Anyone Remember the DotCom Era?

PC Upgrade Update

So this morning I finally got around to installing the 2GB RAM to replace the two 512MB sticks in my DELL Vostro. Everything seems to be running fine, no problems booting back up and the Crucial memory scanner seems to be telling me the RAM is installed just fine. One problem, XP Pro is only showing 3.25GB in System Properties. It's ok, though, I knew this would happen as XP can only recognise 3-3.5GB.

This I might have to step up to Vista ... ulp.

[EDIT:30/02/2009] Prompted by an anonymous comment on this post, I felt it wise to expand on my endevours, or at least provide some more information. Anon is indeed correct that 32 bit OS's are limited (as far as Windows goes) in accessing RAM...

• Here is Microsoft's memory access page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx
• Crucial's memory scanner: http://www.crucial.com/uk/systemscanner/index.aspx

Tweet in C#

Just a quick one; how to tweet to twitter in C#:

http://weblogs.asp.net/wallym/archive/2009/03/25/twitter-api-submit-a-post-in-c.aspx

The Browser Wars Rage On

http://www.dearie6.com/

Yep, a lot of people hate IE6. I do too, but I don't have to work with it - that's for front-enders, or the "UX team". For those who are interested, the current browser usage:

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Scary, eh? It was only September 2007 that IE6 was knocked off the top spot , but it's still hanging strong in third place. Why? Well, there are a lot of opinions and statistics will only get you so far. My opinion being that too many people are comfortable with it and don't know what a Web Browser actually is. Sounds crazy, but I often run into people asking how to use (insert website name here) as a product, as if it's installed on their computer - totally unaware that it isn't. The most common assumption (in my experience) that web-based email is only available on the home computer.

The issue there is lack of understanding driven by interest. As time passes this will dissipate and the general awareness of internet-based, or cloud-based, technology improves.

Another favourite statistic of mine is screen resolutions. A lot of managers request and designers still work to 800x600. I do not understand this. At all. Everyone, for years now, has been obsessed with bigger and better: TV's, cars, monitors, memory, money, etc. But...

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp

So lets cater to the majority people, it's not hard, in fact it's easier. And the next time I see a page design where the content you actually wanted only takes a 1/4 column and 1/3 height of the page I swear I'll throw the machine out the window.

For developers out there, here's a interesting statistic:

http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html

I'm a C#'er, so it's encouraging and depressing in equal measure for me!

Rube Goldberg. I'm just going a little crazy this morning.

Sports drinks and regular exercise

I've joined a gym and in an effort to discover what really is good for me, in an of Average Joe kind of way, I looked up 'electrolyte'. This is something I've heard a lot of people mention is important in the body, something you lose when exercising and in 2010 the astronauts hated the taste of the eletrolyte replenishment drink. Anyway...

Links:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolyte
• http://www.ask.com/web?q=Electrolyte+Drinks&qsrc=6&o=10601
• http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/electrolyte
• http://ask.yahoo.com/20010813.html

What I've learnt:

• Electrolytes are solutions of acids or salts
• They help the body conduct motor control electrical signals
• Electrolytes are gradually lost during exercise
• Only intense and extended exercise requires extra electrolyte replishment
• Extreme exercise without replishment may result in overhydration

Ok, so lesson 1 here is that when you go to the gym or dojo (as is my preference) you won't need anything other than water, simply because your body is not losing enough electrolyte solution to need something like lucosade or gatorade. They are overkill and the extra sugar you're getting might be doing your teeth more damage than your body will otherwise gains in benefits elsewhere.

If you are involved, for example, in an Iron Man, Ultramarathon or even (as I will be) the London To Brighton Bike Ride for The British Heart Foundation you will need supplement drinks. If, however, you are simply "down the gym during lunch" (as I will be, also) you won't need anything more than water.

Buying PC parts

Situation.

I now need new parts. I have a fairly decent PC mini tower from Euro PC where they sell reduced price DELL machines. Got a very good deal a year or so ago and it's treating me well. It has 3GB of RAM so I thought I'd put a bit more juice in as Crucial is offering 2x1GB sticks of compatible memory for only £22 all in. Good deal, I thought, so I got 'em.

Also, the monitor (as with the other monitor - I have two) is a fairly old CRT by MicroScan. It (they) was (were) the daddy(s) in it's (their) day (awesome image quality and a built in mic), but one has now pretty much shutdown (goes horribly blurry after a minute of use) and the second seems on the way out. The behaviour to note here is the occasional twitch of the screen, as if there is a power surge, causing irregular distortions on the screen, making it look like a mobile phone nearby is receiving a txt message, when there isn't.

So, having ordered the RAM (at silly-o-clock this morning) thought I'd do some proper research into monitors (and can have it verified later by my brother, who is up on his monitor KB, by virtue of his profession) and post some links here for buying and, more importantly, decoding the jargon around the tech specs.

I'm going for a big monitor because I think one large one is better for viewing quality than two smaller one's. This is born out by the fact that the seperation between the two monitors makes split screen movie watching cruddy, to say the least. I'm not going for a projector, because this is a PC I develop code on and I'm not mental.

Some useful links:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrast_ratio
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vga
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_time_(technology)#LCD_monitors
• http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/index.aspx (inspects your memory for you)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdmi
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dsub

Places to buy:

• http://www.crucial.com/uk/
• http://www.ebuyer.com/
• http://www.novatech.co.uk/
• http://www.europc.co.uk/ (discount, but very good, DELLs)
• http://www.scan.co.uk/ (heavy on the postage - not my favourite any more)
• http://www.microdirect.co.uk/

Notes.

It's worth knowing that a high contrast ratio is good and a low one, obviously, is bad. This is because (if you look up the word contrast) the contrast ratio in monitors is the difference between the opposite ends of the colour spectrum. Meaning that if black is 1 and white is 20,000 then you have a contrast ratio of 20000:1 and it is better than 8000:1.

This only differs when you have a monitor with a dynamic range, usually printed as 8000:1 (dynamic). This simply means that the power output, and thus the brightness, of the pixels can be lowered, and thus dimmed, to give the impression of a darker colour. This makes sense because no lightbulb in existence can actually output "black". (American's are wrong when they refer to ultra-violet as "black light" - it's not black!) This can be a problem when a bright colour is near a dynamically dimmed colour, because the light edges will bleed into the darker areas.

It's also worth knowing that DSUB is the type of connector that monitors use, though this is not accounting for the number of pins. Therefore, if a monitor has a DSUB connector you can assume it is a standard VGA monitor connector.

Just for reference, here's what I decided to buy this morning...

Memory:

Obviously, this is not what everyone will need, as everyone's system is different, but I plumbed for 2 x CT763270 1GB, 240-pin DIMM Upgrade for a Dell Vostro 400 Mini Tower System from Crucial's UK branch.

Monitor:

I finally (verrrrry long decision process) settled on the Samsung SM-2433BW Cream 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black by Novatech. Decent size, decent inputs and decent quality. Any less money and it would have started to be a bad monitor with a limited life. I believe the sweet spot for monitors of this size is £250+, though I think £500 is way too much, unless you're a graphics person (I ain't!)

Getting the correct month, no matter the country

Recently I posted about localisation and today need to have a page work out a given month's index value (ie: 1-12) from a string. Because I'm developing the code in the UK and hosting it in the US, the localisation was mucking about with the handling of the DateTime.Parse() interpretation of the date string. I needed the code to handle the parsing as if it was in the UK, no matter where it's hosted.

In short, the answer is from a MSDN article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bz9tc508.aspx

Which I linked to in my earlier post: http://springboardpillow.blogspot.com/2009/03/aspnet-globalization-culture.html

There are two methods, both easy, to use. The first is in the page's page tag (at the top), where the 'GB' forces things like datetime to use Great Britain formatting:

<%@ Page ... Culture="en-GB" ... %>

The second is in the web.config, again it's the GB:

<system.web>

<globalization uiCulture="en" culture="en-GB" />

...

</system.web>

Now, my code will render properly:

DateTime.Parse("01/" + Int32.Parse(month) + "/2009").ToString("MMMM")

Don't ask why I'm doing that, it's just necessary, is all.

I'm preferring the web.config approach, but it's perfectly valid for the page - just be sure to remember which pages use the setting. Obviously, this can all be set dynamically, but you'll have to read the MSDN pages for how to do that - this is just a reminder for myself and anyone who might run across my pages.

How to be productive...

A good question with some nice, simple, straightforward answers, which don't just apply to developers: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/645237/as-a-programmer-what-single-discovery-has-given-you-the-greatest-boost-in-product

I have lived this.

Totally Awesome - Real Digital Paper!

http://i.gizmodo.com/5173069/super-thin-flexible-oled-lights-to-be-available-in-2011

Looks like it's finally here! Digital Paper, or OLED sheets capable of displaying images like any monitor, but any a few millimetres thick.

Gizmodo Favourites

http://i.gizmodo.com/5169878/heres-the-most-amazing-mashup-music-video-you-are-going-to-see-this-month

http://i.gizmodo.com/5169771/have2p-will-save-your-underpants-one-day

http://i.gizmodo.com/5169714/how-to-get-linux-on-anything

http://i.gizmodo.com/5170542/shots-leak-of-lenovo-pocket-yoga-netbook-concept-looks-like-it-actually-fits-in-a-pocket

http://i.gizmodo.com/5170863/friendly-rc-lawnmower-meet-vicious-tank

http://i.gizmodo.com/5171182/sound-curtain-noise-masking-iphone-app-hands-on

Definately feeling this one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test

Anyone feeling it?

Microsoft links I have yet to read, but really should...

How Do I: Create a Breakpoint
Using Conditions?
How Do I: Create a Breakpoint Using Hit Count?
How Do I; Learn Tips and Tricks for Debugging in Visual Studio?
Office Development with Visual Studio Developer
Center Just Launched!
Microsoft Cloud Computing Tools
How Do I: Add Tool Windows to the Visual Studio IDE?
How Do I: Add a New Tool Window to Visual Studio?
How Do I: Integrate With the Error List?
How Do I: Create a Basic Language Service Using the Managed Babel System?
How Do I: Create Custom
Project Templates Using Visual Studio 2008?
How Do I: Create an Item Template Using Visual Studio 2008?
How Do I: Write to the Output Window?
Explore the New Features of Visual Studio 2008
How Do I: Create a Debugger Visualizer?
How Do I: Place My Commands Into Different Kinds of Visual Studio Menus?
How Do I: Add Commands
and Controls Into the Visual Studio IDE?
How Do I: Get Started with the VisualStudio Domain Specific Languages?
Heroes Happen Here
DotNetNuke® and Visual Studio 2008
Visual Studio Tip of the Day
How Do I: Add AJAX Functionality to an Existing ASP.NET Page?
How Do I: Debug a Windows Presentation Foundation Application in Visual Studio 2008?
How Do I: Use the LINQ-Enabled
XML API in Visual Studio 2008?

How Do I: Create and Use an AJAX-Enabled Web Service in a Web Site in Visual Studio
2008?

How Do I: Create and Consume a Windows Communication Foundation Service?

How Do I: Learn About the Integrated Development Environment in Visual Studio 2008?

Building ASP.NET bot protection (CAPTCHA-like)

Efficient Server Side Paging with the ASP.NET GridView Control

SQL Cache Dependency with SQL Server, LINQ and ASP.NET 3.5

Extending ASP.NET MVC Html Helper Class

N-Layered Web Applications with ASP.NET 3.5 Part 4: Sorting, Paging and Filtering

Communication from User control to Page in ASP.NET

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms752347.aspx

Some bluetooth resources. Rage.

Just some links to various useful sites for bluetooth...

http://blog.opennetcf.com/

http://blog.opennetcf.com/ctacke/2008/12/23/SDF23ControllingRadioPower.aspx

http://weblogs.asp.net/skillet/archive/2005/06/23/414626.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/usewinemb/ce/sharedsrccode/west/default.aspx

http://32feet.net/

http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/bluetoothdevelopment/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/downloads/videos/default.aspx

There does seem to be a lot of niche interest in bluetooth, but MicroSoft are letting developers down by not providing a bluetooth API for Windows and Windows Mobile.  How beautiful it would be to create a solution with a couple of Win Forms and Mobile Forms app projects and use the same API in both to communicate over bluetooth, serial even IR.  But no.  There are even videos available on Channel9 where MS devs talk about the amazing work they've done using the MicroSoft C# bluetooth API but simply don't make any of the useful information available.  What's going on MS?  Is it because you know BT is destined for the bin?  And no, I don't consider the above link to Channel9 a productive one.  Is that really the best MS can for us?  Anil Dhawan's link is broken!

Gizmodo, gadgets and fun in the news...

Just browsing about today, I thought I'd post this as it's a bit of a laugh...

http://i.gizmodo.com/5169391/10-gadgets-that-help-you-retain-your-masculinity?skyline=true&s=i

Photo info for creating high dynamic range images...

http://i.gizmodo.com/5168454/how-to-create-stunningly-realistic-high-dynamic-range-photographs?skyline=true&s=x

Mars!

http://i.gizmodo.com/5170120/live-images-from-google-mars-now-available

Tips 'n' Tricks - Null Coalescing Operator

We all like the null coalescing operator (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms173224.aspx), but it’s frustrating when we need to set the variable we’re returning rather than just returning it.

Really we just want to do this:

public class Something
{
private string falafel;

public string GetInfo()
{
return falafel ?? "tabbouleh";
}
}

But then falafel doesn’t get set.

This feels inelegant:

if (falafel == null)
falafel = "tabbouleh";
return falafel;

Luckily, there’s a solution:

return falafel ?? (falafel = "tabbouleh");

This first sets the value of falafel and then returns it.

Fun With GridView...

[EDIT: This is being posted now, but was started back in 2006, so might be a little out of date. My aim is to have no draft posts and this was too useful to delete.]

So I've been playing with databinding controls etc and trying to do things the easy way, I've discovered CodeSmith: http://www.codesmithtools.com/. Used in conjunction with NetTiers2: http://www.nettiers.com/ is a very powerful data access layer code generator.

Anwyay, todays subject, minor though it is, is GridView commands...
...I wanted to have a grid with a couple of buttons: Up and Down, as link buttons, to re-order my content without an edit button.

The solution is simple enough:

1. Add a Button column to your GridView
2. Set it's 'button type' to Link (this is optional really)
3. In the GridView's events panel, double-click RowCommand
4. In the generated event handler you can place:
   switch (e.CommandName) { .... }

Simple really.

Lastly, here's some resources I've been looking at recently:

1. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.gridview.rowcommand.aspx
2. http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2005/10/18/427754.aspx
3. http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/ASPNETProvMod_Prt5.asp
4. http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2005/01/10/liberty.html
5. http://www.odetocode.com/Articles/440.aspx
6. http://www.asp.net/QuickStart/aspnet/doc/profile/default.aspx
7. http://www.theserverside.net/tt/articles/showarticle.tss?id=CreatingProfileProvider
8. http://flimflan.com/blog/ProfileView.aspx
9. http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/01/10/435038.aspx
10. http://www.asp.net/sandbox/samp_profiles.aspx?tabindex=0&tabid=1
11. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/83y98ckk.aspx
12. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=aspnet_regsql+command-line+utility+&btnG=Search
13. http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/
14. http://www.asp.net/learn/absolute/default.aspx?tabid=63
15. http://www.microsoft.com/uk/msdn/security/link_library.mspx
16. http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/04/13/Source-Code-for-the-Built_2D00_in-ASP.NET-2.0-Providers-Now-Available-for-Download.aspx
17. http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/02/24/438953.aspx

Caching and Url Mapping

Caching.

If you look at the line <%@ OutputCache... in the .aspx files you will see that it is configured to cache the output of that whole page for the value in the Duration attribute. The VaryByParam value indicates that any url parameter will cause the page to be re-generated and cached. Replace the "*" with "none" and the caching will ignore the url params and that page will be cached once for the duration.
The OutputCache can be used in individual user controls as well, however, if the page has a duration of 20 and the control within it has a duration of 10 both will be cached for 20. Reverse those numbers and the page will be cached for 10 but the control will be cached for 20.

Be careful that you don't try to reference in your code a control which may have been cached, as it will come back with a null reference, possibly causing an exception!
One other method of caching is substitution mapping, the drawback being that you can only point this at .net controls, not user controls.

Url Mapping.

Now, go to IIS, create a virtual directory under Default Web Site, point it at the Test solution's directory. Open the Properties panel for the virtual dir. Do the following:
Disable directory browsing.
Under Documents, enable default document and have only 1 default document called default.aspx.
Go back to Virtual Directory, click Configuration, click Add and enter:
1. Executable: C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_isapi.dll
2. Extension: .*
3. All Verbs
4. Script Engine ticked
5. Check that file exists NOT ticked
6. Click Ok, Click Ok.
Go to ASP.NET tab and ensure the ASP.NET version is 2.0.50727
Click Ok.
Now, when you browse to http://localhost/test/lose/ or http://localhost/test/win/ you should see the page come up which is actually /test/win.aspx or /test/lose.aspx. Hit refresh and you will see the time has not changed, because the page has been cached. The page appears, even though you have entered a directory name, because IIS is automatically adding default.aspx to any requested directory listing and redirecting all file requests to the .net framework. The .net framework is redirecting from ~/win/ or ~/lose/ to ~/win.aspx or ~/lose.aspx because in the web.config you have a UrlMapping block! Easy.

The only problem with this is that you can't use regular expressions to have, for example, ~/search/ipod/ re-mapped to ~/search.aspx?query=ipod which is annoying, but only because the next server version from microsoft will have a fully operational url mapper and they didn't have time to put it into the current release.

Links:

Caching: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xsbfdd8c.aspx
Substitution mapping: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.substitution(VS.80).aspx
Url Mapping: http://www.developer.com/net/asp/article.php/3581326
MS Blog: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2005/11/14/430493.aspx

Tools List

Here's a list of tools which I use on a regular basis and would be a fixture of a Windows image, if I ever create one...

I had a slightly different list previously: http://springboardpillow.blogspot.com/2009/03/tools-list.html

• http://validator.w3.org/feed/
• Brass - Dynamic
• Windows Enhancement
• Kris' blog - VB.NET & C# comparison cheat sheets
• Fiddler Web Debugger - Freeware HTTP(S) debugging tool
• Time And Date .com
• Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File Recovery - Builds
• regsitry cleaner
• dale lane » Blog Archive » Twitter for Windows Mobile
• http://aspnetresources.com/tools/keycreator.aspx
• XE.com - The World's Favorite
• Currency Site
• fiddler
• Free Virus Scan - Kaspersky Lab
• Dapper: Feed Generator
• Core Temp
• UNLOCKER 1.8.7 BY CEDRICK 'NITCH' COLLOMB
• Fences™ Community Preview Download - By Stardock - Clean
• up your ...
• Feed
• Validator for Atom and RSS
• http://www.dictionary.com/
• Elias Fotinis DeskPins :: Make Any Window Topmost
• Quick Media
• Converter
• ITUNES TOOLBOX: 30+ Tools For iTunes
• MD5 Generator
• Restoration Freeware download and review - file undeleteutility ...
• home of the nerd cave - Taskbar Shuffle
• http://www.coveritlive.com/index.php
• Say NO to 0870
• reCAPTCHA: Stop
• Spam, Read Books
• Crystal Dew World - Software - CrystalDiskInfo
• Launchy: The Open Source
• Keystroke Launcher
• VB.NET to C# Converter
• Freecorder audio recorder
• Free Online PDF viewer - PdfMeNot.com
• PAYPAL - ipn payment simulator
• MaxiVista - Multi Monitor Software
• YouTube Video Download Tool
• Online free Windows Icon creator
• SandCastle - Code Documentation Generator
• http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2005/03/great-flickr-tools-collection/
• http://www.itagsoftware.com/index.php
• http://www.wingrep.com/download.htm

Rubberduck Debugging

Got this from our work email, if you like "intra-mail"...

http://lists.ethernal.org/oldarchives/cantlug-0211/msg00174.html

We called it the Rubber Duck method of debugging.  It goes like this:

1) Beg, borrow, steal, buy, fabricate or otherwise obtain a rubber duck    (bathtub variety)

2) Place rubber duck on desk and inform it you are just going to go over    some code with it, if that's all right.

3) Explain to the duck what you code is supposed to do, and then go into    detail and explain things line by line

4) At some point you will tell the duck what you are doing next and then    realise that that is not in fact what you are actually doing.

The duck    will sit there serenely, happy in the knowledge that it has helped you    on your way.  Works every time.  Actually, if you don't have a rubber duck you could at a pinch ask a fellow programmer or engineer to sit in.

A university in Canada I was told about many moons ago actually had a teddy bear sitting in the student admin's office. When a student wished to book in with a lecturer to discuss a problem they were asked if they'd explained their problem to the teddy bear. If they hadn't, they were told to do that first. This cut something like 80% of lecturer meeting requests from students.

ASP.NET Life Cycle Diagram

Just a quicky...  It's often nice to know what the steps are in the ASP.NET life cycle, as we all forget this (probably) easily and often, especially if we stop using it for a while...

So here is a link providing some good life cycle diagrams:

http://images.google.com/images?rlz=1C1CHMB_en-GBGB316GB316&sourceid=chrome&q=asp.net%20life%20cycle&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi

My favourites:

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/o_aspNet_Page_LifeCycle.jpg

http://blogs.vertigosoftware.com/shannonf/archive/2005/08/07/1355.aspx

http://sanal.org/story/download-aspnet-ajax-client-life-cycle-events-cheat-sheet/

http://blog.codeville.net/blogfiles/2007/ASPNET-MVC-Pipeline/ASP.NET%20MVC%20Pipeline.pdf

http://spazzarama.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/aspnet_page-control-life-cycle.jpg

And one general use link:

http://www.cheat-sheets.org/

He he he!

Creating a certificate in IIS

This is an easy one and really specific to developers who need to do this and only this, but essentially I found the answers by googling "SelfSSL" and "IIS certificate"...

• http://www.visualwin.com/SelfSSL/
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/228821

You will need to do this if you want a website hosted in your local IIS which uses HTTPS.

[EDIT: 21/04/2009] If you need a network certificate from an online (or your company's domain) authority, you should Request a Certificate. Microsoft provide fairly easy instructions for this here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/228821

If you can't locate SelfSSL.exe on your own machine, I've a compressed version you can download here: http://home.freeuk.com/eudoxus/selfssl.rar

[EDIT:01/04/2009] I've just located the download page for this, along with some helpful articles:

• IIS Resources Toolkit download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=56FC92EE-A71A-4C73-B628-ADE629C89499&displaylang=en
• IIS Resources help page: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer2003/Library/IIS/993a8a36-5761-448f-889e-9ae58d072c09.mspx?mfr=true
• Google search for IIS resources information: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1CHMB_en-GBGB316GB316&q=iis+resources&btnG=Search

For a site I setup recently, I used the following line:

selfssl.exe /N:CN=mytestsite /K:1024 /V:1000 /S:30412573 /P:443 /T

Broken down thus:

selfssl.exe

/N:CN=(sitename - doesn't have to match anything)

/K:(certificate size in bytes)

/V:(expiration period in days)

/S:(site id, found by selecting 'Web Sites' in IIS and checking the 'Identifier' field on the right)

/P:(https port number, leave it at 443)

/T (adds the certificate to the trusted sites list)

Once this is finished, open the Properties panel for the website you've just added a certificate to and go to: Web Site -> Advanced -> Multiple SSL identities for this Web site

In this area you should see that the IP address is 'Default' and the SSL port is '443'. Double click this row (or select and click Edit) and replace the 'Default' IP address entry with the IP address of the web site you created.

This last piece means that when the browser goes to the site looking for a secure page IIS will direct it towards the same site, ie the same IP address, rather than the default (the machine address.) You could create two sites, under different IP's, one secure and one not, but that will make your site building harder as you'll have to cater for this in various ways (that I won't go into.)

Have fun.

[EDIT:18/03/2009] It is my experience (Windows 2003 Server R2, IIS 5.2) that occasionally IIS will need the certificate recreating. I don't know why, but I'll try to document it here if I find out.

[EDIT:01/04/2009] Just been sent this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260096

The issue being wrestled with here is that (since version 5.0) when IIS starts up it begins listening for all sites on ports 80 and 443 (standard web and SSL) for incoming connections. This is known as socket pooling. This means that only the first site with SSL (ie: the last site to have a certificate registered) will receive requests on HTTPS. This can be turned off by following the link in the second section (of the above page), which you can also find here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/259349/EN-US/ Please read both these pages to be fully informed, but for brevity, here are the steps to disable socket pooling:

• At a command prompt, switch to the "C:\InetPub\AdminScripts" folder.
• Type the following command:
  CSCRIPT ADSUTIL.VBS SET W3SVC/DisableSocketPooling TRUE

You can also read more about this at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/238131/EN-US/

Just for reference, I've switched off socket pooling on my machine using the article above and it looked something like this:

C:\>cd Inetpub

C:\Inetpub>cd AdminScripts

C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts>CSCRIPT ADSUTIL.VBS SET W3SVC/DisableSocketPooling TRUE

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.

DisableSocketPooling : (BOOLEAN) True

C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts>

Augmented Reality in CSharp

My mind was completely blown away last night when I discovered a blog post by a guy called Casey providing wrapped C++ code for a simple augmented reality project in C#:
http://www.mperfect.net/wpfAugReal/

This is a first step, but it provides a source code solution in .NET to render 3D objects over a live webcam video feed.

To get it running just make sure you have a webcam with a clean image, .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio, the WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) installed, and DirectShowLib. These are all linked from the above link.

I really hope this can be expanded on and that Casey does not mind me referencing his code because the more interest there is in this, the faster/more practical it will grow and become. We don't see really exciting creations like this in everyday life very often, but hopefully this will establish itself.

Btw, one I've not checked out properly: http://sites.google.com/site/augmentedrealitytestingsite/

Resources:

• DirectShow API on WikiPedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectShow
• DirectShow Article at CodeProject: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/directx/directshownet.aspx
• TotalImmersions AR video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6523761027552517909
• Also, a skeleton C# AR app: http://sites.google.com/site/augmentedrealitytestingsite/

ASP.NET Globalization, Culture, Localization and the Resource tag

So here's a couple of useful links that involve setting the appropriate properties of websites in ASP.NET that every .NET coder should be aware of.  Also, something I only recently discovered proper is the tag.  Looks like I've some reading to do, may well expand this entry another time...

ASP.NET Globalization and Localization:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c6zyy3s9.aspx

Basic Instincts-Resources and Localization in ASP.NET 2.0: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163566.aspx

Original Basic Instincts article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/magazine/cc163609.aspx

Extract:

In addition to programmatic access, ASP.NET 2.0 also introduces declarative syntax you can use to bind a named string to a property of a page or control. The syntax involves using the dollar sign ($) followed by the Resources namespace, the name of the resource file and the name of the string:

Tweet tweet tweet...

Yes, I now twitter...

Me: http://twitter.com/horacebury

Others: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HowToTwitterFirstStepsAndATwitterGlossary.aspx

Tools: http://blendingthemix.com/2009/01/23/the-most-popular-100-twitter-applications/

Mobile: http://m.twitter.com/home

Auto: http://twitterfeed.com/

:)

Commerce Server, Afraid to ask?

Finally getting into Microsoft Commerce Server for work and have been looking around for useful articles to break me in gently.  Some good posts from Max Akbar right here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/maxakbar/search.aspx?q=pipeline+afraid&p=1

The initial thrust of my exploration is Pipelines, hence the first 4 articles in the above search, but the rest is good reading.

gacutil exited with error 9009

Ok, this isn't one for me, right now, but I noticed this occuring in some code I'm working on. Now, I don't mess about with the gac (global assembly cache) in .NET - I'm a straight shooter - but I also like to note down issues with resolutions that might crop up later.

Henceforth, here is a blog post with a useful link:

http://blogs.interakting.co.uk/dominicz/archive/2007/09/17/gacutil-exited-with-code-9009.aspx

And the article with the solution (original link):

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.vsnet.general/browse_thread/thread/6e1d0137b0845dcb/1ac407ec67873ceb?lnk=gst&q=9009&rnum=2&pli=1

Essentially, it's useful to be aware that VS does not take into account environment variables when compiling code unless executed with the right options, so best to use the full pathname of assemblies.

Quake? Online? In a browser window? Nice(?)

Ok, so I just noticed this little beauty on my Google homepage:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/QuakeLiveReviewAndRantWhyIsThisInteresting.aspx

However, hmm, looks like it'll be a disappointment.  Better stick with Unreal 3 ;)