A brand new(and efficient) way to implement Paging

Here is a link I bumped into while doing some R&D. As usual, couldn't stop my self... and posted it here. http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/01/01/434314.aspx

A low-level Look at the ASP.NET Architecture

Two years back, when Chirag and DJ were used to work closely with Team ESS, once Chirag was having some issues regarding ASP.Net Architecture and we had a hot discussion on that at that time, afterwards, in response, I came up with this link that clearly explains how ASP.Net works. Also this will answer the query that Footpatti had when I was coming to HYD. I hope you all find your answers regarding ASP.Net Architecture
http://www.west-wind.com/presentations/howaspnetworks/howaspnetworks.asp
Discussion on this post is most welcome, infact I hope there are going to be some questions. :)

The begining of the Matrix?

Mostly, I do not put anything on this blog that is directly related to any NON-Tech news, but this one, I couldn't stop myself, this news is something, that reminds me of the great movie, the matrix. IBM's Second Life initiative is headed somewhere.... now let's see... where it goes....
http://news.com.com/2008-1023_3-6144122.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news

Online Resources I use...

As you all know, now I've got what I always wanted, I am kindda free now, so I've decided I'll answer most of the queries you guyz had when I was there. As a part of that, here are the online resources I use a lot :
Non-Microsoft Subscriptions I Use
SDTimes.com
Redmondmag.com
101Communications.com(For Free Subscriptions)
MCPMag.com
ENTOnline.com
Tcpmag.com
Microsoft Subscriptions I Use
MS Architecure Journal - Hard Copy as well as Soft Copy:D
MSDN Flash India and International
MCP Flash
Microsfot Security bulletin and Notifications
TechNet Flash
Mobile PC
Sites I Use
TechTree.com
Experts-Exchange.com
CodeProject.com
bytemycode.com
PCQuest.com
msdn.microsoft.com
geekinterview.com
google.com

Hosting JSP, PHP or any other Server Side Architecture(CGI) on IIS

Here I am writing my first important .. naah very very important blog entry from my desk. If you are a seasoned web developer you know how tough it is to work with various Hypertext Processors or Server Technologies. It was almost impossible to host cross-server side technologies on given web server. Like to host JSP/PHP you'll go and find some third party ISAPIs or will try to develop your own ISAPI that maps to given web technology. Now, As we see the things from different perspective and the world is going towards more and more flexibility, Microsoft has come up with a new tool/technology called FastCGI that empowers web developers to host various web technology extensions on IIS.

On IIS.Net FastCGI was described as:
The IIS FastCGI component enables popular application frameworks like PHP be hosted on the IIS web server in a high-performance and reliable way.

FastCGI provides a high-performance alternative to the Common Gateway Interface (CGI), a standard way of interfacing external applications with Web servers that has been supported as part of the IIS feature-set since the very first release.
CGI programs are executable launched by the web server for each request in order to process the request and generate dynamic responses that are sent back to the client. Because many of these frameworks do not support multi-threaded execution, CGI enables them to execute reliably on IIS by executing exactly one request per process. Unfortunately, it provides poor performance due to the high cost of starting and shutting down a process for each request.

If you are interested in, here is a link to a FastCGI whitepaper :

http://www.fastcgi.com/devkit/doc/fastcgi-whitepaper/fastcgi.htm

The source for this entry: http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=1000051

Windows File System : Archive Bit

Recently I got a a mail clearly asking information regarding Archive Bit that is available on FAT32, NTFS and its implications from Developer's perspective. So here is an article that will try to throw some light on this topic.

According to PCMAG : A file classification that indicates whether the file has been updated since the last backup. A bit is set in the file directory to indicate the archive status. When a file is created or saved, the bit is turned on. When it is backed up, the bit is turned off.
and technically its a file attribute controlled by the high-order bit of the t3 byte (FCB + 11) in a directory element. This attribute is set if the file has been archived.
Here is a VBScript code sample that shows how to access File Attributes.
http://sallisawok.org/caspdoc/html/vbscript_file_object_attributes_property.htm

Google launches Google Code Search

Google has launched yet another Developer friendly service yesterday ie Google CodeSearch(http://www.google.com/codesearch).
It's a search engine developed for developers and it provides an interface to use RegEx to search code snippets they are looking for. I didn't try it much as now I am headed to some other things... I felt it will be extremely useful to you people.
Google Code Search helps you find function definitions and sample code by giving you one place to search publicly accessible source code hosted on the Internet. With Google Code Search, you can:
- Use regular expressions to search more precisely
- Restrict your search by language, license or filename
- View the source file with links back to the entire package and the webpage where it came from

Visual Studio 2020

I was looking at the newsletter from CodeProject and got my eyes on this kewl article. Have a look at this tiny (aaaargh) article.

http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/Visual_Studio_2020.asp

I became MCP

Hey hey.... it's been a long long time... I agree... yes.... its been a long time... had gone through many things in last 6 months, got VNS Series of projects, took part in MS Security Shootout 2006(http://www.securityshootout.com) also decided what I will be doing next few years...of course its Software Development but now I can see it, define it and then it comes to my mind that going on that path I'll need something on my side, some credential/certification and what in this world is better than MS Certifications if you are a .Net Developer? So today was a big day, I went to Crystal Arcade at CG Road, Ahmedabad and I got my first MS Certification i.e. Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 - Application Development Foundation C# (70-536). The exam was tough but the MSDN2, Virtual Labs and Visual Studio Express/Beta editions I used was sufficient enough to crack it. And I got it done, it took time, but it was done. And now I am heading towards the Final Destination for a Developer lets see how does it rolls out....

How to display an assembly in the Add Reference dialog box

Many of my friends recently asked me about GAC and the Side by Side Versioning support .Net provides. After doing a lot of R&D, one of them came up with a question like this : How to use two different versions of an assembly by using a GAC. He knew how to add Assemblies to GAC so that was not at all a problem, infact, if you refer to HOW TO: Install an Assembly into the Global Assembly Cache in Visual Studio .NET its pretty simple. However, after you add it to GAC, the .Net IDE doesnt show you those assemblies, listed in Add Reference Dialog Box.

After searching MS KB, I got an easy way to do that, here it follows :
Open Registry Editor and add the following Key to it.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\AssemblyFolders\ESSAssemblies]@="C:\\ESSAssemblies"

Here, ESSAssemblies is the name of the Folder where your Assemblies reside.