Archive for November, 2009

SharePoint Videos for Developers

Here is a survey of free online videos on SharePoint for Developers.

You must click on the following link to look at a library of webcasts:SharePoint Videos

Is another name for SharePoint. SharePoint is really a name for a grouping of products that includes:

  • Search modules and a document-management platform
  • Web browser based collaboration functions
  • Process management modules

SharePoint may be used to host web sites that access:

  • Information stores
  • Documents
  • Host defined applications such as wikis and blogs
  • Shared workspaces

All users can manipulate or interact with:

  • Web parts
  • Lists
  • Document libraries

Background:

The term “SharePoint” can collectively refer to a number of products ranging from the base platform to assorted services. The platform is Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), which is included with Windows Server and available as a free download for those with Windows Server licenses. (Vista users can use a helper application from Bamboo Nation to allow them to run SharePoint without having to have Windows Server installed.) Services such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) provide additional functionality and features and are licensed accordingly.

SharePoint Family of Products:

SharePoint subsists of these divisions:

  • Search Server 2008
  • Forms Server 2007
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 MOSS Standard
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 MOSS Enterprise
  • Microsoft Office Groove Server 2007
  • Microsoft Office Project Server 2007
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer
  • Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS)
  • Search Server 2008 Express

SharePoint is not just a single use solution that replaces a full file server. Too the contrary, SharePoint delivers many solutions and each person is free to choose which ones to implement. These numerous solutions that SharePoint provides fall under three different heads: Collaboration, Processes, and People.

Users access SharePoint through a web browser. While all browsers are supported, only Internet Explorer is fully integrated and able to utilize the full functionality of a SharePoint Solution.

SharePoints sites are really ASP.NET 2.0 web sites that use a SQL Server database and that server by IIS. All site content data, such as items in document libraries and lists, are stored within an SQL database named by default as “WSS_Content_ID”.

Microsoft Search Server:

Microsoft Search Server (MSS) is an enterprise search platform from Microsoft. It builds on the search capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. MSS is based on the Windows Search platform, and they both use the same querying engine and indexer. MOSS search allows one to search metadata attached to documents.

Microsoft has made Microsoft Search Server available as Search Server 2008, released March 2008. There is a free variation available. It is called Search Server 2008. The express edition features the same feature set as the commercial edition, including no limitation on the number of files indexed. However, it is limited to a stand-alone installation and cannot be scaled out to a cluster.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer:

Administrators can customize SharePoint sites using Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer. It is a free WYSIWYG HTML Editor that replaces Microsoft FrontPage.

More Resources:

Buyer Beware! My Personalization Nightmare

I often explore for clever or distinctive gifts for Christmas. However, if anybody out there concludes that shopping for personalized gifts is like purchasing common gifts, please think again. Think hard and think long. I recently purchased one of these, I won’t mention the site because I’m an embroidery digitizer. I make products that the personalized gift vendors sell and incredibly, those guys could be one of my customers! However, this website, that I found somehow, were quick to take my money , but customer satisfaction was not their strong point. I discovered later that there were many problems with this company, but since I did not ask around in advance,

I didn’t find out until it was too late. Don’t make the same mistake I did…my advice is to take advice on whom to do business from your friends. It’s only your friends who have no vested interest in the decisions you make. Anyways, I digress… The item I purchased was custom made and not only do you need to purchase this stuff wayyy in advance, some of these people (and I use that temr loosely) they really make you follow their procedures when there’s a problem. So, be very careful about… 1. Give out the correct spelling right from the start and 2. So that a problem can be corrected. And! Don’t forget.. 3. Learn about the customer service staff response BEFORE you order. Good luck!

Joan Z.

See More Kid’s Personalized Gifts Here

Credit card debt becomes a real problem when a person cannot pay it. Payments can be missed due to an illness, job loss, divorce or the bank raising the interest rate or minimum payment.

Alas there are no reliable Credit Card debt relief Plans that recommend a credit card debt’s non-payment. A plan may recommend juggling minimum payments to pay down the smallest amount of debt first, then the next smallest amount, etc. Or, you can pay a credit counselor and the counselor will divvy up the payments. Or, you can pay a fee and principal amounts to a debt settlement firm to settle your debts.

What about those people who cannot pay? What about those that may not be able to pay in the near future for these reasons? I have had Credit Card debt That I was unable to repay. My first thought was about bankruptcy. There was always bankruptcy for shelter against unsecured creditors. But with the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Act, much of that protection is gone. Bankruptcy today can result in a court-ordered payment plan, or loss of home equity. It no longer wipes the slate clean.

What other options are there? I wondered that myself until I stumbled across the Credit Card Debt Survival Guide Www.credit-card-debt-survival.com. It is written by someone who could not, and then did not, pay tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. Instead he found ways to neutralize collection agencies, junk debt buyers and collection attorneys and to repair credit his credit, all within a few years. Once I read this e-book, it became clear to me that unpaid, unsecured credit card debt should not be enough to push a consumer into bankruptcy. At 240 pages there is enough detail to find the fine points of your credit card debt solution

Today there are millions of charged off credit card accounts for debt collectors to choose from. Every month millions more become late. Debt collectors are compensated with a percentage of what they collect. So, their time is money, and they would rather spend that time with less knowledgeable debtors. We could all get a collection notice, a mini-Miranda as it is known in the business, and some phone calls. But, from my experience after using what I learned in the Credit Card Debt Survival Guide, that will be it. The Credit Card Debt Survival Guide introduces the concept of financial death by guilt. Too many people allow their emotions to cloud their judgment and to cause bad decision making about how to respond in debt collection situations. I gained self-assurance with the knowledge in this book, and that resulted in credit card debt relieffor me.

Here is a bringing together of over 10 hours of video tutorials on VS 2010. The collection subsists of two video series. One video series is from the msdev.com website, and it is presented by Nancy Strickland. Nancy is a instructor at IT Mentors. The other series is from Learn Visual Studio, and it is delivered by Bob Tabor. The Learn Visual Studio Series requires that you become a member in order to see those videos.

The secret name for Visual Studio 2010 is “Hawaii.” A CTP (Community Technology Preview) variation was released in 2008 as a already installed virtual hard disk. In May 2009, the VS 2010Beta 1 was released as an installable variation, unlike the previous CTP variation that was already installed as a virtual hard disk.

The IDE for VS 2010 is supposed to abate the complexity and clutter by providing better support for:

  • Multiple document windows
  • Floating tool windows
  • Multi-monitor support

The IDE has been rewritten in WPF and the internals have been redesigned using MEF (Managed Exensibility Framework). Imaginative additions to the programming languages include:

  • F# (multi-paradigm programming language ML)
  • M – textual modelling language
  • Quadrant (visual model designer)

VS 2010 will come with variation 4.0 of the NET Framework and it will target developing applications for Windows 7. Silverlight is integrated into Visual Studio 2010 and there is much better support for parallel programming. Search abilities and Intellisense have been much improved in the new variation.

C# Webcasts – 56 Hours Of Webcasts

Anders Hejlsberg

This article provides links to three sets of video tutorial collections on C-Sharp. One collection consists of 15 videos by Dr. Joe Hummel. The videos in this collection are entitled Modern Software Development: Architecting Solutions in C#. Another collection consists of 10 videos on Microsoft’s Chief Architect for C-Sharp, Anders Hejlsberg. There is also a collection of 26 hours of videos by Bob Tabor on C-Sharp.

History: C# is a simple object-oriented programming language. Anders Hejlsberg is the chief architect for C#. C-Sharp’s syntax is based on the object-oriented syntax of C++. The most recent variation of the language is 3.0, and it was published in conjunction with the In 2007. The next proposed variation, 4.0, is in development.

According to Anders Hejslberg, it was the problems in other major programming languages, like Java, Delphi, and Smalltalk that guided the design of the Common Language Runtime (CLR), and the design of the CLR, in turn guided the design of C-Sharp.

In 1999, when Anders Hejlsberg formed a team to create the language, they originally planned to call it COOL, which stood for C-like Object Oriented Language. However, there were copyright problems with that name, and it was renamed C#. C Sharp in music means a half of a step higher in pitch. In programming, C Sharp indicates that this is an outgrowth of C++.

c# string, c# dataset, c# object, c# thread, c# array, msdn c#, datagrid c#

Versions:

  • C# 1.0 – introduced 2000 / published January 2002
  • C# 1.2 – published April 2003
  • C# 2.0 – published November 2005
  • C# 3.0 – published November 2007
  • C# 4.0 – in development



Major Design Goals:

  • C# is intended to be a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language.
  • C# needs to support:

    • Strong type checking
    • Array bounds checking
    • Detection of attempts to use uninitialized variables
    • Automatic garbage collection
    • Software robustness
    • Durability
    • Programmer productivity
  • The language is for developing software divisions suitable for deployment in distributed environments.
  • The most important features are programmer portability and source code portability, all the more for those programmers already familiar with C and C++.
  • Another key feature is internationalization.
  • C# is intended to be suitable for writing applications for



found a good way - c#, c# string, c# dataset, c# object, c# thread, c# array, msdn c#, datagrid c#</p>
<p>

Key Features of C#

  • Local variables cannot shadow variables of the enclosing block, unlike C and C++.
  • C# supports a strict Boolean datatype, bool. Statements that take conditions, such as while and if, require an expression of a boolean type. While C++ also has a boolean type, it can be freely converted to and from integers
  • In C#, memory address pointers can only be used within blocks specifically marked as unsafe, and programs with unsafe code need appropriate permissions to run.
  • Managed memory is automatically garbage collected and cannot be explicitly freed.
  • Multiple inheritance is not supported, although a class can implement any number of interfaces.
  • C# is more typesafe than C++.



Here is a congregation of over 35 hours of premium video tutorials on ASP.NET by Learn Visual Studio. In order to view some of the the videos, you must to become a dues-paying member of Learn Visual Studio.

You need to click on the following site to view a library of videos:15 Hours of Free Videos on Essential ASP.NET by Fritz Onion

History: ASP.NET is a web application framework developed by Microsoft. The framework makes it possible for programmers to set up dynamic web sites, web applications and web services. ASP.NET is fabricated on the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR allows programmers to make ASP.NET code using any supported .NET language.

Be sure to click on this link to view a library of webcasts:84 ASP.NET Video Tutorials

Succeeding the release of Internet Information Services 4.0 in 1997, Microsoft began researching possibilities for a unique web application model that would work out everyday complaints about ASP, all the more concerning separation of presentation and content and being able to make “clean” code. Mark Anders, a manager on the IIS team, and Scott Guthrie, who had joined Microsoft in 1997 succeeding graduating from Duke University, were tasked with determining what that model would look like.

Please click on this link to see a list of webcasts:35 Hours of Premium Videos on ASP.NET by Bob Tabor

The initial variation was called “XSP”, but the “X” did not demonstrably stand for anything. It was decided to produce the original platform on top of the Common Language Runtime (CLR), as it offered an object-oriented programming environment, garbage collection and other features that were seen as desirable features that Microsoft’s Component Object Model platform didn’t support.

XSP was renamed to ASP+ as it was seen as being the successor of Active Server Pages. Then, in 2000, it was renamed to ASP.NET to emphasize that it rested on the foundational .NET framework.

Versions: ASP.NET 1.0 was released in January of 2002. 2.0 was released in November 2005, and 3.0 in November 2006. The current version is 3.5, and it came out in November 2007. 4.0 is scheduled to released in the next few months.

The basic problem people have with Credit card debt Occurs when they cannot pay it. A divorce, a job loss, a severe illness or the bank increasing an interest rate or monthly payment could cause the lapse of monthly payments.

Yet every credit card debt relief strategy involves making payments, paying down the smallest amount owed first, for example, or paying someone to pay your debts for you, or paying someone else to settle your debts for you.

There will always be some people who cannot pay their monthly credit card bills. What relief can they seek? After a job loss, I was one of those people. I looked into the bankruptcy option. I learned that the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Act had changed that debt relief option. A court sanctioned payment plan could be the outcome of a bankruptcy filing today.

Eventually I found the Credit Card Debt Survival Guide Www.credit-card-debt-survival.com. It was written by someone like me; someone who could not pay his credit card debt. By necessity the author had to walk away from tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. He learned a lot about the non-payment of credit card debts and shares it all. Consumer protection laws, written notices sent certified return receipt, and ignoring debt collector threats all played a role in the debt relief he found. He offers sample letters and language for responding to debt collectors and collection attorneys. He covers all the important points from first hand experience and from a lot of research including debt settlement, debt collection, court action and arbitration, debt relief scams, finding the right kind of help and credit repair. After reading this 240 e-book, you appreciate how everything applies to your credit card debt solution. Once I read this, bankruptcy was no longer my only option.

Today there are millions of charged off credit card accounts for debt collectors to choose from. Every month millions more become late. Debt collectors are compensated with a percentage of what they collect. So, their time is money, and they would rather spend that time with less knowledgeable debtors. We could all get a collection notice, a mini-Miranda as it is known in the business, and some phone calls. But, from my experience after using what I learned in the Credit Card Debt Survival Guide, that will be it.

The Credit Card Debt Survival Guide points out that too many people react ignorantly or emotionally to debt collectors. It taught me how to react intelligently. The Credit Card Debt Survival Guide first gave me courage and peace of mind. Then with what I learned from it, I found credit card debt relief.

<--ARH-->

-->

<--ARH-->

The basic problem people have with Credit card debt Occurs when they cannot pay it. A divorce, a job loss, a severe illness or the bank increasing an interest rate or monthly payment could cause the lapse of monthly payments.

Yet every credit card debt relief strategy involves making payments, paying down the smallest amount owed first, for example, or paying someone to pay your debts for you, or paying someone else to settle your debts for you.

There will always be some people who cannot pay their monthly credit card bills. What relief can they seek? After a job loss, I was one of those people. I looked into the bankruptcy option. I learned that the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Act had changed that debt relief option. A court sanctioned payment plan could be the outcome of a bankruptcy filing today.

Eventually I found the Credit Card Debt Survival Guide Www.credit-card-debt-survival.com. It was written by someone like me; someone who could not pay his credit card debt. By necessity the author had to walk away from tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. He learned a lot about the non-payment of credit card debts and shares it all. Consumer protection laws, written notices sent certified return receipt, and ignoring debt collector threats all played a role in the debt relief he found. He offers sample letters and language for responding to debt collectors and collection attorneys. He covers all the important points from first hand experience and from a lot of research including debt settlement, debt collection, court action and arbitration, debt relief scams, finding the right kind of help and credit repair. After reading this 240 e-book, you appreciate how everything applies to your credit card debt solution. Once I read this, bankruptcy was no longer my only option.

Today there are millions of charged off credit card accounts for debt collectors to choose from. Every month millions more become late. Debt collectors are compensated with a percentage of what they collect. So, their time is money, and they would rather spend that time with less knowledgeable debtors. We could all get a collection notice, a mini-Miranda as it is known in the business, and some phone calls. But, from my experience after using what I learned in the Credit Card Debt Survival Guide, that will be it.

The Credit Card Debt Survival Guide points out that too many people react ignorantly or emotionally to debt collectors. It taught me how to react intelligently. The Credit Card Debt Survival Guide first gave me courage and peace of mind. Then with what I learned from it, I found credit card debt relief.

<--ARH-->

Here is a collection of 15 free webcasts on MRDS. The Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio is a Windows-based environment for robot control and simulation. You can Download Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 Express Edition At no cost.

Please click on this link to look at a list of webcasts: Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio

Note: If you want to get a deep understanding of robotics theories and concepts, you may want to check out Stanford’s Introduction to Robotics.

Four Components of MRDS:

04-07-09

Roomba Picture

Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Blisschan

* CCR (Concurrency and Coordination Runtime) – makes asynchronous programming simple. The CCR makes it simple to write down programs to handle asynchronous input from multiple robotics sensors and output to motors and actuators. With the use of CCR, we don’t need to do any manual threads management. This can be peculiarly valuable in handling concurrency and partial failure. CCR has a failure handling mechanism called Causalities. This is basically a generalization of Try / Catch for multiple threads. But this is for many machines and processes working in synchronous fashion. This is the base of Robotics architecture by Microsoft. You can even use this component for the applications running on a PC instead of a robot. CCR is available in the form of a dynamic link library that can be used by any .net language.

* DSS (Decentralized Software Services) Is the services architecture, and it is a companion to CCR. This is based on Service Oriented Architecture. This provides the ability to construct applications which are highly distributed and modular. This means you can execute your code in the processing work horses and use anywhere in the distributed environment. The DSS makes it easy to access, and respond to, a robot’s state via a Web browser or Windows-based application. This enables real-time monitoring of robotics sensors and real-time response to motors and actuators.

* VSE (Visual Simulation Environment) Allows one to simulate the behavior of robots in a virtual world using NVIDIA PhysX technology (3D engine) that includes advanced physics.

* VPL (Microsoft Visual Programming Language) Is a visual programming tool that is used for creating and debugging robot applications, web-based and windows-based interfaces.

The Runtime environment Has 2 important parts: the CCR and the DSS. The runtime is based on a lightweight REST-oriented services model. Making it REST based has made the services and applications to be independent of each other. They may be on the same machine or distributed across different machines connected through any method. When we talk regarding REST based, This means that the resources should be available by query strings. These services are available as resources to the other services, applications or User Interfaces. This is ultimately how Microsoft is able to promise low coupling between services. The Runtime supports from 8-bit to 32-bit robots. These robots may range from Toy Robots to Industrial Robots.

Microsoft Visual Programming Language Robotics programs very easily. Just drag and drop blocks that represent services, and connect them. It is also possible to take a collection of connected blocks and reuse them as a single block somewhere else in the program. VPL follows the Observer Pattern. This means that it is not based on Control flow but on data flow which enables some program elements to get executed when some data arrives. VPL provides a model-driven approach to develop and orchestrate services.

Easily Simulate Robotics applications using realistic 3D simulated models. Since testing with real robots is often expensive, it saves money to start out in a simulated environment first and then move to real robots once the concepts have been proven to work. Microsoft Visual Simulation Environment (VSE) is based on Microsofts XNA Framework and the rendering engine uses AGEIA PhysX Technology from AGEIA Technologies Inc.. AGEIA Technologies Inc. Is a pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics, enabling real-world physics simulation for robot models. PhysX simulations can also be accelerated using AGEIA hardware. These simulations can be recorded and saved as XML files and played back over and over again.

Be sure to click on the following website to look at a related post: Microsoft Robotics

Main Highlights of Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio:

* Scalable and Extensible Platform

The RDS programming model may be applied to a variety of robot hardware platforms, enabling users to transfer their skills across multiple platforms. The programming interfaces can be used to develop applications on single or multi-core processors.

* Easily extend Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio Functionality

Third parties can extend the functionality of RDS by providing additional libraries and services. Hardware or software vendors can make their products easily compatible with RDS.

* Develop using a ample range of programming languages

MRDS allows you to access the runtime services using the following programming languages: C# and Visual Basic .NET, JScript, and IronPython

Sample Applications:

* In 2008 Microsoft launched a simulated robotics competition named RoboChamps using MRDS, Four challenges were available : maze, sumo, urban, and mars rover. The simulated environment and robots used by the competition were created by SimplySim and the competition was sponsored by KIA Motors.

* Princeton University’s DARPA Urban Grand Challenge autonomous car entry was programmed completely with MRDS.

Supported Robots:

Evolution Nao.jpg

Aldebaran Robots

Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Burgermac