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Tweaking IE 7 |
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Developments
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By TM Central on
12/17/2007 9:19 AM
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IE 7 has been out for over a year now, and we've had some clients holding off on it (and for good reason at first!). However, our use has been good since the middle of last year and we now recommend it. Here's a good article on tweaking it: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9052178&pageNumber=1, and another (referenced by the first) for shortcuts: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/attachment/715071.ashx
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Encrypting SQL Server Endpoint(s) |
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Developments
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By TM Central on
12/11/2007 4:37 PM
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So you want to open your SQL server to the outside, but don't want the whole world to read your data? There's a BUNCH of information out there but its not all together... A bit here or there... So below I've lined up the best ones we've found:
http://blogs.msdn.com/sql_protocols/
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms131691.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms130822.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/sql_protocols/archive/2005/12/30/508311.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316898
To force or allow a SQL Client to accept a non-standard cert, follow this link, http://www.connectionstrings.com/?carrier=sqlserver2005, and look for "Encrypt data sent over network". Now what is not documented here is not the "Encrypt=yes;" command and the "TrustServerCertificate=true;" also apply to ADO.NET AS WELL AS SQL NATIVE CLIENT! The "encrypt" forces the client to encrypt all communications w ...
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.NET Downloader |
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Developments
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By TM Central on
10/30/2007 2:44 PM
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This is always something to look at: a Multi-threaded downloader in .NET. It seems to be very extensbile, and with some mods could be a great updater and/or file sync. A Multi-thread C# Segmented Download Manager - http://www.codeproject.com/cs/internet/MyDownloader.asp
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New .NET Reporting Options |
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Developments
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By TM Central on
10/2/2007 11:27 AM
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For the past decade, when developing in a MS world, Crystal Reports was the defacto standard you worked in. Most larger apps had some sort of Crystal interface for custom reports and many companies mandated it as the "one-size-fits-all" reporting component. This is true today where Crystal comes bundled as part of Visual Studio - the main development IDE for the .NET Framework.
However, Crystal is not universally loved or even tolerated (see http://secretgeek.net/CrystalDodo.asp). Our experience has been that Crystal's pre-.NET functionality put it out in front of the competitors 6-7 years ago, but its "face-lift" has not been good. They have essentially tried to take the same core-code and port it into the .NET CLR while adding web-access. At the same time, they apparently felt that different methods of delivery now possible for any reporting system mandated a bewildering set of licenses and price increases. Thus, we've been looking at some possible replacemen ...
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.NET and Security |
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Developments
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By TM Central on
9/18/2007 8:29 AM
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Microsofts .NET Framework is so good for so many things, but its a big "gotcha" for security! .NET is big on security and everything not executed on the local drive is subject to its rules. Network (and internet) executables are what they are trying to protect against - and for good reason; with Microsoft's perceived track record on flaws and security, the more potential malware you can stop at the perimeter (i.e., its execution), the less you have to worry about it exploiting a flaw or running unbeknownst to the end user.
However, the .NET Security Configuration tool is not easiest to work with. First the documentation is TERRIBLE - look for blogs and deeper MSDN articles (http://blogs.msdn.com/shawnfa/archive/2004/12/30/344554.aspx, http://blogs.msdn.com/shawnfa/archive/2005/07/27/443975.aspx, and http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4z8tf9wx(VS.80).aspx are a few) for the real scoop and real-world scenarios. Also, each network area is broken up in it almost exactly like ...
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Numeric Datatypes |
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Developments
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By TM Central on
9/18/2007 7:15 AM
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It is a common fallacy that computers "think" in numbers - they do not. Many others believe they process binary - 1s or 0s - and this would be correct. But have you ever stopped to think how then they "convert" those numbers to binary to story and process mathematics? While this is a huge subject and one more suited for a Computer Science class than a blog, we got on this subject in depth when modifying a client's source code. You see, the previous programmer was using several numeric types interchangeably and when the exact same inputted numbers were compared they did not "match", and since this was a financial application it was more than a bit critical that they balance! Long story short, many of the various numeric datatypes look at and apply different memory reservations and processing to the same number - the most common of these is how each one handles fractions (i.e., non-whole numbers) since they must be ultimately represented to the processor as a binary. For any ...
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FTP and .NET |
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Developments
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By TM Central on
9/7/2007 2:03 PM
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With all of the abstraction in .NET and with all of the other "higher-level"" protocols such as SMTP present, it is a little amazing there is no support for FTP natively. Instead you need to access the Wininet api directly as with the following code:
Public Class FTP
EntryPoint:="InternetCloseHandle")> _
Public Shared Function CloseConnection(ByVal _
HINet As Integer) As Integer
End Function
EntryPoint:="InternetOpenA")> _
Public Shared Function Open(ByVal _
sAgent As String, ByVal lAccessType _
As Integer, ByVal sProxyName As String, _
ByVal sProxyBypass As String, _
ByVal lFlags As Integer) As Integer
End Function
EntryPoint:="InternetConnectA ...
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Differences from SQL 2000 to 2005 |
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Developments
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By TM Central on
8/31/2007 8:29 AM
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Since we work on ALL flavors of MS SQL from 6.5 on up, the question is always out there - "why upgrade to a newer version?" Note that although we are a Microsoft Partner, we prefer to take a look at their products from an Programming/End-User perspective. SQL Server Central just popped out an nice simple article on the main reasons to upgrade (http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/2988.asp) for an existing installation. Note that there are MANY more improvements that are NOT listed in the article, but these are many of the main reasons for an upgrade (vs. an entirely new DB/front-end that can take advantage of the newer functionality without necessitating a whole re-write).
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