Microsoft SQL Server

When someone mentioned about Microsoft SQL Server, we thought about money. How much to pay?  Actually Microsoft offers two free versions: Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 Express Edition and Microsoft SQL Compact Edition (CE) 4.0. Developers can use Microsoft SQL 2008R2 Express Edition or Microsoft SQL CE 4.0 for prototype, development, and testing.

Microsoft SQL CE 4.0 is an embedded SQL server database engine. It can use to build standalone and occasionally connected applications for mobile devices, desktops, and Web clients. The maximum database size is 4GB per file.

Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 Express is a free edition of SQL Server ideal for developing and powering desktop, web and small server applications. It can support up to 10GB, 1 CPU and 1GB RAM.

Other paid Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 editions such as Standard, Enterprise, or Data Center support up to 524PB, more than 1 CPU and 64GB RAM, and much more features.

Reference:
Compare Microsoft SQL Server Editions
VS 2010 SP1 and SQL CE - ScottGu's Blog
Everything SQL Server Compact

How to Take a Screenshot

Microsoft Windows
For any Windows version:

1. Press  (Print Screen) key to capture a screenshot of the entire desktop and places it in the clipboard. To capture only the active window, press both   and keys. 
2. Press V to paste the screenshot into other application like Paint or GIMP or Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer. 

Another option for Windows Vista and Windows 7 user: Use Snipping Tool to capture screen shots . It a free utility included in Windows Vista and Windows 7

Ubuntu Linux
Press to take a screenshot and save

iOS
Pressing and holding the Home button and the Sleep/Wake button. The screen will flash and the picture will be stored in PNG format in the "Camera Roll" on the iPhone or in "Saved Photos" on the iPod touch. The screenshot feature is only available with iOS 2.0 and later.

Mac OS X
On Mac OS X, a user can take a screenshot of an entire screen by pressing ⌘ Cmd+⇧ Shift+3, or of a chosen area of the screen by ⌘ Cmd+⇧ Shift+4. This screenshot is saved to the user's desktop, with one PNG file per attached monitor.

How to hide your circle in Google+

1. Click Profile button on the menu on top
2. Click Edit Profile button in blue background on top right
3. Move the mouse to the Circle area on bottom left and click to edit

4. Check off the button to show your circle

5. Click Done Edit button on top menu.

Google+

A week ago, Google introduced a new social product called Google+ (Google Plus). From what I read on the web since June 28, it sounded good. Someone said it maybe better than Facebook. Every technology sites I visited talked about Google+. It made me curious.

I did not social much but I love to learn a new thing. I love a new technology. I would like to experience Google Plus by myself. Yesterday, I posted on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook to ask for the Google+ invitation. Today, I got one.

At first, I like it. It's looking good. At the start, you select the people you know into some pre-define circles: family, friend, acquaintance, following,... I made some extra circles for each group of friend. I thought Google+ is better than Facebook in one thing: the privacy. It seems to me the default settings of Google+ are private. In Facebook, the default settings are public, everyone. To maintain your privacy, you need to change you Facebook setting to private, friend only.

Now, I wonder can Google Plus beat Facebook? Anyone need a Google+ invitation?

Want to use AJAX in Classic ASP 3.0 web application?

You have a Classic ASP 3.0 web application and would like to utilize the latest web technology AJAX. How? Here a good tool: ajaxed. It's not only good but it's great since it's free and is open source.

Make sure you're using "include virtual" instead of "include file" when you got this error message like below. For security reason, do not use parent path.

Can Visual Studio 2010 Express connect to Team Foundation Server 2010?

Yes. Since Visual Studio 2010 Express does not include the Team Foundation Server or Team Explorer, you need to download its client version, Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010, from  Microsoft web site.

I had a hard time in install Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010 on my Windows Vista machine that already had ASP.Net MVC3. After installed VSTE2010 successful, it asked me to re-apply Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1. When I ran VS2010 SP1 Maintenance, it looked for Microsoft® Silverlight™ 4 SDK. Microsoft® Silverlight™ 4 SDK alone did not work, it must be Microsoft Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio 2010. The whole process was really time consuming and frustrated.

My second installation on Windows 7 64-bit was much easy. Straight forward. This machine did not have ASP.Net MVC3 and VS2010 SP1.

Further readings:

• How to install and configure Visual Studio Team Explorer
• Team Explorer Included in Visual Studio 2010 Installation
• Using Team Foundation Server and Team Explorer with CodePlex

Back to Android

After  more than six months away from Android programming, I'm back. During the past few months, I put my personal project: Develop an Android application, on hold in order to take care other high priority projects at work and family matters.

One of my resolution last year was develop a mobile application. It will be a show case of my skills. I'm moving from web applications to mobile applications. I spent a lot of time to read whatever related to Android programming. Reading is not enough. I need to practice and do a real work in order to master in something. Get your feet wet. Get hand-on experience. So, while I'm waiting for my car at dealer, I open my laptop, launch the Eclipse IDE and start programming. I switch back and forth between the Eclipse IDE and Google Chrome browser. Each time, I'm stuck with the code, I search for solution on the web. Developer.Android.com is a huge resource for Android programming.

I hope I will have my app ready to release to Android Marketplace in next few months. Yes, I'm hope. :)