Unicode and Character Sets - Basis

I have read an great technical article by Joel Spolsky. Actually it was written on year 2003 [October 08, 2003]. But read today.

ok, coming to point. That article is about basis of “Unicode Char sets”

title and URL,

The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html

 

just tiny bit from that article,

Some people are under the misconception that Unicode is simply a 16-bit code where each character takes 16 bits and therefore there are 65,536 possible characters. This is not, actually, correct.

 

Lengthy article but worth reading.  Make you free to read this.

TechEd India 2009 Top Architect Contest

 

Microsoft announced “TechEd India 2009 Top Architect Contest”

Brief Notes:

1) Understand the problem statement from  http://virtualtechdays.com/toparchitect/problem_statement.aspx

2) Think of a solution and put it down in a presentation with an audio explanation.

3) Submit your details and the idea at http://virtualtechdays.com/toparchitect/SubmitEntry.aspx

Get to present to Live audience at Tech Ed

Contest Rules are here

End date: 11:59 PM IST on 26-April-2009   Hurry Up.

MSDN Library : Lightweight & Low bandwidth Version

 

As all we know, MSDN is a great resource, having huge details.

Meanwhile probably most of us may felt as ‘it is loading for a long time’ for some times.

Try out, Low Bandwidth MSDN

Normal current version: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlnode.aspx

Low band version: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlnode(loband).aspx

Really it is simpler and faster.

 

It seems, it is available from several months ago.  :-(

Please have a view on Hanselman’s post for more details.

..

Window 7 beta OS : Chennai Event

 

Chennai .NET user group (India > Tamil Nadu State > Chennai City), is conducting “one-day workshop about Windows 7 OS”.

Free OS installation can also avail to the attendees.

Please Read the announcement here 

For quick view read below

“

Windows 7 Day
Saturday, 18th April 2009
Energize your day with Windows 7

• Walk in with your laptops and get them powered with Windows 7
• Participate in the parallel sessions running
• Even if you are not carrying your laptops, feel free to attend sessions
• Get the boot camp feel
• Getting hands on at the venue, provides you more exposure to learning with your peers

Windows 7 Beta is currently the hot topic in the Community and here is your chance to cash in on the buzz!

On Saturday, 18th April, India will wake up to 7 concurrent User Group events on Windows 7! Here is where a Community member / IT Professional can avail of exclusive in-depth content on managing Windows 7 – a one-day workshop to gear up on all the necessary skills to get started on Windows 7 efficiently. And that’s not all – a Community member can walk in with his machine and get it loaded with Windows 7 right there.

The system requirement to install the Windows 7 Beta should meet these minimum hardware recommendations:

• 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
• 1 GB of system memory
• 16 GB of available disk space
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (in order to enable Aero theme)
• DVD-R/W Drive or machine that supports booting from USB

Please obtain your own Product Key by the following steps:

1. Open your web browser and enter http://technet.microsoft.com/

2. Sign In using your Live ID

3. If your system is 32-Bit compatible, enter the following URL in the same browser: https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/productkeys/win7-32/enus/default.aspx

4. If your system is 64-Bit compatible, enter the following URL in the same browser: https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/productkeys/win7-64/enus/default.aspx

Here you also have an opportunity of learning through the sessions and also with the systems powered by the operating system, they have the easy option of learn the functionality, explore more, understand the simple / difficulties during installation (compatibility etc...), various methods of installation.

To register for the event please visit : http://www.chennaiitpro.net/Articles/Windows-7/Windows-7-Day---Energize-your-day-with-Windows-7.aspx

Please do forward this to all your friends for them to get the benefit as well.

Regards,  Chennai .Net User Group Lead

”

Microsoft Virtual Techdays 2009

 

24 hours – Online Event (yes it is first ever 24 hours event)  on April-01

Its online. Its free

If interested, do register here

As we know, already lot of domestic or international events done. But we might missed some of the sessions due to work place restriction, that day’s work / time zone.

But hope this new event will be a new kind.. and will be trendsetter.

will be covering all time zones.

WCF Links, Web Casts, Notes

 

WCF – Webcast Links

Latest WCF Screen casts in MSDN

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/content/en-us/msft/netframework/wcf/Screencasts

 

MIKE TAULTY'S BLOG [Slightly out of date, but clearly explaining the concepts – MUST to See]

http://mtaulty.com/CommunityServer/blogs/mike_taultys_blog/archive/2006/09/13/8875.aspx

 

Nicholas Allen's Indigo Blog [year 2006 web casts]

http://blogs.msdn.com/drnick/archive/2006/05/31/611195.aspx

 

WCF (Indigo) – Some Important Blog Links

 

"Service Station", by Aaron Skonnard   (WCF Trainer, MVP) important Blog for WCF

http://www.pluralsight.com/community/blogs/aaron/default.aspx

 

Wenlong's Blog (Microsoft WCF Team)

http://blogs.msdn.com/wenlong/default.aspx

 

SOWMY SRINIVASAN'S BLOG  (Microsoft WCF Team)

- He is posting rarely, but extreme quality discussion will be.

http://blogs.msdn.com/sowmy/default.aspx

 

Nicholas Allen's Indigo Blog  (Microsoft WCF Team)

http://blogs.msdn.com/drnick/default.aspx

WCF – Some Important Article/Discussions Links

Message Contract (vs.) Data Contract : Discussion
http://www.codeplex.com/servicefactory/Thread/View.aspx?ThreadId=21927

 

WCF Service : ASP.NET compatibility mode
http://blogs.msdn.com/wenlong/archive/2006/01/23/516041.aspx

 

Must Check
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332338.aspx

 

WCF instancing mode default (ServiceBehaviorAttribute.InstanceContextMode)
http://blogs.msdn.com/edpinto/archive/2006/10/16/wcf-instancing-mode-default-is-instancecontextmode-persession.aspx

http://www.pluralsight.com/community/blogs/keith/archive/2006/10/13/40522.aspx

And I attached my brief notes here.

MCTS 70-503 Exam (WCF)

 

Update: I added links to useful blogs and articles in new post, click here

Last Saturday 21-Mar-2009, I attended WCF 3.5 Certification (MCTS 70-503) exam, and cleared.

 

I did my initial two MCTS exams in 2007. After that, I was sayinng a long time about getting further certifications, but went only in words for long time.

 

Started preparation on 70-529 (.NET 2.0 - Distributed Application Development) after long time. As you know that was too delayed work. Because Microsoft has already released WCF, a new unified connected systems technology.

So continued with WCF.

Thanks to all who supported, and special thanks to Ashok.

I will update about some important links to WCF, in later post.

Dangerous Programming Mistakes

>> Just recently I did the #1 mistake

>> Please have a time to view this list

Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Mistakes

1. Improper Input Validation

Ensure that your input is valid. If you're expecting a number, it shouldn't contain letters. Nor should the price of a new car be allowed to be a dollar. Incorrect input validation can lead to vulnerabilities when attackers can modify their inputs in unexpected ways. Many of today's most common vulnerabilities can be eliminated, or at least reduced, with strict input validation.

2. Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output

Insufficient output encoding is at the root of most injection-based attacks. An attacker can modify the commands that you intend to send to other components, possibly leading to a complete compromise of your application - not to mention exposing the other components to exploits that the attacker would not be able to launch directly. When your program generates outputs to other components in the form of structured messages such as queries or requests, be sure to separate control information and metadata from the actual data.

…
…

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001210.html

HTML Table

Just drawn HTML table with rowspan & colspan

   1: <table border="1">

   2:  

   3: <tr> <td rowspan=2> ab </td>

   4:      <td colspan=2> cd </td>

   5: </tr>

   6: <tr> <td> ef </td>

   7:      <td rowspan=2> gh </td>

   8: </tr>

   9: <tr> <td colspan=2> ik </td>

  10: </tr> 

  11: </table>

ab	cd
	ef	gh
ik

Fiddler : HTTP Traffic Debugger Proxy

While studying the basis of “ADO.NET Data Services”, I came to know about an excellent tool called “Fiddler”.

• HTTP Web Debugger Proxy
• Logs all the HTTP Traffic
• so able to view all HTTP communication, in may formats (as RAW format, as XML.. and may more options).

really useful, if you haven’t used yet, consider this. Here it is :http://www.fiddlertool.com/

Info about “Fiddler” in MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb250446.aspx

Earlier while starting with .NET 2.0 XML web services, I was struggled to trace SOAP messages communication. I don’t heard about this that time. Fortunately now no problem about that. :-)