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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, February 25, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, February 25, 2010New ProjectsAptusSoftware.Threading: AptusSoftware.Threading is a class library designed primarily to assist in the development of multi-threaded WinForm applications, although there i...AxiomGameDesigner: It is going to be a universal scene editor for Axiom 3D game engine. It is in pure C# and will be kept portable to MONO for compatibility with linu...Badger - Unity Productivity Extensions: A set of Microsoft Unity Extensions. Why Badger? Because I love badgers.Business & System Analysis Templates and Best Practices for Russian: http://saway.codeplex.com/Conectayas: Conectayas is an open source "Connect Four" alike game but transformable to "Tic-Tac-Toe" and to a lot of similar games that uses mouse. Written in...FastCode: .NET 3.5 Extensions set to increase coding speed.Hundiyas: Hundiyas is an open source "Battleship" alike game totally written in DHTML (JavaScript, CSS and HTML) that uses mouse. This cross-platform and cro...Icelandic Online Banking: Icelandic Online Banking is project defining a web service interface for online banking.IE8 AddOns XML Creator: Application that helps on creating the xml files for IE8 Accelerators, Search Providers and the markup for Web Slices.iKnowledge: a asp.net mvc demoLearn ASP.NET MVC: Learn ASP.NET MVC is a project for the members of the Peer Learning group in Silicon Valley. It contains the SportsStore solution from the Pro ASP...Live at Education Meta Web-Service: Live at Education Meta Web-Service is intended to abstract from several technologies that are included in Live@edu set of services. This web-ser...Low level wave sound output for VB.NET: Low level sound output class for VB.NET using platform invocation services to call winmm.dllMailQ: MailQ makes it easier for developers to send mail messages from an application. The system sends mails based on a database queue system (store, se...Managed DXGI: Managed DXGI library is Fully managed wrapper writen on C# for DXGI 1.0 and 1.1 technology. It makes easier to support DXGI in managed application....Multivalue AutoComplete WinForms TextBox in C#: This project is a sample application that demonstrates how to create a multivalue WinForms textbox in C# using .NET Framework 3.5.Nifty CSharp Tools: Nifty CSharp Tools, will contain various tools and snippets. IRCBot, splashscreens, linq, world of warcraft log parsing, screenshot uploaders, twi...PHP MPQ: A port of StormLib to PHP for handling Blizzard MPQ files.RedDevils strategy - Project Hoshimi Programming Battle: Source Code of RedDevils strategy. Imagine Cup 2008 - Project Hoshimi Programming Battle.RNUNIT: rNunit is a distributed Nunit project. Many application these days are client-server application, distributed application and regular unit testing ...Samar Solution: Samar Solutions is a business system for office automation.Silverlight OOMRPG Game Engine: Silverlight OOMRPG Game EngineSimulator: GPSSimulatorSLARToolkit - Silverlight Augmented Reality Toolkit: SLARToolkit is a flexible Augmented Reality library for Silverlight with the aim to make real time Augmented Reality applications with Silverlight ...Spiral Architecture Driven Development (SADD) for Russian: Это русская версия сайта sadd.codeplex.comSQLSnapshotManager: Easily manage SQL Server database snapshots in a easy to use visual interface.Twilio with VB.NET MVC: Twilio with VB.NET MVC is a sample application for developing with Twilio's REST based telephony API. It includes an XML Schema of the TwiML respon...Ultra Speed Dial: UltraSpeedDial.com - Online Speed Dial Page.Visual HTML Editor justHTML: justHTML - is simle windows-application WYSIWYG editor that allow everyone - without any knowledge of HTML - to create and edit web-pages. It supp...WinMTR.NET: .NET Clone of the popular Windows clone of the popular Linux Matt's TracerouteWPF Dialogs: "WPF Dialogs" is a library for different Dialogs in WPF (e.g. FolderBrowseDialog, SaveFileDialog, OpenFileDialog etc.). These Dialogs are written i...WPFLogin: A small Login window in WPF and C#XNA PerformanceTimers: CPU Timers for Windows and Xbox360. Can track multiple threads, and presents output as a log on-screen.New ReleasesAptusSoftware.Threading: 2.0.0: First public release. This release is in production as part of several commercial applications and is stable. The source code download includes a...BizTalk Software Factory: BizTalk Software Factory v2.1: This is a service release for the BizTalk Software Factory for BizTalk Server 2009, containing so far: Fix for x64: the SN.EXE tool is now locate...Business & System Analysis Templates and Best Practices for Russian: R00 The Place reserver: Just to reserve the place Will be filled out soonChronos WPF: Chronos v1.0 Beta 2: Added a new SplashScreen Added a new Login View and implemented Log Off Added a new PasswordBoxHelper (http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/371...dotNetTips: dotNetTips.Utility 3.5 R2: This is a new release (version 3.5.0.3) compatible with .NET 3.5. Lots of new classes/features!! Requires SP1 if using the Entity Framework extensi...fleXdoc: template-based server-side document generator (docx): fleXdoc 1.0 beta 3: The third and final beta of fleXdoc. fleXdoc consists of a webservice and a (test)client for the service. Make sure you also download the testclien...FluentPS: FluentPS v1.0: - FluentPS is moved from ASMX to WCF interface of the Project Server Interface (PSI) - Impersonation changes to work in compliance with WCF interfa...FolderSize: FolderSize.Win32.1.0.4.0: FolderSize.Win32.1.0.3.0 A simple utility intended to be used to scan harddrives for the folders that take most place and display this to the user...iTuner - The iTunes Companion: iTuner 1.1.3707 Beta 3: As promised, the iTuner Automated Librarian is now available. This automatically cleans an entire album of dead tracks and duplicates as tracks ar...Live at Education Meta Web-Service: LAEMWS v 1.0 beta: Release Candidate for LAEMWS.Macaw Reusable Code Library: LanguageConfigurationSolution: This Solution helps developing a multi language publishing web siteManaged DXGI: Initial Release.: Base declaration of interfaces, most of them untested yet.Math.NET Numerics: 2010.2.24.667 Build: Latest alpha buildMiniTwitter: 1.08.1: MiniTwitter 1.08.1 更新内容 変更 インクリメンタル検索時には大文字小文字の区別をしないように変更 クライアント名の表示を本家にあわせて from から via に変更 修正 公式 RT 時にステータスが上に表示されたり二重に表示されるバグを修正 自分が自分へ返信...Multivalue AutoComplete WinForms TextBox in C#: 1.0 First public release: Multivalue autocomplete textbox control and host application in this release are released in a single Visual Studio 2008 projects. See my related b...NMock3: NMock3 - Beta3, .NET 3.5: This release has some exciting new features. Please start providing feedback on the tutorials. The first several are complete and the rest are no...nxAjax - an asp.net ajax library using jQuery: nxAjax v3 codeplex 7: nxAjax v3 codeplex 7 binary and test website. Bug Fixed: ajax:Form control Add: Drag and drop Rewritten: DragnDropManager DragPanel DropPan...Office Apps: 0.8.7: whats new? Document.Editor and Document.Viewer now supports FlowDocument (.xaml) files bug fix'sPDF Rider: PDF Rider 0.3: Application PrerequisitesMicrosoft Windows Operating Systems (XP (tested) - Vista - 7) Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 runtime A PDF rendering sof...ShellLight: ShellLight 0.1.0.1 Src: Codeplex project released. This is only a preview of the product. Until the first final release there will be many improvements.Silverlight OOMRPG Game Engine: SilverlightGameTutorialSolution v1.01: Please visit my blog for Silverlight OOMROG Game Tutorial: http://www.cnblogs.com/Jax/archive/2010/02/24/1673053.html.Simple Savant: Simple Savant v0.4: Added support for full-text indexing (See Full-Text Indexing) Added support for attribute spanning and compression for property values larger tha...Spiral Architecture Driven Development (SADD) for Russian: R00: R00 to reserve site nameTeamReview - TFS Code Review: Release 1.1.3: Release Features New expanded product positioning for capturing any targeted coding work as a trackable, assignable, reportable Work Item for any r...Text Designer Outline Text Library: 10th minor release: Version 0.3.1 (10th minor release)Fixed the gradient brush being too big for the text, resulting in not much gradient shown in the text. Gradient...TFS Workflow Control: TeamExplorer and TSWA control 1.0 for TFS 2010 RC: This is a special version for TFS 2010 RC. Use the RC version of the power tools to modify the layout of your work items (http://visualstudiogaller...thinktecture WSCF.blue: WSCF.blue V1 Update (1.0.7) - VS2010 RC Support: This update adds support for Visual Studio 2010 RC in addition to Visual Studio 2008. Please note that Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is NOT supported a...Tumblen3: tumblen3 Version 25Feb2010: ready for Twitter's xAuthUMD文本编辑器: UMDEditor文本编辑器V2.1.0: 2.1.0 (2010-02-24) 增加查找章节内指定文本内容的功能 2.0.4 (2010-02-06) 章节内容框增加右键菜单，包含编辑文本的基本操作 ------------------------------------------------------- 执行 reg.bat ...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30224.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVisual HTML Editor justHTML: Latest binary: Latest buid here. Executable and mshtml.dll included in this archive. Ready to use ;)Visual HTML Editor justHTML: Source code for version 2.5: Visual studio 2008 project with full source code.VOB2MKV: vob2mkv-1.0.2: The release vob2mkv-1.0.2 is a feature update of the VOB2MKV project. It now includes a DirectShow source filter, MKVSOURCE. A source filter allo...WinMTR.NET: V 1.0: V 1.0WPF Dialogs: Version 0.1.0: Version 0.1.0 FolderBrowseDialog is implementet for more information look here Version 0.1.0 (german: Version 0.1.0 - Deutsch).WPF Dialogs: Version 0.1.1: Version 0.1.1 Features FolderBrowseDialog was extended / FolderBrowseDialog - Deutsch wurde erweitertXNA PerformanceTimers: XNA PerformanceTimers 0.1: Initial release.Zeta Resource Editor: Release 2010-02-24: Added HTTP proxy server support.Most Popular ProjectsASP.NET Ajax LibraryManaged Extensibility FrameworkWindows 7 USB/DVD Download ToolDotNetZip LibraryMDownloaderVirtual Router - Wifi Hot Spot for Windows 7 / 2008 R2MFCMAPIDroid ExplorerUseful Sharepoint Designer Custom Workflow ActivitiesOxiteMost Active ProjectsDinnerNow.netBlogEngine.NETRawrInfoServiceSLARToolkit - Silverlight Augmented Reality ToolkitNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleSharpMap - Geospatial Application Framework for the CLRjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesRapid Entity Framework. (ORM). CTP 2Common Context Adapters

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• Web Matrix released

  - by TATWORTH

  Microsoft have now released Web Matrix (and ASP.NET MVC3 if you so inclined!) One signifcant utility is IIS Express which will replace Cassini It is worth noting that SP1 for VS2010 should be out in Q1. Links: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ASPNETMVC3WebMatrixNuGetIISExpressAndOrchardReleasedTheMicrosoftJanuaryWebReleaseInContext.aspx http://www.hanselman.com/blog/LinkRollupNewDocumentationAndTutorialsFromWebPlatformAndTools.aspx http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/01/microsoft-releases-free-webmatrix-web-development-tool.ars I am impressed by the copious tutorials on MVC, which I include below: Intro to ASP.NET MVC 3 onboarding series. Scott Hanselman and Rick Anderson collaboration and Mike Pope (Editor) Both C# and VB versions: Intro to ASP.NET MVC 3 Adding a Controller Adding a View Entity Framework Code-First Development Accessing your Model's Data from a Controller Adding a Create Method and Create View Adding Validation to the Model Adding a New Field to the Movie Model and Table Implementing Edit, Details and Delete Source code for this series MVC 3 Updated and new tutorials/ API Reference on MSDN Rick Anderson (Lead Programming Writer), Keith Newman and Mike Pope (Editor) ASP.NET MVC 3 Content Map ASP.NET MVC Overview MVC Framework and Application Structure Understanding MVC Application Execution Compatibility of ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC Walkthrough: Creating a Basic ASP.NET MVC Project Walkthrough: Using Forms Authentication in ASP.NET MVC Controllers and Action Methods in ASP.NET MVC Applications Using an Asynchronous Controller in ASP.NET MVC Views and UI Rendering in ASP.NET MVC Applications Rendering a Form Using HTML Helpers Passing Data in an ASP.NET MVC Application Walkthrough: Using Templated Helpers to Display Data in ASP.NET MVC Creating an ASP.NET MVC View by Calling Multiple Actions Models and Validation in ASP.NET MVC How to: Validate Model Data Using DataAnnotations Attributes Walkthrough: Using MVC View Templates How to: Implement Remote Validation in ASP.NET MVC Walkthrough: Adding AJAX Scripting Walkthrough: Organizing an Application using Areas Filtering in ASP.NET MVC Creating Custom Action Filters How to: Create a Custom Action Filter Unit Testing in ASP.NET MVC Applications Walkthrough: Using TDD with ASP.NET MVC How to: Add a Custom ASP.NET MVC Test Framework in Visual Studio ASP.NET MVC 3 Reference System.Web.Mvc System.Web.Mvc.Ajax System.Web.Mvc.Async System.Web.Mvc.Html System.Web.Mvc.Razor

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• New Style of Post

  - by Lee Brandt

  I’ve been absent from blogging for awhile. Part of it is due to the ultimate inertia of my life. Most of it is due to my inability to post my thoughts without turning it into an ‘According to Hoyle’ blog post. I have an idea, and I try to flesh it into an interesting article. Something that you might see posted in a magazine or something. It never lives up to my standards and I end up dropping it. How did I get to this? I started this blog for the intended purpose of archiving my ideas and solutions so that I could find them again. Me. I realize that maybe some people read this blog, but I am NOT a celebrity or God’s gift to programming. So why am I worried about making my posts ‘worthy of public consumption’? Well, no more. If you are a reader of this blog, I thank you. But my content may change dramatically over the coming months, so be prepared. Hopefully you will still find my thoughts, ideas and solutions worth reading. Thanks again, Lee

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• Productive Toolset for C# Developer

  - by Marko Apfel

  Programming Visual Studio ReSharper Agent Johnson Agent Smith StyleCop for ReSharper Keymaps SettingsManager Git Source Control Provider Gist NuGet Package Manager NDepend Productivity Power Tools PowerCommands for Visual Studio PostSharp Indent Guides Typemock Isolator VSCommands Ressource Refactor Clone Detective GhostDoc CR_Documentor AnkSVN Expression Blend SharpDevelop Notepad++, PS Pad StyleCop, FxCop, .. .NET Reflector, ILSpy, dotPeek, Just Decompile Git Extensions inkl. MSysGit, MinGW Github for Windows SmartGit PoSH-Git Console Enhancement Project LINQPad Mercurial RapidSVN SQL Management Studio Adventure Works Sample DB AdventureWorksLT Toad for SQL Server yEd Graph Editor TeX, LateX MiKTeX, TeXworks Pandoc Jenkins, TeamCity KompoZer XML Notepad Kaxaml KDiff3, WinMerge, Perforce Merge Handle DbgView FusLogVw FTP Commander HTML Help Workshop, Sandcastle, SHFB WiX Enterprise Architect InsightProfiler Putty Cygwin DXCore, DXCore Plugins FreeMind ProcessExplorer, ProcessMonitor Social Networking, Community Windows Live Writer Disgsby Skype TweetDeck FeedReader Sytem and others Microsoft Office (notably OneNote!!!) Adobe Reader PDF Creator SRWare Iron (Chrome) AddThis bit-ly del.icio.us InstaPaper Leo Dictionary Google Bookmarks Proxy Switchy! StumbleUpon K-Meleon FreeCommander, FAR 7-Zip Keyboard Jedi Launchy TrueCrypt Dropbox Ditto Greenshot Rainlendar2 Everything Daemon Tools inSSIDer VirtualBox Stardock Fences Media Player Classic VLC Media Player Winamp WinAmp Cue Player LAME Encoder CamStudio Youtube to MP3 Converter VirtualDub Image Resizer Powertoy Clone 2.0 Paint.NET Picasa Windy JediConcentrate, Ghoster TeamViewer Timerle TreeSizeFree WinDirStat Windows Sizer, WinResizer ZoomIt Sometimes nice to have ArcGIS TortoiseSVN, TortoiseCVS XnView GitJungle CowSpy Grindstone Free Download Manager CDBurnerXP Free Audio CD Burner SmartAssembly intellibook GMX SMS Manager BlackBerry Desktop Cisco Any Connect eRoom Foxit Reader Google Earth ThinkVantage GPS Gridy Bluefish The GodFather Tor Browser, Charon YouTube Downloader NCover Network Stumbler Remote Debugger WScite XML Pad DBVisualizer Microsoft Network Monitor, Fiddler2 Eclipse IDE Oracle Client, Oracle SQL Developer Bookmarks, Links http://pastebin.de/, http://pastebin.com/ http://followup.cc  http://trello.com http://tumblr.com https://bitly.com/, http://is.gd http://www.famkruithof.net/uuid/uuidgen, http://www.guidgenerator.com/ https://github.com/, https://bitbucket.org/ http://dict.leo.org/, http://translate.google.com/ http://prezi.com/ http://geekswithblogs.net/Default.aspx, http://codebetter.com/ http://duckduckgo.com/bang.html   http://de.schreibtrainer.com/index.php?site=3&menuId=3 http://www.mr-wetter.de/ this is an update to http://geekswithblogs.net/mapfel/archive/2010/07/12/140877.aspx

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• A training world nugget for being taught by the best

  - by Testas

  June represents an exciting time for the SQL Server community with events all over the country in the next few months and there is plenty of knowledge to be gained from willing speakers enthusiastically sharing their knowledge. Furthermore, Paul Randall and Kimberley Trip will be conducting their highly recommended immersion events at London Heathrow in June.There are other big names within SQL Server that will be teaching this year. The company I used to work for, QA, has excellent trainers teaching SQL Server who I would always recommend. Occasionally a big name speaker will be take a course, unknowingly to the community. Solid Quality Mentors is such a company where their staff will teach at QA offices from time to time. And I know from conversation with Itzik Ben-Gan that he will be teaching Advanced TSQL within QA offices in London during the week of Oct 3-7. A link to the course details can be found here.http://www.qa.com/training-courses/technical-it-training/microsoft/microsoft-sql-server/microsoft-sql-server-2008-and-r2/advanced-t-sql-querying,-programming-and-tuning-for-sql-server-2005--2008So if you want to be taught by the best experts, consider checking www.QA.com for their advanced SQL courses, you could find yourself being taught by the best in the business in their field.Chris  

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• "const char *" is incompatible with parameter of type "LPCWSTR" error

  - by N0xus

  I'm trying to incorporate some code from Programming an RTS Game With Direct3D into my game. Before anyone says it, I know the book is kinda old, but it's the particle effects system he creates that I'm trying to use. With his shader class, he intialise it thusly: void SHADER::Init(IDirect3DDevice9 *Dev, const char fName[], int typ) { m_pDevice = Dev; m_type = typ; if(m_pDevice == NULL)return; // Assemble and set the pixel or vertex shader HRESULT hRes; LPD3DXBUFFER Code = NULL; LPD3DXBUFFER ErrorMsgs = NULL; if(m_type == PIXEL_SHADER) hRes = D3DXCompileShaderFromFile(fName, NULL, NULL, "Main", "ps_2_0", D3DXSHADER_DEBUG, &Code, &ErrorMsgs, &m_pConstantTable); else hRes = D3DXCompileShaderFromFile(fName, NULL, NULL, "Main", "vs_2_0", D3DXSHADER_DEBUG, &Code, &ErrorMsgs, &m_pConstantTable); } How ever, this generates the following error: Error 1 error C2664: 'D3DXCompileShaderFromFileW' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'const char []' to 'LPCWSTR' The compiler states the issue is with fName in the D3DXCompileShaderFromFile line. I know this has something to do with the character set, and my program was already running with a Unicode Character set on the go. I read that to solve the above problem, I need to switch to a multi-byte character set. But, if I do that, I get other errors in my code, like so: Error 2 error C2664: 'D3DXCreateEffectFromFileA' : cannot convert parameter 2 from 'const wchar_t *' to 'LPCSTR' With it being accredited to the following line of code: if(FAILED(D3DXCreateEffectFromFile(m_pD3DDevice9,effectFileName.c_str(),NULL,NULL,0,NULL,&m_pCurrentEffect,&pErrorBuffer))) This if is nested within another if statement checking my effectmap list. Though it is the FAILED word with the red line. Like wise I get the another error with the following line of code: wstring effectFileName = TEXT("Sky.fx"); With the error message being: Error 1 error C2440: 'initializing' : cannot convert from 'const char [7]' to 'std::basic_string<_Elem,_Traits,_Ax' If I change it back to a Uni code character set, I get the original (fewer) errors. Leaving as a multi-byte, I get more errors. Does anyone know of a way I can fix this issue?

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• SQL SERVER – Delay Command in SQL Server – SQL in Sixty Seconds #055

  - by Pinal Dave

  Have you ever needed WAIT or DELAY function in SQL Server?  Well, I personally have never needed it but I see lots of people asking for the same. It seems the need of the function is when developers are working with asynchronous applications or programs. When they are working with an application where user have to wait for a while for another application to complete the processing. If you are programming language developer, it is very easy for you to make the application wait for command however, in SQL I personally have rarely used this feature.  However, I have seen lots of developers asking for this feature in SQL Server, hence I have decided to build this quick video on the same subject. We can use WAITFOR DELAY ‘timepart‘ to create a SQL Statement to wait. Let us see the same concept in following SQL in Sixty Seconds Video: Related Tips in SQL in Sixty Seconds: Delay Function – WAITFOR clause – Delay Execution of Commands What would you like to see in the next SQL in Sixty Seconds video? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Database, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL in Sixty Seconds, SQL Interview Questions and Answers, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology, Video Tagged: Identity

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, February 26, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, February 26, 2010New Projectsaion-gamecp: Aion Gamecp for aion Private server based on Aion UniqueAzure Email Queuer: Azure Email Queuer makes it easier for Developers Programming in the Cloud to Queue Emails to keep the UI Thread Clear for Requests. Developed w...BIG1: Bob and Ian's Game. Written using XNA Game Studio Express. Basically an update of David Braben and Ian Bell's classic game "Elite." This is a nonco...CMS7: CMS7 The CMS7 is composed of three module. (1)Main CMS Business (2)Process Customization (3)Role/Department CustomizationCoreSharp Networking Core: A simple to use framework to develop efficient client/server application. The framework is part of my project at school and I hope it will benefit ...Fullscreen Countdown: Small and basic countdown application. The countdown window can be resized to fit any size to display the minutes elapsed. Developped in C#, .NET F...IRC4N00bz: Learning sockets, events, delegates, SQL, and IRC commands all in one big project! It's written in C# (Csharp) and hope you find it helpfull, or ev...LjSystem: This project is a collection of my extensions to the BCLMP3 Tags Management: A software to manage the tags of MP3 filesnetone: All net in oneNext Dart (Dublin Area Rapid Transport): The shows the times of the next darts from a given station. It is a windows application that updates automatically and so is easier to use than th...PChat - An OCDotNet.Org Presentation: PChat is a multithreaded pinnable chat server and client. It is designed to be a demonstration of Visual Studio 2010 MVC 2, for ocdotnet.org Use...Pittsburgh Code Camp iPhone App: The Pittsburgh Code Camp iPhone Application is meant as a demonstration of the creation of an iPhone application while at the same time providing t...Radical: Radical is an infrastructure frameworkRadioAutomation: Windows application for radio automation.SilverSynth - Digital Audio Synthesis for Silverlight: SilverSynth is a digial audio synthesis library for Silverlight developers to create synthesized wave forms from code. It supports synthesis of sin...SkeinLibManaged: This implementation of the Skein Cryptographic Hash function is written entirely in Managed CSharp. It is posted here to share with the world at l...SpecExplorerEval: We are checking out spec explorer and presenting on its useSPOJemu: This is a SPOJ emulator. It allows you to define tests in xml and then check your application if it's working as you expected.The C# Skype Chat bot: A Skype bot in C# for managing Skype chats.VS 2010 Architecture Layers Patterns: Architecture layers patterns toolbox items for layers diagrams.Yakiimo3D: Mostly DirectX 11 programming tutorials.代码生成器: Project DetailsNew ReleasesArkSwitch: ArkSwitch v1.1.1: This release fixes a crash that occurs when certain processes with multiple primary windows are encountered.BTP Tools: CSB, CUV and HCSB e-Sword files 2010-02-26: include csb.bbl csb+.bbl csb.cmt csbc.dct cuv.bbl cuv+.bbl cuv.cmt cuvc.dct hcsb+.bbl hcsbc.dct files for e-Sword 8.0BubbleBurst: BubbleBurst v1.1: This is the second release of BubbleBurst, the subject of the book Advanced MVVM. This release contains a minor fix that was added after the book ...DevTreks -social budgeting that improves lives and livelihoods: Social Budgeting Web Software, alpha 3b: Alpha 3b simplifies and strengthens state management. With the exception of linked lists, the internal mechanics of addins have not been improved...Dragonrealms PvpStance plugin for Genie: 1.0.0.4: This updated is needed now that the DR server move broke the "profile soandso pvp" syntax. This version will capture the pvp stance out of the full...FastCode: FastCode 1.0: Definitions <integerType> : byte, sbyte, short, ushort, int, uint, long, ulond <floatType> : float, double, decimal Base types extensions Intege...Fullscreen Countdown: Fullscreen Countdown 1.0: First versionIRC4N00bz: IRC4N00bz_02252010.zip: I'm calling it a night. Here's the dll for where I'm at so far. It works, just lakcs some abilities. Anything not included can be pulled from th...Labrado: Labrado MiniTimer: Labrado MiniTimer is a convenient timer tool designed and implemented for GMAT test preparation.LINQ to VFP: LinqToVfp (v1.0.17.1): Cleaned up WCF Data Service Expression Tree. (details...) This build requires IQToolkit v0.17b.Microsoft Health Common User Interface: Release 8.0.200.000: This is version 8.0 of the Microsoft® Health Common User Interface Control Toolkit. The scope and requirements of this release are based on materia...Mini SQL Query: Mini SQL Query Funky Dev Build (RC1+): The "Funk Dev Build" bit is that I added a couple of features I think are pretty cool. It is a "dev" build but I class it as stable. Find Object...Neovolve: Neovolve.BlogEngine.Extensions 1.2: Updated extensions to work with BE 1.6. Updated Snippets extension to better handle excluded tags and fixed regex bug. Added SyntaxHighlighter exte...Neovolve: Neovolve.BlogEngine.Web 1.1: Update to support BE version 1.6 Neovolve.BlogEngine.Web 1.1 contains a redirector module that translates Community Server url formats into BlogEn...Next Dart (Dublin Area Rapid Transport): 1.0: There are 2 files NextDart 1.0.zip This contains just the files. Extract it to a folder and run NextDart.exe. NextDart 1.0 Intaller.zip This c...Powershell4SQL: Version 1.2: Changes from version 1.1 Added additional attributes to simplify syntax. Server and Database become optional. Defaulted to (local) and 'master' ...Radical: Radical (Desktop) 1.0: First stable dropRaidTracker: Raid Tracker: a few tweaksRaiser's Edge API Developer Toolkit: Alpha Release 1: This is an untested, alpha release. Contains RE API Toolkit built using 7.85 Dlls and 7.91 Dlls.SharePoint Enhanced Calendar by ArtfulBits: ArtfulBits.EnhancedCalendar v1.3: New Features: Simple to activate mechanism added (add Enhanced Calendar Web Part on the same page as standard calendar) Support for any type of S...Silverlight 4.0 Com Library for SQL Server Access: Version 1.0: This is the intial alpha release. It includes ExecuteQuery, ExecuteNonQuery and ExecuteScalar routines. See roadmap section of home page for detai...Silverlight HTML 5 Canvas: SLCanvas 1.1: This release enables <canvas renderMethod="auto" onload="runme(this)"></canvas> or <canvas renderMethod="Silverlight" onload="runme(this)"></ca...SilverSynth - Digital Audio Synthesis for Silverlight: SilverSynth 1.0: Source code including demo application.StringDefs: StringDefs Alpha Release 1.01: In this release of the Library few namespaces are added.STSDev 2008: STSDev 2008 2.1: Update to the StsDev 2008 project to correct Manifest Building issues.Text to HTML: 0.4.0.2: Cambios de la versión:Correcciones menores en el sistema de traducción. Controlada la excepción aparecida al suprimir los archivos de idioma. A...The Silverlight Hyper Video Player [http://slhvp.com]: Release 4 - Friendly User Release (Pre-Beta): Release 4 - Friendly User Release (Pre-Beta) This version of the code has much of the design that we plan to go forward with for Mix and utilizes a...TreeSizeNet: TreeSizeNet 0.10.2: - Assemblies merged in one executableVCC: Latest build, v2.1.30225.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVCC: Latest build, v2.1.30225.1: Automatic drop of latest buildVS 2010 Architecture Layers Patterns: VS 2010 RC Architecture Layers Patterns v1.0: Architecture layers patterns toolbox items based on the Microsoft Application Architecture Guide, 2nd Edition for the layer diagram designer of Vi...Yakiimo3D: DirectX11 BitonicSortCPU Source and Binary: DirectX11 BitonicSortCPU sample source and binary.Yakiimo3D: DirectX11 MandelbrotGPU Source and Binary: DirectX11 MandelbrotGPU source and binary.Most Popular ProjectsVSLabOSIS Interop TestsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesMost Active ProjectsDinnerNow.netRawrBlogEngine.NETSLARToolkit - Silverlight Augmented Reality ToolkitInfoServiceSharpMap - Geospatial Application Framework for the CLRCommon Context AdaptersNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModulejQuery Library for SharePoint Web Servicespatterns & practices – Enterprise Library

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• Create and Consume WCF service using Visual Studio 2010

  - by sreejukg

  In this article I am going to demonstrate how to create a WCF service, that can be hosted inside IIS and a windows application that consume the WCF service. To support service oriented architecture, Microsoft developed the programming model named Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). ASMX was the prior version from Microsoft, was completely based on XML and .Net framework continues to support ASMX web services in future versions also. While ASMX web services was the first step towards the service oriented architecture, Microsoft has made a big step forward by introducing WCF. An overview of planning for WCF can be found from this link http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff649584.aspx . The following are the important differences between WCF and ASMX from an asp.net developer point of view. 1. ASMX web services are easy to write, configure and consume 2. ASMX web services are only hosted in IIS 3. ASMX web services can only use http 4. WCF, can be hosted inside IIS, windows service, console application, WAS(Windows Process Activation Service) etc 5. WCF can be used with HTTP, TCP/IP, MSMQ and other protocols. The detailed difference between ASMX web service and WCF can be found here. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc304771.aspx Though WCF is a bigger step for future, Visual Studio makes it simpler to create, publish and consume the WCF service. In this demonstration, I am going to create a service named SayHello that accepts 2 parameters such as name and language code. The service will return a hello to user name that corresponds to the language. So the proposed service usage is as follows. Caller: SayHello(“Sreeju”, “en”) -> return value -> Hello Sreeju Caller: SayHello(“???”, “ar”) -> return value -> ????? ??? Caller: SayHello(“Sreeju”, “es”) - > return value -> Hola Sreeju Note: calling an automated translation service is not the intention of this article. If you are interested, you can find bing translator API and can use in your application. http://www.microsofttranslator.com/dev/ So Let us start First I am going to create a Service Application that offer the SayHello Service. Open Visual Studio 2010, Go to File -> New Project, from your preferred language from the templates section select WCF, select WCF service application as the project type, give the project a name(I named it as HelloService), click ok so that visual studio will create the project for you. In this demonstration, I have used C# as the programming language. Visual studio will create the necessary files for you to start with. By default it will create a service with name Service1.svc and there will be an interface named IService.cs. The screenshot for the project in solution explorer is as follows Since I want to demonstrate how to create new service, I deleted Service1.Svc and IService1.cs files from the project by right click the file and select delete. Now in the project there is no service available, I am going to create one. From the solution explorer, right click the project, select Add -> New Item Add new item dialog will appear to you. Select WCF service from the list, give the name as HelloService.svc, and click on the Add button. Now Visual studio will create 2 files with name IHelloService.cs and HelloService.svc. These files are basically the service definition (IHelloService.cs) and the service implementation (HelloService.svc). Let us examine the IHelloService interface. The code state that IHelloService is the service definition and it provides an operation/method (similar to web method in ASMX web services) named DoWork(). Any WCF service will have a definition file as an Interface that defines the service. Let us see what is inside HelloService.svc The code illustrated is implementing the interface IHelloService. The code is self-explanatory; the HelloService class needs to implement all the methods defined in the Service Definition. Let me do the service as I require. Open IHelloService.cs in visual studio, and delete the DoWork() method and add a definition for SayHello(), do not forget to add OperationContract attribute to the method. The modified IHelloService.cs will look as follows Now implement the SayHello method in the HelloService.svc.cs file. Here I wrote the code for SayHello method as follows. I am done with the service. Now you can build and run the service by clicking f5 (or selecting start debugging from the debug menu). Visual studio will host the service in give you a client to test it. The screenshot is as follows. In the left pane, it shows the services available in the server and in right side you can invoke the service. To test the service sayHello, double click on it from the above window. It will ask you to enter the parameters and click on the invoke button. See a sample output below. Now I have done with the service. The next step is to write a service client. Creating a consumer application involves 2 steps. One generating the class and configuration file corresponds to the service. Create a project that utilizes the generated class and configuration file. First I am going to generate the class and configuration file. There is a great tool available with Visual Studio named svcutil.exe, this tool will create the necessary class and configuration files for you. Read the documentation for the svcutil.exe here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa347733.aspx . Open Visual studio command prompt, you can find it under Start Menu -> All Programs -> Visual Studio 2010 -> Visual Studio Tools -> Visual Studio command prompt Make sure the service is in running state in visual studio. Note the url for the service(from the running window, you can right click and choose copy address). Now from the command prompt, enter the svcutil.exe command as follows. I have mentioned the url and the /d switch – for the directory to store the output files(In this case d:\temp). If you are using windows drive(in my case it is c: ) , make sure you open the command prompt with run as administrator option, otherwise you will get permission error(Only in windows 7 or windows vista). The tool has created 2 files, HelloService.cs and output.config. Now the next step is to create a new project and use the created files and consume the service. Let us do that now. I am going to add a console application to the current solution. Right click solution name in the solution explorer, right click, Add-> New Project Under Visual C#, select console application, give the project a name, I named it TestService Now navigate to d:\temp where I generated the files with the svcutil.exe. Rename output.config to app.config. Next step is to add both files (d:\temp\helloservice.cs and app.config) to the files. In the solution explorer, right click the project, Add -> Add existing item, browse to the d:\temp folder, select the 2 files as mentioned before, click on the add button. Now you need to add a reference to the System.ServiceModel to the project. From solution explorer, right click the references under testservice project, select Add reference. In the Add reference dialog, select the .Net tab, select System.ServiceModel, and click ok Now open program.cs by double clicking on it and add the code to consume the web service to the main method. The modified file looks as follows Right click the testservice project and set as startup project. Click f5 to run the project. See the sample output as follows Publishing WCF service under IIS is similar to publishing ASP.Net application. Publish the application to a folder using Visual studio publishing feature, create a virtual directory and create it as an application. Don’t forget to set the application pool to use ASP.Net version 4. One last thing you need to check is the app.config file you have added to the solution. See the element client under ServiceModel element. There is an endpoint element with address attribute that points to the published service URL. If you permanently host the service under IIS, you can simply change the address parameter to the corresponding one and your application will consume the service. You have seen how easily you can build/consume WCF service. If you need the solution in zipped format, please post your email below.

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• Free cloud web service development

  - by hyde

  I am looking for a free (as in beer) combination of services, for learning "cloud SW development" and very small scale private use (say, a private streamlined web shopping&todo list with simple auth). The combination should include the full set of needed services: DVCS service (like github) A cloud service to run the backend code A suitable data storage service (preferably not SQL), accessed by the backend (if not included in the backend service) A web service, serving the web pages seen by user, to access the backend functionality A "cloud IDE" (ideally one, two is ok too) for both backend and HTML/javascript coding If (backend) deployment uses some CI, then that Other points: Backend programming language can be anything, except VB or PHP Everything has to be in the cloud, nothing permanent on a local PC (graphics is not part of the question) Looking for ready-to-use service combination, not a virtual server where I can set anything up myself I don't care if service insists on displaying ads in the user web UI "Cheap" and "free trial" are ok too, if "free" does not exist As per example use case, storage, CPU and bandwidth quota requirements are negligible Google finds several services of course, all requiring at least registration before testing, so I'm looking for a known-good combination, so ideal answer starts with "I use this service combo: ...", contains links to services and brief description and personal experiences.

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• Resolve a URL from a Partial View (ASP.NET MVC)

  Working on an ASP.NET MVC application and needed the ability to resolve a URL from a partial view. For example, I have an image I want to display, but I need to resolve the virtual path (say, ~/Content/Images/New.png) into a relative path that the browser can use, such as ../../Content/Images/New.png or /MyAppName/Content/Images/New.png. Astandard view derives from the System.Web.UI.Page class, meaning you have access to the ResolveUrl and ResolveClientUrl methods. Consequently, you can write markup/code like the following:' /The problem is that the above code does not work as expected in a partial view. What's a little confusing is that while the above code compiles and the page, when visited through a browser, renders, the call to Page.ResolveClientUrl returns precisely what you pass in, ~/Content/Images/New.png, in this instance. The browser doesn't know what to do with ~, it presumes it's part of the URL, so it sends the request to the server for the image with the ~ in the URL, which results in a broken image.I did a bit of searching online and found this handy tip from Stephen Walther - Using ResolveUrl in an HTML Helper. In a nutshell, Stephen shows how to create an extension method for the HtmlHelper class that uses the UrlHelper class to resolve a URL. Specifically, Stephen shows how to add an Image extension method to HtmlHelper. I incorporated Stephen's code into my codebase and also created a more generic extension method, which I named ResolveUrl.public static MvcHtmlString ResolveUrl(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string url) { var urlHelper = new UrlHelper(htmlHelper.ViewContext.RequestContext); return MvcHtmlString.Create(urlHelper.Content(url)); }With this method in place you can resolve a URL in a partial view like so:' /Or you could use Stephen's Html.Image extension method (althoughmy more generic Html.ResolveUrl method could be used in non-image related scenarios where you needed to get a relative URL from a virtual one in a partial view). Thanks for the helpful tip, Stephen!Happy Programming!Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Resolve a URL from a Partial View (ASP.NET MVC)

  Working on an ASP.NET MVC application and needed the ability to resolve a URL from a partial view. For example, I have an image I want to display, but I need to resolve the virtual path (say, ~/Content/Images/New.png) into a relative path that the browser can use, such as ../../Content/Images/New.png or /MyAppName/Content/Images/New.png. Astandard view derives from the System.Web.UI.Page class, meaning you have access to the ResolveUrl and ResolveClientUrl methods. Consequently, you can write markup/code like the following:' /The problem is that the above code does not work as expected in a partial view. What's a little confusing is that while the above code compiles and the page, when visited through a browser, renders, the call to Page.ResolveClientUrl returns precisely what you pass in, ~/Content/Images/New.png, in this instance. The browser doesn't know what to do with ~, it presumes it's part of the URL, so it sends the request to the server for the image with the ~ in the URL, which results in a broken image.I did a bit of searching online and found this handy tip from Stephen Walther - Using ResolveUrl in an HTML Helper. In a nutshell, Stephen shows how to create an extension method for the HtmlHelper class that uses the UrlHelper class to resolve a URL. Specifically, Stephen shows how to add an Image extension method to HtmlHelper. I incorporated Stephen's code into my codebase and also created a more generic extension method, which I named ResolveUrl.public static MvcHtmlString ResolveUrl(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string url) { var urlHelper = new UrlHelper(htmlHelper.ViewContext.RequestContext); return MvcHtmlString.Create(urlHelper.Content(url)); }With this method in place you can resolve a URL in a partial view like so:' /Or you could use Stephen's Html.Image extension method (althoughmy more generic Html.ResolveUrl method could be used in non-image related scenarios where you needed to get a relative URL from a virtual one in a partial view). Thanks for the helpful tip, Stephen!Happy Programming!Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Learn Lean Software Development and Kanban Systems

  - by Ben Griswold

  I did an in-house presentation on Lean Software Development (LSD) and Kanban Systems this week.  Beyond what I had previously learned from various podcasts, I knew little about either topic prior to compiling my slide deck.  In the process of building my presentation, I learned a ton.  I found the concepts weren’t very difficult to grok; however, I found little detailed information was available online. Hence this post which is merely a list of valuable resources. Principles of Lean Thinking, Mary Poppendieck Lean Software Development, May Poppendieck Lean Programming, Mary Poppendieck Lean Software Development, Wikipedia Implementing Lean Software Thinking: From Concept to Cash, Poppendieck Lean Software Development Overview, Darrell Norton Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement The Toyota Way Extreme Toyota: Radical Contradictions That Drive Success at the World’s Best Manufacturer Elegant Code Cast 17 – David Laribee on Lean / Kanban Herding Code Episode 42: Scott Bellware on BDD and Lean Development Seven Principles of Lean Software Development, Przemys?aw Bielicki Kanban Boards for Agile Project Management with Zen Author Nate Kohari Herding Code 55: Nate Kohari brings Your Moment of Zen James Shore on Kanban Systems Agile Zen Product Site A Leaner Form of Agile, David Laribee Kanban as Alternative Agile Implementation, Mark Levison Lean Software Development, Dr. Christoph Steindl Glossary of Lean Manufacturing Terms Why Pull? Why Kanban?, Corey Ladas

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• [MINI HOW-TO] How To Use Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) in Outlook 2010

  - by Mysticgeek

  If you want to send an email to a contact or several contacts, you might want to keep some of the recipient email addresses private using the Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) Field. Here’s how to do it in Outlook 2010. It’s not enabled by default, but adding it as a field for all future emails is a simple process. Launch Outlook and under the Home tab click on the New E-mail button. When the new mail window opens click on the Options tab and in the Show Fields column select Bcc. The Bcc field will appear and you can then put the contacts in there who you want to receive the mail secretly or don’t want to show a certain email address. Now anytime you compose a message, the Bcc field is included. For more on the Bcc field check out the blog post from Mysticgeek – Keep Your Email Contacts Private. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How To Switch Back to Outlook 2007 After the 2010 Beta EndsOpen Different Outlook Features in Separate Windows to Improve ProductivityThursday’s Pre-Holiday Lazy Links RoundupCreate an Email Template in Outlook 2003Change Outlook Startup Folder TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow Combine MP3 Files Easily QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff Download Free MP3s from Amazon Awe inspiring, inter-galactic theme (Win 7) Case Study – How to Optimize Popular Wordpress Sites

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• Fitting it together, database, reporting, applications in C#

  - by alvonellos

  Introduction Preamble I was hesitant to post this, since it's an application whose intricate details are defined elsewhere, and answers may not be helpful to others. Within the past few weeks (I was actually going to write a blog post about this after I finished) I've discovered that the barrier I'm encountering is one that's actually quite common for newer developers. This question is not so much about a specific thing as it is about piecing those things together. I've searched the internet far and wide, and found many tutorials on how to create applications that are kind of similar to what I'm looking for. I've also looked at hiring another, more experienced, developer to help me along, but all I've gotten are unqualified candidates that don't have the experience necessary and won't take care of the client or project like I will. I'd rather have the project never transpire than to release a solution that is half-baked. I've asked professors at my school, but they've not turned up answers to my question. I'm an experienced developer, and I've written many applications that are -- very abstractly -- close to what I'm doing, but my experiences from those applications aren't giving me enough leverage to solve this particular problem. I just hope that posting this article isn't a mistake for me to write. Project Description I have a project I'm working on for a client that is a rewrite of an application, originally written in Foxpro 2.6 by someone before me, that performs some analysis (which, sadly, I'm not allowed to disclose as per of my employment contract) on financial data. One day, after a long talk between the client and I -- where he intimately described his frustrations with all the bugs I've been hacking out of this code for 6 months now -- he told me to just rewrite it and gave me a month to write a good 1/8 of this 65k LOC Foxpro monstrosity. this 65k line of code foxpro monstrosity. It'll take me a good 3 - 6 months to rewrite this software (I know things the original programmer did not, like inheritance) going as I am right now, but I'm quickly discovering that I'm going to need to use databases. Prior to this contract I didn't even know about foxpro, and so I've had to learn foxpro on the fly, write procedures and make modifications to the database. I've actually come to like it, and this project would be rewritten in Foxpro if it were still a supported language, because over the past few months, I've come to like the features of Foxpro that make it so easy to develop data-driven applications. I once perfomed an experiment, comparing C# to Foxpro. What took me 45 minutes in C# took me two in Foxpro, and I knew C# prior to Foxpro. I was hoping to leverage the power of C#, but it intimidates me that in foxpro, you can have one line of code and be using a database. Prior to this, I have never written any serious database development from scratch. All the applications that I've written are in a different league. They are either completely data-naive or data-naive enough that I can get away with not using a database through serialization or by designing algorithms that work with the data in a manner that is stateless, so there is no need to worry about databases. I've come to realize, very quickly, that serialization and my efficacy with data structures has been my crutch all these years that's prevented me from adventuring into databases, and has consequently hindered my success in real-world programming. Sure, I've written some database stuff in Perl and Python, and I've done forms and worked with relational databases and tables, I'm a wizard in Access and Excel (seriously) and can do just about anything, but it just feels unnatural writing SQL code in another language... I don't mind writing SQL, and I don't It's that bridge between the database and the program code that drives me absolutely bonkers. I hope I'm not the only one to think this, but it bothers me that I have to create statements like the following string sSql = "SELECT * from tablename" When there's really no reason for that kind of unchecked language binding between two languages and two API's. Don't get my wrong, SQL is great, but I don't like the idea that, when executing commands on a SQL database, that one must intermix database and application software, and there's no database independence, which means that different versions of different databases can break code. This isn't very nice. The nicest thing about Foxpro is the cohesiveness between programming language and database. It's so easy, and Foxpro makes it easy, because the tool just fits the task. I can see why so many developers have created a career with this language, because it lowered the barrier of entry to data-driven applications that so many businesses need. It was wonderful. For my purposes today, with the demands and need for community support, extensibility, and language features, Foxpro isn't a solution that I feel would be the right tool for the job. I'm also worried about working too heavy with the database, because I've seen data-driven .NET applications have issues with database caches, running out of memory, and objects in the database not being collected. (Memory leaks) And OH the queries. Which one, how, and why? There are a plethora of different ways that a database can be setup, I think I counted 5 or 6 different kinds of database applications alone that I can chose from. That is a great mountain for me to climb when I don't even know where to begin when it comes to writing data-driven applications. The problem isn't that I don't know SQL or that I don't know C#. I know both and have worked with both extensively. It's making them work together that's the problem, and it's something I've never done in C# before. Reports The client likes paper. The data needs to be printed out in a format that is extensible, layered, and easy to use. I have never done reporting before, and so this is a bit of a problem. From the data source comes crystal reports, and so there's a dependency on the database, from what I understand. Code reuse A large part of the design decision that I've gone through so far is to break the task of writing a piece of this software into routines and modular DLL's and so forth such that much of the code can be reused. For example, when I setup this database, I want to be able to reuse the same database code over and over again. I also want to make sure that when the day comes that another developer is here, that he/she will be able to pick up just where I left off. The quicker I develop these applications, the better off I am. Tasks & Goals In my project, I need to write routines that apply algorithms and look for predefined patterns in financial data. Additionally, I need to simulate trading based on predefined algorithms and data. Then I need to prepare reports on that data. Additionally, I need to have a way to change the code base for this application quickly and effectively, without hacking together some band-aid solution for a problem that really needs a trauma ward. Special Considerations The solution must be fast, run quickly on existing hardware, and not be too much of a pain to maintain and write. I understand that anything I write I'm married to -- I'm responsible for the things that I write because my reputation and livelihood is dependent on it. Do I really need a database? What about performance? Performance was such a big issue that I hand wrote a data structure that is capable of performing 2 billion operations, using a total of 4 gigs of memory in under 1/4 of a second using the standard core two duo processor. I could not find a similar, pre-written data structure in C# to perform this task. What setup do I use in terms of database? What about reporting? I'd prefer to have PDF's generated, but I'd like to be able to visually sketch those reports and then just have a ReportFactory of some sort, that when I pass some variables in, it just does that data. About Me I'm a lone developer for a small business in this area. This is the first time I've done this and I've never had the breadth and depth of my knowledge tested. I'm incredibly frustrated with this project because I feel incredibly overwhelmed with the task at hand. I'm looking for that entry level point where I can draw a line and say "this is what I need to do" Conclusion I may have not been clear enough on my post. I'm still new to this whole thing, and I've been doing my best to contribute back to the community that I've leached so much knowledge from. I'd be glad to edit my post and add more information if possible. I'm looking for a big-picture solution or design process that helps me get off the ground in this world of data-driven applications, because I have a feeling that it's going to be concentric to my entire career as a programmer for some time. Specifically, if you didn't get it from the rest of the post (I may not have been clear enough) I really need some guidance as to where to go in terms of the design decisions for this project. Some things that'll be useful will be a pro/con list for the different kinds of database projects available in VS2010. I've tried, but generating that list has been as hard as solving the problem itself... If you could walk a developer writing a data-driven application for the first time in C#, how would you do that? Where would you point them to?

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• Doubt about texture waves in CG Ocean Shader

  - by Alexandre

  I'm new on graphical programming, and I'm having some trouble understanding the Ocean Shader described on "Effective Water Simulation from Physical Models" from GPU Gems. The source code associated to this article is here. My problem has been to understand the concept of texture waves. First of all, what is achieved by texture waves? I'm having a hard time trying to figure out it's usefulness. In the section 1.2.4 of the article, it does say that the waves summed into the texture have the same parametrization as the waves used for vertex positioning. Does it mean that I can't use the texture provided by the source code if I change the parameters of the waves, or add more waves to sum? And in the section 1.4.1, is said that we can assume that there is no rotation between texture space and world space if the texture coordinates for our normal map are implicit. What does mean that the "normal map are implicit'? And why do I need a rotation between texture and world spaces if the normal map are not implicit? I would be very grateful for any help on this.

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• What do we call to "non-programmers" ? ( Like "muggle" in HP ) [closed]

  - by OscarRyz

  Sometimes I want to refer to people without coding powers as Muggles. But it doesn't quite feel right. Gamers have n00b ( but still a n00b has some notion of gaming ) I mean, for all those who Windows in the only OS in the world ( what's an OS ? would they ask ) For project manager who can't distinguish between excel and a database. For those who exclaim "Wooow! when you show them the ctrl-right click to see the webpage source code. What would be a good word to describe to these "persons without lack of coding ability?" Background I didn't mean to be disrespectful with ordinary people. It's just, sometimes it drives me nuts seeing coworkers struggling trying to explain to these "people" some concept. For instance, recently we were asked, what a "ear" was (in Java). My coworker was struggling on how to explain what is was, and how it differ from .war, .jar, etc. and talking about EJB's application server, deployment etc, and our "people"1 was like o_O. I realize a better way to explain was "Think about it as an installer for the application, similar to install.exe" and he understood immediately. This is none's fault, it is sometimes our "poeple" come from different background, that's it. Is our responsibility to talk at a level they can understand, some coworkers, don't get it and try very hard to explain programming concepts ( like the source code in the browser ). But I get the point, we I don't need to be disrespectful. ... But, I'm considering call them pebkac's 1As suggested

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• Do i need a full time seo employee? [closed]

  - by user481913

  I need seo done for 1 site that's still new. It's a niche listings/ecommerce site. And i need to make a hiring decision for this - whether there's a need for a full time employee dedicated to seo or is part time or a contract sufficient? Here's some info and assumptions : 1)The site's dynamic - so perhaps all ON PAGE SEO - keyword research, page title, meta tags etc. could be built in programatically and is perhaps ONE TIME EFFORT. 2)Most(perhaps not all) ON PAGE SEO is taken care at the start or initially so doesn't need much time devotion later. 3)Most ON PAGE SEO for a DYNAMIC site is a programmer's job(as probably a seo employee doesn't understand programming) with some assistance from a seo employee for KEYWORD RESEARCH etc. So once built into the software, it DOESN'T NEED much effort on part of the seo employee in the later stages. 4)OFF PAGE SEO IS really where the seo employee would really spend most of his/her time - like build some links, write articles/blogs, directory submissions etc. So considering that there's just 1 site and that most effort for the seo employee is concenterated on OFF PAGE SEO, do i really need to hire someone Full Time? You're most welcome to add your own views and perspectives to this. It might help someone else as well in the future in their hiring decision.

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• Display Song Lyrics in Windows Media Player with Lyrics Plugin

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Looking for a way to display song lyrics in Windows Media Player? Today we look at a very simple method to accomplish this with Lyrics Plugin for Windows Media Player. Download and run the Lyrics Plugin install. (See download link below) When the installation is finished you’ll be prompted to run Windows Media Player. Click Yes. Begin playing your song or playlist then switch to Now Playing mode.   You should now see the full song lyrics of the currently playing track. To toggle the lyrics on and off, select Tools from the Menu in Library view, choose Plug-ins, and click Lyrics Plugin. If you don’t see the Menu bar, you can enable it by going to Organize, Layout, and Show Menu Bar. When Lyrics Plugin is turned off, Windows Media Player will switch back to it’s default visualization.   Whether you just want to know the lyrics or you’d like to hone your karaoke chops, Lyrics Plugin makes a nice addition to Windows Media Player 12. Download Lyrics Plugin for Windows Media Player 12. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Install and Use the VLC Media Player on Ubuntu LinuxInstalling Windows Media Player Plugin for FirefoxFixing When Windows Media Player Library Won’t Let You Add FilesQuickly Preview Songs in Windows Media Player 12 in Windows 7Foobar2000 is a Fully Customizable Music Player TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow Combine MP3 Files Easily QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, March 04, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, March 04, 2010New ProjectsAcPrac: A educational program designed to run on Windows. It is fully customizable. It is developed in C# 2008.argo: Linguistic Tool Camelot: A simple utility for testing cross site data queries in SharePointdelta: Delta is a difference tool for large files. Delta will have several clients, including AJAX and Silverlight. You can view differences in a scroll...EF Dorsal: A dorsal spine for Entity Framework based project. This code generator provides a powerfull Business Layer with almost all high important best p...Excel formatting: Excel formatting projectEyes Recognition: eye recognitionGameOfLife: The Game of Life is a the best example of a cellular automaton. It's developed in C#, SilverLight.GKO Libraries: .NET tool libraries written in C# that we have used in our projectsHello Demo: A simple Hello World application, used to demonstrate access to CodePlex using Team Explorerjog.Portal: jogportal lays the foundation for an extensible portal solution leveraging the latest technology including linq and silver lightKM Brasil: k-meleon, km, gecko, brasil, browser, web, web browser, navegador, navegação, kmeleon, k meleonLost in Translation: Ever find yourself in a foreign country eager (or clueless) to what is written on a shop sign or restaurant menu? With your trusty phone, its came...Machine Learning for .NET: Machine Learning Library for .NET. Initial inclusions will be binary and multi-class classification as well as standard clustering algorithms.Maito: Iron Kingdoms Name GeneratorManPowerEngine: ManPowerEngine is a Silverlight 2D Game Engine. It has an game application framework and supports game object hierarchy management, 2D physics simu...Marvin's Arena: Marvin's Arena is a free and entertaining programming game. The game is designed to easily learn programming in any .NET compatible language. It is...MultiMediaPlayer: 整合我们的内容NCacheD - A Simple Distributed .NET Cache using the TPL and WCF: NCacheD is a simple distributed cache system written in .NET. NCacheD offers functionality similar to that of MemcacheD but scaled back. NCacheD ...NDAP: OPeNDAP is a client/server system for making local scientific data accessible to remote locations without regard to the local or remote storage for...Open Guide CMS: Open Guide makes your traveling through city more adventurous, mode educational and more funny. You can support us by lines of code, by interesti...Rollback - A social backup tool.: Rollback is a simple and intuitive social backup application. You can create multiple backup jobs with a few mouse clicks and even schedule it to ...sELedit: An editor for elements.data file of the popular MMORPG Perfect World.SharePoint Theme Applicator: SharePoint Theme Applicator will give SharePoint administrators the ability to apply a theme accross a whole web application (i.e. apply a theme to...sPATCH: ! sPATCH - Perfect World Client Autopatcher This beta patcher is an alternative to the default perfect world patcher. It offers easy client patc...Wiggle: A-life investigation. Let's make little squirmies!WPFSLBlendModeFx: A blend mode library for WPF & Silverlight.休息提醒: 程序员们，尤其是像我这样对程序痴狂的程序员们。一旦研究起自己感兴趣的程序时，觉得上厕所都是浪费时间。 这个程序是在设定的时间后锁定计算机或关闭显示器，从而从某种程度强迫程序员们去休息New ReleasesAMFParser: 1.1.0: Add handling of DSK object when using BlazeDS Add handling of string references Add handling of DateTime values Correct handling of Double values B...Camelot: Camelot 0.1 Alpha: Early release: 1) Query by content type, optionally list or base template 2) Query by list or base templateDictionary Translator for Umbraco: Dictionary Translator 1.1: This is a minor release that fixes a bug that Thomas Hohler found on the first day of release This package is to be used with the ASP.NET open sou...Dynamic Configuration: Sample Application Release 1: These binaries demonstrate the effect of using DynamicConfigurationManager. The source-code for these binaries is available in the 'Source Code' t...EF Dorsal: EFDorsal v0.3b: Second real version. This version add suport to types and entity sets in tree-view.Enterprise Library Extensions: Release 1.0: This is the initial release of the package. The release will contain one feature only, as being able to deploy the project itself it the milestone ...Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.0.4 beta 2 Released: Hi, Today’s release contains fix for the following issues: * In WPF application chart was throwing exception as VisualStateGroup was not foun...GameOfLife: Game of life: First release of the game. PublishedGameStore League Manager: League Manager 1.0 release 2.: Fixes crashing bugs from the first release. To use: 1. Install SQL Server Express 2005 http://www.microsoft.com/Sqlserver/2005/en/us/express-down....Marvin's Arena: Version 0.0.5.0: Code Editor (development of robots without Visual Studio - no debugging) * Rounds * 3D Battle Engine: Skybox * 3D Battle Engine: Robot...Morphfolia - ASP.NET CMS and Framework: Morphfolia v2.4.1.1: Morphfolia v2.4.1.1 - New Release Includes: Better support for browsers other than IE (Chrome, Firefox, Safari - all tested on Windows) Supports ...NCacheD - A Simple Distributed .NET Cache using the TPL and WCF: NCacheD Version 1: Getting Started To get up and running, open two instances of Visual Studio 2010. In one window open the NCacheD client solution and then open the ...Papercut: Papercut 2010-3-3: This release includes a few bug fixes and updates, several of which were contributed patches (thanks!). Feature: Added support for embedded images...PE-file Reader Writer API (PERWAPI): PERWAPI-1.1.4: Perwapi version 1.1.4 is the complete distribution package. It contains Binary files, pdb files and xml files for the PERWAPI and SymbolRW compone...Prolog.NET: Prolog.NET 1.0 Beta 1.2: Installer includes: primary Prolog.NET assembly Prolog.NET Workbench PrologTest console application all required dependencies Beta 1.2 in...Protoforma | Tactica Adversa: Skilful 0.2.4.320: BetaRoTwee: RoTwee 6.1.0.0: 16604 "Post playing tune feature" is added. Using this new feature, you can tweet tune playing in iTunes. 16625 Error processing for network error...sELedit: sELedit v1.0: -SharePoint 2007 Deployment Wizard: Support for SharePoint Server and Foundation 2010: This release encompasses the supported install paths for the default install of SPS 2010 (the 14 hive). All three versions are now supported (60 h...SharePoint Theme Applicator: SharePoint Theme Applicator: SharePoint Theme Applicator was built using C# and WPF, it includes the following features: Provides the total number of site collections in the g...Shinkansen: compress, crunch, combine, and cache JavaScript and CSS: Shinkansen 1.0.0.030310: Build 1.0.0.030310, binaries onlysPATCH: sPatcher v0.8: sPatch - Server Example *Contains a sample Patch that "downgrades" PWI 1.4.2 Client to an 1.3.6 ClientTFS Code Comment Checking Policy (CCCP): CCCP 3.0 for VSTS 2008 SP1: This release includes NRefactory 3.2.0.5571 and is built against VSTS 2008 SP1 (.NET 3.5 is required). New: horizontal scrollbar in listboxes for ...TortoiseHg: Beta for TortoiseHg 1.0 (0.9.31254): Please backup your user Mercurial.ini file and then uninstall any 0.9.X release before installing Use the x86 msi file for 32 bit platforms and th...TwitEclipseAPI: TwitEclipseAPI 0.9: 0.9 Release of TwitEclipseAPI Moved API calls to the api.Twitter.com URL. Moved API calls to the versioning API. Now uses the increased Rate Limit...TwitterVB - A .NET Twitter Library: TwitterVB-2.3: Patch 5151: Added BlockedUsers function to get a page other then the first Patch 5420: The ListMembers function will now return more then just th...休息提醒: 初始版本: 初始版本Most Popular ProjectsMetaSharpRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)Microsoft SQL Server Community & SamplesASP.NETLiveUpload to FacebookMost Active ProjectsRawrBlogEngine.NETMapWindow GISpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesMDT Web FrontEndsvn2tfsDiffPlex - a .NET Diff GeneratorIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterFarseer Physics Engine

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• Integrating Twitter Into An ASP.NET Website

  Twitter is a popular social networking web service for writing and sharing short messages. These tidy text messages are referred to as tweets and are limited to 140 characters. Users can leave tweets and follow other users directly from Twitter's website or by using the Twitter API. Twitter's API makes it possible to integrate Twitter with external applications. For example, you can use the Twitter API to display your latest tweets on your blog. A mom and pop online store could integrate Twitter such that a new tweet was added each time a customer completed an order. And ELMAH, a popular open-source error logging library, can be configured to send error notifications to Twitter. Twitter's API is implemented over HTTP using the design principles of Representational State Transfer (REST). In a nutshell, inter-operating with the Twitter API involves a client - your application - sending an XML-formatted message over HTTP to the server - Twitter's website. The server responds with an XML-formatted message that contains status information and data. While you can certainly interface with this API by writing your own code to communicate with the Twitter API over HTTP along with the code that creates and parses the XML payloads exchanged between the client and server, such work is unnecessary since there are many community-created Twitter API libraries for a variety of programming frameworks. This article shows how to integrate Twitter with an ASP.NET website using the Twitterizer library, which is a free, open-source .NET library for working with the Twitter API. Specifically, this article shows how to retrieve your latest tweets and how to post a tweet using Twitterizer. Read on to learn more! Read More >

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• Windows HPC Server links

  I've already described how to setup a Windows HPC Server for development. Before you dive into developing for the cluster, if you are new to this it is probably a good idea to learn the basics by reading some overview material. Below is a list of links.Direct Links to Windows HPC content1. Windows HPC Server 2008 Overview Datasheet (4 page pdf).2. Windows HPC Server 2008 Technical Overview (32 page doc).3. Windows HPC Server 2008 Getting Started Guide (26 page doc) which actually is available online as part of the TechNet technical library section on Windows HPC Server 2008, which includes much more useful data.4. Windows HPC Server 2008 Job Scheduler (38 page doc).5. Windows HPC Server 2008 Job Templates (56 page doc).6. Developing for the Windows HPC Server 2008 Platform (16 page doc or pdf version).Windows HPC sites7. Windows HPC Forums.8. HPC Developer Resources.9. Windows HPC Server 2008 Resource Kit - Developer.10. Windows HPC Server 2008 - TechNet.11. The Windows HPC Team Blog.HPC Course12. High-Performance Computing Fundamentals Course (pluralisight)13. Classic HPC Development using Visual C++ (course slides and materials in a ZIP). Author's blog post.14. From sequential to parallel code (course slides and materials in a ZIP). Author's blog post. Next time I will post resources specific to the most popular programming models for the cluster today: MPI and Cluster SOA - until then, happy reading! Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

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• Java Spotlight Episode 99: Daniel Blaukopf on JavaFX for Embedded Systems

  - by Roger Brinkley

  Interview with  Daniel Blaukopf on JavaFX for Embedded Systems Right-click or Control-click to download this MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the Java Spotlight Podcast Feed to get the latest podcast automatically. If you use iTunes you can open iTunes and subscribe with this link:  Java Spotlight Podcast in iTunes. Show Notes News Top 5 Reasons to go to JavaOne 5. Chance to see the future of Java Technical Keynotes and sessions The pavillion The new Embedded@JavaOne conference 4. The meetings outside the scope of the conference Top 10 Reasons to Attend the Oracle Appreciation Event GlassFish Community Event at JavaOne 2012 Sundays User Group Forum 3. It’s like drinking from firehose Less keynotes more sessions - 20% more 60% of the talks are external to HOLs Tutorials OracleJava University classes on Sunday - Top Five Reasons You Should Attend Java University at JavaOne 2. Students are free 1. It’s not what you see it’s who you will meet Events Sep 10-15, IMTS 2012 Conference,  Chicago Sep 12,  The Coming M2M Revolution: Critical Issues for End-to-End Software and Systems Development,  Webinar Sep 30-Oct 4, JavaONE, San Francisco Oct 3-4, Java Embedded @ JavaONE, San Francisco Oct 15-17, JAX London Oct 30-Nov 1, Arm TechCon, Santa Clara Oct 22-23, Freescale Technology Forum - Japan, Tokyo Oct 31, JFall, Netherlands Nov 2-3, JMagreb, Morocco Nov 13-17, Devoxx, Belgium Feature InterviewDaniel Blaukopf is the Embedded Java Client Architect at Oracle, working on JavaFX. Daniel's focus in his 14 years in the Java organization has been mobile and embedded devices, including working with device manufacturers to port and tune all levels of the Java stack to their hardware and software environments. Daniel's particular interests are: graphics, performance optimization and functional programming.

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• REST: How to store and reuse REST call queries

  - by Jason Holland

  I'm learning C# by programming a real monstrosity of an application for personal use. Part of my application uses several SPARQL queries like so: const string ArtistByRdfsLabel = @" PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> SELECT DISTINCT ?artist WHERE {{ {{ ?artist rdf:type <http://dbpedia.org/ontology/MusicalArtist> . ?artist rdfs:label ?rdfsLabel . }} UNION {{ ?artist rdf:type <http://dbpedia.org/ontology/Band> . ?artist rdfs:label ?rdfsLabel . }} FILTER ( str(?rdfsLabel) = '{0}' ) }}"; string Query = String.Format(ArtistByRdfsLabel, Artist); I don't like the idea of keeping all these queries in the same class that I'm using them in so I thought I would just move them into their own dedicated class to remove clutter in my RestClient class. I'm used to working with SQL Server and just wrapping every query in a stored procedure but since this is not SQL Server I'm scratching my head on what would be the best for these SPARQL queries. Are there any better approaches to storing these queries using any special C# language features (or general, non C# specific, approaches) that I may not already know about? EDIT: Really, these SPARQL queries aren't anything special. Just blobs of text that I later want to grab, insert some parameters into via String.Format and send in a REST call. I suppose you could think of them the same as any SQL query that is kept in the application layer, I just never practiced keeping SQL queries in the application layer so I'm wondering if there are any "standard" practices with this type of thing.

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• Ada and 'The Book'

  - by Phil Factor

  The long friendship between Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace created one of the most exciting and mysterious of collaborations ever to have resulted in a technological breakthrough. The fireworks that created by the collision of two prodigious mathematical and creative talents resulted in an invention, the Analytical Engine, which went on to change society fundamentally. However, beyond that, we just don't know what the bulk of their collaborative work was about:;  it was done in strictest secrecy. Even the known outcome of their friendship, the first programmable computer, was shrouded in mystery. At the time, nobody, except close friends and family, had any idea of Ada Byron's contribution to the invention of the ‘Engine’, and how to program it. Her great insight was published in August 1843, under the initials AAL, standing for Ada Augusta Lovelace, her title then being the Countess of Lovelace. It was contained in a lengthy ‘note’ to her translation of a publication that remains the best description of Babbage's amazing Analytical Engine. The secret identity of the person behind those enigmatic initials was finally revealed by Prince de Polignac who, seventy years later, wrote to Ada's daughter to seek confirmation that her mother had, indeed, been the author of the brilliant sentences that described so accurately how Babbage's mechanical computer could be programmed with punch-cards. L.F. Menabrea's paper on the Analytical Engine first appeared in the 'Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve' in October 1842, and Ada translated it anonymously for Taylor's 'Scientific Memoirs'. Charles Babbage was surprised that she had not written an original paper as she already knew a surprising amount about the way the machine worked. He persuaded her to at least write some explanatory notes. These notes ended up extending to four times the length of the original article and represented the first published account of how a machine could be programmed to perform any calculation. Her example of programming the Bernoulli sequence would have worked on the Analytical engine had the device’s construction been completed, and gave Ada an unassailable claim to have invented the art of programming. What was the reason for Ada's secrecy? She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, who was probably the best known celebrity of the age, so she was already famous. She was a senior aristocrat, with titles, a fortune in money and vast estates in the Midlands. She had political influence, and was the cousin of Lord Melbourne, who was the Prime Minister at that time. She was friendly with the young Queen Victoria. Her mathematical activities were a pastime, and not one that would be considered by others to be in keeping with her roles and responsibilities. You wouldn't dare to dream up a fictional heroine like Ada. She was dazzlingly beautiful and talented. She could speak several languages fluently, and play some musical instruments with professional skill. Contemporary accounts refer to her being 'accomplished in science, art and literature'. On top of that, she was a brilliant mathematician, a talent inherited from her mother, Annabella Milbanke. In her mother's circle of literary and scientific friends was Charles Babbage, and Ada's friendship with him dates from her teenage zest for Mathematics. She was one of the first people he'd ever met who understood what he had attempted to achieve with the 'Difference Engine', and with whom he could converse as intellectual equals. He arranged for her to have an education from the most talented academics in the country. Ada melted the heart of the cantankerous genius to the point that he became a faithful and loyal father-figure to her. She was one of the very few who could grasp the principles of the later, and very different, ‘Analytical Engine’ which was designed from the start to tackle a variety of tasks. Sadly, Ada Byron's life ended less than a decade after completing the work that assured her long-term fame, in November 1852. She was dying of cancer, her gambling habits had caused her to run up huge debts, she'd had more than one affairs, and she was being blackmailed. Her brilliant but unempathic mother was nursing her in her final illness, destroying her personal letters and records, and repaying her debts. Her husband was distraught but helpless. Charles Babbage, however, maintained his steadfast paternalistic friendship to the end. She appointed her loyal friend to be her executor. For years, she and Babbage had been working together on a secret project, known only as 'The Book'. We have a clue to what it was in a letter written by her nine years earlier, on 11th August 1843. It was a joint project by herself and Lord Lovelace, her husband, and was intended to involve Babbage's 'undivided energies'. It involved 'consulting your Engine' (it required Babbage’s computer). The letter gives no hint about the project except for the high-minded nature of its purpose, and its highly mathematical nature.  From then on, the surviving correspondence between the two gives only veiled references to 'The Book'. There isn't much, since Babbage later destroyed any letters that could have damaged her reputation within the Establishment. 'I cannot spare the book today, which I am very sorry for. At the moment I want it for constant reference, but I think you can have it tomorrow' (Oct 1844)  And 'I will send you the book directly, and you can say, when you receive it, how long you will want to keep it'. (Nov 1844)  The two of them were obviously intent on the work: She writes, four years later, 'I have an engagement for Wednesday which will prevent me from attending to your wishes about the book' (Dec 1848). This was something that they both needed to work on, but could not do in parallel: 'I will send the book on Tuesday, and it can be left with you till Friday' (11 Feb 1849). After six years work, it had been so well-handled that it was beginning to fall apart: 'Don't forget the new cover you promised for the book. The poor book is very shabby and wants one' (20 Sept 1849). So what was going on? The word 'book' was not a code-word: it was a real book, probably a 'printer's blank', plain paper, but properly bound so printers and publishers could show off how the published work might look. The hints from the correspondence are of advanced mathematics. It is obvious that the book was travelling between them, back and forth, each one working on it for less than a week before passing it back. Ada and her husband were certainly involved in gambling large sums of money on the horses, and so most biographers have concluded that the three of them were trying to calculate the mathematical odds on the horses. This theory has three large problems. Firstly, Ada's original letter proposing the project refers to its high-minded nature. Babbage was temperamentally opposed to gambling and would scarcely have given so much time to the project, even though he was devoted to Ada. Secondly, Babbage would have very soon have realized the hopelessness of trying to beat the bookies. This sort of betting never attracts his type of intellectual background. The third problem is that any work on calculating the odds on horses would not need a well-thumbed book to pass back and forth between them; they would have not had to work in series. The original project was instigated by Ada, along with her husband, William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace. Charles Babbage was invited to join the project after the couple had come up with the idea. What could William have contributed? One might assume that William was a Bertie Wooster character, addicted only to the joys of the turf, but this was far from the truth. He was a scientist, a Cambridge graduate who was later elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. After Eton, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge. On graduation, he entered the diplomatic service and acted as secretary under Lord Nugent, who was Lord Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. William was very friendly with Babbage too, able to discuss scientific matters on equal terms. He was a capable engineer who invented a process for bending large timbers by the application of steam heat. He delivered a paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1849, and received praise from the great engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. As well as being Lord Lieutenant of the County of Surrey for most of Victoria's reign, he had time for a string of scientific and engineering achievements. Whatever the project was, it is unlikely that William was a junior partner. After Ada's death, the project disappeared. Then, two years later, Babbage, through one of his occasional outbursts of temper, demonstrated that he was able to decrypt one of the most powerful of secret codes, Vigenère's autokey cipher.  All contemporary diplomatic and military messages used a variant of this cipher. Babbage had made three important discoveries, namely, the mathematical law of this cipher, the principle of the key periodicity, and the technique of the symmetry of position. The technique is now known as the Kasiski examination, also called the Kasiski test, but Babbage got there first. At one time, he listed amongst his future projects, the writing of a book 'The Philosophy of Decyphering', but it never came to anything. This discovery was going to change the course of history, since it was used to decipher the Russians’ military dispatches in the Crimean war. Babbage himself played a role during the Crimean War as a cryptographical adviser to his friend, Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort of the Admiralty. This is as much as we can be certain about in trying to make sense of the bulk of the time that Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace worked together. Nine years of intensive work, involving the 'Engine' and a great deal of mathematics and research seems to have been lost: or has it? I've argued in the past http://www.simple-talk.com/community/blogs/philfactor/archive/2008/06/13/59614.aspx that the cracking of the Vigenère autokey cipher, was a fundamental motive behind the British Government's support and funding of the 'Difference Engine'. The Duke of Wellington, whose understanding of the military significance of being able to read enemy dispatches, was the most steadfast advocate of the project. If the three friends were actually doing the work of cracking codes by mathematical techniques that used the techniques of key periodicity, and symmetry of position (the use of a book being passed quickly to and fro is very suggestive), intending to then use the 'Engine' to do the routine cracking of each dispatch, then this is a rather different story. The project was Ada and William's idea. (William had served in the diplomatic service and would be familiar with the use of codes). This makes Ada Lovelace the initiator of a project which, by giving both Britain, and probably the USA, a diplomatic and military advantage in the second part of the Nineteenth century, changed world history. Ada would never have wanted any credit for cracking the cipher, and developing the method that rendered all contemporary military and diplomatic ciphering techniques nugatory; quite the reverse. And it is clear from the gaps in the record of the letters between the collaborators that the evidence was destroyed, probably on her request by her irascible but intensely honorable executor, Charles Babbage. Charles Babbage toyed with the idea of going public, but the Crimean war put an end to that. The British Government had a valuable secret, and intended to keep it that way. Ada and Charles had quite often discussed possible moneymaking projects that would fund the development of the Analytic Engine, the first programmable computer, but their secret work was never in the running as a potential cash cow. I suspect that the British Government was, even then, working on the concealment of a discovery whose value to the nation depended on it remaining so. The success of code-breaking in the Crimean war, and the American Civil war, led to the British and Americans  subsequently giving much more weight and funding to the science of decryption. Paradoxically, this makes Ada's contribution even closer to the creation of Colossus, the first digital computer, at Bletchley Park, specifically to crack the Nazi’s secret codes.

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