Tech Tips, Tricks & Trivia

Notes from Pluralsight course - SQL Server Questions and Answers

2012-01-29T23:15:00.001+05:30

In the Pluralsight course "SQL Server Questions and Answers", Pinal & Vinod debunk some SQL Server misconceptions with examples and highlight uncommon facts -

Use SCOPE_IDENTITY() instead of @@IDENTITY or IDENT_CURRENT("tablename") to get the latest IDENTITY value for the table in the session
@@IDENTITY returns the last IDENTITY value produced on a connection
SCOPE_IDENTITY() returns the last IDENTITY value produced on a connection (explicity created by you rather than a trigger) and by a statement in the same scope
IDENT_CURRENT("tablename") returns the last IDENTITY value produced in a table, regardless of the connection
Identity column value can be positive or negative
Identity column can be reseeded with DBCC CHECKIDENT command
Deleting records from table using DELETE does not reset Identity values whereas deleting records from table using TRUNCATE resets Identity values.
TRUNCATE statements are logged and can be part of transaction. Such transactions can be rolled back.
Executing TRUNCATE is not possible when a table is referenced by a foreign key or if the table is used in replication or with Indexed views
WHERE can be used with SELECT, DELETE, UPDATE statements whereas HAVING is used along with GROUP BY clause in a SELECT statement
The order of the conditions in the WHERE clause does not affect index used. This can be verified from the Execution plan.
If parenthesis is used with a combination of OR & AND conditions, the result & index usage may vary
Table variables & Temporary tables both exist in TempDB
Table variables too can have a clustered index but they do not participate in the Transaction context.
A Table variable cannot be assigned to another Table variable
A Table variable cannot be truncated
Stored procedures are not compiled when created.
Stored procedures are compiled on first run & this can be verified by watching the SP:CacheInsert event in Profiler.
Using Filtered Index (uses WHERE in an UNIQUE INDEX) which is new in SQL Server 2008, it is possible to have multiple nulls even when UNIQUE constraint is imposed.
In SQL Server 2008, date and time can be stored independent of each other in a db using the DATE & TIME datatypes
DateTime2 datatype has a precision of 100th of a nanosecond.
Precision of SmallDateTime datatype is 1 minute
Multiple UNIQUE constraints can be defined on a table
A quick way to populate table rows -

CREATE TABLE Test (id INT IDENTITY(1,1), Long_Name CHAR(7500) DEFAULT 'dummy')

INSERT INTO Test DEFAULT VALUES; GO 15; --inserts 15 rows

fn_dblog is an undocumented system UDF that lets you to read from your transaction log
Lock duration is dependent on the ISOLATION LEVEL (READ COMMITTED, READ UNCOMMITTED, REPEATABLE READ, SERIALIZABLE)
When a nested transaction is rolled back it always rolls back to the outermost BEGIN TRANSACTION statement (unless SAVEPOINT is used)
DENY takes precedence over GRANT except at a column level GRANT
Blocked process report Event under Error & Warnings section of Events Selection tab in the Trace Properties dialog box in Profiler helps in analyzing Blocking issues
Recent Expensive Queries tab within Activity Monitor in SSMS shows queries that you can optimize.

Explore console.log if you use JavaScript alert extensively for debugging

2012-01-15T12:30:00.000+05:30

The JavaScript alert method is something that most web developers use to debug their code. However, now with all popular browsers incorporating Developer tools within them, there are easier ways to debug client-side code. Firebug is an optional add-on for Firefox that adds richer features to those natively available & probably the motivator for browsers to develop their own Developer tools. I guess, it was IE that started using F12 as keyboard shortcut to start up Developer tools and now that's synonymous with Developer tools on almost all browsers.

Within the Developer tools, a Console panel exists for executing script statements on-the-fly. You can make use of Console methods to expose information that is flowing through your scripts. The console.log method can be used as an alternative to the obtrusive JavaScript alert method to track what's going on within your code without having to click OK for every dialog box that alert throws up. This will work only if you have the Console opened though.

So to remove your debugging code when you deploy to production, use this:
if ( window.console ) {
// console is available
}

While console.log is one of the more common methods supported in popular browsers(IE, Firefox Firebug, Chrome, Safari), there are other methods as well for which support may vary -

console.info
console.warn
console.error
console.assert

Ctrl+Shift+J shortcut lets you jump to the Console panel in Chrome.

Indian comparison shopping sites

2011-12-31T22:58:00.001+05:30

Did you know, India has 120 million Internet users & the Indian e-commerce market is worth $7 billion? Travel accounts for over 80 percent of the e-commerce market.

Forbes believes "the rise of e-commerce is significant because it shows the limitations of physical retailing and the rise of aspirations of small town India. Between the large unorganised retail (kiranas and unbranded supermarkets) that serves the masses and modern retail that serves the aspirational class in large cities, there lies a thin wedge of aspirational classes who live in dusty towns. The economics of physical retailing have always left them short changed."

Yet another indicator of the rise of e-commerce is the growing number of comparison shopping sites -

MySmartPrice - for books & gadgets
90DI - finds fastest & cheapest travel options (train, bus & flights)
Redbus - choose travel options from over 350 bus operators
IndiaBookStore.net - search engine for books available at major Indian online book stores.

If you know of any more much websites, please leave a comment

HOW TO back up a database (schema and data) as a SQL Server script

2011-12-26T20:18:00.000+05:30

Did you know, SQL Server 2008 Management Studio has an in-built option to generate a script that can help you restore an entire database alongwith the data? Compared to a .BAK file that can also be used to restore a database, a script lets you peek into the schema AND data (INSERT statements for rows within tables are automatically generated) before you restore it.

Unfortunately, this cool feature is hidden under layers of options and isn't easily discoverable unless a really discerning user points it out.

Steps to generate script:
1. Right click on a database name, choose Generate Scripts.. option under Tasks.. in the context menu
2. In the Generate and Publish Scripts wizard which appears choose the database object for which you want to generate a script
3. Under the Set Scripting Options, make sure to click on the Advanced button which reveals a bunch of more options.
4. In the new dialog box that opens up, scroll down to the last option in the General category and for Types of data to script, choose Schema and Data

Related:
HOW TO view parameter values of a stored procedure through SQL Profiler
Why are these Visual Studio Settings not enabled by default?

Fastest dictionary on the web - thefreedictionary.com

2011-12-15T22:06:00.000+05:30

As per the most voted answer on Web Applications StackExchange forum, thefreedictionary.com with the print layout is the fastest and their content is pretty comprehensive too.

WordWeb is my favorite desktop dictionary tool & now I also have thefreedictionary.com configured as my search engine for words within Chrome.

The URL looks simple - http://thefreedictionary.com/p/Word & this makes it super easy to add the site as a search provider in Chrome & Opera. This generic article how you can add thefreedictionary.com as a search engine option.

I assigned the letter "d" to represent thefreedictionary.com as a shorcut for dictionary. So now, whenever I need to search for the meaning of a word I type "d" in the Chrome address bar, hit space followed by word & bingo...a detailed page pertaining to that word appears in a flash.

Related:
HOW TO Google specifically for discussions/answers on only online forums instead of articles
Free Programmable & Searchable Dictionaries

Get over pesky layout/design changes, use keyboard shorcuts on Twitter, Google products

2011-12-10T00:04:00.001+05:30

When popular websites change their layout & design, it takes time for users to get accustomed to it. If you don't like frills and rather like features that get your work done faster, explore keyboard shorcuts that web apps like Twitter, Gmail, Google Reader, Google Docs offer. Just hit the question mark (?) key while you are logged into one of those sites and you will see a popup with a list of all supported hotkeys. While the keyboard shortcut Help popup has been in GMail & Google Reader since a couple of years now, I came to know about the Twitter hotkeys today from Scott Hanselman's blog.

I found the choice of letters used by Twitter hotkeys more intuitive than what Google has (how easy is it to correlate Sneak Peak with the letter "h"?)

... so I identified for myself a list of shortcuts that are easily memorable from the much larger list:

g then i : Go to Inbox
g then s : Go to Starred conversations
g then t : Go to Sent messages
g then d : Go to Drafts
g then a : Go to All mail
g then c : Go to Contacts
g then k : Go to Tasks
g then l : Go to Label
u : Back to threadlist
k / j : Newer/older conversation
o or or <Enter> : Open conversation; collapse/expand conversation
c : Compose
/ : Search
? : Open shortcut help
! : Report as spam
# : Move to bin
r : Reply
<Shift> + r : Reply in a new window
a : Reply all
<Shift> + a : Reply all in a new window
f : Forward
<Shift> + f : Forward in a new window
z : Undo last action
g then w : Create a blank document
h : Sneak peek
<Shift> + t : Add conversation to Tasks
<Tab> then <Enter> : Send mail
. : Open more actions menu
<Ctrl> + s : Save draft

The ? hotkey Help shortcut popup is an interesting UI Pattern that other web apps should start using as well.

Just as browsers have almost standardized on keyboard shortcuts, it will be good for users if web sites standardize helpful features like the keyboard shortcuts Help popup and maintain similar mappings.

Here's a list of sites that support keyboard shortcuts (those supporting the ? hotkey Help shortcut popup are shown in bold):

Twitter
Gmail
Google Reader
Google Docs
Yahoo
Remember The Milk
Hotmail

HOW TO take a screenshot of any screen on Samsung Omnia 652

2011-12-02T23:30:00.003+05:30

The Wife finally cracked the mystery of how to take a screenshot of any screen on her Samsung Omnia 652.

For months since she saw the message "Screen captured. Saved as image file" while trying to unlock the smartphone, we were intrigued what key combination had led to it. We turned to Google but found no answers and this was too trivial to ask on online forums.

It's finally a relief to know that the combination is Alt+*+Confirm/OK key

You can access the screenshot by going to the Images folder in My Documents that you can find under Contents Manager.

A few other tricks we discovered (after we didn't find them in the manual):
While composing a text message, press the Shift key (up arrow on the extreme left of bottom row) twice to type everything in capitals and if you need to type only numbers, press the Alt key twice.

The Sym (Symbol) key lets you activate the XT9 option, the predictive text feature that helps in typing words faster. XT9 & T9 are typically found on phones made by LG, NEC, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Sanyo, Sagem.

One of our favorite camera features on the Omnia is the Multi shot option that lets you take a series of photos of an action with a single click.

Also see:
Save time while typing with PhraseExpress

Pluralsight Introduction to PowerShell Course - Notes

2011-11-30T01:04:00.002+05:30

Summary of the 2hour 40 minute duration Pluralsight Introduction to PowerShell course, including other interesting material I found -

+ What is PowerShell?
Windows PowerShell command-line interface is a new command-line tool
It's a scripting language from Microsoft that complements Cmd.exe in the Windows administration context.
Based on .NET
Everything is a .NET object
PowerShell version 2 is included with Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, XP SP3, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP1
PowerShell scripts have a .ps1 extension

+ How to get started?
To start working with Powershell, go to Windows Accessories & select Windows PowerShell.

PowerShell Environments:
Out of box – PowerShell command window, PowerShell ISE (Integrated Shell Environment)
Free ISE’s – PowerSE, PowerGUI
Commercial

PowerShell ISE or Integrated Scripting Environment is a GUI for working with PowerShell
You can hide the Script panel in PowerShell ISE if you work a lot in Interactive mode. In the Script pane, you can run either entire script (F5) or run a selection of commands with F8

+ Why learn PowerShell?
In the SharePoint 2010 administration context, Windows PowerShell supersedes the Stsadm.exe administration tool.
Windows PowerShell scripts can also be used to administer other Microsoft server products. This gives administrators a common scripting language across servers.
SQL Server 2008 introduces support for Windows PowerShell.
Windows PowerShell lets SQL Server administrators and developers automate server administration and application deployment.
The Windows PowerShell language supports more complex logic than Transact-SQL scripts, giving SQL Server administrators the ability to build robust administration scripts.
SQL Server cmdlets support actions such as running a sqlcmd script containing Transact-SQL or XQuery statements.
SharePoint 2010 has some 500+ cmdlets.

+ Commands in PowerShell are in the form of Cmdlets (“pronounced Command-lets”).
PowerShell commands have a Verb-Noun syntax. Example:
Get-command – retrieves a list of all system commands that are currently loaded into the PS environment

+ Common verbs:
Get
Set
Out
Start
Stop
Restart
Add

+ Common Nouns:
Help
Command
Service
Computer
Location
Childitems

You can pass parameters, verbs or nouns, to view cmdlets featuring those keywords
Get-command –verb “get” : will get all cmdlets that have the verb get
Get-command –noun “service” : all cmdlets that have the noun service

To find explanation about at command: get-help get-command
get-help get-command - examples
get-help get-command -detailed
get-help get-command –full

To view environment variables:
Clear-Host
Set-Location env:
Get-children

Show list of snap-ins:
Clear-Host
Get-pssnapin

Show list of registered snap-ins:
Clear-Host
Get-pssnapin –registered

+ What is a PowerShell snap-in?

A PowerShell snap-in is a .NET assembly or set of assemblies that contains cmdlets, providers, type extensions, and format metadata.
All the commands and providers that ship as part of the Windows PowerShell product are implemented as a set of ﬁve snap-ins. You can view the list of snap-ins using the get-pssnapin cmdlet.
When a snap-in is loaded in Windows PowerShell, all cmdlets and providers in the snap-in are made available to the user. This model allows administrators to customize the shell by adding or removing snap-ins to achieve precise sets of providers and cmdlets.
PowerShell built-in snap-ins, such as Microsoft.PowerShell.Host, cannot be removed.

You write a snap-in when you want your cmdlets or providers to be part of the default Windows PowerShell.

+ Aliasing makes it easy for a lot of commands to be mapped to specific PowerShell commands.
Useful for folks transitioning from Linux or DOS. Dir & ls are both mapped to get-childitem, they are both aliases
You can set your own aliases. Example: set-alias list get-childitem # will create a alias called list to display directories & files
The lifetime of this “list” lasts till this PowerShell window is open
It is possible to save your aliases into a file & re-load them. Example: Export-alias c:\ps\myalias.csv list (wildcards also possible)
When you reopen window, use this - import-alias c:\ps\myalias.csv & then use list. You can load a whole bunch of aliases within a csv file & load them when you want to.

+ Pipelining – combining cmdlets for power. Examples:
Get-childitem | where-object {$_.Length –gt 100KB}
$_ represents the current object

Get-childitem | where-object {$_.Length –gt 100KB} | sort-object length

Get-childitem | where-object {$_.Length –gt 100KB} | sort-object Length |
Format-Table -Property Name, Length –AutoSize

Get-childitem | select-object Name, Length
select-object can be used to retrieve certain properties from an object

Get-ChildItem | Where-Object {$_.Name – like “*.ps1”}

+ Provider is a .NET library that provides a standard interface through which we can navigate through whatever object a provider represents.
Providers can extend the list of cmdlets that are available to you.
Get-psprovider command shows a list of providers we have currently loaded in our environment.
Each one of these providers reveals itself to us through the form of Drives. It is through these Drives that we can navigate & retrieve data.

+ Variables:
Get-Variable – displays the variable & its value
Set-Variable – assign a new value to an existing variable
Clear-Variable – clears the contents of a variable. Variable still exists but without any value
Remove-Variable – wipes out a variable.

+ Automatic variables:
$false, $true
$pwd – current directory
$Home – users Home directory
$host – info about a users machine
$PSVersionTable – info about the current version of Powershell
$PID – process ID
$_ - special variable name to represent the current object

+ Strings:
String comparisons are case insensitive by default
To get quotation marks within a string, use mixed quotes or use the quotation mark twice
Here String - for storing large blocks of text, enclose the string within quotes & then precede & terminate quotation marks with @. Lines containing the “@” should exist independently.
Expressions can be used in strings & they need to be wrapped in $(). Example - “There are $((Get-ChildItem).Count) items in the folder $(Get-Location)”
Wildcards & Regular expressions are supported. Example - “Pluralsight” –like “Plural*[s-v]”

+ Arrays:
Arrays in PS are zero-based
$array = “plural”,”sight”
$array = @(“plural”,”sight”)
$array = 1..5 #numeric range notation
The formal array creation syntax is useful when creating a blank array - $array = @()

+ Hash tables:
$hash = @{“key” = “value”;}
$hash[“mvark”] = “mvark.blogpsot.com”
$hash.Remove(“mvark”) #remove by passing in key
$hash.Contains(“mvark”) #see if key exists
#list keys & values
$hash.Keys
$hash.Values

+ Branching and Looping constructs:
PowerShell supports Branching construct like if-else, switch and Looping constructs like while, do-while, do-until, for, foreach
PowerShell has if & else but doesn’t have if elseif
Switch will match all lines that match. To stop processing once a block is found use break
Switch works with collections, looping & executing for each match
Break – exits the loop on first hit. When used in a nested loop, break exits to the outer loop
Continue – to skip the rest of a loop but go onto the next iteration
Trap – to catch exceptions
Use loop labels to break to a certain loop

+ Script block:
A basic script block is code inside {}. The for (as well as other loops) execute a script block
To put multiple commands on a single line use the ;
You can store script blocks inside a variable
$cool = {Clear-Host; “Powershell and bowties are cool”}
To run the variable precede it with a &. Example: & $cool
You can use return to return a value. Once it is used, the script exits
"process" is used to pipeline enable a block
Variables declared outside a block are useable inside a block
If you try to change the variable inside a block, PS makes a local copy & uses that, leaving the original alone

+ Functions are basically script blocks with names.
No parentheses or commas required to separate parameters
To add Help to your functions, use custom tags within a comment block and Get-Help can recognize them.

+ Filters are alternatives to functions; work like the Where-Object cmdlet
Filters can be built to remove unwanted files

+ Files:
Contents of a file are stored in a array
Get-Content - can display a file. Get-Content supports wildcards
Set-Content - write text to a file. It can however be destructive. If a file already exists, it’s overwritten
Add-Content - to append text to a file
User-defined functions can be defined in a .PS1 file & it can be referenced in a script using Import-Module
$psise is a special variable that represents PowerShell Integrated Server Environment
.ps1 can be omitted while running script from the command prompt

+ Other references:
Windows PowerShell Quick Reference
Windows PowerShell Survival Guide

In this course, the presenter Robert Cain has done a good job of covering the basics of PowerShell at a relaxed pace. He has a charming style of delivery & his accent should be easy to follow even by international audiences.

HOW TO Google specifically for discussions/answers on only online forums instead of articles

2011-11-14T21:20:00.001+05:30

There may be times when you want to look for results for a particular keyword or phrase from among discussion boards and online forums. For instance, you may want to know about opinions on solving a complex programming issue or find the experiences of people with a particular ailment or gauge the reactions of food aficionados to some exotic recipe. In such cases, articles don't help and to cut to the chase, you can turn to Google Groups Search. It now gets results from not just threads within Google Groups but also other online forums. Currently, not all forum sites are included & a glaring omission seems to be the StackExchange family of Q & A sites.

Adding Google Groups as a search engine is relatively easy in Chrome & Opera than the other browsers. Once you configure Google Groups as a search provider within Chrome...

...you can type the keyword you assigned that provider (I choose "grp" to represent Google Groups Search) followed by your search query. When you type the search provider's keyword and hit space, a label corresponding to the search engine name would show up in the Omnibox.

Keywords specified while configuring search providers make it easy to switch between search engines in the browser.

HOW TO delete an email address from GMail auto-complete list without deleting Contact

2011-10-16T13:40:00.001+05:30

Supposedly friendly features like spell-check & auto-completion can be a bane sometimes. Imagine if your boss & best friend share the same name & you excitedly send a very private message to the boss instead of the friend because GMail cleverly fills the email address while you type a few characters of the name. If such a scenario rings a bell, here is one option to prevent GMail from supplying names you don't want to see in the email auto-complete list that appears while composing a mail.

The easy way is to delete the contact. But if you want to prevent an email address from showing up in GMail auto-complete list when you try names in the To:, CC: or BCC: fields, then you can consider moving the email address from the Email field in the form for that Contact to the Notes field.

click on image to enlarge

HOW TO compare HTML5 features supported by versions 8, 9 & 10 of IE

2011-10-07T23:54:00.001+05:30

This page on the Browserscope website lets you choose versions of the same or different browsers & see how they stack up in supporting HTML5 features. Click on the "Compare UAs" link on that page, select User Agents you want to compare & then hit the Compare button.

I chose versions 8, 9 & 10 of Internet Explorer to see what's new with respect to HTML5 in IE9 & IE 10

click to enlarge image

You can copy the table data to Excel & transpose the columns to rows to view the tabular data vertically as a list (in Excel2010, click on Paste dropdown in Ribbon & select Transpose).

So here is the list of HTML5 supported features in IE9 as detected by Browserscope by utilizing Modernizer 2.0.4 -

audio:m4a
audio:mp3
backgroundsize
borderradius
boxshadow
canvas
canvastext
csstransforms
draganddrop
fontface
generatedcontent
geolocation
hashchange
hsla
inlinesvg
localstorage
multiplebgs
opacity
postmessage
rgba
sessionstorage
smil
svg
svgclippaths
video:h264

IE10 additionally supports the following HTML5 features -

applicationcache
cssanimations
csscolumns
cssgradients
csstransforms3d
csstransitions
history
indexeddb
input:autofocus
input:list
input:max
input:min
input:multiple
input:pattern
input:placeholder
input:required
input:step
inputtypes:email
inputtypes:number
inputtypes:range
inputtypes:search
inputtypes:tel
inputtypes:url
textshadow
websockets
webworkers

Also see:
Comparison of layout engines (HTML5)
HTML5 compatibility across major mobile and tablet browsers

Scott Allen's 10 favorite C# rules for developing software

2011-10-06T19:08:00.000+05:30

From Scott Allen's C# Fundamentals Part 2 course on Pluralsight -

Rule #10: Avoid Regions - as they are typically used to hide ugly code or classes that've exploded in size or responsibility. Think if you should break the regions into seperate classes
Rule #9: Use exceptions for errors..instead of status code or booleans...but not for control flow
Rule #8: Avoid boolean parameters
Rule #7: Avoid too many parameters - beyond 4, consider grouping
Rule #6: Warnings are errors - Go to a Project's Properties and in the Build tab of the dialog box that opens up, change "Treat warnings as errors" to All from the default None
Rule #5: Encapsulate complex expressions - Instant recognition is good
Rule #4: Try to avoid multiple exits - have just one
Rule #3: Try to avoid comments - A meaningful method name is more effective than comments. Triple slash comments in VS are ok as they help in documentation of an API. Other developers can see your comments through Intellisense when they reference your assembly.
Rule #2: Keep methods short - general rule of thumb: 1 to 10 lines
Rule #1: Keep classes small

+ The foundation for most C# coding standards is Microsoft's "Design Guidelines for Developing Class Libraries"
+ ReSharper VS Plugin & StyleCop can help you enforce naming conventions
+ Names contain meaning & adding meaning to code is what readability is all about - use meanigful names
+ Embedding type in the name of a variable is not a good idea especially for primitive types. Name should indicate what an variable or object can do & what it represents.
+ How to improve readability of your code - read other people's code to figure what is good & what is bad. Be introspective.

Thrilled to be among top Pro Webmasters Stack Exchange users to receive swag

2011-10-05T10:00:00.001+05:30

I'm a fan of several sites of the Stack Exchange family. I was thrilled to know that I'm among the top Pro Webmasters Stack Exchange users with over 950 reputation to receive cool swag. Thank you, Stack Exchange!

The Stack Exchange family currently consists of 65 question and answer sites & has over 1.2 million users.

Looking for internship or job? Check Microsoft's Students to Business program

2011-10-02T09:11:00.000+05:30

Microsoft's Students to Business website connects graduating students with Microsoft, Microsoft Partners and its customers. This program is open to graduating students in India. The enrollment process is simple and does not require any fees.

Microsoft's DreamSpark program gives students Microsoft professional tools at no charge.

For students passionate about software development, there are also other avenues where they can publish their original projects or contribute to ongoing open-source projects and get noticed. Here is a list of popular project hosting sites -

Trivia: Smiley & "Frowny" Emoticons

2011-09-20T08:42:00.000+05:30

In its Events That Shaped The Wired World section, Wired magazine credits Scott Fahlman with first using the Smiley :-) & "Frowny" :-( emoticons in electronic messages.

On Sept. 19th, 1982, he had proposed on the computer-science department bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University that the smiley be used as a joke marker & "frowny" to mark things that are NOT jokes.

Scott came up with the idea after reading “lengthy diatribes” from people on the message board who failed to get the joke or the sarcasm in a particular post.

HOW TO block images/image ads originating from a specific domain in Firefox 4 & above

2011-09-18T12:09:00.000+05:30

Firefox 3.x used to have an option to block pesky images that were not part of the context of page that you were viewing - like image ads. You just had to right click on the image, & select "Block images from {domain serving the image}" to never see any images from that domain again. That context menu option is missing from Firefox 4 & above.

It turns out that it is still there but there are some additional steps to reach it. Right click on the image on the page you are viewing in Firefox & from the context menu, you have to select View Image Info & click on the checkbox "Block images from {site name}".
Thanks RalphB

Also see:
HOW TO block IFRAME based ads

Trends & Reference Tables that every Web Developer should track

2011-09-14T23:25:00.000+05:30

A web developer's education is never finished. Here is a list of trends & reference tables that, in my opinion, every web developer should track -

HTTP Archive - Trends in web technology, interesting stats, repository of web performance information
Browser Security Handbook - Key security properties of contemporary web browsers
HTML 5 Reference Table
HTML 4/ XHTML Reference Table
CSS 3 Reference Table
CSS 2 Reference Table
PPK's Browser Event Compatibility Tables - Desktop, Mobile
HTML5 compatibility on mobile and tablet browsers

work in progress...

Find Windows System info with Windows key + Pause/Break shortcut

2011-09-11T09:58:00.000+05:30

If you need to find hardware details of your Windows PC, like any of the following -

Version including Service Pack used
Window Experience Index
Processor
RAM
System type (32-bit or 64-bit OS)
Computer name, domain & workgroup settings
Windows Product Id & whether Windows is activated

... there is a easy keyboard shortcut to reach for this info rather than going for it through Control Panel - Windows key + Pause/Break

I discovered this shortcut in this Scott Hanselman article that has other great tips for maintaining your PC

Interesting USB accessories

2011-09-10T16:15:00.000+05:30

I follow the Personal Technology page of "Economic Times" with interest for their India-centric coverage of gadgets & IT topics.

This week ET listed 10 useful USB accessories. Among them, although a USB-based Hub & Mug Warmer, Cooler, paper shredder, Vaccum Cleaner have some novelty, they didn't appeal to me as much as these -

Jabra Speak 410 - USB powered speakerphone ... with integrated cable managment system. Weighing a mere 250g, this speakerphone also has a headset port where you can plug-in any 3.5mm headphones in case you want the call to be private. (Rs 8,000 from www.jabra.com)

USB Display - This little monitor is completely powered off USB – just one cable is needed for both the video signal and power. The 7-inch 800 x 480 pixel panel is touchscreen enabled too – you can move certain items onto it to clear space from your primary display.
The best part is that since the display connects via USB, your regular VGA/HDMI out is unused and can be used to output to another device simultaneously. ($229.99 from www.thinkgeek.com)

ASUS CrossLink Cable - Thanks to Asus' Crosslink USB cable and adapter, you can quickly connect and transfer data at high-speeds between two computers.The adapter is shaped like a USB drive, has 2GB storage and a miniUSB port on the other side to connect using the Crosslink cable. You can even share an internet connection and optical drive between two PCs. (Rs 4,000 from eBay Global EasyBuy)

USB Foldable keyboard - If your netbook's keyboard proves too small for you or you just prefer to carry your own keyboard around, this flexible USB keyboard is ideal. Since the keys and base material are made of silicon, it is completely silent.
Even though it has the full 104 keys, you can roll it up into a small package. The added advantage is that the keys are completely waterproof and dustproof. ($23.99 from www.thinkgeek.com)

USB Phone2PC - This handly little device is great if you want to keep a record of all your voice calls. It can be connected to most phones using an analog or digital connection and then it connects to the PC using USB.
A software is required to be installed which provides an easy-to-use interface to record incoming/outgoing calls. It includes an external microphone for recording meetings and interviews directly to the PC as well. (Rs 10,000 from www.ebay.in)

I'm surprised that such phone recording/tapping tools are easily available despite recording/tapping being illegal in several countries including India.

In the same technology section, ET gives Reliance 3G Tab a favorable review & 4 stars (out of 5). Reliance 3G Tab (Specs: 7-inch touchsceen,800 x 480 pixels,1.2Ghz processor,512MB RAM,4GB+microSD slot, 2MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, FM, accelerometer, Android 2.3, 380 g) sells for 12,990 INR.

The review points out three areas where the Reliance 3G Tab doesn't match up to something like the original 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab (P1000).

Firstly,the screen has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels the same as what a high-end smartphone offers and lower than the Galaxy's 1024 x 768.This means that the number of pixels per square inch (pixel density) is low.Secondly,the 800Mhz processor is a bit of a step down and it is noticeable at times with certain apps or when you scroll between screens too fast.Finally,the device is locked to the Reliance network,so you can't just use any SIM card you want.

In the end, they offer a nice suggestion -
If you'd rather not spend the extra,you can choose to buy the 3G Tab without a plan and pay just 12,999 upfront.You'll be using it just like a Wi-Fi tablet and later,you can opt for one of the discounted 3G advance rental or monthly plans.

Website to track weather in Indian cities - imd.gov.in

2011-09-03T09:35:00.004+05:30

Weather isn't a hot topic in India (as it is in the US) & forecasts aren't taken seriously.

Possibly to promote awareness, the Indian Meteorological Department has put out an ad in today's Times of India (with a glaring typo -Meteorological is misspelt as Meteorogical right at the beginning) to publicize the features if its site - IMD.GOV.IN

click image to enlarge

Besides a host of services & forecasts, the site publishes 3-day city forecast for 100 cities. Unfortunately, neither this nor the information from other weather forecasts are accessible as RSS feeds or through widgets as on the US National Weather Service website. As such, there is no easy means by which other websites or individuals can consume useful weather information.

There is a toll free number (1800 180 1717) to get city weather forecasts & observations but the site lacks services that have a "push" mechanism

A better designed site with interactive features (better maps, email alerts, easier accessibility on mobile phones) can boost the utility of India's official Weather tracking service by sharing its wealth of information among the general public.

Also see:
India - Know your elected government representatives
State of Internet in India
Browser Usage Stats for India
Jago Grahak Jago
E-Commerce in India
India IT - facts, numbers & trivia
Discover public transport in India with Google Transit

Compare ASP.NET Hosting Providers

2011-09-02T08:22:00.000+05:30

Microsoft's Web Hosting Gallery has a neat tool to let you search for hosting providers based on parameters like type of server (shared, dedicated, virtual server) cost, technologies supported (Frameworks, Databases, Publishing protocols), storage, number of SQL Databases, number of e-mail accounts, bandwidth per month, support, uptime.

Also see:
Tips on ASP.NET Hosting & Deployment

Types of ASP.NET MVC View Engines

2011-08-31T18:01:00.002+05:30

A view engine provides Controllers with the ability to translate views into HTML. There are multiple reasons why you may choose one view engine over another. Here is a list of different types of ASP.NET MVC View Engines, the first two are available with ASP.NET MVC 3 -

WebForms /ASPX – classic ASP.NET MVC views
Razor (CSHTML)
Spark
NHAML - (pronounced enamel) is a pure .NET implementation of the popular Rails Haml view engine.
NVelocity
Brail

It is possible to use multiple view engines in the same project

Related reading:
ASP.NET MVC View Engine Comparison
Spark and NHaml - Crazy ASP.NET MVC ViewEngines

Search Engine for Comics

2011-08-28T23:59:00.002+05:30

A relevant comic strip introduced into an article or presentation can make a topic more appealing & livelier (assuming you have permission to use if it's not your own). Finding the image of a strip on the web that you remember reading in a Sunday newspaper may not be easy. Don't you wish there was a comics search engine that could get you cartoons for a keyword you submit?

Here are a few that I found -

Calvin and Hobbes Search Engine by Michael "Bing" Yingling
Dilbert Strip Finder by BF Martin
XKCD - use this search filter on Google: [keyword -site:*.xkcd.com site:xkcd.com]. The first filter is to exclude searches within subdomains of xkcd.com. The content is indexed by Google because each strip has hidden text.

Software industry related comics

DuckDuckGo shows why Google may not be good for you

2011-08-23T08:41:00.003+05:30

To show that DuckDuckGo, a search engine site winning rave reviews, doesn't "filter bubble" or track you, they have illustrated guides to demonstrate how Google may not be as saintly or good as it may appear. The facts they present are something to ponder on.

On a different note, DuckDuckGo provides a great API alongwith other goodies like the easily configurable Karma Widget that displays your online karma (e.g. twitter follower count, facebook fans, etc.), for your blog, profiles or other Web sites.

Here's how a sample Karma Widget looks -

Related:
Say Goodbye to Privacy

Print stylesheet - Best Practices

2011-08-21T10:35:00.000+05:30

Using a Print stylesheet is a more convenient way to generate a printer-friendly page than creating such a page through server-side coding. Tim Connell has a nice CSS tip in his article on things to note while coding a stylesheet meant for printer output.

At some point, you have probably found yourself reading a printed article when you get to an engrossing section that includes a link for more information. A link that sits there teasing you with its blue underline. Without a mouse or Apple’s latest interfacing doo-hicky you have no chance of finding out where that link goes unless you return to the original article on screen.
The solution to unclickable links is an easy one to deploy. Use some CSS to print out the location of the link that would otherwise be hidden:
#content a:link:after,
content a:visited:after {
content: ” (“ attr(href) ”) “;
font-size: 80%;
text-decoration: none;
}

As a result of using the above CSS content property setting in the stylesheet meant for the printer, the actual link will appear next to a hyperlink in a printed page.

So content like this -

will show up like this in a printed page -