Merry Christmas!!

I hope that all of you will have a great Christmas and that Santa will come to everyone!

Opera for Wii

Opera released the new opera browser for wii...now I really would like an wii...opera on my phone,opera on my wii, opera on my desktop....ok ok...I`m a fan...
Also check this out
Happy surfing..

Camera finder

Want to know what the most popular camera is?...
Who can give you the best statistics if not a photo sharing site?...try this..

Wii has some problems

Wii seems to have some problems caused by the strap.Problems are reported on the wiihaveproblems.com but people don`t seem to care...so here is another funny wii commercial.

I`d still like one even if it might break my tv :)

Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Service Pack 1

Download it here
Happy Programming!

How good is your photo memory?

Is it as good as this guy`s?...or at least can you remember which street is where?..this guy literally has the memory of an elephant...




Happy surfing..

Multi point

Did you ever try to add more than a mouse to your computer...well...I did and the result was unsatisfying... they all moved the same pointer on the screen...not cool.
Microsoft decided that adding more than a mouse to a computer can prove useful (they gave an example with learning in 3rd world countries) so they added the possibility to have more than a mouse pointer on the desktop...cool
First the API that Microsoft created will be used by students competing in the Imagine Cup competition in order to create better e-learning applications.
Here is the press release from Microsoft.
Happy programming...

Why buy Nintendo`s Wii?

Nintendo Wii? Because it`s fun. Because it`s a lot cheaper and because it has a funny commercial:

As the commercial says..it doesn`t feature any HD graphics display..but it`s fun..and I guess that is the point of the console(and if you don`t have a HD tv HD graphics are worthless).
The best thing about the console is the controller that enables you to get in the game. See for your self:

Why Buy Sony`s Play Station 3?

Reason 1: It`s the newest thing out there. It features great graphics, a blue ray player, 20G or 60G hard drive and wireless controllers.
Reason 2: You are a fan of the Play Station and never even thought about buying another console.
The console comes in two versions: The Sony PlayStation 3 (60GB) or the Sony PlayStation 3 (20GB).
The big problem is that stocks are so limited that most of the consoles are pre-sold or sold on e-bay at huge prices.
The console`s price is not low either and I saw lots of comments about getting the Nintendo`s Wii and Microsoft`s Xbox 360 at the same price and having double the fun. You decide if that`s true or not. For more info try this review. Even more info from sony.
Games available for the console include most of the old PS2 games and this:

Fight Night Round 3

Resistance: Fall Of Man

PlayStation 3 Grand Theft Auto IV

Madden Nfl 07

Need For Speed Carbon

Why buy Microsoft`s XBOX 360?

Well, the first reason would be the fact that the Xbox 360 is on the market for more than an year and there are plenty consoles out there.
The Xbox 360 comes in two versions:a stripped out version Xbox 360 Core System and the Xbox 360 Premium that includes all the accesories from the Core System but also adds a 20G Hard Drive and a wireless controller. Both versions are able to play DVD or HD DVD media(if you have a HD DVD player), and the console is powerfull enough to display everything on a High Definition TV.
Accesories available for the console include an universal remote control, a HD DVD pleyer, wireless headsets and the vision webcam. For more info try this review.
Also Microsoft has a very good network for players around the world called Xbox Live where you can play games, enter tournaments or buy more games.
But the most important thing when buying the console is what you can play on it. So here is a list of Xbox 360 Games:

Gears Of War

Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion

Need for Speed Carbon

Halo 3

F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Console Wars

So many persons are looking for a console right now. It seems that there are not enough for everyone. Some persons get disappointed that they don`t get the console they wanted, but most persons don`t even know which console to get..In case you are in doubt, try this:

Why buy Microsoft`s XBOX 360?

Why buy Sony`s Play Station 3?

Why buy Nintendo`s Wii?

Error Division by Zero

int a=12;
int b=0;
int result = a/b;
Division by zero error...no more..

Fear the law

Proud to be a German gamer?

Opera and the mobile effort

Location based mobile AJAX solution


Read more about this here

New Opera Mini

Opera mini 3.0 is out!

It is still free and includes a lot of new and exciting features such as a feed reader and the possibility to access secured sites. Here is a list of all the features.
I`ve been using it since Opera mini 1.0 and it rocks. My Motorola V360`s browser can`t compare to this browser mainly because opera managed to make sites look good on your phone too.
Get it now!
Happy surfing!

10 minute mail

Here is a really usefull tool in case you are signing up for lots of sites and just receive the activation link or expect lots and lots of spam from the site you sust signed-up for.
Why would you use this? Maybe you want to sign up for a site which requires that you provide an e-mail address to send a validation e-mail to. And maybe you don't want to give up your real e-mail address and end up on a bunch of spam lists. This is nice and disposable. And it's free. Enjoy!
Happy registering!

World Aids Day

Though this is a technical blog...this was too important so I added it here.
Try to be better today..

Try helping the (RED) organisation. Visit their blog now to get more information. Happy living...

Add a sudoku gadget to your page :)

Need to contact me?

just type your message!

Send an email to my phone!

Type your message here

nexGenWars

Gotta get in the game...

Getting Google PageRank in C#, Java, C or PHP?

Ever wondered how the green bar in the Google toolbar works? Here (and also here and here)it is explained in its math splendor.
But for most of the developers how it is computed is not their main problem. The problem would be getting the PageRank and using it for your own website. SEO`s know that a good PageRank means more cash..More cash means a better life...so PageRank is important.
Getting it...is a whole different problem. The main reason would be that it is against Google`s Terms of Use. But...on the other hand there are a lot(1,2,3) of websites that allow you to check a PageRank in their page...
Getting the PageRank is a whole different problem..it seems to involve some reverse engineering and some code re-writing. Here are some code examples that I found(here for C#, here for Java, here for PHP and here for C). Hard work...

PhotoSynth

AMAZING is the word for this piece of software. Microsoft finally proved that it is the lead when research is concerned and that research really pays of.
PhotoSynth takes some photos of the same location and creates a 3D model that represents the location and lets you explore your photos in a really intuitive way. This will totally change the way you look at a photo,not as a simple still image but as an ensemble. The possibilities are countless: put photos of the house that you want to sell and let the potential buyers see the house in 3D..
It took a while until the ActiveX component started running....but it was totally worth the time.
But enough words...the images speak for themselves.
Also check out this videos:
Channel 9 Laura Foy PodTech

For the workaholic in you

Nice gift for Christmas!

BLL,DAL and Presentation Layer?

Heard of BLL or DAL? Do you know the main concepts but don`t know how to create a truly efficient implementation? Try this tutorials . The tutorials are really nicely structured,have 2 versions(one for VB.net and one for C# ) and the source code is also supplied. Quite a nice reading. Happy Programming!

Google Talk Update

Now you can send Instant Messages to persons that are not online and they will receive it in their Gmail if they have their Gmail inbox with chat history enabled. Gtalk is getting better and better. Happy Talking!

Direct X 10

One good news and one really really bad...
It will come to your PC....but only if you have Windows Vista...That would be the bad news
The good news is that for programmers this should bring major improvements and will drive the games market forward...
Major improvements include Shader Model 4.0,Virtualized memory for the GPU.
Read more about Direct X Here

Website optimization 101

Google now has a nice way to test your website design and even track your ROI(Return on Investment). Watch this movie and see if you can make use of this optimizer...
The main thing that you can do with this tool is use different layouts and see which one is more effective. Quite nice...Happy optimization!

Got time for a nugget?

Nope,not from Mac...from MSDN...Try the new site for webcasts here. You can find short tutorials and news for almost everything...C#,ASP.net,the .net framework..It`s all there.

Code Search

Now this is a really nice addition to Google`s search engine...the code search...a programmer`s dream,code search. Try it here.

Top 10 Worst Portrayals of Technology in Film

A really nice top..

Dire Desire

Now...what is Dire Desire? It`s a RPG game made by 3 guys from my faculty(Catalin Marcu,Elvis Alistar,Cristian Cotoi).
Why would you play Dire Desire...well because it`s fun...There are a lot of things that I can complain about(graphics,no shortcuts,no map tilting,the map ends in darkness while it should have some rocks or something,the text from the quests are so small that I had to be really concentrated to read something) but there are some things that I enjoyed..especially the sound...the sound is really really good and can be used in any good game,the fact that you can extract gold from any item...The fact that this is their first game...it looks really nice and quite complete...overall...download the demo and take a look at what non-professionals can do...Happy gaming!

Programmer`s day

Happy Programmer`s day(2^8th day of the year... nice one)

ASP.net and the iframe tag

When building the sudoku site that lets others get a sudoku grid on their site...I noticed a big problem with asp pages and iframes:Session variables and cookies are lost during post back.
So trying this:
Session["MyVar"] = "somevalue";
and then after a post-back checking the session variable like this:
if (Session["MyVar"] == null)
Response.Write("NULL");
you will get NULL written on your site.
The way I solved this problem is this: I added a invisible textbox that holds the value of the session variable,like this:
MyTextBox.Visible=False;
MyTextBox.Text = "somevalue";
and then when checking the value you simply get the value stored in the textbox.
The solution is really old-fashioned and not pretty at all...but at least made the site work for the time being...until I find a good solution.

Get it while it`s hot

http://site24x7.com/ - free online site monitoring tool
Xml notepad - free xml enchanted notepad from Microsoft
Firefox 2 beta 2 - The browser..

GTD - Getting Things Done

Google found a new(and entertaining) way of expanding its image search index. Getting more users to enter keywords is not an easy job...but Google did it with its image labeler..it`s a game in which players compete in order to enter the matching keywords for a given picture. Quite a nice game too...and it`s not evil :)

On your marks,get set,DOWNLOAD!!

Google announced that you can now download classic books from it`s controversial e-book search site. The project is in its beginings but it`s a really nice way to get free books. There already exists a site that allows you to do this(Project Guttenberg) but...this is Google. Happy reading!

Google Apps

Google Apps for Your Domain lets you offer our communication and collaboration tools to your entire organization — customizable with your branding, color scheme and content through the administrative control panel, and with no hardware or software to install or maintain.
You can add Gmail/Gtalk/Google calendar and you can even use the Google Page Creator in order to create the site. Sounds really cool. Check it out!

Google Tools

Google released a new website especially for webmasters. The services are not new but it`s a nice thing to have all the tools in one place. A good page to bookmark. Happy Surfing!

Blogging

If you are a blogger and you are using WordPress...and don`t like the admin pages,here is a really nice alternative.
Features
• New WP logo design
• New Login/Register page
• Spotlight-styled header image
• New main and sub menus
• Font and color changes in menus, titles and texts
• Removing box styles in the WP News
• New forms and fancy buttons
• CSS support for other popular plugins

Quite a nice addition to the blogging platform. Happy Blogging!

ClickOnce

If you have a Visual Basic 6.0/.net application and wish to install and update it automatically using the ClckOnce functionality,Microsoft has a verry good 2 parts article that handles this.
ClickOnce is a really nice way to deploy applications and this functionality could prove really usefull.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/atupvb6ap2.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/AutoUpdatVB6apps.asp

Free Stuff for your website

And as promised here is a list of free website content providers.

First of all…a small list of free article providers:
http://www.isnare.com/
http://www.freesticky.com/stickyweb/
http://www.articlecity.com/
http://www.ezinearticles.com/
http://www.websitegoodies.com/articles.php
http://www.sitepoint.com/

And now other free content that you can use. NEVER put only free content on your website!!
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/lookup.htm#searchbox
http://www.miniclip.com/games/en/webmaster-games.php
http://www.freegamesforyourwebsite.com/
http://www.kewlbox.com/games/code.cfm
http://www.flyordie.com/add/free-games.html

There are a lot more content providers out there...just google free website content.
Happy Blogging!

Dream Mouse...

What would an average use want from a mouse...
-To have as few buttons and as well positioned as possible...
-To have a good precision that insures a good handling
-To have a good mouse wheel that is accompanied by a good software that makes the mouse wheel a real helper

And now...Microsoft and Razer will release a dream mouse for the gamers saying that it is not for noobs...Is it really that complex?...we shall see...

-Interchangeable Side Button Panels provide gamers with two options for different hand sizes or preferences .
-2,000 DPI Laser Engine, Powered by Razer Precision™, delivers super-fast response time.
-On-the-fly DPI lets players adjust DPI for controlled sensitivity, adjustable from 400, 800, 1600 to 2000 DPI with the toggle buttons.
-Always-On™ Mode Pioneered by Razer gives gamers virtually no latency.
-High-speed motion detection lets gamers get their speed on with movement of up to 45 inches per second and 20G acceleration.
-Seven programmable buttons with Hyperesponse™ allow gamers to program their button functions; Razer’s Hyperesponse technology reduces latency.
-On-board profile memory enables gamers to store up to five game control profiles on the mouse.
-Custom design features GlowPipe™ side rails and large, ultra-slick Teflon® buttons provide smooth and quiet gliding.
-Ergonomic Design - A right handed comfort design allows slip-resistant grip with rubber-coated buttons for improved comfort for long hours of gaming.
-Thin, flexible wire provides gamers with the speed of a wired mouse with the feel of a wireless device.

...Now that`s what I call MOUSE..

Information was taken from the official site

Free website contet - Why,when,where

Well...as you already know nothing is really free...there is something that you shoud do in order to get that Free something...and when talking about free website content what you give is usually a link to the site that provided the "free content"..In other cases you povide even a banner but..it`s deffinatly not free..Big sites pay for this kind of publicity this sites get it for free...from you...
Why would you ever use free content...well...because you are not always able to write good new articles every day and your visitors get bored when seeing the same article on the front page day after day...so this is a really good alternative. Also an article provides real content to your page that will be indexed by the search engines and also you may be able to put more ads on your site...though adsense for example will notice that the same article is located on more than one website and the ads revenue will be a lot smaller...But there is a solution to this too: ad your own comments after/before the article.
On the next posts I will add some free content and will also provide the links to websites that provide them. Happy blogging!

Writely

This is a blog entry published through the Writely word processing service form Google. It`s a really nitfty tool and can really help when you don`t have Microsoft Word arround, though it`t not a real competitor just like Google`s spreadsheet is not a real competitor for Excel. You can do most of the basic stuff you can do with Word and the best part is that you can colaborate over the net. Also blog posting works fine and it can handle a lot of blog hosts. Again google chalanges Office Live from Microsoft. And did quite a nice job too. The fun part is that this web application is built using ASP.net :) Happy blogging.

Blog day

Now this is a good one :)...they are tryin to add blog day to the calendar...good luck

need to relax?

While surfing I found this old sim city game that you can play freely online on the EA site. Oh the good old days....

XNA anyone?

Now this looks like a nice toy to play with :)...too bad I`ll have to wait until September. The screenshots look nice anyway :P

IE7 addons

Searching the web I found this website that features very nice IE7 addons...many of them already exist for firefox but it was about time for them to appear in the IE scene. Happy surfing!

Microsoft Windows Live Writer

Microsoft`s Windows Live Writer is the latest addition to the "Live" suite. It is a free downloadable WYSIWYG authoring program that helps you publish your blog posts easily...including...pictures...maps...It also contains a SDK in order for programmers to implement features that don`t already exist in the release. Quite a nice addition to the future possible "Office Live". Also it is a big improvement over the already existing feature from Office 2007. The bad part is that it cannot publish the photos(and maps) to blogger unless you have a ftp account Happy blogging!

IE 7.0 encoding bug?

I don`t really know if it`s a browser bug that concerns encoding...or just a badly written website but this is what got rendered with IE 7.0:

and here is the same page rendered with firefox 2.0 (firefox finds some errors too but manages to display a readable page):

and now the same page using Internet Explorer 7.0 with Eastern European encoding... and everyting looks nice now...

The site`s code doesn`t seem to be bad...so the only problem would be the browser....

Update:this are the 3 photos Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3

ASP.net to PDF document

I wanted to automatically create a PDF document the other day in order to print a sudoku grid that I built. That seemed quite a simple operation as there are a lot of open source implementations that allow you to do just that....but I was wrong...not all implementations were as good as I expected for what I wanted to create. The problem was that not all implementations allowed a good manipulation of tables inside PDF documents...some of them did not let me control the width of separate cells at all...some let me set the width value but the generated table did not take that into consideration....and finally...the one that I used was quite good but did not let me use vertical alignment although the setting is there...Weird..
Here are the libraries that I used:
iTextSharp - the one that I used
#pdf - the tutorials do not work with the beta release and some tables look weird
PDFsharp - did not have support for tables and is intended for charts

User experience

Here is some good advice concerning accessibility and an architect`s view of a good User Experience

ASP.net Membership/Roles

I read a few days ago about some articles that could prove really useful when programming Membership and Roles for ASP.net 2.0:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/ASPMemManSec.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/ASP2memroleman.asp
Then why am I writing here about the same thing? Well...Because the same author created 2 more articles that cover the new technologies(Atlas)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/membershipeditoratlas.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/membershipeditorwithprofile.asp

Happy coding!

Office 2007 Beta

Bad news for office 2007 beta testers. Due to a high demand for the beta Microsoft is going to charge 1.50$ for the download beginning next Wednesday at 6 p.m. Now that`s really bad news and the worst thing is that it creates a precedent and large corporations may start asking for small fees when you download their beta. On the other hand...I`ve been using the office 2007 beta for some months now and I`ve been really satisfied with it(I didn`t use office 2003 at all). The best feature that the beta has(in my opinion) is Save As PDF, unfortunately the full version won`t have this feature built-in and you`ll have to download it as an add-on....

Release early, release often.

Release early, release often. That`s what the Google code page says. Google code is a new service that Google offers to the Open source community.

Happy coding.

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Looked at the wii site today because the ad on yahoo really captured me...The site looked nice and clean...looked at one video...amazing

....looked at another...again really nice...
Then looked on youtube for more videos...

I heard that it will be quite cheap....so...now I know what I want for my birthday :)

C# programming

In case you want to create C# applications( either windows forms or ASP.net ) here are some things that might help you:
Microsoft Labs(all you need is a windows live account that you can get here):
Visual C# Labs
Visual Studio 2005
ASP.NET 2.0
Web Services
SQL Server 2005
Also you can try this books:

Play hangman

Found this while trying to create a post about free content for webmasters...looks cute :)
Enjoy

Hangman

Free website tools
provided by The Free Dictionary

Microsoft teaser

This is a teaser that I found on Youtube...It certainly has done it`s job as it really got my interest :)...I don`t know what it`s all about...It is not for Vista since it says summer 2006...and it`s something about entertainment...maybe that Zune player but I think it`s too early for that...any ideas?

Note To Self...

When creating applications that requre a large amount of processor power always use

Thread t = Thread.CurrentThread;
t.Priority = ThreadPriority.BelowNormal;

if you want to be able to use your computer :)

Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta 3

Today I installed the newest browser from Microsoft(IE Beta 3)..I did not try any of the previous beta versions.
Also I installed the newest version of Mozilla Firefox, the 2.0 Beta.
So...I tryed to compare the two....and overall I think the two browsers made some big advances when it comes to user interface...and I really enjoy this war.
What I like at the new IE:
-Tabs (Finally)
-That they added search...and most of all that it started with google as the default search engine(might be from settings in IE 6..)
-That you can change the search provider really fast in case you get bored.
-That they added a lot of tools.
-Also I think it`s faster than any of the previous IE versions...but that`s only my opinion
-RSS feeds (Finally)
-That it works fine with my Windows X64 Professional

What I like at the new Firefox:
-That it`s Mozilla FIREFOX :)
-That it has the same features that my old firefox had.
-That the number of addons is getting larger and larger.
-You can change search providers.
-RSS Feeds...
-Almost everything that IE 7 has :)

Overall the big change is on the Microsoft side...and mostly the change is good. I really enjoyed browsing with IE 7...
Surf`s Up...

Using AJAX to build dynamic asp pages.

This will show a way to get data on the site dynamically without the need to update the whole content of the page, updating just part of the website, in our example just a simple div on a asp page.First thing noted here: the page will be an asp page(not .NET) that will be hosted on IIS.

Creating the site`s design. In other words what I would like this thing to do.The site will be composed of 3 pages: test.asp, first.html and second.html .The pages first.html and second.html will just contain a div that we will eventually show on the test.asp page and will just contain the following text:

First.html

<div id="Content"> here is the first page content</div>

Second.html

<div id="Content"> here is the second page content</div>

Our main concern from now on will be the test.asp page. The first thing we will do is build the JavaScript that will handle our requests. This script can be anywhere on the page but usually it is either in the Head portion or after the end of the body. So, this is the JavaScript:

1 <script type="text/javascript">

2 function GetContent(Location,TheDiv)

{

3 ChangedDiv = TheDiv;

4 try

{

5 xmlhttp = window.XMLHttpRequest?new XMLHttpRequest():new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");

}

6 catch(e)

{

7 alert("Your browser does not support AJAX");

}

8 xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = FinnishedRequest;

9 xmlhttp.open("GET", Location);

10 xmlhttp.send(null);

11 return true;

}

12 function FinnishedRequest()

{

13 if ((xmlhttp.readyState == 4) && (xmlhttp.status == 200))

{

14 document.getElementById(ChangedDiv).innerHTML = xmlhttp.responseText;

}

}

15</script>

Our main function is GetContent(Location,TheDiv,event) (line 3). The function takes 3 parameters: Location – The location of the data that will be requested by the function. TheDiv – The div that will be changed every time the function is used.(in our case this will be ‘TestDiv’)

On line 3 we simply copy the TheDiv variable to a ChangecDiv variable that will be used further in the script.The try..catch statement the comes next is the part where we create the Xml Request object and in order for the script to work cross-browser this part of the script is harder to understand.xmlhttp = window.XMLHttpRequest?new XMLHttpRequest():new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");This is actually a compressed if statement that should be like this:

If (window.XMLHttpRequest) { xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest(); }else { xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); }

The script is like this because Microsoft did not natively implement the Xml Request object and just implemented it as an ActiveXObject while all the other browsers(that deserve attention) implement it natively. So what the if really does is this:

1. Test if the browser natively supports the XMLHttpRequest object (If (window.XMLHttpRequest) )
   
2. If this is true then create a new XMLHttpRequest object(native object)
   
3. Otherwise create a new ActiveXObject that is almost the same as a native object.
   

Lines 8,9 and 10 just handle the request itself, so it first(8) creates an event handler that will handle the onreadystatechange that occurs when the state of the request changes. Then(9) it creates the request itself using the GET method and the Location from where the date will be retrieved. The next thing to do(10) is to actually send the request that will be handled by the server.

When the request is sent our next job is to handle the data that will be retrieved by the request. Our handler will be FinnishedRequest() that will just check the state and the status of the request and will display the date in the given div. This is accomplished this way:

Line 13 – test the state of the request and if it is 4 then the request state is ok. Then test the status of the request that can be any status code known from the request object. We will only accept the request if the status if 200(OK).

Line 14 – we simply get the object that will be updated and write the received content in the innerHTML.

Next job: creating the buttons that will trigger the Xml Requests.

<input id="button1" type="button" value="First Content" onclick="return GetContent('first.html','TestDiv');" />

<input id="button1" type="button" value="Second Content" onclick="return GetContent('second.html','TestDiv');" />

<div ID="TestDiv">Initial text</div>

You can now test the script and start building some amazing things using this technology

Response.Redirect

As a ASP coder I used a lot of Response.Redirect(webiste) statements while scripting and that was good...but now..when jumping to ASP.net and C# I had a few problems while using Response.Redirect("website")...and that is because I was placing the redirect statements into try-catch blocks and the Response.Redirect("website") statement throws an exception ThreadAbortException so if you try something like this:

try
{
///code that might throw exceptions
Response.Redirect("default.aspx");
}
catch(ThreadAbortException ex)
{
Response.Redirect("error.aspx")
}

you would always get the user to the error.aspx page instead of the default.aspx. The same thing happens if you try to use Response.Redirect("Default.aspx",true).

This happens because the Response.Redirect method calls the Response.End method that thrown this ThreadAbortException. There are several ways to avoid this problems:
1.

string url = String.Empty;
try
{
///code that might throw exceptions
url="default.aspx";
}
catch(ThreadAbortException ex)
{
url="error.aspx";
}
Response.Redirect(url);

This will redirect the user to the default.aspx page because the ThreadAbortException is not thrown by the Response.End method anymore.
2.

try
{
///code that might throw exceptions
Response.Redirect("default.aspx",false);
}
catch(ThreadAbortException ex)
{
Response.Redirect("error.aspx")
}

This will work fine(getting the user to the default.aspx page) because the false parameter in the Response.Redirect means that the Response.Redirect meghod will not call the Response.End method...but this could cause other damage so usually if you use this method put a return; statement after the redirect. Like this:

try{
///code that might throw exceptions
Response.Redirect("default.aspx",false);
return;
}
catch(ThreadAbortException ex)
{
Response.Redirect("error.aspx")
}

3. You can use Server.Transfer instead of Response.Redirect though this has its drawbacks too. First of all Server.Transfer transfers the user to another page on the server side so the user does not see the actual URL of the page that he is working on so getting the page in the favourites folder is not an option.

Microsoft and Robotics

I just found out that Microsoft has released a new tool that would help control robots. I looked over the Channel9 video and I was AMASED. This is too good to be true..I think that controling robots through a nice programming language like C#/VB.net will help improve the way robots "Think" today :)...I didn`t get a change to play with the simulation studio but...from what I`ve seen it looks nice...good work..

Google`s Office charge

Yesterday I read a news on Google news that Google will have a Web 2.0 application that be similar to Microsoft Excel(Google Spreadsheets)....so I signed up and had to wait for a confirmation a few hours because everyone(like me) wanted to know what that`s like....and the answer is....It`s COOL...it`s a really nice addition to google`s set of applications...you can`t really do everyting you can do in Excel right now but it`s only in the Lab now :).. what I liked is that you can easily share the spreadsheet with your business partners/friends....you can use some of Excel`s formulas.....but.... when it comes to getting data in...it`s not Excel...I had a table that I wanted to paste in and sort on some numbers(sorting works great,don`t get me wrong)....and simply couldn`t do that...though it has cut/copy/paste features this don`t work as expected...until improved....getting data in is quite hard..also some formulas don`t yet work as expected...and I had a little trouble aquaiting with sorting..but...overall...it`s a good project...and really really usefull....
A good integration with Google talk,calendar and other newly released applications might get things really really interesting....nice stuff :)...surf`s up

Formal Languages and Automata

....As a Computer Science student at the Faculty of Computer Science we learn lots of things...some important(for me)....and some...not that important....One of the subjects I studied this semester is Formal Languages and Automata. The course was not that interesting mainly because the professor was not really that excited to teach.....mostly because he did the course...over and over again...the seminar though was quine nice...mostly because I like the practical things of this class and not the theory......The thing is nobody ever told us what we can do with this theory so I started searching on my own....and found.....Petri nets(sounds cool)....also found out something about automata used in many domains such as compilers and games....nice.....better go study for the exam now :)

WLM

My Windows Live Messenger updated itself today so...the biggest improvement for me would be the offline messages feature that I love in Yahoo Messenger and Skype(hope Google-Talk will make something even better).......All in all...it looks great and the features it has seem really really useful(especially if you like to keep your conversation boxes small in order to be able to do more things at a time - like me)...The only problem I had was that the setup program asked me to close all the applications running...including the setup program itself...kind of stupid....but i just ignored it :)....You should try it www.live.com

Programming Languages - a new beginning

Well.....I thought programming languages today had to become more and more object oriented and should have a more English-like syntax....well....I happened to run across a programming language called Brainfuck that now has a .net compiler...The programming language only has 8 commands:
+ Increment value under pointer
- Decrement value under pointer
> Increment pointer
< decrement pointer
. Output the byte at the pointer.
, Input a byte and store it in the byte at the pointer.
[ Jump forward past the matching ] if the byte at the pointer is zero.
] Jump backward to the matching [ unless the byte at the pointer is zero.

If you are interested in writing really small programs...Google it or use this links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck
http://www.soulsphere.org/stuffage/bf.net/
http://esoteric.sange.fi/brainfuck/

Creating a New Folder dialog in C#

I am building a File Manager that may look like Total Commander in C# so I had to implement a New Folder dialog that should be as simple to use as possible...This Is what It looks like:

So...The functionality should be like this...The user enters the new folder name...and clicks Ok if he is ok with what he entered..or Cancel if he changed his mind. Also the user has the possibility to press Enter to accept the text and Esc to cancel...

First Add two buttons to the form and name one OkButton and the other CancelButton,then add a textBox and name it FolderName....if you want....you can add a label that displays the text New Folder but if you do not add it it won`t change any functionality of the dialog.

Now set the Dialog Result of the OK button to OK and the Dialog Result of the Cancel button to Cancel into the Form`s Load event handler. The code should look like this:

this.OkButton.DialogResult = DialogResult.OK;
this.CancelButton.DialogResult = DialogResult.Cancel

Next....set the TextBox`s name proprieties and assign a new event that should handle the Esc and Enter keyPress. So here is the code:

private void FolderName_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
{
this.OkButton.PerformClick();
}
if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
{
this.CancelButton.PerformClick();
}
}

In order to make the code simple we just "press" the Ok and Cancel through code using the PerformClick() method.

Another improvement would be: when the dialog opens the focus should be on the TextBox and not on something else...so one line of code should solve that:

this.FolderName.Focus();

Microsoft Virtual Server FREEEEEE

If you worked with Virtual PC from Microsoft or VMware form VMware, Inc.....you should try the new Virtual Sever software that is free.....Seems way too good to be true....but....here`s the proof: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/software/default.mspx

Need to access your ReiserFS(for Linux) partition?...I found a nice tool that lets you do that....Though you may have to do a lot of changes in ther registry.....but....if you have Linux installed you probably know how to use the Windows RegEditor...Check it out here:http://p-nand-q.com/download/rfstool/usage_on_windows.html

Microsoft and In-Game Comercials...

Ok....the big news for today is...Microsoft to Acquire In-Game Advertising Pioneer Massive Inc....so....from now on....no more ads-free games....You`ll see on in-game tv`s..please wait....your comercial is loading...:)..well....if that will lower the cost of games....it could be a good thing...or maybe in-game ads sponsored games(just an ideea...but that`s too good to be true)...
Here is the original press realease form Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/may06/05-04MassiveIncPR.mspx

WinXP can run on.....what....8 MHz???

I couldn't`t believe that either...but it seems true...windows XP can run on virtually any computer that has a processor speed of over 8MHz and 20MB of RAM...niccceeee....
The thing is...The OS is stable but...if it takes 30 min to start windows....you will get a headache if you want to start a program...but...the bottom line is....it WORKS!!!
If you need proof...check this out: http://www.winhistory.de/more/386/xpmini_eng.htm

New Opera Mini on the loose

I just installed the new Opera Mini browser on my Motorola V360 phone and it works GREAT...I had version 1.2 installed but the new 2.0 version really rulz....It has skins....settings for all the data display types....direct file download....and really really nice looks....totally cool browser :) get it here http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/operamini/phones/