I have been recently busy with a couple of projects and had to decide on a new CMS framework to build them on. I had tried Umbraco in the past and found I had some issues with the installation and just never couldn't quite "get" it right away. I looked at Orchard after seeing it at MIX in Las Vegas and finally also tried Composite C1 from Denmark. I fell in love with the last one.

It is not so much the features that come with the framework, but more the freedom it gives you to write your code whichever way you want. You can use the provided XSLT extension or provide your own and use them as controls. If you prefer to write your controls in C# code, you can do that to and cll them exactly the same as you would the built-in XSLT functions. You can use it with existing masterpages, MVC or old-school ASP.NET. It is free and comes with a bucket of ready to go plug-ins. Some of these components are to be paid for, but very few of them. 

I understand that the choice of picking a CMS is based on requirements, technology, capabilities and finally personal preference, but this is one I would highly recommend.

Read more here:  http://www.composite.net/

I find myself taing screenshots often at mostly portions of the screen; whether it is to show work in progress to others or something else. For those instance, I have been using Snagit from techSmith for years. This is a relatively cheap solution for performing these tasks. I loved having the ability to add arrows to the screenshot or a shadowed border that can then be immediately copied and pasted in an email or anywhere else. However, it is $49 and releases about once every year. 

So, I stumbled upon Zscreen, an open-source screen capture program for Microsoft Windows. I find this app very powerful and has more option than I have use for. Including automatic uploading to ftp servers, emailing, naming conventions, silent operations and performing custom actions on any images captured: I am thinking this free option will be my choice for screen capture for the future.

While researching options for a shopping cart module for an ASP.NET application, I came across several packages. Of course, I had already gone through the list of the popular players in this market: 

• dotshoppingcart 
• vevocart
• znode
• volusion
• aspdotnetstorefront 
• Microsoft Commerce Server. 

And there are lilkely several more. However, most of these listed carry a hefty price tag and the ones that don't just didn't feel like the right choice for the app I am developing, based on reviews of developers who have had to work with them.

However, one package, NopCommerce, impressed me out of the box: it is an open source e-commerce solution that is based on ASP.NET 4.0 and installs using Microsoft Web Platform Installer (in my case, on Arvixe Hosting). I was able to use it right away and the list of customizable features and options is vast.

The jury is still out until I play with it some more, but from my initial research, this is the one I will be using for this project. I have also found some goodlooking templates on http://www.n-theme.com/

Read more: http://www.nopcommerce.com/

I have had a Nexus One cellphone for a while and with so many applications available, it is usually a common topic to ask what the best application for an Android device is. The same is true with many iPhone users trying to brag about how cool their phone is compared to an Android.

When that happens, I mention Swype. Unlike many apps that are cool, I have yet to see something as truly revolutionizing as Swype, not just for mobile devices, but for all keyboard entry enabled devices. Swype is an alternative virtual keyboard, that instead of recognizing single letters (it can do that too, by the way), it recognizes a shape drawn over the letters that make up a word. It then compares the trajectory of the shape within its library and guesses the word for you. 

We have had many alternative pointing devices in the last 20 years...however, keyboard devices have stayed relatively pretty much the same, other than a slight variation in shape. Imagine a glass keyboard with no buttons to press; just slide one finger around... what a relieve for people with carpal tunnel syndrome or repetitive stress disorder in their hands because of the miniscule, but constant impact on their fingers of pressing 1000's of keys every day.... this approach could technically and literally change the way we type...

Read more: http://www.swypeinc.com 

Although I have pretty much always had one, I have never really cared much for the functionality of a cellphone, other than what it was meant to do...like placing phonecalls. I have an uninteresting Motorola Rzr, so anything is pretty much an upgrade.

So I decide to get a new phone. Windows Mobile? no thanks. I have had experience with a couple of pda's and until Microsoft comes out with something completely new, I will not go through that again...iPhone? no thanks... and although I have an open mind to maybe sometime try anything that Apple makes, it seems that everyone has one and I would have to switch providers.

What else...: Google Android...? all my Google apps constantly synchronized? Built-in GPS and Google Maps...? Unlimited Internet via 3G in my area? I now understand what is so interesting about a smart phone. The amount of productive apps that are available, the variety of functions they can performs is impressive, especially the location-aware applications. The one drawback is that if I ever want to write an application for it, I am going to need to learn some Android OS and Java.

Other than that, I have had it for only a couple of days and really love it...

On occasions, I come across some software that saves me a ton of time or help me be a bit more organized. Here is one that definitively helps me both ways.

I use my desktop as somewhat of a clipboard for temporary files and end up with a cluttered workspace. When it gets out of control, I then tend to create a folder called "old desktop" and must have several of these in my backups. 

This software allows you to create these regions or fences that hold your shortcuts and files together. You can create as many as you want and basically group your files. There is a ton more features and even more good products from their site. Oh, and did I mention it is free...?

Read more: http://www.stardock.com/products/fences

In a previous post I had mentioned about 60 free .NET components available at no cost at all. These are high quality controls and I still have to try many of them. 

Well, looking for a Silverlight Datagrid, I came across Devexpress again and noticed they are offering these two compoent sets for free, including their source code. 

• Silverlight Datagrid Control - here
  
• Silverlight Menu - Toolbar controls - here
  

I used to love Xceed andComponentOne controls, but they are expensive and Devexpress has become one of my favourites since they make it nearly impossible not to try/use their components and become a fan of them...

I just thought I'd post this, because there aren't many Silverlight Datagrid controls and this one is free. I will likely be doing some experiments with these controls, as soon as I am done with another Silverlight experiment I am working on..

I don't know...it is just a key that doesn't seem to do anything when pressed and it is just in the way. So many years staring at it and wondering what it was good for.

Well, it appears this little key is actually quite useful, as I have recently learned. By combining the Windows Key with other key, it allows you to perform frequently used task with hardly any effort. For example, to launch Windows Explorer, you may go to Start > Accessories, etc or maybe rightclick the Start button and select Explore or...... you could just hit Windows Key + E. That simple. Check out this list of shortcuts that I am sure you will start using, if you didn't know them already. 

[Windows Key] + L: Locks the workstation
[Windows Key] + E: Launch Windows Explorer

[Windows Key] + Tab: Cycle through the buttons in the Task Bar.

[Windows Key] + R: Launch the Run dialog box
[Windows Key] + Pause/Break: Launch System Properties dialog box

[Windows Key] + D: Minimize or restore all windows
[Windows Key] + M: Minimizes all open windows.
[Windows Key] + Shift + M: Undo minimize all windows

[Windows Key] + F: Launch Search for Files
[Windows Key] + Ctrl + F: Launch Search for Computers

[Windows Key] + U: Launch the Utility Manager

PS: In Office 2003 SP1 and 2007 the Windows Key has even more functionality. For example, by pressing Windows key + S in OneNote you can take an instant screen clipping - just drag the cursor over the area you want to "clip". Then paste the clipping wherever you need it.

I am evaluating several bug tracking/project management software packages and have found a couple of interesting one that seem very robust and are quite popular.

Even better, I have found that two of these offer some sort of free version of their paid product, being the amount of users, the only limitation...

• OnTime 2008 by Axosoft.
  Offers a single developer edition for free (details here and here).
  
  
• FogBugz by FogCreek software.
  Offers a trial that (via workhappy.net) can be enabled to work fully functional for two users in student and startup edition  (details)
  

We all know that you can ask for directions to the same destination multiple times and get different answers each time.

They will all lead you to your destination; however, some direction may get you there faster, some have a more scenic panorama, some with clear instructions and others are difficult to follow. 

The exact same is true for software development; each developer will write code their own way and have a reason as to why some function was written a certain way. However, with software, a key requirement is that we often don't want the elegance, the scenic nor the "pretty" code, but simply the code that executes efficiently, robustly and fast. How do you know if your code does exactly that...? You don't really know until you take your code for a test run and measure its performance...

There are a ton of tools out there that will assist in giving you a diagnosis of speed, performance, etc. 

Morgan at PHPVS.net has written a good article highlighting 9 essential tools that a developer ought to have to testrun their code and optimize it for deployment.

Read more: http://www.phpvs.net/2008/08/...

Visual Studio Service Pack 1 and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 have been released today. The downloads are available here: 

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (exe)
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (iso)
  
  
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1

"The .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 includes a lot of improvements and especially TONS (literally tons) of performance improvements for WPF applications, ADO.NET Entity Framework, ASP.NET Dynamic Data, ADO.NET Data Services Framework and much more…

PLEASE NOTE: If develop Silverlight apps with Visual Studio, please note that after installing Visual Studio 2008 SP1 you must update the Silverlight Tools (more info and download links are available here)." (via MSDN blogs - pblog)

If you use GMail, you expect to be using a highly robust, efficient and secure application. You also expect that your password is encrypted and transmitted via https when you log in. These are all true statements...however, in regards to encryption, that is as far as it goes. In other words, when you send or receive email, the data is transmitted using plain http protocol, thus in clear text and relatively easily "sniffed", especially when on a wirelless connection. 

You used to be able to "hack" GMail and just add an "s" to the http and make your connection secure when sending and receiving mail, however, that required a manual and often change every time you checked your email. 

Now GMail has the option to enable this feature permanently in the settings. You can now choose to transmit all you correspondence via a secure channel or not.

The drawback is obviously speed: your connection will be somewhat slower, because of the encryption and decryption process on both sides on your client and the server. However, because of the size of your typical email message, the speed difference should go unnoticed, unless of course your on a slow connection...

Read more at the Official Gmail Blog.

Over the years I have used both Microsoft's Virtual PC and VMWare. As to which one I prefer and is better, that is a whole other post. In this post I wanted to write about increasing the size of a virtual hard drive of a VMWare machine.

When creating a new machine you are asked to define the size of your drive and when you choose 16Gb, you  think you'll never use  that much anyways, until, after a while, you realize you do need more. In that case, there are no options to increase the size of your C: drive. Ofcourse, you could always add a new drive (D or E), but that is just more files lingering around, as if VMware didn't create enough already.... 

With regards to your OS drive size, you are stuck with the size you chose. No menu options, dialogs, or wizards can increase it... 

...unless you do this trick. Thanks to Paul Marshall for outlining these steps. 

I have done this a couple of times and have found these steps work almost without fail. One observation, is that apparently the hard drive needs to be assigned a drive letter, or otherwise you cannot extend it. Here are the complete steps:

1. Create a new full clone of your VM machine you want to increase in size, ensuring it has no snapshots.
   
2. Open the folder containing your VM files and you should have only one vmdk file.  
3. Open a Command Prompt and issue the following command, choosing your own size in Gigabytes, followed by the path to the vmdk file:
   C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware-vdiskmanager -x 20Gb "d:\[...]\vmdiskfile.vmdk"
   
4. After several minutes, the process completes, however, the disk is not ready yet. You have expanded it, but the newly added space has not been allocated yet and is thus unusable at this point. If the disk is the system volume you will need to mount the disk in a second VM and expand it from there. If its not a system volume do it within the virtual machine it belongs to.
   
5. Once you've mounted the disk in a different VM or booted up the VM it belongs to if its not the system volume, do the following: click on Start and then right-click on My Computer and select Manage
6. Click on Disk Management
7. Your second hard drive should show as available and the difference in space shows as unpartitioned.
   
8. Ensure this second hard drive has a drive letter, if not, assign it one.
9. Open a Command Prompt and type: diskpart
10. Then type list disk and ensure the disk you want to expand is indeed in the list.
11. Now type list volume 
12. This will show you the drives, their volume number, capacity etc. You now need to select the volume you are about to expand, using the following command. Where n is equal to the number of the volume.
    select volume=n
    
13. Once selected, you can now expand it using the extend command. Type extend, and your hard drive is ready. Close your machine (without saving) and start up the VM that this drive is the system volume on and check the size. 

It is no secret that I am not an admirer of the Adobe product line. "Bloated" is the first word that comes to mind...

I know that Adobe does a couple products that are quite complex (photoshop) and those we expect to be large in size, but, there is no reason for a simple rendering tool like the Adobe Reader to be so large, gobble up so much memory and take an eternity to fully launch.

As an alternative, I use Foxit PDF reader and have used it for several years. I would recommend this one blindly as it is lightning fast, very light and does its job very well...it lets me read PDF's....for free, with no ads or anything... [you can get it here]

There are plenty of alternatives, some with more capabilities than others, but here is a post with about 30 other options for PDF readers.

Read more: http://www.cartridgesave.co.uk/news...

"Do you like the annoying message that keeps asking you to restart your computer after installing windows updates every 10 minutes?

If you choose 'Restart Later', this question will appear again every 10 minutes."

Here is a way to eliminate this behaviour...

Read more: http://www.techdo.com/?p=86

Resizing an image is nothing new, and if you maintain the aspect ratio, it will look exactly the same but smaller or larger: smaller, you'll see less of it and larger, you'll distort the image.

But what if you could in some way, intelligently resize an image without distorting the content of it...? What if that intelligent technology could identify the less important background pixels in an image and delete those to shrink the image without touching the main object in the middle?

That sounds crazy, but that is exactly what this technology will offer. (Imagine this technology built into your browser...)

Rebooting a Windows computer is a pain in the neck and depending on the OS, hardware or software installed, it can take quite a while for the machine to boot up and be fully responsive. Averages run around one and a half minute. first the BIOS loads, and then eventually Windows.

So, what if you could just restart Windows, without restarting the BIOS?

"Sometimes, you need to reboot Windows (e.g. when installing new software), but there is no need to restart BIOS, too. However, the default is to reboot both. (That’s called doing a “cold boot,” rather than a “warm boot.”) There’s a trick that works on both XP and Vista to get it to do a warm boot instead, thus saving you 30 seconds per cycle"

Read more:  http://www.codejacked.com/

Update: Apparently this trick only worked in older Windows 95/98 machines. Details here.

Visual Studio is a very complex and complete piece of software and I use it everyday. I have very few add-ins for it simply because it really comes with everything I need. However, there is one thing, one key feature that I find is missing. I had written about it before and that is the lack of FTP support for web applications.

Sometimes, you just need to be able to make changes to a file, run it locally to verify that it works and being able to upload it directly to the webserver from within VS. I know there is some support for it, but frankly I think it was placed in there at the last minute...it is unusable. So, I think I have finally found a product that does the job decently exactly as I expect it to. It is an add-in to VS2005 and it is called Dispatch .

"Dispatch is VS plugin that helps you keep track of the files that need to be uploaded - all from within the comfort of the Visual Studio 2005 IDE."

Read more: http://dispatchasp.net/

I read a post somewhere (truly can't remember where...) about the tools one uses to develop software and thought to myself: do the software tools or programs we use identify us?

I think it would it be safe to say that you can tell a lot from a person from what he is wearing or which software products he/she uses. Would you think doifferent of someone who told you they used x application...? maybe because you preferred another one?

Interesting questions, but I'd thought I'd post some of my own tools I use on a daily basis...

Here they are:

1. Visual Studio 2005 (IDE)
   
2. SQL 2005 Management Studio (Database)
   
3. Virtual PC / VMWare (PC Virtualization)
   
4. Winmerge (File/Folder differencing)
5. Fireworks / Paint.NET (Image editor)
6. Dispatch (VS FTP add-in)
7. SyncBack (FTP Syncronization)
8. Fiddler (HTTP debugger)
9. Axosoft Ontime (VS bug track add-in)

"Since Google Analytics was launched in 2005 it has become one of the top analytics packages for small to medium sized websites. Growth was initially slow due to the frustrating waiting list system initiated by Google to avoid over stretching their servers. Now that the waiting list has been removed anybody can sign up to use this great service."

Excellent tutorials on customizing, extending and simply making the most of Google Analytics.  

via BlogStorm: Advanced use of Google Analytics Part I and Part II