Download Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio 2008

Microsoft has made available for download the July 2008 Community Technology Preview of the Windows Live tools for Visual Studio 2008.

Designed as an update to the February CTP, the July release features an expanded package, delivering additional items for developers, with the Redmond giant placing a great deal of focus on the inclusion of the Virtual Earth Map Control. Essentially, via the new Windows Live Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio (CTP) refresh, the company is ensuring that it has dealt with the bugs reported since the previous development milestone of the release, while also having updated the controls included in the package.

"The Windows Live Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio (CTP) allows you to easy drag and drop online services into your web site without worrying about any of the underlying goo," said Angus Logan, the technical product manager across all of the Live Platform APIs. "In this refresh we’ve fixed lots of bugs and added the Virtual Earth Map Control - you can now get the great interactivity of VE, with the power, and ease of use of ASP.NET with no JavaScript."

In addition to the Virtual Earth Map Control, the compatibility between the SilverlightStreamingMediaPlayer control and Silverlight 2 Beta 2 is also worth highlighting. According to Logan, developers will now be able to leverage no less than six additional ASP.NET Server Controls in order to integrate them into web-based applications: Contacts; IDLoginStatus; IDLoginView; Map; MessengerChat; and SilverlightStreamingMediaPlayer.

The July 2008 CTP of Windows Live Tools is designed to integrate seamlessly with Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Web Developer Express 2008 running on top of Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2. The resources streamline the process of making Windows Live Services an integral part of web applications via the collection of control add-ins offered.

The Virtual Earth ASP.NET Control "basically makes it much easier to get data from your database onto the map. Before, it was difficult to do because you would need to get the data into a specific format (geoRSS, JavaScript etc.) and then pass it off to your JavaScript code and then get the data into the map. Now, the control allows you to abstract all that work and get AJAX to handle the hand off," revealed James Senior, a Microsoft UK technical specialist.

Download:
Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio 2008

source: news.softpedia.com

Technorati Tags: programming,download

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People who hate Vista shown ‘Mojave’ and like it, then find out that ‘Mojave’ is actually Vista

Okay, here’s what happened. Microsoft took a group of 120 individuals who “were either Mac, Linux, or users of versions of Windows that came before Windows Vista” and who rated their perception of Vista at less than a five on a scale of one to ten. These people were shown a demo of what they thought was a new Windows OS called “Mojave” and this demo was individually tailored to each person based on “the experiences they seemed most interested in following a series of interviews.”

While the average rating of Vista before the demo was 4.4, the post-demo rating was 8.5, even though Mojave was actually Windows Vista. So what can we learn from all this? Vista looks nice. Problem is, none of these people had to use Vista. They were just “given a demo by a trained retail salesperson.”

So you’ve got a bunch of people who have only heard bad things about Vista but have never used it (or even seen it, from what I gather), and then you show them some tricks from what they think is a new operating system and they like it. What a surprise.

Most people wouldn’t argue with the idea that Vista looks nice and perhaps even looks good on paper. What Microsoft should have done, though, is sent these 120 home with a copy of Vista and had them use it for three months. I don’t think the average score would be 8.5 after that, but if it was, it’d be a big win for Microsoft’s image. This Mojave Experiment, though, just seems kind of dumb.

I mean, how hard is it to trick 120 people who haven’t even seen Vista before? These people probably aren’t all that computer savvy to begin with. They’ve just heard from their friends and IT departments that Vista is a bad operating system. Microsoft had the right idea by attempting to teach them not to judge a book by its cover, but in this case, all they were shown was the cover of the book and a few good chapters.

Mojave Experiment Videos [MojaveExperiment.com]

Source: crunchgear.com

Technorati Tags: vista,windows,mojave

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Adsense: Sharing Your Ad Space

A number of publishers have asked us if it's acceptable to place multiple publishers' ad code on the same page or site. Often they'll run into this issue when two AdSense publishers manage a site together and both want to display their ads, or if a site owner hosts content and ads from other publishers on the same page as their own.
The answer is that yes, we do allow this. But before you place your ad code on the same page or site as another publisher, here are a few important points to keep in mind:

• The maximum number of products per page will remain the same.
• If you don't own the site, you'll need to receive permission from the site owner to display your ads on their pages.
• We're unable to divide earnings between accounts, so any revenue generated will be credited to the account associated with the ad unit that was clicked or viewed.
• Any shared site that displays Google ads must also comply with our program policies.
• You're responsible for the content of any page where your ad code appears. Before placing your ad code on another publisher's site, we recommend reviewing the site for any policy violations.

And one final tip before giving your code to another publisher -- try using our Allowed Sites feature to monitor where your ads are appearing and keep your account in good standing.

source: AdSense Publisher Support

Technorati Tags: google,adsense,advertisement

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KDE 4.1 released

The community behind KDE, the widely used Linux and Unix desktop environment, this week released the final version of KDE 4.1, a significant upgrade and the second edition of KDE to use the Qt 4 application development framework.

Along with Gnome, KDE is one of the two most widely used desktop environments for Linux and Unix systems. With the KDE 4 series, developers shifted the system from the Qt 3 application-development framework to Qt 4, while rebuilding the desktop environment from scratch.

KDE 4, however, was criticised by users on open-source mailing lists for its lack of features and customisability, bugs and usability problems. Some suggested including older versions of KDE alongside KDE 4 or even creating a new system based on KDE 3.5 but ported to the Qt 4 framework.

Developers said that, with version 4.1, a number of additional applications have made the transition to KDE 4, most notably the personal information manager Kontact, which includes the email client KMail, the planner KOrganizer and other components.

Unlike its predecessors, Qt 4 was released for Windows, meaning KDE 4 applications can run natively on that platform. KDE 4 applications also run natively on Linux and Unix variants, including Mac OS X.

Another significant change with KDE 4 was the introduction of an engine for generating desktop and window panels, called Plasma.

"The new desktop shell Plasma, introduced in KDE 4.0, has matured to the point where it can replace the KDE 3 shell for most casual users," developers said in the KDE 4.1 announcement. It now supports multiple and resizeable panels, allowing the same flexibility as KDE 3's system, the developers said, adding that it now includes features such as a Cover Switch, as well as performance gains in composited window management.

Other applications now ported to KDE 4 include the Dragon Player media player and the KDE CD Player. Other elements that have been tweaked include the Konqueror browser and the Dolphin file manager.

Developers have improved the speed of KHTML, the browser engine on which Konqueror is based, and have integrated Apple's KHTML-based web-rendering toolkit WebKit into Plasma to allow Mac OS X Dashboard widgets to be used in KDE.

In a recent open letter defending KDE 4, KDE board member Sebastian Kügler said the underlying improvements to the development infrastructure would begin to be more apparent in version 4.1. "The new features and frameworks need some time to be implemented in a user-visible way," he wrote. "The merit of the infrastructural work that has led up to 4.0 will be seen in the coming releases, with KDE 4.1 showing first signs of an increased pace of development, thanks to the new foundations."

The stable binaries and source code are available from KDE's website.

Source: news.zdnet.co.uk

Technorati Tags: desktop,system,linux

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Windows Live Tools – July 2008 CTP – introduces ASP.NET Server Control for Virtual Earth Map

Cross-posted from http://blogs.msdn.com/vikasahuja
You already saw few blog posts and announcements regarding release of July 2008 CTP of Windows Live Tools. With this release, we have introduced ASP.NET Server Control for Virtual Earth (Map Control).

Developers have been using JavaScript Control for meeting their needs. Now, you have ASP.NET control available right from your Visual Studio toolbox which you can drag and drop on your web page, do server side web page programming (e.g. pull store locations or last location of the delivery vehicle etc.) and create push pins and show to the web site visitors.

In words of Marc Schweigert, Microsoft’s Developer Evangelist

”This is a sweet control that makes integrating Virtual Earth into your ASP.NET applications a easy as drag, drop, set some properties, and wire up some server side code.  The new control, which is built on top of ASP.NET AJAX, does all the heavy lifting you've come to expect from ASP.NET AJAX enabled controls.  ASP.NET AJAX also introduced the concept of control extenders.  Extenders allow you to add AJAX functionality to existing server controls.  The Virtual Earth ASP.NE T control ships with a ton of extenders that allow you to interact with the map without writing any code.  I had the luxury of getting early access to the bits.  I've taken the control for a thorough test drive.  I think ASP.NET developers are going to love this thing!”

In words of Mark Brown, Virtual Earth Evangelist

”Integrating interactive, immersive maps no longer requires JavaScript, it can be done by ASP.NET developers simply. For smooth interactions this control can be combined with ASP.NET AJAX capabilities to provide the power of ASP.NET Serverside processing without the development overhead of coding JavaScript.”
Mark and Angus have an introductory channel9 screencast for you.[...]

Read more on: blogs.msdn.com

Technorati Tags: asp.net,javascript

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Windows Codename Mojave Is Live

Microsoft is mid-way on the road from Windows Vista to Windows 7, the next iteration of its Windows client, planned for availability no later than the end of January 2010.

And following the release of Windows Vista Service pack 1, Microsoft is finding fertile soil to unveil Windows Codename Mojave – or the Mojave Experiment. Windows Codename Mojave was masqueraded as the next Microsoft OS and was demoed to over 100 Windows XP, Mac OS X, Windows pre-XP and Linux users. In fact, it was nothing more than Windows Vista.

"For those new to the Mojave Experiment, it's a focus group effort we initiated a few weeks ago. We interviewed and polled 120 participants in San Francisco, in hopes of better understanding everyday users' perceptions of Windows Vista and seeing whether there really is a gap between perception and reality. We wanted to see how people reacted to Windows Vista when they were not aware they were seeing Windows Vista. We recorded our discussions, and today you can see them for yourself," revealed Christopher Flores, Director Windows Communications.

Mojave is nothing more than a small part of a much larger Microsoft strategy to not only get its own version of the story out on the market but "fight back" the bad aura that is sticking to Vista even after SP1, and negative, anti-Vista publicity made by rival Apple. The official Mojave website went live on July 29, 2008, and it features the reactions of the participants in the Microsoft experiment when they find out that the demo they just witnessed is of Vista and not the next version of the Windows operating system. None of the participants had contact with Windows Vista prior to the experiment.

"We did not use some geeked out or custom built PC. We used an HP Pavilion DV2500. It had 2GB of RAM and was running an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz. The OS was a 32 bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate. Of the 120 respondents polled, on a scale of 1:10 where 10 was the highest rating, the average pre-rating for Windows Vista was 4.4. After they saw the demo, respondents rated Mojave an average of 8.5," Flores added.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes wrote:

Microsoft has today unveiled the “Mojave Experiment.” In case you haven’t heard, this is an experiment where the company took 140 Vista skeptics (who hadn’t used Vista themselves) and showed them what they believed to be a new Microsoft operating system, code-named Mojave. After the participants delivered their opinion of the “new” OS (which was almost exclusively positive) they were then told that Mojave was in fact Vista.

Prior to being guided through the OS by trained retail salesperson the average rating for Windows Vista was 4.4 (on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is rubbish and 10 is orgasmic, or something like that). When asked about their impression of Vista one participant said “based on all the negative comments, and frustrations I’ve seen my husband having to deal with, I wouldn’t touch the thing,” while another said that “it always crashes.”

After the demo the participants rated Mojave an average of 8.5, with one actually saying “Wow” and another saying that the “The speed is incredible.” When it is revealed to the participants that Mojave is in fact Windows, the most common reply seems to be “really?” Also, at least one participant does figure out that he’s being shown Vista and not some top secret new OS.

Note: The test rig that was used was a HP Pavilion DV2500 loaded with running an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz, 2GB of RAM and 32 bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate.

Now, on the face of it it’s easy to dismiss the Mojave Experiment as little more than marketing hyperbole. After all, I’ve been to plenty of demos given by trained staff that made a product look fantastic, only to later have hands on time with that product and find out that it sucked whole lemons. That’s what trained salespeople do. Also, this seemed like a guided clicking session where people are told clearly what they should be doing or paying attention to. It’s not like these folks were given a copy of “Mojave” and told to install it, or left to their own devices while they set up a printer or configured a network. These people were watching Vista, not using it. Also, Microsoft hasn’t released unedited versions of the videos, so it’s safe to say that the best bits have been picked.

But, it is interesting how no one reduced their score on being guided through Mojave/Vista, and maybe this tells us a little about what’s wrong with Vista (or at least the impression that people have of the OS). See, these 140 participants were guided through what I assume were Vista’s highlights, and this helped boost the average rating by 4.1 points in 10 minutes. When you get your hands on Vista for the first time there’s usually no one there to guide you through the OS, showing you the new games, the photo preview feature, what the Sidebar can do, how to make DVD, how to use the Flip 3D feature, how Instant Search works, how to set up Media Center, what’s new in Administrative Tools or anything and everything else. You’re on your own. As operating systems become more complicated and have more features, it’s easy for the best features to be hidden from view, and sometimes all that’s needed is a helping had to bring those features out into the open. I can think of one ad campaign that does this, and in my opinion does it well - the ads for the Apple iPhone.

source: mojaveexperiment.com

Technorati Tags: microsoft,system

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Creating Hello World With Silverlight

I finally have to embrace Silverlight as my team decided to use silver in building part of our community site. I had been trying to avoid Silverlight since 1.0 version, feeling that my Ajax skills and asp.net concepts would be all I need to do my daily activities. But with the upcoming release of Silverlight which supports .net runtime, world is changing over. We no longer have to program in JavaScript and can be comfortable writing code in our domain specific language such as C# or Vb.net. Today, I decided to begin my journey to learn Silverlight. The best way to learn any technology is to create a hello world application. Below is a step by step tutorial to create a hello world application.

To get started go to File New Project and create a new Silverlight project.

On clicking ok you are asked if you would like to create a Web application to test the Silverlight application. You also have the option to just create a simple html page to host the Silverlight application. If you want more flexibility and easier debugger experience, you would be better of creating either a website or web application project. For this blog posting, I will choose creating a website project to host my Silverlight application as shown in the screenshot below.

On Clicking Ok you get two projects, one is the website project and other one is the Silverlight application. WebSite project references the Silverlight application and on building the Silverlight application, the Silverlight application gets copied over into the ClientBin folder of the WebSite project in the form of xap extension.

To get started with creating my hello world app, I modify my page.XML file in my Silverlight application as follows.

In the above screenshot, I have a simple grid which has 3 rows. By declaring 3 RowDefinations, I get a grid which has 3 rows. First row in the grid has a textbox. We are not specifying which row the textblock belongs to because by default first content belongs to first row in the grid. I am also assigning the name to the textbox, so I can reference the textbox in the code behind. TextBox is followed by a Button. I am registering a click event handler with the button so that when you click the button I am taking the text put in the textbox and setting it to the label that I have created in the third row of the grid. I am creating the label by declaring a TextBlock in the third row of the grid by setting Grid.Rows equal to 2. I am also creating some margins around the textblock following by horizontally and vertically centering the content in the center of the row of grid. Below figure shows the code behind that is wired to the click event of the button that gets the value from the textbox and assign it to label's text property.

When you run the application, and enter some text in the textbox and on clicking the Click Me button, the text is copied into our label. Below figure shows how our final output looks like.

source : weblogs.asp.net/zeeshanhirani

Technorati Tags: silverlight,asp.net,programming

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Apple iPhone cut/paste found in 2.1 OS & SDK frameworks

Good news for those waiting for the Cut & Paste feature for your Apple iPhone, Apple has so far failed to deliver the cut & paste feature to the iPhone 2.0 operating system, but all is not lost because it seems that Apple has been keeping a lid on things.

It seems they were indeed busy on building their cut/paste framework for the all new iPhone 2.1 OS and iPhone 2.1 SDK.

Apple has only just released the all new iPhone OS revision, iPhone 2.1 OS, to iPhone developers. The new iPhone firmware had by its side the iPhone 2.1 SDK as well.

I am not going to get all technical about the ins and outs of the frameworks; you can read more about that via TUAW. Got to admit we cannot wait to see cut & paste feature on the iPhone.

Source : phonesreview.co.uk

Technorati Tags: apple,iphone,gadget

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Maintain Browser History with AJAX

Most of you out there would have noticed that browser history button doesn’t work if you are using AJAX. Instead of rolling forward or backward the AJAX step they actually move the complete page. This can be a nightmare for users that always tend to use them.

AJAX has a very nice feature known as History Points that allow the browser to keep track of AJAX steps and therefore move through them using forward and backward buttons.

Let’s understand how History Points work through a simple example. We have a page that show company’s departments in a drop down list. On selecting one, the page shows the employees working in that department in a list; on selecting the employee it shows employee details like name, email, salary etc.  Employee information is stored in Employee class.

More : weblogs.asp.net/haroonwaheed

Technorati Tags: ajax,browser,asp.net

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Cheats (Xbox 360)

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is the first nex-gen title to be 100% developed internally by Lucas Arts. After

the saga was completed by the final movies, there were some questions about the story and specifically about the period of time between Episode III and IV. Darth Vader has just become the apprentice Darth Sidious and the next one picks up 20 years later.

The game will have as protagonist the secret apprentice of Darth Vader and he will feature amazing powers, many of which have never been seen before. It enjoys lots of new technologies like Digital Molecular Matter (from Pixelux Entertainment) and euphoria from NaturalMotion. The game is scheduled to be launched this fall, but its achievements as well as cheat codes have already surfaced the world wide web.

We know that true gamers play all these games just for fun, as they should, and not in order to achieve specific point landmarks to prove to their friends they are very cool, but we also know that sometimes you just can't live without achieving everything possible with a title you really enjoy. If that's the case and you want to know exactly what to look for when it comes to this game, we have prepared a full list of cheats for you. Good luck!

CHEATS
Select "Options" at the main menu, then the "Enter Code" option. Enter one of the following codes to activate the corresponding cheat function. Please note: remember to check back regularly, as we will update this list as soon as more codes are released (if any).

Apprentice's hooded costume
Enter HOLOCRON as a code.

Apprentice's father's costume
Enter WOOKIEE as a code.

Play as the Kota
Enter MANDALORE as a code.

source: news.softpedia.com

Technorati Tags: games,cheat

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Energy Efficient LCD Competitor Invented at Microsoft

For a number of years now, the LCD display has all but made the older CRT displays extinct. While LCD screens are still being improved on by making them thinner, brighter, and produce better image quality, researchers are always on the lookout for the next technology breakthrough.

Microsoft announced that a pair of its engineers and a graduate student from the University of Washington, Anna Pyayt, have invented a new type of display technology that is much more efficient with energy than current LCDs. The new technology uses optics that are similar to those used in telescopes.

According to IEEE Spectrum, a typical LCD in use today is backlit and less than 10% of the light produced by the backlight is transmitted to the surface of the LCD screen. The polarizing layer alone absorbs 50% of the light output from the backlight.

The telescopic design on the other hand is able to transfer about 36% of the light produced to the surface in prototypes using reflective optics. The telescopic pixel has a tiny primary mirror facing the backlight with a hole in the middle. A smaller secondary mirror located 175 micrometers behind the primary mirror faces it and reflects light making it though the primary mirror back. When voltage is applied to the primary mirror it turns into a parabola and allows light to be focused on the secondary mirror and onto the screen.

The researchers say that in theory, as much as 75% of the light in the telescopic pixel display could reach the surface of the screen. Another benefit of the design is a much higher rate of speed at which the pixels can be turned on and off. The telescopic pixel can go from dark to light in 1.5ms.

Research of this type is not commonly done at Microsoft; the company is much more known for its software products like Windows Vista, Windows Home Server and Office. Anna Pyayt led the research team as part of her Ph.D. thesis and Microsoft has applied for a patent on the technology. IEEE Spectrum says that Microsoft will likely partner with a LCD manufacturer to build displays using the technology rather than build the displays themselves.

source : dailytech.com

Technorati Tags: microsoft,technology

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Microsoft slashes Office prices in RP

Microsoft has slashed the price of its Office suite for home users and students by about 40 percent, its Philippine subsidiary said this week.

The price cuts were initiated early this month as part of a strategy to attract more users from "emerging markets" to buy off-the-shelf, legitimate software, said Mae Rivera-Moreno, public relations and community affairs manager of Microsoft Philippines.

"This is also part of our Unlimited Potential program," added Rivera-Moreno. Microsoft's Unlimited Potential is a global program aimed at helping the middle and bottom of the world's economic pyramid of about 5 billion people, the software company's website stated.

Rivera-Moreno said this retail package includes a perpetual license.

Microsoft said the reduction of prices of Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student targets local consumers.

"From July onwards, consumers can avail of the genuine Office Suite for students and non-commercial users for only P4,999 for a full packaged product and for as low as P3,800 for an Original Equipment Manufacturer from Microsoft resellers nationwide," the local subsidiary said in a statement.

"This permanent product offering for Microsoft Office Home and Student will enable more Filipinos to access tools that will help them realize greater educational and economic opportunities," added Microsoft Philippines Managing Director Rafael Rollan in a statement.

"We would like more students to learn how technology can be a very important resource for their education and to be able to maximize this resource. Technology can be seen as the great equalizer and we would like to give more Filipinos the opportunity to utilize it," said Rollan.

The software Office suite comes with Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Microsoft office PowerPoint 2007 and Microsoft Office One Note 2007.

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Source: technology.inquirer.net

Technorati Tags: microsoft,office

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Firebug 1.2 Beta

Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

Just the way you like it

Firebug is always just a keystroke away, but it never gets in your way. You can open Firebug in a separate window, or as a bar at the bottom of your browser. Firebug also gives you fine-grained control over which websites you want to enable it for.

Learn more

Download : addons.mozilla.org

Technorati Tags: download,addon

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GridView or Repeater?

What is the difference between GridView and Repeater? This is one of the most common questions that beginners ask when they are trying to get familiar with data bound controls. Both of these controls have their own using context and I try to explain when one should use GridView and when it is okay to use Repeater.

As first thing I want to say that GridView is more complex and powerful control that offers much more functionality than Repeater. Repeater has better performance because it is not so complex and doesn't offer so rich functionality.

Repeater

Repeater is okay if you need to show data from some data source. It offers the basic rendering options: header, item, alternating item, separator and footer. It is really up to developer how to fill these templates. By example, it is easy to use Repeater to show read-only lists using templated elements.

Repeater is faster because it offers only basic data bound control rendering functionalities. If you want to show data and you don't need any complex features described below then repeater is the right joice.

GridView

GridView is rendered as table with columns and it is created to show data and let users to manipulate it. GridView offers powerful built-in features like:

• events for sorting data when user clicks on column heading,
• row selection,
• row operations like adding, editing and deleting,
• paging,
• command columns and events to handle the commands.

GridView is excellent choice if there is a need to show tabular data and also provide users with features described above.

More : weblogs.asp.net/gunnarpeipman

Technorati Tags: asp.net,programming

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Microsoft signs Facebook search deal

Microsoft has penned a deal with Facebook, which will see the social networking site integrate Microsoft's Live Search and search ads into the site.

The deal represents a further deepening of the relationship between the two companies, which already sees Microsoft running graphical display ads on Facebook pages.

Back in October, Microsoft also purchased a 1.6% stake in Facebook for $240 million, valuing the social networking site at $15 billion.

The deal comes as Microsoft dismissed further attempts to purchase Yahoo, and began looking to life beyond former online services boss Kevin Johnson, who is quitting to takeover at Juniper Networks.

The announcement comes as Steve Ballmer defends Microsoft's heavy losses in online services to investors.

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Source: pcpro.co.uk

Technorati Tags: microsoft,dealing,internet

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Free - Games for Windows Live

Free multiplayer is just the beginning.

Introducing Games for Windows – LIVE, the free gaming service built for Windows that makes great Windows games even better.  With Games for Windows – LIVE, you get an online identity – called a gamertag – and a friends list that works across multiple games, the XBOX 360, and even the Zune music service.  You can easily find and communicate with your friends online with text and voice chat.  Earn achievements and Gamerscore that lets you track and compare your accomplishments. 

Play multiplayer games with your friends, or play against new opponents online using our exclusive TrueSkill™  matchmaking system – with other Windows® players or with or against XBOX 360 players (in supported games.)

All of this is possible today – and at no charge.

And it gets even better.

Every Games for Windows- LIVE game carries the Games for Windows branding, which means they meet standards for quality, consistency, safety, and ease of play.  Games for Windows games are tested to support wide-screen monitors, 64-bit operating systems, parental controls, and, in appropriate games, the Xbox 360 Controller for Windows.

Games for Windows – LIVE lets you add achievements and gamerscore earned in Windows games to your XBOX LIVE account. You can also chat and message your friends on LIVE, regardless of the platform.

The stability and functionality of the Xbox LIVE service provides Games for Windows – LIVE players with a constant, feature-rich platform that already supports a community of over 12 million gamers.  Come join the fun!

And - Games for Windows – LIVE will soon be the best place to download additional content for your favorite games, from game trailers to playable demos to new maps and levels.  Extending your game experience will be easy with Games for Windows – LIVE.

More : gamesforwindows.com

Technorati Tags: Games,Windows

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[Tutorial] Membuat Aplikasi dengan Visual Basic .NET 2008 - 1

Visual basic merupakan bahasa yang paling mudah untuk dipahami, dikarenakan bahasanya yang sederhana dan hampir mendekati bahasa yang digunakan manusia sehari-hari. Aplikasi yang akan dibuat adalah contoh aplikasi penjualan barang sederhana... (sangat sederhana).

Dalam pembahasan kali ini, saya akan mencoba menjelaskan langkah-langkah dalam proses pembuatan suatu aplikasi menggunakan Visual Basic .NET 2008 dengan asumsi bahwa Anda telah sedikit memahami dan mengerti tentang apa itu Visual Basic beserta IDE yang akan digunakan (Visual Studio) termasuk syntax-syntax sederhana dalam pembuatan aplikasi menggunakan VB.

Semuanya akan dibuat dengan cepat dan ringkas.... hmmm...

Anda mungkin tidak percaya, pembuatan aplikasi penjualan ini hanya dikerjakan dalam waktu kurang dari satu hari...yups, 1 hari.. Tetapi itu belum dihitung dengan trial and error testnya.. hehe..

Untuk membuat suatu program yang profesional, waktu setahun atau dua tahun belum mencukupi. ;)

Bahan-bahan:

1. Visual Studio Professional 2008 / Visual Basic.net Express Edition
2. MS SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

 

1. Membuat proyek baru

Buka Visual Studio 2008 dan buat sebuah proyek baru dengan menggunakan menu File > New Project..

Pilih "Windows Forms Application" dengan target Framework 3.5 dan berikan nama "CTHAplikasi1" kemudian klik OK.

 

2. Menambah Database

Langkah berikutnya adalah kita akan menambahkan database dan coba menentukan tabel-tabel apa saja yang terdapat dalam database untuk aplikasi ini. Untuk tutorial pertama ini kita akan memulai dengan membuat 2 tabel yang terdiri dari : "Barang" dan "Kategori".

Pastikan SQL Express telah dijalankan. Masih di IDE VS (Visual Studio) klik menu Project > Add New Item..

Dalam tampilan dialog Add New Item, pilih "Service Based Database" dan masukkan nama "Database1.mdf". Kemudian klik tombol "Add". Lihat gambar:

Akan muncul kotak dialog "Datasource Configuration Wizard". Klik Finish. Jika semuanya telah dilakukan dengan benar, maka tampilan dalam Solution Explorer akan tampak seperti ini :

 

3. Menambah Tabel ke dalam Database

Klik menu View > Server Explorer untuk menampilkan Server Explorer.

Database yang baru dibuat tadi akan tampil dalam Server Explorer, dalam tutorial ini "Database1.mdf", jika terdapat tanda silang merah di database kita, klik kanan dan pilih refresh untuk membuka koneksi ke database. Lihat gambar:

 

Klik tanda plus (+) kemudian klik kanan di bagian "Tables" dan pilih "Add New table".

 

Akan muncul tampilan isian tabel. Isikan seperti gambar di bawah ini.

 

Jadikan "KDKategori" sebagai primary key dengan mengklik kanan baris "KDKategori" dan memilih "Set Primary Key".

 

Simpan tabel tersebut dengan nama "kategori" (tanpa tanda kutip).

Masih dalam tabel kategori, di tab Column Properties, pada bagian Identity Specification > nilai (Is Identity) di ubah menjadi "Yes" dengan Identity Increment sebanyak 1.

 

Hal di atas dilakukan untuk memberikan Increment Value terhadap KDKategori dengan nilai Increment=1.  Atau dengan kata lain, memberikan "Auto Number" terhadap KDKategori. :D

Pembuatan tabel kategori selesai.... ;)

 

Lakukan hal yang sama dengan tabel barang, dengan isian seperti gambar di bawah:

 

Jika kedua tabel telah selesai dibuat, maka tampilan dalam Server Explorer akan menjadi seperti gambar di bawah:

 

4. Membuat Diagram Relasi

Selanjutnya kita akan membuat relasi antar tabel. Klik kanan Database Diagrams dalam Server Explorer dan pilih Add New Diagram. Akan muncul kotak dialog konfirmasi, pilih Yes.

Setelah tombol Yes diklik, akan muncul kotak dialog "Add table". Tentukan tabel-tabel apa saja yang ingin dimasukkan ke dalam relasi. Dalam hal ini, masukkan tabel kategori dan tabel barang kemudian klik Close.

Tampilan tab diagram akan menjadi seperti gambar di bawah ini :

 

Klik dan tahan kolom KDKategori dari tabel kategori dan geser ke kolom KDKategori dalam tabel barang untuk membuat keduanya berelasi.

 

Akan muncul kotak konfirmasi, untuk memastikan kolom yang dimaksudkan sesuai dengan yang kita inginkan. Klik OK, maka akan tampil kotak dialog Foreign Key Relationship.

Pada bagian INSERT And UPDATE Specification, ubah nilai Delete Rule dan Update Rule menjadi Cascade :

 

Maksud dari Cascade dalam Delete Rule di atas adalah, setiap baris yang terdapat dalam relasi dengan pengaturan Cascade akan ikut terhapus bila tabel yang memiliki primary key dari relasi tersebut dihapus. Demikian juga dengan aturan Update Rule = Cascade.

Setelah tombol OK diklik, maka tampilan diagram relasinya menjadi :

Simpan diagram di atas dengan nama Diagram1.

 

5. Menambahkan LINQ to SQL Classes (Apa itu LINQ? = belum dibahas).

Berikutnya kita akan menambahkan LINQ to SQL Classes (LINQ = Language-Integrated Query). Klik Project > Add New Item.. kemudian pilih LINQ to SQL Classes dan beri nama DataClasses1.dbml kemudian klik Add.

 

Tab Object Relational Designer dari DataClasses1.dbml akan langsung terbuka. Masih dalam tab Object Relational Designer, buka Server Explorer dan geser kedua tabel yang barusan kita buat tadi ke dalam area Object Relational Designer, sehingga menjadi seperti gambar di bawah ini:

 

Klik Save untuk menyimpannya.

Simpan proyek kita dan tutup Visual Studio.

Sekian dulu untuk tutorial kali ini, pada kesempatan berikutnya akan saya lanjutkan dengan proses pembuatan form barang dan kategori, serta bagaimana melakukan query ke dalam database menggunakan LINQ. Stay tuned... Ciao!....

Technorati Tags: Programming,Source code,Tutorial

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Harddrive Performance - Ntfs Cluster Size

Cluster is an allocation unit. If you create file lets say 1 byte in size, at least one cluster should be allocated on FAT file system. On NTFS if file is small enough, it can be stored in MFT record itself without using additional clusters. When file grows beyond the cluster boundary, another cluster is allocated. It means that the bigger the cluster size, the more disk space is wasted, however, the performance is better.

So if you have a large hard drive & dont mind wasteing some space, format it with a larger cluster size to gain added performance.

The maximum default cluster size under Windows NT 3.51 and later is 4K due to the fact that NTFS file compression is not possible on drives with a larger allocation size. So format will never use larger than 4k clusters unless the user specifically overrides the defaults by using the /A: switch (for command line format) or by specifying a larger cluster size in the format dialog in Windows Explorer.

However, when you format the partition manually, you can specify cluster size 512 bytes, 1 KB, 2 KB, 4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB in the format dialog box or as a parameter to the command line FORMAT utility.

The performance comes thew the bursts from the hard drive. by having a larger cluster size you affectivly have a larger chunk of data sent to ram rather than having to read multiple smaller chunks of the same data.

More info : support.microsoft.com

Technorati Tags: Tips,Hardware

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Microsoft announces DX11

MICROSOFT officially announced DirectX 11 during its Volish Gamefest 2008 developer conference in Seattle, Washington.

The latest Microsoft multimedia API package will include improved multi-threading capabilities, hardware-based tesselation and new shader technology that re-positions GPUs as general-purpose parallel processors [cough!].

Microsoft CTO Chris Satchell explained that the company wanted “to break away from purely having a paradigm of pixels, vertices and shaders."

The Vole has also graciously decided not to force users to purchase DX11-specific hardware. Satchell readily admitted that Microsoft had deliberately created a discontinuity between DX10 and DX9, but emphasized that "DX11 is totally compatible with DX10.”

Source : theinquirer.net

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nLite 1.4.8

nLite is a GUI for permanent Windows component removal by your choice. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines. So that means that with nLite you will be able to have Windows installation cd which on installation doesn't install, or even contain on cd, unwanted components.

Maybe you won't believe it at first but it's not easy to not install what you don't want when it comes to Windows. It involves many setup files to be edited carefully without interfering with basic Windows components.

Download : nLite 1.4.8

 

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First hints of Microsoft’s fight back ads appear

If this is going to be the overall message of Microsoft’s much-vaunted new $300 million ad campaign, it might be money well spent. According to the folks at LiveSide, the first ads in the new campaign were previewed at Microsoft’s employees-only Global Exchange conference last week to rave reviews. As Tim Anderson astutely noted the other day, “Vista is now actually better than its reputation. That’s a marketing issue.” Microsoft’s biggest challenge is to get would-be customers to set aside whatever preconceptions they have and listen to its pitch for Vista.

Aligning its most vocal Vista critics with the Flat Earth Society is a clever way to get people’s attention.

But the bigger job, that of actually changing people’s minds, will be easier said than done. Apple has largely defined Vista’s public image so far with its devastating “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” ads. Responding directly to those ads is a losing tactic. Largely thanks to John Hodgman, the humor bar is set extraordinarily high. Any kind of response ad would legitimize the claims in those Apple ads and run the significant risk of being seen as lame and uncool.

And there’s no sign that anyone in Redmond is going to go down that road. Instead, clicking the link on the “World is flat” add leads to a page headlined, “Windows Vista: Look how far we’ve come.” The copy beneath leads off with a sheepish admission:

When Windows Vista debuted in January 2007, we declared it the best operating system we had ever made. “Windows Vista is beautiful,” The New York Times raved. It’s humbling that millions of you agree.

But we know a few of you were disappointed by your early encounter. Printers didn’t work. Games felt sluggish. You told us—loudly at times—that the latest Windows wasn’t always living up to your high expectations for a Microsoft product.

source: blogs.zdnet.com

 

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Windows Home Server Power Pack 1

Microsoft has just released Power Pack 1 for their Windows Home Server software. Similar to a service pack for other versions of Windows, the Power Pack includes a number of bug fixes and improvements designed to enhance the overall experience the consumer has with the software.

The highlighted changes listed are as follows:
* Support for home computers that are running Windows Vista x64 editions
* Backup of Home Server shared folders
* Improvements to remote access
* More efficient power consumption
* Improved performance

Additionally, Power Pack 1 also includes for the bug described in KB Article 946676 in which files could possibly become corrupted on a Windows Home Server computer that contains more than one hard drive.

If you have Windows Update set to "Automatic", Power Pack 1 will be downloaded automatically and installed for you. The setup file can also be manually downloaded from Microsoft's website.

Download: Windows Home Server Power Pack 1

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ASP.NET AJAX 4.0 CodePlex Preview 1

This release contains a preview version of the following features (that are also described in our Roadmap document: ASP.NET AJAX Roadmap):

• Client-side template rendering
• Declarative instantiation of behaviors and controls
• DataView control
• Markup extensions
• Bindings

The goal of this release is to give some visibility into our design process, allow testing of the technology very early in the product cycle and get feedback on the implementation.

 AspNetAjax4.0.Preview1.zip

 AspNetAjax4.0.Preview1.txt

Source: codeplex.com

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'Dark Knight' has record opening

Holy opening weekend, Batman!
"The Dark Knight," the long-awaited superhero sequel from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, sold an estimated $155.3 million in tickets this weekend, setting a record for biggest three-day take and cementing the primacy of superhero movies at the cineplex.

Batman's haul surpassed the bar set last year by "Spider-Man 3" by $4.2 million and set the pace for what turned out to be the top-grossing overall box office weekend in U.S. history, with an estimated $253 million in ticket sales. The previous top weekend was a $218 million take two years ago, when "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" opened.

" 'The Dark Knight' overshadowed everything, but a rising tide lifts all ships," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking company Media by Numbers. "This was just a great weekend for the entire industry."

The weekend's No. 2 film, Universal Pictures' ABBA musical "Mamma Mia!," brought in $27.6 million, followed by Sony Pictures' holdover "Hancock," starring Will Smith, at $14 million.

Batman's latest triumph means that three of the top five opening weekends of all time now belong to comic book-inspired films. The original "Spider-Man," which brought in $118.4 million in its 2002 opening weekend, ranks No. 5 overall.

Despite huge expectations going into the release, the Caped Crusader's sixth film was massive by practically any measure. The PG-13 movie set the record for top single-day receipts on Friday, hauling in $67.85 million on a record 4,366 screens, according to Media by Numbers.

The Bat-buzz was off the charts going into Friday -- fueled by the success of the previous Batman installment, 2005's "Batman Begins" (also directed by Chris Nolan), and because "The Dark Knight" is the last film appearance of Heath Ledger, who plays the Joker. Ledger died in January at age 28 of an accidental drug overdose.

Nationwide, showing after showing sold out, with lines stretching around city blocks in some cases.
In Santa Monica on Saturday night, eight high school buddies bought tickets for the 11 p.m. show more than 2 1/2 hours before the previews began. They did so, said Holden Foshag, because they'd been unable to get tickets the night before.
"It was totally sold out," said Foshag, a basketball player who will enter his senior year at Santa Monica High School in the fall. "I just have to see this movie," he said.

Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., said the 2 1/2 -hour-long picture is on pace to smash the record for top opening-week take in the United States as well. He expects it to bring in $220 million through Thursday. No movie has ever brought in over $200 million domestically in a single week. If "The Dark Knight" does, that total would exceed the estimated $180 million that Warner Bros. spent to make the film.

"Not only will it crush the record, but we'll probably exceed the entire gross on the last Batman movie in the first five days," Fellman said, brushing off quibbles that, adjusted for ticket price inflation, "Dark Knight" actually fell slightly short of Sony Pictures Entertainment's "Spider-Man 3" in total ticket sales.

The average movie ticket in 2008 costs $7.08, compared to $6.88 a year ago. That means "Dark Knight" sold approximately 21.94 million tickets, compared to 21.96 million for the web slinger.
Whether Batman can do as well overseas seems less clear. "Dark Knight" debuted this weekend in 20 markets, including Brazil, Mexico and Australia. While it led in the markets it opened in, it didn't set the all-time record for a weekend in any of them. It has not yet been released in most of Europe, Japan and South Korea.

Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, president of international distribution at Warner Bros., said the Batman franchise tends to play stronger in the U.S. "It's a nuance of the Batman franchise," she said. "Spider-Man would have played stronger."

The previous best U.S. opening weekend for a Bat-pic was "Batman Forever," which brought in $52.8 million in 1995. The top grossing installment of all time was "Batman Begins," which totaled $205.3 million in the U.S. and $372.4 million worldwide.

Notably for a film heavy on costumed muscle-men, pyrotechnics and Bat-gadgets, 48% of the audience for "The Dark Knight" were women, according to Warner Bros., a much higher percentage than for previous installments of the Gotham guardian's saga.

For "Mamma Mia!" the ratio was completely different. Three out of four attendees were women, and many of them had seen the Broadway musical by the same name. According to Nikki Rocco, president of domestic distribution for Universal Pictures, the release was intended as a bit of counter-programming to "Dark Night."

"This has worked out exactly as we planned it," she said. According to Media by Numbers, "Mamma" set the opening weekend for a musical, squeaking past "Hairspray" by about $140,000.

But for Jaimie Geller of Pacific Palisades, "Mamma Mia!" was of little interest. Passing up the song and dance routine, she stood first in line, along with her husband, to see a 10 p.m. showing of "The Dark Knight" on Saturday in Santa Monica.
"I don't really care about Batman," she said. "I came here to see Heath Ledger."
ken.bensinger@latimes .com

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Source: latimes.com

Technorati Tags: movie,news

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Ubisoft Steals ‘No-CD Crack’ to Fix Rainbow 6: Vegas 2

“Piracy is BAD” proclaims every copyright dependent industry lobby group. “Downloading is stealing” is another popular one. How about “downloads are a lost sale”? Ubisoft clearly didn’t believe that last one, as they distributed a no-cd patch from the scene group RELOADED as a fix for one of their games.

Piracy can be a funny business at times, but the rhetoric is often extremely predictable. So when something unexpected happens it can knock you off your stride. Something like… a major game publisher distributing a Scene no-cd crack as a fix would do it, for instance. If it sounds unlikely, that’s because sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. In this case, the publisher is Ubisoft, the game ‘Rainbow Six: Vegas 2‘, and the Scene ‘no-cd’ crack – yes that’s there as well.

The situation revolves around that oddest of characters, Direct2Drive (D2D) - an online games store, owned by IGN, selling games over the Internet as protected downloads. Game code is modified to prevent the standard retail DRM from inhibiting game play (as there is no actual disc to check for) with Trymedia activation utilized instead. More importantly, since the code around the DRM has been modified and changed to a different system, regular patches from the game developers can’t be used. Instead, patches must be reworked by D2D to accommodate these changes. These changes are not always quick, a point D2D does try and defuse in its FAQ.

Thus we come to Rainbow Six: Vegas2 (R6V2) which, since its release in March, has had three patches released for it. The third, 1.03 provides a lot of changes, including new play modes, so legitimate purchasers of the game were eager to try it. The problem is, those that bought it via D2D can’t use it. This is the problem inherent in DRM. Those that buy the product are the ones affected, not those the DRM is designed to defeat.

After lots of complaining and attempts to fix things themselves, one Ubisoft employee found a solution. A zip file was uploaded to the help/support site, named “R6Vegas2_fix.zip”.

If D2D users patched to 1.02, then replaced the EXE with this one, they could then update to the new patch. However, someone ran a hex edit and it appears the fix was not Ubisoft code but actually a ‘no-cd’ crack released by the Scene group RELOADED, as shown here.

Since then, the zip file containing the fix has been pulled from the Ubisoft support site, so we’re unable to verify. The game’s community is as baffled by this as everyone else. Since the claimed origin of the fix, 10 days ago, there has been no word on it officially from Ubisoft, beyond a ‘Community Manager’ who states

We’re looking into this further as this was not the UK Support team that posted this, however if it is an executable that does not need the disc I doubt it has come from an external source. There’d be very little point doing so when we already own the original unprotected executable.

As soon as we find out more about this we’ll let you know.
_________________
Ubi.Vigil
Community Manager
Ubisoft UK

Although it is not unknown for a Scene release to be used to ‘fix’ a retail product, it’s certainly rare to have that fact promoted. That the ‘no-cd’ patch works, might have some relation to how brutal the Scene is when it comes to the quality of their work, especially in games. Whilst this is a validation that the Scene isn’t as bad as the lobby groups would have you believe (they fixed the game, and did it for free) you can bet that Ubisoft won’t be smiling at E3, and that they, and Direct2Drive, will continue to use DRM to annoy and inconvenience paying customers.

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Source: torrentfreak.com

Technorati Tags: games,crack,protection

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New Flock 2.0 Beta Available for download

Flock is a consumer Internet business which has developed a free, next generation web browser. The web, and the way people engage online, has evolved dramatically over the past decade. But web browsers - the application that fundamentally enables online experiences and services across ones' connected life - have not kept pace.

Flock is focused on fundamentally evolving the browser, bringing a refreshing new approach to how people use and participate on the web and simplifying social and web-based applications by bringing them one step closer to the user and integrating them directly into the browser.

When using Flock, people can easily discover, access, create and share videos, photos, blogs, feeds and comments across social communities, media providers, and popular websites.

What to Expect

Now you can have the best of BOTH worlds!

Flock 2 includes all of the award-winning Flock features that people are raving about, PLUS all of the enhancements introduced by the latest FireFox 3 technology from Mozilla.

Enhancements From Firefox 3:

• New and improved security features - Better!
• Enhanced performance - Faster!
• Robust favorites and history handling - Stronger!

All the Flock Features You Love:

• People Sidebar: Keep your friends with you while you browse
• Drag’n’drop: Share photos and videos instantly
• My World: Everything you care about in one place

Get More Info

Flock 2 encompasses a heck-ton of enhancements, and you can find out more in our series of articles about Flock and Firefox 3:

• Performance in Flock 2 and Firefox 3
• Security in Flock 2 and Firefox 3
• User Interface in Flock 2 and Firefox 3
• Favorites Management in Flock 2 and Firefox 3
• Flock Feature Enhancements in Flock 2

source and download : flock.com

 

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Build a Web Chat Application Part 2 - Chat with Other Users Privately (in C# 3.5)

In Part 1 we built a very simple, flicker-free, frame-less, web chat application using ASP.Net 3.5, LINQ-to-SQL, AJAX and MS SQL Server, with your choice of either C# 3.5 or VB 9.0 in about 2 hours.

As promised, we will add functionality to our previous chatroom application so that users will have the ability to chat with each other privately.

You can read and download the code of Part 1 in C# 3.5 here, or in VB 9.0 here.

Here's a snapshot of the Chatroom area.

I noticed while coding for part 2 that the names (in black) of the chatters didn't show in the chatroom messages, so I added them real quickly. Continue here..

source : junnark.com

 

Technorati Tags: web,programming,tutorial

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Next-Generation Windows 7 User Experience

With Windows 7 Milestone 1 released in December 2007, Microsoft managed to give a taste of the user experience that is coming with the successor of Windows Vista.

At the same time, since Windows M1 was virtually identical with its predecessor in terms of the graphical user interface, the UX was also similar. But make no mistake about it; as part of the development process of Windows 7, Microsoft is also building the next-generation user experience for Windows. Starting with the graphical user interface, an aspect confirmed officially by Julie Larson-Green, Corporate Vice President, Windows Experience Program Management at the end of May, when she admitted that work was being done on the Win7 GUI but refused to give out any details.

However, crumbs from the Windows 7 UX feast do fall through Microsoft's fingers. The company is in fact looking for the right people to take the Windows user experience to the next level. For example, the Windows Experience Core User Experience team is hiring.

"We own the high-level features that users interact with daily, such as the desktop, taskbar, start menu, app switching, control panels, gadgets, media experiences, etc. etc. We *are* the face of Windows, and our charter is improving the everyday experiences for millions of customers. We’re looking for highly skilled engineers who are passionate about building and shipping the next-generation user experience for Windows," reads an excerpt from a Software Development Engineer in Test job for Windows.

But at the same time, the Redmond giant is looking for User Experience researchers and designers. In this regard, Microsoft places a great deal of emphasis on the intimate connection between future releases of Windows client and the Windows Live cloud platform. "Microsoft is looking for a design innovator," the company indicated in a job posting for User Experience Designer, the goal being to synchronize the Windows and Windows Live user experiences not only at product level but also as brands, from interaction to visual design.

"Someone who thinks strategically about brands and can invent, drive, and inspire great visual and interaction design to influence the course of the world’s most used software product - Windows, and its new suite of integrated online services, Windows Live. You’ll be working with the world’s best developers, visual and interaction designers, UX researchers, and brand managers, all dedicated to revolutionizing software design. You need to be somebody that loves software, thinks deeply about brands, is hands-on with technology, focuses on the customer, and absolutely exudes a passion for great design," Microsoft added.

There is no telling now where Microsoft is going with the user experience and the design of the graphical user interface in Windows 7. Sill, one good piece of news for Windows users is that Julie Larson-Green is on the job. She is after all responsible for the design innovations included into the Office 2007 System, namely the Ribbon/Fluent graphical user interface.

According to the company, the "Windows and Windows Live UX Research team, a partner with other product development disciplines, we ensure that Windows, Windows Live, and Internet Explorer ship successful and outstanding user experiences to hundreds of millions of customers. Big challenges and success at a world-wide scale are achievable."

Source: news.softpedia.com

Technorati Tags: interface,windows

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First look at Nvidia’s new GeForce 9-series laptop graphics cards

Nvidia recently revealed that their G92 GPU will soon be released in its mobile guise, but so far the company has been very tight-lipped over the details. However, Justin of Xotic PC, a US-based gaming PC and laptop manufacturer, has just posted 3DMark scores and the specs of the new GeForce 9800M GT graphics card on the notebookreview.com forums.

The screenshots do leave room for speculation on some points however. As you can see in this screenshot, GPU-Z tells us that the GeForce 8800M GTX card was based on the G92 GPU design whereas the GeForce 9800M GT uses a new GPU design called '060B'. This name doesn't follow Nvidia's typical codename naming convention so could indicate anything from an error with GPU-Z to the GeForce 9800M GT being a totally new and unknown design.

GPU-Z also reports that the 9800M GT only has 6 ROPs, a full 10 ROPs less than the GeForce 8800M GTX. ROPs are usually laid out in sets of four, making 6 a peculiar number. This could either be caused by GPU-Z reading the amount of ROPs in the GeForce 9800M GT incorrectly or it could be reading 6 sets of 4 ROPs, making a total of 24.

Clock speeds remain the same as with the GeForce 8800M GTX, with a 500MHz core, 799Mhz (1.598Ghz effective) memory and the stream processors running at 1.250GHz. The hardware produced results of 9,682 3DMark06 points, with 3DMark Vantage hitting P4130 in the test system which used an Intel Core 2 Xtreme X9100 mobile CPU.

Kobalt Computers' Neil Richards has also played with the new laptop GPU and told us, “What I can confirm for definite is that the performance of the 9800M GT is marginally better than an 8800M GTX, and £130 ex VAT cheaper”. That the 9800M GT will knock the previously reigning 8800M GTX from its pedestal and cost less can only be a good thing for mobile gaming, bringing down the often high cost associated with gaming on the go.

The launch of the mobile 9-series coincides with Intel’s launch of the new Centrino 2 yesterday, so the next generation of gaming laptops are just round the corner. Centrino 2 is the long-awaited update to the incredibly successful Centrino platform, and brings new 45nm Penryn processors (including the new Xtreme X9100), 802.11/n Wi-Fi, optional DDR3 memory support and Wi-MAX to laptops. We expect to have laptops based on all this new technology in the next two weeks.
More images for this article:

3dMark Vantage on an Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT

 

 

 

3dMark06 on an Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT

 

 

 

Kobalt Nexus 3 gaming laptop

 

 

 

Continue Reading : custompc.co.uk

Technorati Tags: hardware,graphics card

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Web Photo Album V1.2

Web Photo Album offers the easiest way to create photo galleries for the web. We made it ultimately user friendly and highly usable to ensure that even new users will be able to create a web album in a couple of clicks. Web Photo Album is the only photo album generator that lets you view the result immediately in real time. This means you can see how your album looks as soon as you've added images to it without waiting for the program to generate the album.

With Web Photo Album you can easily share your photo albums on our free online photo sharing service. No additional hosting is required. Sharing your albums is as easy as hitting the Publish button in the program toolbar!

• The latest version of Web Photo Album (Photo! Web Album from now on) is now available from this site. Photo! Web Album offers even more user friendly environment for album creation and includes new cool galleries for you to enjoy. The latest versions of this and other software are also available on site, where you can share your photo albums easily.

Click here for full features list.

Download : Web Photo Album V1.2

Source : vicman.net

 

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Download Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1

Firefox 3.0.1 fixed several issues found in Firefox 3.

• Fixed several security issues.
• Fixed several stability issues.
• Fixed an issue where the phishing and malware database did not update on first launch.
• Under certain circumstances, Firefox 3.0 did not properly save the SSL certificate exceptions list.
• Updated the internal Public Suffix list.
• In certain cases, installing Firefox 2 in the same directory in which Firefox 3 has been installed resulted in Firefox 2 being unstable. This issue was fixed as part of Firefox 2.0.0.15.
• Fixed an issue where, when printing a selected region of content from the middle of a page, some of the output was missing (bug 433373).
• Fixed a Linux issues where, for users on a PPP connection (dialup or DSL) Firefox always started in "Offline" mode (bug 424626).

Download : Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1

Source : mozilla.com

 

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Windows will be killed by virtual appliances: VMware exec

Large commercial operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, will no longer exist within five to ten years, according to a senior VMware executive. Instead there will only be very thin open source operating systems supporting virtual appliances.

According to Paul Harapin, managing director for Australia and New Zealand at VMware, Windows and other large operating systems are already starting to be replaced by virtual appliances running on thin layers of Linux.

"When you go to Cisco and say you want a router and a firewall, they provide you with an appliance," says Harapin.

"Inside that appliance is probably a bootstrapped Linux operating system that they manage themselves, there's memory and all sorts of devices. If something goes wrong with that appliance, you don't open up the router and try to determine whether it's an OS problem or a memory problem, you simply call Cisco and tell them that's there's a problem with your appliance."

Paul Harapin claims that this scenario is the forerunner of what is to come in the computing environment.
"What that means is they don't need you to buy a large commercial operating system from Microsoft or anybody else," he says.

"They use their own open source OS, a very thin layer of operating system. They take out all the unnecessary components that are in a large commercial OS because they're customising the OS to optimise the use of their applications. They essentially package that up as an appliance, a running server or a running application, and they send it to you. If you're running a VMware infrastructure, you just drop that on and there's your server up and running.

"If there's a problem, there's no operating system that you need to worry about because you simply call the software (application) vendor up, tell them there's a problem with their VM, and they'll snapshot the VM, patch it and send it back to you. So it's an appliance but it just has no hardware around it."

source: itwire.com

 

Technorati Tags: windows,system

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