Gavin Joyce's Blog

Source for thumboo.com thumbnailing service and database released

I have just noticed that Michael Schwarz has released the source code for his recent project, thumboo.com: 

Download your copy of the thumboo C# source code and create your own snapshots. Snapshot data will be stored in SQL Server (or SQL Express), download SQL database schema.
The web server source code will be available in the next days, too. Without you can directly use the created images.

 

If you like this post, please

 

 

.NET Search Engine - OpenSearch Provider for IE7 and Firefox 2

 I have implemented an OpenSearch provider for the recently created .NET Search Engine (Google Co-op). It works with IE7 and Firefox 2 and allows you to search for .NET content directly from the browsers search bar:

   

You can install it here. 

   

If you like this post, please on DotNetKicks.com

.NET Search Engine (Google Co-op)

I have created a Google co-op search engine page for .NET content (custom domain and logo to come). Anyone can contribute to it so please add your favorite .NET websites to the list.  With a little effort it will turn into a useful resource for searching .NET content.

If you have a suggestion of a site that should be added to the search space, please either add it to the co-op search engine directly or leave a comment with the URL and I will add it. Over the next few days I will be creating a number of AJAX controls and Firefox and IE open search plugins for this co-op search engine.

Here are some sample searches:

• web service security
• page lifecycle
  
• cab application block
• UpdatePanel tutorial
  

Here are the current list of sites it is searching (more are being added):

	http://www.hanselman.com/
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://groups.google.com/group/UrlRewritingNet
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.dotnet.csharp.general
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.clr
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://groups.google.com/group/ajaxpro
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://groups.google.com/group/DotNetDevelopment
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://channel9.msdn.com/
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://haacked.com/
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://codebetter.com/
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://www.dotnetjunkies.com/
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://www.theserverside.net/
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://forums.asp.net/
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://www.asp.net/
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://weblogs.asp.net/
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://www.microsoft.com/
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://www.codeproject.com/
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

	http://msdn.microsoft.com/
	Include all pages that start with this URL   Include just the specific page I have entered

http://www.dotnetkicks.com/

 If you like this then please on DotNetKicks.com. Thanks.

 

WebSnapr - Website thumbnails for your site (built in .NET)

WebSnapr lets you capture screenshots of (almost) any web page. Let your visitors to instantly visualize any web page before clicking. It is built in .NET. 

 

For example, here is a thumbnail of this blog post:

 

 

Creating thumbnails is simple, just contruct a URL as follows : http://images.websnapr.com/?url=[MYURL]

   

 I have added thumbnails to story summaries on DotNetKicks.com. 

 If you like this story, please 

Why no ads?

A few people have asked why DotNetKicks does not have ads and whether it will always be this way.

In fact DotNetKicks does have some Google ads, but they are not on any of the main pages. The site was never a money making venture, its aim has always just been about providing a good feed of .NET links each day.

The site costs less than $2 per day in hosting fees. As long as there is a community to submit and kick .NET stories it will remain open and ad free on the main pages. Of course there are time costs involved in the continued development of the site, but that is offset by it being a lot of fun.

Windows Vista RC2 publicly available

Windows Vista RC2 is available for download. [slashdot] [digg] [betanews]

 "This new build of Windows Vista offers users a higher level of performance and stability - improving what was established in Windows Vista RC1. We were able to also fix many of your bugs reported from RC1 and implement them for RC2. Thank you to our beta testers for the bugs and feedback you submitted for RC1. The improvement shows as we raised our quality bar even higher! Platforms and Services Co-President Jim Allchin has just posted a special announcement letter of RC2 to Microsoft Connect for the Windows Vista Technical Beta Testers."

  

EDIT: It seems that the original URL is now redirecting to RC1. You can download RC2 from betanews here.

 

 

The most popular .NET links this week

A big thanks to everyone who has joined our community on DotNetKicks.com. Thanks to you, the site is now producing a quality list of .NET related links each day.

If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to our RSS feed or join our community and submit or kick some .NET links.

Here are the most popular .NET links this week:

	InfoQ: Why Would a .NET Programmer Learn Ruby on Rails? Expand your skills! Why you should learn a new language... and why it should be a non-MS language.
	What You Should Dispose When Using ADO.NET An article pointing out what should be disposed while working with ADO.NET but often is not!
	throw; vs. throw ex; Here's the difference! The difference is that throw; preserves the original stack trace and throw ex; truncates the stack trace below the method in which the throw ex; call is located.
	Building ASP.NET 2.0 Web Sites Using Web Standards Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 has many features to help you design and build Web sites that are compliant with XHTML and accessibility standards. This article looks at how and why you should be building these standards-compliant sites.
	My Blogger A-List - a good start feed for .net Developers Everyone reads blogs, right? So why not read the good ones?
	Google Code Search Is it the end of the problem with lack of examples in the documentation?
	Tip/Trick: Guard Against SQL Injection Attacks Scott Guthrie discusses what SQL Injection is and how to prevent it in your applications.
	Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Beta (the most awaited sp !!) You need to fill some forms to enter in the beta, but it worth it, I want to test it now !!! my VS2005 is so buggy in large VB.NET projects that the beta is enough for me, because the shiped VS is another beta for me. =)
	Common Pattern For Working With DataReader A description of a common pattern for working with DataReader object which as described here: http://vaultofthoughts.net/WhatYouShouldDisposeWhenUsingADONET.aspx Is IDisposable and should be disposed!
	Another SEO Tip - googleoff / googleon Tags I came across these recently... thought I'd share The googleoff/googleon tags disable the indexing of a part of a web page. The result is that those pages do not appear in search results when users search for the tagged word or phrase.
	XML membership provider for ASP.NET 2.0 The XmlMembershipProvider let's you take advantage of the built in mechanisms for authentication in ASP.NET 2.0 only by adding a class to the App_Code folder and an XML file to the App_Data. No code required. This will save you many hours of work.
	Free OCR software? You may already have it... Office 2003 gives you a great little OCR tool. And this can be controlled via .NET
	Hidden Programs In Windows XP A very usefull list of hidden programs in windows xp
	Annotating Your Code with Simple Tests idea: annotating functions with simple tests in XML comments -- a minimalist's approach to test driven development. (sorry to post my own stuff here, i'm looking for a hero to take this idea forward for me)
	Windows PowerShell RC2 Now Available Today Microsoft announced the availability of Microsoft Windows PowerShell RC2, the command line shell and scripting language that helps IT Professionals achieve greater productivity and control of system administration. Using a new admin-focused scripting language and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell accelerates automation. Windows PowerShell is easy to adopt, learn, and use, because it works with existing IT infrastructure and scripting tools.

Announcing SecurityKicks.com

James Kovacs has recently launched SecurityKicks.com, a sister site to DotNetKicks.com and SharePointKicks.com.

SecurityKicks.com is a community-based news site edited by our members. It specialises in security information for developers, including writing secure code, authentication and authorization techniques, cryptography, and related topics.

Individual users of the site submit and review stories, the most popular of which make it to the homepage. Users are encouraged to 'kick' stories that they would like to appear on the homepage. If a story receives enough kicks, it will be promoted.

If you a member of any of the *kicks.com website, you can use you existing login.

  

 

More AJAX goodness for DotNetKicks.com and SharePointKicks.com

This weekend sees some more new features added to dotnetkicks.com and sharepointkicks.com.

Gmail like 'Loading...' notification:




AJAX Sorting of popular stories:

It is now possible to view the most popular stories in the past day, week, month and year.




Story Tagging:

Clicking the 'tag it' link on any story allows you to tag the story with your own tags. Click the [x] to remove the tag.

Kick wiki and REST API now live

I have just launched a wiki and REST API for the various kick sites, including dotnetkicks.com and sharepointkicks.com

The API allows posts to be added and kicked among other functions. Tagging support in the API will be added in time, it is on the list of feature requests.

Phil Haack has written a IBlogExtension for Rss Bandit and other blog aggregators.