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22 November M'soft Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 ReleasedGreat news! Just found out that M'soft Visual Studio 2008 is released on MSDN. Woohoo!
 Congrats M'soft for yet another milestone.The wait is finally over! No wonder over the past 2 months, the folks at Redmond are so quite. Now I understand. On Monday, Nov. 19 2007, M'soft announced that Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 were released to manufacturing (RTM). With more than 250 new features, Visual Studio 2008 includes significant enhancements in every edition, including Visual Studio Express and Visual Studio Team System. Developers of all levels – from hobbyists to enterprise development teams – now have a consistent, secure and reliable solution for developing applications for the latest platforms: the Web, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, the 2007 Office system, and beyond. (source: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/default.aspx)
For the final release download links, check it out in ScottGu's blog (http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/11/19/visual-studio-2008-and-net-3-5-released.aspx). In conjunction with the release, here is a summary of the new features:
Unfortunately, there are two popular add-ins to VS not yet available to download for the final VS 2008 release. These are the Silverlight 1.1 Tools Alpha and the Web Deployment Project add-in. If you are doing Silverlight 1.1 development using VS 2008 Beta2 you'll want to stick with with VS 2008 Beta2 until this updated Silverlight Tools Add-In is available. More info at Scott Gu's blog (as usual). Also, the ASP.NET MVC Framework will come later. According to Scott, this framework will work with VS 2008 as well as VS Web Developer 2008 Express. In addition, ADO.NET Entity Framework is not ready for RTM. There are few breaking changes between the RTM version and the beta 2 including .dbml files created with the LINQ to SQL designer, LINQ to SQL OnValidate partial method now takes an enum as an argument, instead of DataContext.Add you'll now use DataContext.InsertOnSubmit() with LINQ to SQL, and the ListView control's item placeholder is now called "ItemContainer". Upgrading projects built with Beta2 should be pretty straightforward and only take a few minutes. There is also a new release of AJAX Control Toolkit version 3.5.11119.0 (2007-11-19) that targets the above official release of .NET Framework 3.5 and VS 2008 at http://www.codeplex.com/AtlasControlToolkit/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=8513. M'soft will publish in future the feature list per SKU. Just finished downloading a 90-day free trial edition of VS 2008 Team Suite. Proceed with the installation now. I keep my finger cross the installation will goes smooth. 18 November Attention! My Social Networks ExpandingThe right time has come to expand all my social networks. Since day 1 when I joined several popular social networks & blogging services such as Live Spaces, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogger, Y!360, Flickr & Wordpress Blog, I always want to expand it by inviting more people to share the joys, funs, excitements & news I have. Unfortunately, I am not ready as it takes more than time which I don't have much currently as usual. To be frank, when I have some free time, it's either I will use it to get some sleep or I will be doing what I love to do, R&D.
According to my plan which consists of 2 phases, I will go by expanding networks in phase 1 first which includes Facebook, Live Spaces, LinkedIn & Flickr. Thereafter, I will expand my Blogger blog, Wordpress blog, Y!360 & last but not the least soon to be launch new blog (www.cedrickchee.tv) on paid hosting.
To all my friends out there, just keep an eye for my next announcement to know further. Thnx.  My Work-Life UnBalanceYear 2007 is ending soon & year 2008 is fast coming. Here, it's raining heavily now. Feeling so slumber. It would be nice if I can take a short nap now. Instead of doing that, I move on to listen to some music & one of the song that struck me is "How Far We've Come" by Matchbox Twenty. This song has inspired me to look back at my life to know how far I've come & how can I improve my life. Furthermore, I find it a good time & day to proceed.
Well, I know it has been almost a year if I remember correctly that I do not have a proper life. What is a proper life to me is the ability for me to have a peaceful sleep (not necessary 8 hours a day), to enjoy every meals I have, to spend some quality time after working hour doing what I love to do & to have more time to socialize. I notice this is happening to me lately when I keep breaking promises. A simple example is my parents called me for almost 5 times where in every calls, they ask me when I will be going back to Malaysia & I just replied "I will plan out & will inform them". When I first came here to Singapore, I will go back to Malaysia once every 3 months even though for whatever reasons I can't do so. After more than a year in Singapore, that frequency changed when I only only go back to Malaysia after 6 months. As an example of this is after Chinese New Year holiday this year, I was in Singapore untill before Hari Raya 2007. So, the gap is almost 8 months. This simply reflect my unproper life which I think it is. I just felt so guilty & sorry for my actions.
I know I can't blame it on the same common reason to this problem that is busy with work because I have friends who is also working but they are able to achieve work & life balance. Therefore, I think the consequences of all these come from my work lifestyle. I have to learn to take a break & relax sometimes from work. In my opinion & experience, I have to say my working life in Singapore is difference than in Malaysia due to the fact its fast pace, work culture & people behaviour. Somehow, these has affected my life & I have to learn how to overcome this challenge or else adapt to it. I really miss out many happy, enjoyable, exciting, sad or memorable moments in my life.
I really need to start taking actions focusing at how to manage my time & how to survive in the "rats race" while it's not too late to get back my proper life I wish to. Last, to any of my family members & my friends who I can't keep in touch or I neglected, I hope you all can still bear with me. I am still trying my best to cope up with the burden now. TQ for the understanding. 17 November Facebook+Popfly MashupThe first time I try out Microsoft Popfly was almost 5 months ago. According to Microsoft, Popfly is the fun and easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, and Web pages. It’s made up of online visual tools for building Web pages and mashups and a social network where you can host, share, rate, comment and even remix creations from other Popfly users. During that time, MS Silverlight was still in beta. Popfly is comparable to Yahoo! Pipes but smartly designed to be more user-friendly.
To those who don't know what is mashup, it's actually a website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience. Content used in mashups is typically sourced from a third party via a public interface or application programming interface (API). Other methods of sourcing content for mashups included Web feeds (e.g. RSS or Atom) and web services.
What I am trying to achive currently is to add some fun to my facebook or Live Spaces page. I want to spice up my facebook with Popfly of perhaps Facebook.NET development kit. I am able to create a mashup of my Flickr photos with Google Map using Popfly. The next challenge I have is to bring this mashup to my facebook. As of now, I am still in the midst of finding the best solution to this challenge. And btw, the mashup is a Silverlight application. Kewl! From this, an idea just spark in my head that is to create a facebook application to mash-up facebook user status (kind of twitter short message of what I am doing now or where I am now) with Singapore StreetDirectory map. I am planning to use Facebook.NET and Silverlight 1.0.
Glad if any of you who are interested & would like to assist. Cheers! :) MediaCorp StarAwards Silverlight Video Gallery LaunchedFinally the waiting is over. We here at MediaCorp Technologies Web Team are pretty excited to launch StarAwards Video Gallery (http://starawards.mediacorptv.sg/videogallery.htm) developed using Microsoft Silverlight 1.0. To add to the excitements, this application has been showcased in Microsoft Silverlight Showcase site at www.silverlight.net/showcase. Actually, it is one of the first two Silverlight examples come from Singapore. Congrats folks! Keep up the good job.
Backtrack a little, most of us here have been playing with Silverlight since the release candidate versions. Well, I have to say it's a good learning experience to me and to most of us who are part of it. Nevertheless, many bumps along the journey to bring us this far. Phew! Also, not to forget under our belt, we have another web application, Campus Yummy Hunt develop using Silverlight 1.0 which is a user-generated video gallery for a TV programme audition at http://yummyhunt.mediacorptv.sg/yummy/audition.htm. Moving forward, we are expecting more Silverlight Rich Internet Applications (RIA) will be released from our pipeline. Therefore, keep following the light! ;-) 11 November Added Facebook BadgeCheckout my newly added facebook badge. Kewl isn't it?
Join my facebook league by adding me to your facebook. Thanks. 09 November EZlink Card Customer BewareOut of curiosity, I called the Translink enquiry line 1800-225-5663. It seems the undermentioned fact is absolutely true. Read on. Translink charge one full fare plus 63 cents for second deduction if you tap (flash) at the bus front entrance door, but Translink willing to refund if complaint is lodged at the above number within 5 working days, regretably who is so free to go through the process. Therefore, it's better to avoid such a catch. Helpful tips for those using EZlink card. To those who always use EZlink card, I would like to bring to your attention on local bus service provider. Usually, when you board the bus, you flash your EZlink card and move in towards the rear. Then, when you get down the bus, you flash your card again at the exit door (located at the middle of the bus). We all know that if we forget to flash the card, full fare will be deducted from the card. Below is what the public does not know: If you alight the bus from the front door (the entrance) and you flash your card while exiting without informing the bus driver, the card will capture another entrance fare instead of exit fare. What this means is that two full fares will be deducted from the card as no exit was being captured for the two entrances. Here's the solution: Go to the "big" machine (i.e machine for you to top up the card) located at the MRT stations. 1) Insert your EZlink card. 2) Press the function key "Check card". 3) Press the "more" button. Doing these steps will show you your last 20 transactions. Included in each transaction is the information on the fare deducted, bus no, boarding time and the boarding and alighting point will be reflected on the screen. I hope the above information does help you all. Please spread this information to people you know to prevent them from paying extra charges for nothing and burn a big hole in their pockets. Last but not the least, call the hotline line: 1800-767-4333 when the incorrect fares are deducted. Thanks. :) So Many Topic To PostI have so many topics to share in this blog after a while I never post due to hectic work schedule & family issues. I'll try to update this blog as much as I can given the little time I can spare on just blogging. Anyway, thank you you readers for the interest in my blog. In the next few months, I'll try to post better quality content. Cheers!
World Internet SummitThe world's Biggest Internet Business Event is Back to Malaysia - 10-12 Nov 2007 at Wisma MCA, Kuala Lumpur (http://my.srpl.net/wis/wis2007.htm). I can't join this year as I am still in Singapore. Let's see whether my bro will grab this opportunity so that I can view the recordings instead. ;-) Our affliate guy, Ewen Chia also 1 of the panelist. Kewl! Facebook Gaining Popularity in AsiaI get to know about Facebook while poking around the web for health care 2.0 ideas. That was early this year. That time, Facebook & mySpace is damn popular to the westerners especially Americans & Europeans. Then, finally around Aug this year, I find some time to actually test out Facebook platform capabilities from the developer & business stand point of view. And today, I notice the Facebook disease spreaded to Asia as I received more & more invitations from my existing contacts. From this, I could say that the Asians are not far left behind in the web 2 oh wave or in a simpler term, the next generation of websites centered around consumers. BurnoutWoke up yesterday morning feeling drowsy. Very abnormal to me. I think its the compounded lack of sleep plus the high brain cell burn rate over the last couple of weeks. Each and every single thing i have to think about will bug me badly. Notice how busy am I from the gap between this post & the last post. I hope matters will eventually low down. I think only time can prove it as of now. I have give my very best shot at all the undertakings. 19 August Singapore Fireworks 2007 @ Marina BayExciting & tiring day for yesterday & today. Yesterday, I went to the fireworks show by Spain with my co-workers. Then, we all meet our friends at CityLink Mall in City Hall. I met my friends from KL, Malaysia who came here for vacation. IMO, this year fireworks show by Spain is better than all 4 last year fireworks shows from Singapore, New Caledonia, Italy & France. Watch I my blog to view photos from yesterday & today fireworks show.
Today show from China is not that impressive comparing to yesterday show. Yesterday, we watch from the centre of Esplanade bridge while today we watch while we are enjoying our steamboat at Marina Bay. Today show is not that impressive also partly because we are watching it from far. Can't wait to complete processing all the photos before uploading to flckr. 13 August Impressive Facebook PlatformI've been playing with Facebook for a few days and am impressed. What I am more impressed with is Facebook has transformed itself into a platform after a couple of months opened to application developers. There is a mind-boggling momentum at play, not only in terms of user signups, but in the excitement around developing for the platform. A lot of web startups are adding a Facebook experience, and at the same time, a number of new applications are popping up (every day... literally!) that are leveraging the power of the social network in creative ways. It will be interesting to see how Facebook holds up over time compared to other networks such as MySpace. 12 August Jumping to the Facebook WagonI get to know Facebook (www.facebook.com) for sometime back due to its popularity while I was learning about web two-oh. Early this morning, I decided to try it out. First impression, it has a professional and simple design with plenty of AJAX techniques applied appropriately to the area which IMO right usage. Frankly, it's an excellent platform for social networking. Beter keep an eye on it. Day 0: Silverlight Knowledge SharingThis will be my first post of a series of the same post focusing on sharing my real work experience using Silverlight to prototype rich web application in my current company. As of now, I have prototyped for a video player with playlist for a video gallery for use in several microwebsites. Besides this, I have also did a prototype for a draggable multi-video streaming views for Singapore National Day Parade live web cast website. I will post the details in the next post.
Hope this help,
Cedric Chee First Taste of Visual Studio 2008Getting my first taste of Visual Studio 2008. This will play a part in my decision whether to use it for my next project or stick with Visual Studio 2005 until the actual final release. I am focusing on the features that will improve productivity such as new language features, new intellisense for javascript and so on. Looking Into User-Generated Content ModelToday marks the beginning for me to look seriously into the User-Generated Content Model for the upcoming business model I am putting in to work for a website. IMO, this is one of the area in Web 2.0 (or may be Web 3.0) we can't left without. There are several key questions I am still finding the answer for it. I will post an update to this post with the questions and answers once I found the answers to all of the questions. ;) 31 July LiveStation: Interactive Live TVLiveStation, from Microsoft Research, streams live TV over P2P using Silverlight to play the media on your computer. WelcomeFinally, I am able to spare my time to write my first post in this blog. More post coming ahead. Have fun! |
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