History
In our application we created a special (user friendly) window for showing messages to the user. The window will get its data, text, buttons through the args parameter.

We will open this window using the messageBox function (this method lies in one of our JS files).

Challenge
Everyone knows the annoying default alert of ValidationSummary in ASP.NET.
Our messageBox still couldn't rid from the alert that the WebUIValidation.js is popping up on validation error.
Why? Because in this JS, Microsoft simply write alert(msg).

Solution
Today we wrote those simple lines:

window.alert = function specailAlert(msg) {
   messageBox("title", msg, button_ok, info_icon);
}

This will cause the JS parser to call our function any time the origin window.alert is running. So from now on, when the ValidationSummary will write alert("some useful message"), our method will replace the ugly gray box with our user friendly window.

What a programmer need more than sun, pretty women, good food and great lecturer talking about the great new features in vista, IE7, .net 2005, C# 3.0 and Orcas.

The Cocktail party at the first night was a great beginning for the real thing THE (Microsoft)party, I slept only 3 hours at every night.

Right now I need a drink or two, so I am going out for a party, when I'll come back I'll post here some pictures and impressions from the new Microsoft tools.

BTW,
I would like to thank to my team leader, Avi, which gave me the opportunity to be there, thanks again.

In one of my code reviews I saw this piece of code (those two methods are in the same class), IMO, and I believe that most of you will agree with me, this usage of exception is unnecessary.

private void CheckPrivileges()
{
   // check user privileges
   // for authorized user won't do anything.

   // if not authorized:
   throw new UserNotPrivException("user name", "action not allowed");
}

public void DoSomething()
{
   try
   {
      CheckPrivileges();
      // Continue your logic for authorized users.

   }
   catch (UserNotPrivException)
   {
      // showing message box which
      // says that user has no permissions
      ShowMessageBox ("User X has no privileges for this place.");
   }
}

Why ? 

1. The Exception mechanism is slow
2. A lot try&catch makes the code harder to read
3. Why throw exception if you won't use it? and also throwing it between two methods in the same class?

I would have done it like this:

A few days ago I start thinking about a new way to control our web site window size.
In our site there is a main window which hold the most important data. For editing the data or view more data: you can choose your subject in the menu and it will open a new page with the full details.

The common sense says that the window should set its own width/height for best fit, with minimum scrolling, but the reality isn't that simple because this page can open either as a regular window or as a modal window and the parameters are different. There is another problem, changing the window size in run-time (in the body) is very ugly (you can see the window re-sizing itself).

The other way is working with JavaScript file which holds the windows parameters and the opener will use this parameters for opening the wanted page. The good thing in this idea is that the menu will know all the sizes and open the windows in the wanted size (the one defined at the JS file). But here we have another problem that Server files (.cs) that writing JavaScript (from server) should know this JS file and the names of the parameters, can cause broken links. also, links to my site that sent via email won't open in the wanted size.

another idea is to use XML for server and at the first time (application) create dynamically the JS file with the parameters, still can cause broken links from (html or other JS) and this can cause a strange problem because we are connecting our files to JS file that is not created yet, I know it will work because it is happening on run-time, but it is still strange. In here we still have the problem for links to my site that sent via mail.

For the mail issue, lets say that every link should go first to my main page, and only their the main window will open the wanted page for you, so we can set the window size via the main window.

I am searching for other implementations to the JavaScript file that holds the sizes for all windows.
Is there a better way for doing this?

I've wrote a huge article about my last two months at work, this article should be the GIS bible for beginners, but when I submit the article, it redirected me to an access denied page, cannot track my post and cannot go back to find my article.

don't worry I'll write this again, but probably in small chunks.

Have you ever found your self looking at a site and trying to learn from their JavaScript or HTML?
most of the time is written without indentation at all, there are some sites that also rendering their JavaScript/HTML in one line.

So I found this great site for indenting to your standards:
http://www.prettyprinter.de/index.php

That was the most tedious 2 months I've ever had and damn I love my life.
First of all, I would like to thank to all of you that look for me and send me those lovely emails.
Second, I should explain those two months, I've finished my first semester of first year (MSc. in Computer Science), I had my exams (the grades are pretty well, thanks for asking), I've also worked on a big project about searching the web using Text Mining, that was very interesting.
While I was writing my project (.Net of course) I've started my second semester and I was flooded by new homeworks in Algorithms and Computer networks, and it never stops, so I am a bit busy this year.
Lastly, At Job, we've start checking out the coolest thing ever, GIS Server (comprehensive platform for delivering enterprise geographical information systems), I would write on it further more at my next posts. The great thing is that we are pioneers of this tool in Israel, and even around the world there is a very little knowledge.

So, I am back,  stay tuned.

A dear friend of mine, Pasha Bitz, is suffering from a strange behavior of unwanted comments,
I couldn't find yet the source for this strange-meaningless-comments but what I did found out is that Pasha doesn't use the captcha component for preventing malicious robots hurting your site.

Here is an example for this robot's work.

I hope I'll find this robot and hack it down.

Finally I've got importance ranking by Google (2/10).
You can see this in your Google Toolbar.

I've tried almost everything, but my main advice to you is to be patient.

Thanks Google.

While reviewing Yossi (new teammate) code I've seen something strange, it looks almost like this:

  string formatStr;
  formatStr = String.Format("Hello {0}",name);

I ask him for explanation and he gave a wonderful story which almost convinces me that this one isn't so bad, it sounds like this:

·         This is better than concatenate two immutable strings

·         This is more readable.

So I thought for a second and changed the code to look like this:

   string concatStr = "Hello " + name;

But he insists that this one is bad, concatenate immutable strings.

So here is my simple explanation:

1.       With human-readability I won't argue, it is (sometimes) very individual.

2.       My code isn't about concatenating it is about init strings and for that main reason the compiler would change this code to one large string (known at compile time). (You can see the Ildasm).

String.Format implementation remark:

·         Be careful, while calling string.Format it creates StringBuilder and do its stuff - do you really want it?

I know that most of you screaming out loud (waaaa.... or just saying: OK and what with 10 or even more concatenation)
you probably wrote script generation which look like this:

public string WriteHtmlMessage()
{
   return "<div>" +
           "I would like to add <b>" + name + "</b>" +
           "<br/>" +
           "to my team as a <b>" + job + "</b>" +
          "</div>";
}

And yes this is an init statement so it is better (performance reasons) writing it like this then using String.Format or even StringBuilder.
Even if the compiler will use the Concat method it will be used with the array parameter which is still better than creating String.Builder.
Why is it better?
Because the size of the array is known at compile time.

Conclusion,

·         The compiler will translate the init concatenation to a long string (like my first example) when all the strings are known at compile time (the parameter was const).

·         The compiler will use concat method (with arraylist, not the poor pairs concat) when the number of strings are known at compile time (last example).

In both examples this concat is actually faster than StringBuilder or String.Format.

So, next time when you concatenate specific (known) strings do it in the same init instruction.

There is a time in every persons life when he needs to read a file which has the *.ps extension.
Most of the people I know download the useless programs: AFPL GhostScript and the GSView just to read or edit the cursed *.ps file.

I hate downloading programs which I am gonna use once in a life time (even 10 times drives me crazy).

From now on convert your files online through this website.
All you need to do:

1. Upload the ps file
2. press convert
3. download the new pdf file.

enjoy reading.