It’s been a while since Microsoft released VS 2008 SP1. You could find more details about SP1 in Scott Guthrie’s Post. ADO.NET Entity Framework is something I am looking forward to and hopefully will know more about it when I attend the session.
If you would like to know what’s new in SP1, Microsoft is conducting events across UK this month and here are the details for Manchester,
07-Oct-2008, Manchester, Regus Manchester
Register
Event Description
Audience: Developers
“Service Pack? We’re calling it a Service Pack? Are you kidding??!?!” Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 will release later in 2008 alongside .NET Framework V3.5 Service Pack 1 and, together, they represent a significant upgrade to Visual Studio 2008. There are enhancements across many areas of the .NET Framework such as data access, windows application development and web development and there are also corresponding changes in the development environment to support the new framework features.
Agenda:
Session 1: What’s New for Web & Windows Development?
Session 2: What’s New for Data?
For other locations in UK refer here, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/bb905504.aspx
If you are unable to attend, you can download the presentations from here
Presentation slides
Ponnu
jQuery and Visual Studio
Microsoft has announced that it’s going to make jQuery part of the Visual Studio and use it within ASP.Net AJAX framework and ASP.Net MVC framework. Not only that, Microsoft will also provide a free download for VS 2008 SP1 which would provide intellisense to jQuery within visual studio. For more info on this annoucement refer to the links below
The best bit is that Microsoft is going to provide jQuery unchanged as it is. This means that even if Microsoft changes any of the code, it would submit a patch to jQuery like anyone else.
jQuery
For the ones new to jQuery, jQuery is a lightweight open source Javascript library similar to Prototype and YUI. It allows you to easily find and manipulate HTML elements with minimum lines of code. jQuery uses an interesting concept “Chainability” to make its code short and simple. jQuery has the following features,
- DOM element selections
- DOM traversal and modification
- Events
- CSS manipulation
- Effects and animations
- Ajax
- Extensibility
- Utilities – such as browser version and the each function
- JavaScript Plugins – Tablesorter
jQuery Basics
Once we include the jQuery js file(downloaded from jQuery) as below, we could start using the funtions within jQuery.
<script type=“text/javascript” src=“jQuery.js”></script>
Adding an event is as simple as this,
-
$(“a”).click(function(event){
-
alert(“Hello World!”);
-
});
$(“a”) selects all the anchor(a) elements on the page and binds the click event to them. The same could be rewritten so that an element could be selected instead of all. This is similar to document.getElementById
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$(“#btnHello”).click(function(event){
-
alert(“Hello World!”);
-
});
Lets consider this example,
$(“#divMessage”).show().html(“Hello!”);
The above line of code makes the div visible and sets the HTML content to “Hello!”. Here we use the concept of chainability to make the code short & simple. This is easily achieved because every method within jQuery returns an object.
This example shows code to hightlight alternate rows in a table,
$(“#tblProducts tr:nth-child(even)”).addClass(“alternateRow”);
We could even do animations easily using jQuery. More on this and to sort tables using jQuery plugin – Tablesorter will be discussed in the coming days.
Ponnu
Here are the details of this week’s BDOTNET UG meeting. It’s been a while since I attended last time, planning to attend this saturday.
UG Meeting on 15th Mar 2008 4PM
Session1: New stuff in .NET 3.5
Speaker: Chaitra, MVP – ASP.NET
Time: 4PM
Session2: Design aspects of WF-based applications
Speaker: Manoj, MVP – C#.
Time: 5PM
ENTRY: FREE and for all.
Venue:
ThoughtWorks Technologies (India) Pvt Ltd.
2nd Floor, Tower C, Corporate Block, Diamond District
Airport Road, Bangalore – 560 008, India
(Opposite, TGIF Building)
March 13th, 2008 in
events | tags:
bangalore,
events |
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This one is pretty old but a beautiful thought provoking speech by Azim Premji. Here it goes,
“It is always wonderful to be with young people. The funny thing about life is that you realise the value of something only when it begins to leave you. As my hair turned from black to salt and pepper, and finally salt without the pepper, I have begun to realise the importance of youth. At the same time, I have begun to truly appreciate some of the lessons I have learnt along the way. I hope you will find them useful when you plan your own career and life.
The first thing I have learnt is that we must always begin with our strengths. From the earliest years of our schooling, everyone focuses on what is wrong with us. There is an imaginary story of a rabbit. The rabbit was enrolled in a rabbit school. Like all rabbits, it could hop very well but could not swim. At the end of the year, the rabbit got high marks in hopping but failed in swimming. The parents were concerned. They said, “Forget about hopping. You are anyway good at it. Concentrate on swimming.” They sent the rabbit for tuitions in swimming. And guess what happened? The rabbit forgot how to hop! As for swimming, have you ever seen a rabbit swim? While it is important for us to know what we are not good at, we must also cherish what is good in us. That is because it is only our strengths that can give us the energy to correct our weaknesses.
The second lesson I have learnt is that a rupee earned is of far more value than five found. My friend was sharing with me the story of his eight-year-old niece. She would always complain about the breakfast. The cook tried everything possible, but the child remained unhappy. Finally, my friend took the child to a supermarket and brought one of those ready-to-cook packets. The child had to cut the packet and pour water in the dish. After that, it took two minutes in the microwave to be ready. The child found the food absolutely delicious! The difference was that she had cooked it herself!
In my own life, I have found that nothing gives as much satisfaction as earning our rewards. In fact, what is gifted or inherited follows the old rule of ‘easy come, easy go’. I guess we only know the value of what we have if we have struggled to earn it.
The third lesson I have learnt is no one bats a hundred every time. Life has many challenges. You win some, you lose some. You must enjoy winning. But do not let it go to your head. The moment it does, you are already on your way to failure. And if you do encounter failure along the way, treat it as an equally natural phenomenon. Don’t beat yourself for it or any one else for that matter! Accept it, look at your own share in the problem, learn from it and move on. The important thing is, when you lose, do not lose the lesson.
The fourth lesson I have learnt is the importance of humility. Sometimes, when you get so much in life, you really start wondering whether you deserve all of it. This brings me to the value of gratitude. We have so much to be grateful for. Our parents, our teachers and our seniors have done so much for us that we can never repay them. Many people focus on the shortcomings, because obviously no one can be perfect. But it is important to first acknowledge what we have received. Nothing in life is permanent. When a relationship ends, rather than becoming bitter, we must learn to savour the memory of the good things while they lasted.
The fifth lesson I learnt is that we must always strive for excellence. One way of achieving excellence is by looking at those better than ourselves. Keep learning what they do differently. Emulate it. But excellence cannot be imposed from the outside. We must also feel the need from within. It must become an obsession. It must involve not only our mind but also our heart and soul. Excellence is not an act but a habit. I remember the inspiring lines of a poem which says that your reach must always exceed your grasp. That is heaven on earth. Ultimately, your only competition is yourself.
The sixth lesson I have learnt is never give up in the face of adversity. It comes on you suddenly without warning. You can either succumb to self-pity and wring your hands in despair, or decide to deal with the situation with courage and dignity. Always keep in mind that it is only the test of fire that makes fine steel. A friend of mine shared this incident with me. His eight-year-old daughter was struggling away at a jigsaw puzzle. She kept at it for hours but could not succeed. Finally, it went beyond her bedtime. My friend told her, “Look, why don’t you just give up? I don’t think you will complete it tonight. Look at it another day.” The daughter looked with a strange look in her eyes, “But, dad, why should I give up? All the pieces are there! I have just got to put them together!” If we persevere long enough, we can put any problem in its perspective.
The seventh lesson I have learnt is that while you must be open to change, do not compromise on your values. Mahatma Gandhiji often said that you must open the windows of your mind, but you must not be swept off your feet by the breeze. You must define what your core values are and what you stand for. And these values are not so difficult to define. Values like honesty, integrity, consideration and humility have survived for generations.
Values are not in the words used to describe them as much as in the simple acts. At the end of the day, it is values that define a person more than the achievements. Because it is the means of achievement that decide how long the achievements will sustain. Do not be tempted by short cuts. The short cut can make you lose your way and end up becoming the longest way to your destination.
And the final lesson I learnt is that we must have faith in our own ideas even if everyone tells us that we are wrong. There was once a newspaper vendor who had a rude customer. Every morning, the customer would walk by, refuse to return the vendor’s greetings, grab the paper off the shelf and throw the money at the vendor. The vendor would pick up the money, smile politely and say, “Thank you, sir.” One day, the vendor’s assistant asked him, “Why are you always so polite to him when he is so rude to you? Why don’t you throw the newspaper at him when he comes back tomorrow?” The vendor smiled and replied, “He can’t help being rude and I can’t help being polite. Why should I let his rude behaviour dictate my politeness?
In my youth, I thought of myself as a rebel and was, many times, a rebel without a cause. Today, I realise that my rebellion was another kind of conformity. We defied our elders to fall in line with our peers!
Ultimately, we must learn to respond instead of reacting. When we respond, we evaluate with a calm mind and do whatever is most appropriate. We are in control of our actions. When we react, we are still doing what the other person wants us to do.
I wish you all the best in your life and career. I hope you achieve success in whatever way you define it and what gives you the maximum happiness in life. Remember, those who win are those who believe they can”
Another interesting story,
One day all the employees reached the office and they saw a big advice on the door on which it was written:
‘Yesterday the person who has been hindering your growth in this company passed away. We invite you to join the funeral in the room that has been prepared in the gym’.
In the beginning, they all got sad for the death of one of their colleagues, but after a while they started getting curious to know who was that man who hindered the growth of his colleagues and the company itself.
The more people reached the coffin, the more the excitement heated up. Everyone thought: ‘Who is this guy who was hindering my progress? Well, at least he died!’.
One by one the thrilled employees got closer to the coffin, and when they looked inside it they suddenly became speechless. They stood nearby the coffin, shocked and in silence, as if someone had touched the deepest part of their soul.
There was a mirror inside the coffin: everyone who looked inside it could see himself.
There was also a sign next to the mirror that said:
‘There is only one person who is capable to set limits to your growth: it is YOU. You are the only person who can revolutionize your life. You are the only person who can influence your happiness, your realization and your success. You are the only person who can help yourself.
Your life does not change when your boss changes, when your friends change, when your parents change, when your partner changes, when your company changes. Your life changes when YOU change, when you go beyond your limiting beliefs, when you realize that you are the only one responsible for your life.
‘The most important relationship you can have is the one you have with yourself’
Examine yourself, watch yourself. Don’t be afraid of difficulties, impossibilities and losses: be a winner, build yourself and your reality.
It’s the way you face Life that makes the difference.
Here is another interesting story,
The train has started moving. It is packed with people of all ages, mostly with the working men and women and young college guys and gals. Near the window, seated a old man with his 30 year old son. As the train moves by, the son is overwhelmed with joy as he was thrilled with the scenery outside. “See dad, the scenery of green trees moving away is very beautiful”
This behavior from a thirty year old son made the other people feel strange about him. Every one started murmuring something or other about this son.”This guy seems to be a krack..” newly married Anup whispered to his wife.
Suddenly it started raining… Rain drops fell on the travelers through the opened window. The Thirty year old son , filled with joy “see dad, how beautiful the rain is ..”
Anup’s wife got irritated with the rain drops spoiling her new suit. Anup ,” can’t you see its raining, you old man, if ur son is not feeling well get him soon to a mental asylum..and dont disturb public henceforth”
The old man hesitated first and then in a low tone replied ” we are on the way back from hospital, my son got discharged today morning , he was a blind by birth, last week only he got his vision, these rain and nature are new to his eyes.. Please forgive us for the inconvenience caused…”
The things we see may be right from our perspective until we know the truth. But when we know the truth our reaction to that will hurt even us. So try to understand the problem better before taking a harsh action.
It’s been a while since I posted my last post. Lot of things has happened since then. Hopefully things will settle soon and here is a story that I came across recently.
Here goes the story,
“One day I decided to quit…I quit my job, my relationship,my spirituality… I wanted to quit my life.
I went to the woods to have one last talk with GOD.
“GOD”, I said. “Can you give me one good
reason not to quit?”
His answer surprised me… “Look around”, He said.
“Do you see the fern and the bamboo?”
“Yes”, I replied.
“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took
very good care of them. I gave them light.
I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth.
Its brilliant green covered the floor.
Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed.
But I did not quit on the bamboo.
In the second year the Fern grew more
vibrant and plentiful.
And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed.
But I did not quit on the bamboo.”
He said. “In year three there was still nothing from
the bamboo seed. But I would not quit.
In year four, again, there was nothing from the
bamboo seed. I would not quit.” He said.
“Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged
from the earth. Compared to the fern it was
seemingly small and insignificant………
But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over
100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots.
Those roots made it strong and gave it what
it needed to survive.
I would not give any of my creations a challenge
it could not handle.”
He said to me. “Did you know, my child, that all this time
you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots?”
“I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you.”
“Don’t compare yourself to others.”
He said. “The bamboo had a different purpose
than the fern. Yet they both make the forest beautiful.”
“Your time will come”, GOD said to me. “You will rise high”
“How high should I rise?” I asked.
“How high will the bamboo rise?” He asked in return.
“As high as it can?” I questioned.
“Yes.” He said, “Give me glory by rising as high as you can.”
I left the forest and brought back this story”
Very inspiring story.
Ponnu
BDOTNET is conducting seminars on LINQ and Service Broker in SQL Server 2005 this Saturday. LINQ will be the interesting part. Here are the details,
UG Meeting on 17th November 2007 at 4PM
Session 1: Some cool stuff on C# 3.0 and LINQ
Time: 4PM to 5PM
Speaker: Wriju Ghosh, Microsoft India, Bangalore
Session 2: Service Broker in SQL Server 2005
Time: 5PM to 6PM
Speaker: Amit Bansal (Peopleware India, eDominer Systems P Ltd)
Visit www.amitbansal.net to know more about Amit
DateTime: 17th Nov 2007 Saturday 4PM
Entry: No procedures/No Fee, Simply Walk-in!
Venue:
ThoughtWorks, 6th floor, Diamond District, Airport Road, Bangalore.
Landmark: Near Domlur flyover / oppo TGIF & Bombay post
Ponnu
recently came across this interesting story about “Big Rocks” by Stephen Covey when reading about Time Management. Here it goes,
“One day an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students. As he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said, “Okay, it’s time for a quiz.” Reaching under the table, he pulled out a wide-mouthed gallon jar and set it on the table next to a platter covered with fist-sized rocks. “How many of these rocks do you think we can get in the jar?” he asked the audience.
After the students made their guesses, the seminar leader said, “Okay, let’s find out.” He put one rock in the jar, then another, then another–until no more rocks would fit. Then he asked, “Is the jar full?”
Everybody could see that not one more of the rocks would fit, so they said, “Yes.”
“Not so fast,” he cautioned. From under the table he lifted out a bucket of gravel, dumped it in the jar, and shook it. The gravel slid into all the little spaces left by the big rocks. Grinning, the seminar leader asked once more, “Is the jar full?”
A little wiser by now, the students responded, “Probably not.”
“Good,” the teacher said. Then he reached under the table to bring up a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar. While the students watched, the sand filled in the little spaces left by the rocks and gravel. Once more he looked at the class and said, “Now, is the jar full?”
“No,” everyone shouted back.
“Good!” said the seminar leader, who then grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it into the jar. He got something like a quart of water into that jar before he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the jar is now full. Can anybody tell me the lesson you can learn from this? What’s my point?”
An eager participant spoke up: “Well, there are gaps in your schedule. And if you really work at it, you can always fit more into your life.”
“No,” the leader said. “That’s not the point. The point is this: if I hadn’t put those big rocks in first, I would never have gotten them in.”
In both our business and personal lives, we have big rocks, gravel, sand and water. The natural tendency seems to favor the latter three elements, leaving little space for the big rocks. In an effort to respond to the urgent, the important is sometimes set aside.
What are the ‘big rocks’ in your life? A large project? Spending time with your family? Your health? Your finances? Your faith? Your personal development? Your dreams?
Make a list of your big rocks. Then make a plan to ensure that your big rocks are put first. Block out the time in your schedule for those activities. Amazingly, the other stuff still gets done.
Periodically reflect on how you’re doing. Are you putting your big rocks first, or does gravel and sand and water dominate your life? If the big rocks aren’t getting in, what will have to happen so that they do?
When you’re planning your month, your week or your day, and even when you’re making specific decisions during the day, refer back to your list of big rocks. Then, put those in your jar first.”
The idea here is that when we spend time concentrating on big rocks of your life(the important ones) like one’s dream, personal development, being part of a project\team, family etc…, the other things(urgent ones) like daily stuff that we do(work) & everything else gets done automatically and we have to make sure that the big rocks gets into the schedule with the urgent ones whenever we plan for a month or a week.
Ponnu
After a looong 12 hours wait, I finished downloading VS 2008 Beta 2 Professional Edition and installed it in about 2 hours in Vista PC finally! 
. I have a long list of things that I need to try in VS 2008 now(when I get some time) that I have learnt in the past like,
LINQ
Multi Targeting
CSS & Master Pages
Automatic Properties, Extension Methods, Lambda Expressions, Anonymous Types etc…
Silverlight & ASP.Net AJAX.
Will be starting with LINQ soon:), hopefully I will finish all these stuff soon.
Ponnu
September 8th, 2007 in
Tools | tags:
vs 2008 |
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