This book is OFF THE HOOK !

Wanna REALLY dissect a running application ?

IDA Pro is THE tool of choice for disassembly and the crackers choice because of it's raw power.

Whether you need to solve a tough runtime defect or examine your application security from teh inside out IDA Pro is a great tool and this book is THE guide for coming up to speed.

From the book description ....

I haven't tried it yet, but what a great idea !!

http://pcdecrapifier.com/

This is the recently opened Apple store here in Boston.

I can't wait for until the Microsoft store opens, or the Zune Store, or the Windows store :)

One of the very BEST parts of my job is the opportunity to use many of the great developer tools that are out there in the wild !

Like most of the big controls venders, the kind folks at Component Art keep me up to date with the Web.UI suite !

I'm hoping to start blogging my walk through Impressions of ALL the tools I get to use, but often I only get to writing a blog post when the company sends me an email with an update !

I got this yesterday from Component Art.

ComponentArt is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Web.UI 2008.2. The latest release of the industry's best performing ASP.NET AJAX user interface framework features three new controls, expanded capabilities of the Grid control as well as accessible output and Section 508 compliance for all Web.UI controls.

Look at how sexy these UI components are !!!  I love the AJAX support and the increased focus on performance, which is really necessary as folks add more and more 'Ajaxy" functionality to their applications.

You can check out the live demos here http://www.componentart.com/webui/demos/

The Official Scoop ................

Are you a student and passionate about Information Technology?  Then don’t miss the opportunity to participate in the 2009 Imagine Cup IT Challenge for a chance to make a difference in the world, add more technical skills to your resume and win a trip to the finals in Egypt. 

Are you interested in certification?  IT Challenge quizzes are like mini-certification exams.  Use them as practice exams or to gauge your certification prowess.  NEW!  Take advantage of the free Microsoft Learning resources for certification prep and training ---over 100 hours of free e-learning and certification prep!

The Imagine Cup IT Challenge

IT Students: Do you understand the art and science of developing, deploying, configuring and maintaining IT systems that are efficient, robust, and secure?  In addition to analysis and decision-making processes, this invitational challenges you to demonstrate proficiency in the science of networks, databases, and servers.  Take the IT Challenge today!  There are four themed first round quizzes to choose from:

Remember, every eligible entrant that achieves a valid score of 50% or higher on any single Round 1 quiz (as determined by us) will advance to compete in Round 2 of the Invitational.  Anyone that completes (and passes) all 4 content quizzes, gets a “certificate of achievement” from Microsoft.  So take a shot at changing the world today! 

For more information, free learning resources or to register for the Imagine Cup IT Challenge, click here!

Now in its seventh year, the Imagine Cup is a global student technology competition focused on finding solutions to real-world issues. The competition encourages the world's most talented software designers, programmers, game developers, photographers, filmmakers and IT students to tackle the toughest problems (per the United Nations’ Millennium Goals) facing the world today.

We're the world's premier student technology competition and we invite you to join us! www.imaginecup.com

Imagine Cup 2009 Sponsors:

One of my flights to ZendCon08 was delayed 2 hours last week.

This is the last thing I want to see at the customer service counter where people are all trying to reschedule their connections.

I was wearing a "Microsoft DevDiv" shirt.

Not to Windows Team, in the next service pack to all versions of Windows, figure out how to blank the blue  screen after 60 seconds :)

Rob Bagby is in the midst of a blog series on REST in WCF and been building a series of screencasts on the same subject (in conjunction with Ron Jacobs).

Since it's such an interesting topic, especially to AJAX developers I thought I'd share them here.

Blog Series:

• REST in WCF - Part I (REST Overview)
• REST in WCF - Part II (AJAX Friendly Services, Creating The Service)
• REST in WCF - Part III (AJAX Friendly Services, Consuming The Service)
• REST in WCF - Part IV (HI-REST - Exposing a service via GET - Configuring the service)
• REST in WCF - Part V (HI-REST - Exposing a service via GET - The ServiceContract and Implementation)
• REST in WCF - Part VI (HI-REST - Consuming our GET service via AJAX)
• REST in WCF - Part VII (HI-REST - Implementing Insert and Update
• REST in WCF - Part VIII (HI-REST - Implementing Delete)
• REST in WCF - Part IX - Controlling the URI
• REST in WCF - Part X - Supporting Caching and Conditional GET

Screencast Series:

• endpoint.tv - Controlling the URI in RESTful WCF with Rob Bagby
• deCast - Creating a HI-REST GET Service with WCF 3.5
• deCast - Consuming a HI-REST GET Service From Silverlight 2 (Beta 2)
• endpoint.tv - Caching and Conditional Get with Rob Bagby
• deCast - Creating an AJAX-Friendly WCF Service
• deCast - Creating a HI-REST PUT Service That Exposes Insert and Update
• endpoint.tv - Securing RESTful services with ASP.NET Membership

From their description .....

nAML (.NET Application Language, pronounced as “namel”) is a visual modeling semantics to model .net applications with wide range of specific details. It contains extremely powerful visual notations and semantics to illustrate complex application components, processes and operations easily.

The primary objectives of nAML can be considered as follows:

• Provides a single space to visually describe one or more application systems with structural and behavioral components.
• Provides a single space to visually describe one or more application systems with logical and physical components.
• Provides a single space to visually describe one or more application systems from top to low level.
• Provides a single space to visually describe a part or whole of one or more application systems.
• Extremely simple and easy understand and learn from readers and designers perspective.
• Concentrates on .NET applications, with its related logical and physical entities (user interface, application logic, business logic, database etc).

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/naml

We always give away lame stuff like squishy balls.

Check out the cool gadget Sybase was giving away at #ZendCon08

A tiny remote controlled race car.

We need to get more creative with our free stuff :)

Create an Open Source ASP.NET AJAX server control on CodePlex and win a book !

[ Click HERE for all the details. ]

The second Central Coast Code Camp will be held September 27th and 28th, 2008, at the Embassy Suites in San Luis Obispo, CA. (Home of UFC Champion Chuck "The Ice Man" Liddell)

I can't make it so send me a full report !

http://www.centralcoastcodecamp.com

For Sean who Tweeted early this morning that he's having and angry day !

The folks at O'Reilly recently published this gem !

From the book description:

This book is a comprehensive guide to the tips, techniques, secrets, standards, and methods of website optimization. From increasing site traffic to maximizing leads, from revving up responsiveness to increasing navigability, from prospect retention to closing more sales, the world of 21st century website optimization is explored, exemplified and explained.

Though I've just started readying it I'm already convinced it's a must have !

[ Click Here to get your copy ! ]

I'm working on my demos for ZendCon and updating a PHP Chat application built on the Microsoft Ajax Client Libraries and the PHPMSAJAX codeplex project.

Since I want to use a JSON serializer and PHP 5.2 has one built in, I wanted to upgrade the default PHP version on CentOS (5.1) to 5.2.

To do this, I needed to install from an alternate repository maintained by "Remi" .

He has a repository for many distros, but since I'm updating CentOS, I used the RedHat ES5 repository.

Here are the commands you need to run.

wget http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pu...5-2.noarch.rpm
wget http://rpms.famillecollet.com/el5.i3...emi.noarch.rpm
rpm -Uvh remi-release-5*.rpm epel-release-5*.rpm

Ater these steps the .rpm(s) are you your system but that not installed and active.

To "install" them do this.....

yum --enablerepo=remi update php

PHP 5.2.6 should now be installed.

Check by running this command in a console.

# php -v

The output should indicate the latest version of PHP.

To see the results from phpinfo(); you'll probably have to restart Apache. (Or at least I did.)

I guess EVERYONE isn't a Chrome Fan :)

Interesting commentary about the REAL business goals of .Chrome

Read - CNN Review: Google's Chrome needs more polish

So there is this very smart guy on the ASP.NET team named Scott Hunter who is one of the guys working on Dynamic Data !

He has just added a sample of using Dynamic Data with Stored Procedures to the Dynamic Data Samples on CodePlex.

Click [ HERE ] for the Sample Project home page.

Click [ HERE ] for a forums discussion on Dynamic Data with Stored Procedures.