Rachit's Blog

Turning off the comments due to spams

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:27:00 GMT

I'm getting many spams lately and that's why turning off the comments.

VS 2008 Web Tests on Windows 7

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:00:17 GMT

I faced tons of problem on IIS 7/Windows 7 with the web tests (ASP.Net) using Visual Studio 2008. The following blog post from Alan really makes it clear how to make it work (although it is not intended to run on Windows 7). Very simple, very good job Alan!

Keep in mind: You need to open the Visual Studio 2008 “run as Administrator” in order this to work.

http://www.gangleri.net/2007/12/29/UnitTestingASPNetApplicationsWithVisualStudio2008.aspx

Hope this helps who is stuck with the web testing issues on Windows 7.

StreamInsight Error - AuthorizationManager Check Failed

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:48:17 GMT

In order to learn the complex event processing, I have started looking into Microsoft StreamInsight lately. My first impressions of the StreamInsight is so far good and it looks promising.

To the point of this post, I downloaded the StreamInsight example from the codeplex and tried to run it locally (I’ve SQL 2008 R2 & StreamInsight already installed on Windows 7 Pro). I get the following error:

AuthorizationManager check failed

I bang my head for a while to find out the cause of this but couldn’t resolve the issue. Then I finally got it working correctly.

Problem/Solution: All the PowerShell files (*.ps1 when you extract HOL1 & HOL2) are unblocked for some reasons and that’s why when you run hol1\Setup\Setup.cmd, it throws the above error. So, before you extract the zip (Source_HOL1.zip, etc.), un-unblock (right click, properties, “Unblock”) the zip file itself and it should be viola!

Hope this saves someone else some time!

Unable to open the physical file - Access is denied

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 02:18:23 GMT

I’m an using Admin account on Windows 7 and try to attach umbraco database to my local SQL 2008 R2 instance. I’m getting the following error:

Unable to open the physical file "D:\Tech\umbraco\build\App_Data\umbraco.mdf". Operating system error 5: "5(Access is denied.)". (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 5120)

What the heck? I tried to brainstorm what the issue is and found out that I didn’t open my SSMS with “Run As Administrator” (although I’m using Admin account in Win7 and the same to use SSMS). Once I did that, I was able to attach the DB without any issue. What a bummer!

Hope this helps!

Awesome WebGL Demo from Google

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:17:00 GMT

I’m speechless when I saw this last night. I wonder how this will shack the Flash/Silverlight world. By looking at the source & the fiddler, a great use of canvas object of ~~HTML5~~ WebGL.

Use the search feature on your top right…very cool.

http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com

No choice of getting Expression Blend 4 by itself

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:10:54 GMT

Our team is interested in pursuing the development for SL4 with Blend 4. But the sales model from MS is such that we have to buy Expression Studio Ultimate 4 for $599 per license. That’s a bull crap. We don’t care about Expression Web or SuperPreview or Encoder or Design. Give me freaking only Blend + Sketchflow.

Why can’t I just buy that for cheaper? Why, time to time, MS does this to the developers? You can buy MS Word without buying the whole slew of MS Office then why can’t I do the same with Blend 4?

Moreover, the upgrade price is $349 if you own “retail” version of Expression Studio 3, that’s another crap. We had MSDN subscriptions 1-2 years ago for Expression Studio 3 but that’s not eligible for upgrade.

Does anyone know if there’s a workaround to get license for Blend 4 + Sketchflow and not have to pay $599 per license?

oData consumable in Excel 2007

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:58:34 GMT

oData is an Open Data Protocol for querying and updating data. You can view a few demos here. The PowerPivot is one of the most useful/HOT features in my view. Only drawback is it’ll be consumed in Excel 2010 ONLY, not in Excel 2007 which the most of the world may still use next few years (i.e. Enterprises/small-medium businesses which can’t afford to upgrade to Office 2010).

To make this available in Excel 2007, I’ve suggested on the Connect site here. Please please vote!

SharePoint 2010 VHD Available now

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:34:54 GMT

I tried to create my own virtual machine to test and play with SharePoint 2010 but I was unsuccessful every time due to some errors and finally it became frustrating and I gave up.

Now, Microsoft has released the Virtual Images for it so you don’t need to worry about installation, pre-requisites, etc. fun stuff.

It’s available here. Enjoy!

JQuery Flot Charts with Time Series

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:42:00 GMT

Flot is an awesome library to produce the simple charts based on the great JQuery.

Using the date/time data (e.g. X-axis data type) is a little difficult to get working right but after exchanging the emails with the developer of the Flot library, I got it right and this solution I couldn’t find anywhere on Google/Bing.

Here’s the code snippet and I hope this helps.

This example uses our OLD json-based asmx ASP.Net service (sorry, I didn’t need to use WCF). :) You may have to tweak this code to suite your needs.

   1:  function LoadCharts() {

   2:      $.ajax({

   3:          type: "POST",

   4:          contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",

   5:          url: "SomeService.asmx/ChartData",

   6:          data: "{dataFor: 'blah'}",

   7:          success:

   8:      function(msg) {

   9:          ProcessCharts($.evalJSON(msg).d);

  10:      },

  11:          error:

  12:      function(XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {

  13:          alert(XMLHttpRequest.responseText);

  14:      }

  15:      });

  16:  }

17:

  18:  function ProcessCharts(tables) {

  19:      var plot0, plot1, plot2;

  20:      //Assume I've 3 tables in the result.

  21:      $(tables).each(function(i) {

  22:          var data = tables[i].Data;

  23:          var plotData = [];

  24:          var offset = new Date().getTimezoneOffset() * 60 * 1000;

25:

  26:      //TODO: find a simple better way in jquery to do this.

  27:          for (var j = 0; j < data.length; j++) {

  28:              var d = data[j].Date; //my case the date is 20090101 format

  29:              d = d.substr(4, 2) + "/" + d.substr(6, 2) + "/" + d.substr(0, 4);

  30:              var date = new Date(d).getTime() - offset;

  31:              tables[i].Data[j].Date = date;

32:

  33:              plotData.push([date, data[j].Val]);

  34:          }

  35:          var previousPoint = null;

  36:          var lbl = "";

  37:          var options = {

  38:              colors: ['#123658', '#000000'],

  39:              series: {

  40:                  lines: { show: true, lineWidth: 2 },

  41:                  points: {

  42:                      show: true

  43:                  }

  44:              },

  45:              shadowSize: 5,

  46:              grid: {

  47:                  hoverable: true,

  48:                  clickable: false,

  49:                  borderWidth: 1,

  50:                  backgroundColor: '#ddf0ff'

  51:              },

  52:              legend: {

  53:                  show: false

  54:                  //position: "nw"

  55:              },

  56:              xaxis: {

  57:                  mode: "time",

  58:                  timeformat: "%m/%d/%y",

  59:                  minTickSize: [1, "day"]

  60:              }

  61:          };

  62:          var InitChart = function() {

63:

  64:              $("#Chart" + i).remove();

65:

  66:              return $.plot($("#Chart" + i),

  67:              [{ data: plotData, label: lbl }],

  68:              options

  69:              );

  70:          }

  71:      //I've more tables in my case so change this code as per your need

  72:          switch (i.toString()) {

  73:              case "0":

  74:                  lbl = "Label1";

  75:                  plot0 = InitChart();

  76:                  break;

  77:              default:

  78:                  break;

  79:          }

80:

  81:          $("#Chart" + i).bind("plothover", function(event, pos, item) {

  82:              if (item) {

  83:                  if (previousPoint != item.datapoint) {

  84:                      previousPoint = item.datapoint;

85:

  86:                      $("#tooltip").remove();

  87:                      var x = item.datapoint[0], y = item.datapoint[1];

88:

  89:                      var d = new Date();

  90:                      d.setTime(x + offset);

91:

  92:                      showTooltip(item.pageX, item.pageY, "Total " + item.series.label + " of " + d.toDateString() + " is " + addCommas(y));

  93:                  }

  94:              }

  95:              else {

  96:                  $("#tooltip").remove();

  97:                  previousPoint = null;

  98:              }

  99:          });

 100:      });

 101:

 102:  }

 103:

 104:  function showTooltip(x, y, contents) {

 105:      $('<div id="tooltip">' + contents + '</div>').css({

 106:          position: 'absolute',

 107:          display: 'block',

 108:          "z-index": 10,

 109:          top: y + 5,

 110:          left: x + 5,

 111:          border: '1px solid #e17009',

 112:          padding: '3px',

 113:          'background-color': '#fee',

 114:          opacity: 0.70,

 115:          margin: '5px',

 116:          'font-size': '10px'

 117:      }).appendTo("body").fadeIn(200);

 118:  }

Silverlight UI Creation

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:38:44 GMT

We’ve been looking to get a short-term Silverlight UI person (with of course a little experience integrating C#/Web Service experience) and I don’t know why it’s so hard to find a candidate. Like people who do Flash/Flex/ActionScript based web designing, why aren’t that many people doing the same for Silverlight? All we want, is, somebody to create nice XAML pages based on the wire-frames, etc.

Is Silverlight not reached there yet? Or is it still very hard to make a very beautiful UI that people (flashy UI web designers) do not preferred to work on it?

Missing Microsoft.SqlServer.SmoEnum Dll

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:12:09 GMT

I like this SSB (Sql Server Broker) Admin tool but every time I refer this to somebody they come back to me with the questions that some of the DLLs are missing and they can’t launch the application.

You should be able to find all the missing Dlls on the server where there’s an installation of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise (I’m not sure about the other versions) at the following location.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\SDK\Assemblies

Hope this helps someone.

Importance of Global Error Handling

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:53:00 GMT

I saw this a long time back but every time I look at it, it reminds to make sure the friendlier error messages are on for any application. :)

SQL Server Power Tools

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:38:01 GMT

The SSMS Tools Pack is a “must have” for any developer who works with the SQL Server 2005 and above. I thank a lot Mladen for making this tool available.

Go give it a try!

http://www.ssmstoolspack.com

Annoying Package Load Failure Error

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:33:31 GMT

I’m using TFS Power Tools (Oct 2008 release). The Visual Studio 2008 was working fine until I start getting this very annoying “Package Load Failure” error. I didn’t install/uninstall anything but something somehow magically got changed.

Error Description:

Package 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.PowerTools.TfptPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.PowerTools, Version=9.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' has failed to load properly ( GUID = {2C5A58FF-51D1-46CC-B46C-CD458632B321} ). Please contact package vendor for assistance. Application restart is recommended, due to possible environment corruption. Would you like to disable loading this package in the future? You may use 'devenv /resetskippkgs' to re-enable package loading.

Resolution:

When you get this error, select “NO”.
Close all your SSMS/Visual Studio instances.
Go to Control Panel/Add-remove Programs/Select TFS Power Tools. Do NOT try to repair, I’ve tried it and it does NOT work. Uninstall it. Period.
Open the Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt and run devenv /resetskippkgs
Re-download the Power Tools msi (link above) and reinstall and pray to God, hopefully, you’ll not get “Package Load Failure” again. :)

Good luck!

How do you read a technical book

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:17:30 GMT

Given I have a finite reading time, it’s hard for me to read any technical book (300 pages and above) from the first page to the last. Most of the times, first 2-3 chapters give me enough to get going and other remaining chapters just become more like reference to me.

So, I’m wondering if this just me or anybody else has also experienced this. Please suggest any other better/faster way to go through the whole technical book (that is thick in size). Thanks in advance!

Windows 7 looks great

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:52:14 GMT

I installed the Windows 7 64bit on my home desktop two days ago and the system is running since then. Other than a HP LaserJet 1012 printer drivers problem and one BSOD, Windows 7 looks fine for Beta for sure. :)

Only one thing Microsoft should do, is, allow “free” upgrade for current (legit) Vista Ultimate version owners to Windows 7 Ultimate when the RTM is out.

I’ve yet to see a compelling reason why I need to buy Windows 7. The new TaskBar looks great but I’m not 100% up for that change.

Clean startup programs in registry in Vista 64 bit

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:35:07 GMT

Sometime you wonder why the machine is running slow after installing a bunch of programs even if you choose not to run them through Administrator Tools/Services.

Look at the following location in the registry and remove you don't need. I believe when you run "msconfig", it gives the same options. This is strictly related to Vista 64 bit and not 32 bit.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Hope this helps!

Off Topic: Buy.com Customer Service Phone

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:04:00 GMT

<RANT_BUYDOTCOM>

I'm very surprised to notice that there's no (absolutely no) phone number listed for the customer service on the web site. How the hell am I supposed to "talk" to somebody about my order. Given the popularity of the web site, one would think that there will be more ways to contact them than just by "Email", no?

Finally, Google search for the customer service number came to rescue. The contact number is 800-800-0800.

Hope this helps someone in the time of holiday shopping! Happy Holidays!

</RANT_BUYDOTDOM>

Revolutionary desktop – BumpTop

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:03:00 GMT

I came across the BumpTop almost a year ago and glad that I had subscribed for the future development news. The Beta is now available to download for XP/Vista.

Let me summarize in a few words.

It’s just awesome!

Hope, Windows 7 includes something like this.