My web browsers

Currently, I have used 2 web browser simultaneity. Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Mozilla Firefox 2.x.x (FF). Those two browsers did their jobs very well, and I'm still using them until this day. Despite many article war between these two by fanboys (I hate them..), IE7 and FF each one has its advantage and disadvantage.

Internet Explorer 7

I use IE on many ASP or ASP.NET site, which I know, Microsoft technology indeed has most compatibility each others. From my knowledge, IE7 has better support on CSS than Firefox, but in fact, I don't even bother since I don't really care about CSS stuffs. Many has said IE has lack of security, but for me, not this version. It has better security than previous one, embedded phishing filter (which I don't feel the difference if I don't use it), and one of the reasons, is a nice and better UI than FF. I usually use IE7 for navigate to Microsoft sites or development sites like Codeproject, Codeplex, etc. I also use this browser if I want to see a flash content of a site. I let windows update to manage updates for this browser.

Mozilla Firefox 2.x.x

Word to describe this broser: ADBlock Plus, NoScript and Load Images. I used ADBlock and NoScript recently and amazed about this plugin can do. Block those annoying advertisement or useless script about 90% of the time. Great plugin, especially when you're at a forum which has many advertisement content like Kaskus. For me, that site contain too much advertising and all of the are annoying. With this plug in, I've never encounter that problem again. The other future that I like is its abilities to block image only from selected sites. This help me a lot, rather than keep change settings when I browsing the net. It's lack support of activeX makes this browser save for some "dark" sites.

Browser war and fanboyism

With IE7 and FF currently dominate market share, it didn't surprised that there's a lot of debate to find out which one is the best. For me, neither two of them. Each browser has come with its advantages. It depends on how far a user will use this tools.

VB Code Formatter Plug-in for Windows Live Writer

Refer to my post yesterday, I've found a new plug-in for Windows Live Writer (WLW), that can paste my Visual Basic Source Code and keep it's format. I've test some codes, and it seems works fine for me.

Here's a sample:

VB Code

Public Shared Function NumberToEnglishWords(ByVal num As Long) As String Return NumberToEnglishWords(num, 0) End Function

Other features that seems great is the ability to add line number, which I'm still can't decide whether I should use it or not. The plug-in is made with C# and it's open source. I'd like to learn the source when I have a spare time.

At the first look (in Live Writer editor), the table border width is not quite right. I'll look the result after I post this on my blog.

This plug-in was made by Steve Dunn. You can visit his blog here, while the article about the plug-in can be found here.

Windows Live Writer

I've finished download and installed Windows Live Writer. I use version 1.0. Actually I want to download the newest live writer, but it seems Microsoft didn't provide direct link with it. Sucks.

My first impression using this tool is good. It has spell check, Nice layout. But actually, that's not important to me. All I want is a style that can post source code without messing them.

Well, let's try it:

Code

Public Shared Sub DrawNonRectangleBorder(ByVal g As Graphics, ByVal borderColor As Color, _                                          ByVal angle As Integer, ByVal rect As Rectangle)     Using pth As New Drawing2D.GraphicsPath         pth.AddLine(angle, 0, rect.Width - angle - 1, 0)         pth.AddLine(rect.Width - 1, angle, rect.Width - 1, rect.Height - angle - 1)         pth.AddLine(rect.Width - angle - 1, rect.Height - 1, angle, rect.Height - 1)         pth.AddLine(0, rect.Height - angle - 1, 0, angle)         pth.CloseAllFigures()         g.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.AntiAlias         g.DrawPath(New Pen(borderColor), pth)     End Using End Sub

 

Ok. First testing, it has one big disadvantage than Office 2007. When I copy source code directly from VS IDE, the font color didn't change. That's a big drawback to me. In Office 2007, it copies all styles, including font color. Unfortunately, the table messed up after I post. For now, let's see the final result first...

Back to blog

After 5 months absent, I start to write the blog again. Now, I know, writing a blog is not an easy task. You should know how to explain/describe, express something in your mind, or even tell some strories or experience to the readers. Well, writing a blog is easy, but to write a GOOD article or blog need more effort than just writing. Heck, I event don't know whether I spelled my english perfectly in this blog, since blogger editor didn't contain spell check. Maybe because I use IE 7 for posting blog, since Firefox contain spell check by default. For some reason, I still not trust firefox right now. And don't ask me why. It's hard to explain.

For now, I'll try more active in writing blog. I hope this will horn my skills in writing and describing, so I can make a good speech in the future :p...

By the way, I will leave Office 2007 for posting a blog due to some trouble I have with it. The table still sucks. If the table still sucks, I won't be able to post the code in this blog. So, I'll try another tools for posting the blog (And I don't like blogger default editor too. Heh..heh..). One tool that pop in my head is Live Writer...

Creating Component with Rich Design Time Support

These 2 weeks had been most exhausted event for my brain. While researching designer class, I found something new and yet confusing methods to study. Design time component has a very wide scope to begin with, and it seems like one method can spread to another method. Sometimes I can be very frustrating. Once I got a small solution or step, that step always connects to another 2 or 3 problem that had to be solved. I wonder how much time I have to spend to complete my current home project. Luckily, my work had been on simulation stage, which mean, I have more spare time to observe and studying articles while doing a little design to my next project. Now I start wonder, since I have to put a lot of effort to my home project, maybe I should start to commercialize it? It maybe worth some money.

Adorners and Glyphs

Currently, I've studied a bit about Adorner. With Adorners and Glyph, you can give full design time support for making some good components, especially such as multi tab component. I'm telling you, learning this stuff is more complicated than I expected. The concept is difficult as well. Much more difficult for a man who only have one year experience with .NET Framework. Now I feel sorry for being ignorance when .NET released. Too late for that now.

After a few days of learning and observing various codes, I learn that to fully support design time component, I must include some service before applying adorner and glyph. Adorner itself are is part of behavior service. Luckily, those services come from base class, if you inherit designer class to a ControlDesigner class. Base on that base class, you may add an adorner which contains any glyph which will represent your child control (it's an array). One note if you work with this, make sure you override dispose method which is removing your glyph from adorner. If you forgot to do this, the glyph will likely stay even when you remove the component and closing the form. The possible solution that I found is to close your IDE, and start it over again (and of course, override its dispose method).

I know it's a bit confusing if you read this post, but hey, I'm confused too. I'll try to hang out with this for a while, and once I fully understand about the concept, I'll try to make a new component that utilizes Adorner and Glyphs. I'll post some article about making this component too. So keep your eyes open for another updates in this blog and my vbcorner tutorial blog.

Tables from Office 2007 to BlogSpot – Part II

Back to result from my previous post here, I'm disappointed from the results I get (Yeah, all of them). My first curious is because the table width are simply not dynamic. Let's try this again.

Table 1: Dynamic table with layout and auto fit content turned on

Code

Using lgb As New LinearGradientBrush(Me.ClientRectangle, Color.Red, Color.Blue, LinearGradientMode.Horizontal) e.Graphics.FillRectangle(lgb, Me.ClientRectangle) End Using

 

Table 2: Dynamic table with layout and auto fit to window turned on

Code

Using lgb As New LinearGradientBrush(Me.ClientRectangle, Color.Red, Color.Blue, LinearGradientMode.Horizontal) e.Graphics.FillRectangle(lgb, Me.ClientRectangle) End Using

 

Table 3: Dynamic table with layout and column width set to 100%

Code

Using lgb As New LinearGradientBrush(Me.ClientRectangle, Color.Red, Color.Blue, LinearGradientMode.Horizontal) e.Graphics.FillRectangle(lgb, Me.ClientRectangle) End Using

 

Okay, let's see the result now.

Tables from Office 2007 to BlogSpot

Since I'll use table a lot for posting a code, I'll do some test with this post. Here it goes.

Table 1: Default Table

Code

Using lgb As New LinearGradientBrush(Me.ClientRectangle, Color.Red, Color.Blue, LinearGradientMode.Horizontal) e.Graphics.FillRectangle(lgb, Me.ClientRectangle) End Using

 

Table 2: Table with layout (Font Bold by default)

Code

Using lgb As New LinearGradientBrush(Me.ClientRectangle, Color.Red, Color.Blue, LinearGradientMode.Horizontal) e.Graphics.FillRectangle(lgb, Me.ClientRectangle) End Using

 

Table 3: Table with layout (Font changed back to normal)

Code

Using lgb As New LinearGradientBrush(Me.ClientRectangle, Color.Red, Color.Blue, LinearGradientMode.Horizontal) e.Graphics.FillRectangle(lgb, Me.ClientRectangle) End Using

 

Table 4: Table with layout (Font changed to normal and same font)

Code

Using lgb As New LinearGradientBrush(Me.ClientRectangle, Color.Red, Color.Blue, LinearGradientMode.Horizontal) e.Graphics.FillRectangle(lgb, Me.ClientRectangle) End Using

 

Table 5: Table with layout (Font changed to normal and same font and same size)

Code

Using lgb As New LinearGradientBrush(Me.ClientRectangle, Color.Red, Color.Blue, LinearGradientMode.Horizontal) e.Graphics.FillRectangle(lgb, Me.ClientRectangle) End Using

 

Ok. Lets see the result for now

Difficult formatting between Office 2007 and Blogspot

For strange reason, I have difficulty posting my blog with Office 2007 especially when I posting blog with a source code. I used my defined table and color for visual basic code. Every time I posted some codes; it always messed up, the formatting and text size. It might have something to do with office 2007 itself. Maybe I should post some test article and find another reference in the net.

Let's try a little test here and see what I see in my blog:

Code

Using lgb As New LinearGradientBrush(Me.ClientRectangle, Color.Black, Color.Black, LinearGradientMode.Horizontal) Dim cb As New ColorBlend(6) Dim f As Decimal = 0.0F cb.Colors = New Color() {Color.Red, Color.Orange, Color.Yellow, Color.Green, Color.Blue, Color.Violet} For i As Integer = 0 To 5 cb.Positions(i) = i / 5 Next lgb.InterpolationColors = cb e.Graphics.FillRectangle(lgb, Me.ClientRectangle) End Using

My reason to post a blog from Office 2007 because it has built in spell checker and you can build table and copy source with exact format from original (indention, colors, etc). So, I have no choice than stick with this method and find any useful trick to solve my problems.

Now, lets compare it with my original word document:

Code Project Article

At least. My first article on Code Project has online. It took about 3 days since I send it. But it's not a big deal. I'd like to see how's my article rating within this month. After 1 year learning VB 2005, I've create many custom control. They only use for my personal purpose only. After I see several websites sold their control / components, I'm start to commercialize my work either. Maybe I should start to make my own component provider?

If you want to see what article that I've write, see here. Since you see it, don't forget to rate :P

VB Corner Tutorial Site

I've created a Visual Basic 2005 tutorial site. Check it here. With this site, I hope someone can find improvement with their skills in VB.

Enjoy.

26 Years old

Yesterday was my birthday. So, I'm 26 years old right now. Times sure goes fast. Yesterday seem like a school days, and now I'm in working field. There's still soo much to be done, including building my own carrer (or should I say, "my empire" heh..heh..). With so many goals in my future, I must take immediate action. At first, I'll try hard to finish my master degree, so I can do anything from there...

An Analog Clock Component

During these days, I've attended some programming challenge in a forum. It's quite fun because that can horne my skills and of course show some showoff hehe ;D. It's also a great task to spend my weekend (because I'm still single and nothing to do. If I have a girlfriend, things will be different :D ).

TheClock, is my latest component that mimic clock sidebar on Vista. For now, it's still have one style (modern). At this time, it only has a standard features, but I've reserved some functions for future. Also I've engineered the class so I can insert a new feature easily in the future (If I have time of course te..he..).

Here's some screen shot:
http://www.geocities.com/mick_rawi/2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/mick_rawi/3.jpg

You can download the code at: http://www.geocities.com/mick_rawi/TheClock.zip

That's for now. Sorry for lack documentation and explaination about this component, because I'm still not good in those two. But I'm learning for it okay ? Of course I know that presentation ability is one of most important things to make customer in the future.

Actually, I've created many more good stuff (at least for me), that I want to share with everyone. But, right now, I'm don't have enough time to do that. For meanwhile, enjoy "TheClock" :D

A new assistant

Finally, I got a chance to write something here. :)

These month seems thougher than any other month for me. First, my assistant was assigned to another branch office. This make my current project postponed until I have a new assistant prepared. Appearently, the company quickly replace him with a new one. Unfortunately, the new assistant has a little experience about VB 2005. So, I have to prepare her (yes, a female one. I guess it's a bit enjoyable, since there's no young people in this floor rather that two of us :D ). It'll take some time to teach her since she has minimum experience in making real world application. Well, I can take the good point for this. At least, I have time to learn something new especially .NET 3.0 technology, also doing my thesis :). There's no need to hasten the project now. My estimate that it will take a month to make her ready...

Tomorrow, I'm thingking of buying a new board for my room at home. It's soo hard to keep everything on your head, especially when you must put office and home problems there. Not enogh memory man !!! There's one problem though, I don't want to go alone there. Maybe I can force my sister to accompany me (and I believe she'd like to). Another option is to ask my friends, but I must to pick them and drop them again. Not worth the effort I think.

Currently, I'm still developing a nice user interface for my application (SPM Reporting), and it's not as simple as it get's. Designing user interface is much harder than designing system or application. It needs creativity (which I still leak of). Therefore, I don't have much idea about it right now. I'll try to set everything up next week.

Hmm, I guess I must back to work again. It seems like my new assistant confuse about something. Hopes she learn well right now.

Gateway Switcher and .NET Deployment

Today I've created a new application called Gateway Switcher. It's basically a small program that change my internet gateway. The background for this program is that my company has operate 2 gateway for internet connection. When the first offline, the other will active. It's really annoying just to change connection all the time since my connection is very unstable.

Basically, Windows XP (don't test it on Vista), has stored connection data on the registry. So my application do a little trick to manipulate them. It's use a simple Win32 registry function to change this settings, yet it's a little difficult to learn how to use this function.

After this, I've planned on distributing this files through Marketing Division, which I think need this tools the most, since they are 2nd active internet user after my team :). I've learn some method of deployment in .NET, and I will use MSI installer for this distribution.

Busy days ...

*Sigh*. Finally, I can post here after these busy days.
It's all start from Saturday. I have to go to ITS for some administrating stuff. But because of my late payment for collage, I must go to ITS Sukolilo for a payment slip. The problem arrise because financial departement closed on Saturday. What a pain. I have to go there on Monday, so I don't think I'd come to work on that day. After arrive at home, my cousin (Ko2 Jimmy) from Tulungagung come to my house. Then my family preparing some praying ceremony for my grandfather, because my Twaie went to holiday in Malay. So, we have our hand full back then. At night, we went to Galaxy Mall. This is my first visit since it has a new building. It's not quite big, and there was nothing interesting there. I won't go there again :(. Don't belive that I waste my time to go there. I'd watch some DVD's that I loan.

On Sunday, it's Imlek time. Gong Xi Fat Choi !!! Yay !! I got angpao from my family. We're not going anywhere except to church and visit a family. So I can take a little rest then.
The next day, I go to ITS Sukolilo to finish my administrative issue, then go to ITS Cokroaminoto to get my concelor sign. Guess what, he wasn't there until night. So I don't have any choice except go back home and come again at night. :(

Yesterday, some of staff in my office room moved to 1st floor (while I'm still in 2nd floor). Kinda busy there, because we have to arrange some desk and computers. So my room has more space right now. (kinda good isn't it ?)

Today I'm not doing anything new. Still trying to learn some deployment methods for my project. I'd like to start another little project when I'm home, but I think I will postpone it until next week. There's still many task that I've planned during this week. Planned ? Yes, I've arranged task every week for myself. Altough I can't do some of them, but it helps myself to keep organized. Right now, I'm thinking for buying a new organizer. I'd prefer a PDA, since it can embeed .NET Technologies in it, and it's not long until Windows Mobile 6 arrive.

Enough talk. I'm going to write some other post about my newest application ...

Blogger and Microsoft Word 2007

I've use Microsoft Office 2007 for a while and already know that it has the ability to publish a blog. So since I have a blog, I want to make use of this tool and find out what its result. If things happen smoothly, I won't have to connect to the internet if I want to post a blog (FYI, internet connection in Indonesia is a hell slow). As you know, Microsoft Office 2007 is the newest office product from Microsoft. And the one that make me a little happy is that I have used it before it commercially sold (I used it last year, while Office 2007 officially being RTM last month J ).

I'm curious about this can do. . .

It shows that I can insert a smart art too, but I don't think it will be useful with a blog.

After posting a few blogs, I realized that I need to improve my typing skill. Its very pain to type and press backspace so often. Now I regret had underestimate my typing class in high school long time ago.

Ok then, time to test this feature now. . .

Tool Tip Enhancement

This morning I've learn some enhancement using Tooltip component from Visual Studio 2005. What a cool technique it was. After reading much technology articles during this months make me feel more and more stupid. Yes, the more I read, the more that I realized that there are soo much things to learn. Unfortunately there's so little time to do since I will be busy in the next week, since my team had been assigned to a new project.

When I was at my collage, it feels like time run very slow (especially during those boring class), but now, it feels like time flows very fast. If you can't make a move, then you'll always left behind.

Ok, back to work again.

My First Blog on the web.

Hmm, this is my first blog on the internet. Wow, finally I have a blog. To tell you the truth, I don't like to write or talk very much. So, why I made this blog ? I don't know either. Maybe because I often read a blog recently so I want to make one, or maybe there's a reason that I couldn't explain :p.

Anyway, here it is. I've made a blog. I'd like to make a good writing and article in this blog. Hope I won't screw them up in the future.

Okay then. It's 5 PM. Time to go home. There's still much to do tomorrow....