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Showing posts from December, 2005

SQL Mobile Query

On the paper: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnppcgen/html/med302_msdn_sql_mobile.asp?frame=true While trying to complete the exercise, I encountered the following unexpected behaviour: While configuring the subscription for the SQL Mobile (from the tutorial – To complete the subscription) section, I encountered the following error – TITLE: Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio ------------------------------ Initializing SQL Server Reconciler has failed. HRESULT 0x80045003 (29045) The initial snapshot for publication 'SQLMobile' is not yet available. Start the Snapshot Agent to generate the snapshot for this publication. If this snapshot is currently being generated, wait for the process to complete and restart the synchronization. HRESULT 0x80045003 (0) ------------------------------ BUTTONS: OK So I confirmed that the SQL Server Agent is running, went to the publication, right clicked and clicked on “View Snapshot Status”. The result is “The

Microsoft now powered by MSN search

Microsoft is as much a content creator as it is a software platform developer. The key strength of any Microsoft developer is the huge amount of documentation made available by MS and non-MS sources. this has lead to another problem of locating the relevant data. The traditional search on Microsoft.com has been poor and that has lead to popularity of resources like www.google.com/microsoft personally, i have never used this route to searching microsoft.com resources. Google does have good search algorithms in place and was able to do a better job of searching many a times. now microsoft has deployed its MSN Search technology to Microsoft.com for search ( http://search.microsoft.com ) . some features this brings to the table are: More relevant search results :) In addition to being more relevant, MSN Search results provide additional features such as search-term highlighting, so users can view search terms contextually, and spelling correction. Search results will continue to get better

Application Verifier for your code

Application Verifier is a set of run-time analysis tests that helps detect execution errors in unmanaged programs. The errors detected by Application Verifier deal mostly with application compatibility, stability, and security issues. Application Verifier is a runtime verification tool for unmanaged code that assists in quickly finding subtle programming errors that can be extremely difficult to identify with normal application testing. Application Verifier is designed specifically to detect and help debug memory corruptions and critical security vulnerabilities. It makes it easier to create reliable applications by monitoring an application's interaction with the Windows operating system, profiling its use of objects, the registry, the file system, and Win32 APIs (including heaps, handles, locks, and more). It also includes checks to predict how well the application will perform under Least-privileged User Account operation. This initial release includes the following tests: Basic

Community Initiatives - Course Correction

We have started with a lot of MVP/ Community initiatives in the past. We have partly succeeded in launching them but failed in continuing the momentum. Maybe this is the nature of the community projects. but I think we can do better as a team of talented and passionate people. there is an email that i recently received from one of the participants that provides a possible solution: 1. there should be one person in each team who should be a point of contact.He should lead the entire intiative, that means co-ordinating with other team members about the status etc etc. 2. There should be spokeperson from each team who updates activities of each team proceedings on the weekly basis. That person should co-ordinate with MS folks to get arch or design or spec reviews. 3. Timelines - If we are not meeting the deadlines its tough, the project will be dragged. I cudn't agree more. the fundamental issue i think still remains of the motivation for the project. if one can see what value that hi

Developer Website Design Templates

For developers, it is easy to thrash out the functionality. when it comes to design of the website, developers start looking for someone to help. here is a resource that would help developers concentrate on writing code while design is already taken care of - The ASP.NET design Templates. Look at it as analogous to PPT templates.. in this case it uses Master pages. check them out here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/reference/design/templates/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Common Criteria (CC) certification (EAL4+) for MS Products

The Common Criteria (CC) certification is a globally accepted standard for evaluating the security features and capabilities of information technology products. Certification of Windows platform products is issued by the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP), under the International Common Criteria for IT Security Evaluation (ISO Standard 15046) By providing an independent standard for evaluating the security capabilities of IT products, the Common Criteria certification enables customers worldwide to better compare their security requirements with those of other products. CC certification of Windows platform products helps provide customers with a higher level of assurance that Windows security features and capabilities meet a broad set of real-world scenarios. The following Windows platform products have earned Common Criteria certification (EAL4+): •Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition SP 1 •Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition SP 1 •Windows Server 2003, Datacenter E

'cause Delhi Bloggers Meet rocked!

Here's my rocking experience about the DBM held at DV8, CP. Firstly, this was my first time to DV8.. so it took me some time to park my vehicle and find the bar (of course had to call Tarun to get the exact location).. while at DV8, the first impression (and consequently most impressionable) that I had of the DBM was "whew!! bunch of neo-culturists".. now the word "neo-culturists" is self coined (for the more literary inclined!) and has positive connotations... don't ask me too much about it as i am still working to define this! a brief pause here - why do i get to these blog meets ?Ans: To meet people from fields beyond IT. the DBM started with a round of introductions between the 13-14 odd bloggers. and oh! did i forget the booze and food? interesting to see the varied set of people at the same table. though i believe journalists (freelancers and full time) and IT guys are the majority. in the eclectic bunch, around 4 of us were from IT, another 3 from me

IM Etiquettes

IM is a good thing.. it brings people together in an almost face to face like situation. Given the large no. of IM communications that I regularly have, I thought I would share some good practices. they are as follows: Good behavior The following guidelines fall into the category of office politeness when using IM. · If you are initiating the IM, it’s generally considered polite to ask the other person if they have time to “talk” with you. This may not be necessary with someone you work with frequently and when the question is quick, as opposed to something requiring discussion. · Avoid non-business-related multi-person conversations. People who aren’t invited may feel left out if their colleagues are laughing about a private joke over IM. · Don’t invite someone to join a conference in progress without first asking the others in the conference if it’s OK to do so. · Don’t use all capital letters to type your message. It’s the IM equivalent of shouting. ·

BillG in India

BillG is in India - ToI has already written about it! and so you know it :) Bill G is here for a very hectic 4 days in India with a focus on "Realizing India's Potential". Bill G while here will be meeting with many govt. officials, business leaders, academicians, industry associations etc. It basically means that BillG's schedule is so tightly packed that i wonder if he will have time to breathe. In all the hustle, developers remain the focus of his visit. To be addressed on Dec 9th in Bangalore, at this historic event BillG will formally launch Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 in India. this event promises to be a landmark event of sorts. BillG would also be sharing dias with Narayana Murthy in an TiE hosted event titled "Unleashing Entrepreneurship In India" hosted by Prannoy Roy. And i will be there to listen to both of them as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is

Bloggers in India

I attended the Delhi Bloggers Meet yesterday (DBM). Amongst numerous interesting conversations that happened one was of Blogger's in India vis-a-vis the world. Some interesting facts from Blogwise, http://www.blogwise.com/bycountry No. of Blogs registered in each country: India - 1719 United Kingdom (6139) United States (41679) Australia (2281) Brazil (1773) Canada (4896) France (2978) Italy (1818) Spain (2407) It is not great deal that more developed nations (does Brazil into the same category?) have more no of blogs registered at the site. Does internet penetration = more blogs? does blogging have anything to do with culture (country) or gender or age? What is interesting is that the following countries with high Internet penetration have lower no of blogs registered: Germany (1364) Philippines (1326) China (507) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no r