Internet Explorer 8 RC 1 has now been released!
Published January 26, 2009Internet Explorer 8 RC 1 has now been released! You can get it here.
Before installing, please read the Release Notes and more information about features and developer docs can be found in the IE8 Readiness Toolkit.
Internet Explorer 8 RC 1 is now platform and feature complete and this is our opportunity to try out the new browser before its final release. If you find issues with IE8, please file a bug. More information and instructions can be found at the support page for Internet Explorer 8 RC 1.
To ensure your browser is up to date, all RC1 users will be automatically updated with the final version of Internet Explorer 8 via Windows Update so you'll always have the latest version of the browser.
Help Typemock Launch Its New Visual Basic .NET Friendly API And You Might Get A Free License
Published January 13, 2009Typemock is announcing today a new version of Typemock Isolator (5.2).
One of the coolest features in the new version is the inclusion of a new VB .NET unit testing API. This 'VB friendly' API was designed and written in VB.NET, for VB.NET developers. It uses the strengths of the VB.NET language to allow easy and intuitive use of the isolation API, for easier unit tests on any piece of .NET code.
If you are you a blogger, webmaster, or internet columnist, you can get your free personal license by helping Typemock launch their new 5.2 version for Isolator - the best tool to unit test VB.NET applications.
Although this version is targeted to unit test VB.NET applications, C# applications with unit tests built using Visual Studio 2005 can also benefit from this API.
How can you get the free license?
Post the text below on your blog (as is, with links) and tell them about it . If you are in the first 25 to mail them after posting, your license will be on its way!
If you have a VB.NET dedicated blog, you'll get a license automatically (even if more than 25 submit) during the first week of this announcement.
A few simple requirements:
You must own a website, blog space or internet column, older than 2 months, or get permission from the owner of such a site.
Your post must include the text below (including the links) between *Begin* and *End*.
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*Begin*
Programming Visual Basic applications?
Typemock have released a new version of their unit testing tool, Typemock Isolator 5.2.
This version includes a new friendly VB.NET API which makes Isolator the best Isolation tool for unit testing A Visual Basic (VB) .NET application.
Isolator now allows unit testing in VB or C# for many ‘hard to test’ technologies such as SharePoint, ASP.NET MVC, partial support for Silverlight, WPF, LINQ, WF, Entity Framework, WCF unit testing and more.
Note that the first 25 bloggers who blog this text in their blog and tell us about it, will get a Free Full Isolator license (worth $139). If you post this in a VB.NET dedicated blog, you'll get a license automatically (even if more than 25 submit) during the first week of this announcement.
Go ahead, click the following link for more information on how to get your free license.
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*End*
Once you post this in your site, just drop them a line at vb@typemock.com with your name and the post URL to get your free license.
Hurry up – this offer is limited to the first 25 general bloggers, or to VB.NET dedicated bloggers who will post this in the first week.
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Disclaimer: This is an offer from Typemock as announced at http://blog.typemock.com/2009/01/get-free-isolator-licnese-for-helping.html. I’m just a fan.
Setting A Web Proxy Through Configuration In .NET Applications
Published January 12, 2009Specially in enterprise environments, proxy servers are used to access the Internet.
In a Windows / Internet Explorer environments there is a proxy server configuration in Internet Properties > Connections > LAN settings > Proxy server.
Although these configurations are tightly connected to Internet Explorer, any well behaved Windows application should, at least, allow the user to choose to use them.
In applications targeting the .NET framework, these the proxy server can be set on a per call basis. Several networking classes have a Proxy property that receives a value implementing the IWebProxy interface.
In order for the Windows/ Internet Explorer configuration to be used, the application must be configured to use the default proxy settings.
This configuration is done in the machine or application file in the proxy element of the defaultProxy configuration section in the system.net section group:
<configuration> <system.net> <defaultProxy enabled="true"> <proxy usesystemdefault="True"/> </defaultProxy> </system.net> </configuration>
You can use this configuration also to set a specific proxy to be used by your application. In the following example, a proxy setting for using the Fiddler Tool is used:
<configuration> <system.net> <defaultProxy enabled="true"><proxy proxyaddress="http://ipv4.fiddler"/><proxy proxyaddress="http://127.0.0.1:8888"/> </defaultProxy> </system.net> </configuration>
Unfortunately, this is a MachineToApplication setting and, for that reason, is not allowed in the user settings configuration file, when in a shared installation. In these type of installations, the default Windows / Internet Explorer settings should be used as a default. If a user needs or wants to specify proxy server settings, application specific proxy server settings must be used but, assigning the user defined proxy server configuration to the GlobalProxySelection.Select property will allow its use for the entire application.
Updated: Corrected proxy address when using Fiddler following Eric Lawrence’s comment:
> <proxy proxyaddress="http://ipv4.fiddler/" />
That line should not work. Fiddler doesn't register anything in DNS, so for "ipv4.fiddler" to have any meaning, Fiddler must already be being used as the proxy.
The proper setting for Fiddler use should be:
<proxy proxyaddress="http://127.0.0.1:8888" />
The Problem Of Long Web Browser User-Agent Strings
Published January 11, 2009Every web browser sends, on every request, a user-agent request HTTP header to the server.
If you are curious about how Internet Explorer’s user-agent string is form, read this article.
This information is used by server software to identify the web browser the user is using and its capabilities and determine if it’s enough for use in this web site or to perform differentiate rendering.
In the past there have been several reports of user-agent string buffer overrun attacks and some web servers and firewalls have chosen to block access to requests that have a user-agent string over some length.
The problem that arrives now is that, due to other software installed in the user’s system, the user-agent string has been growing past the limit allowed by some web servers and firewalls.
As an example, my web browser’s user-agent string, at this moment, is:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; Zune 3.0; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.1.3; MS-RTC LM 8; SPC 3.1 P1 Ta)
With a user-agent string like this (275 characters long) I’ve been locked out of sever sites.
Social Networking Overload
Published January 4, 2009There’s been a growth of social networks and the the addition of social networking features to other sites.
Nowadays, you can find a vas variety of social networks:
There’s also a some professional networks that offer almost the same features but targeting the professional life of its users:
Some aim to be both, like Plaxo.
My problem is that I have friends and professional contacts in all these networks and it’s a pane to keep track of it all.
Even with OpenSocial, most networks are more concerned in capturing users then providing feeds to be aggregated by other networks.
You can even create your own social network on Ning.
I’d like that these networks would provide feeds in a standard protocol that could be consumed by my friends and professional contacts in the network of their choice (as long as I would accept that network).
But, like OpenID. Everyone wants to be a provider. Accepting OpenIDs as valid logins is not so appetizing.
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