April 2006 - Posts

• 2 Free VB.Net Books (PDF)

  Microsoft have released two free books on Visual Basic .Net in PDF format.  Introducing Visual Basic 2005 To Developers  "Get a focused, first look at the features and capabilities in Microsoft Visual Basic 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and the .NET Framework 2.0. If you currently work with Visual Basic 6, these authors fully understand the adoption and code migration issues you'll encounter. They'll step you through a quick primer on .NET Framework programming, offering guidance for a productive transition. If you already work with .NET, you'll jump directly into what's new, learning how to extend your existing skills. From the innovations in rapid application development, debugging, and deployment, to new data access, desktop, and Web programming capabilities, you get the insights and code walkthroughs you need to be productive right away. " Upgrade to Visual Basic .NET "Upgrading Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 to Microsoft Visual Basic .NET is the complete technical guide to upgrading Visual Basic 6 applications to Visual Basic .NET, covering all upgrade topics from APIs to ZOrders. It shows how to fix upgrade issues with forms, language, data access, and COM+ Services, and how to upgrade applications with XML Web services, ADO.NET, and .NET remoting. It also provides big-picture architectural advice, a reference of function and object model changes, hundreds of before-and-after code samples, and a CD packed with useful examples." Posted Apr 13 2006, 02:21 by Damien McGivern with no comments

• Basic FCK Editor wrapper for Community Server 2.0

  I'm testing the FCK editor [1] wrapper for CS 2.0 [2] with this post.FCK editor is a webbased XHTML editor unlike other xhtml editors such as XStandard [3] doesn't use an activeX control. I was surpried as to how easy it was to get the basic functionality working within the wrapper. CS 2.0 is very cool. I've still to work out how to get the image browser to work with the CS files section so I'll probable work on that next Sunday night. You can download the wrapper from the files section [4] This is just a basic wrapper and probably shouldn't be used just jet as I've still to add support for preview and it doesn't seem to work properly in firefox but for NIMTUG members who want to test out the FCK editor for posting go to http://nimtug.org/user/EditProfile.aspx and under the "Site Options" tab selected it from the "Content Editor" dropdown. [1] http://www.fckeditor.net/ [2] http://communityserver.org [3] http://xstandard.com [4] http://nimtug.org/files/12/editors/entry70.aspx Posted Apr 10 2006, 10:53 by Damien McGivern with 3 comment(s) Filed under: NIMTUG, Community Server (CS)

• Paul Fallon - new MVP

  Congrats to Paul Fallon [1] on becoming a MVP [2]. Very much deserved. [1] http://paulfallon.com/ [2] http://www.mvps.org/  Posted Apr 08 2006, 11:47 by Damien McGivern with 1 comment(s)

• CS "Anonymous comments are disabled" on blogs

  I'm always auto logged in when on the NIMTUG website and so never realised that non NIMTUG members or thoes not signed in couldn't post a blog comment until just now. After a couple of minutes figuring out which settings to change it's now corrected.     Posted Apr 08 2006, 11:22 by Damien McGivern with no comments Filed under: NIMTUG

• Changing telephone provider to Vonage

  Recently I moved to using vonage [1] for my landline and I have to say I’m very impressed.   After an initial problem with the courier I received my preconfigured linksys RT31P2 [2], which is a broadband router with 2 phone ports. All I had to do was plug the RT31P2 into my existing wireless router and plug the phone into the RT31P2. I was strangely disappointed that I didn't have to configure my new toy but after logging into the built-in web based admin panel I found that i could configure all sorts but had no need to. You configure the phone settings via the vonage website which of course is obvious as it and IP base phone system but kind of makes you wonder what could happen if someone one other than myself got access to it - something like change my call diversion to a premium number set the wait time to zero seconds and then call me. I've emailed the support about this suggesting that they send and email, txt or an automated call when ever you update your call diversion so that you know.   The call sound quality is very good; I had originally thought it would be a noticeable decline in quality but no. So I get free calls within the UK and down south and there are some great extras that all come under the £7.99 p/m line rental. I especially like the ability to have me voicemail emailed to me and the ability to see my call costs updated after each call rather than waiting for the bill every month/quarter. The only downside was that I couldn’t transfer my existing landline number. Also in the event of either my broadband connection failing or a vonage outage all my calls get rerouted to my mobile, hopefully I'll never have to use this "feature". I’d kept my original line just encase I found vonage’s service to be really bad but I’ve now decided to move permanently :)   [1] http://vonage.co.uk/ [2] linksys RT31P2: broadband router with 2 phone ports   Posted Apr 08 2006, 09:36 by Damien McGivern with 4 comment(s) Filed under: VOIP

• Free VISP DVD

  Hopefully this will save me some time from having to search through alot of websites looking for new VS.Net 2005 add-ons to play with. "The Visual Studio Industry Partner Resource DVD contains contains over 65 components, controls, utilities and other products which integrate into Visual Studio. You can install these evaluation copies/limited release products to help chose the right product for your development needs. Order a free partner resource DVD today." http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/extend/partnerdvd/ Posted Apr 08 2006, 09:27 by Damien McGivern with no comments Filed under: VS.Net