When the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions are released, it will be easier to manage the history of your Silverlight application, and provide working links to areas of functionality. Raj demonstrates a technique using the beta extensions from Silverlight. The technique uses the new addHistoryPoint method of Sys.Application. Yahoo has some code to support history control as well, but you’d need to wrap the functionality in a similar manner (and if you’re already using ASP.NET AJAX, you’re users may need to download even more Javascript just to use your Silverlight page … :) ).
Month / July 2008
Coding Challenge #13
Coding Challenge Series / Technical Interview Series
You have a list of strings. Eliminate duplicates.
Sure, simple enough if the list is small. What if the list has thousands of entries? A simple solution simply :) won’t do.
iPhone 2nd Generation … too much for me and my budget.
I had thought of buying a 2nd generation iPhone. However, thanks to Apple and AT&T, I definitely won’t be. Here’s the simple reasons:
- $30 a month for “high speed” unlimited data is ridiculous.
- Text messaging is now extra.
- Exchange support is an extra $15 a month!
- Still no replaceable battery (I have a tendency to drain batteries, so I’m often using my backup battery for my current phone).
- Still no copy and paste (hello?)
I have an existing Windows Mobile 6 3G phone today. It’s $30 a month for service (unlimited 3G). I ditched my plan that included text messaging. But, my phone and plan includes Exchange support. Additionally, my phone includes one of the world’s most awful web browsers. :). Since I already have a contract with AT&T, I’d need to pay the higher price for the phone at $399 (or $199 – I’m not 100% sure anymore), then $15 a month above what I currently pay for the same level of service. Over a 2 year period, it would cost me an additional $31 a month to use the iPhone. I’d consider it if the Exchange support wasn’t extra, but alas…, no thanks.
I am looking for a new phone — ideally something with a decent web browser. Any suggestions? Something fun would be a bonus (you know, not a boring Treo, etc.).
Visual Studio 2008 Explorer and Designers Package fails to load
Package Load Failure
Package ‘Visual Studio Explorers and Designers Package’ has failed to load properly ( GUID = {8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B} ). Please contact package vendor for assistance. Application restart is recommended, due to possible environment corruption. Would you like to disable loading this package in the future? You may use ‘devenv /resetskippkgs’ to re-enable package loading.
The components required to enumerate Web references are not installed on this computer. Please re-install Visual Studio.
Here’s the step that won’t be obvious…. (and of course, may not apply to your situation).
Remove the Source Analysis Tool for C#. I had installed it a little more than a month ago (as you might recall here).
Things are back working again. You may return to your normally scheduled duties.
Coding Challenge #12
Coding Challenge Series / Technical Interview Series
Decode a HTML URL encoded string.
A URL encoded string is a series of characters, where the sequence %## is a single byte hex encoded character.
Hi%20there!
becomes
Hi there!
Do not use any standard function for hex or decoding functions that may be provided by the language or platform you choose.
Don’t forget to consider CPU/memory/object usage as part of your solution!