday 2/15

Happy Vietnamese New Year 2008

or TET 2008. It's the year of the Rat.



My literal translation:

Wishes for the new year:

Bring luck into the house
Plenty of gifts
A full house
A drawer full of jewelries
Prosperous household
Old and young
Together and blessed
Wealthy and happy
Safe and prosper

Wishing you:

1 Sky filled with health
1 Sea filled with love
1 Ocean filled with friendship
1 Melody filled with love
1 Faithful lover
1 Bright career
1 Prosperous family

Wishing everyone a new year filled with wonderful dreams and surprises.

January Birthdays

Peter, Thanh, and Yixing - Happy birthday guys! May all your wishes come true now that you're too old. :)

Microsoft Silverlight for Developers

Date/Time:	Wednesday, January 30, 2008 6:00 PM - Wednesday, January 30, 2008 8:00 PM
Language(s):	English.
Product(s):	Other
Audience(s):	Architect,Developer,Other

Event Overview

 Abstract

Microsoft® Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Windows , Mac OS, and Linux coming soon.

Who Should Attend

Architects, Developers, and anyone who would like to learn how to take their AJAX applications to the next level .

What you will learn

·         The benefits of Silverlight from a developer perspective

·         How to build Silverlight 1.0 applications using JavaScript & AJAX programming NOW

·         How UI designers and developers can collaborate using the same codebase, but with role specific tools

·         How Silverlight 2.0 (the next version) brings a subset of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) & .NET Framework cross platform / cross browser

·         Fundamentals of building Silverlight 2.0 applications using C# & the .NET Framework

·         How the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions make building Silverlight solutions easier (Think cross platform video by simply dragging/dropping a control + pointing to a video file)

Pete Brown, from Applied Information Sciences (AIS), will be closing the dinner by sharing his experiences & lessons learned from building a production Silverlight application.

Note: This will be a developer-centric talk with a heavy focus on code demos.

 

Sign up

Date and Time Format Patterns

I always forget how to format Date and Time in .NET whenever I need to use it, but fortunately there are Google and ASPAlliance.

Date and Time Format Patterns

All the patterns:
0    MM/dd/yyyy    01/23/2008
1    dddd, dd MMMM yyyy    Wednesday, 23 January 2008
2    dddd, dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm    Wednesday, 23 January 2008 16:38
3    dddd, dd MMMM yyyy hh:mm tt    Wednesday, 23 January 2008 04:38 PM
4    dddd, dd MMMM yyyy H:mm    Wednesday, 23 January 2008 16:38
5    dddd, dd MMMM yyyy h:mm tt    Wednesday, 23 January 2008 4:38 PM
6    dddd, dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm:ss    Wednesday, 23 January 2008 16:38:03
7    MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm    01/23/2008 16:38
8    MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt    01/23/2008 04:38 PM
9    MM/dd/yyyy H:mm    01/23/2008 16:38
10    MM/dd/yyyy h:mm tt    01/23/2008 4:38 PM
11    MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss    01/23/2008 16:38:03
12    MMMM dd    January 23
13    MMMM dd    January 23
14    yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss.fffffffK    2008-01-23T16:38:03.1183581-05:00
15    yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss.fffffffK    2008-01-23T16:38:03.1183581-05:00
16    ddd, dd MMM yyyy HH':'mm':'ss 'GMT'    Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:38:03 GMT
17    ddd, dd MMM yyyy HH':'mm':'ss 'GMT'    Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:38:03 GMT
18    yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss    2008-01-23T16:38:03
19    HH:mm    16:38
20    hh:mm tt    04:38 PM
21    H:mm    16:38
22    h:mm tt    4:38 PM
23    HH:mm:ss    16:38:03
24    yyyy'-'MM'-'dd HH':'mm':'ss'Z'    2008-01-23 16:38:03Z
25    dddd, dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm:ss    Wednesday, 23 January 2008 16:38:03
26    yyyy MMMM    2008 January
27    yyyy MMMM    2008 January

The patterns for DateTime.ToString ( 'd' ) :
0    MM/dd/yyyy    01/23/2008

The patterns for DateTime.ToString ( 'D' ) :
0    dddd, dd MMMM yyyy    Wednesday, 23 January 2008

The patterns for DateTime.ToString ( 'f' ) :
0    dddd, dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm    Wednesday, 23 January 2008 16:38
1    dddd, dd MMMM yyyy hh:mm tt    Wednesday, 23 January 2008 04:38 PM
2    dddd, dd MMMM yyyy H:mm    Wednesday, 23 January 2008 16:38
3    dddd, dd MMMM yyyy h:mm tt    Wednesday, 23 January 2008 4:38 PM

The patterns for DateTime.ToString ( 'F' ) :
dddd, dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm:ss    Wednesday, 23 January 2008 16:38:03

The patterns for DateTime.ToString ( 'g' ) :
0    MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm    01/23/2008 16:38
1    MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt    01/23/2008 04:38 PM
2    MM/dd/yyyy H:mm    01/23/2008 16:38
MM/dd/yyyy h:mm tt    01/23/2008 4:38 PM

The patterns for DateTime.ToString ( 'G' ) :
MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss    01/23/2008 16:38:03

The patterns for DateTime.ToString ( 'm' ) :
MMMM dd    January 23

The patterns for DateTime.ToString ( 'r' ) :
ddd, dd MMM yyyy HH':'mm':'ss 'GMT'    Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:38:03 GMT

The patterns for DateTime.ToString ( 's' ) :
yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss    2008-01-23T16:38:03

The patterns for DateTime.ToString ( 'u' ) :
yyyy'-'MM'-'dd HH':'mm':'ss'Z'    2008-01-23 16:38:03Z

The patterns for DateTime.ToString ( 'U' ) :
dddd, dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm:ss    Wednesday, 23 January 2008 16:38:03

The patterns for DateTime.ToString ( 'y' ) :
yyyy MMMM    2008 January

Bill Gates' Last Day at Microsoft

This is too funny! :D