Outlook /safe

I was amazed to know that outlook has a safe mode. My friend Piyush enlightened me about the benefits of this. Essentially it loads outlook without all the add-ons.

In my case surprisingly no add-ons showed up as being enabled but somehow they were being loaded I guess, cause my Outlook would hang every few minutes. This was a painful experience for months. And finally I have a way of operating Outlook without it hanging up on me.

 Next need to figure out a way to completely remove add-ons :-) in a clean way.

Open Source .Net CF

If you're developing for the .Net CF you might definitely want to check out the open source .Net CF. They've recently released the SmartDevice Framework 1.0 Seems pretty neat.

The .Net CF mobile world is a very limited world from a .Net developers perspective. We need many more such initiatives.
If you've come across any similar initiatives drop in a line.

A SmartPhone Content Aggregator

Found this nifty little application SPRSS v0.0.1 which is a content aggregator for my SmartPhone.
http://www.codent.com/smartphone/

extremely cool!!!

My newest article on Managing Mobile Data on PocketPC/SmartPhones

Thought I'd just mention my latest article on Managing Mobile Data on PocketPC/SmartPhones devices has just been released. You can check it out at http://www.mobilizedsoftware.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=17701459

Blogging tools

I hate it when I have to come online onto the blogger site, yes I do like the convenience if I'm at any location and need the ability to put down my thoughts.
I wonder if there is an ideal blogging tool. I've been searching... if you know any awesome tools let me know.

But frankly I like the idea of an aggregator + a tool which allows me to make posts.
I quite liked Newsgator but didn't like the fact that it chewed up my titles or didn't retain title formatting etc.

But I'm equally surprised that there are no decent free aggregators + post tools.
Another feature I wish I had was the ability to make posts from my SmartPhone. An app which would sit on my SmartPhone and allow me to make posts.

It would be lovely if Outlook itself provide this facility. Now that would be certainly a wonderful feature.

Till then maybe I should really write one, any takers who want to contribute?

Thinking in Visuals

Had an enllightening discussion yesterday for about 2-3 hours with Sanjay Vyas(Guruji) and Raj. Both Raj and myself went thru Guruji's explanation of concept Visualization.

For years I've been using some or the other kind of memory system, essentially followed Harry Loryane's books, recently read a book called the Mind's Eye by Ian Robertson, it really opened my eye and then this talk by Guruji opened it wider. It was extremely interesting to observe how he has expanded on the concept to his training of technology concepts. My mind was on fire literally. All three of us were wondering if there exists a software to help facilitate this further. I showed them both Mind Manager which is a tool I have been using for quite some time. This is surely one of the tools it opens your mind literally, but I figure we need something more to take his idea of concept visualization further. I would actually say it's thinking in moving visuals, like a full fledged movie, with colors action, interaction. Not just static visuals as the word visual portrays. I would highly recommend anyone to go thru this explanation by Guruji himself.

We discussed issues with concept visualization for instance how do you force your mind to follow this in day to day life... well practice is one sure way, but forcing a lazy mind is difficult...
nevertheless this quest on better thinking is forever a pet subject...
If you read this and know more about this idea of thinking in visuals do let me know.

My quest for a better tool to help in this process continues....

Finally!

After years of procastination, I've decided to start learning C++.
I'm looking for all the help I can get on this one, picked up Bruce Eckel's thinking in C++.
Infact I realized that probably this is what I should do pick a new language a year and understand the mechanics of the same.
I wonder if there is a list of all the possible programming languages out there.
Infact started making a list of some of the best technology books available covering different topics too... still building it will post it down the line. I'm looking for contributions to the list, only if you think the books is nothing but the best on a particular topic would I think of including it in the list.

(Incidentally realized Bruce Eckel also has a book called thinking in C# amazingly it's not available on Amazon but on some other online siteshttp://www.bluestonelab.com
And the ebook version costs about 1$. Interestingly it's in the same format as the thinking in C++ book. )

BBC NEWS | Americas | US father names son 'Version 2.0'

BBC NEWS | Americas | US father names son 'Version 2.0'

I was zapped when I read this, now is this whacko or what ?
It just makes me smile. I wonder if someday cloning and all that mumbo jumbo will enable a person to clone everthing about himself and create a better version... hmm now I would like a little less flab in my next version and yeah make him a little less lazy :-)

.Net Bytes 1 - ASP.Net Session.Abandon

Every other day one comes across interesting tit-bits of .Net which one can so easily forget or ignore and which one shouldn't.
I think .Net Bytes is what I would call them. So here goes...
-------------------------------------
ASP.Net Session.Abandon
-------------------------------------

When the Abandon method is called, the current Session object is queued for deletion but is not actually deleted until all of the script commands on the current page have been processed. This means that you can access variables stored in the Session object on the same page as the call to the Abandon method but not in any subsequent Web pages.

It is interesting how the session.Abandon command works, this often leaves many a programmer wondering why session variables on the page are accessible even though a call has been made to abandon the session.

Well I think now you get the picture... if you've got any .Net Bytes (bites ;-) to share let me know. You can email me at sanjayATwirelessstrategist.com (hmm you're wondering why I didn't put this as @ right, to avoid the spammers ;-)

Arggggggggghhhhhhhhhh that’s what I feel NewsGator doesn’t respect my sites settings…

It takes a subject for a message, however no title. I would think it should convert that to Titles L 

Wow now I’ve also set up an RSS feed(oops ATOM feed, duly corrected by Guruji

http://sanjayshetty.blogspot.com/atom.xml

 

I think I’ve now found after a long search the perfect tool NewsGator.

It allows me to check RSS feeds, post to my blog and best of all integrates with outlook. Now isn’t that cool. Still playing with it. This my first test posting from the tool J 

Open Source .Net

I was chatting with Piyush, an old colleague of mine who's kicked off two open source project initiatives on .Net infact using the new Whidbey tools.
It's good to see the no. of open source projects kick up. One of his projects is a

Site Portal (Phase Alpha)
A ready to go site builder which you can use to build a site of more than 100 pages with minimum effort
Infact the alpha build is online with source code (http://groups.msn.com/manasvin/projects.msnw)


Another interesting project which actually kicked me quite a bit is
Forum Alerts (Phase Initiation)
An MSN messenger alert system for users who subscribe to forums & newsgroups.
This is extremely cool as a whole lot of us technology biffs subscribe to various forums. The interesting part is that this idea is going to be built using MSN Alerts SDK. He's currently looking for more people who might want to participate. I think I might contribute to this one. Definitely an interesting idea to pursue :-)

Articles I've written

I recently wrote a couple of articles for DevX and .Net Developer Journal

thought I'd provide the links out here to them:

http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/17746 - Super Charge your forms based apps with Advanced Data Binding

http://www.devx.com/wireless/Article/17968 - Develop for the SmartPhone using Techniques you already know

https://www.sys-con.com/dotnet/article.cfm?id=454 - Windows Form controls Tips and Tricks

Smart Client

Buzzword or new application development paradigm?

Simplicity is what I believe will drive smart client development adoption.

Smart Clients have very simple rules:

1. Local Processing
2. Communication via Web Services with the backend
3. Online or offline the application should work
4. Client should auto update

The simplicity of the above rules implemented in any application which you develop can have dramatic effects on your client ensuring client delight.
But are there tools which support this paradigm as yet... my bet is that within the next 2 years one is going to see a whole lot of tool support within the Microsoft tool set. Till that becomes reality I'm sure just application of these simple rules will change how software is developed across the globe.

DevCon 03 Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram) The land of the Gods

DevCon 03 Trivandrum (Thiruvanthanam) The land of the Gods

I just didn’t realize the amount of time it would take me to get to Trivandrum. Each of the domestic carriers have just one flight per day and none were available all flights were full. But I had to get there, this was the first time in INDIA that a user group has organized a one day conference, rather than a Microsoft organizing a developer conference.

I had a long drawn route… it began at 5:15 in the morning, with my alarm waking me up. I caught an Indian Airline flight down to Chennai, Chennai I had to change to an international flight which would take me to Trivandrum. The flight attendant mentioned something about a place called Trichi, my sleep muddled brain didn’t quite register. I woke with the flight landing. This same flight was finally going to Sharjah. I promptly picked my bags, and got off the flight… the name written against the tarmac was Tirchipalli ( don’t know whether I got that right)… however I thought maybe Trivandrum is locally called such. I promptly walked out of the airport and a guy in the distance started screaming out… I turned it was an Indian Airline official running upto me. Now what did he want… sleep depravation was taking it’s toll on me, making me irritable. He walked up and asked in broken English… you want to go Trivandrum right… yes I answered… well this is Trichi. The flight stops here and Trivandrum is the next stop… oh! that was all I could utter.

I promptly proceeded to get back onto the flight, after passing thru security checks again… lucky me

Soon we were up in the air and on our way to Trivandrum, I was kind of red inside… what a screw up… but well I got out of waiting in the plane for an hour, atleast my legs had a little exercise

Trivandrum… Truly the land of the Gods… Trees coconut trees all over a few houses interspersed in the middle. So green so clean so refreshing, I loved the sight from the plane just before landing.

The airport was a surprise… suddenly it felt like being in America. There were more white skinned people than Indians. Tourists coming in to enjoy the sun and warmth of Gods own country. They were all queued up at customs while the few of us Indians walked out of the airport.

There were representatives from US Software the sponsors of the event waiting to pick me up. Venkat another Microsoft Regional Director like myself, got into the waiting car to be speeded up to our hotel.

We passed thru the lazy Sunday afternoon across the streets of Trivandrum… I loved this place, people obviously enjoying their afternoon siesta the sun shining down all over this coconut tree city. Beautiful is what I felt.
This was the most relaxed conference I have attended. The organizers had arranged a dinner for us that night at a nearby hotel.

I must say these are the most pleasant hosts, the top management of US software were present we had a rooftop dinner, watching the stars and enjoying the local food.

The next day morning was the conference…

We had a 100+ attendees we started off with a session by Deepak Gulati the local Microsoft community specialist, did a session on localization, followed by a session on Microsoft’s Java implementation. I was next with a session on the SmartPhone, followed by Praveen another Microsoft Regional Director, and then a session on the new features in ASP.Net 2.0 (Whidbey) by Venkat another RD. We also had a session by Nishant an MVP and the user group leader on new features in VC++ in the Whidbey time frame. Deepak gave a last brief overview of Longhorn to complete the day.

We then had a general chat with the audience regarding volunteering for the user group meeting, we had a surprise 15 volunteers in all who said they would help out. I guess that was the largest volunteer turnout I’ve seen in one session.

There were 2 things which left a lasting impression on me 1. the hospitability of the local people and 2 the beauty of this land of the Gods. This is one place I’m surely coming back…

Pune User Group

It was great fun driving down to Pune for the launch of the Pune User Group meeting.
The first time we were having a physical meeting besides just meeting online.
It took me only 2 hours to get to Pune from Mumbai and then strangely a good 45 minutes just navigating the Pune city traffic :-(

Well there were a bunch of 25 Puneites waiting to get the session kicked off...
I dived right into a session on the SmartPhone 2003, it's kind of my favorite device as of now.
Really cool features...

I showcased the key features of the phone and then started off with discussing how one can develop using VS.Net for the SmartPhone 2003. Calling a web service, creating menu's, using ActiveSynch, then setting up Remote Display to project the phone's screen onto my projection system...

The audience was excited I could feel it revebrating through the room...
New technology thats what keeps us on a high...

You could read my online article on the SmartPhone at Devx http://www.devx.com/wireless/Article/17968

SMARTPHONE Rocks!!!

TechEd Blues...

The last TechEd event was in Mumbai...
Kind of felt nostalgic about it...
But look forward to many more such days.
As usual it was great fun... Raj, Sanjay Vyas the rest of the guys...
The evening ended with a party basically to felicitate the speakers and the rest of the crew who had made it a great event...

TechEd 2003 Mumbai, Day1

Day 1 Part 1
Tring Tring........
Cell Phone ringing cause me to wake up, It was Raj, urging me to get up and get out of bed, he was on his way to the event.

A quick wash, change of clothes, and I was driving down the highway to the venue.

The first session I had was on Office 2003 for developers.

I reached while the keynote was beginning, LongHorn the video was cool.

Touchbased with Raj and off we were to the Speakers Loung. We re-discussed our presentation. A good half hour later, we had to rush to our session. I started off and Raj chipped in. I did the demo's and let him do most of the talking. I was tired. Needed more sleep ( aah! my bed, couldn't stop thinking about it).

We had a small audience. I guess developers haven't realised the new Office System, is a whole new world for developers. I'm sure the audience sizes would increase as people realised the potential. I certainly am amazed at what developers can do with the new Office System. Its a gold mine in terms of potential. I'll probably explore some of it's features on my blog.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 1 Mumbai Session 2 on Windows Form Controls: Tips and Tricks
The second session which I did was a repeat of what I had done at Bangalore. But in Bangalore I had my friend Raj helping me out, here I had to do this session all alone.
The difficult part was time. It was virtually impossible to do all the demos, they just wouldn't finish 8 demos in all.

After my first session, ran straight to the Speaker's Lounge.
My buddies Raj and Sriram from Microsoft were there, doing what he he preparing for their sessions :-)
I think we're the same kind, last minute runners :-)

Well I began setting up the demo's one after the other oop's my last demo wasn't functioning, this was on using the PropertyGrid control in your windows forms applications.
15 minutes later got it all setup, just in time to run for the session.

Raj and Sriram finished wrapping up their preparation at the same time.

I ran down towards my session hall, had to locate the room :-)

It was in the main session hall in the developer tools track. Got on stage and off I was.

The audience no. was kind of low, so wasn't too happy. But we soon started off with a number of laughs.

I just didn't realise how time flies, I was off to begin my second last demo, when one of the helpers but up a banner of 5 minutes remaining to indicate the end of the session time.
Wrapped up the demos, the audience clapped and I got of stage. Finishing all the demos in time. I really wonder how I did that. I don't think I could do it again :-)

Well that wrapped up day 1 across all 3 cities. Day 2 is happening around the 3 cities in October. But I had to rush off, had to catch some sleep, tomorrow was going to help colleagues from INETA who would be doing 2 sessions, one presentation and a hands on lab on C# for students. More later...

TechED 2003 Mumbai, before Day1 - behind the scenes...

I had two sessions for the TechEd in Mumbai, two intense ones I must add.

The first was on Office 2003 for developers. This was tough. Why? Well I had to demonstrate all the new things for developers in Office and at the same time not show enough, basically build the excitement and lead them onto other sessions which were in-depth.

Raj my buddy from Microsoft was there as usual to help. We had a lot of issues I had Beta 2 Technical Refresh on my system, Raj had the RTM on his machine, and the dev tools on msdn worked with Beta 2 only. Not everything worked on my system. Raj pitched in, we ganged up at my home a day before the event and went cracking at the system. Some of the new features for developers are so cool in the new Office system, yeah office system is what it is now. It rocks. I'm just waiting to get the final bits in my hand... maybe I'll write an article about it. We finished working on some new code finally at 12:30 A.M. in the morning. Raj also had to back up for another TechEd Speaker Sanjay Vyas, who's on my links, sadly Sanjay could not make it to TechEd due to some urgent family needs. Raj worked on his demos, InfoPath was his session in addition to another session on Building Office Solutions with Visual Studio.Net.
12:30 in the morning, I went off to drop him at a friends place where he was staying. We both crashed out promising to wake each other up in the morning...
I almost forgot about my second session, but luckily it was a repeat session of the Windows Form Controls: Tips & Tricks Session which I had done in Bangalore...

More on what happened at Day 1 in Mumbai later...