TECH NOTES

April 7, 2009

Tools & Code: Microsoft SharePoint Designer Offered As Free Download

Filed under: IT Tools & Code — Black Falcon @ 7:53 pm
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SharePoint Designer Offered as Free Dev Tool


3 April 2009 · by Kurt Mackie

Go to article source here…
Download SharePoint Designer here…


Microsoft on Wednesday announced that its SharePoint Web portal design tool is now available as a free download, which can be accessed here.

Microsoft decided to offer Office SharePoint Designer 2007 for free because it didn’t want price to be a barrier to SharePoint users, according to Tom Rizzo, senior director of product management for the SharePoint team. Microsoft has so far sold more than 100 million SharePoint licenses, he added in a video announcement.

SharePoint Designer 2007 was still listed at Amazon.com for $238.49 on Friday, but it is being removed from Microsoft’s price catalog and will only be available from Microsoft as a free download as of April 1.

In addition, Microsoft eventually plans to make its Expression Web product compatible with SharePoint. Expression Web is developer tool for creating dynamic Web sites using ASP.NET and PHP scripting, but it currently “does not directly support SharePoint,” according to a SharePoint team letter. The letter didn’t say when that SharePoint compatibility would be enabled.

For those who just bought SharePoint Designer 2007 and have Software Assurance licensing for that product, Microsoft is making a concession of sorts. The company is offering Expression Web to those who had Software Assurance licensing as of April 1, 2009 — to “make it right” for those customers, according to a Microsoft Q&A.

Both dev tools — SharePoint Designer and Expression Web — trace their lineage, in part, to Microsoft Office FrontPage, which is a “legacy” Web development tool. Microsoft’s mainstream support for the current FrontPage 2003 product will end on April 14, 2009, with paid extended support ending on April 8, 2014, according to a Microsoft lifecycle page.

Expression Web licensees have the right to use FrontPage 2003, if they prefer that dev tool, according to the Q&A.

Microsoft plans to ship the next version of SharePoint Designer with the next SharePoint release. That next release, called “SharePoint 14,” may appear in beta form in “the next several months,” according to a blog by Guy Creese, vice president and research director of the collaboration and content strategies service at Burton Group.

Windows OS: ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley Tells Us Windows 7 users can downgrade to XP

Filed under: IT Windows OS — Black Falcon @ 3:20 pm
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znet_logo


Microsoft will allow Windows 7 users to downgrade to XP


April 6th, 2009
Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:04 am

Go to article source…

Microsoft and its PC partners are going to allow Windows 7 users to downgrade not just to Windows Vista, but also to Windows XP, Microsoft officials are confirming.

Some company watchers have been wondering about the downgrade rights that Microsoft will offer when Windows 7 ships. When AppleInsider reported this weekend that HP was going to offer Windows 7 users the ability to downgrade to XP, I asked Microsoft about the story.

Here’s what a spokesperson representing the company’s Windows client division told me via e-mail on April 5:

MJF: Does Microsoft have downgrade rights for Windows XP planned as part of Windows 7?

Microsoft spokesperson: Yes. This is not the first time that Microsoft has offered downgrade rights to a version other than its immediate predecessor and our Software Assurance volume-license customers can always downgrade to any previous version of Windows. (Note: Microsoft changed the statement from “Software Assurance” to “volume license” Monday afternoon.)

(The spokesperson clarified later that downgrade rights allow users to install previous versions of Windows, not just the most recent predecessor. In other words, a Software-Assurance-covered volume-license user who wanted to downgrade from Vista could, technically, go back to Windows 2000 or even Windows 95, not just XP. Who knew?)

MJF: Is Microsoft cutting these kinds of rights deals with each OEM individually? Has it made such an arrangement with HP?

Microsoft spokesperson: Downgrade rights policies are the same for all of our main OEM partners and what you are talking about is not a special arrangement. Since the End User right to Windows XP Professional is part of the license terms for these editions, it’s really about making facilitation options easier for our OEM customers and End Users.

(It’s worth noting that the only two versions of Windows Vista for which Microsoft and its PC makers provide downgrade rights are Vista Business and Ultimate — and those must downgrade to XP Professional. I’d think similar limitations would be likely with Windows 7.)

The AppleInsider report claimed that Microsoft and HP had agreed to provide downgrade rights from October (one rumored launch target for Windows 7) and April 30, 2010. Microsoft officials did not comment on whether either date is real. And HP didn’t respond to my request for comment at all. (I am doubtful about the April 30th deadline. Why only provide downgrade rights for a handful of months?)

Update: The Microsoft spokesperson said the April 30 cu-off date in the original story is not something the company is ready to discuss. The exact quote: “No dates have been announced for the end of Windows 7 downgrade right facilitation to Windows XP.”

Update No. 2: An HP spokesperson responded Monday afternoon, concurring with Microsoft’s statement that Microsoft terms and conditions are consistent across OEMs. The spokesperson declined to provide any details, citing “confidentiality” of HP communications.

With Windows 7 looking good (even at this beta stage), why would users want to downgrade to XP, you may wonder. For many businesses, supporting a slew of different Windows releases is a nightmare. They’d prefer to have all their users on one (or possibly two) different versions.

If Microsoft ends up finding a way to insure that legacy Windows apps work on Windows 7 — beyond supporting them with a combination of Virtual PC and MED-V, another option available only to users who buy Microsoft’s Software Assurance licensing — downgrading to an older version of Windows from Windows 7 could look a whole lot less appealing.

Meanwhile, in related news, TechARP — the site that brought us the still-unconfirmed-but-likely-true report that Microsoft is planning to offer PC buyers a free upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 if they purchase new systems starting this summer — is now reporting that users who downgrade to XP also will be eligible for free Win 7 upgrades via the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program.

Mary Jo FoleyMary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 20 years. Don’t miss a single post. Subscribe via Email or RSS.

Got a tip? Send Mary Jo your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. For disclosure on Mary Jo’s industry affiliations, click here or to see Mary Jo’s full profile click here.

April 2, 2009

Business: “IT failure contributes to UK bank collapse”

Filed under: IT Business — Black Falcon @ 10:23 pm
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IT failure contributes to UK bank collapse


April 1st, 2009 by Michael Krigsman



A failed business strategy involving a large IT blunder contributed to the collapse of Scotland’s largest customer-owned lender, the Dunfermline Building Society. As a result, the Society is writing off a £9.5 million IT loss, despite total profit for the year of only £11 million.

The UK government will pay Nationwide Building Society 1.6 billion pounds ($2.3 billion) in cash to purchase the troubled bank.

The Financial Times reports:

Jim Murphy, Scotland secretary, said the previous management had made “reckless decisions” because of its over-exposure to commercial loans, involvement in the subprime market and unfortunate decisions on technology. Dunfermline was forced to make a £9.5m write-off on last year’s £11m profits because of a failed IT system.

Finextra reports that the company lost focus by attempting to establish a software business selling mortgage-processing systems to other banks:

The company poured £31 million into the loss making Dunfermline Solutions unit, which was set up to develop a mortgage IT system that could then be sold to other financial institutions.

Scottish newspaper, The Herald, describes the misguided business strategy behind this software solutions endeavor:

One expert, who has been involved in advising building societies on their accounts for the past 15 years, told The Herald this week: “The Dunfermline was never a particularly profitable organization. The IT loss was pretty huge compared with the size of their profits – so their buffer against further losses is not as good as it could be.”

He went on: “They have a good brand, healthy margins on their residential lending, but venturing into anything beyond housing association finance risks losses on property development type loans. It is easy to grow your balance sheet by lending to property developers, but it is quite unusual for that size of institution. If you are anything less than a £10bn society, the solution is not to get involved in anything other than simple basic commercial loans.”

(more…)

March 30, 2009

Security: We don’t have any… “Massive Chinese computer espionage network uncovered”

Filed under: IT Security, Uncategorized — Black Falcon @ 6:42 pm
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Massive Chinese computer espionage network uncovered


Paul Harris in New York
Sunday 29 March 2009


A mystery electronic spy network apparently based in China has infiltrated hundreds of computers around the world and stolen files and documents, Canadian researchers have revealed.

The network, dubbed GhostNet, appears to target embassies, media groups, NGOs, international organisations, government foreign ministries and the offices of the Dalai Lama, leader of the Tibetan exile movement. The researchers, based at Toronto University’s Munk Centre for International Studies, said their discovery had profound implications.

“This report serves as a wake-up call… these are major disruptive capabilities that the professional information security community, as well as policymakers, need to come to terms with rapidly,” said researchers Ron Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski.

After 10 months of study, the researchers concluded that GhostNet had invaded 1,295 computers in 103 countries, but it appeared to be most focused on countries in south Asia and south-east Asia, as well as the Dalai Lama’s offices in India, Brussels, London and New York. The network continues to infiltrate dozens of new computers each week.

Such a pattern, and the fact that the network seemed to be controlled from computers inside China, could suggest that GhostNet was set up or linked to Chinese government espionage agencies. However, the researchers were clear that they had not been able to identify who was behind the network, and said it could be run by private citizens in China or a different country altogether. A Chinese government spokesmen has denied any official involvement.

GhostNet can invade a computer over the internet and penetrate and steal secret files. It can also turn on the cameras and microphones of an infected computer, effectively creating a bug that can monitor what is going inside the room where the computer is. Anyone could be watched and listened to.

The researchers said they had been tipped off to the network after having been asked by officials with the Dalai Lama to examine their computers. The officials had been worried that their computers were being infected and monitored by outsiders. The Chinese government regularly attacks the Tibetan exile movement as encouraging separatism and terrorism within China. The researchers found that the computers had succumbed to cyber-attack and that numerous files, including letters and emails, had been stolen. The intruders had also gained control of the electronic mail server of the Dalai Lama’s computers.

“The investigation was able to conclude that Tibetan computer systems were compromised by multiple infections that gave attackers unprecedented access to potentially sensitive information, including documents from the private office of the Dalai Lama,” the researchers concluded in their report. They have now notified various law enforcement agencies, including international groups and the FBI.

The news also comes as researchers at Cambridge University prepare to release a report today called Snooping Dragon, which looks at suspected Chinese cyber-monitoring of Tibetan exile groups. The report is expected to detail the unexpected scale and sophistication of such efforts by a government against a private body.

Go to source here…

March 28, 2009

Tools & Code: “Gaia AJAX” – There is no better framework!

Filed under: IT Tools & Code — Black Falcon @ 7:49 pm
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Gaia - ASP.NET Ajax

Need Solid Ajax In Your ASP.NET App?
Skip JavaScript
Write C# or VB.NET









It has been a while since I posted anything to TECH-NOTES. It has been a rough past few months. And like many of my colleagues in the Software Engineering field, I too am currently looking for new work as the result of a layoff in January. I am hopeful as I see signs of a strengthening US market which is showing some activity in the IT area. At least I am getting the calls.

In the meantime, I have made good use of my extra time by completing some web-site work I have wanted to get to while at the same time tinkering with some AJAX frameworks to see what all the hype has been about.  And after reseraching quite a few I have only found one of which is worth working with.

If you haven’t tried the wonderful “Gaia AJAX” framework then you are missing out on probably the most advanced AJAX framework available. Unlike so many other AJAX tools, Gaia lets you work with their AJAX controls the same exact way you would with any other .NET server control in ASP.NET. Simply add one to your web-page, fill out the necessary properties and you are in business. That’s all there is to it…

There are no requirements for web-services or web-methods. The Gaia AJAX Framework takes care of all that for you. All you have to do is continue what you have been doing when working with standard ASP.NET server controls.

Don’t believe me? Then give it a try…

Go here to download the best AJAX Framework on the planet… http://gaiaware.net/

October 4, 2008

Tools & Code: “Microsoft details WCF and WF in next-gen .NET”

Filed under: IT Tools & Code — Black Falcon @ 9:03 pm
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Microsoft details WCF and WF in next-gen .NET

Go here for article source…

By David Worthington

October 1, 2008 — Microsoft has detailed some of the .NET 4.0 feature set, and how it will evolve Windows Server to host composite applications by extending the Application Server Role.

Today, the company announced its road map for Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and an update to Windows Server 2008, code-named “Dublin.” Community Technology Previews of the new technologies will be released at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference at the end of this month.

Microsoft is concentrating on making the creation of representational state transfer-style applications easier by including templates and deeper integration with ASP.NET, said Burley Kawasaki, director of product management in the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft. Sample code will be accessible on CodePlex, Microsoft’s open-source project hosting website, he added.

Another design goal is to make integration between WCF and WF more seamless than it is today, he said. Microsoft is leveraging Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) to deepen that integration, using it as a common model stack for applications, he noted. “[Developers] will build the entire applications declaratively in XAML.”
 (more…)

Trends: .NET Gains on Java…

Filed under: IT Industry Trends — Black Falcon @ 8:57 pm
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Go here for article source…

.NET Making Gains Against Java, Survey Says

by Stephen Swoyer
30 September 2008


Who’s ahead: Microsoft Corp.’s .NET or Sun Microsystems Inc.’s Java Platform Enterprise Edition (Java EE)?

Five years in and counting, the battle still rages with no clear victor. However, according to a new survey, .NET appears to be widening its lead over Java EE, as the latest revision of the erstwhile Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) specification is now called. Given the volatility of the .NET/Java EE match-up, that could easily change.

Last year, for example, a survey from development consultancy Evans Data Corp. identified a clear trend in favor of Java development, even though .NET still retained a narrow lead. Thirty-one percent of developers said they planned to tap .NET as their platform of choice for SOA development; 28 percent cited Java.

Evans Data flagged a steep decline in the percentage of developers who expressed a preference for using .NET as a platform for their SOA activities, citing a 20 percent drop in just a six-month period.

This year, the reverse seems to be the case.

According to a new survey from Evans Data, .NET is once again outpacing Java. The survey, which polled 350 developers at enterprise shops with 1,000 or more employees, found that three-fifths (60 percent) of respondents indicated that their .NET investments were growing; fully half said they planned to add additional .NET development personnel.

“These survey results confirm that .NET applications are pervasive in large enterprises and their acceptance and dependability is continuing to increase,” said Mike Allen, director of product management for CA Wily Technology, in a statement. CA Inc. — which markets application performance management (APM) tooling (and which claims that the Evans Data results underscore the importance of effective APM programs) — is a sponsor of the survey.

There might be something to CA’s claims. What’s surprising is how much enterprise IT organizations are spending on their next-gen application architecture investments — particularly for .NET products. More than half of respondents said they’re spending about a quarter of their IT application budgets on .NET development or support, while a staggering one-fifth of respondents say they’re spending between 75 and 100 percent this way.

(more…)

Health: Health Hazards That IT Professionals face Daily…

Filed under: IT Health — Black Falcon @ 6:44 pm


Few people truly take the time to watch over their health. Most spend more time analyzing baseball stats and the problems with their cars than their own health issues. The result is that many people then rely on their doctors for that aspect of their lives and in a rational, more functional planet than that of Earth, this is the way it should be. Unfortunately, for us who dwell here on this “rock”, the sad story is that much of medicine, especially in the United States, has been converted into a revenue producing business which promotes the “bottom line” to the top priority in such an environment and far above that of an individual health.

The result is that many Americans, and many more should, have already taken the pro-active stance of doing their own research and turning to what we like to call “Alternative Treatment”; those that rely on natural supplements and herbal remedies instead of traditional prescription drugs.

Years ago Americans could rely on the FDA to do a somewhat reliable job of regulating the pharmaceutical industry in order to keep harmful drugs out of the public domain. However, this is no longer true since the ideology of free-markets has consumed the attention of politicians since the Reagan years. Unfortunately, such an ideology, which is quite good for the private sector, as long as companies are kept to much smaller sizes than they have been allowed to grow to, it has done very little to promote rational government which has an overriding concern for the public interest.

In fact, you will find no evidence to date that can dispute the statements just made as the corroborative documentation is now overwhelming. The same trend is also occurring in the United Kingdom and has been ongoing for years. It is now making its face shown in France. However, its lifespan is somewhat questionable as the French are impassioned about their society as it has been and as they should be. France, for instance, has one of the finest educational systems in Continental Europe. Why should it change simply for the rational of free-enterprise. It’s not as if it is going to get better than “the best”…

(more…)

September 24, 2008

Software Engineering: New Whitepapers from Construx Software

Filed under: IT Software Engineering — Black Falcon @ 10:36 pm
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Construx Software is a leader in software engineering practices and implementation. Stephen McConnell, its founder, is a leading software engineering analyst and is known for his 1996 classic, “Rapid Development”, which details the best practices and techniques to easily turn your IT organization into a software engineering entity.

More recently Stephen has published “Code Complete”, a compendium of best practices and techniques for developing high quality code along with his most recent publication which is an update to software project estimation which was included in his first book, “Software Estimation; Demystifying the Black Art”.

Below, you will find the latest software engineering tips from Stephen’s company. They are worth a look…

White Papers

White Paper Summary
Software Development’s Classic Mistakes White paper summarizing Construx’s research into the frequency and severity of software development’s classic mistakes.
Business Case for Better Software Practices White paper describing the ROI of implementing better software practices.
Optimizing Agile for Your Organization White paper describing major organizational, cultural, and project considerations necessary to optimize an Agile adoption.
Ten Keys to Successful Scrum Adoption White paper describing ten tips to help your organization successful adopt Scrum
Software Development’s Cone of Uncertainty White paper describing a model for understanding estimation uncertainty in software projects.
Managing Technical Debt White paper describing how to improve your organizations ability to make explicit decisions about taking on technical debt and managing that debt.
Professional Development Handbook White paper/handbook describing how your organization can improve its development capability through software engineering professional development.

Tools & Code: Carlos Aguilar Mares’ “ExcelXmlWriter”

Filed under: IT Tools & Code — Black Falcon @ 10:21 pm
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It is common requirement at times to send data in Excel output to a client on the web. The problem however, is how do you do this, have access to cell-level formatting, and do both without using the Excel Office object on the server?

If you don’t need any formatting you can simply use the “HttpResponse” object to send formatted strings against the “Excel” content-type for a simple Excel spreadsheet. However, if you require more than you must use something that will provide you with access to the Excel objects but without using Excel for obvious performance reasons.

The answer is Carlos Aguilar Mares’ “ExcelXmlWriter”; a freeware component that is easy to install and just as to use. Light and fast it allows you to avoid the usage of the heavy Office components that weren’t designed for server usage in the first place.

Before you rush to the site to download this excellent piece of software please note that the only line of code that should be in your “aspx” page should be the “Page” directive. All other HTML code should be removed, otherwise you will experience HTML conflict errors.

Go here to download software…

Library to Generate Excel XML Workbooks in .NET

 This library allows you to generate Excel Workbooks using XML, it is built 100% in C# and does not requires Excel installed at all to generate the files. It exposes a simple object model to generate the XML Workbooks.
It supports several features for generating Excel Workbooks including:

  • Formatting
  • Alignment
  • Formulas
  • Pivot Tables
  • and more…


Note: This library is free, you can distribute it and use it at your own will and risk, it is not supported by any company including Microsoft or any other company, it does not belong to any company.


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