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Tuesday, November 11^th I’ll be at the Inland Empire .NET User Group giving a presentation, I hope you can join us. http://www.iedotnetug.org/UG/

I’ll be presenting GeoTwitter as well as I would like to keep bringing the message to the community about the Internet Social Networks and how important is to share information on this age where is almost impossible to keep up with technology.

Hoping to meet lots of people there, I hope as well that I can use the AT&T Air Card, last time I was there, I had no service on my iPhone.

Cheers

Al

DELETE FROM cs_statistics_Site

DELETE FROM cs_Visits

DELETE FROM cs_Exceptions

DELETE FROM cs_EventLog

To keep the database from going over 500 MB, those above are the tables that keep growing without impacting my blog posts. I have to options, move to Telligent Graffiti  or to move my database to the Microsoft Cloud. I don’t think that there is a tool to convert CS2007 to Graffiti.

If I decide to move to the Cloud, this is a bookmark to remember to set up a computer with the Azure SDK for VS2008.

What do I need.

I have been extremely busy at work and at home to spend the time to work on this project. This is sad as this is a extremely fan project to play with, some people like to play video games, I like to code for fun. GeoTwitter was build using ASP.NET 3.5 and lots of LINQ to SQL classes. All communication to the database was build using that great technology. If you would like to learn how to use LINQ to Sql you can read this post. The best practices post can be found here.

The new improvements to the GeoRSS Editor.

• Users can store their GeoRSS feeds for as long as they want. The grid with all feeds will be stored at the end of the page, not editing yet.
• You can add a title and description to each geometry added into the map, distributing your georss will make more sense.

Adding Attributes to your Geometry. After adding the geometry on the map, you’ll be asked to add a title and a description to be associated to the geometry.

Consuming the GeoRSS created in Google Maps. You can use any map that can consume simple GeoRSS. The title and description will be shown at the tooltip.

Find the created geometry under the map. All GeoRSS feeds link will be found at the end of the page, all users share the same feeds, they are public to any user.

How to create a GeoRSS Feed?

Using the GeoTwitter editor is pretty simple, you can follow this exercise:

1. Go to http://geotwitter.net/editor.aspx
2. Click at Point and click the map, you’ll be ask to add the Title and Description, then click the Submit button.
3. You can repeat step 2 per geometry. Add a Polygon.
4. When finished, click the last button on the top of the page “Save"”, give a unique name and click the right hand side button “Save”
5. The browser will redirect you to the GeoRSS.
6. Copy and paste the link to the Address book search at Google Maps:

I am still looking for suggestions and as well to discover bugs. This is one project that will never finish, I keep adding suggestions from users every month, please, let me know if you would like to add anything else.

Cheers

Al

Subscribe to my RSS Feed.

Related Posts

• Using GeoTwitter to track the fires in LA
• GeoRSS Editor alpha version is up and running
• How to add GeoTwitter to your blog or website
• GeoRSS is taking off. When location matters

As a people, we have come a long way.  We invented technology and we have been able to improve our skills with each generation. We have come a long way in understanding that justice and freedom are the key to success; they are, in fact, what our country has been built upon.  We should respect everybody's freedom to choose their own destiny and future.

Every day I'm teaching my children to respect everybody, and embrace their differences.  I will allow them to choose their path in life and let them go on their own. Our family likes to travel all over to meet different people and experience different cultures, so that our children see that there is no right or wrong.  It is unequivocally wrong if one person's freedom finishes when another's freedom begins. In other words, no one person's freedom should encroach upon another's.

It saddens me that we are here in 2008 still discussing if gay people should have the same rights as other people.  In California we will be voting on Prop 8, which would overturn the right of gay people to get married.  This kind of proposition should, in this millennium, not even be discussed.  Everybody should have the right to marry whoever they want.  We should not discriminate against any race, religion, or sexual orientation.  By doing so, we have proven that there is no equality under the law in California - for anyone.

I know that progression has been made, but evolution is coming slower than I thought.  Yet in 10 or 20 years, this issue will be resolved once and for all.   Evolution will eventually take over and ensure that everybody has the freedom to marry whoever they want.

What, you don't believe in evolution?  Do you think that 20 years ago we could have had a black candidate for president?

Soon I'll go to vote No on Prop 8, knowing that the outcome does not matter for the course of history because in 20 years, this will no longer be an issue. The outcome will only matter for me, knowing that I did the right thing to help protect individual rights.  I also now know that I was naive to believe that everybody was equal under the law, because we are not there yet.

Cheers
Al

There are a few steps that are difficult to remember in order to create get a developed webpart installed and running, so I created a list for me to follow, best place to add it is my blog.

I would recommend the book “Inside Windows SharePoint Services 3.0” I found it very useful as well as very well written, Daniel Larson is a great technical writer.

A new book from this him is coming up in November 24^th “Developing Service-Oriented AJAX Applications on the Microsoft Platform” I can share with you that I read it, many times, and now is my favorite book of 2008.

Going back to SharePoint, below the simple steps to develop a webpart for SharePoint 2007.

Step by Step

1. Create a new project class library, inherit the controls from System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebPart
2. Each control you create needs to overrride the method Render: protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
3. Create a snk file and compile the dll.
4. Install the dll into the computers GAC by dragging it to c:\windows\assembly
5. On the Sharepoint web.config add a new SafeControl tag
6. Then on Sharepoint as administrator go to Galleries and add a new webpart.

Now any user will be able to use the webpart.

Related posts

Walkthough from MSDN

Gu's release

Tam Tam Weblog tutorial

Cheers

Al

So last weekend I work on a Session State Provider that allows me to intercept every call to the Session State and compressed when set or unzip when retrieve.

The Session State provider will call my method by adding this to the web.config on your website:

<sessionState cookieless="true" regenerateExpiredSessionId="true" mode="Custom" customProvider="ZipSessionProvider">
    <providers>
       <add name="ZipSessionProvider" type="ZipSession.ZipSessionProvider"/>
    </providers>
</sessionState>

This tells the web application to send all Session request to my class ZipSessionProvider that wraps Scott Hanselman’s class. There are 2 methods that are important on the provider, to set the session and to retrieve. So users don’t have to change the code to use the Sessions on their web applications:

Session["Something"] = "Hello World";

Insert a Session object.

public override void SetAndReleaseItemExclusive
            (HttpContext context, String id, SessionStateStoreData item,
            object lockId, bool newItem)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < item.Items.Count; i++)
            {
                string sKey = item.Items.Keys[i];
                Zip.Session[id + sKey] = item.Items[i];
            }
        }

The system calls the SetAndReleaseItemExclusive to set Session variables. As when you override the Session state, you’ll find you won’t get a Session initialize for you. That’s ok or better, as we’ll use the Cache object to store our session state, more control over that. The method above will store the sessionID as well with the Key for easy retrieve later on.

Retrieve a session object.

public override SessionStateStoreData GetItemExclusive
           (HttpContext context, String id, out bool locked,
           out TimeSpan lockAge, out object lockId,
           out SessionStateActions actions)
       {
           actions = SessionStateActions.None;
           lockId = null;
           lockAge = TimeSpan.MaxValue;
           locked = true;
           SessionStateStoreData temp = new SessionStateStoreData(
                   new SessionStateItemCollection(),
                   SessionStateUtility.GetSessionStaticObjects(context),
                   20
               );

           for (int i = 0; i < Zip.SessionItems.Count; i++)
           {
               if (Zip.SessionItems[i].ToString().Contains(id))
               {
                   string sKey = Zip.SessionItems[i].ToString().Replace(id, "");
                   temp.Items[sKey] = Zip.Session[Zip.SessionItems[i].ToString()];
               }
           }
           return temp;
       }

Even if we call the SessionStateStoreData we need to provide all the objects and the correct name as well as filtered by Session id.

Modification on Scott’s code.

I had to make 2 modification on Scott’s code, not to fix errors, just to adjusted to my needs.

public class ZipCacheInternal  
       {  
           public object this[string index]  
           {  
               get  
               {  
                   return GZipHelpers.DeCompress(HttpContext.Current.Cache[index] as byte[]);  
               }  
               set  
               {
                   HttpContext.Current.Cache[index] = GZipHelpers.Compress((string)value);
                   SessionItems.Add(index);
               }  
           }  
       }  

Instead of be a string indexer I changed it to be able to store any kind of object as well as I keep track of all session on an Array.

Testing the code.

Now we can run the code to test the application, a simple web form with 2 buttons, one to set and the other one to retrieve the session previously set.

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (Page.IsPostBack == false)
        {
            Session["Something"] = "Hello World";

            Response.Write("Test");

            Label1.Text = "";
        }
    }
    protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Label1.Text = Session["Something"].ToString();
    }
    protected void Button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Session["Something"] = TextBox1.Text;
    }

Of course I provide you with all the source code and the test application for you to improve my code. There are still a few things I would like to add as well a few things that I didn’t implement in the provider. So expect a few bugs and issues.

Download it from here

Summary

This is the first cut to see how it behaves, I’ll be adding some of the functionality that Scott was talking on his great post. For once, check if compression that object will reduce the bytes, some objects are bigger when compressed.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Al

I’m sure you have been exposed to those clear types and you can add more to this list, please feel free to add your suggestions as a comment. However those will give you a clear idea of why is not business travelling.

There are also different requirements for tech travelling, like we do not all airports with wireless, I’ll need your help to add to the list.

• Sacramento
• Phoenix
• Baltimore

The worse part of tech traveling is being away from the kids and missing a few stages. For once, my 2 year old has become a chatter box overnight, she can talk your ear off for 30 minutes in a single breath. All my children being very verbal at an early time, very clear speech as well as extremely descriptive on their arguments. 

A tip for any tech traveler from me, would be to carry a webcam on your bag pack, to connect every evening and see your kids, more important for them to see you.

I purchased the Microsoft LifeCam VX-7000, small and powerful with a microphone embedded. A few months ago I found myself singing a good night song to my 5 years old before taking off on the airplane, quite embarrassing yet made me feel the worse father in the world. Now I try to schedule flights to arrived back home before the kids go to bed.

Happy tech traveling.

Cheers

Al

ESRI Flex API 1.0

http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/apis/flex/ Download it here.

Cheers

Al

Something I like is too see the boxes and how the build up works, it’s pretty interesting how many different cables are there. I personally love seeing the set up process and I hate to help configuring the computer and any IT related job.

The Microsoft signed was there, I wonder what Microsoft has to do with homeland security, I shall see tomorrow. 

I set up for the first time a touch screen running my software, this tables are too heavy to become part of the American family living room decor.

Going back home on Thursday, all to be set, I accomplish quite a lot of work on the airplane and airports, finish lots of work I owned to many different people. This is a great opportunity to do just that, as when I am on the campus I get lots of interruptions.

When travelling I would recommend to take with you a webcam to keep in touch with the kids, they don’t really want to talk to you on the phone, thus seeing you is the most fun and makes them feel like you are not that far.

Well, need to go back to the reception to get a refill of some bud light.

Cheers

Al

The steps to create your georss feed is pretty simple, add as many lines, points and polygons into the map and press Save, after giving your feed a name, the system will provide you with a feed to share with your favorite viewer.

You can see other users georss feeds bellowed saved by the system.

What's next on the GeoTwitter Editor?

I've put off the development of the Editor long enough, I have been extremely busy with other side projects, yet the time has come to get to work in this tool. After all the feedback, I believe I am going to follow the recommendation to allow to save your feeds forever, or until I delete it, for user collaboration. Also when entering points, lines and polygons I'll ask for a title and description to build the body of the feed. I'll keep a date and time of the last update. Hopefully the changes will be complete by the end of the month, I'll update the source code to codeplex as previously done.

Any other ideas or suggestions are welcome.

Cheers

Al

I also would thing that every company is different, at recession time, big companies are stronger than small companies with small amount of money in the bank. So even you following all the experts, you can find yourself without a job in a few months.

I have seen software developers trying to get visible in the .NET community right now, I believe this is because they want to use the networking in case they need to apply for a job. In my opinion, if you are not sure about your company , make sure to make the change now to a company that can go through any economy slow down without having to lay off people,  what are those companies? Well for starters companies that are still recruiting is a good sign, many now have implemented a hiring freeze, some still need more programmers. Like Tellingent, a software company based in Dallas TX and creators of the Community Server. 

Another way to find a software job is to look at the hidden networks for local jobs and find the companies they are still applying. I would personally stay away from big hiding websites. Hidden networks are companies that want a direct contact with the software developer.

Robert Scobler is blogging every day about the economy world instead of the tech world, as this is the main concern looks like. Still I believe that now more than ever.  Famous bloggers with many followers are worrying the professional lately.

Please share with me the stories about being a software developer or IT professional in this worried times. What are your plans? How is the market where you are?

Cheers

Al

I would be missing the PDC this year. $2000 is an expense that I can’t find a justification to give the wife. I’m still trying to get a BluRay DVD player for the house.

Yet for people like me that cannot make it to the PDC, there is a free event called The Underground  PDC, I wonder if Scott Guthrie would be attending. You need to register to attend the event. The line up of speakers at the underground is secret right now. I’m guessing that if Gu was presenting at the Underground PDC the list wouldn’t be a secret.

The Underground event is on Wednesday, October 29th from 6pm to 2 am.

The Edison

108 W 2nd St, #101, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Who will stay that late on a week day? Register quick, the event is almost full.

Cheers

Al

Both technologies have become pretty popular to enriched the web applications to something more than HTML. I guess AJAX wasn’t the solution that web developers have been waiting for. I believe there is a raising concern to deliver rich user interfaces to the user without having to install a desktop application and being able to be cross platform. This is where Flex/Flash and Silverlight come into play.

Being a plug in for the browser, means will run the application downloaded from the server without having to install it. So it’s an application running on the browsers context and limited by the platform.

So those 2 technologies can run as a desktop application, however both Flex and Silverlight got limitation added by Adobe and Microsoft to resemble the browsers security. So let’s talk about the most important to me.

• Flex and Silverlight cannot have access to the users hard disk, they do have a isolated storage to save a few things. That storage is limited by the technologies. This is to avoid hackers using that technology to scan hard disks.
• Flex and Silverlight cannot make requests to domains besides their own without that domain allowing them to do so. This is the one I do not understand why Adobe and Microsoft implemented such a thing. Web developers now create proxies to bypass this problem and makes the request slower. I really hope one day, this limitation gets removed.

Even with that, makes a huge difference using these technologies to provide the user a rich environment.

I would like to mention this great post from Curtis Morley about Flex little things that you need to know about deploying Flex applications here. If you are using Flex, this is a must read.

Cheers

Al

Scott Guthrie's post about MS and jQuery

After a long break from ScottGu, he is coming back with great news for developers.

What about you, do you use any javascript library for your development? So the question is do you like dojo or jQuery?

Cheers

Al

The second Central Coast Code Camp will be held September 27th and 28th, 2008, at the Embassy Suites in San Luis Obispo, CA.

Register for free here

I’ll be presenting Saturday 27th at 3:45 pm follow by a Geek Dinner.

On Sunday I won’t miss Woody Pewitt’s presentation about Microsoft Live.

Code camps are very important for developers and IT people, keeping them free is a difficult task, yet if we keep all giving a few hours here and there, the task becomes easier. I would encourage anybody that wants to learn and does not have the time, to come this weekend to the code camp and get the knowledge you want. There are always 4 sessions at the same time, so prepare you agenda ahead of the time.

I’ll see you there!

Cheers

Al