www.chakkaradeep.com is now live and from today I would be blogging over there

It was a tough decision to choose between WordPress and Graffiti CMS. At the end, I chose Graffiti CMS

This blog will not deleted and will be here with all the posts for your reference.

Please do visit www.chakkaradeep.com – my new home

I got my invite yesterday for the Bloggers Dinner @ TechEd. Bloggers @ Tech Ed is designed to help the New Zealand blogging community with both practical advice and an exclusive opportunity to network with other key bloggers in New Zealand.

The dinner will be held on September 1st at Sky City Convention Centre, Auckland.

The best part of the event is that its being hosted and keynoted by Scott Hanselman

See you there

After hearing lots of good stuffs about this new SERVER product from Microsoft called Windows Server 2008, I took the decision to move from Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition

The good thing is, Windows Server 2008 can be configured as a fully featured desktop workstation. Your one stop guide for completing this ‘awesome’ task is here

Below is my laptop configuration:

1) Apple Macbook 2.4 GHz

2) 4 GB RAM

I have Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 Edition installed

Below is the list of software installed:

1) Apple Bootcamp

2) Microsoft Office 2007

3) Microsoft Visio 2007

4) Mozilla Firefox

5) Skype

6) Apple Quicktime

7) Apple iTunes

8 ) Windows Live

• Live Writer
• Live Messenger
• Live Photo Gallery

9) Foxit PDF Reader

10) Flashget Download Manager

11) Virtual PC

12) Kaspersky Internet Security

13) tWhirl

14) Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1

This server is Fast, Sleek, and Customizable (in Features and Roles). That’s a huge benefit over Vista where many services get started no matter you use them.

I have also moved my development stuffs to a virtual environment now and virtual machines run quite fast than in Vista here. Yes, I am quite happy with Virtual PC 2007 and I don’t think I would install x64 version just for Hyper-V. The application support for x64 sucks!

Everything works good in my setup including sleep,shutdown and hibernate

So far, my experience of having Windows Server 2008 as my main desktop workstation is good and I think I will continue to stay on this for a long, long time until Windows 7 comes out

I have been memed! Thanks James

How old were you when you started programming?

19

How did you get started in programming?

I got introduced to programming and computer languages in my high school. It got into me from then and when I joined my University, I was fully ready to rock myself in programming

What was your first language?

C/C++

What was the first real program you wrote?

A DirectX game in Visual Basic 6.0

What languages have you used since you started programming?

C/C++, Visual C++ 6.0, Visual Basic 6.0, HTML, Javascript, ASP 2.0, Python, PyGTK, PyQt, Qt (C++), ASP 3.0, C#

What was your first professional programming gig?

A tool for Telecommunication and Telemedicine for one of the projects at ISRO

If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?

YES!

If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?

1) Blog, Communicate

1) Analyse whatever you are doing

2) Dont hurry – Relax, Think and Code

3) Test whatever you code (Unit Testing)

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had… programming?

Testing what I write. Its always a challenge to break up your mind to test what you write and find mistakes/problems

I Choose

1) Daniel Moth

2) Nigel Parker

3) Kirupa

4) Jeremy Boyd

My last post was an interview with Paul Lo of Microsoft New Zealand regarding the DreamSpark initiative

And one Linux user in Geekzone came up even bashing that (so sad for these users, as that seems to be their primary job!)

I wouldn’t mind speaking back, but I am not a Linux user

One of my friend came up with an excellent reply,

hmm… i don’t understand why these linux users make such statements…”if they give something for free it is a good sign and is for the benefit of people and technology and if microsoft gives something for free it is business…..” i suggest them to stop making these crazy comments. they are advised to change their strategies else some day they will have to face the music…look at things positively and come out of the notion that ..only they are correct and others are fools…you can understand the magic that dream spark is going to do …better stop speaking ill about the products and strategies of others to show that you are better. this will not help you long and if you really wish to sustain have the true spirit…..do remember microsoft rocks….!

Enough said

UPDATE

More comments,

…about the person who “rewrote” the interview, isn’t he/she aware that microsoft is actually opening its door for FOSS developers so that the programs they make are compatible to each other? he/she must be ignorant enough for him/her to blurt out things like that without doing his/her research.

…they are degrading the very principles of Linux and then the their motto is gone….well people may be passionate about things but should be able to accept any good proposals. they should keep their nerve while making such comments because there are many people across the globe watching them…they should learn to respect the sentiments and efforts of them….!

..Exactly, most people thing F in FOSS is the free price tag and not the freedom. Consequently we have these uneducated badmouthing about other companies like MS. The real supporters of FOSS will never badmouth another company.

P.S

I am not telling all Linux users are like this, but these *group of users* bring shame to Linux Community according to me!

Well, I knew this only today

When I fired up Windows Experience Index details page, I saw something which made me to do a research on this. Here it is,

My processor is Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5300 @ 1.73GHz

And I started a discussion at Geekzone forums and it seems that all Intel Core 2 Duo technology are 64 bit enabled!

Here is a chart from Intel showing the features of Intel Core 2 Duo processors

I am happy that my laptop is 64 bit enabled and can support upto 4 GB of RAM! ( but at the same time I am sad that it doesn’t support Intel Virtualization Technology for Hyper-V)

Dell never advertised that it is 64 bit enabled and in fact the Vista Business I got with my Dell is 32 bit. Thank God, I have a Vista 64 bit Ultimate RTM with me

Hi Friends,

Its been a long time since I started blogging but I haven’t yet asked for any feedback about my blog to my friends and readers. So, I thought let me have a small survey conducted on my blog. I would be really happy if you can complete this small survey here and give your valuable inputs

Thanks,

Regards,

Chakkaradeep (a.k.a Chaks)

Here is a four minute preview

Here comes my first set of Toys collection

Pirates of Carribean – Jack Sparrow crew

I am happy to share my first application (along with the source) with you all

Tune UAC – A small, easy application to configure the User Account Control settings in Windows Vista

Let me explain the application features one by one,

The initial screen looks like,

(click to enlarge)

Tune UAC reads your current UAC settings and displays the results accordingly in the initial screen

Available features are,

1) Turn on/off User Account Control,

2) User Account Control behavior for Administrators,

3) User Account Control behavior for Users, and

4) Prompt for Secure Desktop

There is a Help button for each of the feature which will explain what it is and it’s options.

Below is an example,

(click to enlarge)

If you are not sure whether your system has the recommended UAC settings, you can check with Tune UAC’s Check My Settings feature which would check for the same, and if not, inform the same along with which settings are causing the problem. You can allow Tune UAC to automatically fix these issues or you can change it later using Tune UAC.

Below is a screenshot,

(click to enlarge)

I have hosted Tune UAC at Codeplex and released under Microsoft Reciprocal License (Ms-RL)

Feel free to test, report bugs and also fix bugs

After a long time, I re-installed Vista in my laptop and did some changes to partition. The re-install was due to the lack of fair amount of space in my Windows partition. Being a developer, you need to have good amount of free space in the Windows partition to work on. With the release of Visual Studio 2008 and also for going to be released soon Vista SP1, I thought this is the right time to make my machine ready

So – What have I installed now ?

Operating System

1) Windows Vista Ultimate

Windows Ultimate Extras

1) Windows Dreamscene

2) Windows Dreamscene Content Pack and Favorites

Developer Tools

1) Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite Edition

2) MSDN for Visual Studio 2008 and .NET

3) Microsoft Expression Blend

4) SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition

5) IIS 7

6) Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 Training Kit

Internet Security/Firewall/Anti-virus Software

1) Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0

Office Suite

1) Microsoft Office 2007 Professional

Mail Client

1) Windows Live Mail

Image Viewing/Editing Applications

1) Windows Live Photo Gallery

2) Paint.NET

Blogging Tools

1) Windows Live Writer

Additional Browsers

1) Mozilla Firefox

IM/Video Chat/Voip Applications

1) Windows Live Messenger

2) gTalk

3) Skype

Archiving Utility

1) TUGZip

Many Linux articles today, we see have started bashing Microsoft and Microsoft products and the Linux User base in the forums are also anti-microsoft and don’t entertain people who use Microsoft and Microsoft products.

So, I think now the time has come for me to move away from these Linux “anti-microsoft” fanboys and not to bother these “anti-microsoft” fanboys in their forums. I would rather use Linux and discuss with my friends than with the “anti-microsoft” User base.

By the way, Windows (Vista) is my Main operating system and I work in Microsoft Technologies and love them a lot. I am also a full time Microsoft Developer. No doubt in that. It doesn’t mean I should move to Linux! (please,its not Open Source, its Linux)

Anways, my Comments section is open to you all. Feel free to pass on your comments.

Even though Linux journalists like SJVN try to push Linux a lot by doing anti-microsoft campaigns like these, there is always this Linux Myth with every user who wants to try Linux or uses Linux,

1) Linux is more Stable, Reliable

2) Linux is FREE, no penny being spent!

3) Linux is Virus Free!

One of my friend sent me an email recently on what he felt about using Linux -

I’ve been using Linux exclusively this year. But…. it is so boring! The only application I use is my browser. (Which incidentally crashes several times a day.) Seriously I don’t have a single useful program. I do all my coding in a vi terminal.

sidenote: The myth that linux software is more reliable is fading very fast for me. A wise friend of mine said to me many many years ago that the only reason Linux doesn’t get viruses is because IT DOESN’T DO ANYTHING. I’m beginning to see his wisedom.

I need not explain more here

Thats why people still say Linux is no Vista Killer

Here is a cool hack to find when Windows Operating system was installed in your machine

systeminfo | find /i “install date”

This works for Vista and Windows Server 2003 or later. Not sure for XP since I dont have XP machine here.

And here is my result,

Vista Ultimate running from June 2007 ! Wow !

I have planned to move my thesis work,

1) From Visual Studio 2005 to Visual Studio 2008

2) I have already started using Expression Blend and now its configured to open code behind files in Visual Studio 2008

3) Use Data Binding in WPF wherever possible

4) Moving away Data Repository Factory to LINQ-to-SQL and LINQ-to-Entities (possibly using ADO.NET Entities) . I would blog on this topic later

5) Also moving away from WCF Service Factory which is currently supported only in Visual Studio 2005. But I am going to maintain the project hierarchy of WCF Service Factory

This is a BIG shift for me, but I am sure this is going to take me into the Wonderland of Programming

Last but not the least, don’t forget the mantra – Design first, Code next !