Tech Tips, Tricks & Trivia

HOW TO visualize approximate radial distance from a fixed point on a map

2012-05-30T10:06:00.000+05:30

The Twitter Location Search app utilizes Google Maps to show approximate radial distance from a specified point on a map

If you are an API developer, this tool can be useful to visualize approximate radial distance while dealing with location-specific queries.

The Twitter Search API supports a parameter called geocode that returns tweets by users located within a given radius of the given latitude/longitude for a given search term.

The parameter value is specified by "latitude,longitude,radius", where radius units must be specified as either "mi" (miles) or "km" (kilometers).

The maximum limit for the radius is not specified in the API docs but the Advanced Search feature on Twitter has 1000 as the upper limit.

Render "cross-domain" content on the client-side with JSONP feeds & jQuery

2012-05-27T23:18:00.002+05:30

When websites provide Feeds of their content, they not only allow that content to be read through Feed readers like Google Reader but also let other sites consume that content programmatically. These feeds can be in various formats like RSS, Atom, JSON, JSONP.

Instead of scraping content from sites they don't own, developers can use RSS, Atom & JSON feeds with server-side programming languages to display that content on their own sites.

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. The advantage with JSON for developers is that it can be directly translated into a JavaScript object. No parsing is necessary to get at the data.

A client-side programming language like JavaScript can however not be used to load a feed if the domain from which the feed is originating is not the same as the site where it is going to be consumed programmatically. That's were JSONP comes in.

The P in JSONP stands for "padding". A JSONP feed is same as a JSON feed except that the feed provider pads the results with a bit more information. JSONP wraps the JSON-formatted response in a function call named by the developer. It allows "cross-domain" feed content to be used via a callback function.

A JSONP feed can be consumed easily using the jQuery ajax() & getJSON() methods.

According to the ProgrammableWeb website, which has been doing a great job of cataloging web-based APIs, there are currently 360 services that offer JSONP feeds. This is good news for jQuery developers.

Related:

Free Online To-Do List apps

2012-05-24T01:23:00.001+05:30

A global LinkedIn survey of 6580 professionals revealed that 71% of women & 60% of men keep to-do lists

..LinkedIn found professionals working in agriculture claim to be most productive: 83 percent stated that they regularly fulfill most of all of their planned tasks. The regularity of routine (due to sunlight, seasons and the fact that if you don’t feed the pig, the grass, the chickens… well, they die) is real motivation to get your to-do’s done and something those of us outside of agriculture can learn from.

Here's a list of web-based free To Do List apps that you choose from -

An overview of ACS, ADFS, WIF

2012-05-14T23:23:00.006+05:30

Notes from the TechNet Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control Service (ACS) Academy video series -

ACS or Access Control Service is a cloud service that abstracts authentication & lets you focus on app development rather than on plumbing
ACS is part of Windows Azure Platform - a service within AppFabric
ACS offers federation with Internet identity providers (like Windows Live ID, Facebook, Yahoo, Google) & corporate identity providers (via ADFS v2.0)
Federation means you can outsource authentication to industry mature identity management systems
ACS implements federation and trust for web apps using industry standards protocols.
ACS can use WS-Federation, WS-Trust, OpenID, OAuth 2.0, OAuth WRAP and SAML 1.1 and 2.0, SWT token formats
ACS works for Web and Web services architectures
The core functionality of Access Control Service (ACS) & Active Directory Federation Services or ADFS is STS or Security Token Service
Both Access Control Service (ACS) & Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) can be used to implement SSO or single sign-on
ADFS is an on-premises STS & is part of the AD in Windows Server.
ADFS is both an on-premises Identity & Federation provider. ACS does not manage identities
ADFS relies on Active Directory for identity management but it can federate with non-MS enterprise identity providers like Oracle Identity Federation, CA Federation Manager & more
ACS & ADFS integrate seamlessly
ACS can serve Private Cloud, PaaS Cloud (not just limited to Windows Azure Platform due to its implementation on open standards) and SaaS Cloud needs
ACS is not limited to consumption by Windows Azure deployed apps; any modern app platform hosted on PaaS cloud providers can consume ACS
ACS can serve cloud deployed apps, on-premises apps, mobile device apps
WIF or Windows Identity Foundation is a .NET runtime that runs as part of your web application or service.
WIF is available as a free download
ACS & WIF perform protocol & token heavy lifting so that you can focus on your authorization logic
ACS does heavy lifting for handling protocols like WS-Federation, WS-Trust, OpenID, OAuth 2.0, OAuth WRAP, Facebook Graph
ACS can issue normalized SAML & SWT tokens
You can control authorization access via the ACS Rules Engine & WIF
WIF parses incoming tokens & exposes a convenient .NET API
WIF provides design time tooling via FedUtil wizard tool
WIF offers extensibility through configuration sections, custom toke handlers
Using Rules Engine, you can control what claims get into the token & which Identity providers can provide authorization
Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) offers Role-based access control (RBAC) & Claims-based authorization
2 ways to Administer ACS - via Management Portal & Management Service
Management Portal - accessed through Windows Azure portal
Management Service is a service that exposes OData endpoint & offers additional functionality not available via Management Portal
ACS can be managed manually and programmatically
4 Key components of ACS:
- Security Token Service (STS) - it issues tokens for clients that they use to present to the application in order to be authenticated
- Management Portal - UI for administering ACS
- Management Service - API/endpoint that is used for management automation. Everything you can do with the Management Portal, you can automate via the Management Service
- Token Transformation Rule Engine - allows configuration based token transformation

Vent your anger drawing your own "rage comics"

2012-05-12T19:27:00.000+05:30

NY Times has a nice article on Rage Comics -

When you get angry, you can lash out or seethe inside.
Or you can head to the Web to assemble and publish a cartoon to share some of that rage. Many people with little to no artistic ability — but with some pretty funny tales — do that in something called rage comics.
...
They have created a genre of Internet humor that, unlike the Keyboard Cat or Rickrolling, two famous Internet memes, continues to grow nearly five years after its obscure beginnings. Today, thousands of rage comics are posted daily. Most are the creations of anonymous people seeking not fame, but an audience with whom they can air their dark wit. Popular themes are public embarrassment, private shame in the bedroom or bathroom, and most of all, the unbearable burden of dealing with other people’s stupidity.

RageMaker is a popular browser-based rage comic editing and publishing tool that you can use once you have dialogues for you cartoon characters ready.

Here's my first attempt at creating a rage comic -

Archive tweets & favorites with Google Reader

2012-04-29T10:52:00.003+05:30

There are numerous ways to archive tweets but rather than use yet another tool, I prefer using Google Reader to preserve the tweets I mark as favorite on Twitter. Google Reader can preserve your tweets, favorites or those of others from the time you subscribe to a corresponding Feed.

You can access any individual public users timeline or their favorites in RSS, ATOM, XML and JSON formats:

https://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/<username>.rss

https://twitter.com/favorites/<username>.rss

Replace the username in the links above with the Twitter handle.

Search results for your keywords or hashtags can also be tracked.

With Google Reader's "Send to" feature, you can post links from a subscribed Twitter feed to other social networking sites like Facebook, Reddit, Delicious etc.

Also see:

HOW TO add hashtags while auto-publishing posts to Twitter

Google Mobilizer Bookmarklet - view just text of web pages from Twitter links

New hands-free Twitter interface: Brain-computer

Cloud Computing - Questions & Answers

2012-04-27T00:15:00.001+05:30

Compiled from multiple resources that I've gone through over the last few months:

* What is Cloud computing?

Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like electricity.

* What are the key features of Cloud computing?

Pooled resources - Available to any subscribing users
Virtualization - High utilization of hardware assets
Elasticity - Dynamic scale without CAPEX (capital or upfront expenses)
Automation - Build, deploy, configure, provision, and move, all without manual intervention
Metered billing - Per-usage business model; pay only for what you use

* What are the benefits of Cloud computing?

Economic - shift of capital expenses (CAPEX) to operational expenses (OPEX), and the potential reduction in OPEX associated with operating the infrastructure.
Agility benefits - not having to procure and provision servers
Efficiency - time-to-market advantages
Security

* What are the different types of Cloud Services?

IaaS, Infrastructure as a Service - Environment for building a native application. Users create Virtual Machines (VMs) on demand. Ex - Amazon EC2 (runs about 1 percent of the entire internet)
PaaS or Platform as a Service - Environment for building a managed application with an IDE with a rich class library that xecutes in a runtime container. Ex - Google’s AppEngine, Windows Azure, SalesForce AppForce & Heroku (Ruby focussed)
SaaS, Software as a Service - Packaged software application. Examples - Salesforce, Google Apps, Office 365, Zoho, IBM Lotus Live

* List some scenarios where Cloud computing can be utilized?

Low-tech example: corporate website
Medium-tech example: backup and file-storage systems
High-tech example: new product development
VMs for a Dev/Test lab
Disaster recovery
Deadline-driven, large compute problems. Ex - Washington Post
Large data set, high-compute scenarios. Ex - Eli Lilly
Online web presence and community. Ex -Virgin Atlantic

* In which scenarios is Cloud computing unfit?

Legacy systems
Applications involving real-time/mission-critical scenarios
Applications dealing with confidential data

* List some concerns about adopting cloud computing

Security
Performance
Availability
Hard to integrate with in-house IT
Not enough ability to customize
Worry that on-demand will cost more
Bringing it back in-house may be difficult
Regulatory requirements prohibit cloud
Not enough major suppliers yet

* What is a Private Cloud?

Cloud platform used by a single organization

* What are the benefits of SaaS for users?

Faster deployment
Usage-based pricing
Less financial risk
Reduced need for on-premises resources
Easier upgrades

* What are the risks of SaaS for users?

Requires trusting a SaaS provider
Can raise legal/regulatory concerns
Can limit customization
Can be harder to integrate
Can have lower performance

* What are the benefits of SaaS for Software Vendors?

Offers potential to reach new customers
Can sell directly to business decision makers
Can provide more predicatable revenue
Can lower support costs
Provides more knowledge about how customers use the application

* What are the risks of SaaS for Software Vendors?

Must demonstrate real value
Revenue builds up more slowly
May lessen ability to sell customization
Requires significant business changes

* What are the computing paradigm shifts that led to the evolution of Cloud computing?

Shift from mainframes to client-server to web
Data center evolution through hardware & networking improvements
SOA - Things that humans did through browsers that interacted with a web server are now done machine-to-machine using the same web-based standard protocols
Virtualization - Server virtualization transforms or virtualizes the hardware resources of a computer including the CPU, RAM, hard disk, and network controller—to create a fully functional virtual machine that can run its own operating system and applications like a physical computer.
SaaS - business model innovation

Resources:

The Cloud at Your Service

Pluralsight: Cloud Computing: The Big Picture

Browser Developer Tools - Tips, Tricks, Documentation

2012-04-17T21:18:00.000+05:30

These days all popular browsers - IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, come with Developer Tools that help web developers debug HTML, JavaScript & CSS issues & build better web pages.

It's probably the Netscape browser that first started helping developers with the Error Console option that would specify on which line a script error occurred & the possible cause. Firefox inherited that option while Firebug, the Firefox add-on, extended debugging facilities within Firefox to a different level. Firebug's feature-set is so comprehensive, it is possibly the inspiration for all the Developer Tools within popular browsers. Each browser's Dev Tools have some special features & they are continously evolving, thanks to the competition among themselves. The Developer Tools option can be invoked with the keyboard shortcut F12.

Here is a compilation of links to the official documentation, tips & tricks for the Developer Tools -

Internet Explorer:

How to use F12 Developer Tools to Debug your Webpages (IE9, MSDN)
F12 Developer Tools (IE8, MSDN)
IE9 Developer Tools: Network Tab (IEBlog)
Discover F12 Developer Tools in IE9(Net Magazine)

Firefox/Firebug:

Firebug Wiki

Chrome:

Google Chrome Developer Tools
A Re-introduction to the Chrome Developer Tools (by Paul Irish).
Chrome Developer Tools for Speed (by Paul Irish).
Google Chrome Developer Tools: 12 Tricks to Develop Quicker (by Paul Irish).
25 Secrets of the Browser Developer Tools (Andi Smith).
A Summary of the WebKit Developer Tools (Adobe blog)

Opera:

Opera Dragonfly Field Guide

Safari:

Safari Developer Tools

Work in progress...

Iframe facts

2012-04-13T08:15:00.001+05:30

Key takeaways from Chapter 13: Using Iframes Sparingly of "Even Faster Websites", a guide for performance vigilantes -

Relative URLs inside the iframe are resolved relative to the iframe’s base URI, not the parent’s.
JavaScript included in the iframe has limited access to the parent.
An iframe from a different domain can’t access the parent’s cookies.
Iframes are one to two orders of magnitude more expensive to create than other types of DOM elements.
An alternative way to insert ads with better performance would be for the main page to create a DIV to hold the contents of the ad.
We want the onload event to fire as quickly as possible. Iframes block Onload.
A workaround to blocking behavior in Safari and Chrome is to set the iframe’s URL dynamically with JavaScript instead of setting it with the HTML SRC attribute.
Resources in an iframe are downloaded in parallel with resources in the main page.
Using an iframe does not increase the number of parallel downloads for a given hostname.
The connection pool is shared across tabs and windows for all these browsers.

HTML5 has some new attributes, and some HTML 4.01 attributes are not supported in HTML5.

TODO: Update SearchLite v2, my 2002 script that uses IFrames & give it a makeover

Hotmail's sign-up page uses...Google's ReCAPTCHA service...whose images are sometimes unreadable

2012-04-11T23:53:00.000+05:30

CAPTCHA or Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart, is a technique to to stop bots from signing up for online accounts or automatically filling up forms. It works on the assumption that Humans can understand distorted text presented in a CAPTCHA image but not bots which may have a basic training in OCR (Optical Character Recognition)

Hotmail's sign-up page uses Google's ReCAPTCHA service -

I found the words in the image-text that Google's reCAPTCHA presents so complicatedly warped that it felt like taking an eye test. Check these samples -

Does beating bots have to be such a big deal?

...and what's more Microsoft & we may unknowingly have become part of a Google's "experiment that involves using its reCAPTCHA spam-fighting system to improve data in Google Maps by having users identify things like street names and business addresses."

TechCrunch reports that some of the new reCAPTCHAs present an image where one side contains the warped text users are familiar with, while the other side shows a somewhat blurry (as if zoomed in) photo of numbers which may be as street names and traffic signs from Street View imagery.

Related:
Deciphering Old Texts, One Woozy, Curvy Word at a Time

Google Mobilizer Bookmarklet - view just text of web pages

2012-04-08T12:40:00.002+05:30

You can use Google Mobilizer application, when you need a mobile-friendly version of webpage. If you are on a low-bandwith Internet connection, Google Mobilizer can be used on a PC or laptop to view just the text (and optionally images).

When I'm on Twitter, I don't have a good feeling about clicking URL shortened links as they don't reveal the domain name and can lead you to spam. Ocassionally, I'm directed to web pages that have more ads than content. I also learnt the creepy fact that any site can find out if you are logged into social web sites.

http://datatransparency.wsj.com/

Considering these privacy, security & readability issues I faced, I wished there was a way to open all links in a web page with Mobilizer so that I can view a minimalist, text-only version of a web page. I wrote the Google Mobilizer Bookmarklet to scratch this itch.

The "prettified" code looks like this -
javascript:(function() {
a = document.getElementsByTagName('a');
for (i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
a[i].href = 'http://www.google.com/gwt/x?noimg=1&btnGo=Go&source=wax&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&u=' + encodeURIComponent(a[i].href);
a[i].style.backgroundColor = '#f0f0f0';
}
}())

To use the bookmarklet, drag & drop the following link to you Bookmarklet/Favorites bar - Mobilizer

Once you're on a page that has a lot of links (like Twitter), click on the Mobilizer bookmarklet & it will then set a light grey background color to all hyperlinks on that page & prepend the Google Mobilizer URL to them.

As the Google Mobilizer application works by taking a querystring as an input, it can be adapted to work like a search provider in Chrome & Opera, to simplify its use. The string to use for configuring it is -
http://www.google.com/gwt/x?noimg=1&btnGo=Go&source=wax&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&u=%s

If you assign a letter like M to this app, you can type M in the Chrome address bar/omnibox & then the type the URL you would like to see via Google Mobilizer.

Related:
The Joy of Bookmarklets
View clutter-free web pages with TidyRead, Safari Reader
HOW TO block images/image ads originating from a specific domain in Firefox 4 & above
HOW TO block IFRAME based ads

Get the ATVM card if you are a frequent traveller on Hyderabad MMTS

2012-04-07T10:37:00.005+05:30

The local trains in Hyderabad, also referred as MMTS (Multi-Modal Transport System), are one of the best modes of transport within the city. There are often long queues for the tickets. I noticed that though the Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM) are present at almost all local stations (introduced in February, 2010), they are not patronized due to lack of awareness and inadequate advertising.

ATVM Smart Cards can be used to purchase Platform Tickets, first & second class tickets for MMTS trains and unreserved Tickets for express / ordinary trains for travel from the station of issue to any station in the South Central Railway zone.

The cost of the ATVM Smart Card keeps changing once in a while (I bought mine for Rs 100). The cost includes a refundable security deposit & ticket value. Smart Cards can be topped up to a maximum of Rs.1000, in multiples of Rs 50. It is valid for one year.

Ironically, these cards are sold at the same booking counters at MMTS stations where they sell unreserved/local train tickets and have long queues. So pick an off-peak time when the queue is shorter to avoid being stared at angrily by impatient people in the queue. The process of getting the ATVM Smart Card for me took the booking clerk about 2 minutes.

For more details, click on the images below -

click to enlarge images

Hyderabad MMTS local train timings

JavaScript Performance tips

2012-04-06T07:45:00.001+05:30

Excerpted from "Chapter 7: Writing Efficient JavaScript" of the book "Even Faster Websites":

Performance .. is not just about how long it takes for the page to load, but also about how it responds as it’s being used.
Out-of-scope variables take longer to access than local variables.
A very common mistake that leads to performance issues is to omit the var keyword when assigning a variable’s value for the first time.
If an array item or object property is used more than once, store it in a local variable to speed up access to the value.
Generally speaking, interacting with DOM objects is always more expensive than interacting with non-DOM objects.
The if statement is best used with a small number of discrete values or a range of values; the switch statement is best used when there are between 3 and 10 discrete values to test for; array lookup is most efficient for a larger number of discrete values.
To make a loop the most efficient, reverse the order in which you process the items so that the control condition compares the iterator to zero.
Trimming strings may be expensive, depending on the size of the string.
Steven Levithan's optimized string trimming function:
function trim(text){
text = text.replace(/^\s+/, "");
for (var i = text.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
if (/\S/.test(text.charAt(i))) {
text = text.substring(0, i + 1);
break;
}
}
return text;
}
Array processing is one of the most frequent causes of long-running scripts.
Generally speaking, no single continuous script execution should take longer than 100 milliseconds...
Because JavaScript is a single-threaded language, only one script can be run at a time per window or tab.
Exactly what causes the browser to display the long-running script dialog varies depending on the vendor:
- Internet Explorer displays it when 5 million (by default) statements have been executed.
- Firefox shows it when a script takes longer than 10 seconds (default).
- Safari displays it when the execution time exceeds default timeout of five seconds
- Chrome (as of version 1.0) has no set limit on how long JavaScript is allowed to run. The process will crash when it has run out of memory.
- Opera is the only browser that doesn’t protect against long-running scripts. Scripts are allowed to continue until execution is complete

Getting started with SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)

2012-04-05T23:16:00.000+05:30

Notes on SSRS from the Pluralsight course SQL Server Business Intelligence Overview and other online resources -

* SSRS is a server based reporting platform

* When you install SSRS it creates Report Server Databases in your SQL Server Instance. These databases are ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB

* Features:

Can report from a variety of data sources - Relational databases, XML files & feeds, multidimenstional data (OLAP), any ODBC or OLE-DB compliant source
Visualize data into a variety of formats - Tabular, matrix & free form reports, Charting & interactivity capabilities, Export to PDF, Excel, text, XML
Extensibility - Extend with managed code, Add new data sources, report logic & render formats

* SSRS is made up of 3 server components:

Report Manager – manages permissions, data sources, authorization settings
Report Server – Report processor/brain of SSRS, manages scheduling (auto generated reports) & delivery, URL access reports, provides Web Service API
SSRS Database – contains metadata, Report catalog & settings

* Report Server & Report Manager are bundled within a Windows Service, ReportingServicesService.exe

* Visual Studio Reporting Projects & Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS), a VS shell installed by SQL Server installation can both be used to design & deploy reports.

* RDL (stores query information) & RDS (data source) files created during report generation are XML-based.

* To changing Report data in BIDS, use the menu option – View > Report data. Report data displays parameters & fields for report to consume

* Add new items on the Report with View > Toolbox > Report Items

* Report Items lists controls & regions to place on a report:

Textbox – to display static or data bound text. Use expressions to manipulate text
Line
Table - can be associated with a data set.
Matrix – pivot table
Rectangle
List
Image
Subreport
Chart
Gauge

* SSRS supports the reporting life cycle:

Author reports
Manage reports
Deliver reports
Secure reports

MSDN & BeyondRelational have friendly step-by-step tutorials to implement basic SSRS tasks.

Low bandwidth? Try mobile version of popular websites on PC/laptop

2012-04-04T21:36:00.002+05:30

There may be times when you have to make do with a low bandwidth internet connection. Don't despair for that may be a good time to discover how fast & clutter-free the mobile version of popular sites are on your PC/laptop.

Here is a list of such mobile sites:

Popular:

Social media:

Search Engines:

Bing (~4.3KB)
WolframAlpha

Utility:

GMail (login page 1.3KB, Inbox 4.2KB)
Google Reader (~8.3KB)
Google Mobilizer - converts websites to mobile-friendly format
IRCTC

Newspapers:

Others:

ESPNcricinfo

(work in progress..)

There is an app for that?

2012-04-03T19:17:00.000+05:30

All these days I've been thinking of writing a location-aware app that would tell me about interesting sights & news-worthy facts about places that fall in the way of a train journey.

It turns out @codepo8 already has a sample app on something similar WITH source that I can adapt.

There are also a host of other demos of the Geolocation API, with source, on the Mozilla Demo Studio site.

Related links:
12 Cool HTML5 Geolocation Ideas
MSDN: How to Create a Location-Aware Webpage

HOW TO eject USB device with a keyboard shortcut

2012-03-31T09:37:00.001+05:30

Source: Flickr/ekosystem

Most people will agree with the sentiment that "life is too short to remove USB safely"

But did you know, you can configure a keyboard shortcut to invoke the Safely Remove Hardware Dialog?

The above trick requires you to create a Desktop shortcut. I assigned Ctrl+F12 to this shortcut as it is easy on the fingers.

You can also assign an memorable icon as detailed in the comments to the article specified in the link.

If you would also like the “official” icon, right-click on your new shortcut and goto “Properties.” In the resulting dialog, goto the “Shortcut” tab and click on the “change icon” button. Browse for the %SystemRoot%\system32\hotplug.dll file (or just copy/ paste) and select one of the icons of your choice.

UX anti-patterns & other avoidable annoyances

2012-03-30T08:49:00.000+05:30

The Screenshots of Despair blog collects samples of discouraging messages/goofs in applications. This is interesting because it lets web developers & UX folks learn from other's mistakes/oversight.

Here are a couple of such messages I ran into in recent times:

I thought Opt Out meant "Don't show any ads at all". The Google Personalized Ads Preferences setting screen above warns you that you will see more less-personalized ads if you opt out.

Message in Windows 7: The password for this account has expired. To change the password, click Cancel, click Switch User and then log on - Where's the Cancel button?

The WTF Mobile Web blog similarly highlights problems in mobile websites through crowd-sourced screenshots.

Free Pluralsight videos

2012-03-29T21:44:00.000+05:30

I'm a fan of Pluralsight & video-tutorial based learning. Pluralsight is doing a great job of getting experts to deliver sessions on Microsoft technologies. My favorite presenters are Scott Allen & Robert Cain.

My annual Pluralsight subscription got over recently & considering that they keep adding new videos regularly I plan to get a subscription again in the near future.

I recently recommended it to a colleague. I asked him to check out these videos from their collection which are available for free, before purchasing a subscription -

Multiple sections of the following courses (but not entire content) are free:

Happy learning!

Visual Studio and Crystal Reports

2012-03-26T22:06:00.000+05:30

Crystal Reports has probably the most complex branding history among software products. Originally created by Crystal Services Inc., it was acquired by Seagate Technology followed by Business Objects and is currently owned by SAP.

Microsoft bundled it with Visual Studio versions 2003 through 2008. Although it is not integrated with Visual Studio 2010, it is available as a free download. It is called "SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010".

One of the benefits of "SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010" listed on the download page is "Simplified royalty-free runtime licensing". Clicking on the "Licensing Explained" under the Additional Resources page opens up a 22-page PDF.

The fine-print for the asterix next to the exhortation to "Upgrade Directly to SAP Crystal Reports" reads:
SAP Crystal Reports can open and edit files created with SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010 (and vice-versa), providing a fuller set of report design features compared to SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010. SAP Crystal Reports does not include tooling to support the Visual Studio 2010 development environment but developers can use the SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010 runtime engine to deploy SAP Crystal Reports RPT files with all the extended design features.

Now does that mean SAP Crystal Reports is better or SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010?

Web Apps Watch - 1

2012-03-25T09:06:00.000+05:30

As a web developer, I like to track interesting features, UI patterns used on popular Web Apps & also related trivia.

Here are a few things I noticed this week -

* Hotmail can help you organize emails from senders of bulk mail:

* I previewed some content from an ASP.NET book on Google Books and noticed their localization for India & acknowledgement of popularity of Indian online stores - links to Indian online stores from where I can purchase that book:

* ChromeCacheView reveals interesting URL of where YouTube videos are coming from when I browse them over Airtel Broadband:

* Finding out what browser a visitor to your website is using, their IP address, screen resolution and if cookies are enabled in their browser, is old hat. There are scripts for just any website to find out if a visitor is logged into Gmail, Twitter & Facebook as this Wall Street Journal page shows:

* There have been times when I've wanted to add context notes to an email I've received so that I can reference it later. Messages in Gmail can be copied to Google Docs & you can add your notes there using a Labs feature.

* Twitter now provides local trends for 6 cities in India -Ahmadabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai.

Hidden features of ASP.NET

2012-03-24T23:38:00.001+05:30

On the StackOverflow forum, you'll find questions like "Hidden features of" technology X to be popular with a lot of up-votes. Such questions are sometimes closed as they are too subjective & do not fit into the expected Q&A format of the site. They however contain insightful answers.

Here is a list of "hidden" gems in ASP.NET that I've discovered (work in progress) and wanted to highlight them as the don't easily show up in the top results while googling -

Tag property for server controls - Just like the rel HTML attribute can be added to an element to store extra info when it is required in a client-side programming scenario, the Tag property can be used with server controls to store some extra info that may not fit into regular properties.
RepeatLayout Property of CheckBoxList server control - this property used to allow 2 possible values "Table" and "Flow" till ASP.NET 3.5, but from version 4 onwards it supports OrderedList and UnorderedList as well. If you need to style a group of checkboxes generated through the CheckBoxList server control, the default "Table" layout may be restrictive. "Flow" and the other new options provide more flexibility in modifying the layout through CSS.

Online, SMS-based services to get distance, approximate autorickshaw fare

2012-03-21T21:53:00.000+05:30

It's common knowledge that most auto-rickshaw drivers in Indian cities fleece their customers at every chance they get.

Here is a list of online and SMS-based services to get distance, approximate autorickshaw fare and other location-related info (currently for South-Indian cities - Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai):

+ LatLong.in - Helps you locate places, get directions & find places near you. This service is accessible directly from their site, over SMS & their mobile site.

To know where a particular place is,
send <place name> to 90088 90088
To get help to go to a particular place,
send <place name> FROM <starting point> to 90088 90088
send <place name> TO <starting point> to 90088 90088

+ Suruk - provides autorickshaw fare and helps with routes via SMS via textWeb's platform. To use their service, send SMS/text in the following format to 9243342000 - @autofare <city>, <source>, <destination>

Suruk also provides a smartphone app to pre-calculate auto-rickshaw fare, possible routes for a journey, a digital meter to verify if the autorickshaw's meter is rigged and driver conduct (!!) based on experiences of Suruk users (who lived to tell their tale).

+ MeterPodu - crowd-sources auto-rickshaw fares between places and shows the approximate distance (via Sid). You can find info through their site or via their Twitter account, @meterpodu

The messages have to be in the following format:
@meterpodu get+auto+CHN+T.Nagar+Mylapore
@meterpodu add+auto+CHN+T.Nagar+Mylapore+70

Use these city codes for respective city:
Chennai-CHN, Bengaluru-BLR, Hyderabad-HYD

"Had to scramble to get dressed when someone wanted video on a call."

2012-03-20T09:40:00.000+05:30

Inspired by Chris Shipton who illustrates tweets, I drew this when I found this funny thought -

When someone says Skype call, you dont know whether it is audio/video. Had to scramble to get dressed when someone wanted video on a call.
— Sriram Krishnan (@sriramk) March 1, 2012

Related:
Doodling for Dollars

What is SPDY?

2012-03-14T19:17:00.001+05:30

SPDY, pronounced “SPeeDY”, is an experimental application-layer protocol from Google developed as part of its "Let's make the web faster" initiative to help reduce the latency of web pages.
This new protocol transports the existing HTTP protocol more efficiently (up to 50% faster).
It is NOT a replacement for HTTP. It replaces some parts of HTTP, but mostly augments it. At the highest level of the application layer, the request-response protocol remains the same. SPDY still uses HTTP methods, headers, and other semantics. But SPDY overrides other parts of the protocol, such as connection management and data transfer formats.
SPDY is supported by Chrome web browser & Firefox 11 (disabled by default)
Amazon has baked SPDY support into its Silk browser for the Kindle.
Chrome SPDY indicator is a Chrome extension to visualize SPDY support in your address bar.
Twitter joins Google Search, Gmail in serving webpages over the SPDY protocol when available
SPDY may become part of HTTP 2.0
The problems with HTTP that SPDY tries to address are:

the server cannot initiate a connection

headers are always uncompressed (N.B. cookies are sent in the header)

in a persistent connection, all headers are resent for each request

data is not always compressed

everything is in clear text

SPDY addresses these issues by:

allowing unlimited and interleaved requests through a single connection
prioritizing requests (controlled by the client only)
compressing headers
allowing the server to push resources to the client without the client's asking (e.g. you're going to want the CSS file anyway)
allowing the server to suggest in the header what other resources the client might want to request (so no need to wait for the HTML to be parsed before knowing)
always using SSL