6December2007
Posted by Mikhail Esteves under: General.
Javascript Object Notation (JSON) is a fancy name for a simple idea: A web page can download data stored as javascript variables. It’s caused a buzz in the tech world because JSON is much easier to load, read and manipulate compared to XML. Also, parsing large XML files can be a large performance hit – JSON gives you an object, packaged up and ready to go!
[…]
XML is fine for certain things, but it can be quite cumbersome. JSON is great because you can include data in an easy, painless process. There’s no parsing step – you are getting your variables “for free” by just including the javascript file.
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30November2007
Posted by Mikhail Esteves under: Miscellaneous; Tips; Windows.
My Dell Inspiron 6400 came with Bluetooth enabled, and with Vista pre-installed. After some time with Vista, I promptly upgraded to Windows XP. Today I decided to give Vista another try and reinstalled it. While doing this, I found Fn-F2 would not activate Bluetooth, and the drivers wouldn’t install. It just stalled asking me to activate bluetooth by pressing fn-f2. Yes, my BIOS was set to activate both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on Fn-F2.
The problem, after searching around quite a bit, seems to be that after you down-grade from Vista to XP, it deactivates Bluetooth. In order to get it back, you need to run this utility Dell provides that enables it again. You can Get it here
After you install that, you should have no problems installing the Dell/WIDCOMM Bluetooth drivers.
Update: 4 days was enough. Upgraded to XP again!
29November2007
Posted by Mikhail Esteves under: Links.
Are you working with Excel and want take your Excel skills to the next level? Or do you want to learn Excel and don’t know where to start? Check out these 70+ tips and shortcuts that will help you make Excel Magic.
Link
17November2007
Posted by Mikhail Esteves under: C#; Tips.
It’s fairly simple to have Dreamhost host a subversion repository for you and use that in Visual Studio. It’s easy to setup and you get the added bonus of having your files saved in a remote location.
- Type in your repository URL, and a initial commit message.
- Click OK. Enter your username/password details. You’re done!
- Now close Visual Studio, browse to your project folder and delete all files there (taking a backup would be nice, too)
- Right-click in that empty folder, and in the TortoiseSVN menu, choose “Checkout”. You should see:
- Details should be automatically filled up there with your repository URL, etc. If it is not, type them in and click OK. This will bring back all your files from the repository and make your project directory a working copy.
- Your project is now on Subversion. Fire up Visual Studio, make your changes, and click Commit after a day’s work, or a important milestone has passed, type in a commit message and commit the changes. You’re all done!
9November2007
Posted by Mikhail Esteves under: General.
Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com aren’t the only search engines out there. There are many smaller, more customized search options that can help you quickly find what you’re looking for by only searching through a few sites rather than through everything. After all, you’ve got enough on your mind with hosting, design and programming to do. Try out these 17 search engines designed with Web developers in mind.
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2November2007
Posted by Mikhail Esteves under: C#; Tips.
Placing checkboxes in a .NET Repeater control is pretty straight-forward:
< asp:repeater id="rpResults" runat="server">
< li>< asp:checkbox id="chkbx" runat="server />
< %#Eval("project_name")%>< /li>
< /asp:repeater>
Now if you want to add values to each of those checkboxes, and retrieve them (on form submit, for example), you would need to use the Repeater control’s OnItemDataBound method to attach an attribute to each checkbox. Here is how you would do that using C#, assuming you want to attach project_id to each checkbox:
protected void rpResults_ItemDataBound(...)
{
if (e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Item ||
e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.AlternatingItem)
{
((CheckBox)e.Item.FindControl("chkbx")).Attributes
.Add("project_id",
((DataRowView)e.Item.DataItem)["project_id"].ToString());
}
}
Now to get those items back on form submit, you would do:
foreach (RepeaterItem rpItem in rpResults.Items)
{
CheckBox chkbx = rpItem.FindControl("chkbx") as CheckBox;
if (chkbx.Checked)
{
Response.Write("Checked Project: " +
chkbx.Attributes["project_id"].ToString() + "< br />");
}
}
That’s it!
1November2007
Posted by Mikhail Esteves under: Links.
Freelancers will often tout the benefits of freelancing. Just as much as people working full-time might do the same (It’s true! Some people love their jobs!) Startup entrepreneurs will rant and rave about the benefits of starting companies and working at startups. Assuming we like what we’re doing, we’ll promote it as “the way to go” and happily list numerous reasons to support our argument.
So what are the pros of going freelance?
Freelancers will rattle off a number of them as “accepted truths” – but let’s look at things a bit further.
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30October2007
Posted by Mikhail Esteves under: C#; Tips.
To strong name a 3rd party DLL, first disassemble it by running the MSIL Disassembler. Assuming source.dll is your third-party DLL, the command would be:
ildasm /out:source.dll.il source.dll
Then, re-assemble it by running the MSIL Assembler. Assuming private.snk is your private key, the command would be:
ilasm /dll /resource=source.dll.res
source.dll.il /out=source.dll
/key=private.snk
