DEEPENDRA SOLANKY

My Blog Summary in 2010

Deependra Solanky — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 08:26:57 +0000

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Minty-Fresh™.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,400 times in 2010. That’s about 6 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 4 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 36 posts. There were 2 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 220kb.

The busiest day of the year was November 23rd with 30 views. The most popular post that day was My New Nokia 5230 Touchscreen.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were azeemkhan.info, social.msdn.microsoft.com, google.co.in, WordPress Dashboard, and search.conduit.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for nokia 5533, 5533 nokia, nokia 5230 applications, nokia 5230, and deependra solanky.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

My New Nokia 5230 Touchscreen February 2010
1 comment

Nokia 5230 – Useful Applications June 2010

SQL Server Error – Snap-in failed to initialize. March 2007
6 comments

“Error 1718. *.msp did not pass the digital signature check “ March 2007
1 comment

ASP.NET Dynamic Data – Good but … June 2010

ASP.NET Dynamic Data – Good but …

Deependra Solanky — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 07:27:28 +0000

Recently a new assignment came to me in which we have to develop one web application very fast. It was a Survey application and we have to capture the hard copy survey forms into database for analysis purpose. Most of our developers know only ASP.NET web forms and for data access we use stored procedures most of the time. I have looked for Rapid Application Development (RAD) options in ASP.NET and first thing that came to mind was Dynamic Data. I have never worked on it but I knew that it is the de-facto framework for RAD in ASP.NET world for simple CRUD applications. As it was new for me I have decided to give two days for exploring it whether it can be used or not in our survey application.

In starting I created a simple table, generated dbml files using LINQ to SQL and it was magic everywhere. I was able to do CRUD work in no time in a nice user interface. Later when I have added more tables some issues came but I have solved them by searching on Google and reading blogs. I was able to create partial classes so that foreign keys can return proper value not just the first character field in the table and to change the metadata so that my displayed field names were different from the column name. I have decided that it will work.

But I faced problem when I have tried to customize the UI. For example –

how to add a radio button with yes/no, male/female options ?
how to bind a dropdown to static values instead of database ?
depending upon the answer of previous question how to show/hide next question ?

These were some issues in starting which I was not able to solve, may be due to my less knowledge of Dynamic Data. Although I have found some good blogs (like – Stephen Naughton (C# Bits) who has in depth knowledge of dynamic data) but I realized that I have to learn a lot of thing and have to invest a lot of time if I want a lot of customization in UI. So finally I have dropped that idea of using Dynamic Data and looked for other options. ASP.NET MVC was a option but there were two main reasons against this – my team have no experience of it and it’s a better option not faster. So finally now we have decided to develop this using ASP.NET web forms again but with LINQ to SQL so that we don’t have to write stored procedures and we have fully typed objects to save our time. Apart from that we will move one step forward to our ultimate goal (ASP.NET MVC) as first time we will be working on a not so great but still a ORM – LINQ to SQL.

I will try to keep you updated..

Nokia 5230 – Useful Applications

Deependra Solanky — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 07:03:50 +0000

Its been around 3 months now since I purchased my Nokia 5230. I have downloaded a lot of applications on my phone and found the following as useful. These application will run on any Nokia touch screen phones like 5800, 5235, 5233, 5530, C6, N97, X6 etc.

Opera Mini 5 Beta – what a wonderful browser on a mobile, if you are still using Opera 4 switch to it ASAP. This is must application.
Fring – to chat with my Gmail, Yahoo, MSN contacts
Nimbuzz – its same like Fring but I like its interface better, its personal preference between fring/nimbuzz
Skyfire – alternative web browser (specially for viewing flash)
Wordmobi – to post on wordpress directly from mobile (I came to know that official app from wordpress for Nokia is coming soon..)
Qik – For recoding and sharing live videos
Skype – to call with skype contacts
Google Maps – although Ovi maps application is already there but Google maps are also required time to time
Converter Touch – a very nice and beautiful application for conversion of weight, area, distance and many other types
NewsHunt - a lot of Indian newspapers of various languages can be read in the application
Wikipedia – wikipedia reader widget for Symbian mobiles
Snaptu – this is I think the most useful application. Actually it is a combination of various applications like – facebook, twitter, techcrunch, lifehacker, rss reader, cricinfo etc
Shazam – to identify any running song, interesting application

My New Nokia 5230 Touchscreen

Deependra Solanky — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:49:28 +0000

I have purchased Nokia 5230 Touchscreen mobile two days back and I would like to say that it is a superb device. I have never used a touchscreen mobile before, and I am feeling the power of touch. The Symbian series 60 5th edition operating system is also very nice and for extra applications there is Ovi store. Thanks to Nokia, the Ovi Maps with free navigation is one of my reason to purchase this phone. My earlier mobile was E51 so I am quite used to symbian phones. So far I have installed following applications on my 5230 -

Opera Mini 5 Beta – what a wonderful browser on a mobile, if you are still using Opera 4 switch to it ASAP. This is must application.
Fring - to chat with my Gmail, Yahoo, MSN contacts
Skyfire - alternative web browser (specially for viewing flash)
Wordmobi - to post on wordpress directly from mobile (I came to know that official app from wordpress for Nokia is coming soon..)

Besides that I am looking for some another apps on Ovi Store and have downloaded some small apps like SMS Preview, Nokia Photo Browser, Weather Touch, Memory Touch etc. If you know about any other good application for 5230 (or 5800/5530/5533/N97/N97 mini as all are compatible) please let me know.

From WordPress.org to WordPress.com

Deependra Solanky — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:20:50 +0000

Yesterday I have transferred my blog from wordpress.org to wordpress.com or in other words self-hosted to hosted. Main reason was obviously to reduce cost. I am not able to write regularly so I made up my mind to cancel my hosting plan and transfer my blog on wordpress.com. But I have purchased the premium feature to keep the blog on my domain @9.95 USD per annum.
I have lost two things now on my blog – Google Ads & Plugins.

What's new in Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4

Deependra Solanky — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:39:17 +0000

If anyone want to know about the new features and improvements in Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4, there will be no better person to follow then Scott Guthrie, Corporate VP in the Microsoft Developer Division. He is posting a series of blog posts titled VS 2010 and .NET 4 Series . Till date he has written 11 posts and more will be coming. Following is the link to be followed -

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/08/25/vs-2010-and-net-4-series.aspx

Enjoy Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4.

Ubuntu Change Shiretoko to Firefox 3.5

Deependra Solanky — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:01:44 +0000

The official supported firefox 3.5 on ubuntu is by default branded to Shiretoko which creates problem on many websites. I have searched a lot for the solution and finally found it on Ubuntu forum which is very easy and works great. There are some commands which need to be pasted in terminal. Click on the following link for the solution -

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1225754

Note : The solution has to be applied again when there is an update in firefox.

Experience with Java ME

Deependra Solanky — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:41:20 +0000

I have tried my best to kept my promise of regular bloging but could not as usual. It is becoming very difficult to fetch some time for doing so. I have wrote my last post when I have got new assignment for developing a Java ME application and now I am happy to write that it has been completed. It was a nice experience of getting hands dirty in Java ME, bluetooth api (JSR82), RFCOMM protocal, btspp etc. Now after 4 months of experience it feels very good that we are able to develop a Java ME application in house. And this feel even more happier when I know that we are a team of working only in .NET platform so far.

Java ME – New Assignment

Deependra Solanky — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 08:32:18 +0000

Last six months were very busy so I could not be regular to write for my blog. During this time Supply Chain Management application was converted to ASP.NET web-based online application from Windows Forms desktop offline application. Now in next step this application has to be developed for handheld devices and we have zerod upon low-cost Java enabled mobile phone as our handheld. The handheld will interact with a bluetooth printer for printing receipts. So after working in pure .Net technologies for last 4 years this time I will work on Java ME. I have started to work last week on this and so far I am very happy. I have to do a lot of R&D for this purpose and I hope it will be a nice journey for coming months.I will try to keep updating…..

I am downloading Google Chrome

Deependra Solanky — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:35:22 +0000

I was waiting for this since morning and checking google.com/chrome every 15 minutes and suddenly before I was going for sleep I have found it there. Now I am downloading it…..