Into the Top 100 blogs in India

This did come to me as a surprise , But if blogStreet statistics are to be believed , "Bosky Says" , is now into the top 100 indian blogs ( in their list ofcourse ) .Im at 70 odd or so.

Cheers to that 8 )

Keep Clicking,
Bhasker V Kode

Technorati Tags: top100, blogstreet, blogging, india, bhasker, kode, bosky,

Presenting a sneak peek at blogCamperKode

I will be attending blogCamp later this month , and like i explained in another post there has been a lot of planning and organising thats going on for the big event to be held in Chennai on September 9th , 2006 . I just wish i was there to help out .

More about what ive been working on with blogCamp in mind , heres blogCamperKode - the small little widget to give info about blogCamp - that im developing ...just for theheck of it ! 8 )

Check out a beta here.

it still has some changes internally to be made,but the functioning and working will be just like how the page above shows it . Before i make it to blogCamp i plan to make it possible to insert the utility with just onle line of code . And presto ! it turns up in your blog/ site 8 )

One request to the organisers though if youre listening in - i need a slot somewhere in the two days ! 8 )


Keep Clicking,
Bhasker V Kode


Technorati Tags: demo, chennai, blog, web2.0, ajax, scriptlet, Kode, bhasker, Bosky, bosky101,blogCamp

Presenting "Lines of Kode", and my personal web site

Its been a long time since i posted on this blog. Part of the reason behind that is a new domain that i registered . www.bhaskervk.com where i plan to build my profile .Apart from that a new blog called Lines of Kode(nifty name .i know ! ;) ) has been set up at www.linesofkode.com which points to http://www.blog.bhaskervk.com .

So ill keep this blog to hence forth post technical content ,while i plan to blog on everything else and whats going on in general at my other blog - Lines of Kode

Do drop in there 8 )

Keep Clicking,
Bhasker V Kode

Getting Agile ,and joining TutorVista

Here below best describes the Manifesto for Agile Software Development :

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

I ve always had my reservations towards adopting theoritically superior methodolgies aka the traditional 'modern' programming paradigms. Object oriented ? Yes ,spared . I refer rather to the likes of quality obsessed services style and often highly automated forms of development across larger organisations. Otherwise ,when it comes to small teams needing to deliver and adapt to changing requirements or scalable realms of innovation - i feel its all another example of "habit taking over originality" thus suppressing tangible forms of innovation, in my experience.

Why do i talk about this now ? The reason being my decission to not take up the offer at EDS,and instead plunge into the world of startups ...namingly the one called "TutorVista" in India's silicon valley - Bangalore. Ofcourse this would mean that my earlier started venture with my other two partners would move into other hands ,and stealth mode . But i will look to come back to ut in the near future . Right now , its trying to out do myself with all the AJAX skills ive developed off late , play with encoding and web based communication interfaces which are at their challenging best at TutorVista.

Joining a consumer-directed setup like TutorVista that focuses on building personalized educational services across mainly the US and UK right targetted at the K-12,college student audience definitely throws open the challenges of where usability and the new AJAX realm will be put to test at its very foundations . Unlike most other web2.0 and off the age companies ,my role specifically at TutorVista would be along with our buddin team here in Bangalore to :

• Making AJAX deliver its promises accompanied with a sound business model ( no surprises for why doesnt surprise the announced 2$ mn investment by Sequoia Capital .
• B2C delivering staright up to the user. With the growing team in the operation department, as well as the strategically located business execs on the east and west coasts across the US apart from the UK .
• The Utilitarian Movement - We address a problem . hitting the nail right where it should be hit . One of the only reasons eBay is what it is right now . It plugged right in seamlessly to existing needs provising real solutions effectively.
• The Team - to back the venture . With the likes of senior personnel with experience in deverse domains such as IBM, Motorola, Amazon, British Telecom and McAfee. I will be directly under Mr.Ravi Kannan - CTO and one of the earliest members of McAfee when it started up ! Doesnt hurt that the CEO Mr.Ganesh and the team was even featured on CNBC's show to be aired some time now .

Heres what the companies USP is in essence :

Our mission is to provide world-class tutoring and high-quality content to students around the world. TutorVista.com is the premier online destination for affordable education - anytime, anywhere and in any subject. Students can access our service from the convenience of their home or school. They use our comprehensive and exhaustive lessons and question bank to master any subject and have access to a live tutor around the clock. TutorVista helps students to excel in school and at competitive examinations.

So how does it feel to work in a company with such challengin environment, diversified and vibrant personnel ,apart from the startup feel and starting off your career working in a company invested by the same the venture capitalists who invested in Yahoo and Google ?!

one word...Sublime....cant wait to get started at TutorVista ! 8 )

Keep Clicking,
Bhasker V K

>Technorati Tags: ajax, career, elearning, tutorVista,Bosky,india,chennai,education, kode, Bhasker, Bosky says

Presenting an AJAX News Ticker - TENewsTicker

IMPORTANT NOTE :
a . Works only in firefox for now , if firefox throws error follow the steps below :
b.1. about:config
b.2. search for signed.applets.codebase_principal_support , set to true
b.3. restart firefox

You may be able to see the ticker live in action at the top of this very blog . As the name suggests, ive compiled a finished version of this ticker which you free to include in your blogs, sites ,etc . Heres another of the little tricks Ive been upto .

What does a AJAX based News ticker do anyway?
Using AJAX to asynchronously display the news feeds .In this case ,ive wrapped a nice interface to allow you to set the delay time , the topic as well as pause / continue the auto change feature. The TechEnclave one in particular goes through the RSS feeds of TechEnclave.com ,an Indian based technology forum that I am associated with .

What do I need to do to add this TechEnclave News Ticker to my blog / site ?!
Just add the following single line to your site / blog /web page under the tags.

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://www.geocities.com/bosky101/teTicker/tetickerscriptlet.js?"/>

Do you have any suggestions, feedback for the developer ? Do you want a news ticker for your own blog/site?
If so, feel free to drop me a comment here, or mail me . bosky101 at gmail.com


Ive also been trying to make this a Firefox extension ,through GreaseMonkey . Anyone with experience with it ,if you can assist me ,i'd appreciate it a great deal to get things done faster.

Keep Clicking,
Bhasker V Kode

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Technorati Tags: ajax, news, ticker, techenclave,Bosky,india,chennai,kode, Bhasker, Bosky says

Bosky's AjaxLib Toolbar Icons demo

Have a exam on total wuality management tomorrow. But i guess the attempt to study fired some other grey cells ;) So hacked the following over a long days work !

Check out the Toolbar Icons (fisheye style ) demo

Version 4
- 3.30 am : bored and jobless.... enter idea !
- 6.30 am : done with version 4

Version 6
- 2.30 pm : added jumping effect
- 3.30 pm : added cross browser transparency

Compatability
- Firefox
- Internet Explorer

Other comments
- inspired by the a desktop dock i saw somewhere .
- icons from the web / hosted elsewhere .

Keep Clicking,
Bhasker

I'm in the news !

Feels great to be in the news for a couple of ajax based initiatives regarding my projects . Suggestions, feedback , criticism , comments,and explanations ..... yeah got all of it ! And an insightful experience on the whole .

Who posted - What :

• Ajaxian.com -lists all cool ajax and web 2.0 apps posted ajaCSS: Accessible Ajax on April 19th, 2006 .
  

• AjaxImpact.com - for ajax related news and views posted Speech Recognition with AJAX on Apr2006 .
  
  
• More sites that Google found related to ajaCSS .
  

Posts from my blog

• Bosky Says - Presenting ajaCSS (ajax + CSS )
• Bosky Says - ajaCSS Low resolution Displays : an experiment
• Bosky says - My final year project - Speech Recognition with AJAX

Cheers to more innovative work ,web 2.0 , and the joy of rss and blogs !

Keep Clicking,
Bhasker V K

ajaCSS Low resolution Displays : an experiment

The Master Plan
To be able to trap a doodle or alphabet pattern exactly as the person writes it ,such that the recording is time consistent to the user actually making the doodle. Whats more ,to then be able to re-run /play the doodle exactly the way the user recorded it .So you could call this a sort of doodle recorder /player.

The Objective : TO try to automate and track the alphabet the user tried to draw .

april 19th version
- basic event trigger handling

april 23rd version
- added 5 second timer for drawing doodles
- generate the structured xml data for that 5 second doodle

april 24th version
- added 'toggle click to enable/disable ink '
- added a color chooser
- added a start /stop toggle button ( need to check for continuity of session though)
- removed 5 second cap for recording.
-added duration counter
- corrected xml format to handle inactivity during recording

CHeck out the april 24th version for new Instructions .

any other suggestions ?!

So whats news?!

• being able to capture the cursor movements as a distinct reproducable xml object without any video/OCR utility involved. Effectively what this does is convert 'x' seconds of low resolution animation into xml ! and whats more ,you can play it back !
  

So how what can it do?!

• e-learning systems : where the teacher shows how to write an alphabet, the kid can then keep looking at that .sounds too far fetched ?! hey ,ive got a point here :P ...and so did the microsoft imagine cup winners last year when they made a similiar tablet pc app that draws an alphabet in slowmotion for kids to follow .


• send and receive animated Doodles ! : another web 2.0 startup possibility with the method i mentioned above .maybe you could have a 'drop me a ajaCSS doodle' on your blog or so . Any takers ?!


• handwriting recognition : the cells that are touched are noted in a systematic xml format ,so its not tough to see how natural language programmaing developers can use this method for non video/web based handwriting recognition .Whats more ,each user will be first trained to write all the letters. which means that you have that much better chance of deciphering your writing (eg:x pattern might be g for someone,it might be q for someone else ,by analysing a simple formula:
  select ( MAX (no: of matching cells for a particular trained letter) )

Results of recent work

• View a generated ajaCSS based xml for the letter A generated file for the doodle/animation for the letter A for a 10 x 10 matrix .(tested by myself, not the best though.) (without timing information for every 0.2 seconds) (april 19th version)
  
• View with timing information for the letter A (with timing for every 0.2 seconds) (april 23rd version)

Technorati Tags: ajax, css, ajacss, displays,Kode, bhasker, Bosky, bosky101

Sun-Times Google ad deal & Yahoo Maps customization

1.Sun-Times nets Google ad deal | Crain's Chicago Business:
'This limited test is part of Google's continuing effort to develop new ways to provide effective and useful advertising to advertisers, publishers and users,' the Google spokesman says."

2. Maps that are Consistent with YOUR design
Check out the work done with the Yahoo! Maps developer API ,with source .Very cool !

Presenting ajaCSS (ajax + CSS )

Since i stumbled upon AJAX a couple of months back ,I have been hooked onto making my own AJAX libraries and generally playing around with this piece of UI art.

One of my other projects of interest has been the possible future areas where AJAX can be used . This is what i focussed on during my talk at BarcampChennai titled "Emerging Areas in AJAX " .After showing a few demos on :

• dynamically creating html elements using DOM (the document object model)
• dynamically styling the page without postback from a remote CSS file.
• ajax style presentation /ppt tool where clicking on next would source the next slide
• simple demo of xmlhttpobject to load xml and txt files .

But what i beleive were the killers were my three pet projects:

• Speech recognition with AJAX (watch the video demo )
  
• ajax + css for low resolution displays (watch the video demo )
• ajax + css for pattern matching / hand writing recognition (watch the video demo )

I shall now try to explain the above three concepts.

1. Speech recognition with AJAX (watch the video demo )
This is part of my final year project and i just wanted to see if it was possible for sasdk to have ajx features .seems it does . Ill try to attach a architectural diagram below that should explain the same . my other post on this topic also has details.

2. ajaCSS (ajax + css ) for Low resolution displays (watch the video demo )
- > Firstly what is ajaCSS ?!
Its just a convenient term i coined for refering to using ajax with CSS .

- >How can you create low resolution displays with ajaCSS ?!
What impresed me with being able to dynamically loading a CSS file ,is that if i had a table with' n x n' cells ,and label each with a seperate div id ,then effectively i would have made a single frame of nxn resolution at a time 't' . Now refresh your css with ajax every second or 0.25 seconds ,and you have yourself a low resolution animation possible if you play the cells and their colors right . the quality of resolution is only bound by the number of cells , and hence by loading of a tables style with ajax at regular intervals of time , could make a definite future model for low speed /hi speed internet displays .

3. ajaCSS (ajax + css )for pattern matching / Cursor writing recognition (watch the video demo )
Continuing with the ajaCSS based 'n x n ' display model ,in association with the mouseover event could let the cells that the mouse has traced to be highlighted. then using an eexpert system or so , you could then recognize the alphabet the user attempted to trace . Neat huh ! 8 ) .

Now to continue research into these areas, or startup based on the business potential .Thats the question ! 8 )

edited: also check out my post on ajaCSS Low resolution Displays : an experiment

Keep Clicking,
Bhasker V K

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Technorati Tags: ajax, css, ajacss, speech , displays, recognition , microsoft, research, Kode, bhasker, Bosky, bosky101, svce

My final year project - Speech Recognition with AJAX

Our project titled - "Component Based Intelligence System for Text Summarizing using Interactive Voice Response" , explores the implementation of speech recognition of dynamically generated grammars ,and subsequent data retrieval using the Asynchronous Javascript and XML (AJAX) client server model and compares it with a traditional client server model .

View Architecture image

This project was part of the final year project to be submitted as per anna university 's 8th semester project .My team mates were Prakash Hariharan and Manikanadan T ,apart from myself Bhasker V K ,all final year IT Dept , Sri Venkateswara college of engineering ( SVCE ).

View project demo video

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Technorati Tags: microsoft speech, microsoft, ajax, speech, engineering, sasdk, Kode, bhasker, Bosky, bosky101,svce

C# From a Java Developer's Perspective

C# From a Java Developer's Perspective: "A COMPARISON OF
MICROSOFT'S C# PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
TO SUN MICROSYSTEMS' JAVA PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
By Dare Obasanjo" seems to be the most comprehensive and insightful article i have come across that deals with the comparison of java with C# . A resourceful read .

In addition , i also found this feature very interesting ,that allows the page to be an asp.net page be .html instead of .aspx :
Output ASP.NET Page to HTML

here are various reasons why it would be more appreciative to have the html page to be served to client.

In normal cases we have a webpage where the data is retrieved from the database. This data could be huge and may be its not changing frequently too. In such cases is there a need to always make a trip to to retrieve the data and sent it to the client??

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Technorati Tags: java, C#, csharp, languages, code, Kode, bhasker, Bosky

Presenting TEBookmarklet 1.0

Gathering inspiration from the nifty bookmarklet to add technorati tags to your blog posts ( as ive done below ) , i played around with some javascript and that led me to a day of challenging and - at the end of the day - satisfying piece of coding .

To install a beta version of this bookmarklet,go to this page and drag the TEBookmarklet1.0 linknear your browser toolbar under your address bar. Else wait till it is published on TE full the final version .

Presenting the TEBookmarklet1.0 a tool that i feel could help TechEnclave users and News posters especially. Its a very easy- to - use util that i spend today making ,and let me give a walkthrough :

Walkthrough

• - suppose your on any page in firefox
• - select any text ,click on the bookmarklet
• - a new popup asks which section you want to post into
• - click go,and the new thread comes
• - text is automatically copied ,so go to the thread area and paste to get the text you highlighted in firefox in the thread.

Where it will be useful :

• - for newposters who find something on the fly and can post quickly .
• - for users ,a faster way to reach and post.
• - can also be used as a copy highlighted text

Requisites

• -You are registered and logged in as a TechEnclave user (register here)
• - firefox with javascript enabled ( bookmarklet made for firefox as of now )
• - Need to allow the site to allow popups when prompted (adblock wil by default disallow it )

I have made this tool for the TechEnclave Forum especially . To explore how you can have this feature for your site/blog or to help me code and migrate to IE as well ,do drop in a comment.

Keep Clicking,
Bosky ,
Staff & Super Moderator - TechEnclave.com

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Technorati Tags: bookmarklet, techenclave, firefox, web2.0, Kode, bhasker, Bosky

Live Clipboard , from Microsoft

What is it ?
The Live Clipboard web control is a DHTML control that provides copy/paste functionality for data associated with a web page using the Live Clipboard XML data format. It consists of the following components:

• UI elements for displaying the Live Clipboard icon
• Javascript objects representing the Live Clipboard object model
• Javascript that handles serialization / de-serialization of the Live Clipboard XML data
• Javascript callback function registration for retrieving data for copy, pushing data for paste, and notifying when the control is “selected.”

What else ?

• uses standard Javascript and CSS techniques
  
• works in many browsers : IE 6, IE 7 Beta 2 Preview ,Mozilla Firefox , Safari .
  
• does not depend on installation of any client side applications or browser plug-ins,
  
• and it never gains access to the contents of the clipboard without explicit user action to paste.

Check out the "Live Clipboard " demo here.

However ,I did wonder how it would handle certain events ,which we will try out now shall we :

Hypothetical Situation 1
step1 : copy complex object /data
step2 : copy normal clipboard text
step3 : paste complex object / data

Result 1 : shows error on status bar .

Hypothetical Situation 2
step1 : copy normal clipboard text
step2 : copy complex object /data
step3 : paste normal clipboard text

Result 2 : copies gibberish.

im not surprised that it did throw up this behaviour , but what would be really great (and this is feedback ofcourse ) is a way to identify and seggregate the two so that both the hypothetical situations will still show positive results .

So "Live clipboard team " , if your listening 8 ) - heres a feature that im sure you guys will give a thought into before the release .

Keep Clicking,
Bosky

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Technorati Tags: web2.0, microsoft, clipboard, feedback, Kode, bhasker, Bosky

The BarCamp phenomenon hits Chennai

The Web2.0 wave in Chennai ?! Well by the looks of what Kiruba Shankar and other volunteers have pain stakingly organised , I should get geared for a fun filled ,and geeky two days at the first Chennai BarCamp on April 8 and 9th ,2006 .

A little history from the BarCamp wiki

BAR Camp was created as an open, welcoming, once-a-year event for geeks to camp out for a couple days with wifi and smash their brains together.The first BAR Camp was held in Palo Alto, CA, from 2005 August 19 to 2005 August 21. An estimated 200 participants attended and gave numerous presentations on a wide variety of high-tech topics including:

• Wikis and other collaborative editing paradigms
• Social impact of technologies
• Voting methods
• Technical and physical security
• Version control, configuration, and package distribution
• Synchronous telephony
• Women in technology professions
• High-tech business models

Attendees must give a demo, a session, or help with one. All presentions are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall. Presenters are responsible for making sure that notes/slides/audio/video of their presentations are published on the web for the benefit of all and those who can’t be present on 8th and 9th April 2006.

Even as i speak , BarCampChennai is gathering mass ! So be there if you have something web savvy to contribute or just sink into and basically as the motive goes :

"To learn, meet people who share different interests, contribute, and push yourself and your thinking "

Keep Clicking,
Bosky

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Technorati Tags: barcamp, barcampchennai, web2.0, chennai , Kode, bhasker, Bosky

Chennai MS Community Launch ,January 8th

Heres some rocking news for software enthusiasts to kick off the years activities .

The Chennai .NET User Group welcomes you to the VS2005 Community Launch on January 08-2006 at the Tidel Auditorium (Tidel Park) and is also celebrating its 3rd Anniversary with this launch .The one day event ,being the first event for the year will be filled with technology and fun ;seminars from leading speakers talking on the key features in the new Visual Studio 2005 , SQL Server 2005 ,and Biztalk Server 2006 ,seminars , free software Goodies , and fun events . Registration at the venue starts at 9.30 am . Also register yourself for the event at http://groups.msn.com/chennainetusergroup/communitylaunchsignup1.msnw
For more information on the event ,also check out www.cnug.net
For copies of posters to ciculate in and around your campus / locality / peer groups please contact me .

Do join us and 'Get ready to Rock' ! .

Bhasker V K ,
Microsoft Student Partner,
Marketing Manager - Chennai .NET Usergroup - Student Chapter

Happy New Year 2006

Dear Friends, colleagues , family and everyboy else ,

2005 has been indeed an eventful one ,and for lot of things falling into place for me. I thank my stars for that , and like to keep up the momentum into 2006 with greater vigour ,passion and conviction , and to capitalise on all the things that have influenced me this year . Havent thought of explicit new year resolutions as yet , but i ll come up with something !

Hope you ALL have a great year and memorable year ahead ! 8 )

Keep Clicking,
Bhasker

Hacking the technorati scriptlet and stumbling upon AJAX

Ever found this snippet around anywhere, well thats comes from a sinlge line code that is then replaced on runtime with the buttons,and links to this blog,etc. So in an attempt to recreate the same , i first found the source to this snippet .Check out the raw javascript source for :

• the technorati snippet here
• and google analytics snippet here - i wonder why the urchin site and anymention of urchin in the page is dealt nastly . not surprisingly yahoo,and other keywords have been dealt with similiarly.
  

Thats when i making my own src=,so after a lot of reading thru and opening up , i found three ways of dynamically almost client side speedish scripting methods.They were:

1. plan vanilla javascripts with clever use of css ,and little bit of DOM as shown in the Very Dynamic Web Interfaces
2. referring to a php / asp or other file that gets the httprequest,lot of xml ,
   
3. presenting atlas and the AJAX project !
   

"ASP.NET 'Atlas' allows you, the page or control developer, to create rich, client-based applications that can also harness the power of the server. This brings a richer, user experience to web applications without the traditional need to post-back to the server.
source

* ASP.NET 'Atlas' client-side controls: You can create rich applications using in-built client-side controls through JavaScript or ASP.NET 'Atlas' script;
* Client-side events: Events such as the onclick client-side event can be handled or attached using the client-side controls;
* Actions: Actions are collections of 'tasks' to perform such as calling on methods on objects, setting properties.
* Behaviors: Behaviors allow you to create specific functionality, such as a pop-up menu or tool-tip that can be re-used and attached to specific controls or elements;
* Data binding: Data binding allows you to connect controls and components together and to manage the flow of data between them;
* Extend and create client-side controls: You can create new client-side objects to enhance or compose rich functionality. Page developers can use your control for example to create very rich client-side applications.
* ASP.NET 'Atlas' server-side "controls

What really took me over the head though was talk bout ALFAX - integration with flash and action script ! OMG ,talk about taking hypothesis and creative licence to new heights !

So now,ive dropped any plans on opening up the technorati or google analytics snippets,but found GREAT Reads on AJAX @
-> Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications
-> PDC 05 - ASP.NET 'Atlas' Preview Documentation
-> ASP.NET Spiced: AJAX
-> Dynamix HTML and XML : The XMLHttpRequest Model, from Apple
-> Mastering Ajax Part 1: Introduction to Ajax , from IBM
-> Ajax (programming) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
-> AJAX FAQ for the Java Developer, from Sun
-> Very Dynamic Web Interfaces
-> script.aculo.us and its first love ...AJAX,amazing demo s here.
-> AJAX:Getting Started from Mozilla

What realy excited me apart from the dynamic nature , fast speeds, better and richer UI experience was consuming a web service from a html page ,which when combined with ajax's ability to refresh or update without postback or refresh's is simply .... wow ! 8 )
- > Consuming a Web Service from an HTML Page
- > Calling a WebService from ASP3.0 and JavaScript
- > Remote scripting - Calling a WebService with JavaScript and C#
- > A proxy generator to WebServices for JavaScript and AJAX
- > Developing Web Applications with Ajax

Keep CLicking,
Bhasker V Kode

Ten Essential Tools: Visual Studio Add-Ins Every Developer Should Download Now

I was exploring the areas where Visual Studio Express had lesser features than its bigger cousin - the Std and enterprise editions, when i spotted this article that is quite self explanatory. Thought i'd discuss this particular tool that could be used for coders who blog called CopySourceas HTML.


CopySourceAsHTML
Normally, when you try to post a cool code snippet to your blog it ends up being plain old text, which isn't the easiest thing to read. This is where the CopySourceAsHTML add-in comes in to play. This add-in allows you to copy code as HTML, meaning you can easily post it to your blog or Web site and retain the coloring applied through Visual Studio.

After installing the CopySourceAsHTML add-in, simply select the code you want to copy and then select the Copy Source as HTML command from the right-click menu. After you select Copy As HTML and configure the HTML to include line numbers, this code will look like Figure 12 in the browser. Anything that makes it easier to share and understand code benefits all of us as it means more people will go to the trouble of sharing knowledge and learning from each other.Get it here

My other favourites in this list include :
WSContractFirst makes it easier to write your WSDL file, and will generate client-side and server-side code for you, based on that WSDL file. You get the best of both worlds: control over your contract and the rapid development you are used to from Visual Studio style services development.

PInvoke.NET
PInvoke.NET is a wiki that can be used to document the correct P/Invoke signatures to be used when calling unmanaged Win32 APIs. A wiki is a collaborative Web site that anyone can edit, which means there are thousands of signatures, examples, and notes about using P/Invoke. Since the wiki can be edited by anyone, you can contribute as well as make use of the information there.

CodeKeep
CodeKeep is a Web application that provides a place for people to create and share snippets of code in any language. The true usefulness of CodeKeep is its Visual Studio add-in, which allows you to search quickly through the CodeKeep database, as well as submit your own snippets.

I laso liked the ingenuine,yet simple vision behind the Smartpaster and TestDriven.NET as well.

Read more from the Ten Essential Tools: Visual Studio Add-Ins Every Developer Should Download Now -- MSDN Magazine, December 2005: "

Keep Clicking,
Bhasker V K

So many things to do...so little time...!

There are more reasons than one for me to think about what i am to do with my precious time and resources in my last semester .OF the things i ahve in mind are :

• final year project : interactive voice response system for an intelligent text summarizer and im trying to align my other activities towards the same area- speech recognition and telephony. I would be required to go to college two days a week. Our team also has spoken to Ramco Systems for an external guide.
  
• imagine cup preparation : the microsoft software design event comes to india this year and the topic dealing with health.
  
• probable internship at iit-b startup : got an intimation from its CEO, an iit -bombay student that I have a chance for a 3week stint there early next year.
• microsoft's code4bill challenge : where based on the performace, 20 students will have a go at being interns at microsoft, and 1 of them joining Bill Gates personal tech team.Time to deep dive into windows internals, system level fundamentals i guess !
  
• Write gmat early 2006: I plan to only apply for IIT-M's MS(Entrepreneurship ) program which needs a gate/gmat/cat score . This is pretty low on my priority list,but I'll think bout the course if i do well .
  
• my own startup : talks with my partners ,literary surveys , and market analysis ,are continuing.And we're looking to approach venture capitalists after preparing our presentations as soon as possible. This is my real passion,and im preparing to plunge into it in the near future . after graduation sounds near future enough :P
  

So many things to do ,so little time . But ive given myself the opportunity to browse through some of these really 'soul-food' articles :

1. In the Beginning was the Command Line, by Neal Stephenson
   
2. Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine, by W. Daniel Hillis
3. The first postmodern computer language
   
4. Blogs of : Steven Sinofsky, Joel Spolsky , among others .

Like i said...time to prioritize.... decisions decisions decisions ! 8 )