Full article in here:
Configuring a usable Android emulator – codebutler.

This step-by-step guide is designed to help app developers and entrepreneurs: understand the variety of ways to monetize apps and develop a pricing strategy that is flexible.

The guide, by Jen Gordon of Smashing Magazine, is freely available at http://www.designboost.net/app-monetization-guide/

First of all, download the 32bit edition of Windows 8 developer preview, available at Windows DevCenter, (the direct short link is http://goo.gl/Vvs1H - 2.8GB ISO image).

Create the Virtual Machine

While the ISO downloads, open virtualbox and create a new virtual machine:

• Operating System: Microsoft Windows, Version: Windows 7;
• 2048MB Memory size
• Create a new Virtual Hard Disk, with at least 20GB – you can use “Fixed-size storage” (better performance, but uses more HDD space) or “Dynamically expanding storage” (a bit slower, but the .vdi file grows as necessary, using less HDD space);

• In the “System” group, under “Motherboard”, choose the “ICH9″ chipset, enable “IO APIC” and “absolute pointing device”; under “Acceleration” enable “VT-x/AMD-v” and “Nested paging”;
• In “Display” enable 2D acceleration. Increase the video memory accordingly (~ 40MB);
• In “Storage”, under “IDE Controller”, in the “Empty” node choose the new Windows 8 ISO file – this will be the Boot DVD;
• In “Network” adjust the network settings: in my case i am using the “Bridge Adapter”;

Windows 8 VirtualBox settings

Install Windows 8

Boot the VM. It may seem that it is hanged at boot, but it is not, just be patient; 10 to 20 seconds later, the Windows 8 logo will show up and the setup will boot normally. The setup process, in the first stages, is pretty straightforward – virtually the same as Windows 7.

In my system the setup took about 25(!) minutes to complete.

Final Impressions

It’s not possible to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions, so the overall performance is not brilliant (no Graphics accel. is a big drawback…), but Windows 8 remains usable for testing purposes.

Specs: VirtualBox 4.0.12, running under Windows 7 64bit, Core2Duo 2.13.

Boot example on youtube: http://youtu.be/fXvvmk-5KMc

I’m super excited about how the Google+ project brings the richness and nuance of real life sharing to software, and today we’re announcing our first step towards bringing this to your apps as well by launching the Google+ public data APIs.

The APIs are available at Google+ Platform Developers site, and an introductory article is also available at the Google+ Platform Blog.

“(…) Wunderlist is now native – smaller, faster and more stable.”
Matthew Bostock, 6Wunderkinder’s blog

Translated, Wunderlist got rid of TM’s biggest problems:

• Size: even the smallest “Hello World” app weights at least 1.5MB (this is still huge in the mobile world – do the same thing using native Java and the app will only weight a few KB);
• Speed: TM for Android slow. This is mainly due to the fact that TM for Android is using Mozilla’s Rhino as its javascript interpreter, written in Java, running inside Dalvik’s VM, and not compiled to native ARM, as google’s V8, SpiderMonkey or any JS engine written in C or C++ would;
• Stability: this one is not really, in my opinion, TM’s fault. Due to the fact that Javascript is dynamic language, and Titanium does not compile or even do any proper syntax check, the quality of the code is probably to blame here.

Appcelerator reacted two days after 6Wunderkinder’s announcement, stating that Titanium Mobile for Android will use, somewhere in the future, google’s V8 engine. This comes, however, with a still significant drawback: only devices running Android 2.2 or newer support android’s NDK, and therefore the natively compiled V8 Engine. According to Appcelerator’s own benchmarks, this will at least double the performance. Remains to be seen if the “Size” problem will be solved: V8′s binaries will still be inside the app’s package…

(…) As the mobile enterprise continues to boom and hardware complexity grows with a wide range of platforms, devices and audiences, there is no doubt that HTML5 will skyrocket in adoption. HTML5 Web-based apps offer the developer a “write one, run many” solution, addressing the many demands of today’s immediacy for remote communication, along with enhanced modern media capabilities that have become of increasing importance to both business and consumer.

Complete article on WirelessWeek.com.

My requirements are:

• Native UI components must be used – maintaining the native look and feel for each platform is important (PhoneGap is out of the picture because of this);
• The same code base (or at least most of it) must be used in all platforms;
• The UI must scale well between Phone and Tablet formats and screen densities (DPI);
• The application must perform smoothly, speedwise, even in lower end devices;
• Some access to the device’s hardware: GPS, sensors, camera.

I have found some platforms so far:

• Titanium Mobile: this is my current number one, but i don’t think Windows Phone 7 will be supported. Plus, the Android implementation is a bit clumsy: the JavaScript core is not interpreted by the OS, so a java JS interpreter is included- this makes the application big and slow. In iOS this problem does not exist, as the system’s javascript interpreter is used. On the plus side, native UI components are supported and a very nice, Eclipse based, IDE is provided;
• PhoneGap: this one also uses JavaScript, but is completely HTML/JS based: the application runs inside a WebView, and has no bindings to native UI components, it relies on third-party JS libraries to build the UI, such as Sencha Touch or jQuery Mobile. It’s a browser on steroids basically, and doesn’t float my boat.
• RhoMobile: haven’t tested or reviewed this one yet, opinions anyone?

So, i need your opinion about these or other development tools: are they any good? Have you used them in a project? Comment below.

… something went wrong: was trying to start Palm WebOS Emulator, version 2.1, and this error always popped up:

The object functionality is limited
code E_ACCESSDENIED (0×80070005), component Machine, interface IMachine, callee IUnknown

and I’ve found the solution!

As far as I can tell, this is somehow related to VirtualBox, some kind of incompatibility with the VirtualBox I am using (3.2.12 now). When I ran palm-emulator using the ‘–debug’ flag the following “trace” showed up:

ps: strange thing – I am using the x64 version of the SDK, so why did it install in “c:\program files (x86)”?

“ImageManager.GetVM”: definitely a VirtualBox vs WebOSEmulator problem. The obvious solution? Install an older VirtualBox

The Solution

To fix this… just uninstall VirtualBox 3.2.x (or 3.1.x) and install VirtualBox 3.0.14; after you install, go to “c:\users\[your-user-name]\.virtualbox” (or “%HOMEPATH%\.virtualbox”) and delete (or rename) the VirtualBox.xml file – and it works! Yes, that’s all that it took… not bright stuff, HP. HP says somewhere in the SDK download page that “The webOS emulator does not yet run on Virtualbox 4.0. Use the link below to download version 3.2.“… not correct, thanks a lot.

ps: I am using Windows 7, webOs sdk and VirtualBox, all 64-bit.

The problem

Normally, Titanium has to compile the entire titanium class library, then “dex” it and package all your app’s js files and resources and push it inside the emulator so you can test it – and this happens every time you change something in your app. The problem here is… this is slow, really slow. This fact alone almost drove me off Titanium Mobile, in favour of other, friendlier, platforms.

Using Fastdev

First download a recent nightly build of Titanium Mobile SDK (latest 1.7.x or 1.8.0) – more details in this previous post.

Now, the tricky part. This feature is still in beta, so there is no fancy UI integration inside Titanium Studio, and we need to do everything “by hand”.

First, add the 1.8.0 SDK folder to your system environment’s PATH (if you don’t know how to do this, click here). After this, in the command shell, go to your application’s folder and type:

start /B titanium fastdev start

This will start a new server that will send all the .js files and resources to your app, running in the emulator (according to Appcelerator, using fastdev on devices will be available soon). The files served are logged into this terminal window, so keep it open and visible, to check what is happening under the hood.

After this, just run the app on the emulator, as always, but do it only ONCE – if you need to update your app, don’t recompile: just close it inside the emulator and run it again – it will download all the resources from the fastdev server started above!

And that’s it, much faster and less painful… unless you are targeting honeycomb; but here the problem is that the emulator is, I think officially, the slowest emulator in the world.

Update: fastdev is already available inside the latest Titanium Studio – update it ASAP

- http://builds.appcelerator.com.s3.amazonaws.com/mobile/master/mobilesdk-1.8.0-20110513115704-win32.zip is the latest for windows at this moment. To install, just unzip it inside your Titanium SDK folder (this should be, in Windows, %ProgramData%\Titanium – in my case, this translates to C:\ProgramData\Titanium); The ZIP already has the required folder structure (mobilesdk\win32\[version]\etc..), so just unzip it there and everything will be fine.

If you are already using Titanium Studio, use the “Help” -> “Install Titanium SDK from URL” and paste the full URL to the ZIP file you have selected from the nightly builds. I prefer the method above, as this option, sometimes, doesn’t unzip the full contents of the updated SDK.

Appcelerator has made no official announcement on 1.8.0, so I have no idea what is new, but keep in mind: this is a beta release, and should not be used in production apps.

Here is the uploaded javascript header file, updated for Appcelerator’s Titanium Mobile version 1.5.1. This can be used with Eclipse+Aptana’s autocomplete, using the method described by James David Low a while back.

I haven’t tried it yet, I’m using notepad++ still, but I’ll give it a go ASAP!

More in ADT Magazine

Original post from Appcelerator’s developer blog:

Tonight, we pushed the latest 1.3 update to distribution servers. You should be getting an update notification inside Titanium Developer if you haven’t already. It’s been a little over 4 weeks since our last release. We had promised to get out 1.3 before the end of May and we’re a little earlier than expected.

The 1.3 release included over 120+ fixes for both Android and iPhone/iPad. The Android team won the most bug fixes in this release clocking in 63 bug fixes to iPhone’s 61. Go Android! For a full list of all the changes, please see the Change Log. Great job to Don, Bill and Marshall for all the hard work on Android. We still have a ways to go to where we want with Android but we’re iterating quickly now. We also have some very exciting Android features coming soon.

This release does have one major notable item worth talking about here (we detailed more of the specifics in the Change Log). With 1.3 and iPhone/iPad, we now are generating full source as part of the XCode project created at project setup. This change provides several benefits in terms of ensuring that we’re in continued compliance with Apple’s Terms of Service, making it easier for debugging or environmental issues we sometimes run into and making it easier to export a project to another machine (useful for agency/development partners).

The updated the Kitchen Sink distribution for 1.3 and it can be downloaded either from github or in a zip distribution. For 1.3, we’ve also started a basic Kitchen Sink for iPad.

What’s next?

As soon as we finish one release, we’ve already begun the next – in some cases before the final release is out the door. The next release is expected to be 1.4 and should be released to the community in June. For 1.4, we’ll continue to focus primarily on maintenance issues, API parity for Android and full API support for the upcoming iPhone 4.0 OS.

We’ll be pushing the first drop for the Blackberry SDK very soon now that 1.3 is out the door. Blackberry work has been progressing in parallel and we hope to release it within the next couple of weeks to Professional/Enterprise subscribers and Partners. We anticipate the full community release of Blackberry will be late Summer. If you’re not currently a subscription customer and would like to get access to Blackberry, please signup here.

Developer Site Updates

We’re making a number of major improvements to the Developer website and hope to release them in waves over the next month. Besides a number of nagging issues/bugs that have been reported, we’re also improving site search, introducing a new forum-based discussions and rolling out a new help desk for subscription customers.

Desktop Plans

Many have asked why Mobile releases faster than Desktop. This is a good question and let me address it. Desktop has been a slightly more mature product and has been adopted by some rather very large companies (as long as a ton of projects from tiny to large). We’re continuing to make substantial investments in Desktop and will be having a big update in the summer for Desktop.

Module SDK

Quite a number of developers have used the current iPhone Module SDK to extend Titanium. In 1.4, we’re planning on introducing the new Android Module SDK. We’re also hard at work on a new product we’re calling Marketplace that relates to modules for mobile, tablet and desktop. If you’re interested in extending Titanium with your own unique stuff, please let us know.

Tooling

We have some new significant updates to the Titanium tooling in the works – including debugger support. Expect a refresh of the current tooling with massive improvements in the early Summer timeframe.

Improved Documentation

We continue with each release to improve the API reference documentation. However, we know we’ve got a long way to go to better documentation. We’ve been working with a professional training company to produce our first set of programming guides and I’m pleased to say that we’ve almost finished the first new Getting Started Guide. The guide will be much more comprehensive and will be the first of many new Guides we’ll be producing over the next few months.

Training

We’re very close to launching a new comprehensive, professionally produced AppU video training series. Our plan is to release new video content every month much like we do software. The training will include not only on-demand video based courseware, but also guides and sample code. Stay tuned for more updates.

Community Growth

The last 4 months have been a whirlwind for the Appcelerator team and we’re very proud of our accomplishments and all of the great applications that are being built from all over the world. Nothing makes us more happy than to hear about all the cool applications that you’re building every day. Thank you for sharing them with us.

With all of this growth, comes challenges that we’re trying to meet. In the past 4 weeks, we’ve had numerous website outages as we hurried to upgrade our Amazon AWS infrastructure to handle the growth. We think we’re now ready for the next wave of growth from a infrastructure standpoint. We’ve also found more places where we could add high-availability and load-balancing as well as invested in better monitoring tools.

We’ve also welcomed four new developers to the Appcelerator team in the past 2 weeks – all of which came directly from our community and who are passionate about what we’re trying to accomplish. With this we hope to be able to continue to accelerate development and make Titanium the best product available.

Thank you so much for your support, your passion and your patience as we continue on our journey together.

Codestrong!
Jeff

ASP.NET dynamic data featured a new way to develop applications, especially for the UI. The templating feature sets up a new way to render the UI, whether in display or edit mode, based the object to display’s data type. For instance, if you wanted to render a LINQ object in dynamic data, the framework extracts information about all of the properties, looks up the template to for the data type of that property (an in-built user control or possibly a custom template you setup), and renders this UI for that property of a given type.
This feature is now in the ASP.NET MVC 2.0 framework, for .NET framework 3.5 and 4.0. We are going to take a look at these features.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9729757

Complete article in here.

You can download it from our downloads page:

http://framework.zend.com/download/latest

This release includes approximately 50 bugfixes, the majority of which were contributed during our Bug Hunt Days two weeks ago . The fixes contributed help stabilize and improve the 1.10 series.

(by weierophinney)

Yes, not surprisingly, Novell’s MonoTouch is now supporting the iPad. Not a surprise, as they already supported the iPhone, and iPad is just an iPhone with a bigger screen. This means you can use your C# skills to create applications to for the whole iSomething ecosystem, without having to learn Objective-C or even ActionScript (the upcoming Flash CS5 will have a cross-compiler that targets the iPhone+iPad).

MonoTouch supports many of the iPhad gadgetry, including GPS and accelerometer, as well as bindings to the address book. The User Interface is built using the Apple’s Interface Builder, that ships with the iPhone SDK – this means that you also have all the controls native to the iPhone available for you app, including Pickers, Sliders, Buttons, etc, etc – the downside is: you can’t just recompile your Silverlight/WPF/Winforms .net application… you have to write the UI from scratch, which is not a big problem if you have logic and presentation truly separated. Also, the applications are statically compiled, instead of being compiled on demand by a JIT compiler inside the CLR – as a result of this some limitations, such as limited Generics support and no dynamic code generation, are present – more on this at http://monotouch.net/Documentation/Limitations

But, as with all things Apple-related, there’s a catch: None of this is free – to deploy your app you need to pay Apple; MonoTouch is not OpenSource, its a commercial product, prices start at $399. Also, you need to buy an Apple Mac Intel computer (10.5 or 10.6) to develop your applications.

Bryan Costanich wrote a nice introduction article about MonoTouch at InfoQ – read it here.

Check out the full article in Rafael Dohms’ blog.

Go to simplecloud.org or check the announcement in Zend’s Developer Zone. The first version is already available to download (this is basically an alpha version, apparently the full version will be included in Zend Framework), and consists in three smaller APIs. The interfaces are:

File Storage API

/**
 * Simple interface for unstructured cloud storage.
 */
interface Zend_Cloud_StorageService
{
    /**
     * Get an item from the storage service.
     *
     * @param  string $path
     * @param  array $options
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function fetchItem($path, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Store an item in the storage service.
     * WARNING: This operation overwrites any item that is located at 
     * $destinationPath.
     * @param mixed  $data
     * @param string $destinationPath
     * @param  array $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function storeItem($data,
                              $destinationPath,
                              $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Delete an item in the storage service.
     *
     * @param  string $path
     * @param  array $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function deleteItem($path, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Copy an item in the storage service to a given path.
     * WARNING: This operation is *very* expensive for services that do not
     * support copying an item natively.
     *
     * @param  string $sourcePath
     * @param  string $destination path
     * @param  array $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function copyItem($sourcePath, $destinationPath, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Move an item in the storage service to a given path.
     * WARNING: This operation is *very* expensive for services that do not
     * support moving an item natively.
     *
     * @param  string $sourcePath
     * @param  string $destination path
     * @param  array $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function moveItem($sourcePath, $destinationPath, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Get a key/value array of metadata for the given path.
     *
     * @param  string $path
     * @param  array $options
     * @return array
     */
    public function fetchMetadata($path, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Store a key/value array of metadata at the given path.
     * WARNING: This operation overwrites any metadata that is located at 
     * $destinationPath.
     *
     * @param  string $path
     * @param  array $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function storeMetadata($metadata, $destinationPath, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Delete a key/value array of metadata at the given path.
     *
     * @param  string $path
     * @param  array $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function deleteMetadata($path);
}

Document Storage API

interface Zend_Cloud_DocumentService
{   
    /**
     * Create collection.
     *
     * @param  string $name
     * @param  array  $options
     * @return array
     */
    public function createCollection($name, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Delete collection.
     *
     * @param  string $name
     * @param  array  $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function deleteCollection($name, $options = null);
    
   	/**
     * List collections.
     *
     * @param  array  $options
     * @return boolean
     */
    public function listCollections($options = null);
    
    /**
     * List documents. Returns a key=>value array of document names to document objects.
     *
     * @param  array $options
     * @return array
     */
    public function listDocuments($options = null);
    
    /**
     * Insert document
     * 
     * @param  Zend_Cloud_Document_Document $document
     * @param  array                 		$options
     * @return boolean
     */
    public function insertDocument($document, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Update document. The new document replaces the existing document.
     * 
     * @param  Zend_Cloud_Document_Document $document
     * @param  array                 		$options
     * @return boolean
     */
    public function updateDocument($document, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Delete document.
     * 
     * @param  mixed  $document Document ID or Document object.
     * @param  array  $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function deleteDocument($document, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Query for documents stored in the document service. If a string is passed in
     * $query, the query string will be passed directly to the service.
     *
     * @param  mixed $query
     * @param  array $options
     * @return array
     */
    public function query($query, $options = null);
}

Simple Queues API

nterface Zend_Cloud_QueueService
{
    /**
     * Create a queue. Returns the URI of the created queue. It may take
     * some time to create the queue. Check your vendor's documentation for
     * details.
     *
     * @param  string $name
     * @param  array  $options
     * @return string
     */
    public function createQueue($name, $options = null);

    /**
     * Delete a queue. All messages in the queue will also be deleted.
     *
     * @param  string $name
     * @param  array  $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function deleteQueue($name, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * List all queues.
     *
     * @param  array $options
     * @return array
     */
    public function listQueues($options = null);
    
    /**
     * Get a key/value array of metadata for the given queue.
     *
     * @param  string $name
     * @param  array  $options
     * @return array
     */
    public function fetchQueueMetadata($name, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Store a key/value array of metadata for the specified queue.
     * WARNING: This operation overwrites any metadata that is located at 
     * $destinationPath. Some adapters may not support this method.
     * 
     * @param  array  $metadata
     * @param  string $name
     * @param  array  $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function storeQueueMetadata($metadata, $name, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Send a message to the specified queue.
     * 
     * @param  string $message
     * @param  string $name
     * @param  array  $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function sendMessage($message, $queueName, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Recieve at most $max messages from the specified queue and return the
     * message ids for messages recieved.
     * 
     * @param  string $queueName
     * @param  int    $max
     * @param  array  $options
     * @return array
     */
    public function recieveMessages($queueName, $max = 1, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Delete the specified message from the specified queue.
     * 
     * @param  string $id
     * @param  string $queueName
     * @param  array  $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function deleteMessage($id, $queueName, $options = null);
    
    /**
     * Peek at the specified message from the specified queue.
     * WARNING: This operation may block other receivers from recieving the
     * message until the message is released from the peeker for services
     * that do not natively support message peeking. This may impact
     * performance and/or introduce concurrency issues in your applications.
     * Check your cloud vendor's documentation for more details.
     *
     * @param  string $id
     * @param  string $queueName
     * @param  array  $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function peekMessage($id, $queueName, $options = null);
}

The full press release is here.

SQLCLR (or SQL Common Language Runtime) is a technology for hosting of the .NET CLR engine inside SQL Server. This allows managed code, written in any .net language, to be hosted and run in the SQL Server environment. This technology is available in SQL Server 2005 or 2008 and allows you to create Stored Procedures, Triggers (for DML or DDL statements), UDFs, UDTs or even User-defined types, which allows you to create simple or complex data types which can be serialized or deserialized within the Database.
[ad#468x60]
Now, the example. I used Visual C# 2008 and SQLServer 2008 Express x64, but this example should work with 2005 editions as well. Remember, this is just a quick start guide, so the example is very simple.

Then create a new assembly (class library) project in Visual C# and name it tryExceptSQLCLR. Start by adding the following assemblies:

using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Sql;
using System.Data.SqlTypes;

(we won’t be using all of them, but these are the ones you will normally need for SQLCLR integration)

Now lets start by creating a new Stored Procedure. This (useless) SP will use an input string and return the string length. SP’s are created as static methods, as SQLServer will not instantiate your class. Return type must always be Void, as all the SP result must be channeled via the SqlContext.Pipe class.

[Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlProcedure]
public static void CountStringLength(String inputString)
{
   SqlContext.Pipe.Send(inputString.Length.ToString());
}

SQLCLR recognizes the CountStringLength as a SP using the Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlProcedure attribute. Pipe.Send also allows you to return SqlDataRecord objects or even full SqlDataReader result sets, but for the sake of simplicity, lets just return the string length as a string for now.

Build the assembly and that’s it, our new SP is ready! Now, create a new database in SQL Server and run the following TSQL statement:

CREATE ASSEMBLY tryexceptAssembly 
  FROM  '(path to the compiled assembly)\tryExceptSQLCLR.dll' 
  WITH PERMISSION_SET = SAFE
go

This loads the assembly binary file into the database – this is important: the assembly is not linked/referenced from your hard-disk or GAC, its actually loaded into the MDB file, so every time you compile a new version you have to reload it using the ALTER ASSEMBLY command. Our example only needs the SAFE permission_set, as we are not accessing information outside the database and we are not using any unmanaged code inside.

Few more things to go: SQLServer does not recognize automagically all the SPs inside this assembly – we have to create them all, one by one, with the correct parameters.

CREATE PROCEDURE spCountStringLength (@inputString nvarchar(max))
AS 
EXTERNAL NAME tryexceptAssembly.[tryExceptSQLCLR.Class1].CountStringLength
go

(if you run into trouble, check out this post – MattN has done a lot of trouble shooting for us)
CREATE PROCEDURE is not required every time you reload the assembly into the database using the ALTER ASSEMBLY command – if you change your SP header (e.g. alter the input parameters, method name, etc), SQLServer will only complain when you try to EXEC the SP, so Unit Test your project to prevent this.

And, finally, before we can execute our SP, we must enable CLR in our database, as SQLCLR support is disabled by default. Run the following:

sp_configure 'clr enabled',1 
go 
reconfigure with override 
go

(this enables SQLCLR serverwide)

And voila, our SP is ready to run!

EXEC dbo.spCountStringLength N'The lazy fox... whatever'

… that returns 24, so it works.

Remember, every time you change and build your assembly you must upload it again into the database:

ALTER ASSEMBLY tryexceptAssembly 
  FROM  '(path to the compiled assembly)\tryExceptSQLCLR.dll' 
  WITH PERMISSION_SET = SAFE
go

If you want to publish your SQLCLR assembly in your newly developed product inside a DDL script do the following inside SQL Management Studio

• Open your database (the one with the most recent assembly loaded)
• Expand “Programmability” and “Assemblies”
• In the context menu of your assembly (in this case tryexceptAssembly) choose the option “Script assembly as”->”Create to”->”New editor window”

This will generate the statement needed to load your assembly using DDL commands only, without hard-disk file dependencies. The statement is basically the same as you saw in the beginning, but the entire assembly binary file coded as HEX:

CREATE ASSEMBLY [tryexceptAssembly]
AUTHORIZATION [dbo]
FROM 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WITH PERMISSION_SET = SAFE

GO

Next time i’ll expand on this subject with more complex (and useful) examples – triggers in SQLCLR. I’ll write the article when i have some free time or when my PayPal donations reach one million dollars – whichever one comes first. (donate below :) )

Google’s Android development team has made the latest Android SDK available, providing a complete view of all the new features that “Donut” (Android 1.6) will provide.

While most of the features included in this incremental update are no secret, this is the first time they have been presented to the public in a single package.

New Features

New Android Market- This update completely redesigns the Android Market, adds screenshots to app descriptions, adds more granularity to searches, and improves the overall shopping experience.

Gesture Support- A new tool in the SDK called GestureBuilder lets app developers generate entire libraries of new app-specific gestures.

Support for CDMA networks- The CDMA telephony stack is now supported, in addition to the previous support for GSM.

Text-to-speech API- A multi-lingual speech engine called Pico made by SVOX is included in Donut. This was one of the earliest features shown off for Donut at Google I/O this year.

Quick Search Box- Also shown off at I/O, Quick Search (then called “Android Search”) is like the iPhone’s “Spotlight” search. Quick Search Box framework lets users search through the phone as well as the Web, pulling up browser history, bookmarks, music, contacts and other data along with results drawn from the Internet.

New Camera Interface- From a single interface, the user can switch between still and video camera modes or look through the gallery. Additionally, the Android Team says camera launches 39% faster, and there is 28% less lag between shots.

Battery “fuel gauge”- This new feature lists the battery consumption of each running application and service, letting the user fully streamline his battery consumption.

Virtual Private Network support- Now, users can configure and connect to L2TP/IPSEC pre-shared key-based or certificate-based VPNs, L2TP only VPN, or PPTP only VPN.

The Linux Kernel has been updated from 2.6.27 to 2.6.29, the OpenCore 2 media engine is now supported, as are a greater number of screen resolutions such as QVGA and WVGA, and new accessibility plugins such as tactile or aural feedback.

Google’s Xavier Ducrohet today said, “You can expect to see devices running Android 1.6 as early as October. As with previous platform updates, applications written for older versions of Android will continue to run on devices with Android 1.6. Please test your existing apps on the Android 1.6 SDK to make sure they run as expected.”

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009

Read more in OSNews

var temp = from sc in ServiceController.GetServices()
where sc.ServiceName == "MyService"
select sc;
// temp.Count() is 0 if the service is not installed
Boolean isInstalled = temp.Count() != 0;

If you want to manipulate the service (if installed, obviously), you don’t need to instantiate a new ServiceController(servicename), as the LINQ query returned a ServiceController ready to go. Add the following lines to the example:

if (isInstalled)
{
    ServiceController myController =
        // the LINQ query only returns one element - we can use First<>()
        temp.First();
    Console.WriteLine("Service is installed and " +
        myController.Status.ToString());
    if (myController.Status == ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Starting the service...");
        myController.Start();
    }
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine("The service is not installed");
}

[ad#468x60]

You can change this LINQ query to search for any of the ServiceController’s properties. The following example returns the list of all started services:

// Get all installed services
var startedServices = from sc in ServiceController.GetServices()
    where sc.Status == ServiceControllerStatus.Running
    select sc;
Console.WriteLine("And the installed services are:");
// now lets iterate thru all the started services
foreach (ServiceController startedService
    in startedServices.ToList())
{
    Console.WriteLine("  " + startedService.ServiceName +
        ": " + startedService.DisplayName);
}

The major (and only) drawback when using LINQ is that it’s only available in .net framework 3.5.

For more on LINQ see also: ScottGu’s introduction to LINQ (focused on SQL LINQ), Introducing Microsoft LINQ, LINQ Pocket Reference, Language Integrated Query in C#2008, Programming Microsoft LINQ or the LINQ page in Wikipedia.

All the Free Express editions (Basic, Web Developer, C# and C++) are available for download as a web install or as a DVD image for offline installs. The .net Framework Runtime is available as a separate install from here (67MB!).

For more details, visit SottGu’s Blog.

 The communication, available in Apple’s hotnews section (search for “Third party applications on the iPhone”) is the following:

“Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Steve

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch.”

Metadata that is associated with an image is data that describes the image but that is not necessary for display of the image.

Some image formats (such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PSD and others) support one or more metadata formats, and the way this information can be read differs from format to format. WPF’s new classes allows you to read this information without having to worry about the underlying format, always using the same piece code. Windows Presentation Foundation supports the following metadata schemas: Exchangeable image file (Exif), International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC), Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP), tEXt (PNG Textual Data) and image file directory (IFD).

To read metadata you need to insert first a reference to the PresentationCore assembly to your project: this assembly contains the System.Windows.Media namespace that we will use. Now, lets walk thru the example code, step by step. First you need to open the image, using the BitmapFrame.Create constructor:

BitmapSource img = BitmapFrame.Create(new Uri(filename));

The BitmapSource img instance contains a property that has an instance of BitmapMetadata called "Metadata". This is where all the metadata is contained:

BitmapMetadata meta = (BitmapMetadata)img.Metadata; 
Console.WriteLine(" metadata\n Type: {0}",meta.GetType()); 
Console.WriteLine(" Title: {0}", meta.Title); 
Console.WriteLine(" Subject: {0}", meta.Subject); 
Console.WriteLine(" Comment: {0}", meta.Comment); 
Console.WriteLine(" Date taken: {0}", meta.DateTaken); 
Console.WriteLine(" Camera: {0} {1}",meta.CameraManufacturer,meta.CameraModel); 
Console.WriteLine(" Copyright: {0}", meta.Copyright);

Image dimensions are not a part of metadata, these are stored directly in the "img" instance:

double mpixel = (img.PixelHeight * img.PixelWidth)/(double)1000000; 
Console.WriteLine(" Pixelsize {0}x{1} ({2} megapixels)", img.PixelWidth, img.PixelHeight,mpixel); 
Console.WriteLine(" DPI {0}x{1}", img.DpiX, img.DpiY);

Its as simple as this, just instantiate the BitmapSource and read the Metadata property.

Now, lets put it all together: Create a new Console Application project in Visual Studio. Add a reference to the PresentationCore assembly and write/paste the following code inside the "Program" class, replacing the default "Main" function:

static void readMetadata(string filename) 
{ 
    BitmapSource img = BitmapFrame.Create(new Uri(filename)); 

    /* Image data */ 
    double mpixel = (img.PixelHeight * img.PixelWidth)/(double)1000000; 
    Console.WriteLine("  Pixelsize {0}x{1} ({2} megapixels)", img.PixelWidth, img.PixelHeight,mpixel); 
    Console.WriteLine("  DPI {0}x{1}", img.DpiX, img.DpiY); 

    /* Image metadata */ 
    BitmapMetadata meta = (BitmapMetadata)img.Metadata; 
    Console.WriteLine("  metadata\n    Type: {0}",meta.GetType()); 
    Console.WriteLine("  Title: {0}", meta.Title); 
    Console.WriteLine("  Subject: {0}", meta.Subject); 
    Console.WriteLine("  Comment: {0}", meta.Comment); 
    Console.WriteLine("  Date taken: {0}", meta.DateTaken); 
    Console.WriteLine("  Camera: {0} {1}",meta.CameraManufacturer,meta.CameraModel); 
    Console.WriteLine("  Copyright: {0}", meta.Copyright); 

    StringBuilder authors = new StringBuilder(); 
    if (meta.Author != null) 
    { 
        foreach (string author in meta.Author) 
        { 
            authors.Append(author + "; "); 
        } 
        Console.WriteLine("  Author(s): {0}", authors.ToString()); 
    } 

    Console.WriteLine("  Rating: {0}", meta.Rating); 

    StringBuilder keyWords = new StringBuilder(); 
    if (meta.Keywords!=null) { 
        foreach (string keyword in meta.Keywords) { 
            keyWords.Append(keyword+"; "); 
        } 
        Console.WriteLine("  Keywords: {0}", keyWords.ToString()); 
    } 
    Console.WriteLine(""); 
} 

static void Main(string[] args) 
{ 
    Console.WriteLine("Tryexcept.com Image metadata example"); 
    /* Get info from all files in c:\pictures */ 
    DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(@"c:\pictures"); 
    /* Only JPEG files */ 
    FileInfo[] files = di.GetFiles("*.jpg"); 
    foreach (FileInfo fi in files) 
    { 
        Console.WriteLine(fi.Name); 
        Program.readMetadata(fi.FullName); 
    } 
    Console.ReadLine(); 
} 
}

Copy a couple of JPG images to the c:\pictures folder and run the project. The output should be something like this:

The Windows Vista Explorer uses these classes to access image metadata as well. It also uses the InPlaceBitmapMetadataWriter to add or edit tags and to edit the image rating. InPlaceBitmapMetadataWriter allows you to edit or create metadata without changing the image contents in any way, avoiding the quality-loss effect that happens when you re-save a JPEG image.

In the screenshot you can see the DSCF1852.JPG image selected along with some of the metadata below: compare it with the previous screenshot to see the same information as output from our example.

Downloads: example JPEG images from this example, example source code or compiled imagemetadata.exe.

Included is the source code for the .net Base Classes (System, System.IO, System.Collections, System.Configuration, System.Threading, System.Net, System.Security, System.Runtime, System.Text, etc), ASP.NET (System.Web), Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms), ADO.NET (System.Data), XML (System.Xml), and WPF (System.Windows).

This will allow programmers to debug within the Framework, including better Call stack descriptions and Step Into MS’s code, so everyone can see what is happening behind the scenes. See ScottGu’s blog for detailed information and screenshots.

LiveID is a unified login service, allowing users to log in many websites and services using only one account. MS uses it in Hotmail, XBOX Live, MSN Messenger Zune and others. Now Microsoft is allowing web site developers to use LiveID Auth, providing this SDK in a number of flavors: ASP.net/C#, Java, Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby.

If you want to start using LiveID Auth in your website you must first agree with the Live Application ID terms of use, then register your application in the Windows Live ID Application Center. The “Web Authentication SDK” itself is available for download here and the documentation is available here.

To fix the first problem (IIS Feature Requirement) go to “Control panel” -> “Programs and Features” and click in “Turn Windows features on or off”.

Enable the following options:

• World Wide Web Services
  • Common HTTP Features
    • Static Content
    • Default Document
    • HTTP Redirection
    • Directory Browsing
  • Application Development
    • ASP.Net
    • ISAPI Extension
    • ISAPI Filters
  • Security
    • Windows Authentication
• Web Management Tools
  • IIS 6 Management Compatbility
    • IIS 6 Scripting Tools
    • IIS 6 WMI Compatibility
    • IIS Metabase and IIS 6 configuration compatibility

After this, click ‘OK’ and watch your hair grow (yes, its slow) as the features install. This warning basically happens because MSSQL 2k5, more specifically the Reporting Services part, was design to use IIS6, not IIS7, and v7 doesnt have all the v6 compatibility options enabled by default.

The second warning

The “ASP.Net Version Registration Requirement” warning is a different beast. SQL Express 2005 only runs in 32-bit mode, even if you have Vista 64 (or XP64). The same is true for MS Reporting Services 2005 included in this ‘Advanced Services’ edition – the problem is that only ASP.net x64 is installed, so you have basically three options: 1 – Dont install Reporting Services; 2- Install asp.net x32 (tricky) or 3- Enable the “32bit app on Win64″ option for IIS – how? Open a command prompt and run the following command:

cscript %SystemDrive%\\inetpub\\AdminScripts\\adsutil.vbs set w3svc/AppPools/Enable32bitAppOnWin64 1

After this just reboot and both warnings will be gone.