Entries for xgamer

Chrome is Version 4 ... Where are you IE ? [Chrome is Version 4 ... Where are you IE ?]

xgamer — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:06:05 GMT

Yesterday Google released Beta version 4 of their Chrome browser with claims of increasing speed of browsing ... 400% from the initial version 1 ( which itself claimed few times faster than IE ) .. So within a year and few months they have 4 versions of their browser.

Critics can say that having so many versions within so short time is not good .. i can agree to that .. they also can say that within each version the features are not much different ... but all have to agree that within a short period of time, they have introduced a lot of features, speedy browsing .. (apart from the fact that they are working on multiple platform and IE is only on windows )

I distinctly remember the same type of dynamism that IE brought with it when it started against Netscape .. by introducing 1-4 version of IE within a short period of 2+ years with a lot of feature additions [anybody remember Favorite icon, IE page transitions ... :) ] ... this was in the era when Internet was still evolving and majority of information still passed thru magazines, word of mouth etc... where as now news spreads more quickly with blogs,twitter,online news etc...

One can say that IE was able to capture market because of Windows OS .. but now google in its arsenal similar things like Google.Com, Youtube, Gmail etc ...

So unless MS wants to see another one of its products go down ... it has to up the ante (for goodness sake it still does not have a proper download manager, Spell check, Still uses a decade old rendering engine) ... and become the same dynamic team for which it earlier came to be known ... What do you think ?

in reply to Chrome is Version 4 ... Where are you IE ?

Mozilla backs Web Open Font Format [Mozilla backs Web Open Font Format]

xgamer — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:48:09 GMT

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/11/web-open-font-format-backed-by-mozilla-type-foundries.ars

So another one of the ideas/technologies introduced long back by MS finds place in other browsers but in a format different that used by MS ... eOT become ZOT / WOFF ...

When news like these appears I feel MS is like Xerox, not able to recognize and properly leverage technologies it creates (think AJAX, SOAP, .. so on )

Bill Hill one of the proponents of Web Font Embedding will be surely missed in Microsoft.

in reply to Mozilla backs Web Open Font Format

Now that is ridiculous even for struggling Music Industry People [Now that is ridiculous even for struggling Music Industry People]

xgamer — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:28:55 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/8317952.stm

I can try to understand need for DRM/Restricted Licensing(WGA) etc especially with the digital products like Music, Computer programs which can be easily duplicated / transferable unlike Physical products. Software and Music industry is trying to still trying find a perfect balance between control and freedom for user.

However, the above incident is really ridiculous where UK PRS ( Perfromance Rights Society - similar institution exists in each country which collect payments on behalf of copyright holders for public performance of their members content) threatened to fine a lady for singing in her shop

Thought matter has been resolved now (may be due to public outcry) ... it shows the ridiculous lengths these soft-media products companies going to control their content...

in reply to Now that is ridiculous even for struggling Music Industry People

Apple the New Microsoft - Atleast in Cash in Hand Terms [Apple the New Microsoft - Atleast in Cash in Hand Terms]

xgamer — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:40:50 GMT

For long we all have been hearing about MS being on of the few tech companies with large war(cash) chest on 35-45 Billon USD.

Now with large investments MS is making the same seems to be reducing. Even Google did not manage to come close to this amount.

However, as the per yesterdays Q4 result now Cash in Hands of Apple is 34 Billion Dollars.

Apples growth in these terms in last 4 years is amazing ... Now like MS Steve the other Steve also can buy Yahoo .. or many other companies .. :))

in reply to Apple the New Microsoft - Atleast in Cash in Hand Terms

Really Cool Water Feature ..Deskjet Printer on a Larger scale [Really Cool Water Feature ..Deskjet Printer on a Larger scale]

xgamer — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:01:07 GMT

Really Cool water feature created by a Japanese Company Koei ( http://www.koeiaquatec.co.jp/ ).

For me Fonts look like Windows Fonts .... May be deskjet/Laerjet printing like technology on a large scale ...

Created with Windows Printer/Device Driver ...??

in reply to Really Cool Water Feature ..Deskjet Printer on a Larger scale

Sidekick Data Loss Episode ... Can't believe it happening at MS [Sidekick Data Loss Episode ... Can't believe it happening at MS]

xgamer — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:04:12 GMT

One of the major reasons for one to believe about trusting big players with your data is that the adherence to procedures and practices.

But its hard to believe such a critical error can happen with a player like MS. I still can't believe MS does not have any backups for their servers ( I am not sure few days old backups would make sense .. in this scenario).

I feel this incident does not send a good signal to MS customers from MS which is trying to host everything online with sharepoint online,exchange online and azure etc ...

in reply to Sidekick Data Loss Episode ... Can't believe it happening at MS

Pheonix Bios UEFI Implementation - Boot in Seconds [Pheonix Bios UEFI Implementation - Boot in Seconds]

xgamer — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:21:15 GMT

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/24/video-phoenix-instant-boot-bios-starts-loading-windows-in-under/

That's very interesting from Windows Boot Speed and Green Tech point of view ... now only if MS and its partners get these things in the PCs especially netbooks ...

in reply to Pheonix Bios UEFI Implementation - Boot in Seconds

Does Microsofties Understand Internet ?? [Does Microsofties Understand Internet ??]

xgamer — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:28:30 GMT

May be this is the last time i harp the same old tune ( http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/Coffeehouse/257083-Microsoft-Too-US-Centric-/)..

Yesterday two companies MS and Google released their visual search products for testing .. Bing Visual Search and Google Fast flip.

Google Fast Flip is available everywhere in the world (though I should say that the content is predominantly US/European), whereas Bing Visual Search is not even accessible outside US ( unless you change your region to US on bing ).

Though not logical I can still understand some reasons for limiting availability of things like Zune HD to a country/region but what about a webbased product ... its beyond me...

From my perspective MS decision makers still fails to understand the ubiquity of internet ... :(

in reply to Does Microsofties Understand Internet ??

Cross Platform Mobile Web Framework [Cross Platform Mobile Web Framework]

xgamer — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:12:07 GMT

Recently I was exploring options for developing a basic web-mobile based interface for a application.

There are quite a few frameworks for like www.webapp-net.com or iphone.css/.js which are specifically targeted towrards iphone ( mainly may be because of its standardization).

I was wondering if there is any framework or css/js scripts, which will make the same webapp work in WinMo and other browsers.?

Frameworks like webapp-net.com seem to work (though not perfectly)on Symbian Webkit browsers. However fail in other browsers viz., Opera and IE.

On the same topic , I was wondering whether IE on Win Mobile 6.5 or 7 will support all the additional css behaviour added by appple in webkit ?. IF Microsoft makes it compatible it will be better for them as they will be able to use existing webapps without requiring developers to re-code it again.

What do you think ?

in reply to Cross Platform Mobile Web Framework

Mono Webhosting [Mono Webhosting]

xgamer — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:40:21 GMT

One of my colleague is looking for a Mono Shared Webhost for hosting a application provided to customers on ASP format. Their .net web-service application is compatible to Mono 2 and above and mysql. But currently being a small sized provider they would like to go for a shared hosting. The guy would like to have quite a bit space and bandwidth with multiple subdomains if possible.

I found some references on http://www.mono-project.com/FAQ:_ASP.NET about some hosting providers.

Has anyone used these providers ? How was your experience ? Any other suggestions ?

Thanks

in reply to Mono Webhosting

Distributed Version Control for Visual Studio - Suggestion [Distributed Version Control for Visual Studio - Suggestion]

xgamer — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:27:44 GMT

Me and My friend are developing some application in Visual Studio (.net) . I have used Visual Source Safe and on smaller scale Subversion for Version control on my PC. However, as we both are working on the same applications and are going to travel around during this period, was thinking of using some kind of distributed VCS.

I checked Git and msysgit which looks interesting. Has somebody used these tools or is there any other suggestions for Version Control in such situation ? How is the integration with VS or it needs to be done manually ?

As its a project currently on smaller scale I would like to go for free or opensource or less expensive solution.

in reply to Distributed Version Control for Visual Studio - Suggestion

May be one of the Reasons Live Search Sucks [May be one of the Reasons Live Search Sucks ]

xgamer — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 06:27:11 GMT

Its about crawling and crawling frequently ... :(

in reply to May be one of the Reasons Live Search Sucks

Gigapan and Silverlight [Gigapan and Silverlight]

xgamer — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:50:13 GMT

Just saw this image, aswesome .. But the default viewer which is Flash and Javascript based, does not have very smooth transition.

http://gigapan. org/viewGigapan. php?id=15374

I felt that silverlight with Deepzoom technology based viewer is perfect for this. Is any one from silverlight evangelism team working on it ? I found one reference of Seadragon version it works. But its still seems to be work in progress. http://www.odyex.com/gigadragon

It would be cool to have a silverlight based viewer for gigapn.org images.

On the same note does anybody have idea whether deepzoom is available in current moonlight version ? or is it planned to be included in next versions ?

in reply to Gigapan and Silverlight

Webservice Operation Timed out [Webservice Operation Timed out ]

xgamer — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:57:19 GMT

I am currently developing a front end for a webservice.

I require quite a bit of inital data, which I am getting by using multiple Webservice Async methods calls from within a Backgroundworker, so that I can do all my UI initialization.

Certain webservice calls are done in Sync mode such as Login to service, while the Async webservices may be running.

However, I noticed that sometimes, the webservices return "Request timed out" mainly for Sync webservices ( and sometimes for async webservices).

I tried setting ConnectionManagement maxconnection to 20 in .Net machine.config at the client and server.

I am using IIS 6 (Windows server 2003) with SQL Server. Using NHibernate as data access layer. I also use a custom SessionManager Webservice for differentiating between multiple clients.

Still intemittently I am receiving "Request Timed out" on random webservice calls.

What else should I check ? any IIS confiugration to be done ? Did you have any similar experiences ?

in reply to Webservice Operation Timed out

Java FX 1.0 [Java FX 1.0 ]

xgamer — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:42:15 GMT

Java FX 1.0 was launched today http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62049047,00.htm

Installed it properly... but strangely every time I tried running the samples .. received error message "Current version of Java on this system ( 0-unknown ) does not support JavaFX " and prompted for re-installation .. but on cancelling the installation and clicking on the applet i could run it.
[Update : The problem seems to be only in IE .. it works ok on Firefox]

Anyway it looks good ... its not slow as Applets ... and comparatively quite responsive ... Just that every time I start a sample .. it asks for Permission ... may be they are giving a lot of client access rights by default to Java programs ...

One feature which i liked is the ability to launch the same code as Desktop application using Java Webstart/JNLP.

I haven't tried development experience with Netbeans ... will try soon.

How was your experience ?

in reply to Java FX 1.0

Application Virtualization / Deployment ?? [Application Virtualization / Deployment ??]

xgamer — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:10:37 GMT

I have been facing a particular problem lately.

My company develops POS and other Database applications around POS. POS systems requires working with other hardware such as printer, cash drawer, display (working thru serial/parellel port) etc thru OPOS or UPOS.

Recently we need to setup quite a few demonstration sets for our partners at regular intervals on Multiple machines, which takes quite a bit of time ( install SQL Server, UPOS/OPOS, Application and configure all) etc.

I am looking for ways to make deployment easier. These applications are installed one or sometime more than one machines which have similiar ( but may not be exactly same ) configurations. So imaging solutions seems to be out-of-questions.

I am trying hand at VMWare but due to external devices, seems to be facing problems. I am also concerned about speed. Is there any other solutions ? I read about altiris application virtualization or softgrid application virtualization ? Haven't tried yet ? Is these tools for the above scenario where I need to deploy applications on different machines ? What are the paid / free solutions available ?

in reply to Application Virtualization / Deployment ??

SQL Server CAL Licensing. [SQL Server CAL Licensing.]

xgamer — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:14:35 GMT

I am having a bit difficulty in understanding SQL Server CAL Licensing scheme.

The scenario is as follows :
Company "X" is buying a business application software which uses the SQL Server database. The software uses SQL TCP/IP Connection to connect to the SQL Server. Company "X" has brought SQL Server license to be installed on Windows 2003 server and business application software to be installed on 10 XP Clients. Though all the 10 people will be running Business application software, they will not be installing any part of the SQL Server database components ( apart from ODBC / MDAC which is part of XP ). The Business application software will use ODBC / MDAC to access data on SQL Server. The Business application software uses the same SQL Server user to connect to SQL Server ( it does not use Windows Authentication but instead uses SQL Server authentication ) . All the 10 people may not be using the using the Business application software all the time and at the same time . Connection is over TCP/IP.

My Question is :
1. How many Client CALs are required to be purchased ? Is it 10 CALs ?
2. How the SQL CAL's are calculated - For example instead of one Business application on each PC, there are two Business applications from different vendors ( both use same SQL Server but may be different SQL Server user ) . Does the CALs need to be doubled though it is same PC ?
3. What if normally all the PC's are not running Business application at the same time, but only very very rarely (theoritical situtation ) all of them are accessing SQL Data using Business application - does this scenario change the SQL CAL Calculation ?

Its really confusing .... especially w.r.t SQL Server ( may be bcos when I think of SQL Server with TCP/IP connection, i think it like a webserver which can serve many users requests without licensing issues ).

in reply to SQL Server CAL Licensing.

Microsoft Buy This Company .... [Microsoft Buy This Company ....]

xgamer — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:21:56 GMT

Just came across a very nice piece of technology

Checkout
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/11/camspace-creates-a-wii-for-everyone-minus-the-nintendo-console/

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0srY37kkMw

The fully software based technology turns any item into controller for a PC with standard web-cam.

From my perspective it has huge potential for making interactions with computer easier especially in developed countries.

in reply to Microsoft Buy This Company ....

Is it really this easy to Hack Windows Vista ? [Is it really this easy to Hack Windows Vista ?]

xgamer — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:19:32 GMT

http://www.offensive-security.com/movies/vistahack/vistahack.html

The guy renames the cmd.exe to Utilman.exe using a Linux Live CD boot and Windows File system access. Then he can access Windows as System Admin even without logging into Vista :s

Did MS testers forgot to include this in their security plan ??

in reply to Is it really this easy to Hack Windows Vista ?

Direct Image Manipulation Viewer [Direct Image Manipulation Viewer]

xgamer — Sat, 24 May 2008 08:06:18 GMT

A very interesting idea for video viewer which alllows user to drag objects in the video to move the time line. The video they created is very cool.

May be very useful in Video editing packages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcIy9O344bI

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/22/dimp-a-direct-manipulation-video-player/

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/615949/Video-Browsing-by-Direct-Manipulation

in reply to Direct Image Manipulation Viewer

New FolderShare Website is slow [New FolderShare Website is slow]

xgamer — Fri, 16 May 2008 06:50:31 GMT

I have been using Foldershare for last 1 1/2 years and think it to be one of the great tools MS has been providing.

I normally do not need to visit the website as I do not create / modify frequently. However, the earlier version of the website was quite fast and was easy to use.

However, last two days I have been trying to use the new Foldershare website, it seems to be so slow.

It take very long just to sign in into the website. Even matter of adding another computer to the library seems to be taking few minutes.

I am accessing the service currently from Malaysia. How is your experience ?

in reply to New FolderShare Website is slow

Simple ( VB/,net) Free Attendance System [Simple ( VB/,net) Free Attendance System]

xgamer — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:11:43 GMT

My friend who is running a small restaurant is looking for a very basic attendance system. He is looking for a very simple system with employee clock-in / clockout time recording and on the basis of that simple attendnace report.

I could develop the system for him, but was wondering if already any free simple system already exists. Only complexity may be he has multiple shifts for kitchen staff, waiters and also restaurant closes in the afternoon.

I have already googled it, but the solutions dont have shift or too are advanced.

Thanks

in reply to Simple ( VB/,net) Free Attendance System

Standard RFID SDK [Standard RFID SDK]

xgamer — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:54:16 GMT

Hi All,

I am looking around for standard RFID SDK mainly with anticollision features and ability to reader a large number of tags in a short time.

So far I have seen skyetek and few china based SDKs. They all seem to be very low level mainly around C and strangely delphi :(

Have you ever come across a standard SDK preferably around .Net so that low level detail can be ignored and we can concentrate on higher level application?

Thanks

Satish

in reply to Standard RFID SDK

Google .. still the Ultimate search [Google .. still the Ultimate search]

xgamer — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 07:09:58 GMT

After the recent search update I have been using live search for practically all purpose and has been quite satisifed with its results and speed. However, at certain times, either due to its indexing speed or may be due to deficient algorithm it does not give correct result.

For eg. I searched "blame halo3" on all major ( live, google, yahoo, ask ) search engines. Only google returned the correct result for the video link ( www.break.com/index/blame-halo-3.html). It even listed the channel9 discussion which has been posted few hours ago. :). See the screenshot

I will still use live search .. but i think live search team should index content more often especially for dynamic sites like channle9 or microsoft sites.

What u say ?

in reply to Google .. still the Ultimate search

Microsoft Too US-Centric ? [Microsoft Too US-Centric ?]

xgamer — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 08:11:09 GMT

I feel that Microsoft and its offerings are too US-Centric. Currently I reside in Malaysia and Travel extensively in China, India and South Asia. I am not against giving priority to the country of origin at initial phase and not a US-hater, but feel that there is too much US-Centric development.

Examples :
Recently it was published that live Maps did a massive update to their data. I like the new updates and their interface. However, even now it does not allow full Zoom view of many of the important places (major / capital cities ) in the region, whereas Google even provides street searches.

Office Live was launched a 1 1/2 years ago. However, it is still not available in this region. Google apps for domains is available here.

This is also the case with many betas released by MS which are only restricted to US.

Live search even after 2 years does not offer localised search, whereas google offers country specific searches.

The list can go on like this. I think Europe and Australian region based niners also feel that same.

This MS strategy is alienating the non-US customers. I can understand that internationalization being a separate exercise for a product, however fail to understand reasons for restricting the English version geographically.

In the light of studies, which points the rapid increase of Internet / computer / mobile phone users in non-US regions, I feel MS will lose the market to local players or companies like Google which can quickly offer products internationally.

What do you feel ?

in reply to Microsoft Too US-Centric ?