HOW TO eject USB device with a keyboard shortcut

Source: Flickr/ekosystem

Most people will agree with the sentiment that "life is too short to remove USB safely"

But did you know,  you can configure a keyboard shortcut to invoke the Safely Remove Hardware Dialog?

The above trick requires you to create a Desktop shortcut. I assigned Ctrl+F12 to this shortcut as it is easy on the fingers.

You can also assign an memorable icon as detailed in the comments to the article specified in the link.

If you would also like the “official” icon, right-click on your new shortcut and goto “Properties.” In the resulting dialog, goto the “Shortcut” tab and click on the “change icon” button. Browse for the %SystemRoot%\system32\hotplug.dll file (or just copy/ paste) and select one of the icons of your choice.

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UX anti-patterns & other avoidable annoyances

The Screenshots of Despair blog collects samples of discouraging messages/goofs in applications. This is interesting because it lets web developers & UX folks learn from other's mistakes/oversight.

Here are a couple of such messages I ran into in recent times:

I thought Opt Out meant "Don't show any ads at all". The Google Personalized Ads Preferences setting screen above warns you that you will see more less-personalized ads if you opt out.

Message in Windows 7: The password for this account has expired. To change the password, click Cancel, click Switch User and then log on - Where's the Cancel button?

The WTF Mobile Web blog similarly highlights problems in mobile websites through crowd-sourced screenshots.

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Free Pluralsight videos

I'm a fan of Pluralsight & video-tutorial based learning. Pluralsight is doing a great job of getting experts to deliver sessions on Microsoft technologies. My favorite presenters are Scott Allen & Robert Cain.

My annual Pluralsight subscription got over recently & considering that they keep adding new videos regularly I plan to get a subscription again in the near future.

I recently recommended it to a colleague. I asked him to check out these videos from their collection which are available for free, before purchasing a subscription -

1. Building Applications with ASP.NET MVC 4
2. Introduction to ASP.NET 4 WebForms 
3. Introduction to ASP.NET MVC 3
4. Introduction to the ASP.NET Web API
5. Introduction to WebMatrix 
6. Introduction to Visual Studio LightSwitch 
7. Orchard Fundamentals 
8. Facebook Platform Overview
9. Teaching Kids Programming with C#
10. Learning How to Program with Scratch
11. Learning to Build Apps with App Inventor

Multiple sections of the following courses (but not entire content) are free:

1. Introduction to Visual Studio 2010 - Part 1
2. Introduction to Visual Studio 2010 - Part 2 
3. ASP.NET 3.5 Fundamentals
4. ASP.NET 3.5 Security 
5. Microsoft StreamInsight Fundamentals

As Pluralsight occassionally announces some of the courses they offer for free viewing for a limited time, you can start following Pluralsight on Twitter.

Happy learning!

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Visual Studio and Crystal Reports

Crystal Reports has probably the most complex branding history among software products. Originally created by Crystal Services Inc., it was acquired by Seagate Technology followed by Business Objects and is currently owned by SAP.

Microsoft bundled it with Visual Studio versions 2003 through 2008. Although it is not integrated with Visual Studio 2010, it is available as a free download. It is called "SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010".

One of the benefits of "SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010" listed on the download page is "Simplified royalty-free runtime licensing". Clicking on the "Licensing Explained" under the Additional Resources page opens up a 22-page PDF.

The fine-print for the asterix next to the exhortation to "Upgrade Directly to SAP Crystal Reports" reads:
SAP Crystal Reports can open and edit files created with SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010 (and vice-versa), providing a fuller set of report design features compared to SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010. SAP Crystal Reports does not include tooling to support the Visual Studio 2010 development environment but developers can use the SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010 runtime engine to deploy SAP Crystal Reports RPT files with all the extended design features.

Now does that mean SAP Crystal Reports is better or SAP Crystal Reports, version for Visual Studio 2010?

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Web Apps Watch - 1

As a web developer, I like to track interesting features, UI patterns used on popular Web Apps & also related trivia.

Here are a few things I noticed this week -

* Hotmail can help you organize emails from senders of bulk mail:

* I previewed some content from an ASP.NET book on Google Books and noticed their localization for India & acknowledgement of  popularity of Indian online stores - links to Indian online stores from where I can purchase that book:

* ChromeCacheView reveals interesting URL of where YouTube videos are coming from when I browse them over Airtel Broadband:

* Finding out what browser a visitor to your website is using, their IP address, screen resolution and if cookies are enabled in their browser, is old hat. There are scripts for just any website to find out if a visitor is logged into Gmail, Twitter & Facebook as this Wall Street Journal page shows:

* There have been times when I've wanted to add context notes to an email I've received so that I can reference it later. Messages in Gmail can be copied to Google Docs & you can add your notes there using a Labs feature.

* Twitter now provides local trends for 6 cities in India -Ahmadabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai.

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Hidden features of ASP.NET

On the StackOverflow forum, you'll find questions like "Hidden features of" technology X to be popular with a lot of up-votes. Such questions are sometimes closed as they are too subjective & do not fit into the expected Q&A format of the site. They however contain insightful answers.

Here is a list of "hidden" gems in ASP.NET that I've discovered (work in progress) and wanted to highlight them as the don't easily show up in the top results while googling -

• Tag property for server controls - Just like the rel HTML attribute can be added to an element to store extra  info when it is required in a client-side programming scenario, the Tag property can be used with server controls to store some extra info that may not fit into regular properties.
• RepeatLayout Property of  CheckBoxList server control - this property used to allow 2 possible values "Table" and "Flow" till ASP.NET 3.5, but from version 4 onwards it supports OrderedList and UnorderedList as well.  If you need to style a group of checkboxes generated through the  CheckBoxList server control, the default "Table" layout may be restrictive.  "Flow" and the other new options provide more flexibility in modifying the layout through CSS.

Related:
StackOverflow: Hidden Features of ASP.NET

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Online, SMS-based services to get distance, approximate autorickshaw fare

It's common knowledge that most auto-rickshaw drivers in Indian cities fleece their customers at every chance they get.

Here is a list of online and SMS-based services to get distance, approximate autorickshaw fare and other location-related info (currently for South-Indian cities - Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai):

+ LatLong.in - Helps you locate places, get directions & find places near you. This service is accessible directly from their site, over SMS & their mobile site.


To know where a particular place is,
send <place name> to 90088 90088
To get help to go to a particular place,
send <place name> FROM <starting point> to 90088 90088
send <place name> TO <starting point> to 90088 90088

+ Suruk - provides autorickshaw fare and helps with routes via SMS via textWeb's platform. To use their service, send SMS/text in the following format to 9243342000 - @autofare <city>, <source>, <destination> 

Suruk also provides a smartphone app to pre-calculate auto-rickshaw fare, possible routes for a journey, a digital meter to verify if the autorickshaw's meter is rigged and driver conduct (!!) based on experiences of Suruk users (who lived to tell their tale).

+ MeterPodu - crowd-sources auto-rickshaw fares between places and shows the approximate distance (via Sid). You can find info through their site or via their Twitter account,  @meterpodu

The messages have to be in the following format:
@meterpodu get+auto+CHN+T.Nagar+Mylapore
@meterpodu add+auto+CHN+T.Nagar+Mylapore+70

Use these city codes for respective city:
Chennai-CHN, Bengaluru-BLR, Hyderabad-HYD

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