Indian comparison shopping sites

Did you know, India has 120 million Internet users & the Indian e-commerce market is worth $7 billion? Travel accounts for over 80 percent of the e-commerce market.

Forbes believes "the rise of e-commerce is significant because it shows the limitations of physical retailing and the rise of aspirations of small town India. Between the large unorganised retail (kiranas and unbranded supermarkets) that serves the masses and modern retail that serves the aspirational class in large cities, there lies a thin wedge of aspirational classes who live in dusty towns. The economics of physical retailing have always left them short changed."

(Update: 25-Apr-2012, Economist) "Nowadays more than 100m surf the web. Close to 30m scour for bargains online, and the number which grows by 1.5m every month. The industry is worth around $10 billion, though travel-ticket sales alone accounted for $8.4 billion last year....There is certainly room for growth. E-commerce accounts for just 0.12% of all retail sales in India, compared with over 4% in China and America. But expect growing pains. Even Flipkart, arguably the most successful online retailer, has yet to turn a profit."

Yet another indicator of the rise of e-commerce is the growing number of comparison shopping sites -

• Junglee - product comparison and advertising site offered by Amazon which enables customers to find and discover products from online and offline retailers in India and from Amazon.com
• MySmartPrice - for books & gadgets
• 90DI - finds fastest & cheapest travel options (train, bus & flights)
• Redbus - choose travel options from over 350 bus operators
• Expedia.co.in - flights & hotels
• Rediff FareSearch - compare domestic flights
• IndiaBookStore.net - search engine for books available at major Indian online book stores.
• iShopper.com - compare prices of laptops, tablets, mobiles on popular online shopping sites, set price alerts
• FindYogi - compare prices of laptops, tablets, mobiles

If you know of any more much websites, please leave a comment

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HOW TO back up a database (schema and data) as a SQL Server script

Did you know, SQL Server 2008 Management Studio has an in-built option to generate a script that can help you restore an entire database alongwith the data? Compared to a .BAK file that can also be used to restore a database, a script lets you peek into the schema AND data (INSERT statements for rows within tables are automatically generated) before you restore it.

Unfortunately, this cool feature is hidden under layers of options and isn't easily discoverable unless a really discerning user points it out.

Steps to generate script:
1. Right click on a database name, choose Generate Scripts.. option under Tasks.. in the context menu
2. In the Generate and Publish Scripts wizard which appears choose the database object for which you want to generate a script
3. Under the Set Scripting Options, make sure to click on the Advanced button which reveals a bunch of more options.
4. In the new dialog box that opens up, scroll down to the last option in the General category and for Types of data to script, choose Schema and Data

Related:
HOW TO view parameter values of a stored procedure through SQL Profiler
Why are these Visual Studio Settings not enabled by default?

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Fastest dictionary on the web - thefreedictionary.com

As per the most voted answer on Web Applications StackExchange forum, thefreedictionary.com with the print layout is the fastest and their content is pretty comprehensive too.

WordWeb is my favorite desktop dictionary tool & now I also have thefreedictionary.com configured as my search engine for words within Chrome.

The URL looks simple - http://thefreedictionary.com/p/Word & this makes it super easy to add the site as a search provider in Chrome & Opera. This generic article how you can add thefreedictionary.com as a search engine option.

I assigned the letter "d" to represent thefreedictionary.com as a shorcut for dictionary. So now, whenever I need to search for the meaning of a word I type "d" in the Chrome address bar, hit space followed by word & bingo...a detailed page pertaining to that word appears in a flash.

Related:
HOW TO Google specifically for discussions/answers on only online forums instead of articles
Free Programmable & Searchable Dictionaries

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Get over pesky layout/design changes, use keyboard shorcuts on Twitter, Google products

When popular websites change their layout & design, it takes time for users to get accustomed to it. If you don't like frills and rather like features that get your work done faster, explore keyboard shorcuts that web apps like Twitter, Gmail, Google Reader, Google Docs offer. Just hit the question mark (?) key while you are logged into one of those sites and you will see a popup with a list of all supported hotkeys. While the keyboard shortcut Help popup has been in GMail & Google Reader since a couple of years now, I came to know about the Twitter hotkeys today from Scott Hanselman's blog.

I found the choice of letters used by Twitter hotkeys more intuitive than what Google has (how easy is it to correlate Sneak Peak with the letter "h"?)

... so I identified for myself a list of shortcuts that are easily memorable from the much larger list:

• g then i : Go to Inbox
• g then s : Go to Starred conversations
• g then t : Go to Sent messages
• g then d : Go to Drafts
• g then a : Go to All mail
• g then c : Go to Contacts
• g then k : Go to Tasks
• g then l : Go to Label
• u : Back to threadlist
• k / j : Newer/older conversation
• o or or <Enter> : Open conversation; collapse/expand conversation
• c : Compose
• / : Search
• ? : Open shortcut help
• ! : Report as spam
• # : Move to bin
• r : Reply
• <Shift> + r : Reply in a new window
• a : Reply all
• <Shift> + a : Reply all in a new window
• f : Forward
• <Shift> + f : Forward in a new window
• z : Undo last action
• g then w : Create a blank document
• h : Sneak peek
• <Shift> + t : Add conversation to Tasks
• <Tab> then <Enter> : Send mail
• . : Open more actions menu
• <Ctrl> + s : Save draft

The ? hotkey Help shortcut popup is an interesting UI Pattern that other web apps should start using as well.

Just as browsers have almost standardized on keyboard shortcuts, it will be good for users if web sites standardize helpful features like the keyboard shortcuts Help popup and maintain similar mappings.

Here's a list of sites that support keyboard shortcuts (those supporting the ? hotkey Help shortcut popup are shown in bold):

• Twitter
• Gmail
• Google Reader
• Google Docs 
• Yahoo
• Remember The Milk
• Hotmail

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HOW TO take a screenshot of any screen on Samsung Omnia 652

The Wife finally cracked the mystery of how to take a screenshot of any screen on her Samsung Omnia 652.

For months since she saw the message "Screen captured. Saved as image file" while trying to unlock the smartphone, we were intrigued what key combination had led to it. We turned to Google but found no answers and this was too trivial to ask on online forums.

It's finally a relief to know that the combination is Alt+*+Confirm/OK key

You can access the screenshot by going to the Images folder in My Documents that you can find under Contents Manager. 


A few other tricks we discovered (after we didn't find them in the manual):
While composing a text message, press the Shift key (up arrow on the extreme left of bottom row) twice to type everything in capitals and if you need to type only numbers, press the Alt key twice.

The Sym (Symbol) key lets you activate the XT9 option, the predictive text feature that helps in typing words faster. XT9 & T9 are typically found on phones made by LG, NEC, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Sanyo, Sagem.

One of our favorite camera features on the Omnia is the Multi shot option that lets you take a series of photos of an action with a single click.

Also see:
Save time while typing with PhraseExpress

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Pluralsight Introduction to PowerShell Course - Notes

Summary of the 2hour 40 minute duration Pluralsight  Introduction to PowerShell course, including other interesting material I found -

+ What is PowerShell?
Windows PowerShell command-line interface is a new command-line tool
It's a scripting language from Microsoft that complements Cmd.exe in the Windows administration context.
Based on .NET
Everything is a .NET object
PowerShell version 2 is included with Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, XP SP3, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP1
PowerShell scripts have a .ps1 extension

+ How to get started?
To start working with Powershell, go to Windows Accessories & select Windows PowerShell.

PowerShell Environments:
Out of box – PowerShell command window, PowerShell ISE (Integrated Shell Environment)
Free ISE’s – PowerSE, PowerGUI
Commercial

PowerShell ISE or Integrated Scripting Environment is  a GUI for working with PowerShell
You can hide the Script panel in PowerShell ISE if you work a lot in Interactive mode. In the Script pane, you can run either entire script (F5) or run a selection of commands with F8

+ Why learn PowerShell?
In the SharePoint 2010 administration context, Windows PowerShell supersedes the Stsadm.exe administration tool.
Windows PowerShell scripts can also be used to administer other Microsoft server products. This gives administrators a common scripting language across servers.
SQL Server 2008 introduces support for Windows PowerShell.
Windows PowerShell lets SQL Server administrators and developers automate server administration and application deployment.
The Windows PowerShell language supports more complex logic than Transact-SQL scripts, giving SQL Server administrators the ability to build robust administration scripts.
SQL Server cmdlets support actions such as running a sqlcmd script containing Transact-SQL or XQuery statements.
SharePoint 2010 has some 500+ cmdlets.

+ Commands in PowerShell are in the form of Cmdlets (“pronounced Command-lets”).
PowerShell commands have a Verb-Noun syntax. Example:
Get-command – retrieves a list of all system commands that are currently loaded into the PS environment

+ Common verbs:
Get
Set
Out
Start
Stop
Restart
Add

+ Common Nouns:
Help
Command
Service
Computer
Location
Childitems

You can pass parameters, verbs or nouns, to  view cmdlets featuring those keywords
Get-command –verb “get” : will get all cmdlets that have the verb get
Get-command –noun “service” : all cmdlets that have the noun service

To find explanation about at command: get-help get-command
get-help get-command - examples
get-help get-command -detailed
get-help get-command –full

To view environment variables:
Clear-Host
Set-Location env:
Get-children

Show list of snap-ins:
Clear-Host
Get-pssnapin

Show list of registered snap-ins:
Clear-Host
Get-pssnapin –registered

+ What is a PowerShell snap-in?

A PowerShell snap-in is a .NET assembly or set of assemblies that contains cmdlets, providers, type extensions, and format metadata.
All the commands and providers that ship as part of the Windows PowerShell product are implemented as a set of five snap-ins. You can view the list of snap-ins using the get-pssnapin cmdlet.
When a snap-in is loaded in Windows PowerShell, all cmdlets and providers in the snap-in are made available to the user. This model allows administrators to customize the shell by adding or removing snap-ins to achieve precise sets of providers and cmdlets.
PowerShell built-in snap-ins, such as Microsoft.PowerShell.Host, cannot be removed.

You write a snap-in when you want your cmdlets or providers to be part of the default Windows PowerShell.

+ Aliasing makes it easy for a lot of commands to be mapped to specific PowerShell commands.
Useful for folks transitioning from Linux or DOS. Dir & ls are both mapped to get-childitem, they are both aliases
You can set your own aliases. Example: set-alias list get-childitem # will create a alias called list to display directories & files
The lifetime of this “list” lasts till this PowerShell window is open
It is possible to save your aliases into a file & re-load them. Example: Export-alias c:\ps\myalias.csv list (wildcards also possible)
When you reopen window, use this - import-alias c:\ps\myalias.csv & then use list. You can load a whole bunch of aliases within a csv file & load them when you want to.

+ Pipelining – combining cmdlets for power. Examples:
Get-childitem | where-object {$_.Length –gt 100KB}
$_ represents the current object

Get-childitem | where-object {$_.Length –gt 100KB} | sort-object length

Get-childitem | where-object {$_.Length –gt 100KB} | sort-object Length |
Format-Table -Property Name, Length –AutoSize

Get-childitem | select-object Name, Length
select-object can be used to retrieve certain properties from an object

Get-ChildItem | Where-Object {$_.Name – like “*.ps1”}

+ Provider is a .NET library that provides a standard interface through which we can navigate through whatever object a provider represents.
Providers can extend the list of cmdlets that are available to you.
Get-psprovider command shows a list of providers we have currently loaded in our environment.
Each one of these providers reveals itself to us through the form of Drives. It is through these Drives that we can navigate & retrieve data.

+ Variables:
Get-Variable – displays the variable & its value
Set-Variable – assign a new value to an existing variable
Clear-Variable – clears the contents of a variable. Variable still exists but without any value
Remove-Variable – wipes out a variable.

+ Automatic variables:
$false, $true
$pwd – current directory
$Home – users Home directory
$host – info about a users machine
$PSVersionTable – info about the current version of Powershell
$PID – process ID
$_ - special variable name to represent the current object

+ Strings:
String comparisons are case insensitive by default
To get quotation marks within a string, use mixed quotes or use the quotation mark twice
Here String - for storing large blocks of text, enclose the string within quotes & then precede & terminate quotation marks with @. Lines containing the “@” should exist independently.
Expressions can be used in strings & they need to be wrapped in $(). Example - “There are $((Get-ChildItem).Count) items in the folder $(Get-Location)”
Wildcards & Regular expressions are supported. Example - “Pluralsight” –like “Plural*[s-v]”

+ Arrays:
Arrays in PS are zero-based
$array = “plural”,”sight”
$array = @(“plural”,”sight”)
$array = 1..5  #numeric range notation
The formal array creation syntax is useful when creating a blank array -  $array = @()

+ Hash tables:
$hash = @{“key” = “value”;}
$hash[“mvark”] = “mvark.blogpsot.com”
$hash.Remove(“mvark”) #remove by passing in key
$hash.Contains(“mvark”) #see if key exists
#list keys & values
$hash.Keys
$hash.Values

+ Branching and Looping constructs:
PowerShell supports Branching construct like if-else, switch and Looping constructs like while, do-while, do-until, for, foreach
PowerShell has if & else but doesn’t have if elseif
Switch will match all lines that match. To stop processing once a block is found use break
Switch works with collections, looping & executing for each match
Break – exits the loop on first hit. When used in a nested loop, break exits to the outer loop
Continue – to skip the rest of a loop but go onto the next iteration
Trap – to catch exceptions
Use loop labels to break to a certain loop

+ Script block:
A basic script block is code inside {}. The for (as well as other loops) execute a script block
To put multiple commands on a single line use the ;
You can store script blocks inside a variable
$cool = {Clear-Host; “Powershell and bowties  are cool”}
To run the variable precede it with a &. Example: & $cool
You can use return to return a value. Once it is used, the script exits
"process" is used to pipeline enable a block
Variables declared outside a block are useable inside a block
If you try to change the variable inside a block, PS makes a local copy & uses that, leaving the original alone

+ Functions are basically script blocks with names.
No parentheses or commas required to separate parameters
To add Help to your functions, use custom tags within a comment block and Get-Help can recognize them.

+ Filters are alternatives to functions; work like the Where-Object cmdlet
Filters can be built to remove unwanted files

+ Files:
Contents of a file are stored in a array
Get-Content - can display a file. Get-Content supports wildcards
Set-Content -  write text to a file. It can however be destructive. If a file already exists, it’s overwritten
Add-Content - to append text to a file
User-defined functions can be defined in a .PS1 file & it can be referenced in a script using Import-Module
$psise is a special variable that represents PowerShell Integrated Server Environment
.ps1 can be omitted while running script from the command prompt

+ Other references:
Windows PowerShell Quick Reference
Windows PowerShell Survival Guide

In this course, the presenter Robert Cain has done a good job of covering the basics of PowerShell at a relaxed pace. He has a charming style of delivery & his accent should be easy to follow even by international audiences.

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HOW TO Google specifically for discussions/answers on only online forums instead of articles

There may be times when you want to look for results for a particular keyword or phrase from among discussion boards and online forums. For instance, you may want to know about opinions on solving a complex programming issue or find the experiences of people with a particular ailment or gauge the reactions of food aficionados to some exotic recipe. In such cases, articles don't help and to cut to the chase, you can turn to Google Groups Search. It now gets results from not just threads within Google Groups but also other online forums. Currently, not all forum sites are included & a glaring omission seems to be the StackExchange family of Q & A sites.

Adding Google Groups as a search engine is relatively easy in Chrome & Opera than the other browsers. Once you configure Google Groups as a search provider within Chrome...

...you can type the keyword you assigned that provider (I choose "grp" to represent Google Groups Search) followed by your search query. When you type the search provider's keyword and hit space, a label corresponding to the search engine name would show up in the Omnibox.

Keywords specified while configuring search providers make it easy to switch between search engines in the browser.

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HOW TO delete an email address from GMail auto-complete list without deleting Contact

Supposedly friendly features like spell-check & auto-completion can be a bane sometimes. Imagine if your boss & best friend share the same name & you excitedly send a very private message to the boss instead of the friend because GMail cleverly fills the email address while you type a few characters of the name. If such a scenario rings a bell, here is one option to prevent GMail from supplying names you don't want to see in the email auto-complete list that appears while composing a mail.

The easy way is to delete the contact. But if you want to prevent an email address from showing up in GMail auto-complete list when you try names in the To:, CC: or BCC: fields, then you can consider moving the email address from the Email field in the form for that Contact to the Notes field.

click on image to enlarge

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HOW TO compare HTML5 features supported by versions 8, 9 & 10 of IE

This page on the Browserscope website lets you choose versions of the same or different browsers & see how they stack up in supporting HTML5 features. Click on the "Compare UAs" link on that page, select User Agents you want to compare & then hit the Compare button.

I chose versions 8, 9 & 10 of Internet Explorer to see what's new with respect to HTML5 in IE9 & IE 10

click to enlarge image

You can copy the table data to Excel & transpose the columns to rows to view the tabular data vertically as a list (in Excel2010, click on Paste dropdown in Ribbon & select Transpose).

So here is the list of HTML5 supported features in IE9 as detected by Browserscope by utilizing Modernizer 2.0.4 -

1. audio:m4a 
2. audio:mp3 
3. backgroundsize 
4. borderradius 
5. boxshadow 
6. canvas 
7. canvastext 
8. csstransforms 
9. draganddrop 
10. fontface 
11. generatedcontent 
12. geolocation 
13. hashchange 
14. hsla 
15. inlinesvg 
16. localstorage 
17. multiplebgs 
18. opacity 
19. postmessage 
20. rgba 
21. sessionstorage 
22. smil 
23. svg 
24. svgclippaths 
25. video:h264 

 IE10 additionally supports the following HTML5 features -

1. applicationcache 
2. cssanimations 
3. csscolumns 
4. cssgradients 
5. csstransforms3d 
6. csstransitions 
7. history 
8. indexeddb 
9. input:autofocus 
10. input:list 
11. input:max 
12. input:min 
13. input:multiple 
14. input:pattern 
15. input:placeholder 
16. input:required 
17. input:step 
18. inputtypes:email 
19. inputtypes:number 
20. inputtypes:range 
21. inputtypes:search 
22. inputtypes:tel 
23. inputtypes:url 
24. textshadow 
25. websockets 
26. webworkers 

Also see:
Comparison of layout engines (HTML5)
HTML5 compatibility across major mobile and tablet browsers

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Scott Allen's 10 favorite C# rules for developing software

From Scott Allen's C# Fundamentals Part 2 course on Pluralsight -

Rule #10: Avoid Regions - as they are typically used to hide ugly code or classes that've exploded in size or responsibility. Think if you should break the regions into seperate classes
Rule #9: Use exceptions for errors..instead of status code or booleans...but not for control flow
Rule #8: Avoid boolean parameters
Rule #7: Avoid too many parameters - beyond 4, consider grouping
Rule #6: Warnings are errors - Go to a Project's Properties and in the Build tab of the dialog box that opens up, change "Treat warnings as errors" to All from the default None
Rule #5: Encapsulate complex expressions - Instant recognition is good
Rule #4: Try to avoid multiple exits - have just one
Rule #3: Try to avoid comments - A meaningful method name is more effective than comments. Triple slash comments in VS are ok as they help in documentation of an API. Other developers can see your comments through Intellisense when they reference your assembly.
Rule #2: Keep methods short - general rule of thumb: 1 to 10 lines
Rule #1: Keep classes small

+ The foundation for most C# coding standards is Microsoft's "Design Guidelines for Developing Class Libraries"
+ ReSharper VS Plugin & StyleCop can help you enforce naming conventions
+ Names contain meaning & adding meaning to code is what readability is all about - use meanigful names
+ Embedding type in the name of a variable is not a good idea especially for primitive types. Name should indicate what an variable or object can do & what it represents.
+ How to improve readability of your code - read other people's code to figure what is good & what is bad. Be introspective.

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Thrilled to be among top Pro Webmasters Stack Exchange users to receive swag

I'm a fan of several sites of the Stack Exchange family. I was thrilled to know that I'm among the top Pro Webmasters Stack Exchange users with over 950 reputation to receive cool swag. Thank you, Stack Exchange!

The Stack Exchange family currently consists of 65 question and answer sites & has over 1.2 million users.

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Looking for internship or job? Check Microsoft's Students to Business program

Microsoft's Students to Business website connects graduating students with  Microsoft, Microsoft Partners and its customers. This program is open to graduating students in India. The enrollment process is simple and does not require any fees.

Microsoft's DreamSpark program gives students Microsoft professional tools at no charge.

For students passionate about software development, there are also other avenues where they can publish their original projects or contribute to ongoing open-source projects and get noticed. Here is a list of popular project hosting sites -

• CodePlex
• SourceForge
• Google Code
• CodeProject

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Trivia: Smiley & "Frowny" Emoticons

In its Events That Shaped The Wired World section, Wired magazine credits Scott Fahlman with first using the Smiley :-) & "Frowny" :-( emoticons in electronic messages.

On Sept. 19th, 1982, he had proposed on the computer-science department bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University that the smiley be used as a joke marker & "frowny" to mark things that are NOT jokes.

Scott came up with the idea after reading “lengthy diatribes” from people on the message board who failed to get the joke or the sarcasm in a particular post.

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HOW TO block images/image ads originating from a specific domain in Firefox 4 & above

Firefox 3.x used to have an option to block pesky images that were not part of the context of page that you were viewing - like image ads. You just had to right click on the image, & select "Block images from {domain serving the image}" to never see any images from that domain again. That context menu option is missing from Firefox 4  & above.

It turns out that it is still there but there are some additional steps to reach it. Right click on the image on the page you are viewing in Firefox & from the context menu, you have to select View Image Info & click on the checkbox "Block images from {site name}".
Thanks RalphB

Also see:
HOW TO block IFRAME based ads

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Trends & Reference Tables that every Web Developer should track

A web developer's education is never finished. Here is a list of trends & reference tables that, in my opinion, every web developer should track -

• HTTP Archive - Trends in web technology, interesting stats, repository of web performance information
• Browser Security Handbook - Key security properties of contemporary web browsers 
• HTML 5 Reference Table
• HTML 4/ XHTML Reference Table
• CSS 3 Reference Table
• CSS 2 Reference Table
• PPK's Browser Event Compatibility Tables - Desktop, Mobile
• HTML5 compatibility on mobile and tablet browsers

work in progress...

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Find Windows System info with Windows key + Pause/Break shortcut

If you need to find hardware details of your Windows PC, like any of the following -

• Version including Service Pack used
• Window Experience Index
• Processor
• RAM
• System type (32-bit or 64-bit OS)
• Computer name, domain & workgroup settings
• Windows Product Id & whether Windows is activated

... there is a easy keyboard shortcut to reach for this info rather than going for it through Control Panel - Windows key + Pause/Break


I discovered this shortcut in this Scott Hanselman article that has other great tips for maintaining your PC

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Interesting USB accessories

I follow the Personal Technology page of "Economic Times" with interest for their India-centric coverage of gadgets & IT topics.

This week ET listed 10 useful USB accessories. Among them, although a USB-based Hub & Mug Warmer, Cooler, paper shredder, Vaccum Cleaner have some novelty, they didn't appeal to me as much as these -

Jabra Speak 410 - USB powered speakerphone ... with integrated cable managment system. Weighing a mere 250g, this speakerphone also has a headset port where you can plug-in any 3.5mm headphones in case you want the call to be private. (Rs 8,000 from www.jabra.com)

USB Display  - This little monitor is completely powered off USB – just one cable is needed for both the video signal and power. The 7-inch 800 x 480 pixel panel is touchscreen enabled too – you can move certain items onto it to clear space from your primary display.
The best part is that since the display connects via USB, your regular VGA/HDMI out is unused and can be used to output to another device simultaneously. ($229.99 from www.thinkgeek.com)

ASUS CrossLink Cable - Thanks to Asus' Crosslink USB cable and adapter, you can quickly connect and transfer data at high-speeds between two computers.The adapter is shaped like a USB drive, has 2GB storage and a miniUSB port on the other side to connect using the Crosslink cable. You can even share an internet connection and optical drive between two PCs. (Rs 4,000 from eBay Global EasyBuy)

USB Foldable keyboard - If your netbook's keyboard proves too small for you or you just prefer to carry your own keyboard around, this flexible USB keyboard is ideal. Since the keys and base material are made of silicon, it is completely silent.
Even though it has the full 104 keys, you can roll it up into a small package. The added advantage is that the keys are completely waterproof and dustproof. ($23.99 from www.thinkgeek.com)

USB Phone2PC - This handly little device is great if you want to keep a record of all your voice calls. It can be connected to most phones using an analog or digital connection and then it connects to the PC using USB.
A software is required to be installed which provides an easy-to-use interface to record incoming/outgoing calls. It includes an external microphone for recording meetings and interviews directly to the PC as well. (Rs 10,000 from www.ebay.in)

I'm surprised that such phone recording/tapping tools are easily available despite recording/tapping being illegal in several countries including India.

In the same technology section, ET gives Reliance 3G Tab a favorable review & 4 stars (out of 5). Reliance 3G Tab (Specs: 7-inch touchsceen,800 x 480 pixels,1.2Ghz processor,512MB RAM,4GB+microSD slot, 2MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, FM, accelerometer, Android 2.3, 380 g) sells for 12,990 INR.

The review points out three areas where the Reliance 3G Tab doesn't match up to something like the original 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab (P1000).

Firstly,the screen has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels the same as what a high-end smartphone offers and lower than the Galaxy's 1024 x 768.This means that the number of pixels per square inch (pixel density) is low.Secondly,the 800Mhz processor is a bit of a step down and it is noticeable at times with certain apps or when you scroll between screens too fast.Finally,the device is locked to the Reliance network,so you can't just use any SIM card you want.

In the end, they offer a nice suggestion -
If you'd rather not spend the extra,you can choose to buy the 3G Tab without a plan and pay just 12,999 upfront.You'll be using it just like a Wi-Fi tablet and later,you can opt for one of the discounted 3G advance rental or monthly plans.

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Website to track weather in Indian cities - imd.gov.in

Weather isn't a hot topic in India (as it is in the US) & forecasts aren't taken seriously.

Possibly to promote awareness, the Indian Meteorological Department has put out an ad in today's Times of India (with a glaring typo -Meteorological is misspelt as Meteorogical right at the beginning) to publicize the features if its site - IMD.GOV.IN

click image to enlarge

Besides a host of services & forecasts, the site publishes 3-day city forecast for 100 cities. Unfortunately, neither this nor the information from other weather forecasts are accessible as RSS feeds or through widgets as on the US National Weather Service website. As such, there is no easy means by which other websites or individuals can consume useful weather information.

There is a toll free number (1800 180 1717) to get city weather forecasts & observations but the site lacks services that have a "push" mechanism

A better designed site with interactive features (better maps, email alerts, easier accessibility on mobile phones) can boost the utility of India's official Weather tracking service by sharing its wealth of information among the general public.

Also see:
India - Know your elected government representatives
State of Internet in India
Browser Usage Stats for India
Jago Grahak Jago
E-Commerce in India
India IT - facts, numbers & trivia
Discover public transport in India with Google Transit

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Compare ASP.NET Hosting Providers

Microsoft's Web Hosting Gallery has a neat tool to let you search for hosting providers based on parameters like type of server (shared, dedicated, virtual server) cost, technologies supported (Frameworks, Databases, Publishing protocols), storage, number of SQL Databases, number of e-mail accounts, bandwidth per month, support, uptime.

Also see:
Tips on ASP.NET Hosting & Deployment

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Types of ASP.NET MVC View Engines

A view engine provides Controllers with the ability to translate views into HTML. There are multiple reasons why you may choose one view engine over another. Here is a list of different types of ASP.NET MVC View Engines, the first two are available with ASP.NET MVC 3 -

• WebForms /ASPX – classic ASP.NET MVC views


• Razor (CSHTML)


• Spark


• NHAML -  (pronounced enamel) is a pure .NET implementation of the popular Rails Haml view engine.


• NVelocity 


• Brail

It is possible to use multiple view engines in the same project

Related reading:
ASP.NET MVC View Engine Comparison
Spark and NHaml - Crazy ASP.NET MVC ViewEngines

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Search Engine for Comics

A relevant comic strip introduced into an article or presentation can make a topic more appealing & livelier (assuming you have permission to use if it's not your own). Finding the image of a strip on the web that you remember reading in a Sunday newspaper may not be easy. Don't you wish there was a comics search engine that could get you cartoons for a keyword you submit?

Here are a few that I found -

• Calvin and Hobbes Search Engine by Michael "Bing" Yingling


• Dilbert Strip Finder by BF Martin


• XKCD - use this search filter on Google: [keyword -site:*.xkcd.com site:xkcd.com]. The first filter is to exclude searches within subdomains of xkcd.com. The content is indexed by Google because each strip has hidden text. 

Related:

Software industry related comics

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DuckDuckGo shows why Google may not be good for you

To show that DuckDuckGo, a search engine site winning rave reviews, doesn't "filter bubble" or track you, they have illustrated guides to demonstrate how Google may not be as saintly or good as it may appear. The facts they present are something to ponder on.

On a different note, DuckDuckGo provides a great API alongwith other goodies like the easily configurable Karma Widget that displays your online karma (e.g. twitter follower count, facebook fans, etc.), for your blog, profiles or other Web sites.

Here's how a sample Karma Widget looks -

Related:
Say Goodbye to Privacy

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Print stylesheet - Best Practices

Using a Print stylesheet is a more convenient way to generate a printer-friendly page than creating such a page through server-side coding. Tim Connell has a nice CSS tip in his article on things to note while coding a stylesheet meant for printer output.

At some point, you have probably found yourself reading a printed article when you get to an engrossing section that includes a link for more information. A link that sits there teasing you with its blue underline. Without a mouse or Apple’s latest interfacing doo-​​hicky you have no chance of finding out where that link goes unless you return to the original article on screen.
The solution to unclickable links is an easy one to deploy. Use some CSS to print out the location of the link that would otherwise be hidden:
#content a:link:after,
content a:visited:after {
content: ” (“ attr(href) ”) “;
font-​​size: 80%;
text-​​decoration: none;
}

As a result of using the above CSS content property setting in the stylesheet meant for the printer, the actual link will appear next to a hyperlink in a printed page.

So content like this -

will show up like this in a printed page -

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Mobile Web Trends - 2011

Interesting points from BuiltWith.com's Mobile Web Technology Report 2011 -

• The growth of the mobile web is staggering, with approximately 726 million people having access to a 3G mobile subscription


• The viewport meta tag was originally designed by Apple to resize the layout viewport of a website, a requirement for the mobile device to understand how the website designer has defined how the content should be displayed to the end user. Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and iPhone all support the viewport meta tag


• Close to 3% of the top 10,000 sites use the viewport meta tag 


• Of the top 100 sites most visited on the internet, 71 of them have content specifically designed for mobile devices. The remaining 29 either do not support mobile devices or, depending on the device, prompt the user about a device specific application.


• jQTouch is currently the most used mobile JavaScript library (38%) in the top million sites, shortly followed by JQuery Mobile (32%), both of which are extensions of JQuery, the most popular JavaScript library used on the web.

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Summaries of Google Webmaster Central YouTube videos

There are currently close to 400 videos on Google Webmaster Central YouTube channel featuring Matt Cutts who answers questions posted to the Webmaster Help Forum or to the Twitter handle @googlewmc. Occasionally, some Google secrets slip out in these videos. You can also pick up some tips & tricks on SEO by watching these typically 2-minute videos.

If you are SEO inclined, the videos have some interesting titles that draw you to find out the answers. I track updates through their YouTube channel RSS feed. I sometimes wish the answer was part of the intro that comes with the feed so that I can find the answer immediately. For future reference, I plan to jot down summaries of these videos while I watch a few of them every week. Here goes the list -


* Does linking my two sites together violate the quality guidelines? (Apr 25, 2013)
No, as long as they're related and and it's a relatively small number of sites.

* If a site linking to mine gets caught selling links, what happens to my site? (Apr 2, 2013)
Google won't demote your site or do anything harsh but you will no longer get the benefit of the link from that site (assuming it was giving you a bit of PageRank).

* Will multiple internal links with the same anchor text hurt a site's ranking? (Apr 15, 2013) 
Typically no.

* What are some effective techniques for building links? (Mar 4, 2010)
Great content
Participate in a community, answer questions
Original research
Newsletter
Social media
Blog
How-tos and tutorials
Run a service or product. Release it for free or open-source it
Have a good site architecture so that it can be easily crawled
Make a few videos

Weaker ones - don't overdo these:
Controversial "hooks"
Lists

* Is Google doing away with use of the meta description? (Jul 8, 2009)
No. It uses meta description but not always.


* What is Google's view on guest blogging for links?
Guest blogging is fine if it's high quality

* What is the ideal keyword density of a page?
There's no hard and fast rule. It's going to vary, by area & based on what other sites are ranking it. Just make sure you have the words that you want to have on the page. Make sure that they read naturally.

* Does translated content cause a duplicate content issue?
No, as long you don't automatically translate it into a ton of languages using a tool like Google Translate.

* Will my site's ranking be hurt if I use HTTPS instead of HTTP?
No. So if you do a search for Paypal, for example, you'll see that they use the HTTPS version.

HTTPS, or SSL, is a secure version of HTTP that encrypts things between your browser and the web server.


* Do spelling and grammar matter when evaluating content and site quality? (Aug 17, 2011)
No.
Reputable sites tend to spell better and the sites that are lower page rank tend not to spell as well, so "that's the sort of content analysis that would be pretty interesting to explore as a potential quality signal"

* Why do Amazon.com pages tend to rank well for product queries? (May 25, 2011)
If there's an official homepage for a product, it will rank very well & sometimes number one. Not every book or product has an home page. Amazon has a relatively good user experience in general and lots of links to it due to which it tops the result list.

* How does Google handle pages with content that changes on each page load? (asked on Apr 22, 2011)
If you really want Googlebot to see & follow, make sure that the important links are always on your root page.

* Can I tell Google about links to my site? (Apr 19, 2011)
Better let Google find the links. You can upload a sitemap which is a list of all URLs on your site but Google doesn't guarantee that uploading a sitemap will get all of your pages indexed.

* Can coding errors affect how a page is indexed? (asked on Apr 19, 2011)
Check the web page in a text browser or the popular browsers, if you can see the text. "If all that text is visible, then it should, for the most part, be able to be indexed by Google."

* How can I make sure that Google knows my content is original? Apr 4, 2011
Google tries hard but is not perfect at identifying who is the original author of an article. To let Google index your original article faster before a deceptive site like a scraper, claims it is its own (by showing a manipulated timestamp), let the world know about it by, for example, tweeting about it or hook up thinks like Pub Subhubhub which will ping various places to asynchronously say that there's a new article or blog post.
Alternatively, you can do a DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) notice or a spam report

* Is serving Googlebot a transcript in place of a video considered to be cloaking? (asked on May 5, 2011)
Yes, that would be considered cloaking and is not recommended. Show the video & transcript as well.

* How do you rate links from sites like Twitter and Facebook? (asked on Jan 14, 2010)
Google treats links the same. It looks at how reputable the links are. It doesn't matter whether they come from a .gov or .edu or Twitter or Facebook...they don't automatically carry weight.

* How much weight does the number of years a domain is registered for have on your ranking? (asked on May 7, 2009)
Don't "worry about that very much"

* How can new pages get indexed quickly (besides using Google Webmaster Tools)? (May 27, 2009)
Get more links. Google can index a page within seconds.

* Does the position of keywords in the URL affect ranking? (Mar 5, 2009)
Is example.com/keyword/London better than example.com/London/keyword?
Not a lot. Having four or five keywords maybe good

All videos have a transcript (hidden by default) but they may not work every time (the trouble could be with the JavaScript to show-hide the panel). To view transcript, click on the button to the right of the flag below the video (if you hover over it it, it will say "Interactive Transcript") and it will open up the transcript.

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Cross-Browser Testing Tools

I've used cross-browser testing tools like Adobe BrowserLab, Browsershots & Expression Web SuperPreview but didn't know there were a dozen more.

Smashing Magazine has done an exhaustive review of all available cross-browser testing tools with a nice tabular summary at the end for easy comparison. It covers the following list of tools -

Free:

• Adobe BrowserLab


• Browsershots


• Expression Web SuperPreview (free and commercial)


• Lunascape 6


• IETester


• IE NetRenderer


• Spoon


• Sauce Labs (free and commercial) - 200 free minutes/month


• Browsera (free and commercial)


• Browserling (free and commercial)

Commercial:

• Mogotest


• Cloud Testing


• BrowserCam


• Multi-Browser Viewer


• CrossBrowserTesting

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Learning with Pluralsight videos gets even better with course assesments

If you are Pluralsight subscriber, you can try out the course assesment beta feature to test yourself on what you've learnt. Pluralsight is currently seeking feedback on the Q & A and intends to make this feature available in the future along with the course with score tracking after community vetting.

For those fond of quizzies, the current limitation of allowing only 10 beta test assessments every 30-days may be a little stifling.

I hope Pluralsight  also start a Forums section soon to let its users discuss topics covered in the courses.

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Free JavaScript & jQuery learning resources

There is a nice compilation of JavaScript & jQuery learning resources in this community wiki on StackOverflow.com. I picked those which are publicly available online along with my own favorites. Here's the list -

Videos:

• appendTo video tutorials 
• JavaScript from Null: Video Series
• Ontwik JavaScript videos 
• Crockford on JavaScript  

eBooks, Articles, Tutorials -

• Eloquent JavaScript by Marijn Haverbeke 
• Learn JavaScript - Mozilla Developer Network
• W3Schools.com/jQuery 
• W3Schools.com/JS
• Stephen Walther's JavaScript Reference
• jQuery Fundamentals (online book by Rebecca Murphey with contributions by James Padolsey, Paul Irish, and others.)

(work in progress...)

Also see:
Popular JavaScript apps dissected 
Free Online University Courseware & Video Lectures 
JavaScript: The Good Parts - photo gag
Stanford's CS101 course now taught with Javascript (thanks @tkadlec)

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Learn IIS 7 - IIS 7.x's Configuration System

Notes from Scott Forsyth's session "IIS 7.x's Configuration System" in his 52-week video lesson series  -

- IIS 7.x drastically different from IIS 6

- IIS 6 - IIS path (Metabase.xml) & .NET path (machine.config, web.config (root, site, app))

- Metabase.xml - app pools, site config, mime types, compression, various settings like default document

- 2 paths have merged & .NET becomes a first class citizen in IIS 7.x

- IIS 7.x - Distributed & Delegated Config system

- applicationHost.config (kind of replaces metabase.xml, guts of IIS) & administration.config (IIS Manager related settings) host most of the settings of IIS. Both files are in the %windir%\System32\inetsrv\config\ folder

- lot of settings related to not just .NET but also IIS config settings can live in the web.config or app web.config files

- Settings managed by IIS admin can also be managed by the development team as well.

- Feature Delegation - what settings are allowed to be applied in the config files vs. what has to be set at the global level. Every setting or config section has a decision on whether it is Read/Write- can't be delegated or whether it's read-only.

+ Benefits of Distributed Config
- Developers have more control of IIS settings - delegated management
- IIS configuration saved in source control
- Easier to maintain when migrating
- Websites packaged for consistent deployments - some settings may not work as they are not delegated

+ Gotcha's of Distributed Config
- Easy to overwrite existing settings
- AppDomain recycle
- Configuration is "all over the place" (aplicationHost.config, web.config files of site)
- Not replicated with shared config

- Lines are blurred between IIS & ASP.NET

Related: Getting Started with IIS Manager

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Older ASP.NET Starter Kits

The current ASP.NET Starter Kits page does not show older Starter Kits built on ASP.NET 2.0 & links to them that you may find in old articles may be broken. When I have to refer these useful oldies to folks in need, I keep going back to the search engine. Rather than waste time searching, I thought I'll place them all at one place. So here goes -

• Club Site Starter Kit
• Extended Club Site Starter Kit
• TheBeerHouse: CMS and E-Commerce Starter Kit
• My Web Pages Starter Kit
• Small Business Starter Kit
• Time Tracker Starter Kit (documentation)
• Commerce Starter Kit
• Job Site Starter Kit
• Media Library Starter Kit 
• PayPal e-Commerce Kit

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Why formatting of a ASP.NET page looks different when rendered through VWD & IIS

A puzzled ASP.NET developer asked on the ASP.NET Forums why the formatting of the same ASP.NET page looked different in Internet Explorer when rendered by Visual Web Developer & IIS seperately. When the entire source code is the same, why should they look different?

Dave Sussman has this insightful answer -
It's possible the application is running on IIS under a v4 application pool, meaning it will be run as though it were a v4 application, so the control rendering might be different. Two things to do:


1. On IIS machine, select the application and from the Actions tab on the right, select "Basic Settings ...". From the dialog that pops up, select the appropriate application pool (Classic .NET AppPool for an ASP.NET 2.0 application).


or


2. In Web.Config, in the <system.web> section add:


<pages controlRenderingCompatibilityVersion="3.5" />


That will ensure the controls are rendered as though the application was ASP.NET 3.5, so should be consistent on both machines.

A standard ASP.NET control may render a different kind of source depending on which Framework it targets.  For instance, ASP.NET 4 brings the following major rendering changes:

• The Image and ImageButton controls no longer render a border="0" attribute.
• The BaseValidator class and validation controls that derive from it no longer render red text by default.
• The HtmlForm control does not render a name attribute.
• The Table control no longer renders a border="0" attribute.
• Controls that are not designed for user input (for example, the Label control) no longer render the disabled="disabled" attribute if their Enabled property is set to false (or if they inherit this setting from a container control).

Legacy rendering can be preserved using the ControlRenderingCompatibilityVersion setting in the web.config file.

Also see:

HOW TO control ASP.NET's Adaptive Rendering behavior

HOW TO manage a ASP.NET site during maintenance 

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HTML5 at work

I plan to look out for & compile interesting, practical, real-world examples of HTML5 features that popular websites have started implementing. I hope all the browser manufacturers quickly agree on a common minimum set of HTML5 features & get HTML5 rolling.

* Google Docs now supports uploading an entire folder.

There is a nice explanation on StackOverflow about how this is achieved  by setting up an attribute "webkitdirectory" on a file input element.

Unfortunately as this attribute is proprietary, this feature doesn't work on all browsers.

* The Windows Live team recently released a faster new version of SkyDrive that incorporates HTML5 features.

"We’re using HTML5 for CSS animations, reflow animations and other features. We’re using local storage for various parts of our caching support. We’ve also worked on making our HTML more standards compliant, so that everything you see works in as many modern browsers as possible."

HTML5 versions of Hotmail & Bing are believed to be on the cards

* 6 of the world's top 10 websites currently use LocalStorage on the mobile while Bing & Google use it on the desktop browser as well. Twitter uses App cache.

(to be continued....)

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Discover public transport in India with Google Transit

I first tried Google Transit in Seattle in 2008 for help with bus routes and wished it came to India as well. I was happy when it started covering local trains of the Hyderabad Multi Modal Transit System (MMTS) in 2010(it seems to discontinued now) and then wished it worked with bus routes as well. Being a believer in public transport as a way to protect the environment, I was glad to find out that Google Transit provides help with bus routes in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi.

It'll be great if they also show the cost & distance involved in different bus routes and bus types (buses in Bangalore & Hyderabad have multiple types of services with varying ticket costs)

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Adobe BrowserLab vs Browsershots.org: online services for cross browser testing

Adobe BrowserLab is an online cross browser testing  service (free till April 12, 2012) that has more features than Browsershots.org, the other free online cross browser testing service. However, BrowserLab currently covers a smaller set of browsers & platforms than Browsershots -

• Chrome 10 - Windows
• Chrome 11 - Windows
• Firefox 3.0  - OS X
• Firefox 3.0 - Windows
• Firefox 3.6 - OS X
• Firefox 3.6 - Windows
• Firefox 4.0 - Windows
• Internet Explorer  - Windows
• Internet Explorer  - Windows
• Internet Explorer  - Windows
• Internet Explorer  - Windows
• Safari 4.0 - OS X
• Safari 5.0 - OS X

Unlike Browsershots, BrowserLab requires registration. The screenshots are shown using Flash so Flash Player plugin 10.0.0 or higher is required and Javascript needs to be enabled in the browser.

Opening screen showing BrowserLab generate screenshots for a chosen Browser Set

Some unique features of BrowserLab:
- Preview full screenshots with multiple view options and customizable test settings.
- Rulers & Guides - pinpoint the exact location of any area within a screenshot.
- Adjust screen shot alignment - to compare specific page elements to each other, you can adjust the alignment of screen shots individually. This helps you account for shifts caused by different browsers, which align page content differently
- Screenshot delay - you can preview content that needs time to generate by pausing the rendering of a screenshot by up to 10 seconds. This lets you capture Ajax data, interface animations that occur after the page loads, and Flash movies after their initial loading process.
- BrowserLab for Firebug add-on - lets you preview temporary changes you've made to a page with Firebug. BrowserLab can be launched directly from Firefox to show how the page looks in Firefox & other browsers.
- Active Links in screenshots - Links in screenshots can be activated by holding down the Control or Command keys & clicking. BrowserLab will open the link & generate a screenshot, replacing the current screenshot.

Related:
HOW TO make web pages "cross browser"

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Overview of Pluralsight course "A Beginner's Guide to the Microsoft Web Platform"

This video course by Michael Palermo is useful for beginners to ASP.NET and ASP.NET developers who are yet to try MVC & WebPages. The seasoned presenter explains the difference between Web Forms, MVC and WebPages. He demonstrates how to create a new site, a new page, a simple input form, a data-driven list with each of the models.

Some notes from the video -
- A modern definition of ASP.NET – "Microsoft’s family of technologies to enable web development"; includes Web Forms, MVC, Web Page models
- The Web Page model is a page-centric execution model, similar to PHP. Markup and code are both contained in the page itself, with helpers being leveraged to keep the code succinct.
- If you have VS 2010 SP1, you should be able to see MVC3 options
- A WebPage can be built with Web Matrix or VS 2010
- Site built with WebMatrix can be opened through VS
- WebPage has the extension .cshtml. Works even without extension in the URL.
- CASE methodology – Copy Always Steal Everything. Bazinga!

I found that the presenter speaks slower than most other Pluralsight instructors and this is actually good as non-native English speakers can follow it more easily.

Trivia: For fun, I increased the Playback speed  in the Windows Media Player (this option is available when you open the site in Internet Explorer) and was able to complete watching the video in slightly lesser time than the actual duration of 1 hour 47 minutes.

I like the fact the Pluralsight specifies the overall duration as well as duration of individual sections of a course as it helps in planning how you would want to watch a long course.

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You can now use an actual image as Google Image search argument

There are times when you just have a picture (of a monument, person etc) but can't frame a keyword for Google to search on.

The search box on Google Images now sports a camera icon on the text box as an indicator that you can use to either upload an image from your computer (by just dragging & dropping with browsers supporting HTML5) or specify an url of an image that you want more info on. This image is then used as an search argument and the web is searched.

This kind of visual search is already available with the Google Goggles mobile app. Although the results are not perfect in all cases, this is a remarkable development in terms of bringing complex computer science topics to practical use.

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HOW TO check what HTML5 features a browser supports

Now that I'm getting my feet wet in HTML5, I thought I should spend more time with features that are supported by all popular browsers rather than digging into HTML5 features that are implemented by only one or two browsers.

Table showing browser support for HTML5 Input types from W3Schools.com

I noticed a nice demo by Craig Shoemaker in the Pluralsight HTML5 Fundamentals course on feature detection with Modernizr that lists all supported features. Not finding any readymade sample similar to his script after some googling and lazy to write it on my own, I tweeted him to ask if could share his code.

I appreciate that he did and I got it working locally after tweaking the CSS a bit to ignore a few images that he had used in his slightly old (it uses Modernizr 1.6) original code. I hope to work on it further while I learn more about HTML5 & Modernizr.

Meanwhile, here is the HTML5 Feature detection script using Modernizr 1.6 (red indicates a feature is 'not supported' while green means 'supported')

Update: haz.io & the Modernizr Test Suite  show a much larger list of HTML5 features supported by a browser opening their test page.

Browserscope compares all browsers on supported HTML5 features in a single page. I wish the first row & column of the table there were frozen for better readability.

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