Dhaval Faria's Blog

Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T13:42:00.000+05:30

Today, we lost a true innovator, creator and visionary. Steve Jobs.

Game Programming and XNA

2011-01-10T00:23:00.000+05:30

I have been game programming since start, while learning programming I did lots of small applications like hello world, then small features application for example Small Calculator which could do just addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, then I did a small socket programming application which could transmit file from one machine to the other. But my first ever full application was actually game. I developed that game using DirectX and Visual Basic 6, and this was in 2000. Game was very simple 2D Game with music, animation. Game was about Spaceship which is flying in space and lots of alien spaceships are heading towards spaceship and trying to destroy spaceship. Player have to save spaceship from aliens by using various weapons. Game was very simple but difficult to develop. I am not a person who can do good graphics, so I took help of few friends and few online tutorials get my graphics done. I read a lot about DirectX from MSDN site and developed game. It took me about 3 months to develop a very simple game.

Later on I moved to using VC++ and DirectX and found it to be damn difficult compared to Visual Basic 6, but I did notice lot of performance improvement with VC++ which is obvious. In 2002 when Managed DirectX was announced, I started using Managed DirectX with .NET Framework, and developed small games, and it was pretty easy compared to VB 6.

In 2004 Microsoft Announced XNA and in 2006 they released CTP of XNA. I started using XNA in 2007, and I was really amazed at what XNA could do and how easy it became for gamers to write games on multiple platforms without much code changes. Currently XNA can target Windows, Xbox 360, Windows Phone 7 and Zune.

I am going to write a blog post on game concepts and using XNA to develop game, I will cover 2D and 3D part both.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T20:48:00.000+05:30

Happy new year 2011 to everyone.. :) I am going to get into blogging about games and graphics.. will be posting at least one blog post in a week.

SQL to LINQ

2010-08-11T21:48:00.000+05:30

These days I do lots of LINQ Queries, but many times I struggle to find how to write complex SQL queries to LINQ queries. LINQ Queries look very similar to SQL Queries but when we start writing complex queries, its very very different.

I found following tool which helps out: http://www.sqltolinq.com/

It does most of the work :)

Health issue and year 2009

2009-12-04T01:31:00.002+05:30

Year 2009 has not been really good for family as far as health is concern.. otherwise it has been really good.. one by one everyone fell ill.. and 3 out of 6 were admited to hospital.. I was admited to hospital last month.. had typhoid.. still recovering from the damage typhoid has caused to my body.

I am going to make Mumbai User Group active again.. http://www.mumbaiusergroup.org

planning with UG meet this month for sure.

Xbox 360 Facebook Application Error 800700e8

2009-11-19T15:48:00.001+05:30

On Xbox 360, when you try to start facebook application, if you get following error 800700e8 you need to do following steps to start running Facebook application.

You will be requiring Xbox 360 gamertag which has country set to United States. If you dont have, you can create one gamertag and set its country to US. Login with US gamertag id on Xbox 360 and download Facebook Application.

Once download is done, you can sign out and you can start using your original gamertag and run the Facebook application, and error will not come now.

Silence

2009-09-14T22:46:00.001+05:30

I have been silent for few months.. and I guess I will be silent for few more days.. having very tight schedule and few things in life going such a way which is making me change my priorities. I am not sad, I am not happy.. I am just ok.

I really hope things happens as what I want, whether it is good or bad I don't care about it.

Michael Jackson – King of Pop

2009-07-01T14:13:00.001+05:30

June 25, 2009 was really a shocking day for many people, Michael Jackson – King of Pop was declared dead on this day. I loved his songs and his dance moves a lot. Check out the following song of Michael Jackson, Will you be there, my most fav. song.

Knowing bit about Michael Jackson through his interviews and wikipedia, I guess this song talks a lot about what he feels and how he feels about his life, he was all alone needed love of people. He was going to come back with This is it concert that he was going to do in few days.

For us fans of Michael Jackson, he is still alive and always with us. :)

lyrics of the song - http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/michael%20jackson/will%20you%20be%20there_20092671.html

Mobile User Interfaces

2009-05-25T15:18:00.000+05:30

Have a look at the above four images… These are the home screens of the various mobile devices, major screen shots from Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile is very flexible and allows you to customize its UI the way you want. Anyways coming back to topic.

Looking at above four images, which user interface really appeals you? Now, if I am going to use new UIs for first time, it definitely appeals me.. for example iPhone UI is great, I love it.. it appeals me.. similarly HTC Diamond or HTC Touch Pro UI is very nice and appealing. I used all the above phone for several months. User interface is great, nice to play around with.. but then it starts getting boring more you use it.. more boring it seems.

I like to keep information at my fingertip. Basically you can say I am information greedy and I always want to have information when I need it.

Now, lets look at the screen shots of Mobile UI one by one from top left to right bottom. If you look at the first screenshot top left, first screenshot is very much normal, not appealing at all.. just shows time, owner of cell phone, how many msgs in inbox or emails in inbox, shows appointments and task list in home screen.

2nd Screen shot shows, time, weather, shortcuts to few programs and appointments.. but if I want to go from time to weather or shortcut.. I have to click or touch on relevant tab button.

3rd screen shot which is bottom left.. is kind of similar to 2nd one.. but provides more things on the screen.. like speed dial, preview of msgs, emails, pictures, etc… but for all this I have to click on relevant tab.

4th screen.. just shows me programs, nothing else.

Now, as a information hungry… 4th UI fails for me completely, I do not get any information easily.. I need to click click click and get the information I need. Time consuming.

looking at 2nd and 3rd, I do get information, but not much.. only a little.. and for more information again click.

1st screen… provides me information that I need just at a glance.. I dont need to click anywhere.. no need to scroll.. a great UI for information.

User Interface design and interaction wise.. 2nd, 3rd and 4th are great.. but does not give me enough information.. in which 4th one fails like anything.. 1st wins..

so on my cell I disabled all HTC cube or HTC Touch plug-in and gone back to my normal Windows Today screen.

I will be more glad and it will be more useful, if companies design user interfaces keeping information in mind rather than making people wow about the how it looks and how it animates, etc...

Technorati Tags: mobile,ui

ISO Image burning in Windows 7

2009-05-13T11:56:00.000+05:30

Microsoft listened to its customers again, finally from Windows 7 you can straight away burn ISO images or in ur DVD or CD :)

Select image file and u will get Burn disc image option in tool bar :)

Are we animated?

2009-05-10T13:42:00.001+05:30

well, yes title is correct. Are we animated? Have a look at the above advertisement, I am sure all of you have seen that and liked ad a lot.

After few days, in news channel we saw how this ads were made, and to our surprise this ads were done by wearing a suite and not animated characters, and we were all surprised, telling everyone that this ad is done by actually a real person wearing a suite.. I was also one of them. One day I was just sitting idle and thinking about ZooZoo ad, and thought I got was kind of amusing and funny for me. About 10-15 years back, if same ad was made and animated characters would have been used.. we would have surprised and said to everyone.. hey this ad is animated.. looks so nice.. you see what am trying to say? We are seeing so many animated things around us that for us anything which does not look real we think is animated. We forget that in earlier days people used to wear a suite and perform things like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, etc.. but now we have got so much into digital world, that we have taken each and everything granted that it is computerized. Day is very near when we will see everything done on computer.. whole movie with actors like Shahrukh Khan not really a human but animated character, and when we will see real person performing we will be surprised. I know it is very extreme thought.. but still doesnt it really sound funny we getting surprised knowing that real person is actually wearing suite and acting like a ZooZoo.

GTalk issue

2009-02-12T16:38:00.001+05:30

WHERE THE HELL IS OK BUTTON?

No Christmas in Sweden without Donald Duck

2008-12-27T01:19:00.001+05:30

Nice interesting read: http://www.thenewsvault.com/cgi/xtra.pl?go=12302934366

I like Donald Duck a lot over Mickey Mouse. I just love Donald Duck.. I can also do mimic of Donald Duck :D

btw, belated Merry Christmas to all.

Fennec Mobile Browser – Alpha 2

2008-12-25T23:53:00.000+05:30

Mozilla has recently released Fennec mobile Browser’s Alpha 2 release.

more info here: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081224-mozilla-releases-second-alpha-of-fennec-mobile-browser.html

Who says Footers are boring?

2008-12-25T13:58:00.001+05:30

I was working on a web site and trying to look for few good footers.. Well, footers are not boring you can do a lot of things with footers, while I was searching on Yahoo!, I came across following link through digg.com

http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/25-stylish-website-footer-designs/

25 stylish website footer designs.

101 Classic Computer Ads

2008-12-25T02:24:00.001+05:30

Just found following web site:

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/08/08/101-classic-computer.html

Shows 101 Classic Computer ads.. if you knows about earlier computer era.. this is must see for u all.. great stuff :)

Box and Reality

2008-12-25T02:23:00.001+05:30

Below picture says it all

Xbox 360 Name

2008-12-24T18:21:00.001+05:30

Following comic strip will give you idea on how Microsoft came up with name Xbox 360

http://i40.tinypic.com/xkneae.jpeg

of course its not true :)

Google’s Native Client plugin – Alternative to Microsoft ActiveX

2008-12-21T18:05:00.001+05:30

Google has released a new experimental plugin called Native Client plugin for its browser, and Google aims to make it work on all major platforms and browsers. Google also claims that it will be a lot safer than Microsoft ActiveX.

My Note: Looking at past record with Google specially with Android, I seriously wonder how safer Native Client will be.. Google had made same claim earlier when Android was in Beta (BTW almost all products of Google are in Beta)

More info: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081209-safer-than-activex-a-look-at-googles-native-client-plugin.html

36-24-36

2008-12-20T00:54:00.000+05:30

I was just talking about age.. dirty mind people.

Found this here: http://phatchicks.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2243721,prtpage-1.cms

Job Posting talks about Zune-Xbox and Zune-Phone

2008-12-20T00:43:00.001+05:30

More info : http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10126637-27.html

Usefulness to Career Success

2008-12-19T20:03:00.001+05:30

Silverlight 2.0 Resize using Resized Event

2008-12-19T12:35:00.001+05:30

I remember doing this in Silverlight 1.0, when Silverlight 1.0 released, I thought of giving it a try, I wanted to make sure that Silverlight application that I create should resize it self based on browser size. I am very much particular about width and height for the web sites and web applications, as well as for any other applications. I do not like pixel values much, I prefer working in terms of %, as it makes my application layouts dynamic and adapt to the preferred size of the user. I remember doing this kind of thing in Silverlight 1.0 using Javascript, discovering how to do it was a bit difficult but it was easy to do in Silverlight 1.0

Recently, I started writing an article for my web site http://www.learnitonweb.com/ article on Menubar in Silverlight, and I wanted to do layout in %s format or dynamic format. This time I was using Silverlight 2.0, which means using languages like C# or VB.NET, this is where I really thought it will be really easy to do that, and yes it is.. following code will do that.

in C#

public Page()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            App.Current.Host.Content.Resized += new EventHandler(Content_Resized);
        }

        void Content_Resized(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            this.Width = Application.Current.Host.Content.ActualWidth;
            this.Height = Application.Current.Host.Content.ActualHeight;
        }

in VB.NET

Public Sub New()
       InitializeComponent()
       AddHandler App.Current.Host.Content.Resized, AddressOf Resized
   End Sub

   Private Sub Resized(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
       Me.Width = Application.Current.Host.Content.ActualWidth
       Me.Height = Application.Current.Host.Content.ActualHeight
   End Sub

Without resize you will see your Silverlight Application as follows:

Silverlight application with resizing

Windows Mobile Web Browsing

2008-12-19T11:14:00.001+05:30

There is no good web browser available for Windows Mobile, Pocket IE is pathetic, half of things doesnt work in it, specially AJAX enabled sites, so I use Opera Mini.. but Opera Mini has its own issue, biggest issue is no copy-paste :( I really dont get it why people do not provide copy paste? including APPLE so called next gen iPhone.

anyways, Microsoft has been working on better version of Internet Explorer for Windows Mobile (IE6) you can have a look at it here - http://www.modaco.com/content/blackstone-blackstone-modaco-com/277328/modaco-custom-rom-for-blackstone-1-08-12-17-ie6-cf3-5-uc-1-19-based-more/

It does look amazing and makes browsing experience on mobile wonderful.

Toilet Paper Cheque

2008-12-18T14:59:00.002+05:30

In Britain one man tried to pay his parking fees by writing a cheque on toilet paper, police officer refused and dragged him to a court, judge gave him funny punishment but at end winner is common sense.

More Info: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1096553/Payment-loo-Toilet-paper-cheque-lands-man-court.html

Xbox Arcade Live – Dash of Destruction FREE

2008-12-18T10:08:00.002+05:30

NinjaBee recently launched game named Dash of Destruction for Xbox Arcade Live, which is available for free to download, game is pretty simple but fun to play.

You can add game here http://marketplace.xbox.com/games/offers/00000001-0000-4000-8000-00005841090B?cid=MajorNelson&partner=MajorNelson

More info here - http://majornelson.com/archive/2008/12/17/arcade-dash-of-destruction-free.aspx

Xbox Live India Offer for UNO

2008-12-16T08:49:00.002+05:30

If you are an Xbox Live member in India, you have special holiday deal, UNO Normally costs 400 Microsoft points, but in special holiday offer, it will be available for 300 Microsoft points.

and worldwide Bomberman Live will cost 600 Microsoft points, which is normally priced at 800 Microsoft points.

4th Workshop at MPSTME – Day 2

2008-12-14T20:36:00.002+05:30

2nd day of 4th workshop was ok ok.. less students turned up.. and students were ok ok, questions were ok asked by them, but it was good.. did ado.net with windows forms, then asp.net and ado.net with asp.net

when I ended.. Mr. Ketan Shah (Head of Student Department) presented me with a trophy, you can see the trophy attached below as in image.

would like to thank Mr. Ketan Shah, Mr. Abhinav and two more students who were with me. Thank you.

3rd Workshop at MPSTME – Day 2

2008-12-14T20:33:00.002+05:30

2nd day of 3rd workshop was really interesting and great.. students were more enthu about learning things, and very interactive and quized me a lot, and I just love that.. and yeah no stupid questions.. all good questions. Nice students I would say.

So today we started with ADO.NET in Windows Forms, and then we did a bit of ASP.NET and ASP.NET ADO.NET and ended 3rd workshop.

2nd Workshop at MPSTME – Day 1

2008-12-13T17:54:00.002+05:30

I was supposed to start workshop at around 2:00 PM, but due to earlier late schedule.. I started by 2:30 PM and ended by 5:00 PM.

Took basics of .NET and Intro to ADO.NET and Windows Forms.. and ended workshop for day 1.. tomorrow we will be starting more on with ADO.NET, ASP.NET and Windows Forms.

Tomorrow will be having really long day.. 10 AM to 5 PM… and then I got meeting. Looking forward to tomorrow.

1st Workshop at MPSTME – Day 1

2008-12-13T17:52:00.002+05:30

I was supposed to start workshop at 10 AM, but I reached late there by 10:20, but figured out they were also a bit late.. I assume because of me.. and we starting workshop by 10:38, I am very sorry for being late but anyways, I started my workshop with basics of .NET Framework at 10:38.

Took basics of .NET and Intro to ADO.NET and Windows Forms.. and ended workshop for day 1.. tomorrow we will be starting more on with ADO.NET, ASP.NET and Windows Forms.

Was planning to take few pics.. but camera battery gone down.. will catch few pics tomorrow.

Few hilarious Pranks

2008-12-12T20:52:00.002+05:30

At bottom of page I have put the source from where I picked up the videos, they have mentioned about 2008 top videos.. but I wouldnt really agree with that.. anyways, I have just re-ordered according to my preference.

1 Butter Floor

I found this prank the most hilarious, basically because of the kind of revenge they are taking and reason behind the revenge.

2 Hair Dryer

Girls without proper hair will look ghost.. to prove that this prank works best :)

3 Wake up

If done this in right way.. this would be really great.. I have played this kind of prank.. but instead of loud sound.. we used toothpaste or shaving cream.. put it on hand of a person who is sleeping.. and then on his face you try to do few things.. and when he puts his hand on face to remove it.. its hilarious.

4 Fake Date

This is really one of the best prank you can do on someone, but issue is that, it requires a lot of time.. trap a friend by fake girl id or something.. ask him to meet up somewhere.. and surely he will come to meet up.. but dont turn up.. or you yourself only turn up.. its very hilarious.

5 Cereal Bird

I found this prank good.. but also a bit bad.. because there is a dead bird used.

6 Cling Film Over the Door

This is really good one.. I just wished lady had something in her hand.

7 Chicken

This is really long long video.. 50 chickens in room.. just see how you can throw out chickens out of room :P

8 Foil

This is pretty hilarious. Everything covered in foil.. when ur friend arrives and he finds it.. it will be very difficult for him to take out each and every coin out of foil and pay.

9 Newspaper Cover

Newspaper cover is pretty good, same as above.. just look at the end of video.. and see something interesting.

10 Fill up Room with Ballons

hmm, its ok.. but still good.. friend room completely filled up with ballons.

Source : http://www.roombuddies.com/blog/2008/12/best-pranks-to-play-on-your-house-mate-2008/

Workshop at MPSTME on .NET Framework

2008-12-12T19:22:00.003+05:30

I am going to have four workshops in 2 days starting tomorrow, workshop is going to be at MPSTME college in Mumbai, they have a local user group running in college, starting 10 AM in morning till 2 PM and then second session from 2 PM till 5 PM.. same schedule for the next day that is Sunday as well. Topics that I am going to cover is basics of .NET Framework, Windows Forms, ASP.NET, Windows Mobile and Silverlight.

I am pretty excited about it, as it is going to be after a long break :)

26 Ways to know Your Software Development Project is Doomed

2008-12-11T13:11:00.002+05:30

Found this link - http://www.cio.com/article/print/470103

Good one :)

10 Dirty Little Web Development Tricks

2008-12-11T12:56:00.002+05:30

I found this interesting link - http://www.yongfook.com/items/view/81/10-dirty-little-web-development-tricks

it talks about 10 dirty tricks about web development, much of it talks about PHP and other things.. but still its must read for everyone.

Microsoft launches open source blogging platform

2008-12-11T00:23:00.002+05:30

Microsoft has recently launched open source blogging platform called Oxite, I got this new from my friend Sankool Shah - http://www.sankool.net/

It is standard compliant, extensible CMS, designed to support either blogs or larger Web sites, it also supports pingbacks, trackbacks, anonymous or authenticated commenting, gravatars (globally recognized avatars), and most importantly RSS feeds at any page level which means RSS at comments also??? hmm interesting…

http://visitmix.com/ is built using Oxite.

More info - http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10119017-92.html?part=rss

Oxite - http://www.codeplex.com/oxite/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=20210

Article: ADO.NET with Windows Forms using Visual C#

2008-12-10T18:21:00.002+05:30

Today, I written one more article on ADO.NET, this article is focusing on basics of programming ADO.NET, it is targeted towards students. Its like a tutorial, will take you step by step throughout the tutorial, and will help you create a small application which performs simple, select, edit and delete functionality.

You can read my article here - http://www.learnitonweb.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?contId=6&page=1

and please digg it here - http://digg.com/microsoft/ADO_NET_with_Windows_Forms_using_Visual_C

Standard and Poor’s stock index annual return 1825 to 2008

2008-12-10T17:18:00.002+05:30

Found this interesting thing.. which has a graph showing Standard and Poor’s stock index annual return from 1825 to 2008, really interesting to see the way trend is moving, as years are passing frequency of low down of economy is increasing, kind of alarm for us.

Link - http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/09/sp-returns-and-the-r.html

Turn Image Template into HTML Page

2008-12-07T02:13:00.000+05:30

LearnItOnWeb.com site is back, Today I written an article on Turning Image Template into HTML Page at learnitonweb.com.

here is link to it - Turn Image Template into HTML Site Template

BJP Sucks

2008-11-30T18:42:00.000+05:30

Read this : http://josh18.in.com/showstory.php?id=355551

BJP is plain interested only in seats.. they are not at all interested in government.. sick ppl.

Chandrayan

2008-10-22T14:00:00.000+05:30

When whole world is going forward.. we are going backward by people like... you know what I am talking about.. anyways I dont want to give that person any un-necessary limelight and move forward.

Today India successfully launched Chandrayaan - I, it will take 15 days to reach the Lunar Orbit.

more info http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20081022/804/tnl-chandrayaan-i-successfully-put-into_1.html

Apple iPhone - is it really worth the hype?

2008-07-15T12:51:00.003+05:30

Let's see why iPhone is really hyped... for just two reasons.. 1 - Apple, 2 - Good User Interface providing touch screen... are these really revolutionary things? not really.. its just that they created user interface which can be operated using fingers easily, and just gave touch screen support to the phone. I have a cell phone which has touch screen what it doesn't have it a user interface which can take advantage of the touch screen... you might think that's why iPhone is good and really worth.. well, not just look at what it doesn't have.

1 - Bluetooth

Bluetooth which has become so important for all cell phone user's in a month definitely you must be using Bluetooth once, I use it several times in a week. ok ok I do agree it has Bluetooth, but what is the use of it when it cant do anything else then allow me to talk using bluetooth headset.. it just cant allow me to send files, no dial-up netowrking.. - http://www.iphonebuzz.com/iphones-bluetooth-is-dumb-purposely-crippled-or-both-151188.php

2 - GPS

These days all phones comes GPS receiver, ok I know this is not really big disadvantage, but should have been there. I know now Apple said that they are putting GPS in it.. but is it really high priority? just look at the next one.

3 - Copy Paste

No copy paste in iPhone... now I use need this almost everyday.. I get contact number, email address, web address in sms or some or the other way on my phone I need to copy it and paste it to store it in contacts or call or use browser to surf or send email.. now if copy paste it not there.. I have to remember it.. Is it so really difficult to implement Copy Paste?

4 - MMS

I know no one uses it.. but when you are talking about GPRS, EDGE, 3G then why not MMS???? I would like to send someone picture of mine over message.

5 - Auto-focus Camera

Apple has got Camera in iPhone... but it does not have auto-focus? what is the use of camera which doesn't have auto-focus? not everyone is photographer, even photographer needs auto-focus.

6 - Video Recording

iPhone got camera in it, which can take picture but it can't record the video.

7 - Battery

Yeah, battery is not replaceable at all... if your battery goes bad, send it to Apple and they will replace it for you.. they have sealed battery inside iPhone.. I wonder if my iPhone hangs what to do? I know I know Apple fan boys will say it doesn't hang like Windows Mobile or Nokia... but what if it does?

8 - Network Lock

This is really very very sad... it can operate only on particular network and it comes with 1-2 years of contracts or more... I know cracks are available.. but then you void warranty.

9 - Store Activation

Once you purchase it, you straight can't use it, you have to get it activated from Apple store and activation process is very long takes what about 15-20 minutes.

10 - Applications

iPhone now finally comes with application but what is the use of it when they can't run in the background???

Bill Gates

2008-06-27T09:51:00.002+05:30

He has been my inspiration all the time, I have his poster in my bed room :) a great man, wise man... gave a lot of things to people. Today it was his last day at Microsoft from his day-to-day activities.

I wish Microsoft best of luck and I would like to thank Bill Gates a lot, without him today software industry wouldn't exist at all.

Thanks Bill.

PS: do check this out Farewell Speech, you can actually feel that he was almost about to cry I guess...

but really great man..

once again Thank you so much Bill Gates for creating industry.

Article: C# 3.0 New Features

2008-05-28T02:20:00.000+05:30

Finally I am done with my first Article - here it is - http://www.learnitonweb.com/lowcom/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?contId=4&page=1

XBOX 360 or PS3?

2008-05-24T14:11:00.000+05:30

If you are thinking about what to go for XBOX 360 or PS3? I recommed this particular link - http://www.gamespot.com/features/6191251/index.html?tag=topslot;title;1 in this they have taken screen shot from same game running on PS3 and XBOX 360 and compared the graphics.. we can clearly see XBOX 360 wins the race :)

btw am getting my XBOX 360 in coming few days :D

Grow Body Parts

2008-05-02T10:10:00.000+05:30

this is pretty exciting news story... do read it here - Grow Body Parts - this is really awsome thing to happen in medical science... I hope its a true thing and not a scam.

Tengu - Community-Credit.com won :D

2008-05-01T23:47:00.001+05:30

from community-credit below thing is what I have won... am pretty excited about it now.. more information about it here - Tengu

SQL Server 2008 - Table Type Parameter

2008-04-30T18:22:00.000+05:30

This is very neat feature in SQL Server 2008 which many people really waited for...

now SQL Server 2008 has got a table type which can be passed as parameters in functions and stored procedures.

simplest example.. lets create employees table.

CREATE TABLE dbo.Employee(
EmpID int NOT NULL,
EmpName nvarchar(100) NOT NULL,
EmpEmail nvarchar(100) NOT NULL)

and create stored procedure to add new employees..

CREATE PROCEDURE NewEmployeeMS(@EmpID int,@EmpName nvarchar(100),@EmpEmail
nvarchar(100))
As
BEGIN
INSERT INTO dbo.Employee
values(
@EmpID, @EmpName, @EmpEmail)

now if I have to add record in it.. I have to execute this procedure multiple times..

now lets take example.. that I got records in another table and I have to get records from that and put it in another table.. I will go about doing it this way..

CREATE TYPE EmployeeTableType AS TABLE
(EmpID INT, EmpName nvarchar(100), EmpEmail nvarchar(100))

creating table type.. and when I create stored procedure it will take parameter as table type only..

CREATE PROCEDURE NewEmployee(@EmployeeDetails EmployeeTableType READONLY)
As
BEGIN
INSERT INTO dbo.Employee
SELECT * FROM @EmployeeDetails
END

notice READONLY thing in parameter.. it says that table is going to be read only.. so no any update, insert, delete will be performed.. just select.. and this thing is necessary.

finally I will do this..

DECLARE @NewEmployees EmployeeTableType
INSERT INTO @NewEmployees
VALUES(1,'John McLean','JohnMcLean@contoso.com')
INSERT INTO @NewEmployees
VALUES(2,'Bob Smith','BobSmith@contoso.com')
INSERT INTO @NewEmployees
VALUES(3,'Ted Connery','TedConnery@contoso.com')
EXECUTE NewEmployee @NewEmployees

SQL Server 2008 - MERGE Function

2008-04-30T17:36:00.001+05:30

I am quite impressed with the MERGE function.. in SQL Server 2008, which is a new feature added.

lets take a simplest example to understand MERGE Function.

let's say we got a PurchaseRecords table, in which we are storing customerId and productId and PurchaseDate...

here is code to create a table with all indexes..

IF OBJECT_ID (N'dbo.PurchaseRecords', N'U') IS NOT NULL
DROP TABLE dbo.PurchaseRecords;
GO

CREATE TABLE PurchaseRecords (ProductID int, CustomerID int, PurchaseDate datetime);
GO

IF EXISTS (SELECT name FROM sys.indexes
WHERE name = N'IX_PurchaseRecords_ProductID')
DROP INDEX IX_PurchaseRecords_ProductID ON dbo.PurchaseRecords;
GO

CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX IX_PurchaseRecords_ProductID
ON dbo.PurchaseRecords (ProductID);
GO

and here is the code to insert some dummy records in table.

INSERT INTO PurchaseRecords VALUES(707, 11794, '20060821'),
(707, 15160, '20060825'),(708, 18529, '20060821'),
(711, 11794, '20060821'),(711, 19585, '20060822'),
(712, 14680, '20060825'),(712, 21524, '20060825'),
(712, 19072, '20060821'),(870, 15160, '20060823'),
(870, 11927, '20060824'),(870, 18749, '20060825');
GO

now we gona have a table which is going to store information regards to CustomerPurchaseHabit..

and code for that is here..

IF OBJECT_ID (N'dbo.FactBuyingHabits', N'U') IS NOT NULL
DROP TABLE dbo.FactBuyingHabits;
GO

CREATE TABLE FactBuyingHabits (ProductID int, CustomerID int, LastPurchaseDate datetime);
GO

IF EXISTS (SELECT name FROM sys.indexes
WHERE name = N'IX_FactBuyingHabits_ProductID')
DROP INDEX IX_FactBuyingHabits_ProductID ON dbo.FactBuyingHabits;
GO

CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX IX_FactBuyingHabits_ProductID
ON dbo.FactBuyingHabits (ProductID);
GO

INSERT INTO FactBuyingHabits VALUES(707, 11794, '20060814'),
(707, 18178, '20060818'),(864, 14114, '20060818'),
(866, 13350, '20060818'),(866, 20201, '20060815'),
(867, 20201, '20060814'),(869, 19893, '20060815'),
(870, 17151, '20060818'),(870, 15160, '20060817'),
(871, 21717, '20060817'),(871, 21163, '20060815'),
(871, 13350, '20060815'),(873, 23381, '20060815');
GO

ok now what we want to do is.. we want to go through each records in PurchaseRecords and check whether this information exists in FactBuyingHabits or not.. if it exists then update its date if it doesnt then insert it, now if we want to do this.. we will go about creating cursor then if condition inside it and do it.. what do we get? we get result.. but cursors are very slow... in SQL Server 2008 Microsoft introduced MERGE function which allows us to do this pretty easily, and performance is increased pretty good.

and code for this is something like following:

MERGE FactBuyingHabits AS fbh
USING (SELECT CustomerID, ProductID, PurchaseDate FROM PurchaseRecords) AS src
ON (fbh.ProductID = src.ProductID AND fbh.CustomerID = src.CustomerID)
WHEN MATCHED THEN
UPDATE SET fbh.LastPurchaseDate = src.PurchaseDate
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
INSERT (CustomerID, ProductID, LastPurchaseDate)
VALUES (src.CustomerID, src.ProductID, src.PurchaseDate);

Bad Captcha

2008-04-30T17:15:00.000+05:30

This is seriously bad captcha.. I cant understand what it says...

while I was writing above post I got this captcha..

Blog Addiction

2008-04-16T23:12:00.000+05:30

70%

Gmail Archive Scam

2008-03-11T15:03:00.000+05:30

must read: http://www.techtalkz.com/computer-security/449241-g-archiver-gmail-archiver-scam.html

Site done

2008-03-04T02:15:00.001+05:30

It's almost 2 months, since I have blogged about anything... I got caught up with lots of hectic schedule and lost track of many things.... I was also working very hard on a site and finally I have completed web site after a long time, here it is http://www.LearnITOnWeb.com/ - still I have not added RSS to it, but will be doing that too as well very quickly. I now have to load site with lots and lots of content and get it to good rolling.

I have been busy with lots of work these days, which I am executing very soon in a 2 months time frame.

but you will find me blogging again now.. I have managed to get back on to track and get back on to calendar and tasks - yeah this happens to me.. many times I just loss track of my calendar and task list.

btw if any of you coming to Launch 5th March 2008 - Regal Cinema, do let me know.. will meet up for sure. - more information - http://www.heroeshappenhere.co.in/

Bill Gates: the exit interview

2008-01-08T19:40:00.000+05:30

Must read : http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/bill-gates-the-exit-interview/

Here comes another bubble

2008-01-05T01:22:00.000+05:30

looking at the way so many web 2.0 sites coming up.. blog sites.. community sites and what not... this video justifies it all.

and like in song of the video says.. blog it blog it.. blog this song.. so here I am doing it :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6IQ_FOCE6I

PUG Meet

2008-01-04T11:37:00.000+05:30

I will be in Pune tomorrow (5th January 2008) and will be presenting at PUG meeting.

Topic: Building Communication Aware Applications for Windows Mobile
Abstract: In this presentation Mayur Tendulkar will show how developers can leverage the functionality provided by Microsoft Windows Mobile platform to build Communication aware application. This will include, making and receiving calls, SMS interception, Bluetooth development, using emulators and real devices
Speaker: Mayur Tendulkar

Topic: ASP.NET URL Rewriting
Abstract: URL Rewriting is process of simplifying complex URLs, which are easily remembered by users and adds a great business value to web site in terms of Search Engine Optmization
Speaker: Dhaval Faria

Time: 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Address: Microsoft Corporation (I) Pvt. Ltd.202, 2nd Floor, Phoenix, Bund Garden Rd., Opp. Pune Residency Club, Pune 411001, Maharashtra, India

Underwater Digital Camera

2008-01-03T00:25:00.000+05:30

you wont find me blog abotu gadgets very often.. though I am gadget freak as many of you knows...

but this thing just catches my eyes.. and looks a bit funny, you might have seen many waterproof cameras... this one is no different apart from its looks... this digital camera just makes it perfect to catch moments while ur catching up fish, shells, shark, jelly fish, etc... and u dont have to be busy holding it with one hand and pressing shutter button with another.

more info: http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/02/liquid-image-intros-underwater-digital-camera-mask/

Thanks to Community-Credit for Crediting me with Artoo Potatoo

2008-01-02T11:13:00.000+05:30

as many if you know I am very much into community contribution... I have been contributing to the community since 2000-2001, few days back I discovered a site called http://www.community-credit.com/ this site credits community contributor with stupid geeky prizes... I have won the 14th prize - Artoo Potatoo. I am now waiting for my prize to come... :D I am excited about this.. and would like to really thank Community-Credit for this.

Thank you Community-Credit and David Silverlight :D

Bye Bye Netscape

2008-01-01T23:29:00.000+05:30

AOL announced that Netscape wont be Supported from 1st February 2008 - Source - http://blog.netscape.com/2007/12/28/end-of-support-for-netscape-web-browsers/

I have a very special respect for Netscape, its because of Netscape I am what I am :)... not talking about internet... ok let me talk in a more detail... 1997 got my first internet connection that time Netscape was the only browser popular among the users, I still remember version number Netscape Navigator 4.5 and 4.6 being my mots fav that time... I used Netscape Navigator to surf web sites, check emails and many more things... one day accidently or fortunately I mistaked Composer option in Netscape as Compose for email... which incidently had the same icon and with same name and same place for writing email in netscape email program (dont remeber name but operated from same application), I thought Composer is for email, clicked on it... and I was introduced to a whole new world of HTML... and my journey begins to the programming world :), and one more respect to Netscape for coming up with javascript....

its sad to know that Netscape wont be there sooner.. which will actually mean lesser competition and might slow down the development in the browser market.. the kind of revolution you can see in IE from IE 6 to IE 7 and in next version IE 8 is because of competition from Firefox, Opera and others... hope this continues and consumers gets more out of it.

Netscape will be remembered forever.

PS: I stopped using Netscape after IE 4.1

Expanding Tree SQL Query

2007-12-07T13:47:00.000+05:30

I was working on my web site, and I wanted to implement expanding category view... I have done this many times, and I thought of sharing this with you all.

I have a category table like following..

catId int
catName nvarchar(255)
parcatId int

in which I will be entering categories, and this will allow me to have categories upto multiple levels.. for example I got parent category which has ID 1 and category name is Software Development, then I got categoies like Microsoft, Sun and Linux this three got catId 2,3,4 respectively and parcatId as 1.. then I got few more categories like .NET, MFC, Silverlight, WPF.. whcih got catid like 5,6,7,8 respectively and parcatId as 2.. so this allows me to have unlimited tree for categories.

now, what I wanted was, that if I say catId 8 which is WPF, then I wanted to have output which gives me all parent categories.. like Software Development > Microsoft > WPF... also I wanted if I give catId 1 which is Software development then to give me all categories belonging to that one.. so it gives me output.. Software Development > Microsoft, Sun, Linux > inside Microsoft > .NET, MFC, Silverlight, WPF.

to do the above thing.. following SQL Query I have written.

- to get explosion from top to bottom.

WITH ExpandedCat(catId, catName, parcatId) AS
(
SELECT Cat1.catId, Cat1.catName, Cat1.parcatId
FROM Categories AS Cat1
WHERE Cat1.catId=1

UNION ALL

SELECT Cat2.catId, Cat2.catName, Cat2.parcatId
FROM ExpandedCat, Categories Cat2
WHERE ExpandedCat.catId = Cat2.parcatId
)
SELECT DISTINCT catId, catName, parcatId
FROM ExpandedCat
ORDER BY parcatId

and to get explosion from bottom to top.

WITH ExpandedCat(catId, catName, parcatId) AS
(
SELECT Cat1.catId, Cat1.catName, Cat1.parcatId
FROM Categories AS Cat1
WHERE Cat1.catId=8

UNION ALL

SELECT Cat2.catId, Cat2.catName, Cat2.parcatId
FROM ExpandedCat, Categories Cat2
WHERE ExpandedCat.parcatId = Cat2.catId
)
SELECT DISTINCT catId, catName, parcatId
FROM ExpandedCat
ORDER BY parcatId

3D Max Tutorial on Ashtray at learnitonweb.com

2007-12-02T22:21:00.000+05:30

I have uploaded 3rd video at http://www.learnitonweb.com on how to create or model Ashtray in 3D Max and apply materials (textures) to it and make it look like ceramic 3D Ashtray.

Check it out, and leave your comments on the site.

Spirit of Mumbai

2007-11-25T15:51:00.000+05:30

This is what keeps Mumbai alive :) - http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article§id=15&contentid=200711232007112304331879696dff8fb

Future Currency or Money

2007-11-22T03:30:00.000+05:30

Back in time………. There was no concept of currency or money, and probably these words never existed. Back in time there was no valuation of things, it was just give and take… what you can do I can’t do, and what I can do you can’t do… so you give me what you have and I give you what I have, and of course there was no measurement instruments in those days, so things were given without proper valuation and without measurement. Now lets keep measurement issue apart and talk about valuation, later on it came into picture that to make particular thing one needs to put it huge amount of efforts and other person is putting less efforts to do the what he can do, but both are giving each other same of goods or almost same amount of goods, so valuation of both goods were same regardless whether it took huge amount of time to produce 1st product or 2nd product… things were going on, and later on there a concept of Gold coins came in, but yet they were not used for valuation, they were used to give rewards, again no valuation of goods happened, but valuation of work started happening, because of that people understood the valuation o f the goods, and coin age started, transition from barter system to gold coins to coin age never happened instantly it took huge amount of time, and also it never happened everywhere at the same time, at some places it was going through centuries some places it was just introduced and some places they never heard about it. Coin age started valuing the goods, and people started understanding the efforts, value and measurement s of the goods, and started exchanging goods for the coins they have (this is what we still do, but now we call it we are buying).

Now lets look at how things are going… now the era of hard money is going on, bank notes… no coins… and now its going towards Plastic Money what we more popularly know it as Credit Cards, Debit Cards, etc… when we bought something we gave money now when we are buying something we are giving them plastic card to swipe.. and while making payment to a credit card company we are still not giving them money but we are sending them cheque or sometimes cash but most of the time its cheque, when we are giving cheque again transaction of cheque is done digitally no hard money is involved.. they are just numbers going from here to there… and this transition from money to plastic money is happening very quickly, the reason for this is the whole world is connected. Why plastic money is become so popular… if you look earlier people started valuing about the goods but they time was never valuable… now people have started valuing about the value of goods as well as of time… and plastic money saves a lot of time… now there have been huge amount of cases happening all the time regarding fraud credit card transaction, etc… now people needs to also value security… and I see future currency to be my bio genetic print… wherever I am going.. and I want to make transaction… give my fingerprint of any other bio genetic print and transaction is done…. Welcome to the future.

learnitonweb.com

2007-11-19T03:33:00.000+05:30

Finally after a long long long work and waiting... I am finally launching http://www.learnitonweb.com/.

still site is not completely done, but the main purpose why I started is done and is working :), I am working on its new design in Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 and will be done with it very soon, but will not be launching it till Microsoft gives it go at least till Beta.

so if you want to learn programming, computer, system admin, networking, database administration learnitonweb.com is the site :), I will be posting lots of video tutorials, along with the code.

Please visit it, have a look at them.. and leave your comments, and spread the word.

its - Learn IT On Web

Travelling, Meetings and Calls

2007-11-09T17:59:00.000+05:30

This week’s three days were really busy for me and I was able to check up the limit of my cell phone battery, how hot it gets, and my running strength and time time time.

Monday I was in event where Steve Ballmer had come down, it wasn’t that busy, but looking at Tuesday it was really hectic day… morning get up reach at Microsoft India Mumbai office at Kalina from Goregaon, local trains are great very crowded and a huge bag with me :P, reached for meeting.. meeting for 3 hours, I was expecting meeting to last for 2 hour, had scheduled another meeting in next 2 hours, but this meeting got extended for 1 hour, hence I decided to do that meeting on phone, while was in meeting was travelling and was heading towards town side, had to reach there by 3:30 PM and it was already 2:45 PM, running talking on phone reached finally at 3:20 PM and of course call on phone ended right on time.

Third day was again very hectic, morning 2 meetings, and phone meeting was great, so did 4 meetings on cell phone, and finally had to reach Worli for one more meeting, completed meeting in just 1 hour, and returned back from there , reached home 9 PM.
Fourth day wasn’t much hectic but was really nice smooth day but again with 2-3 meetings on cell phone.

My cell phone isn’t able to last its battery life compared to my last cell phone… oh btw my last cell phone i-mate JasJar I sold it and got new one HTC Touch, but this is really good one very light weight so talking a lot doesn’t make my arms pain.

And my running strength is same as before, just that I get a bit tired easily… hmm calls me for exercise, yeah am planning to join swimming… but no idea when plan will be implemented.

CHM and Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2

2007-09-12T23:23:00.000+05:30

I was struggling to open up .chm file, which is a legacy Help file, I was trying to open it up in Windows Vista it opens up but when I try to navigate through chm file all I see is navigation is canceled, this is not just with Windows Vista, but Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) also faces same problem.

I was going through file properties and noticed something, and clicked on Unblock button and then tried to open it up and yes it opens up :)

Updates

2007-08-16T13:52:00.000+05:30

I am excited to tell u all about my new site coming up soon... design, programming and testing is done, I am right now working on content for the site... once I am done with a handful of content am gona start posting on it and will publish it... right now I have not published my web site, I am expecting to be done with content by end of this month, or starting of next month.

Live Stream

2007-07-13T12:16:00.000+05:30

I am planning to stream myself 24/7, so sooner you will see me what am doing where am going.. all on internet :)

just have a look at http://www.justin.tv/ to get more idea.

I am goin to get EVDO - Reliance or TATA Data Card and stream myself :)

Apple iPhone Developer Announcement WWDC 07

2007-06-12T12:01:00.000+05:30

Steve Jobs, yesterday in WwDC 2007 keynote talked about iPhone, they are launching it on 29th June at 6PM, also they talked about third party application on iPhone.. now before I go ahead...

they also announced Safari browser on Windows.. good news, now back to iPhone, iPhone will support third party applications, now good news in this is that you dont need to download any new SDK, learn something new... but you can use your existing knowledge of AJAX and xHTML and CSS meaning Web 2.0 and your application will run on Apple iPhone, to run your application it needs Safari browser which is already present on iPhone, now the question that I have got is, this means that you will need internet connection whenever you want to use third party application, and internet connection on cell phone using GPRS is expensive or does it allows you to download web 2.0 application? that is not clear, ok now thats that.. now one more disappointment is that, its web 2.0 meaning application will not be able to access platform features, meaning this applications will not be able to access iPhone :( but lets wait till launch and see whats in the store... so far it doesnt look good and also not enough information in hand.. so will wait till final launch.

but iPhone looks great.

Celebrating Decade

2007-06-08T11:01:00.000+05:30

I am celebrating a decade :P, its been 10 years I am using internet :D yeah 1997 is the year when I got my first ever internet connection from VSNL for 3,000rs for 100 hours :D on dial-up at speed of wooping 36kbps :D and later on 56kbps.

And also I am celebrating decade for a programming :D, yes I am completed 10 years of me into programming and now I am spending very less time in programming more into business and meetings into architecturing.

Remembering good old days… when…
- Your best friend for coding was none other than notepad.
- You did debugging using paper and pen.
- You did dirty debugging by putting write to console line of code to just see that values are computing proper.

Today also dirty debugging works, when debugging tools doesn’t help you out.

- Internet was just a place where you chat, check email and download games.
- You liked telnet kind of internet a lot than browser internet.
- You used internet only for hour so that you don’t run out of hours and telephone bills.
- There was handful of reasons to use internet.
- You spend more time watching TV rather than surfing on internet.

Plus, lots of things are there, I am just too happy to celebrate decade in this industry.

Closer

2007-05-29T23:48:00.000+05:30

day by day I am getting closer to finishing website learnitonweb.com and also in a month I will be launching.. I am going to finish the site design and programming by 10th June.. and will start testing after 10th June.. and launch in July :) so stay tuned for screen shots.

The future of Software

2007-05-17T11:27:00.000+05:30

Since 3 days, I have been trying to understand the way software industry has evolved and is evolving and will evolve. It’s been a long time software industry has not gone through a radical change, if we notice it’s same kind of software we are still developing but including more features and functionality, its jut because hardware has become more powerful, but software never been able to take advantage of the powerful hardware, and we can blame operating systems for the same, but they are not 100% in a blame, we have to blame ourselves software companies and developers for this.

Let's look at what I am trying to say in a bit more detailed manner, to give you a basic problem which I face a lot of time is as follows:
Most of the time whenever I am saving a file, I save file on a desktop, I click on desktop and save a file, and next time when I again want to save file it takes me straight to Desktop, that's really nice and worth, but one application is there in which if I want to save file, before that I use explorer to check the path, the path that I get, I copy that path and paste it in a window which asks me where I want to save a file, now next time when I save file from the same application it opens up the same path where I saved file earlier, which is not at all good for me, because every time I want to save file from that application, I always go through explorer and copy the path, so the best thing will be if application can understand that I am copying path all the time for this application and for other application I am always saving on desktop, that will be really great and would be really wonderful and a lot time saving, so what I mean is, software should become more intelligence rather than being just a guided software application by users.

Hooked to Microsoft Flight Simulator X

2007-05-15T12:15:00.000+05:30

this days I am very much hooked to this game Microsoft Flight Simulator X http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulator/ this is one really exciting game.. I been playing this game since its realease of Flight Simulator 2002 and then I have never stopped playing this game.. but in between I was not in touch with this game.. but now I have again started playing this game.. check out the screen shot.... I have captured screenshot of the game.. and then I have used photoshop to make it a more realistic, 1st one is game screenshot and 2nd one is photoshoped screenshot.. click on images to view larger. I have not done a great job in photoshop but just tried to make it look good. :) comments and feedbacks always welcome.

Yahoo still rocks for the speed

2007-05-05T22:50:00.000+05:30

me and one of my friend we are just great fan of dazzling speed of Yahoo! but since a long time we never spent looking at Yahoo! speed and we thought Google is catching up with speed, so we thought to still give a test at Yahoo! we managed to block our traffic to such extent that no single site opens, even DNS request fails most of the time, and we gave a test to google.com and yahoo.com, google.com failed to open and yahoo.com opened.. Yahoo! still rocks :P

we were also looking at Yahoo! Messenger and found this wonderful stuff, http://webmessenger.yahoo.com/index.php its again dazzling fast, it has really nice graphics, but its just too fast on dial up as well.. must try it out.. its super duper fast.. I am impressed with the speed of webbased yahoo messenger, just because its using heavy graphics yet faster.

Good news for all Asian for Internet

2007-04-29T21:11:00.000+05:30

It's really great for everyone internet is going to be a great in Asia very soon now..

check out the following links:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/28/india-could-get-free-2mbps-broadband-internet-by-2009

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/28/500-million-underwater-fiber-network-to-link-asia-america/

Situation or Situational or Task Based Services

2007-04-25T14:13:00.000+05:30

Today everyone is talking about Location based services, few talking about location aware services, but almost no one is talking about situation based services.

Situation-al based services can be really breakthrough advancement in software and the way people are able to get their work done.

Let’s understand what is Location based services, Location aware services and then we will understand situation based services.

Location Based Services:
LBS, these services are executed when you are around particular location. Let’s take a simple scenario: You got your cell phone and your cell phone is loaded with the software which enables you to know the location at which you are, and this software is constantly running in a background, you have also subscribed to the live services provided by the software manufacture, you are in your office, you get a call from your mother asking you to get some grocery when you are on the way to home, later you get a call from your girl friend wanting to meet you, and you decide to greet her with flowers, you note all this information down, and you open up the software loaded in your cell phone and put all this information saying that as soon as you leave office, remind you to buy groceries for mother, and to buy flowers to greet girl friend, all information is punched into a software, and now you don't need to remember or care, you can be a free... Now your work is done, it’s time to leave office, you reach office gate and you get reminder to buy groceries for mother... You drive to grocery shop, get the groceries, on the way when you are approaching flower shop, your cell phone reminds you to buy flowers for your girlfriend, you reach home give groceries to your mother, and leave to meet your girlfriend, on the way while you are approaching your cell phone informs you about romantic movie being played nearby movie hall, and tickets are available at rate of 90.00rs (approx 2 USD), you decide to buy tickets and again while approaching cell phone informs you there is a traffic on the way and advice you to take another route, you reach on time, and you give good surprises to your girl friend, you feel proud of yourself and all this is done through LBS.

How LBS work?
Your cell phone is switched on, and software is running which provides LBS, this software keeps on monitoring the location which you are at, software does it using cell tower information, whenever you enter particular cell, software queries the cell and gets information which includes cell id, signal strength etc... User enters information into software based on that, for example I know that when I reach my office gate I am at cell tower 22, I get this information through software and I give it a friendly name - my office gate, so in software I will enter information when cell enters into my office gateway which is tower 22 remind me to buy groceries, and similarly I configure other reminders, auto notification like traffic and movie hall nearby are given to me by software which is connected to software manufacture through internet using GPRS.

So that was about Location Based Services, now let’s look at Location Aware Services.

Location Aware Services:
These services are executed when you are at the particular location, let’s take a scenario for this one as well: you are having a mobile device which is connected to GPS receiver to get the exact location where you are presently, software is loaded on your mobile device to get the data from GPS receiver and perform actions, you are at office working and you get a call from your friend and you both decide to meet up place where you never been, and you are not sure about the direction, you start the software and with the help of GPS, software is able to give you your perfect location and is able to direct you to proper location.

How LAS Works?
LAS, works using GPS device, GPS receiver gives your longitude and latitude along with many more information, e.g. speed at which you are travelling, altitude, etc...

The difference between LBS and LAS is, LBS cannot get the accurate location as it is working on cellular tower information, and cellular tower covers a good amount of distance making software unable to determine the exact location, whereas LBS communicates with GPS satellites and gives you your perfect location.

Now, let’s look at Situation based services.

Situation Based Services:
SBS, very rarely anyone is talking about this, but once this services gets implemented it can do wonders for everyone, there is just no limit to what it can do, we will better understand it by a good scenario: you are at office working, you get a call from a friend and you both decides to meet at 6:00 PM, but you are too busy with work and not sure if you can make it, in situation based service providing software you enter information like if you are still in office at 5:00 PM, message your friend saying "I will get a bit late, I will message you when I leave from office." and you also set message for if u still in the office at 6:00 PM "I am really sorry, I am still at office, lots of work here, we will meet some other time." and you set one more message for if u leave office before 6:00 PM "I am done with my work, I am leaving now.. Meet you in next 30 minutes." after doing all this, you get busy with work... Its 5:00 PM now and you forgot about your friend, but the software remembers and sends SMS to your friend what you had set for 5 PM if you still in the office, you done with your work at 5:30 pm, you leave the office, software reminds you that you have to meet your friend and also sends message to your friend about meeting you in 30 minutes.. You will meet by 6 PM, software doesn't send message which you set for not meeting at 6:00 pm, because you are not in the office.

The above scenario is very simple but yet excites a lot; there can be lots of reasons and possibilities for which you can use Situation Based Services. This is the future of connected world.

How SBS Work?
Working of SBS is combination of LBS and LAS; you need cell tower information as well as GPS information.

Welcome to the future :)

Sound Projection

2007-04-16T19:11:00.001+05:30

I always had this at back of my mind.. I always wanted some kind of projection system, which can project sound at particular direction, for example.. now a days we have got a TV on which we can have multiple channels going on.. at home this happens many time.. my bro wants to watch something else and I want to watch something else, we can watch but we cant really listen.. we can listen either of them.. and I always dreamed about a Sound projection system, which can project particular sound to particular person only.. and other person should not be able to head that sound.. and I was kind of thinking on this, how it works or how it can be done, etc... I started a bit working on this.. and I figured out we can use Infra rays, as Infra rays are directional ways compared to sound waves.. I somehow got this thing that we probably can use Infra ways with Sound waves and might be able to project sound in particular direction.. but I dint knew how to do the whole thing....
now after about 2 years, just today morning I was watching Discovery channel, yeah me not feeling well.. so was at home.. and they were talking exactly same thing, and some company already done research on it, and they are working on it, and to my surprise they are usign Infra rays.. eyeyyeyey.. but along with something more.. its great.. I can be inventor :P but thats apart.. its great to have a sound projection system.

2 web sites

2007-03-22T21:59:00.000+05:30

I am a bit busy with working on 2 web sites, which I am going to launch very soon... one is dhavalfaria.com coming back again.. and its not going to be only on blog, but a bit more things in it..

and second site that I am working on is going to help a lots of people into lots of things, but ofcourse only into IT, but lets see I might put something more as well, as the site name is such.. but anyways I will keep you all updated with it.. as site is in good shape right now.. I am planning to put it next month.. as I have to save some money so that I can host... I spent lots of money in few months :(, so a one month delay.

more information on second web site will be soon available.

Yahoo! Messenger old sounds

2007-03-02T21:01:00.000+05:30

Dont like Yahoo! Messenger's new sound? cant live without hearing those chimes sound?? well, I really dint like new Yahoo! Messenger's sound.. as they are very low and really cant hear when u put voice low.

here is the answer, how to get back old sounds.

download from http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/msg/8/old_sounds.zip
and here u get old sounds :)

Blog Survery

2007-02-23T12:52:00.000+05:30

Hello everyone,

those who have got a blog - click on this link - http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB2266FZBLEPH and please fill up the survey.. as this is going to help MBA student.. they have got some project in college on blogger survey. I am sure you would do this for a good cause :)

Thanks.
Dhaval Faria.

Old Days

2007-02-06T20:00:00.000+05:30

Great good old days :)... reminds me back and comes back :P

After a long time got back in touch with one of my friend in US, as he got a some free time from him work so we are now spending good quality time with some useful chat, which we used to do in past. It's amazing and reminds me back my old days, and me back in my earlier enthu energetic role to do full time research :P

School Chale Hum

2007-02-04T23:41:00.000+05:30

I been searching for this song since a long time, couldnt find anywhere.. finally found it on youtube.com but no way to download.. so here my friend comes to help me :D Kaustubh Gujar..

he got a site through which you can download youtube videos - http://www.dlyoutube.com/

it works great, and I have downloaded school chale hum video and enjoying the song.. now am gona extract audio from video :)

Thanks Kaustubh :D

Happy New Year 2007

2007-01-04T11:25:00.000+05:30

after 2 and half months of leaving blog space, am back now.. I got very much busy with work and dont wanted to concentrate anything else.
IN between lot of thins happend.. my laptop knocked off.. bought new one.. thanks to Sarang Datye, for suggesting wonderful new laptop.. HP Pavilion dv6114tx.
Lot of payments stuck, but now slowly they are releasing.. so no worries abt that as well.. my bro is gona get engaged soon now, very happy for that :D.
hmm and thats about it.. lets see how I blog more and how often I update it.. I have kept blog to low priority always, will see if I can shift it to a higher priority in my schedule :), it does require good amount of time :P
anyways, Happy New Year everyone.

More Updates

2006-10-14T14:34:00.000+05:30

okay, today finally am competing HTML/xHTML test and posting it on the blog.. test results..

Charger thingy is still on hold.. someone please please find my multi meter :p

3-4 activities wait :p till I am done with it :)

tonight I will post results.

Updates Updates

2006-10-05T18:25:00.000+05:30

got a lot busy with work, got a delivery very soon to client.. anyways.. posting this entry to give updates on my activities.

Book - I am dont with making its Index page, and also I am done with Introduction part of the book.. I will be posting whole index soon, and also Introduction snap shot or lets see might post whole Introduction in this.

XML/HTML/XSLT/CSS Tests - This is going to take a little few more days before I start doing it, I have yet not worked on it at all, but will be soon looking into it an come up with results very soon.. say by end of next week.

USB Charger - hmph.. its on halt right now.. I DONT HAVE MULTIMETER :(((((( anyways, will get it very soon as soon as I find sometime on my hand :)

Robotics - ..... expensive :( hehehe.. but well, I got some other ideas as well :p gona implement them soon.

and ya 3-4 more activities I been doing in hidden since a long time.. you all gona see that as well very soon.

I know I know its all pending nothing is coming up.. but wait wait.. soon u will see things getting bloated up on my blog :p

Update on USB Charger

2006-09-26T12:02:00.000+05:30

remember in my previous post I talked about something that I am working on?

well, its based on hand cranking principle.. .I just push the trigger it charges coil of copper and gives power to my cell.. simple and sweet.

I am very much close to complete it, but right now am facing some good problem with it.. and problem is I dont have multimeter :(, I had but not able to find out where it is, so facing problem with it, and without multimeter I dont wanna go ahead.. hehehe I dont wanna damage my cell :p

So, I gotta wait till I get my hands on Multimeter, thats for sure by Sunday I will get my hands on Multimeter. Once I am pretty much done with it, I will be writing a DIY (Do It Yourself) document and post it on my blog, so you all you readers of my blog can try hands on it and create your own charger as well.

More about Robotics

2006-09-21T10:29:00.000+05:30

Remember I was talking about Robotics in my very earlier post? Finally robot is available to buy.... but its very expensive around 5000USD :o :o :o.. I gotta wait for some more time before I buy and try my hands on it.. developer version of the robot costs 4000USD but still very expensive :(, no worries will buy for sure. :)

I am working on one hardware project, which I really need to make it work, if that works then I will be really happy.. what I am trying to do is, trying to make a usb charger for my cell.. umm whats big deal right? well, that charger doesnt need any electricity :D so hang on.. :p I will keep you all posted about this.

Race against Time

2006-09-15T12:49:00.000+05:30

like in my previous post I said that I love race...

right now am facing race against time :p

Its something that I love to do, but its very tiring so I try to avoid as much as possible :p

Right now.. I have to complete 2 work as soon as possible, and check up with 1 work. So total 3 work that I got to complete... 1 work is due tomorrow, clients coming to see.. 2nd work is due on Monday or Tuesday.. but for that have to goto Gujarat so travelling starts tomorrow (Saturday), and 3rd work is about checking out bug, patch it and notify the client as soon as possible.

hmm, now whats the catch u might ask... ok.. the thing which we need to show to client tomorrow is almost at the end.. will revisit this thing again.

2nd work needs to be complete by today as no time tomorrow and on Sunday :( and Monday or Tuesday we got to show to client.

3rd work bug fixing is something that needs to be done as soon as possible, its like if can be done now in 5mins then now.

ok so thats work.. now more to it.. I got to book tickets for the Gujarat.. hopefully will book today evening, now tomorrow I dont know if I will be able to catch the bus on time or not :p coz I am packed with other busy impotant work :(

No one is at home.. Mom and Dad left yesterday for village, will return back on Tuesday.. so I got ta do packing and all myself.. now thats again a time consuming :(..

lot of things... I shouldnt be writing this post.

Race to Win

2006-09-13T15:13:00.000+05:30

finally found sometime to blog :)... got stuck with work a lot.

well, this is just a quick post to let ppl know that am still active and will be posting more and more again.. no break like a week break.. :)

btw, I just found that I love driving.. hehehe :p all the time now a days I am finding reason enough to go out and drive.. :p and specially racing :D.. hehe yeah I race with other vehicles.. shhh but safe driving.. and follow all traffic rules.

thats it for now.. for more will update very soon.

HTML CSS xHTML DHTML XML XSLT

2006-09-08T23:03:00.000+05:30

I am conducting test for HTML, CSS, xHTML, DHTML, XML and XSLT. Testing includes static page testing, and dynamic page testing. Based on my experience and what I think, XML XSLT will win the race when you have lots of data or enough data to kill HTML :p

but before that I am going to test HTML Table test and CSS without table test and will see who performs better.. and then will combine it with my original test :)

So, stay tuned for the test and results.

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin killed

2006-09-04T12:55:00.000+05:30

Very sad news, all those who watches Discovery Channel or Animal Planet channel knows him. You have seen him playing with crocodiles most of the time.

May his soul Rest In Peace...

Source: Yahoo! News

More Source: Yahoo! News Reuters

More Source: CNN

Microsoft MechCommander 2 Shared Source Release

2006-09-04T10:37:00.000+05:30

Download Microsoft MechCommander 2 Shared Source

Microsoft has released a source code for the game Microsoft MechCommander 2, check out the above link and download the source code.. its really big 700MB download and when u extract it it will be 4.5GB+

More info on the link.

Miss u Pluto

2006-08-31T19:27:00.000+05:30

I am sure you all must have heard about Pluto no more is considered as a planet, it still exist but its no more considered as a planet.

Pluto was the 9th planet of our solar system (still exist in space.. yup need to repeat coz many thinks it has gone.), I always had feeling about Pluto that its not a planet its not a planet.. but still had to go with scientists.. hehehe :p ok am just kidding.. but I had feelings no any reason.. but just I felt.

International Astronomical Union (IAU), on 24th August, 2006 redefined definition of Planet, which makes Pluto no more Planet.. but now Pluto is considered as Dwarf Planet.

Planet - is in orbit around a star or stellar remnants, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (in proper words - nearly round) shape, is not massive enough to initiate themonuclear fusion of deuterium in its core (unlike Sun), and has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

Dward Planet - Is in orbit around the Sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hyrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, Is not a satellite of a planet, or other nonstellar body.

whew, above definitions taken from Wiki Pedia, so please dont think that am smart.. hehehe...

now let me explain in a very simple words.... Pluto is not revolving around Sun as its supposed to be.. it comes between the way of Neptune planet, so Neptune planet complaint about Pluto to authorities on Earth thats IAU, IAU thought over it and gave punishment to Pluto. To get more idea.. check out the pic I have posted below.

Change in Progress

2006-08-28T12:29:00.000+05:30

This is good news for all my well wishers, those who loves me, those who takes care abt me, and those who worries abt me.. :p ok ok its all about weight :p

I am joining a gym :D finally.. gona gain a weight.. goin to change my hair style, change my cloth style, etc.... the time frame starts from September mid by the end of this year. :D

Serious Steps into Robotics

2006-08-24T03:33:00.000+05:30

I am trying to be more active with blog.. anyways..

got a new cell imate jasjar, am loving it will post abt it very soon more..

I have been considering robotics since a long time, and have done lot of things in it as well, like created my small robo a long back which could follow a white line, then I written a lot of small AI engines in .NET and in C/C++ to make it recognize face, + lot of things, also self developing robot, etc... now I am looking at it more seriously and have sent an email to White Box Robotics company to send me quotation for 914 PC Bot, I am planning very much to buy it but its going to be around 50,000.00/- to 80,000/- INR = approx 1000 to 1700 USD (as of 24th August, 2006). The good thing about this is that I can use Robotics Studio - software from Microsoft for robotics, and it seems to me a generic robot, so am seriously looking towards it.

Stay tuned.. more very soon.. trying to be with blog very frequent now.. more organized.. will be spending atleast 15minutes for blog in day :).

Popular Search

2006-06-18T23:13:00.000+05:30

okay, a quick post... Popular Search on Yahoo! Search - top Aishwarya Rai - http://www.yahoo.com/

Terraserver - Keyhole – WorldWind - Google Earth - Virtual Earth

2006-06-09T11:14:00.000+05:30

CAUTION: This post is going to change reader's experience from personal to developer.

Terraserver – I remember using this service a long time back in 1999. This is probably the first web site to give earth view from satellites on internet, but sadly it could only show some parts of US and Canada and not all, particularly famous places. Service provided by Microsoft, yes Virtual Earth is not something which Microsoft did for first time, they did Terraserver a long back. Know some really interesting facts about Terraserver here, and yes developer friendly.

Keyhole – I remember using product from this company couple of years back, I liked it a lot, but again only US. I really liked software from this company, because they had support for developers as well. For example it allows me to develop application which can take data from the Keyhole calculate distance from one place to the other and can do lot of things.

WorldWind – This is one really cool application from NASA, which does same thing as what other applications do, application is developed using .NET and Managed DirectX and best part is its source code is available to download, so you can go to its web site and download its source code and play around with it, add more features of your own do whatever you want, but you can’t sell it. Interesting thing about WorldWind is that it’s from NASA, it has lots of things based on SPACE view, etc… really interesting to try at least once.

Google Earth – some of you might not have heard about the above applications or products or services, but am pretty sure, everyone have heard about Google Earth and have used it. Google actually bought Keyhole company and added a little features here and there in the product and called it Google Earth, interface remains the same, and almost everything is same, only few features here and there. Bad thing about Google Earth is it’s does not have any support for developers, good thing about it is that its fast. I just wonder why they removed developer support what keyhole used to give.

Virtual Earth – this is from Microsoft, after success of Google Earth, Microsoft decided to come in market with their own software to compete Google. And they named it Virtual Earth, it has more features than that of Terraserver + lots of things. Good thing about this product is that, it has lots of developer support, and bad thing its slow.

Now, you must be wondering why suddenly am writing about it. Well it appears to be my friend at Delhi wants to take admission in Mumbai college, and I am helping her with that, she asked for St. Xavier’s college stuff, etc… and as I was going to Churchgate I said I will get form for her, I knew that College is at Churchgate but not sure where exactly in Churchgate, so I opened up Google Earth and located the college, and yeah it’s great product, so I thought to write about it with all history stuffs.

Writing a Book

2006-06-07T20:04:00.000+05:30

I am a book worm, I do read lot of books and I got bunch of books at home and you will find at least one book in my bag along with my Laptop, Pad, Pens, Badge, CDs, and lot of other things.

I generally read almost all types of books, but my most favorite. books are those which deals with philosophy, history, autobiography, stories, novels, and knowledge related books. Yeah you got it right, computer books are not my favorite to read.

Being a book worm I always want to write my own book, many times I thought of writing book on different topics, but one topic in which I can write book easily and can write well will be on computer stuff rather than writing book on history or something else.

So, finally I have decided to touch very interesting topic but very less books you will find on this topic. So while I was thinking of writing book on a topic, other idea stroked in my mind, and which is surely going to make it worth reading book and trying it out.

I got book on 3D Studio Max - named Foundations of 3DS Max 6, software is most used 3D Animation Software in media industry, for creating game animations, models, also animation and special effects in movies. The book is not at all related to general programming or game programming but it deals with the 3D Modeling and Animation.

Then I have got book on DirectX - named Managed DirectX 9 Kick Start : Graphics and Game Programming, DirectX is used to develop games on Windows Platform, I will write more about DirectX sometime later, like why DirectX is required and why we cant really just write games directly without using DirectX, in fact really nice question, but will explain it a bit later on.

And lastly got one book on Game Programming - named Beginning .NET Game Programming in VB.NET, book deals with not just .NET Game Programming but also talk a lot about fundamentals of developing game, etc...

Okay, so while I was reading all three books and going through them, I decided to develop one fanatic game. But used to face lots of difficulties as Game development needs nice 3D Graphics, book helped me in creating them, but fails to create models which I can use for game development and had figure out things by myself and similar problems with the game programming, game programming talks about using model but model was simple 3d model and not flexible for to be use in game programming so again failed and faced a lot of problem with that, but after a lot of struggle able to do it :D.

Now, the coolest idea which I mentioned earlier is that, now that I am expert in 3D Max, already expert in Programming and also Game Development I have decided to write a single book which coveres all topics of Game Programming, which includes 3D Animation and Modeling + Game Fundamentals + Game Programming + DirectX Programming and I might include something on Music ??? yeah Music, I can play music very well (4years of training :D), but don't have good electronic keyboard with me, but I am going to buy one soon, but let's see might include in book, not sure about Music, but special effect sounds for sure are going to there and how to use them.

So did you like my idea? you heard about One Stop Shop, now its One Book Develop Full Game. I am not going to completely devote my time in writing this book. Will be also posting other things on blog, but will also show progress of my book writing.

Ransomware

2006-06-06T18:25:00.000+05:30

New worm hits the machines named "Ransomware", which encrypts everything in My Documents folder, so if you try to open it up it asks for some 30 characters password, now I have got that password, now I have not cracked the password just got it from the news web site, here is the password to decrypt it:

mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vmw.

Please inform your friends about the same, post on your blog as well.

News Link - http://timesonline.typepad.com/technology/2006/06/the_archiveus_t.html

Dhaval Faria's Blog

2006-06-05T12:23:00.000+05:30

Hey Everyone,

Changing my blog from http://www.dhavalfaria.com to http://dhavalfaria.blogspot.com for a time being.

Reason: Not able to maintain server properly right now, but once I have enough time and enough resource I will again move to http://www.dhavalfaria.com.

Now about Blog - I will be posting same things that I used to post earlier but this time will make it make more sense and will be giving more information.

Color BLACK: why I choose, is because the images that I will be posting on blog, and things which I will write on blog should come out clearly and should create the environment such, so thats why black color template :).

So keep visiting my blog :)

Dhaval Faria.