April 2004 - Posts
I wrote about this some times ago but today the posts of Greg Robinson and Robert Chartier points me to the same argument: the comunity is too much Longhorn (or Whidbey) focused.
I agree that the future is interesting and fascinating, that we must be prepared for the future of .NET programing etc., but in these month if you buy a programming journal like MSDN what you can see? Whidbey articles, Longhorn articles, Avalon etc.
But the present?? Why not writing about the actual development platform? We've to work with this NOW! Personally I agree with Greg... I'm tired to see articles with contents like writing a windows form application on Whidbey and see that the "Hello World" is better for eyes than with VS2003...
I think that a real interesting technical article must talk about the present technology, not only about the future... 
UPDATE: I've forgot to say that just this morning I've wrote on my Italian .NET User Group a post about the next TechTalk 2004 here in Italy... 640€ for conferences that for 80% talks about introduction to Longhorn, introduction to Indigo, introduction to Avalon etc. Maybe too much??
Do you think that pressing CTRL+ALT+CANC for rebooting your machine is not so easy?
Try this method... this could be a future business for someone!! :D
One of my favourite site that I check every day is The Hacker's Choice (THC), the site of a group of international experts involved in network and system security.
Today on the first page there's an announce: Johnny CyberPunk, a famous hacker of this community, says that "This is an anouncement that I'll personally not publish any further exploits to the public. Too many flames from guys who are too lame to use the exploits or to fix offsets for other targets. Too many risks that kiddies around the world use it for bad purposes. I saw, that the original intention, to publish exploits, for pentesting or patch verifing purposes didn't work. Remember, that I speak just for me, not for the rest of the group".
I agree with this choice. His last free creation was the IIS 5 Exploits code, freely available (source written in C) on the site. This code could be dangerous if someone use it only to "play as an hacker". Publish code to take advantages from exploits is not the right direction for an hacker with intelligence.
Good decision Johnny! 
On MSDN in the ASP.NET Community there's an interesting question:
Visual Studio .NET creates Web applications using the Code-Behind model, while Web Matrix creates them until the Code-Inside model. Visual Studio 2005 will add yet a third model (Code-beside). Which should you use?
The opinions of 4 experts are given.
I'd like to know what other people thinks about it.
Personally I like the separation of ASPX and source code. A Web Designer can work on the graphic part of the site (HTML) and a developer can work on the source code... there's a good level separation and I like this "layered" vision.
However, Dino explanation is good. The future VS.NET Whidbey will introduce the code-beside model, which seems to be an excellent combination of the original idea of code-behind with VS.NET IntelliSense-related needs. Advantages? Maybe a lot...
After reading the interview with Miguel de Icaza (co-founder of Gnome, Ximian and Mono) published in these days by NetCraft, I want to say my personal opinion about Miguel's vision...
In this interview Miguel explains his ambitious project, Mono (a free implementation for GNU/Linux of Microsoft's .Net framework) and talks also about the future of Microsoft (Longhorn).
Miguel says that "we have grown organically a stack completely independent of the Microsoft stack, which we call the Mono stack but it includes things like tools for doing GUI development for Linux - that was one thing that we were very interested in and we actually invested a lot of effort into that.
So today at the core we still have Mono, which is what we wanted to do, and now we've got two very healthy independent stacks: the Microsoft-compatible stack for people who want to bring their applications from Windows to Linux, and also this completely new and fresh stack of things that in some cases are portable from Linux to Windows, and in some cases are very, very Linux specific".
Lots of people don't believe in Mono future but I don't agree with this vision. Mono could be a great platform with a wonderful future, expecially in the GUI development on Linux.
Mono could have a potential "key of power": it offers the possibility of using the development tools and environment that you use for Win development to deploy your code to Linux. You can deploy your code across Windows and Linux platform, independently. Is this a powerful feature? I think so...
Imagine only this scenario... you can build an ASP.NET application that runs on IIS and move this application under Linux on Apache without problems and without change any code. If you plan to develop a portable web application that can run on Windows and Linux independently, don't you think that Mono could be a great platform?
Obviously... Mono has this power and must work hard to maintain it. This could be the key for a wonderful future! 
A must to bookmark... Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability.
This guide provides end-to-end guidance for managing performance and scalability throughout your application life cycle to reduce risk and lower total cost of ownership. It provides a framework that organizes performance into a handful of prioritized categories where your choices heavily impact performance and scalability success. The logical units of the framework help integrate performance throughout your application life cycle. Information is segmented by roles, including architects, developers, testers, and administrators, to make it more relevant and actionable. This guide provides processes and actionable steps for modeling performance, measuring, testing, and tuning your applications. Expert guidance is also provided for improving the performance of managed code, ASP.NET, Enterprise Services, Web services, remoting, ADO.NET, XML, and SQL Server.
One of the best MS .NET guide out
I'm really happy... Microsoft meets Flash officially!
From the MS site is ready to download a new add-in for Frontpage 2000/2002, the Flashation Flash Menu Builder.
With this cool tool, you can create impressive and professional animated Flash menus and Flash buttons for your Web site.
It's fast and easy to use and is extremely user-friendly. You'll figure it out after just a few minutes of playing around with it. No Flash or programming skills are required.
Great... downloaded immediately!
I've just read this post on Slashdot by Reddigitaldragon, who asked "what are your first 10 installed programs after the first OS installation?" (non MS programs).
My personal answer is this:
- Thunderbird
- Winzip
- Winamp
- FileZilla
- EditPlus
- Acrobat Reader
- Adobe Photoshop
- mIRC
- Zone Alarm
- Nero Burning Rom
And you? What is your favourite Top 10? I'm curious...
On a new advisory, Secunia talks about a flaw in Windows when accessing a shared folder on a local network with IE that has a overly long name (300 bytes or more). According to Microsoft, the flaw should have been fixed with SP1 (there's also a Microsoft Knowledge Base article #322857 that describes it and its resolution), but accordingly to Secunia the flaw seems not be fixed by the service pack. Secunia says that "the only resolution at the moment is to disable the Client for Microsoft Networks", but, as you can easily understand, this type of action causes a problem when you are trying to share files on your network.
So, what's the truth? Are there really problems? I hope there will be informations soon...
EWeek has published today the first (for me) comparison between Office 2003 and OpenOffice that is not seen from a particular side (pro Microsoft or pro Open Source).
This is an accurate review, that examines all the tools in details, the migration between them and some business cases.
Read it! Here, a little summary...
Suite Comparison: | OpenOffice.Org 1.1.1 Pros No licensing costs As a free-software project, OpenOffice.org has no licensing. Good integration among suite applications eValuation testers said, for example, that they appreciated being able to create new spreadsheet documents from within the word processor application. Variety of export options OpenOffice.org ships with PDF export capabilities, as well as support for saving presentations in Flash format. Cons File-format compatibility issues Although OpenOffice.org does a good job of handling Microsoft Office file formats, small formatting inconsistencies will require reworking of complex documents. Lack of traditional support Office suites typically do not require much vendor support, but the fact that OpenOffice.org is an open-source project means software support must come from the community, generally spread out across various Web sites and newsgroups. Interface differences OpenOffice.org is similar to Microsoft Office in its design, but users will need some time to grow accustomed to differences between the two. | Office 2003 Pros Familiarity Most knowledge workers use some version of Microsoft Office already, and an upgrade to a new version of Office presents the flattest learning curve. File-format compatibility Microsoft Office file formats are de facto standards, and no rival suite handles these proprietary formats as well as Office does. Advanced features Office 2003 has more features and capabilities than competing suites. Although many users do not require or use much of this functionality, advanced users, particularly of spreadsheets, often find it vital. Cons High licensing costs Microsoft Office licenses are priced at a few hundred dollars each—a cost that can be difficult to justify when your users require only basic productivity suite functionality. Advanced features require latest versions Some of the most compelling features added to the last two versions of Office—such as extensible smart tags, document protection and Smart Document creation—are not backward-compatible with earlier versions of the suite. |
|
Interesting reading to download from Microsoft: Highlights of the WinFS Data Access API (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=96fcf90b-4929-422a-8719-d711180fb2c0&DisplayLang=en).="/P">
This document (by Mike Deem) provides a quick look at the basic concepts of the WinFS data access API: objects based on schemas, powerful query support, and support for WinFS concepts such as relationships. An interesting reading to understand the technology.
This week the new releases of Mozilla (1.7 RC1) and Opera (ver. 7.50 beta 1) was released.
Mozilla is a great browser and it's really fast, but now I want to signal a new feature that comes with Opera and not published well: the new Opera version will have a all new slick interface featuring smaller buttons, as well as two new additions: both an email client as a IRC client.
This is a great feature... a good platform ready to use, the first browser with an integrated IRC client. Great idea!
I'm happy to signal a book from my friend Pierre Greborio: Professional InfoPath 2003.
Good work Pierre... congratulation!!
Today a typing error helps me to discover a curios thing from my ISP.
My personal site is hosted on a Windows 2003 Server from Aruba. Today I've opened my browser and typed the url to reach a subpage of my site. I've forgotten to type the WWW prefix and the typed url was something like "http://demiliani.it/MySubPage" (where MySubPage exists on my server).
What was the result? An error page like this:
Not Found
The requested URL /MySubPage was not found on this server.
-------------------------------------------------------
Apache/2.0.48 (Fedora) Server at demiliani.it Port 80
Apache??? Fedora??? Linux??? But I've a Windows 2003 hosting... why???
This thing was curious, so the first thing I've done is typing "http://demiliani.it" to see what happens... the result was correct, I was redirected to my site.
The second thing I've done is typing "http://www.demiliani.it/SubPageThatNotExists" (where SubPageThatNotExists is a subpage that I've not on my server).
The result? The normal IIS 6 page 404 (not found). Correct!
I was surprised. Why this? I've decided to check better...
I was gone to a Linux server that I have for hosting and I've done the tasks that I've posted below:
demy@vaiolo:~$ telnet www.demiliani.it 80
Trying 62.149.130.111...
Connected to webs101.aruba.it.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET / HTTP/1.0
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Connection: close
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 20:56:58 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
Content-Length: 147
Content-Type: text/html
Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDQCBTADTR=NJCAFBGDDGAKHJFHHFOFHOMH; path=/
Cache-control: private
<html>
<head>
<title>Server Status</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>
</h2>
<br>
<h2>Server Status:</h2>
<h3>Server Up</h3>
</body>
</html>
Connection closed by foreign host.
Here the server has responded and it's IIS 6.0 correctly.
demy@vaiolo:~$ dig www.demiliani.it a
Here I've asked the DNS for the IPv4 address of the domain host for WWW.demiliani.it and this is the response:
; <<>> DiG 9.2.3 <<>> www.demiliani.it a
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 59970
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.demiliani.it. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.demiliani.it. 84246 IN A 62.149.130.111
The Host IPv4 Address
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
demiliani.it. 84246 IN NS dns2.technorail.com.
demiliani.it. 84246 IN NS dns.technorail.com.
The DNS servers for the Domain
;; Query time: 47 msec
;; SERVER: 62.101.66.81#53(62.101.66.81)
;; WHEN: Wed Apr 21 22:56:58 2004
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 101
demy@vaiolo:~$ dig demiliani.it a
Here I've asked the DNS for the IPv4 address of the domain host for demiliani.it and this is the response:
; <<>> DiG 9.2.3 <<>> demiliani.it a
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 52385
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 8, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;demiliani.it. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
demiliani.it. 74229 IN A 62.149.128.72
demiliani.it. 74229 IN A 62.149.128.74
demiliani.it. 74229 IN A 62.149.128.151
demiliani.it. 74229 IN A 62.149.128.154
demiliani.it. 74229 IN A 62.149.128.157
demiliani.it. 74229 IN A 62.149.128.160
demiliani.it. 74229 IN A 62.149.128.163
demiliani.it. 74229 IN A 62.149.128.166
These are the IPv4 addresses for this domain name
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
demiliani.it. 84239 IN NS dns.technorail.com.
demiliani.it. 84239 IN NS dns2.technorail.com.
The DNS servers for the Domain
;; Query time: 6 msec
;; SERVER: 62.101.66.81#53(62.101.66.81)
;; WHEN: Wed Apr 21 22:57:04 2004
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 209
Now, I've tryed to do an HTTP connection to demiliani.it at the first domain address (port 80) and this is the response:
demy@vaiolo:~$ telnet 62.149.128.163 80
Trying 62.149.128.163...
GET / Connected to 62.149.128.163.
Escape character is '^]'.
HTTP/1.0
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 20:58:43 GMT
Server: Apache/2.0.48 (Fedora)
Last-Modified: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 16:04:53 GMT
ETag: "7706-42-5b77340"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 66
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="0; URL=cgi-bin/redirect.cgi">
Connection closed by foreign host.
As you can see, there's a redirect.cgi page that redirects all the requests to the correct domain.
After that, I've tryed to do an HTTP connection to the same domain (demiliani.it), but the request (GET) was to a page that not exists on my server (page PIPPO):
demy@vaiolo:~$ telnet demiliani.it 80
Trying 62.149.128.72...
Connected to demiliani.it.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET /pippo HTTP/1.0 (Here the page request)
and this is the response:
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 21:00:08 GMT
Server: Apache/2.0.40 (Red Hat Linux)
Vary: accept-language
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Expires: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 21:00:08 GMT
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
<head>
<title>Object not found!</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<link rev="made" href="mailto:postmaster@aruba.it" />
<style type="text/css">
<!--
body { color: #000000; background-color: #FFFFFF; }
a:link { color: #0000CC; }
-->
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Object not found!</h1>
<dl>
<dd>
The requested URL was not found on this server.
If you entered the URL manually please check your
spelling and try again.
</dd></dl><dl><dd>
If you think this is a server error, please contact
the <a href="mailto:postmaster@aruba.i |