I recently wanted to view some PS (postscript) files on my Windows machine but I didn't want to install anything new. There's a free utility on http://www.ps2pdf.com/convert/convert.htm that converts PS files into PDF format.
I don't know why it's there, but it works, and I love it.
We recently deployed our SR1 release of the Marketplace and Payment Services for Office Accounting 2007. The team did a fantastic job getting it out there, especially considering that we didn't have power for most of the weekend! Based on some of the feedback we were getting from the message boards, we added the ability to preview eBay listings in the listing wizard. As I mentioned in a previous posting, there are several ways to customize the look of your eBay listings so it's nice to see what the listing is going to look like before the it actually appears on eBay.
The purpose of the preview is to give a good idea of how the listing will look on eBay.com. EBay does not support “preview listing” functionality through eBay.com or through the SOAP API, see http://dev-forums.ebay.com/thread.jspa?threadID=500002523. As a result we implement the preview page without eBay's help, meaning that it is effectively impossible for the preview to look exactly the same as the actual listing. Also, the eBay SOAP API does not provide support for rendering certain types of listing information (for example, item specifics) in the form that it appears on eBay.com, so we have to omit that information in the preview. But the preview does a pretty good job of letting you see what the listing will look like.
(Updated 1/12/2007: actually eBay.com does support a preview. The SOAP API does not.)
I noticed this link when I booted Visual Studio the other day and I recommend it: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480534.aspx. It's a nice resource for developers who have managed code experience but are new to web services, or perhaps have experience only in one specific area. For example, if you have web development skills but are looking to understand more about business logic or database design.
“The Web Service Software Factory (also known as the Service Factory) is an integrated collection of tools, patterns, source code and prescriptive guidance. It is designed to help you quickly and consistently construct Web services that adhere to well known architecture and design patterns.” It installs as an add-in to Visual Studio: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=db996113-6e92-4894-9b7e-0debb614d72f&displaylang=en You have to install “Guidance Automation Extensions” first.
I recently compiled a list of ASP.NET resources for my team. Any other suggestions?
Books:
· http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/aspdotnetnut/ (as a reference)
· http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/6724.aspx
· http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/4825.aspx
Web resources:
· http://www.asp.net: a great resource containing tutorials, downloads, and docs.
· The QuickStart tutorials are good: http://quickstarts.asp.net/QuickStartv20/aspnet/Default.aspx
· ScottGu’s blog is excellent, in particular: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/pages/ASP.NET-2.0-Tips_2C00_-Tricks_2C00_-Recipes-and-Gotchas.aspx
· Understanding the ASP.Net page lifecycle is important: http://codebetter.com/blogs/raymond.lewallen/archive/2005/03/10/59583.aspx
· Web Development Helper is a nice tool: http://projects.nikhilk.net/Projects/WebDevHelper.aspx
also
· http://nikhilk.net/ is always good.
· WebParts and Sharepoint: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/09/02/Writing-Custom-Web-Parts-for-SharePoint-2007.aspx
You should check this out if you haven't already: http://www.specialized.com/bc/microsite/holiday/index.html
It reminds me of the Triplets of Belleville, a great movie.
And here's an interesting post about the bicycle as a musical instrument:
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/12/04/music-for-bicycles-ensembles-symphonies-and-bikelophones/