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Singleton Vs Static Classes

Fri, 1 Jun 2012 18:10:00 -0000

I've been asked by a lot people why not use Static Classes over the Singleton pattern.
There are a couple of reasons.

Static classes are not that flexible and may not scale up with scope.

Static classes must have static members
As far as performance is concerned, static classes are lazily initialized and static constructors are slower
As the system grows and you require to use polymorphism, derived classes and APIs, the problems of static classes start to show up.
Inheritance is not possible with static classes. Static methods cannot be overriden. Use of APIs is not possible as you cannot create static methods.
And all of this done to avoid creation of multiple instances of a class????

So does that mean we cannot use Static classes??
Did you know that System.Convert in .Net is a static class? There are several others in .Net which can be added to this list.
The question is when to use it?
It can be used to store global data, which may not get too complex when scaled up.
This decision is best tak...

The Importance of API Based Development

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:21:00 -0000

This(at the end of this blog) is a very good link for understanding why API based development is really important.
To give you the gist, lets assume that you have developed a game on Windows based environment.
It works great, but now you wish to expand the scope and make it available 1. As a web-based game2. Make it compatible with Iphone, Windows Phone, Andriod

Think about it, would you actually re-code the entire application?? This is where API (Application Programming Interface) shows its magic!
There's a lot to it, which you would find in the following link, before actually starting implementation. The better the architecture, the more robust the application becomes.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/api-good-technology-explained/

Target Framework: .Net 4 Client Profile Vs .Net Framework (Full)

Fri, 6 Apr 2012 06:07:29 -0000

Just started using VS 2010 Framework.
There's one important thing I found. Here I was creating a console application and trying to add the System.Web reference.
I was amazed to not find this as a part of default .Net references provided by VS 2010.
While I was troubleshooting this issue, I suddenly noticed that the Target framework was .Net 4 Client Profile.
What is .Net 4 Client Profile:
It is a subset of the .Net 4 Framework. It is optimized for developing client applications

BTW, this is the default target framework when you create a project (not asp.net website).

Now, Why was this difference introduced?
I can really come out with two of the following

We create windows, console applications. We may want to explicitly deny some of the .Net features such as Asp.Net on the client machines, maybe due to some security reasons or some corporate policy.

The difference is the size of these packages. The client profile package is obviously more compact and helps in a faster ...

Delegates Vs Lamba Expressions

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:50:00 -0000

To put this post in the simplest form, this is how a Delegate and Lambda Expressions are related.

This is one of the favourite interview questions for C#, .Net skills. Delegates Vs Events Vs Lambda Expressions. Please refer the following link for more details.
http://morkalork.com/mork/article/128/How_and_why_to_use_delegates_in_C

Understanding Events through the Observer Pattern

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:41:00 -0000

Delegates and Events have eventually evolved from the Observer Pattern.
The analogy given is movie (Object), person (Object). Where the person is interested in knowing the
1. Movie Start Time (Event. The person wants to subscribe to)
2. Interval (Event. The person wants to subscribe to)
3. Movie End Time (Event. The person wants to subscribe to)

This is a recommended read.

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/rmcochran/csharp_events01292006081130AM/csharp_events.aspx

Const Vs ReadOnly, one of the Best Explanations

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:00:00 -0000

Another favourite interview question. But this could be applicable to more than one skills.
Please refer the link.
http://geekswithblogs.net/BlackRabbitCoder/archive/2010/07/01/c-fundamentals---what-is-the-difference-between-const-and.aspx

Asp.Net: Skin files Vs Css. Which to use?

Fri, 9 Mar 2012 12:01:00 -0000

Themes, introduced in Asp.Net 2.0, for achieving a consistent look and feel throughout the website.
There are some performance concerns which we must take into consideration before we decide to use skins or Css.

Skin files: are used to define the markup of asp.net controls.
CSS files: are used to define the html elements, although the asp.net controls ultimately get rendered as html elements.
Eg: Using Css
<asp:Button runat="server" id="Button1" CssClass="customButton" />
This will be rendered as

<input type="submit" name="Button1" value="" id="Button1" class="customButton" />

Eg: Using Skins (In the skin file)
<asp:Button  SkinID="customStyle"     runat="server" Height="35px" Width="75px"       
BorderStyle='Solid' BorderWidth='1px' Font-Names='Verdana' Font-Size='11px' ForeColor='White' Font-Bold='true' />

This will be rendered as,
<input type='submit' 
style='width:75px;height:35px;font-weight:bold;font-size:11px;font-family:Verdana;color:Whi...

Did you Know: C# Generics does not allow parameter type definition in the constructor

Tue, 6 Mar 2012 07:42:00 -0000

Case: public class Car<T>{ public Car<T>(){}}. Will this compile?

No. (Tested for .Net 2.0)
The constructor should not have the generic type specification.
I have not found a proper interpretation for this, though the following is my own understanding. Any corrections or suggestions are welcome.

Imagine what it means when we say,
Car<Maruti> car = new Car<Hyundai>();

where,
public class Car<T>
{
   //Constructor.
   //The following definition is not allowed. Why??
   //If C# allowed inclusion of Type parameters in the constructor as well, then..
   public Car<U>()
   {

   }
}
This will happen if we add the generic type <T> to the constructor. The constructor generic type should be the same as the constructor generic type to create the object.
The parameterized constructor can include parameters of type T as defined at the class level.

Android phones price list

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:22:00 -0000

http://www.mysmartprice.com/mobile/pricelist/android-mobile-price-list-in-india.html

Check this out.. There are Android phones below 5k also

"Select Distinct" in DataTable

Fri, 7 Oct 2011 07:16:00 -0000

http://sampradan.blogspot.com/2011/10/fetching-distinct-values-from-datatable.html

Converting a DataRow[] to DataTable

Wed, 5 Oct 2011 03:03:00 -0000

http://sampradan.blogspot.com/2011/10/conversion-datarow-to-datatable-without.html

Brain Actuated Technology

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 06:50:00 -0000

Visual Studio 2010 Coded UI Test User Guide

Thu, 8 Sep 2011 09:50:58 -0000

Just surpassed a terrific traffic jam.. A bunch of cranes moving back-n-forth, in the middle of the road.. as if they were to build all the metros of Bangalore in a day, with the traffic police whining his time, thinking all the time in the world was his own.. Felt like locking the traffic police in the dustbin, throwing off the key, and driving the crane out of the road.. I wonder why these guys pretend to work so much

Wed, 3 Aug 2011 06:51:41 -0000

Home | Random Hacks of Kindness

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 07:17:00 -0000

This site encourages hacking done for a good cause. Greatly appreciate the efforts of the

Gmail Priority Inbox

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 05:54:38 -0000

This is a nice new feature introduced by Google, especially if you fall in the category of people receiving loads of email

Facebook, Youtube spam

Wed, 18 May 2011 14:09:00 -0000

This is regarding the recent spam circulating on Facebook, Youtube.
Whenever a user clicks on a wall post containing status messages like "I can't believe you are in this vid", "Why do you look so stupid" and the likes, the user is redirected to a url containing the following javascipt.

[Courtesy: http://www.tech18.com/alert-facebook-youtube-spam.html]
Below is the screenshot of the file :

Follow the below steps to get rid of this spam

Step 1 : Delete that Facebook Wall post so that at least your friends who are viewing your Facebook wall do not come across to this spam.

Step 2: Restrict other people from posting on your disabling your friends to post on your wall as shown below. Browse to Account=>Privacy Settings -> Customize Settings -> Things others share -> Friends can post on my Wall

So friends share this with all your friends to beware of this spam.

Viral Apps/Spam in Facebook: Please..You can't find out who saw your profile. You won't see what u'll look like in the future. You won't know what that man saw when he walked in on his daughter. There are no free iPads. You can't see the video of Osama's death on FB. And tht's not ME in that video.Please stop clicking the spam links, exposing yourself and friends to virus risks. If you agree re-post this and stop stupidity..get wel soon Facebook

Wed, 18 May 2011 11:26:37 -0000

Akshaya Patra:: Unlimited Food for education

Thu, 12 May 2011 13:31:00 -0000

The kitchen from the outside -
a three-storey building which uses Gravity Flow Mechanism developed in-house
by our team. Each kitchen has the capacity to cook between 50 000 to 100 000
mid-day meals per day. Costing approximately 9 crores to set up, they are built with funds from public donations.

The kitchen from the inside,
consisting of rice cauldrons each of which
cooks up to 110kg of rice in 20 minutes.
Sambar cauldrons cook up to 1200
litres of sambar in two hours.

It is washed thoroughly on the 2nd floor

Washed rice is sent down the chute to the
1st floor

Rice pours down into steam heated cauldrons
for cooking. The entire cooking process
takes place on the 1st floor

Super heated steam is used
to cook food instead of flame.

When cooking is finished, it is
loaded into trolleys

Cooked rice is sent down the chute
to the ground floor

It flows down the pipe into containers

Piping hot rice on its way to being
loaded into food vans. Around
6000 kiloso...

Caution:: Osama malware illustrations

Thu, 5 May 2011 11:24:00 -0000
The cyber criminals have always taken media and news as a tool to intrude more and more systems accross the world.

Osama's death though came out to be an element of surprise / shock, its no surprise that the bad cyber guys have used similar strategies that they used for the Japanese disaster or the calamities and news which have taken place lately.

Each of them have used the Viral marketing strategy to tap more systems through social networks other than the legacy methods of email spamming, botnets.

A request of caution to all users who may or have fallen prey to such attacks.
Do identify the pattern of these attacks. You can refer to the strategies that have been followed in the past in my blog

So, I would really not go through the same strategies again.
But to caution you with a few detected illustrations here.

Phishing attacks reported targeted on big brands like CNN (Mexico)

The spam email contains a link to bogus "photos and uncensored videos" which redirects to the user to a phis...

Tata pixel: Its out in European markets

Mon, 2 May 2011 05:10:00 -0000
Tata pixel out in Europe??? Being an Indian company, why is it not in the Indian markets first??

Share

Viral Facebook Techniques

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:44:00 -0000
Facebook is a platform truly loyal to marketeers and companies / institutions involved in brand endorsement campaigns. It helps a business reach a vast number of audience with minimal manpower marketing effort in a very short span of time.

Hey.. wait a moment.. "a very short span of time"?? How?
Here's where the viral facebook techniques pitch in.
Each facebook user has been caught by atleast one viral facebook technique.. mostly unknowingly,
You will learn for yourself how.
The following techniques could be found useful by marketing professionals trying to reach a target with minimum effort and time,

Invite before Action
This method forces the facebook user to send application invites to n number of users.
Astonishingly, this technique worked well with a lot of Facebook users. There is an instance of the "Happy Hour" application which turned out to be Facebook's top 13 popular application.
Naturally, the upcoming FB apps followed suite.
But, I really do not recommend this method. This may ...

Lions sleep 18hrs a day!! If hardwork is the secret to success, then donkey would have been the king of the jungle.. Its not how much you work, rather how you work that makes a difference.

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:54:18 -0000

Japanese Disaster - How cyber criminals misused it

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:55:00 -0000
The Japanese series of disasters, which has been one of the saddest starts of the year, and yes we find a bunch of international charitable institutions donating for the cause and requesting the same through social media.
Some though not all of them being genuine. Do take a walk-through of how these bad guys take advantage of this event to trouble your systems.

These are some of the techniques used by cyber criminals.
SEO poisoning
Rogue AV (anti-virus)
Phishing emails asking for donation
Malicious files attached to emails claiming to be legitimate documents
Facebook apps with CPA (cost per action) lead surveys
Though Websense confirms that its customers are protected by the Advanced Classification Engine analytics.

SEO Poisoning

Its a term for a complex black-hat method of attacking your computer by using websites that selectively “poison” or infect users with spyware, viruses, or other malware. SEO Poisoning is different from other such attacks because it is hard for a search engi...

Japan.....What a nation!!!!!!!!!

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:46:00 -0000

The Picture of gaping chasms in a Japanese road demonstrated the power of the March 11 earthquake. Now the astonishing speed of reconstruction highlights Japan’s ability to get back on its feet.

Work began on March 17 and six days later, the cratered section of the Great Kanto Highway in Naka was as good as new and ready to re- open to traffic.

Implement File Preview in C#

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:34:00 -0000
Windows Explorer view in C#..... My first thoughts were of a set of APIs provided by .Net to implement the same.

Well, I did check my thought with the web, and yes, a lot of people came to be of the same opinion. I went through one code, which used some shellScript, and the other one was a tool by the name of GhostScript.

Sorry to say, that none of them impressed me. Now, there was one project that I found on codeProject.com. Unfortunately, I just lost that link. But, nevertheless let me share this project with you readers. Once I find the link, I shall update it here.

The original project comes with the feature that mimics the Windows Vista Explorer view with a preview. Here's the sample output of this project. You can find the project attached with this blog as "FilePreview From CodeProject.zip".

I have modified the code so that it can be plugged to an existing application. It would be a single line code-integration, once the properties are correctly set. You can fin...