Posted by Miguel Moreno on 5th May, 2013
Bitcoin is an entirely digital, global currency launched in 2009: it is a fully decentralized monetary system with no central authority that regulates the monetary base. What does this mean? Well, it is money, currency, that can be sent over the internet to transfer money or to make payments to anyone. However, it is not physical money. Think of how email allows us to send a digital message to anyone in the world, for free. Bitcoin is very much the same concept, but for money: Email is a digital version of paper mail. Bitcoin is a digital version of paper cash. You can store digital cash in your wallet or...
Posted by Miguel Moreno on 7th December, 2011
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 was quite impressed 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...
Posted by Miguel Moreno on 2nd August, 2011
I find myself taking 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. It is the reason I pay $49 for it. Now, if you just need to take screenshots, without any heavy editing, I have found two alternatives that come quite close. First one is Zscreen, an open-source screen...
Posted by Miguel Moreno on 17th March, 2011
Today I learned that the default C# RichTextBox control does not handle hyperlinks out of the box. Wait, it doesn’t..? How is that possible? Yes, hard to believe. So, two hours later, I found a workaround: if you do want to have hyperlinks work, you need to do the following: First, set the DetectUrls property on the RichTextBox control to True. Then, open the Designer.cs file and find the generated code block for the RichTextBlock properties and handlers. Add the following line: Add RichTextBlock handler this.myRichTextBox.LinkClicked += new LinkClickedEventHandler(this.myRichTextBox_LinkClicked); Add the Eventhandler method Add RichTextBlock handler method private void myRichTextBox_LinkClicked(object sender, LinkClickedEventArgs e) { system.Diagnostics.Process.Start(e.LinkText); } That is...
Posted by Miguel Moreno on 6th March, 2011
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 likely 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...
Posted by Miguel Moreno on 4th October, 2010
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),...
Posted by Miguel Moreno on 12th February, 2010
Silverlight 3 comes with built-in validation for many of the input controls. Setting them up is fairly easy and they are styled well enough that you could use them right out of the box. If you would like to know how to set it up and also would like to customize the look and feel of the fields and validation message, this short tutorial will explain how to do just that. Silverlight...
Posted by Miguel Moreno on 27th June, 2009
Mainly writing this entry so I don’t spend hours looking for a solution when I need it again, since I tend to forget rather quickly how exactly I solved a problem. In this case, I have a website that is ASP.NET 3.5 and a folder which contains a different .NET application. I understand that the web.config in the root of the site, will cascade down into the applications within by default. What if our application within uses different settings… how do we prevent the settings in the root to affect the child applications? Well, I learned that this can be accomplished in two parts. First there is a somewhat...
Posted by Miguel Moreno on 4th May, 2009
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, not yet. I am warming up to the idea, but it seems that everyone has one and I would have to be forced to switch providers. What...
