February 2007 - Posts

Roll up of the Latest Software and Services packs
23 February 07 02:29 | Simon Phillips | with no comments

SQL Server 2005 SP2 - This has been in CTP for what seams like ages, and I for all but one project have been holding off installing it for my development environments. As well as the usual fixes and enchancements they have put alot of work in data anaylsis features as well as releasing along side it a set of add-ins for Excel to do Data Mining straight from Excel. SQL Server 2005 SP2 Download Page. Check out the SQL Server Feature Pack for links to the add-ins

Virtual PC 2007 - The latest version of MS's FREE desktop virtualisation softrware has been released. Both Rob Burke and Dave Northey from Microsoft Ireland have recently both been talking about the benefits features of virtualisation and VPC. Virtual PC 2007 Home Page

Reflector 5.0 - Everyones favourite Reflector tool can be downloaded here here. If your after add-ins for reflector then you can find the list on CodePlex (NET Reflector 5.0 Add-Ins).

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NIMTUG Event: Generics - Kathleen Dollard (1st March)
21 February 07 06:41 | Simon Phillips | with no comments

The next NIMTUG event is going to be on the 1st March and should be a right treat, we're very fortunate to have Kathleen Dollard from the States coming over to Northern Ireland and having the time to do a talk for us.

Generics (for thoses of you who don't know) is a programing pattern which improves the amount of code and efficency of your hard typed code. Generics support in .Net came with the release of .Net v2.0, but it still a programming method, that I believe, has not been taken up by the majority of programmers.

You can find out more about the event and registration link here

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I know that I'm behind the times... but rounded corners without using images on web pages
21 February 07 06:05 | Simon Phillips | 1 comment(s)

Looks like I'm a couple of years behind the trend, but I've had it pointed out that you can achieve nice rounded corners on web pages without using images.

There are possibly buckets of articles about this on the web, but these are the solutions that I've come across and implemented.

Nifty Corners / NiftyCube by html.it - Nice articles about how to achieve this by using HTML markup and CSS followed by a complete solution using a Javascript functions to apply the additional markup to any element.

RUZEE.Borders by ruzee.com - Used in a number of the blog template on Community Server, some nice additions like adding glow and fade effects.

If you have any other examples the please leave a comment!

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WSS 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Comparision Features
12 February 07 09:22 | Simon Phillips | with no comments

At work I'm always getting asked this (twice today!!), so I thought that I would post it up here so I didn't loose the link.

Microsoft posted last September (and documented by most of the SharePoint Bloggers) a comparison chart of the differences between WSS 3.0, SharePoint Server 2003 and the different versions of MOSS 2007, which can be found here.

Bascially WSS 3.0 allows you to create sites, if you are wanting enterprise level search (i.e. accross your sites or other systems), Business Intelligence componants (including Excel Services), My Site features, InfoPath Forms server then you will need one of the MOSS products.

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