Web application not working in IE 10 - Asp.Net 1 comments

Recently in the asp.net/sharepoint project I am working on, I got mails from client that the application is not working in Internet Explorer 10. Postbacks are not happening. Nothing is working in it. So I analysed the issue, and found that wow, YAMB (yet another microsoft bug :P). Here is the details about it and how to fix them...

Reason for the application not working in IE 10:

i) Asp.Net processes the “User Agent” string that is sent by Browser while requesting a page to determinate what are the capabilities of the Browser
    User Agent will be something like : Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/6.0)

ii) Asp.Net has a set of configurations which maps User Agents with capabilities

<browser id="IE5to9" parentID="IE">
        <identification>
            <capability name="majorversion" match="^[5-9]" />
        </identification>
        <capabilities>
            <capability name="activexcontrols"     value="true" />
            <capability name="backgroundsounds"    value="true" />
            <capability name="cookies"             value="true" />

    These configuration are found in (depending on the framework version)
    C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\Browsers

    These can be overridden/extended by application level confiruation in App_Browsers folder

iii) As seen in xml, Asp.Net uses Regular expression to identify the browser version from user agent, and it determines what capabilities are available in the browser.

iv) The given Regular Expression fails for IE 10. And this makes Asp.Net think that the Browser used is “Unknown” IE version, and hence returns false for many of the capabilities. (this also makes “Javascript” support to false)

v) Because of this, .Net doesn’t send the required Script files to browser. Hence while doing post backs, it tries to find a method __doPostBack which will not be available and the browser throws the below javascript error.
        SCRIPT5009: '__doPostBack' is undefined

Hot Fix for the Asp.Net issue:

    2.0 SP2 and 3.5 SP1 : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2600100
    4.0 : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2600088

Analysis details of the issue:

i) I was checking whether the issue is getting replicated in any dev servers so that I can apply the fix and see. It did not replicate in any of these servers

ii) Then I noticed that the issue is replicating in all but one of 5 UAT server

iii) So I took one working and one non-working server and tried to identify what is the difference between the two servers.

iv) So I checked what is the .Net version in the below configuration key of both the servers and they appeared the same.
        HKLM\Software\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\

v) Then I checked the below things in both servers, and they all appeared the same.
    a) web.config in application
    b) *.browser in App_Browser folder
    c) Machine.Config
    d) Web.Config in Framework Config folder
    e) *.browser in Framework Config folder

vi) I tried creating a simple ASPX page and the issue is still coming in non-working server, but not in working server

vii) Upon further analysis I found that ASP.BrowserCapsFactory.dll will be created and installed in the assembly
    a) This dll is responsible for determining the Browser versions and the capabilities as illustrated above.
    b) This dll is generated based on the *.browser in Framework Config folder when we execute “aspnet_regbrowsers.exe /i”

viii) But this dll is not found in the assembly in both the servers. So I was wondering how it is working in differently in both the servers.

ix) Then I used ILSPY (open source alternative for Reflector) and checked the System.Web dll to see how things are working internally.

x) Then I found that there is a class called, BrowserCapabilitiesFactory in System.Web.Configuration namespace which is having the default Browser Capabiltiies and User Agent mapping
    a) This dll will be used by default when “ASP.BrowserCapsFactory.dll” is not found in assembly
    b) This class has hardcoded regular expression
    c) When I examined this dll in two servers, one dll has a updated RegExp to match IE 10 and future versions of IE. And this is the reason for difference in behaviors in working and non-working servers.
    d) Version of this DLL
        - In non working Server: 2.0.50727.4209
        - In working Server: 2.0.50727.4223

xi) Then I found that this System.Web dll is similar in Dev also. So I tried to replicate the IE 10 issue in Dev.
    a) So tried executing the “aspnet_regbrowsers.exe /i” command so that it generates the new ASP.BrowserCapsFactory.dll from *.brower files in Framework Directory (ie.browser file has the old regex in this machine). So I am expecting this to break application in IE10
    b) When I opened the Dev url I got some other message that says some browser configuration is missing.
        - More info on the error : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2025676
        - I applied the resolution given in that article and it solved the issue.
    c) Then the IE 10 issue was also replicating.

Now Possible approaches to fix the problem:

i) Applying the Hot Fix for Framework. (will fix it for all applications in a server)

ii) Overriding the mapping, by creating a new .browser file in App_Browser folder (Will fix it for one application alone and I don’t recommend this)

iii) If we have the System.Web.dll with version that is found in working server we can fix this problem (provided if ASP.BrowserCapsFactory.dll is not available in assembly)
    a) It appears that the difference in the dll version is because the dll has come as a security update and not as a Framework update
        - 2.0.50727.4209 : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2416470
        - 2.0.50727.4223 : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2656362
    b) Since it is a security update, .Net version was the same in Registry.
    c) So it is possible to fix this issue by making this security update available but only if ASP.BrowserCapsFactory.dll is not available in assembly currently and it should not be generated later also.

iv) Until you fix it ask users to press F12 and change the Browser mode to IE 9.

v) But I recommend to ask users to use a better browser like FF or Chrome :)..... Never mind fixing it :P

Happy debugging

Wish you a Happy New Year 2011 1 comments

Wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2011.

using(SPSite site = new SPSite("http://e-infotainment.com"))
{
using(SPWeb web = site.AllWebs.Add("http://e-infotainment.com/applications/sharepoint-tool/"))
{
web.Update();
}
}

Well wonder what it is ? We have just created and released a new application - SPTool v1.0 - Beta. Do check out the tool :)

Windows not booting even after fomatting 0 comments

Recently I was facing an issue with my laptop. There was lot of problems with my system so I used my Recovery CD to re-install everything. Though it said it is going to format the windows partition of the drive, when I saw my system after the installation is complete, I was shocked to see it formatted all my partitions and did the factory restore. My bad, I did not think about what this restore factory defaults will do. I lost all my data :(. Thinking of recovering the data, I downloaded various Data recover software. Finally I found something which is really good - Easeus data recover wizard. I tried to recover data 4 or 5 times, but on all the attempts it stopped at some point and did not give any response.

Suddenly one day my laptop again had some issue and failed to boot. I tried to get into Safe Mode, but it got stuck at loading "CRCDisk.sys". I tried to use my Recovery CD and also Vista CD, to try and get my OS back and running. But even it failed to start the installation. Since my HDD is not detected by Windows XP, even I couldn't install Windows XP. Even I could'nt format the HDD as even the Hiren's Boot CD I used also could'nt load the necessary files that is needed to start up the applications in it.

This is the time I looked out for something like a Live OS, so that I could boot using a CD or USB. Then I came across Bart's PreInstalled Environment. I used the following url to create a Live OS by following the steps mentioned in here. I faced some problem in properly creating the bootable USB from the BartPE. While reading the comments in that link, I saw the PE2USB. It is a software for creating bootable USB from the BartPE. Instead of using the command line steps that were mentioned in the link, we could use this software to create the USB.

I was able to boot up Windows XP from the USB. But I was not able to install the necessary softwares such as Partition Magic in the Windows due to some limitations and also because of the fact that default settings did not include Windows installer in the Windows XP. As I did know much about slipstreaming various softwares in the windows XP, I was looking out for a way to come out of my problem. Further search in the comments on that page, led me to Ultimate Boot CD. It contained many softwares/plugins for creating the BartPE. So I used this to create the BartPE, and then used PE2USB to create the bootable USB.

After that I entered the windows, formatted by HDD and then installed the OS again. Again I tried to recover my data, and still not able to finish it 100%. After this boot problem began to come again and again even after formatting. Now I was very much worried. I was in no clue whether it is a MBR Virus/Registry/driver/software/hardware problem. Sometimes the boot stops at CRCDisk.sys in the safe mode, sometimes in blank screen with "Loading System Files" alone, sometimes blank screen, sometimes infinite restart loop, sometimes in the Loading windows screen, etc. I decided that all my data is gone :(. Then I tried to recovery the data from the Windows XP booting from USB. Now it was able to complete the recovery. Then only I realised that I was using the software in the same partition as I want to recover data. Finally I bought an external HDD and copied my recovered data to my external HDD.

Still I had the boot problem, but I was little happy that I have recovered most of my data. Whenever I install the OS, it will work ok for the first day and again the next day it will not boot. I was search for various CRCDisk.sys problems and there solutions. Some I was not able to try because I did not have enough options in my BIOS to change the settings. I tried installing new drivers, did Low level formatting and many other things. But still the problem existed. Finally I tried to go one step at a time. After I install an OS, I wouldn't install any drivers and see if is booting the next time. This time I also found an option in the HDD properties (MyComputer -> Properties -> Device Manager -> Select HDD -> Properties -> Policies tab) for enabling write caching. By default it was checked. It also had a note that there is chances of data loss. More information about Write Caching can be found here. So I thought I should try to disable this option. Then I started to install one driver at a time and see if the OS is booting without any problems. So far I haven't got any problems :). I hope the reason for boot failures was even before the data is written to disk my system should have shutdown and it should have caused some problems while booting the next time.

Thanks to many resources that helped me come out this problem (Atleast till now) :)

Hope this helps if someone is facing some similar issue. More solutions to similar problem can be found here

Worst Tamilnadu Counseling System 1 comments

There are lots of question about the standard of Education System in TamilNadu. Added to the low standards, the counseling system followed for filling the seats in the Anna university affiliated colleges have become worse in the past few years. Till one or two years after I joined college, the priority given to students for selecting the college was based on the Board Exam marks in the main subjects and also the marks scored by the student in the Entrance Exam (which tests the analytical ability of the student). When the entrance exam was there in effect, students who had analytical abilities had more change to get better rank, and hence good college. Students cannot just get good college with only the by-hearting skill they have. They have to apply their mind to score high in the entrance exam.

The year in which I attended the counseling for joining my college is the turning point in the counseling system. That year had lot of confusions that led to a worst decision by the Education Board in TamilNadu. Lot of problems came in the year, including - arguments on wrong questions, re-evaluation of the Entrance Exam twice, delay in counseling. This is the year which started the argument on whether to have Entrance exams for ranking students for counseling. The argument arose because of the lack of facility for people from outer-city to join couching classes for preparing for the Entrance exams. Since the year had many other problems in the counseling, it paved the way for eliminating Entrance exams for determining the rank.

Now with that decision, the system has got worse. Anyone who can by-heart the subjects very well can get very good colleges. The state board/matriculation education board in TamilNadu is designed for students to think analytically the way it is in CBSE board. There are 1000's of people who score very good marks because of the type of education system in Matriculation/State board. This is a big disappointment for CBSE students. My cousin who studied in CBSE, scored around 190/200 and he ranked 12000 odd and he is now facing difficulty in getting a good college in the counseling.

If the non availability of facility for students out of City is the only reason for eliminating the Entrance exam, shouldn't the TamilNadu Government provided the facility to those people rather than taking such worst decisions !!

Sign-up offer is limited to one per customer 1 comments

I have signed up for Adwords long time back and while signing up I have used a Promotional Code. Today I received a Promotional Code from Google. So I logged into my account to use the Promo code I received. While I used my code and clicked on Redeem, it displayed the message "Sign-up offer is limited to one per customer". It means that I could use promo code only once after creating an account. Since it is against the TOS to create multiple accounts, there is no point in Google sending the Promotional Code. Also I don't have any clue why the Promotional Code option is available in my Adwords Billing page when Google knows that I have already used a Promotional Code. Why not such a big company as Google implement a check condition while sending out the promo code ? and save time for its customers !

Time not equal to Money for me 2 comments

I am writing this post with all disappointments I had in the past 1 and a half years of my internet life. One and a half years back, I was at home waiting for my Company to call me for starting my Training. That was the time I started this blog. My friend Erudite Says is also one of the inspirations for me to start this blog. He has quickly gained Page ranks and traffic, and started earning from his blog. He used to tell his alexa ranks, Page ranks and earnings he gets and some other of our friend gets using blog. So I started this blog.

During that time I was not with any intention to earn from this blog. So I never applied for paid posts, and never cared much about adsense. I was very much interested to get more traffic than my friend, and better his alexa and PR rankings. But I dint want to go for back links and Blog Rolls. The Affiliates you see in this blog are all those of my friends whom I know personally. I started writing few posts that I have learned during the time I started. As it was during the end of my college days, most of my posts are related to campus interviews, and few questions that were held on my mind. And then suddenly I thought of doing something which will fetch me more traffic. Creation of applications, which people can use in their website or blogs.

Well, the path I took is great, but the application which I chose to make is not well recognized. Poor Advertising ? I don't know. Thirukural Widget is the first application that I created. I know it is pretty much language dependent. And the percentage of internet users,web developers to be specific, is way too low for using the Widget. Thirukural is a lovely piece of work by Thiruvalluvar. It tells pretty much how one should be live and it is common across all horizons and at any time. It has been translated into Many many languages. So in order to make my widget recognised by more people, I introduced few languages other than Tamil in my widget. Of course the Thirukural and translations are taken from some other Website. But I really did not worry much for copying others work. I had a satisfaction that I was trying to bring about something which everyone should know and adopt. As a courtesy, I have put the link from where I got those Thirukural and also emailed the owner of the web pages (no replies yet). As I said earlier the application is not that broadly focued to make my blog popular.

Meanwhile I was also making few posts. My friend asked me for CAT question papers. Then I searched in net and made some collection of question papers from various websites. He was happy with that. Then I thought of sharing those with others so that they don't need to search all over the internet. So I blogged about the Papers. It got me some traffic. That was great!. But still I couldn't get past my friends in PR or Alexa or Earnings. But my traffic was almost in par with EruditeSays.

One day my friend asked me to create one template for his blog. Oh that was the day, I think If I had not got any thoughts on that day, I would have been happy. Why should I struggle taking one classic blogger template and I edit that. That is pretty tough If me or others wanted to make one. So I thought of making one Template Generator. I searched online, and I found one called Psycho and few others. But I was not very much impressed by the functionalities they had. So I started to write my own template generator. The result was Trix Blogspot Template Generator v1. I started it as v1 because I already had ideas for improving the application. I felt that this application would be very successful and It will be recognised pretty quickly than my first application. Worked on the application for about 2 to 3 months continuosly. While creating the application I had a requirement for selecting colors for various things like background, font, link color etc. So I created the Hex Color Code Generator. Meanwhile my company has called me for Training. It was a very tough time. Just about 1 week before I went, I opened the application for public. During that time I didn't own any domain. So I had my application in this blog itself. Posted about the application in few orkut communities.

Well, the traffic I got is not as much as I expected. I used to get around 40 to 50 visitors a day during that time. Then I was little busy with my Training and I had little chance to advertise the application or make further changes. Two or three months went by. Then I bought a Laptop so I got a chance to work a little towards my blog. So thought of improving the template generator. But I cant keep putting the applications in my blog. That was the time I went forward to get a domain. It was during my birthday I opened the website giving it a name Experience Infotainment. Ah great, I opened the website. Now I could quickly get some traffic and earn more. That was I thought. But with the traffic I got at that time I could hardly earn only 4$ a month. At that time my friends were pretty much far away from me in this regard. Meanwhile I was working on version 2 of Template Generator. The traffic was very steadily increasing and it was around 65 to 75 visitors a day when I released version 2. I was very much happy about the outcome of the application. My friend EruditeSays meanwhile have created few more blogs, and he is going ahead of me. He used to give me lot of ideas. But as always I will listen to him only after couple of months.

I was pretty much upset with the amount of earnings I got and the amount of work I put in a year. Then come google to support me. It offered 100$ Adwords promotional code. Then I signed up for Adwords and started advertising my Template Generator application. The traffic to my blog (excluding adwords Traffic) started increasing further and it went on to reach 100 a day. I was pretty much satisfied, but the amount I spent for my domain, hosting charges, advertising was well over what I received as Earnings from my website. Meanwhile I also developed the version 2 of Thirukural Widget and few other widgets like Friendship Calculator and Flames. Suddenly I realised that I was getting more traffic from google search for Friendship Calculator. To my suprise it was having number 1 for the search term Friendship calculator. Visitors count raised to around 120 per day.

Then came yet another advice from Erudite Says. Change the template of the website!! Under his guidance and from some other sources I made few changes and he said It is just ok, but not great. Well the change in template helped me a lot. Adsense earnings improved but not that great. It got around 10$ a month. Traffic was raising towards 140 to 150 per day. The traffic was still low, mainly because I wasn't aware of SEO during the period I started the website. Now I feel I could have dont it better. I was kind of ok with the traffic that has improved in the 8 months after opening website.

Then I came across many forums like Digital Point (Yeah I know that was way too late). I was having a look at how other people are doing with their online business. Though there were many who are like me earning very low, I was amazed to find that many are earning more than 30 $ a day. I dont know how to react when seeing at people who post "I earn over 30 $ a day". In one view, I was really frustrated that I earn way too low, but in another view, It increased the hope that one day even I could earn that much. So then I will start again to work more on advertising and making few more updates to the applications. I even started 2 more new applications. They are pretty bigger in scope, and I am not able to spend much time on those. So it will take more time to finish than what I expected.

Every now and then I will be very much disappointed about the time I have spent on my website and the earning I have got. And today that disappointment made me write this post. I am sorry that this is a long essay. So for those who are trying to earn from your website or blog, make sure you work with caution. You need to pick the right theme and work smart if you want to earn big. Earning from Internet is not that easy if you don't know the in's and out's.

Though I am a lot disappointed, I was pretty much happy that I learned a lot during the past 1 and a half year. Okay I am going to start again with the belief that one day I will earn more. Give your Best, Let Life Do The Rest. See you soon in my success story :)

5 mins faster 0 comments

Punctuality is something very important in our life. It creates an impression to others that he/she is interested towards something. Back in home, the struggles we come across to be there on time is pretty high. Everyone will have their own problems at home. It makes them start very late and rush to the place for reaching there on time.

Now I am not here to talk about the punctuality, but something which most people do to try being punctual. I am talking about "setting the clock at home 5 or more mins faster". It is something most parents do to make their children get ready on time. Though it is a good strategy, will it be efficient if the children/whoever knows that the time is already 5 or more minutes faster ? Definitely not. It is good if the person doesn't know about the timing. But once he/she gets to know the correct time, the person will think that "Yay, we have few more minutes. Clock is kept few minutes faster than actual."

What are the other effects of this ? Everytime we have to subtract few minutes to know what is the current time. Everytime a guest comes, we have to tell the guest, "its not yet time, the clock is 5 minutes faster". Are these things needed ?

Back to child hood days 0 comments

At times of trouble or disappoinments, we may think that "It would be great if I am still a small kid, unknown of any problems, enjoying play, running here and there, no ego, no selfishness, no lies". Inshort we would like to be in a trouble free world. Three or four years back, when I went to my relatives house in my native, I saw a small brick like game in my relatives house. There will be large number of small bricks and we could use them to build some buildings. Childrens used to play this with fun, constructing the house, destructing them again and again. I remembered the child hood days and started to build the house.

I successfully built a house and kept that in the show case of my relatives house. Recently I went to that relatives house, and I found that building still there :). So I took the snap of that building as a rememberence. It is always nice to enjoy something which we have lost in the past.

Wish you a happy new year 2010 :) 0 comments

2009 is something that I have to remember for some time. The year when I opened my first website - Experience Infotainment. Right from the start of this website, it has seen steady growth. I could see in Google Analytics, continous improvement in the traffic with more than 100 visitors a day. I remember the days when EI have been getting 40 members a day during the second month after opening. We are targetting to get over 300 visitors a day before the first anniversary of the website. And 125 members have been joined this website in over 7 months.

Page rank of EI started with 1 in the July update. And in the updated in october drop down to zero because of the redirection I added for urls starting with www. We are improving in traffics and users since then and hence got PR1 in the recent update in December 31st. Though PR1 is not a big deal, I am pretty much happy with the increasing search engine traffic.

In the first quarter of 2010, we will be coming up with two applications. We have been working on both the application simultaneously. The scope of the applications is pretty high for me, So the time span may vary for the release of the applications.

We would like the members to participate in the forums to help us grow and serve you better :)

Wish you all a happy and prosperous new year 2010.

Christmas Templates for Blogger 0 comments

Since Christmas is approaching, a new category for it has been added to the Trix blogspot template generator version 2. Have also designed one template and added in there. I will design few more templates and will add it in that category. Meanwhile, if you design any templates, you can also submit your designs. Those designs will also be added to those category.

Christmas Templates

Jingle : This is the first template I designed for Christmas. I hope you like it. Here you can have a demo of the template.

To download and use the template, check our free templates page.

Google Adsense Click Exchange - Beware ! 0 comments

Google adsense is one of the most popular ways to earn from website, by displaying Ads. When a visitor to your website clicks on the ads displayed, you will get some small amount. The amount depends on Advertiser and also on how much benefit the Advertiser gets because of the Click from that visitor. There are many services like Adsense. But many website owners used to register for Adsense, because of high Cost Per Click it provides when compared to other services.

There are few ways by which one can earn money by creating Invalid Clicks. Auto clickers or bots, click exchanges, proxies are few such ways. But Google is long enough providing this service, and has mechanisms to detect these invalid clicks. It analyses the number of clicks and the popularity of the websites. There are many other ways by which it detects invalid clicks. Once it comes to the conclusion that a web developer is trying to fraud, It directly bans the account, takes back the amount and gives it back to the advertiser.

Now lets take this into Advertisers point of View. I am an advertiser, I advertise my website through Adwords (Googles service), my ads gets displayed in websites which has been registered for Adsense. Now that website owner clicks the ad, and comes to my site. He does nothing and I do not benefit from that person. Now if i have the settings to pay for clicks in Adwords, then I need to pay for the person who has done nothing to me. So when these number of invalid clicks increases, I will lower my amount per click. Result ? cost per click will reduce for everyone.

Lets have a different look into this. Assume in one country(say India) people are so greedy for money and many started to create invalid clicks. Advertisers will now restrict their ads to be shown in such countries from where there is few or no benefit/sales for the Advertiser. Result, other adsense users are affected.

So is it a good Idea to make invalid clicks and Loose your Adsense account and create problem for other adsense users ?

Think again ! There are many better ways to earn :)

Updated Template 0 comments

After a long time I have updated the Template. Ofcourse designed it using my Template Generator :d. I am a poor designer, so this much only I can do...

Soon I will try to update the template of EI.

Recently I have also started a blog on Basics of C Programming. Hope I find Time to manage all these :)

Google page rank updated - October 2009 0 comments

Finally after a long wait google has updated the page rank. This blog rank changed from two to three :). But my website - http://www.e-infotainment.com is showing as zero, which was previously one. I was expecting atleast a page rank of two for my website. But sadly it wasn't the case. Hope to see a change in page rank soon for my website :)

Opera Mini 5 - Beta For Download 0 comments

After a long wait, Beta of Opera mini 5 has been released. I was very excited to download and use it for the first time. I just quickly went through the options in Opera Mini 5 beta with my Nokia 5310 and thought of writting a review.

Features I found in Opera Mini 5 Beta
1) Tabbed Browsing : This is the feature that I have been looking for and I feel that it is very late for Opera to release this feature. But due to Limitation in memory I guess we can't have many tabs.
2) Password Manager : Now we can store passwords for websites. But I guess only one username and password for a Website.
3) Speed Dial in Start Page
4) Folders in Bookmarks.
5) Select and Copy Text.
6) Better Javascript Support: After google has made a drop down for settings in the home page, I was not able to get the drop down. But with Opera Mini 5, I was able get the drop down.
7) Directly Edit in Text Box: With this feature I am facing difficulty in entering Passwords which is much easy with Phone editor. Also Select Box Drop down is displayed in the same page without moving to different screen to select the option. Thank God I found there is option to turn it off in Advanced options of Settings.
8) Save Page Folder: We can specify where the saved pages should be stored.
9) Pop Ups: Can be Switched On.
10) Google Search Box

Inteface is Really good and have been designed with mobiles with Touch Screen and Keypad in mind. You wouldn't have imagined how well is the tabbed browsing than what you see in Bolt or Tea Shark or other browsers.

In the Negative Side...
1) There has been some changes in Menu, Go, Back and other Keys. So I have not yet get used to it.
2) I was expecting support for flash. Lolz I know it is a bit too high
3) I was Expecting a lot more ajax support. Example, I was not able to open Campaign Page in Adwords. Google says Opera browser is not supported for Latest interface
4) Already many times Opera Mini Stopped working some times due to Out of Memory error and I have to restart the application.

But it is just a Beta version and bug fixes will be coming soon :). So let us wait for the final release :)

I have written this post just by giving a quick glance at the browser, and I need to explore more to find out other pros and cons in the browser.

Let the final version be out :)

Wamp Server and IIS 1 comments

If you have IIS services started and running, You cant start Wamp Server. it is because by default both use the same port. By having different Port numbers, you can run both simultaneously. (google for finding more about this method)

I don't want to run wamp and IIS simultaneously, But I want to switch between these two. So What I did is,

1) Open Run and type CMD
2) In command prompt type "iisreset /stop" (without quotes)
3) Now start wamp server. It will start :)

If you want to use IIS again, You need to first stop wamp server, then give iisreset /start in command line

Future of Software Engineers ? 0 comments

For the past one or two years, the IT industry haven't seen much growth, as it had seen in the last decade. And due to the recession occured last financial year, there is huge impact every where in all fields. I have got placed in one IT company during the last year of my college. I was expecting that the company would call us withing a month or two after our college is over. But sadly I have been sent a mail that we will be called only after 8 months (thanks, that they had the courtesy to inform us). A month or two later, started all the problems in the IT industry - the recession. This further worsened the chances of getting into the company early. Fortunately I was placed in another IT company which called me 4 months after finishing my college. But the future of people who got placed in the first IT company remainied a question mark.

When I joined the second IT company, I was feeling great, My first job, in a company that I expected, in a job I like. The intake by the company in that year (through campus recruitment) was more than 7000. We need to undergo a training before being put into production. We were called in batches of 400 - 800, and there were atleast 2 or 3 batches coming every month. Till one or two months before we joined, the training period was around 3 to 4 months. The training period for us was 6.5 months (no projects in production ??). To keep up the promise, they have called all the people who have been placed. But due to the trend in the past one year, the training system got tougher, and only 60 to 70% cleared the training successfully. Others got a better option now :) There are many other policy changes in the company in the last year, but I am not supposed to make a post on it here.

The other company have finally called my friends, 3 months after their previously announced date. A gap of over 1 year, is a high price paid by them for being selected in the company. Even after them being called, the future in the field is a big concern for them. Many are confused on whether to stay with them, or move ahead with other options like higher studies.

So being in the current situation, whatever may be the field you are in, if you need to sustain you have to give your maximum efforts.

20000 Hits 0 comments

I am glad that this blog has reached 20,000 hits as shown by Stats Counter. A little over one year after the commencement of this blog, and this also the 100th post in this blog. Since I was not able to find much time to write posts for the past several months, there has been very low post counts in past.

A quick stats, on the ratings given to posts as of now,
Group Discussion Tips, tops the ratings with an average of 4.86 from 22 votes.
Trix Template Generator follows it with 5 average for 3 votes,
Followed by Thirukural Widget, Big Circle Around the moon Posts with 4.33 for 3 votes.

I would like to make more posts in the future to keep the blog alive. Do check my website meanwhile, www.e-infotainment.com

A beautiful love story 0 comments

A long time ago, before the world was created and humans set foot on it, God had put all the human "qualities" in a separate room. Since all the qualities were bored they decided to play hide & seek. "Madness" was one of the qualities and he shouted: "I want to count, I want to count!" And since nobody was crazy enough to want to seek "Madness", all the other qualities agreed. So "Madness" leaned against a tree and started to count: One, two, three..." As "Madness" counted, the qualities went hiding. "Treason" hid in a pile of garbage... "Lie " said that it would hide under a stone, but hid at the bottom of the lake. And Madness continued to count "... seventy nine, eighty, eighty one..." By this time, all the qualities were already hidden-except "Love ". For stupid as "Love " is, he could not decide where to hide. And this should not surprise us, because we all know how difficult it is to hide "Love". "Madness": "...ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven..." Just when "Madness" got to one hundred..... ...."Love" jumped into a rose bush where he hid. And Madness turned around and shouted: "I'm coming, I'm coming!" As Madness turned around, "Laziness" was the first to be found, because "Laziness" was too lazy to hide. "Madness" searched madly and found "Lie" at the bottom of the lake. One by one, Madness found them all - except Love. Madness was getting desperate, unable to find Love. Envious of Love, "Envy" whispered to "Madness ": "You only need to find Love, and Love is hiding in the rose bush." "Madness" Jumped on the rose bush and he heard loud cry. The thorns in the bush had pierced "Loves" eyes. Hearing the commotion God came into the room and saw what had happened. He got very angry and cursed "Madness" and said since "Love" has become blind because of u... ..u shall always be with him" And so it came about that from that day on, Love is blind and is always accompanied by Madness.!

Waiting for Opera Mini 5 to be released 0 comments

I bought my first cellphone just when I was about to join a Software Company after finishing my Under Graduation. I had no clue about the models available in phones and my brother was the one who helped me chose a model. After some searches and comparing the features available with prices, we ended up buying Nokia 5310 Express Music. That was also the time when I had just finished developing the Blogspot Template Generator. When I joined the company, we had many restrictions on the kind of websites that we could browse. Eventually Blogger is also blocked. Fortunately I got Airtel connection and came to know about the GPRS connectivity and the plans. At that time I din't know about Opera Mini and I was using the Nokia Default browser to browse the net. One day, when I tried to explore the phone I came across Opera Mini which is already installed. I was suprised to see websites in that small screen pretty much same as viewed in a PC. I checked the version and found it to be version 2. Quickly I browsed and updated the version to 4.2

As my phone is a java phone, I could'nt find any better Browser than Opera Mini (Recently I could find browsers like TeaShark, Bold etc trying to compete with Opera Mini). The features that i like the most in opera mini is the way it allows us to Zoom in and out, Rendering pages similar to desktop browsers, pretty good JS support, displaying colors matching the images (when images are disabled), speed at which the pages loads, swithcing between mobile and desktop views, full screen landscape view etc.

Being a jar file, It couldn't afford to consume lot of memory, so the file size is kept to around 200Kb and hence lot of features could'nt be embedded which I would have liked to see. Almost 2 years after version 4 released, I am still waiting for an update from Opera Mini. I would love to see some great changes for the wait the users of Opera Mini are having. I am expecting features like Tabbed browsing, Multiple File Downloading if possible with resume capability, and Flash Support embedded in it or may be Client Side Javascript. Though the anticipation from me is pretty high, I heard that Opera Mini is already trying to bring in Flash Support.

I hope Opera Mini 5 will be worth a wait.

Why do we have PERIODS in School/College ? 0 comments

May it be a school or a college, we are used to a period of 30 mins to 1 hour classes and Subjects keep on changing every period. The staffs have two advantage if they take classes continuosly for two periods. They cover more portions than taking two classes separately. And also staffs need to do a recap when taking class separately in two periods. But still most staffs prefer separate classses or giving breaks between the classes. One reason is that, the staff find it difficult to keep on taking classes for a long time. Another reason I came across recently while attending a communication class.

In the communication class that I attended, the staff showed us a set of 25 to 30 commonly used english words, and there is also one 3 word name of a person included in the middle of the list. The staff asked us to keep in mind as much words as possible. After some 30 seconds, the staff switched off the slide and asked us to write down all the words that they could recollect. After all of us were done, she again showed us the list, and asked us to cross check what all we have wrote, and what all we have missed. The staff asked us do you find any patterns in which we have remembered the words. Almost all the people attending the section had got most of the words that were at the TOP and BOTTOM of the list, and we were'nt able to remember most words that were in the middle of the list. Another suprise is that, we all have remembered the 3 word name. The staff then concluded that, Human brains are most concentrating at the start of a section and at the end of the section and they used to drift away in the middle. However when there is something unique or interesting it is naturally noticed by Human brain. Hence most of the people were able to remember the name. And our brain can't continuosly concentrate 100% for more than 20 or 30 mins.

This is the reason I realised for the Periods we have in schools. So if you are a staff and if you don't like giving breaks inbetween classes, have a rethink in your strategy to grab the attention of the students.

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