SgDotNet

SGDN Jan 2009 UG Meeting

microlau — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 06:18:00 GMT

Our next UG Meeting is held on 8th January 2009, Level 22 BR-01, NTUC Building from 1830 hrs – 2130 hrs. Light snacks will be served before the session. Spice up your ASP.NET web site using AJAX Lim Boon Tiong, ASP.NET MVP 1900 – 2015 hrs During this session, Boon Tiong will examine a few of his favourite AJAX features with Visual Studio 2008. You'll learn and experience the different ways of implementing AJAX and spice up your existing web site with minimum effort. About the Speaker...(read more)

Google, Microsoft, Apple sued over preview icons

usoup — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:04:27 GMT

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044908,62049600,00.htm?scid=nl_z_ntnd

Great! Next time we should pay George Lucas or Steven Spielberg royalty fees when we build the next inter-galactica space shuttle. Maybe I should have changed my job. Is multi-touch technology patented yet? Or how about the glass display panel?

Dot Net Video Learning Websites

darenhan — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:10:00 GMT

I found some sites in a forum post somewhere and decide to share these links.

MSDN WEBCASTS
http://www.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/ondemand.mspx

DNR TV
http://www.dnrtv.com/

MSDN UK NUGGETS
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/msdn/nuggets/

HANSEL POSCAST
http://www.hanselminutes.com/

CHANNEL 9 SCREEN CAST
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=38

DAVID HAYDEN'S SCREEN CAST
http://www.pnpguidance.net/Screencasts.aspx

WONDERHOWTO
http://www.wonderhowto.com/computer-programming/asp-net-video/

DimeCasts Learn something New
http://www.dimecasts.net/Home

Best Tech Videos
http://www.bestechvideos.com

Videos of Asp.net, C#
http://aspdotnetsolutions.blogspot.com/search/label/Video%20Tutorials

DotNetVideos
http://www.dotnetvideos.net

The amount of time for a script to execute was exceeded error.

darenhan — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 06:03:00 GMT

I recently got lots of this following error in the event viewer and on my classic asp pages / asp.net pages for some applications that are under maintainance:

"The amount of time for a script to execute was exceeded. You can change this limit by specifying a new value for the
property Server.ScriptTimeout."

I google for it and the best explaination is found in

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/32876212/script-timed-out-error.aspx

It explains that the sql scripts / stored procedures are executing very slowly, hence the error.

I have also checked Microsoft FAQ about ScriptTimeout.

"An increase in timeout value can have a negative effect on server performance. You should design scripts that run within the default timeout settings. For example, an increase in script timeout value can keep IIS threads occupied and reduce the number of users that the server can serve."

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/268364

So the best solution is to fine-tune the sql / stored procedure before executing it again. Increasing the value of Server.ScriptTimeout is not a solution as explained by Microsoft as above.

Installing Integration Services into Several Virtual Machines Simultaneously...

kitkai — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:02:00 GMT

Doesn't work.... ' I'm in the process of setting up a POC environment for a tender I'm working on. It consist of more than 7 virtual machines. Obviously I will use HyperV, instead of VMWare, which is what the client is using, since I have all the OSs sysprep, and it would take much less time for me to get the environment up. So after booting all the virtual machines up, the first thing to do is obviously to install the integration service. Do it all together, you will get an error...(read more)

Report Server Catalog Best Practices

microlau — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 02:12:00 GMT

An outstanding article on SqlCat on RS Catalog Best Practices ....(read more)

zero day vulnerability for Internet Explorer

darenhan — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 12:30:00 GMT

Microsoft issues an out-of-band patch for the zero-day flaw affecting Internet Explorer. The IE security fix comes in response to reports hackers have been targeting the Web browser data binding vulnerability for at least a week.

Microsoft released a patch Dec. 17 for a zero-day vulnerability affecting Internet Explorer that has been making headlines recently.

The vulnerability, which affects every version from IE 5 to IE 8 Beta 2, lies in the browser's data binding function. According to Microsoft, when data binding is enabled—which it is by default—it is possible under certain conditions for an object to be released without updating the array length. This makes it possible to access the deleted object's memory space and cause the browser to exit unexpectedly in a state that is exploitable.

An attacker can exploit the vulnerability via a specially crafted Web page. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the logged-on user, according to the Microsoft advisory.

Read how hackers are using legitimate sites to exploit the Internet Explorer flaw.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Hackers-Compromise-Legit-Web-Sites-to-Target-Microsoft-IE-Flaw/

"This out-of-band security update is not cumulative," Microsoft officials stated in the advisory. "To be fully protected, customers should apply this update after applying the most recent cumulative security update for Internet Explorer. This update, MS08-078, will be included in a future cumulative security update for Internet Explorer."

Reports of attacks targeting the vulnerability began to surface the week of Dec. 8, and over the weekend, hackers were found to be compromising legitimate Web sites as part of their efforts to infect vulnerable users. McAfee reported Dec. 17 that a number of variants of the exploit are circulating, including one that uses malicious Word document files.

For those who cannot quickly deploy the patch, Microsoft has made information available about a number of workarounds and mitigations, including restricting Internet Explorer from using OLEDB32.dll with an Integrity Level ACL and disabling X M L Island functionality.

Get the patches here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-078.mspx

A good reason to watch The Day the Earth Stood Still

microlau — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:26:00 GMT

My wife and I watched the latest sci-fi movie, The Day The Earth Stood Still, with leading cast Keanu Reeves, and I was pleasantly surprised by the usage of Microsoft Surface within the storyline. Within the movie, Surface was being used in a multi-user scenario, whereby a group of cast were gathering around Surface to discuss about the facts and information about the alien. The application also featured the ability of Surface to recognise the actual physical object placed on the Surface top and...(read more)

Mix-It-Up, Touch-It-Up

kitkai — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:11:00 GMT

Innovation is touching down in Singapore! See it with your own eyes and hear it directly from Mr Tim Huckaby, a “Pioneer of the Smart Client Revolution” as he shares on Windows Presentation Foundation, Silverlight and Microsoft Surface! This session will be heavily demo focused to accentuate how the power of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight 2.0 can be used to visualize data. WPF is the next-generation presentation sub-system for building rich Windows smart client...(read more)

Next Gen of TV on your computer

darenhan — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 08:58:00 GMT

I been looking in some forum lately and discover Boxee TV.

Boxee gives you a true entertainment experience to enjoy your movies, TV shows, music and photos, as well as streaming content from websites like Hulu, Netflix, CBS, Comedy Central, Last.fm, and flickr.

You have to sign up to get an invite.

http://www.boxee.tv/index.php

Virus that disable cmd prompt and regedit

darenhan — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 01:03:00 GMT

I was at my uncle place fixing his computer due to virus infection in his computer and laptop.

I discover command prompt was disabled and regedit too. The error message was "The command prompt / regedit was disabled by your administrator".

I was puzzled because I am already using the admin user account in XP to login.

Nowadays the virus writers disable the command prompt and regedit so you cannot troubleshoot the problem.

So i use google and found symantec tool 's UnHookExec.inf to unlock the regedit.

http://www.pchell.com/support/registryeditordisabled.shtml

For command prompt unlock (after setting the regedit problem),

I used method 2 on this website: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/disablecmd.htm

Open Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) and navigate to:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System]

In the right-pane, double-click DisableCMD and set it's data to 0

and there is a virus WinSit.exe which i disable using msconfig.

http://www.frihost.com/forums/vt-77939.html

After that, I use Trendmicro to remove traces of the virus.

It is a pity that virus scanners cannot undo the setting of priviledge settings of command prompt and regedit, so I have to DIY.

All thanks to Google for providing me the help. :)

Mix-It-Up, Touch-It-Up

microlau — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:19:00 GMT

Refactoring of Thinking

blackinkbottle — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:46:00 GMT

I have been quiet, rather, I have immersed myself in a lot of reading recently (most of them belong to very random subjects).

There is one related to software, “Pragmatic Thinking & Learning – Refactor Your Wetware” by Andy Hunt (recommended by my colleague ty). It is a nice book, I would recommend it to anyone (particular software developer) who is interested in learning the limitation of our thinking. With the awareness of the limitations, you may improve the important thinking and learning skills, which would naturally lead to productivity and active and efficient discovery of unknown unknown.

Things can work, but not as good as if your thinking had been better. Learning can be fruitful, but not as effective as if we spend time tuning the skill of learning.

The book has a strong dialect towards "software" in general. At the same time it takes many references or pointers from various other fields (healthcare, cognitive science, behavioral psychology, education theory, investment thoery etc) to give different perspectives and combine the ideas from those disparate fields.

It discusses the importance of context, the growth pattern from novice to expert (Dreyfus model: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient and expert), the balance (or interplay) between logical (L-mode) and creative (R-mode), the (good or bad) habitual tendency of human mind (cognitive biases, generational affinity, personality tendencies). Given the above backdrop, Andy Hunt prescribed (in the convention of the “Pragmatic Series”) numerical ways and techniques to improve thinking and learning skills (learn deliberately, SMART, SQ3R, learn by teaching, gain experience, embrace error, manage focus, etc)

I like the discussion on context and the repeated assertion that context is the king. This is particularly relevant for the world of software development (from solution artchitecture, to feature design, to library design, to design of data structure and algorithms). Software traditionally emphasizes "encapsulation”. That is to allow nothing but different level of abstractions, or context.

Taking an extended analogy, if every problem (low level or high level) is designated as a context, we essentially perform “context switch” within our brain. Our brain is similar to an OS. The OS should spend more time in crunching the context itself (solving the actual problem); rather in switching the context (the switching latency has to be measured in terms of retrieving and reloading of the entire working memory). When the context is fully loaded, we will decompose the problem into “system calls” which could be handled by the OS.

Therefore, important metrics of the OS are

Latency of context switching (also discussed in this part article)
Clarity and maturity of “system calls” (organized experience)
Stability and reliability of OS (bugs in thinking or even in experience?)

This OS is not open sourced, neither could be virtualized, it belongs to your and me, ourselves. However, it does allow to insert breakpoint for some verification, and allow to perform a core dump for introspection. After all, there is only one rule, there is no substitute for thinking, and there is no substitute for improving our thinking.

More about installing Zune on Windows Server 2008

microlau — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:09:00 GMT

Following on my previous post , I realised that for certain machines, simply running the Zune-*.msi will not install properly. To overcome the problem, start command prompt as an administrator, and manually run 'msiexec /i Zune-*.msi' * - Replace with the version that you require (depends on whether your machine is x86 or x64)...(read more)

Some of the pitfalls of windows 7 M3 build you need to be aware of

kitkai — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:37:00 GMT

The two major ones are Losing Sleep (If you load all your daily-used applications and use it like a production OS) Whenever my windows 7 laptop goes into sleep or hibernation, when it tries to wake up, you get BSOD. On a bare minimum Windows 7, you won't get this. Unlocking the hidden features of Windows 7 www.withinwindows.com shares that there are hidden features in the M3 build that is not available to people who are not under Microsoft's payroll. Workaround are given to unlock those features...(read more)

save $$ on your mobile with callback service from Hoiio

darenhan — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:12:00 GMT

Hoiio is an service that lowers your phone bill, especially if you are always exceeding your bundled talktime, or if you are always making international call or SMS.

Hoiio is a must have app for a windows mobile phone! Whats more, it is free to register, prepaid based (no monthly subscription) and it is giving $1 bonus credits upon registering!

http://content.hoiio.com/localmobilecall.html

videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_tCZjIOhN8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwFJMaxkG_8

just tried it on samsung omnia and it works!

Went against common sense and ran a pre-beta product in production!

kitkai — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:37:00 GMT

And that product is, Windows 7 M3 Build! In fact, I am so happy with the performance of this build that I have actually killed all instances of Vista on my home network! (Ok, I only had one Vista which my wife uses on her laptop, since I deployed Windows 2008 on all the machines I use because of HyperV). There are a lot of things I like in Windows 7. The most important one is performance! Anyway, I'm going to list down all the points I like and dislike. Performance Performance increases by a...(read more)

VSTS Development and Database Edition merges

microlau — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:53:00 GMT

It's great news for those folks who're thinking of using VSTS to manage their IT projects from end to end - VSTS Development and Database Edition merges - Read more here ....(read more)

Related MS virtualisation downloads

darenhan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:15:00 GMT

http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/downloads.mspx?CR_ID=-1&CR_TC=9OSUHTEXXE95SOS

For those people who are keen to try out hyper-v and virtualisation. :)

Social Computing at it most niche!

kitkai — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:58:00 GMT

Now your plant also have an online presence! http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronics/add2/?cpg=80H...(read more)

CrossOver Mac for free while stock last

darenhan — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:56:00 GMT

CrossOver Mac allows those people using Mac Laptops (yes MacBook and MacBook Pro) to use Microsoft Applications including Office etc.

This offer is only for 2 days (today and tomorrow), get it while stock lasts.

http://lameduck.codeweavers.com/free/

windows mobile 7 set to released next year 2009

darenhan — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:58:00 GMT

I got mixed feelings about this. Sources said when windows mobile 7 released, skymarket will be released too. It will compete with Apple appstore . Only time will tell who will emerge the winner.

screenshots and review: http://microsoft.blognewschannel.com/archives/2008/01/06/exclusive-windows-mobile-7-to-focus-on-touch-and-motion-gestures/

SkyMarket: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/sep/01/microsoftskymarketcomingfor

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 – Critical

darenhan — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:54:00 GMT

From windows secrets:

With little warning, Microsoft released yesterday an unscheduled or "out-of-cycle" patch for a highly critical vulnerability that affects all versions of Windows.

Security bulletin MS08-067 (patch 958644) was posted to warn of a remote-code attack that could spread wildly across the Internet. Microsoft says it found evidence two weeks ago of an RPC (remote procedure call) attack that can potentially infect Windows machines across the Net with no user action required. Windows Server 2003, 2000, and XP (even with Service Pack 2 or 3 installed) are particularly vulnerable.

Vista and Server 2008 gain some protection via User Account Control, data-execution protection, and other safeguards, as explained in an article by Dan Goodin in the Register. While firewalls are a first line of defense against this attack, don't think you're secure just because you have a firewall. Malware and viruses use many different techniques to wiggle their way into our systems. For example, my office's networks are protected by firewalls on the outside, but inside the network, PCs have file and printer sharing enabled. If a worm got loose inside the office network (and the patch hadn't been installed), the attack would spread like wildfire. Many antivirus vendors have already issued definition updates that protect against this attack. Your antivirus program, however, may not protect you completely even if your AV definitions are up-to-date.

Early reports indicate that there are already nine different strains of viruses trying to take advantage of this vulnerability. We can expect more to come, so even the best AV application may not be able to update fast enough. I've tested this patch and have had no problems applying it. I strongly urge you to download and install this patch manually. Restart your PC before installing any patch to verify that your machine is bootable.

Then be sure to reboot again after installing the patch, so the patched binaries completely replace the vulnerable components. Microsoft has posted several versions of the patch that apply to different operating systems: Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or 3 patch

download http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0D5F9B6E-9265-44B9-A376-2067B73D6A03&displaylang=en

More information: Please read security bulletin MS08-067. For an excellent technical explanation of the vulnerability and possible mitigations, read TechNet's Oct. 23 description. (TechNet incorrectly refers to MS08-067 as "out-of-band," but the patch is simply out-of-cycle, because it wasn't released on Microsoft's usual Patch Tuesday monthly cycle.)

More info: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-067.mspx

All about WSDL, Types and Section 5 Encoding (again)

Softwaremaker — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:58:46 GMT

Ahhh ... it has been a while, hasnt it ?

My life is just torn between working with bits of 2, beats of 4 and nucleotides of 4. But while challenging, it has been really fun. As spoken to a friend today, my passions in life seeks out to expand the comfort boundaries of gray matter, which we called the mind and to constantly challenge and stimulate the brain to learn and absorb new things that one would never think of learning if one boxed themself in a virtual space, which techies like me would call "typecast".

One example that I highlighted to my friend today, which I respectfully pointed out to them that he falls under, is when he said: "But we tech people are not good at talking to people and engaging them in meaningful conversations ..."

Typecast alert !

I ended up talking with him (not to him) for a good 20 minutes and told him we just had a meaningful conversation and that he could hold one really well. I told him that he himself set up this virtual boundary to box himself in. No one did and that he could easily remove this barrier and elevate himself to do and more importantly, to learn new things and behaviors. Instead of having new curiousities about old things, have new questions, passions and interests towards new things.

Anyways, I wont be talking about my new-found passions here but I will be briefly touching on a topic that many people knew I have passions for (and I still do) - and that is the innards and the plumbings of software technologies.

I came across types of this type of questions a lot in emails, forum questions and usergroup events:

I have this WSDL file that looks something like this:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

However, I need to change the add_someCustomerReturn type from xsd:string to a complex type.

I’ve made several tests variants around trying to add a complex type, like the following:

However I always end up having an error like:

Custom tool error: Unable to import WebService/Schema. Unable to import binding 'customerBinding' from namespace 'urn:customer'. Unable to import operation 'add_customer'. The datatype 'urn:customer:respType' is missing.

One thing to note is the above "web service" is using: soap:binding style="rpc". While I am not advocating one over another (document/literal), I personally think that if you stripped the religious and philisophical debates, one can certainly build a RPC-style web service using doc/literal encoding.

The above exceptions funs afoul of what many techies called: Section 5 Encoding

For the above to be resolved, you need to define a complexType reference by wsdl:part “add_someCustomerReturn” in the schema.
To do this, you MUST define wsdl:types and add the schema to the WSDL that defines the complex and change the type=”xsd:string” (of the wsdl:part) to the identifying complexType in the schema (encoded in wsdl:types)

While this is an old article written by Tim, the same principles apply. Do check it out of you need to stimulate your brain: The Argument against SOAP Encoding

For those who think SharePoint is a Mickey Mouse portal,

kitkai — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:30:00 GMT

Or I quote someone today, who says "SharePoint is not a real portal", here are some statistics I emailed internally to change the perception. Sites Profile No of users Education http://www.cps.edu/ http://www.quantcast.com/cps.edu 45.1k https://www.ocps.net/Pages/default.aspx http://www.quantcast.com/ocps.net 249.5k Government http://www.marines.mil/news/Pages/marinestv.aspx http://www.quantcast.com/marines.mil 131.7k Healthcare http://www.nhs.uk/ http://www.quantcast.com/nhs.uk 733.5k...(read more)