SEO Starter Guide

It's been a while since I haven't posted anything useful. So here is a very good one for Web masters and developers.
Download the Google's SEO guide here

How to use Subversion with Eclipse

The following article is really helpful to configure subversion in Eclipse using Subclipse.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-ecl-subversion/

How to downgrade VS Solution

To downgrade a Visual Studio solution, follow the steps below.

1. First backup the .sln file
2. Open .sln file in Notepad
3. Modify the Format Version and the Visual Studio edition (i.e. 2008 or 2005) as shown in the following screen capture.

4. Save and close. 

Read Sri Lanka news using this Chrome extension

I just created a Chrome Extension to read Sri Lanka news quickly. Please download and install. Its a very simple extension and I've reused some of the sample code. I will update the extension to be more useful in the future--all your comments are welcome.

Get the extension from here:
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/dipjohabhjlfockkahobnnppadhfibah?hl=en

DataReader vs DataSet

I've been quite frequently asked by the junior developers about the DataReader and DataSets -- so here it is.

Use DataReader For read-only data. For example, to bind custom object collection the ideal option is the DataReader. It is much faster than the DataSet.

Use DataSet to work on disconnected data. For example, to perform CRUD operations in disconnect like mode use DataSets.

I have written a performance test app for DataReader and DataSet. Download the code. Also I have written/discussed about the DataSets and Custom Collections half decade ago--http://www.ludmal.net/2005/05/datasets-vs-collections.html

Also download the Microsoft Application Architecture Guide.
http://apparchguide.codeplex.com/

Handling keypress event using jQuery

(Cross-posted from the Extensible-web.com blog)
Handling keypress event using jQuery is fairly easy. Download the sample code.

missing sentinel in function call

Quick Tip :
If you're getting "missing sentinel in function call" error while compiling objective-c code, check whether you terminate the array with nil at the end of the array declaration.


feelings = [[NSArray alloc]initWithObjects: @"awesome",@"sad", @"happy","confused",@"angry", nil];

Using JQuery in your ASP.NET application.

(Cross-posted from the Extensible-web.com blog)

What is JQuery ?

Most of the developers might already know what JQuery is. But for those who don’t, here it is. JQuery is a JavaScript lightweight library which is easy to use for JavaScript functions.

JQuery is very easy to learn and all you need to know its relevant methods and events. You can find the JQyery API reference here and you can also find some samples.

How can we use JQuery in ASP.NET application?

Real easy—if you’re creating ASP.NET app using Visual Studio 2010, then the relevant script files are already included.

For earlier versions of Visual Studio, you need to download the minified version of JQuery library from here and add the file to your project directory. Include the file as script tags in the pages, which requires JQuery.

Download the sample ASP.NET application with basic JQuery methods.

Extensible Web - New Blog for Faster Web Apps

Finally I decided to create a new blog for tools, tips and tutorials about web application performance and optimizing. Hopefully this blog will help web developers and web masters to fine tune and optimize their web applications.

Extensible Web

P.S. I will be cross posting the Extensible Web posts with this blog.

GWT & Script#

I recently worked on a Google GWT project and very impressed with it. One of the difficult task in web development is to work on browser quirks. GWT is completely eliminating that by compiling java code to javascript. It also supports ajax server communication using RPC, JSON & XML. Microsoft's Nikhil Kothari also working on a similar project called Script# for asp.net.

ASP.NET 4 - New Features

I've been working with ASP.NET for 9 years now and still there are plenty to explore. Apart from my day to day (boring)coding, my focus has been into faster and SEO friendly web development and worked with jquery/json lately.

Microsoft has released their latest version of ASP.NET 4 and obviously the focus also into faster and SEO friendly web. I have collected all the important new features and compiled into a simple article which was published on Simple-Talk. Have a look at it and send me your comments.

I'm working on a small booklet with comprehensive instructions to speed up your web applications and also developing a simple web toolkit which will help developers to easily integrate jQuery into their ASP.NET web applications. Both of them will be released soon, so stay tuned.

Create your own story

Create your own story with Google Search. http://www.youtube.com/user/SearchStories

New Google Doc features

New Google Logo ?

New Google Search page from Gmail - Click on the "Search Web" Button

Is Google too powerful ?

How we eat, dress and work determines our quality of life. Similarly, how we use internet too will determine our behavior and the quality of life. Internet can be considered as a third generation utility—considering 1^st Gen is Air/Fire/Water and 2^nd Gen is Electricity. Living without Internet is almost inevitable. At least 80% of the internet users are using Google search. This ultimately gave them massive amount of valuable data. What do they do with it—Google is analyzing the entire world. They want to know everything about us.

This can be too much power to a singular source—Google. They were able to generate reports in minutes if not in hours almost on any activity in the world. . For example have look at this flu trend worldwide. I spent 2/3 of my time on internet, and Google can easily generate a report on my behavior for the past 7-8 years—in-fact they can say which time period I’ve been most productive and vice versa. However, analyzing a single person’s behavior could be less important to them when they can analyze data for a entire country.

Is Google too powerful ?

The Fine Line

Recently I’ve been thinking about the purpose of life and read some books from Dr.Deepak Chopra. I might be too young to evaluate the process of life but for the past 30 years I have gained an immense amount of experience. I’m a quick learner in nature, and I guess that helped me to judge and evaluate the life at least to some extent.

Most of us look at our past sheepishly. But it is never too late to identify, correct and move on. Life is a process—we should optimize the process as we move on. I’ve been analyzing my own activity in the past, positive or negative is secondary however. So I came up with the following diagram. A person’s activity is directly proportional to the outcome, regardless of its negative or positive behavior. For example more active people get frequent outcomes in life, and less active people get less outcomes. But we all need to find the fine line, although it’s arguable in some cases. These ideas are not representing any religion believes or teachings. It is merely an effort to understand the process of life and to optimize it so that we all can live it to the fullest.

For people who think this is irrelevant or just a waste of time—please ignore, but for others please find the following references. What is exciting in life if you do not explore.

Reference:

The seven spiritual laws of success

Life After death: the burden of proof.

Quantum healing: exploring the frontiers of mind/body medicine

Buddha: A story of enlightenment.

Google Buzz

I've been using Google Buzz quite frequently and I'm very impressed with it. Since I'm a big fan of Gmail, integrating buzz with Gmail is a smart move from Google. Follow me on Google Buzz if you're interested.

http://www.google.com/profiles/ludmal

Why Unrealistic Goals are better than Realistic Goals?

It is first quarter of the year and goal setting is imminent for most of us. Most people tend to set the possible and realistic goals for the whole year. Why not setting Unrealistic goals quarterly—sounds impossible?

The importance of goal setting is always considered as a successful strategy for personal development. Accomplishments of goals are arguable and should discuss in separate thread however. This is a merely an effort to illustrate which is more important—Realistic Goals or Unrealistic Goals. Realistic goals settings can be seen as a major culprit to unleash your ability. Even though it is viable for some cases but for most cases it can be a killer of your ability or capability. How many times we have achieved something which we never thought of possible—there are plenty of examples for me personally. We must stretch, expand or broaden our ability to accomplish things. The only way to do is to set unrealistic goals. Achieving 70% of the unrealistic/impossible goals are far better than achieving 100% of the realistic goals. Moreover setting goals for a shorter period of time seems to be more efficient than a longer period. There is a high probability of forgetting or ignoring goals which are set for longer period of time. More importantly we should expect amazing results by achieving goals and not just “results”. Also, don’t forget to reward yourself once you achieve a certain goal.

We are only limited by our thoughts—by keeping this in mind start your own goal setting now, but make it unrealistic/impossible and for short period of time.

Dictionary - Google extensions

I found this Google extension very useful – Google Dictionary

Update your Google chrome to get extensions and bookmark sync.

In addition to blogging, I've been also using twitter for quick technology updates. Follow me if you are interested. www.twitter.com/ludmal

Windows 7

I've been using Windows 2003 quite happily for the past 6 years. But realized it was 7 years old OS and the technology has developed immensely. Despite the terrible experience with Windows Vista I finally decided to install Windows 7. It has been one month after Windows 7 installation and I'm very impressed – the startup/loading time has improved significantly and smoothness of the applications is amazing.

This is what I was expected from an OS. Most of us were desperately waited for an OS to replace Windows XP/2003 – Microsoft’s Windows 7 must be the choice for them. Needless to say I’m upgrading my wife’s laptop and my desktop PC to Windows 7. For those who are still waiting to install Windows 7 – Don’t wait anymore!