Web Development Tips, Tricks & Trivia

Startup 101 - free, online serialized book for first-time entrepreneurs

2009-07-04T18:53:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to be a Web entrepreneur? Startup 101 is an online serialized book that shows you what's invovled in becoming one.

"Startup 101" is a serialized book about the thrills and spills of starting a Web technology venture....Startup 101 is for first-time entrepreneurs who want to go through the whole startup life cycle - including raising money, building a valuable business, and making a lot of money by selling the venture or taking it public.

This is the tentative list of chapters -

10 things to be clear about before you start
Are you really an entrepreneur?
How first-time entrepreneurs can work well with investors
Creating your vision, mission, strategy, and plan
Finding the right wave to ride (secular trends)
Working booms and busts to your advantage (cyclical trends)
Building your team pre-financing
Building an advisory board
Finding a URL and company name
Company registration choices
The Capital-Raising Ladder
How to pitch to a VC or angel
How not to get screwed by VCs
Understand the scale vs. profitability trade-off
Build an insanely great Web service
Learn to negotiate and close
How to be an effective executive
Steps in building a brand
How to get noticed
How to scale without losing your shirt
Maintaining focus, health, and passion during the grind-it-out phase
How to build the A-Team
How to hit your numbers
How to build an effective board
How to build age-appropriate processes
Planning your exit
When and how founders should hire a professional CEO
Read some great books for inspiration
Negotiating your exit
Congratulations! What's next?

At this moment, the first 17 chapters have already been published

Also see:
Free SQL Server 2008 Learning Resources
Learning resources on Design Patterns for .NET Developers
Free C++ Learning Resources

Save the Earth

2009-07-03T06:48:00.000-07:00

Just in case you haven't heard of it yet or seen it, HOME is a documentary movie by Yann Arthus-Bertrand with breathtaking photography on how we can preserve the Earth before it's too late. It is available for free viewing on YouTube.

Synopsis of the documentary:

In 200,000 years on Earth, humanity has upset the balance of the planet, established by nearly four billion years of evolution. The price to pay is high, but it is too late to be a pessimist: humanity has barely ten years to reverse the trend, become aware of the full extent of its spoliation of the Earth's riches and change its patterns of consumption.

If you are concerned about the environment, you should also take a look at the book Blue Planet Run: The Race to Provide Safe Drinking Water to the World. It tells the thought-provoking story of the drinking water crisis across the world through 250 photographs by the world’s top photojournalists. You can download the book in PDF format for free from Amazon.

HOW TO test a web page in different versions of IE

2009-07-02T06:35:00.000-07:00

Pete LePage, an Internet Explorer Product Manager discourages running multiple versions of IE on the same box (he calls them "Frankenbuilds") using tools like IETester.

There 2 good free alternatives for testing your web application in different versions of IE -

For help on using a VPC image, check this step by step guide.

HOW TO upload multiple files using ASP.NET

2009-06-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

Here are a few options I have come across -

Use the jQuery Multiple File Upload Plugin. An example showing how to use it with ASP.NET with code in VB.NET
Use a Flash based component to upload multiple files in a medium-trust hosting environment. This has a Progress Bar too.

Also see:
HOW TO implement AutoComplete with jQuery & ASP.NET
Generate Dynamic Tooltips with ASP.NET & jQuery
ASP.NET File Uploads: Threats & Counter-Measures

Resources on Improving Scalability of ASP.NET apps

2009-06-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

I plan to compile all the good stuff I find on Scaling ASP.NET applications here for easy reference. If you know of any other useful resources, please leave a comment

1) The freely downloadable Patterns & Practices guide Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability has exhaustive info and is a kind of .NET bible. The guide is still relevant eventhough it has not been updated since it was first published in 2004.

2) Key points from the MSDN magazine article "Scaling Strategies for ASP.NET Applications":

Specialize- break your application into smaller pieces in order to isolate the problem. Know where your slowest bits are
Optimize the code before throwing more hardware at it. Test to measure improvements
Implement load balancing - add servers, duplicate the application across them
Eliminate affinity for effective distribution
Minimize Payload by 1) turning on compression 2) reducing ViewState 3) using AJAX (discriminately) to make initial render times faster and reduce perceived size of the payload by spreading it out over time
Implement caching - ASP.NET supports three forms of caching: page caching (also known as output caching), partial-page caching, and programmatic (also known as data) caching.
Partition databases into readers and writers. The reader databases are read-only; they receive their data from the writer databases via replication. All data queries go to the reader databases, which are optimized for reading data as fast as possible. All data write requests are sent to the writer databases, which are partitioned and tuned to write efficiently.

3) Jeff Atwood offers some food for thought on scaling -

Scaling up and scaling out are both viable solutions, depending on what problem you're trying to solve, and what resources (financial, software, and otherwise) you have at hand.

...scaling out is only frictionless when you use open source software. Otherwise, you're in a bit of a conundrum: scaling up means paying less for licenses and a lot more for hardware, while scaling out means paying less for the hardware, and a whole lot more for licenses.

Also see:
Approaching ASP.NET Application Performance and Scalability Improvement
SQL Server Performance Audit Checklist

Fiction to Fact

2009-06-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

Just like Jules Verne's ideas on submarine in the book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea have turned out to be prophetic, the idea of a gestural interface in the movie Minority Report seems to have inspired many researchers and such a UX technology could be commonplace in the near future.

Scott Hanselman recently interviewed Johnny Chung Lee, a researcher in the Applied Sciences group at Microsoft who works with the Project Natal team. Project Natal is the code name for a hands-free motion-sensing technology by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game platform.

Science is hardly a topic on Indian prime time TV, but last Sunday the channel CNN IBN started a series called Superstars of Science which featured among other innovators, Pranav Mistry, who is working on a wearable gestural interface at MIT Media Lab.

Online Reputation/Recommendation systems

2009-06-20T19:15:00.000-07:00

It is interesting to see how the Web is increasingly being used to help as a reputation/recommendation system.

(from Dilbert.com)

On the work front, there is a good chance that LinkedIn.com can give you some background about a person you are about to meet for the first time. For many, the ratings & recommendations for books on Amazon.com help in deciding on making a purchase. StackOverFlow.com is a unique forum for software developers that not just has answers but also ratings for those answers through "crowdsourcing".

I hope the infrastructure/frameworks for building such reputation/recommendation systems become more easily available & configurable so that developers can build more meaningful websites.

Dear Reader, what websites do you frequently look up for recommendations or validating information?

Related:
Preparing your online profile for employers
If You Liked This, You’re Sure to Love That

Book Review: In the Trenches with Microsoft Office Project 2007

2009-06-19T18:08:00.000-07:00

Project 2007 is a complex & powerful tool for Project management. By taking over the number crunching & analysis part, it helps Project Managers conserve time and focus on decision making aspects. In the Trenches with Microsoft Office Project 2007 by Elaine Marmel shows how to use Project 2007 for various Project management situations in about 350 odd pages. In a part cookbook, part tutorial style the author takes the reader through common scenarios that a PM can face, suggests best practices and offers useful tips.

As the author admits, this book is not specifically a guide for Project 2007. It is ill-suited for beginners to Project 2007. It does not target any specific edition of Project 2007. I feel the contents could have been organized and presented in a better way to make it more engaging. I love it when key points are summarized at the end of each chapter (as in Code Complete or some of the Microsoft Certification guides). That way, the gist of the chapters are sticky & more memorable. I sorely missed it in this book.

If I had to rate this book in Amazon style, I would give it 3 stars out of 5

Trivia - Project 2007 does not have the "Ribbon"

Also see -
HOW TO create a Ribbon-less Excel 2003 UI in Excel 2007

HOW TO keep up-to-date on the latest technologies & trends

2009-06-18T17:48:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Solution Architect MVP Udi Dahan's view on managing the avalance of technical info on the new technologies that is available these days -

"Never has so much information been so readily available and accessible to so many. It turns out, though, that much of that information is about how something works, less about what problem it is intended to solve, and much less about which problems it isn’t suited for. As an architect looking at choosing the right tool for the right job, I focus a lot more on the last two. Often, I go digging to find out why a tool isn’t a good fit for a job. So, I guess my recipe is to mostly ignore the avalanche and tap my network to find out the stuff the avalanche won’t tell you."

From The Architecture Journal

What is "domain sharding"

2009-06-17T19:24:00.001-07:00

It's a term that Steve Souders uses to describe intentionally splitting web page resources across multiple domains to make pages load faster.

Steve Souders has done extensive research on improving front-end performance of website. He has shared his findings on "domain sharding":

Most of the U.S. top ten web sites do domain sharding.
The optimal number of domains to shard across is 2-4. After 4 domains, response time degrades
Domain sharding is especially useful for older browsers as they are restricted to just two parallel downloads per hostname. The newer browsers however do better. Opera 9+ and Safari 3+ do four downloads per hostname. Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3, and Chrome 1+ do six downloads per hostname.

Also see:
HOW TO improve the front-end performance of a website
HOW TO speed up a ASP.NET AJAX web app

Free ASP.NET based CMS

2009-06-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

A Content Management System allows content creators to submit content without requiring technical knowledge of HTML or the uploading of files. The following is list of free ASP.NET based Content Management Systems -

Free, with source:

Related:
Open Source .NET projects

HOW TO fetch unread emails from a mail server

2009-06-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

I learnt today that fetching unread email messages is not natively supported by POP3.

The POP3 protocol does not provide the ability to ask the server which emails are "unread". Furthermore, a pure POP3 server does not even keep this information. Some servers, such as Exchange Server, expose both POP3 and IMAP interfaces. In these cases, information about read/unread status exists on the server, but it is only available via the IMAP protocol.

There is a code sample on getting the list of unread messages from an IMAP server using a commerical component Rebex Mail for .NET. Although I haven't tried, I guess this can be achieved using IMAP components like these -
IPWorks! IMAP Component from /n software
Rebex Mail for .NET
Chilkat IMAP .NET
EAGetMail IMAP4 Component
Lumisoft (free)
xemail-net (free)
InterIMAP (free)

So what's the difference between IMAP and POP? An answer from the Gmail FAQ -

Unlike POP, IMAP offers two-way communication between your web Gmail and your email client(s). This means when you log in to Gmail using a web browser, actions you perform on email clients and mobile devices (ex: putting mail in a 'work' folder) will instantly and automatically appear in Gmail (ex: it will already have a 'work' label on that email the next time you sign in).

IMAP also provides a better method to access your mail from multiple devices. If you check your email at work, on your mobile phone, and again at home, IMAP ensures that new mail is accessible from any device at any given time.

Finally, IMAP offers a more stable experience overall. Whereas POP is prone to losing messages or downloading the same messages multiple times, IMAP avoids this through two-way syncing capabilities between your mail clients and your web Gmail.

If you're trying to decide between using POP and using IMAP with Gmail, we recommend IMAP.

Also see:
HOW TO avoid Spam Filters while emailing programmatically
HOW TO view only the unread messages in your Gmail inbox
So, you want to be a Gmail ninja?

Humor is dying. Preserve MAD

2009-06-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

There is news that after 55 years as a monthly publication, MAD magazine will become a quarterly.

It is, of course, a sign of the times, if ever their were one, a sign that the magazine is continuing to struggle at the hands of newer forms of media, seven years after finally caving and including advertisements in its printed form. It’s also a sign, Jaffee adds, half jokingly, that “humor is dying.”

Reviewing Mad’s 500th issue which has a spoof on Google, Wired magazine has this to say about MAD -

Now well into its emerald anniversary, the spoof-filled magazine founded by William Gaines in 1952 has left an immeasurable stamp on global entertainment. Mad served as a comedy Bible to Monty Python auteur Terry Gilliam, taught Roger Ebert how to write film reviews and peddled parody to the masses. According to Patti Smith, it more or less replaced drugs altogether.

It is a consolation that there is a DVD compilation of over 600 issues of Mad Magazines from 1952 to 2006 - Absolutely MAD Magazine - 50+ Years available for around 30 bucks. I bought my copy a few months ago and being a amateur cartoonist I'm thrilled going through the artwork & creativity of my favorite artists, David Berg and Al Jaffee over the years.

Related:
Al Jaffee's Mad Fold-Ins in Flash

Free C++ Learning Resources

2009-06-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

Many school and college students start their programming careers learning C++ as part of their curriculum. Here is a list of free e-books and compilers:

Microsoft's Beginner Developer Learning Center has some fantastic introductory learning material for Web and Windows Development. As part of that, C++: A Beginner's Guide by Herb Schildt, a step-by-step book ideal for first-time programmers or those new to C++, is available in electronic format for downloading.

Bruce Eckel's two volumes of Thinking in C++ can be downloaded from the author's website.

When I was in college, Turbo C++ was the compiler/IDE we used. It is pretty light and available now in Antique Software section of Embarcadero Developer Network. Turbo C++ was originally built by Borland. It is currently distributed by Embarcadero Technologies, which has acquired all of Borland's compiler tools.

You can also use Microsoft's Visual C++ Express Edition for free

Related:
Dreamspark in India

Can SQL Server Express be used on a Production Server?

2009-06-08T06:58:00.000-07:00

Yes...with some limitations, going by these threads on the ASP.NET Forums.

The FAQ for the Express products has another interesting point about SQL Server Express

What is the difference between SQL Server 2008 Express and SQL Server Compact Edition?
SQL Server Compact Edition is a lightweight , easy to deploy database system that is ideal for Windows database development. A 2MB footprint that requires no administration makes it an ideal solution for creating most data storage needs. Some of the limitations of SQL Server Compact Edition:

* Does not accept remote connections
* It is not compatible with the design time tools for LINQ to SQL
* Does not support stored procedures

SQL Server Express is designed to be feature-rich and powerful database system. It is an ideal solution for creating client-server Windows applications and Web development. Some of the features of SQL Server Express:

* Develop stored procedures with Visual Basic Express and Visual C# Express
* Full support of design time tools like LINQ to SQL
* A huge data storage of 4GB capacity

SQL Server Express is designed to meet the needs of simple applications. It is limited to using 1 CPU and up to 1GB RAM, with a 4GB maximum database size.

Trivia - Did you know, while the estimated retail pricing for U.S. and Canadian editions of SQL Server 2005 is $24,999, the Developer Edition which includes all the functionality of Enterprise Edition is $49

Related:
Can VS 2008 editions be installed side-by-side?

Need a Progress Indicator image-get a customized Throbber

2009-06-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

The animated image that you see in most AJAX based websites to indicate progress is called a Throbber. If you ever need a Throbber, you can turn to the free and excellent Throbber Generator by Yannick Croissant (A.K.A Country). You can choose from a variety of indicators and also change the background and foreground color of the Throbber.

Trivia - I was able to know Yannick Croissant's site is in French from the awesome auto-detect language feature on Microsoft Translator and Google Translate.

Related:
Make a Progress Indicator For Slow-Loading Pages
Build a Dynamic Progress Page For ASP.NET Pages

Why are these Visual Studio Settings not enabled by default?

2009-06-04T11:06:00.000-07:00

Enclosing HTML attribute values within quotes is one of the steps to make your web pages XHTML compliant. The benefit of making your web pages XHTML compliant is that there is a high probability that your pages would become cross-browser too. ScottGu pointed out a tip from the Visual Web Developer MSDN blog (Tip#66) about a Visual Studio 2008 setting that can automatically enclose property values in the HTML editor within quotes while you are typing.

To set this option select Tools->Options. Check Show all settings. From the left pane select Text Editor -> HTML -> Format and check the insert attribute value quotes when typing checkbox.

This is no doubt a cool tip but as an aggrieved reader of that blog post mentioned, why is this nifty, time-saving option not enabled by default?

Similarly, don't we wish any HTML code that we pasted into VS is automatically formatted? Tip #59 -

In Tools->Options dialog, go to Text Editor->HTML->Miscellaneous page. Check ‘Format HTML on paste’ option.

Also, don't we want the Solution Explorer to always show the file currently opened in the Editor highlighted especially when there are a lot of files in the solution?

On the Tools - Options - Projects and Solutions - General page, there's the Track Active Item in Solution Explorer. When enabled, this will sync your solution explorer with the open document.

These small settings can make a big difference for most developers and I wish these were enabled by default.

On a related note, if you are looking for more tips on the VS.NET IDE, check Sara Ford's Visual Studio 2008 Tips and those on the Visual Web Developer MSDN blog. My favorite in the later are:
Tip #23: Did you know…How to launch Formatting options dialog for editor with 2 clicks?
Tip #24: Did you know…You could display CSS/HTML errors as warnings or as errors?
Tip #28 - Did you know… That “Go to definition” is supported for CSS Class?

Also see:
HOW TO achieve XHTML compliance by changing existing HTML code in upper case to lower
VS.NET 2005 keyboard shortcuts

HOW TO pronounce foreign names

2009-06-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

When I was in school & being a non-native English speaker, it was a revelation to me that "Nietzche" is pronounced "n ih t sz ah" and "Sean" as "sh aw n".

I was glad to find the website "Pronounce Names" which calls itself a "Dictionary of Name Pronunciation". I tried out several intriguing names and found the service useful.

Especially when you are doing business, mis-pronouncing a client's name will not be overlooked as a trivial slip-up.

In today's international business environment, it is exceedingly important to say your clients name correctly, you CANNOT afford to call Dumass, a Dumb-ass

You can not just look-up pronunciation of a name on the website but also submit pronunciation of a name so that others can pronounce it correctly and request pronunciation of a name that you don't know and would like to find out.

I hope as the website gets more popular & their database increases, they will come up with an API so that other websites can programmatically access this invaluable repository.

Also see:
WordWeb - the desktop English teacher
Phone number to word - mnemonic generator

HOW TO build your own Project Template in Visual Studio 2008

2009-06-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

If you build a lot of websites that follow a similar structure or wish to enforce a similar structure within your team so that the code and applications are consistent and standardized, you can consider building your own Project template in Visual Studio 2008 in order to re-use. For instance, you may want the jQuery libary to be included in a JS folder for every new website that you create. Just like you see "ASP.NET Web Site" & other templates when you choose File > New option, you can have a custom Project Template show up after you create a new Project template.

The Visual Web Developer MSDN blog has detailed step by step instructions on creating a custom Project template for Visual Studio Web Developer & VSTS. I adapted the steps described there to create a Project template for VS 2008. Here are the instructions paraphrased for VS 2008:

Open the model website based on which you wish to create newer websites.
From the File menu, select Export Template...
In the Export Template Wizard that appears, choose Project Template and click the Next button
Choose a template name and specify a description for it.
Keep the checkboxes "Automatically import the template into Visual Studio" and "Display an Explorer window on the output files folder" checked. (If you want your template to appear for all users, you should first un-check Automatically import the template into Visual Studio) and click on the Finish button of the Wizard.
Copy the template (.zip file) alongside the other Project templates in this folder - Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates\Web\CSharp\1033
Select Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt from Visual Studio Tools that appears in the Programs menu under Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.
Run Devenv /setup at the command prompt

Now when you start creating a new website, you can select your new custom template.

Similarly, you can create an Item Template so that whenever you select File > New > File... or right click on a project within Solution Explorer & choose "Add New Item...", you can find a custom Item template similar to Web Form or AJAX Web Form.

HOW TO create a Contact/Feedback form without coding

2009-05-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

Typically building a Contact or Feedback form requires some amount of server-side programming as submitted values need to be saved in a database or emailed to a specified address. There are also infrastructure costs associated with running self-hosted database software and email.

Zoho Creator offers free readymade configurable templates for a host of forms including Contact or Feedback forms. Once configured, Zoho Creator provides you a code snippet that you can paste into your web pages. When the page is rendered when accessed by an end-user, the Form appears within an IFRAME. The form records are saved to a database that can be accessed online and also sent by email to an address of your choice.

I was able to set up a Contact form for this blog within minutes.

Fiddling with Fiddler

2009-05-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

I noticed the inconspicuous QuickExec box several months after using Fiddler, the HTTP debugging tool. There is more to Fiddler than what meets the eye.

The QuickExec box is a thin black box just above the Fiddler status bar that lets you type commands instead of clicking on the menu options. Just type CLS when you wish to clear the Web Sessions, use ?word to look for a specific word among the Session URLs or filter URLs that are of a specific size using the commands < size and > size.

The neXpert 1.1 Performance Tool allows you to type additional commands in the QuickExec box than the pre-defined ones. One of those nifty commands is savesaz filename that let's you save Fiddler Sessions in a Session Archive (.SAZ) file at a specified path. Read more about it in my recent article Fiddler Tips & Tricks.

Also see:
neXpert - YSlow clone for Fiddler
Accidental discoveries

The Internet is for Everyone - Vint Cerf

2009-05-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

I came across the transcript of an interesting speech by Vint Cerf, 'the father of the Internet', on his vision & goals for the Internet. I feel the Internet is among the few wonderful inventions that has had the widest impact on the world.

Excerpt from the speech:

The Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if we are not responsible in its use and mindful of the rights of others who share its wealth. Let us dedicate ourselves to the responsible use of this new medium and to the proposition that with the freedoms Internet enables comes a commensurate responsibility to use these powerful enablers with care and consideration. For those who choose to abuse these privileges, let us dedicate ourselves to developing the necessary tools to combat the abuse and punish the abuser.

Related:
A Brief History of the Web

Book Review: Learning jQuery

2009-05-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

I "discovered" jQuery a few months ago. jQuery is JavaScript on steroids. I've found it so useful, I've stayed hooked. The website Visual jQuery and the book Learning jQuery : Better Interaction Design and Web Development with Simple JavaScript Techniques by Karl Swedberg (a jQuery Evangelist) & Jonathan Chaffer have been extremely useful in helping me understand and appreciate the goodness of jQuery.

In my opinion, a good technical book has the following characteristics:

Is written in plain English with a conversational tone
Has practical reusable examples with scenarios I can relate to
Provides adequate background info on crucial concepts

This 380-paged book meets that definition. Chapters 1 to 7 cover the basics and key jQuery Library features like HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and AJAX interactions. The remaining chapters cover the practical uses of jQuery including Plugins, a feature that has bowled me over. Among all the chapters, I found the ones on DOM Manipulation and AJAX valuable. There has numerous examples that can be applied at work. Reading through the book, it is apparent that it has been written by folks who have been in the trenches. I loved the little thoughtful tid-bits across the book, like this one -

Notice the use of a $ in the variable name, $speech. Since $ is a legal character in JavaScript variables, we can use it as a reminder that the variable is storing a jQuery object.

I wish the book came with a cheat-sheet or a map of all the important jQuery methods, properties and functions indexed to the detailed descriptions in the chapters.

I recommend this book to everyone getting started with jQuery.

Free print version of Newspapers

2009-05-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

Most newspapers round the world have online editions as well. While you get the news, you don't get to see things like Classifieds, Seasonal Sales etc.,. Some newspapers offer a digital edition of the "print" version which can be useful if you need such info and you missed a copy. You also get to choose local edition of different regions. So if you have re-located to a new city, you can still track news of you home city. Here is a compilation of the popular newspapers in Hyderabad (where I stay) & India:

Deccan Chronicle (free, registration required)
Times of India
Hindustan Times (free, registration required)
Indian Express (free, registration required)
Economic Times
Business Standard (free, registration required)
Eenadu (free, registration required)
Sakshi

Also see:
Beat the Recession with Tip Jar

HOW TO capture mouse pointer in a screenshot

2009-05-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

I recently needed a screenshot of a web page WITH the mouse pointer visible. I did not find the regular Print Screen key, MS Paint, Paint.NET, Cropper, the Snipping tool in Vista to be of of any help. After a little googling, I found info dating back to 1999 that is still relevant. Hans Springer wrote that there are atleast 4 tools that can do this -

The first 3 are commercial tools with free trial versions available while the last is freeware. I used SnagIt (which I initially used many years ago) to get my screenshot.

If you know of any other tools, please post your comment.

Related:
Free tools to generate screenshots