Entries for yman

GCSE Results. [GCSE Results.]

yman — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:15:07 GMT

It's that time of year again in the UK, when all 16 year olds receive their GCSE Results.

Overall I did "ok":

Maths: B (A little bit disappointed but I did seriously mess-up the completion exam so I guess it's respectable.)

English: A (Would have been an A* but I answered about the wrong character in a question :|)

Science Double: A* A*

ICT Double: A* A* (I know, it's ICT, a monkey could probably pass).

Journalism (an interesting new course which I took in favour of English Literature. Nonetheless it wasn't a walk in the park and was rigorous.): A

Learning for Life & Work (soon-to-be a mandatory subject. My school had the grace to force it on us regardless. A nice PC exam; thanks New Labour): A*

RE Short: B (going to get it remarked as it was a high B)

Geography: B (again an extremely high B which will be remarked.)

Business Communication Systems (I didn't even take it as a class. I just revised the revision books!): A*

French Short: D (well, ehmm, it's only french)

edit: added some breaklines.

edit: oops, I got two A* A* in Science Double!

in reply to GCSE Results.

Finding Accurate Averages [Finding Accurate Averages]

yman — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:50:42 GMT

First off, I must admit I am not a maths guy, so please be gentle if I am talking a load of rubbish :)

I am working on a new community social networking site (not another one you say? Don't worry, it's quite original and all will be revealed in time.) which allows users to rate each piece of content in x series of categories with a value from 1 to 10.

I need a way to accurately work-out the overall average value for each category. However, I am aware (thanks GCSE coursework) that the arithmetic average (add up all sums and divide by the frequency of numbers) can be "poisoned" or affected with outliers, extreme values.
I need a way to accurately determine the overall average but also taking into account each users "voting weight". Say one user had a voting rate percentage of 100%, their rate would take more weight than someone with a voting weight percentage of 10%. I would like the voting rate to be determined from the overall average for a category when calculated. Say I rated the content in the category with a value of 1 and when calculated the overall average of all votes is 9, I would like my voting percentage to decrease. This is vulnerable to people collaborating and systematically increasing their voting weight, however I am sure I can do some checking to detect such behavior.

I first thought of removing extreme values by arranging all values in ascending order and subtracting one from each other thus allowing me to get a list of the increasing amount. I imagined I could then remove extreme increasing amounts therefore meaning I could take extreme answers away. But after that I seemed to go around in circles trying different methods.

Anyone have any ideas how to calculate this?

in reply to Finding Accurate Averages

Dals and Datatables. [Dals and Datatables.]

yman — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:33:31 GMT

I am in search of clarity and confirmation on whether I am implementing my web applications properly.

Currently, I obviously use a three tier architecture: gui, business and data. My business layer returns entity classes which my gui layer consumes.
The question is, is it ok for the Dal layer to return DataTables which the business layer subsequently uses to populate corresponding entity classes with? I originally chose this pattern as I reasoned that it clearly seperates the layers, data and business. It also makes it easy for my web apps to be db independent as the Dal layer is normally implemented as a pluggable interface or derived class. Is this ok? Or should the Dal layer actually return the entity classes? If so would the business layer simply have wrappers around the direct Dal methods when entity classes need to be exposed, e.g "User[] GetUsers()".

in reply to Dals and Datatables.

Re: Why do some people not like .Net framework. [Why do some people not like .Net framework.]

yman — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 13:46:09 GMT

Will they be pushing .NET 3 through automatic updates to XP users?

in reply to Why do some people not like .Net framework.

Release EvNet's Codebase :) [Release EvNet's Codebase :)]

yman — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:34:39 GMT

Considering the lack of good CMS/Forums systems for Asp.net, would you ever consider opening the hood of your codebase, Jeff, Adam?

You wouldn't have to worry about support; just throw up the source and the SQL db scheme in a zip.... I am sure we all can figure out some wiki support for you ;)

Come on.... open the code :D

in reply to Release EvNet's Codebase :)

on10 1.0 up (C9 future forums engine) [on10 1.0 up (C9 future forums engine)]

yman — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 10:02:22 GMT

Seems like the team has finally pushed up the new on10 site. I am not bothered with the content of the site (I find the videos tiresome to watch), but I am interested in the technology which they have used.

The forums do look quite pleasant, but I hope in C9 3.0, the width of the displayed threads will be wider.

ps, team, you are flagging null reference errors in places.
It also looks like you are not using the new web application compilation method, you are use the default asp.net one. I know you may have it up there for debug, but you could think about using the VS 2003 way.

edit:
It doesn't look like you display the thread view count, do you keep a copy of it in the db though? I think C9 should have a thread view count.

edit:
No emoticons!

edit:
I am getting access denied JS errors when accessing ajax stuff in IE. Are you accessing cross domain stuff, maybe?

in reply to on10 1.0 up (C9 future forums engine)

Determine if in quotes? [Determine if in quotes?]

yman — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 14:53:00 GMT

I am writing a parser in C# and I need to know if a certain phrase exists in an expression but outside any quotes. I was thinking of firstly getting the position of the phrase/char using IndexOf, then I would loop through the whole expression and just keep track whether a quote is open or has been closed.

Anyone have a better idea?

in reply to Determine if in quotes?

IE Operation Aborted? [IE Operation Aborted?]

yman — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:19:48 GMT

I am developing an ajax web app. I work against FireFox and then test it against IE, normally much later.
The app works fine in FF, all the xmlhttp requests work etc. But when I try it in IE I am just prompted with an "Operation Aborted" message half way into the initial page load. It loads about half of the page and then just fires the message.

Any ideas of how to debug this or determine why it would flag this error?

edit:
This behaviour is present in IE6 and IE7... not just the betas

in reply to IE Operation Aborted?

Interview Request [Interview Request]

yman — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:04:47 GMT

I wouldn't mind seeing an interview involving the guys who designed live.com. I know the live mail team is in CA, don't know about the live.com team. If they are in CA, never mind.

in reply to Interview Request

SQL Server CAL licensing question [SQL Server CAL licensing question]

yman — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 20:01:35 GMT

If you have a SQL server which is licensed on a user CAL basis and you are using it as the db for your asp.net web app, would you need a CAL for the amount of users accessing your asp.net app per second?

in reply to SQL Server CAL licensing question

Leaks Javascript IE memory? [Leaks Javascript IE memory?]

yman — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 21:59:50 GMT

This code wouldn't obviously leak memory, would it not?



function doSomething() {  
  

   var mycallb = function() {
    
     alert("woot!\n my callback!");
  
   }
  
callServer(mycallb);


}

function callServer(callb) {

var b = function() {
    
// maybe do something here, set status?
   

callb(); // raise call back
  
}
  

Network.Request("blah.com",b);


}

in reply to Leaks Javascript IE memory?

on10.net - > ten.com ? [on10.net - > ten.com ?]

yman — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 16:45:32 GMT

Well, I was examining the JS source for on10 and I came across this:

registrationResults.innerHTML= 'Account Created " + "You will receive a confirmation email from admin@ten.com" + " containing a validation link, copy and paste that link " + "into your browser to activate your account." + "<a href='javascript:DoLogin();'>Click here to sign in now</a>";

Go to ten.com (not work safe) yourself!

edit:
I will just tell you what it is, dont want to get anyone into trouble :)
It is the front page intro to a p0rn site.

in reply to on10.net - > ten.com ?

Win IRC Server? [Win IRC Server?]

yman — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 10:46:10 GMT

Does anyone know a good win based irc server, apart from unreal ircd? I always struggled trying to get the services to work together with unreal.

in reply to Win IRC Server?

ASPX 2.0 & ASPX 1.1 Session/Auth Sharing [ASPX 2.0 & ASPX 1.1 Session/Auth Sharing]

yman — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:42:21 GMT

I have created a site coded in aspx 2.0 which uses my own custom authentication (sessions etc). I want to add bullitin boards supports to the site, but I want to hook into my own custom authentication system.
I am going to use the Yaf (http://www.yetanotherforum.net/) aspx forum system, but there is one quite large problem. Yaf only currently works under ASP.NET 1, and is currently hard to port over to 2.0.
Is there a way so Yaf (it will sit in /forums in the root) can interface with the sessions held by my main site?

I was thinking of trying to implement some custom cookie system which would be built ontop of the asp.net 2 sessions. The main site would issue the cookie when the user logins (it would set the sessions as well). The cookie would contain the user_id of the current logged in user. The forum system could extract this cookie which was set in the main site and retrieve the user_id inside. The forum system could then query webservices in the main site which woud convert the user_id to usernames and any other required auth stuff. I would have to implement some security checking, so a hacker couldn't issue a crafted cookie to the forums system (the main site would probably compare the cookie user_id with its session user_id).

Does anyone have any other ideas?

edit:
New idea

Maybe should I do something similiar which is used to bridge asp to aspx sessions? For each request Yaf would make an internal call to an aspx page in the root, it would include the ASP.NET_SessionID which has been supplied by the client as a header. The root aspx page would return the session values required by Yaf.

in reply to ASPX 2.0 & ASPX 1.1 Session/Auth Sharing

ASP.NET .NET remoting client. [ASP.NET .NET remoting client.]

yman — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:17:14 GMT

Has anyone here ever used ASP.NET as a front end .NET remoting client? I am not using IIS to host the .NET remoting server. I will be just using TCP channels.

in reply to ASP.NET .NET remoting client.

SQL Server Management Studio Express - TCP/IP [SQL Server Management Studio Express - TCP/IP]

yman — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 19:30:28 GMT

i have read that you can use the free sql management studio express to manage sql server 2000. I tried connecting using the management studio but it wants to connect to my sql server using named pipes which I cant use. The sql server is behind a firewall with port 1433 forwarded, I need to connect to it using the TCP/IP network library.

Does anyone know how to tell sql management studio express to use the TCP/IP library to connect?

edit: I am quite new to sql server management, so if I am talking rubbish, tell me :)

in reply to SQL Server Management Studio Express - TCP/IP

Good Coding Music? [Good Coding Music?]

yman — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 18:24:47 GMT

I am trying to search the pillers of the internet to find music which can accommodate early morning coding. I currently listen to rammstein which is quite good because of the fast paced nature.
Anyone know any good music which keeps minds active when coding?

in reply to Good Coding Music?

C# Async Sockets Threading Problems [C# Async Sockets Threading Problems]

yman — Wed, 31 May 2006 17:30:39 GMT

I am developing an app which needs to connect via TCP to the central server. I decided to go async sockets sockets, but I then found out that I trapped myself using Invoke to talk to the UI. I dont really want to use a Background worker.
I have seen some async .NET sockets implementatiosn in dlls done in C#. You simply add an event handler to the "OnDataRecieve" etc. They managed to flag the event on the same thread which the reference to the library was created. So you could update the UI without having to call invoke.

I have ran the library through .NET reflector without much avail. They seem to be using [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.Synchronized)] inside the delegate specification before the "add { }" & "remove {}" blocks.

Any help or ideas of what they may be doing, would be much appreciated :)

Update: Never mind, I have found a way :)

in reply to C# Async Sockets Threading Problems

Regular Expressions Extract Anchor Text [Regular Expressions Extract Anchor Text]

yman — Sun, 07 May 2006 18:00:32 GMT

Would anyone kindly share a .NET regular expression sequence which can extract the text element from an anchor tag.

Example:

<a href="url">I want this</a>

I dont know what the url would be, but I would like to extract the text element from the anchor tag.

in reply to Regular Expressions Extract Anchor Text

Forum Group Not Found [Forum Group Not Found]

yman — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:02:02 GMT

I followed the link below for a supposed thread called "Deleting all my posts... how brave" from my RSS reader. But when I visit the link, I get a "Requested Forum Group does not exist" error.
I am seeing some hidden posts from a hidden forum, or what?

The problem is, how do I create/architect the DHTML dialogs:

1. Simple draw all the menus using JS, and add functions, when the browser opens the app.

2. Make a request to the server when the desired dialog is required, it will eval() the responseText. The reponseText will contain JS code to draw the dialogs (document.createElement), and the required code to handle the logic of the dialog (user input).

3. Make a request to the server when the desired dialog is required, and eval() the responseText. The responseText this time will still contain JS code, but it will hold the required dialog's HTML/XHTML in a var string. There would be some JS in the response to create a holder and inject it with HTML using the var string (innerHTML) . The JS will still like before, contain code to handle the logic.

4. Any other ideas!

The idea behind it, is to reduce the amount of JS/HTML needed to run the app initially. The JS for the dialog will only be used when the user requests that dialog.

in reply to Web 2.0/AJAX DHTML Dialog Galore

Static SQL Connection [Static SQL Connection]

yman — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 21:23:04 GMT

Right, I have a problem.
Lets do a simple example.

Say I have 3 classes, all do handle different aspects of logic. The classes uses a static sqlconnection, so one doesnt have to create a new sql connection for each class.

Note, this is for asp.net

Public Class DataConnections
{
      public static sqlConnection;

      public static void Open() {
sqlConnection = new sqlConnection();
      // Blah
      }
      public static void Close() {
      // blah
      }

}

public Class Main {
      DataConnections.Open();
      Logic1 code = new Logic1();
      Logic2 code2 = new Logic2();
      code.test();
      code2.test();
      DataConnections.Close();
}

public Class Logic 1
{
      public void test() {
          // perform our operations on the DataConnections.sqlConnection
   }
}

public Class Logic 2
{
   public void test2() {
        // perform our operations on the DataConnections.sqlConnection
      }

}

If I dispose everything correctly, is it valid to use a static sql connection object between multiple classes in a web project?

update:
fixed/expanded the example code

in reply to Static SQL Connection

Writely acquired by google [Writely acquired by google]

yman — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 21:23:51 GMT

I dont like posting news, but this sounded interesting.

Google has recently acquired the webbased writing app, writely

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/09/writely-confirms-google-acquisition/

Since writely is coded in ASPX, I wonder if google will convert it to python or whatever they use.

(btw, sorry if this has already been posted)

edit:
the ww2.writely.com is used for serving information, which is hosted by google's own webserver. www.writely.com/basepage.aspx?action=login is hosted by IIS6.

in reply to Writely acquired by google

More antitrust [More antitrust]

yman — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:28:47 GMT

http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=9C46B7CD-67E3-46E6-A23F-6C6BEF6A1DD3

They are claiming that it is not fair that ms includes Active Directory with Windows Server.

Edit:
They also claim that it is not fair that ms includes the .NET framework, Media Server.

in reply to More antitrust

Dynamically loading javascript [Dynamically loading javascript]

yman — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 16:40:32 GMT

For WebDev 2, I will need to allow javascript to be dynamically downloaded.
This is not to hard at all, using document.createElement("script"). But I need to know that the new js source has been downloaded, since "<script src=""> pull the src asynchronously.
One wanted to use the onload attribute of the script tag but it only seemed to work in FF and not IE.
I'm thinking that the only option is to append some event notifying code to the end of the dynamically pulled script to notify and call a function.

Does anyone know any other way of doing this?

in reply to Dynamically loading javascript