Template Parameters

All templates support parameter substitution to enable replacement of key parameters, such as class names and namespaces, when the template is instantiated. These parameters are replaced by the template wizard that runs in the background when a user clicks OK on the New Project and Add New Item dialog boxes.

Encrypting without secrets

A beautiful article on how to handle sensitive data. Author, Keith Brown gives a working example as an illustration. A good and useful article.

Cross Page Posting

Cross-page posting and the control gives ASP.NET developers several new options for control navigation flow within their application. Cross-page posting is most useful for cases where a Response.Redirect or Server.Transfer is used today. The Wizard control is great for building complex data collection that requires both linear and nonlinear navigation

Upgrading Visual Basic 6.0 Applications to Visual Basic .NET and Visual Basic 2005

The article covers several aspects of the upgrade process for VB6 to VB.Net, including:

• General upgrade strategies.
• Initial assessment
• Planning and preparation.
• Automatic upgrade procedures.
• Upgrade issues.
• Manual upgrade processes.
• Application advancement.
• Testing upgraded applications and components.

Custom Controls

The Control Gallery is a directory of ASP.NET controls that you can use in your applications. The number in parantheses indicates how many controls are available in the category.

Try Parse

For parsing base type the .NET Framework 2.0 introduces a pattern across all the relevant base types called TryParse, which mimics Parse. The difference in behavior is that Parse will throw an exception when the data check fails, while TryParse simply goes to an else statement.

Example:

Dim iVal As Integer

If Int32.TryParse(someString, iVal) Then
' code which deals with the valid integer
Else
' code which deals with an invalid input
End If

Microsoft Customer Care Framework

Microsoft's Customer Care Framework (CCF) is a modular XML Web Services architecture for rapid development and deployment of contact center solutions. Service Providers can transform and expand their call center operations to reduce costs while improving the quality of their customer service, CCF increases call center agent productivity by prefetching customer information and sharing it in smart ways between different applications, dramatically cutting the time agents must spend searching for and entering data to complete a call.

Back to India

Got back to home sweet home country by midnight. The journey was fine. From Frankfurt my co-passenger was Suchitra (the Gopuravasalilae fame). She and her kid were great.

There was surprise waiting for me @ Chennai Airport in the form of my Sister. She had bought me welcome back gifts to the airport. She is always very creative in surprising me and it was not different this time too.

BlackBerry Adds Support for Google, Mac

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) on Thursday announced partnerships with Google and Apple to extend the reach of the popular handheld and its usefulness outside the office environment.

Microsoft in censorship backlash

A global media watchdog has condemned US software giant Microsoft and Chinese authorities for deleting the blog of a well-known social critic.
"The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the Chinese authorities for censoring well-known blogger Zhao Jing, and is alarmed by Microsoft's agreement to pull down his site," the group said in a statement.

Gates' digital lifestyle vision

Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates late on Wednesday unveiled his vision of the digital lifestyle, outlining the latest version of his Windows operating system to be launched later this year.
"2005 was a very big year for the PC (personal computer), but 2006 will probably be even bigger. It'll be a big year for the digital lifestyle," Gates said at the opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
"Many products will come out, and it'll really be clear to the customer," said the chairperson of the world's biggest software maker.
The new digital environment, he said, has come about thanks to the widespread availability of high definition, new partnerships and user-friendly products.

One digicam and two lenses

Kodak announces the EasyShare V570 - one digital camera with two lenses. But the first thing that came into my mind was why the heck. What will the two lenses do????

Read the complete article to know it fully

Jonathan Ive Awarded CBE Award

Jonathan Ive, Apple's creative designer behind many of its revolutionary products such as the families of iMacs, and the iPod, has become a CBE on this year's New Years Honours List.