when technology is a part of the whole!

while experimenting with VS 2008 Beta 2 and WCF, i cudn't generate the client proxy using svcutil.exe. I built the server as a WPF application and hosted the service there (self-host). i was using netTcp binding for the service. in preparation to get the client working, i created a new IIS application and created a directory under the main directory called App_Code. I copied all the code for Service and the Contract in the App_Code directory so that it be JIT compiled before use. Added the service.svc and web.config to the application. Then browsing to the URL gave me the test page. then svcutil.exe was to be used but it kept crashing. a live search got me to this page: http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/bursteg/archive/2007/07/27/WCF-Test-Client-svcutil.aspx and that did it! Technorati tags: WCF , svcutil.exe

they say that in the darkest hour you can see the light.. and it is that time now.. in a recent meeting, the VP of Microsoft India gave a very sound advice that i would like to share with you. it holds true for everyone and especially people who are befuddled with the things around them (esp me).. i do wonder though whether any inspiration/ good thought ever did any good to anyone in the corporate world.. but this may benefit me and you .. so here it goes: Some things I wish I had known when I was 30 •Don’t let someone else define what success means for you this finds its origin in not letting others (including managers)tell you what you are and what you are not good at! you are successful when you you believe you are! •Know your strengths & focus on these –No one ever became great focusing on their dev needs this is divergent in the thought that it encourages you to hone and further work upon your strengths rather than working on your weaknesses. mostly all the reviews and fe

i have been using multiple instances of SQL Server Express 2005 to provide backend services to a few websites. SQL Server Exress 2005 provided a quick and FREE way of running the database. however, since it is meant for testing purposes the Express edition doesn't scale well and gave reliability issues from time to time. also, using Management Studio Express locked the DB exclusively rendering the site inaccessible. Today i spent some time upgrading the database to full fledged SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition. the installation was effortless and I immediately applied the SP2. however, when i tried to use the client tools they were still the ones from Express Editions. trying to install the full version of client tools always ended with an error - "Your upgrade is blocked because the existing component is a later version than the version you are trying to upgrade to". also, there seemed no direct way to uninstall the express editions that i had running. Researching the

if you don't have Office 2007 and have started to receive docx files from individuals, you can now read the same using the newly released Word Viewer 2007.. the word viewer replaces all earlier releases... true to its name, the viewer let's you view the Word documents but don't let you edit the same... the Word Viewer enables free viewing of .docx and .docm with the same visual fidelity as the full version of Word 2003. Get the FREE download here Technorati tags: word viewer

A new version of Live Search is now released. this release supposedly created a WOW when it was first showcased at the recently held company meeting in Redmond. There is progress in two critical areas: the core technology that delivers relevant search has improved dramatically.  there is focus on four key search experiences: Entertainment, Health, Local, and Shopping (represents 40% of total queries) the search index has been expanded 4x times! also there is a improvement in query intent for misspelled and plural words. In the entertainment field a unique way of showing content as it relates to other celebrities (xRank) has been developed.  (Try tom cruise and check out the xRank and the live in browser previews of the videos) . in shopping, you can search for a product or a product category (try Palm Treo 650 or the category “digital cameras”) and utilize not just the rich answer, but the expanded opinion index that intelligently crawls review sites . it also presents abstracts th

For people who are figuring out what direction to go as far as future technologies is considered, here's a 3rd party community effort to get that answer as far as performance of the various technologies go: http://bubblemark.com/ the same javascript is used to animate in various RIAs so that the results are isolated to the performance of the platform itself. Technologies compared are Silverlight (JS & CLR based), Flash (with Flex), Java (Swing) etc. Long story short: Different browsers behave differently to the RIA frameworks. Best is Opera and worst is FireFox. "The unexpected is that WPF/e is faster than Flash despite the fact that it’s been in the market for years." The source code is available and community has posted their results using the code. Conclusion: start using Silverlight! Technorati tags: silverlight , flash