Posts Tagged ‘microsoft’

HTML5, Hardware Accelerated: First IE9 Platform Preview Available for Developers

software | Posted by Sanjiv
Mar 18 2010

When we started looking deeply at HTML5, we saw that it will enable a new class of applications. These applications will stress the browser runtime and underlying hardware in ways today’s websites don’t. We quickly realized that doing HTML5 right – our intent from the start – is more about designing our browser’s subsystems around what these new applications will need than it is about a particular set of features. From the beginning, we approached IE9 with the goal of enabling professional-grade, modern HTML5 support on top of modern hardware through Windows.

At the MIX conference today, we demonstrated how the standard web patterns that developers already know and use broadly run better by taking advantage of PC hardware through IE9 on Windows. This blog post provides an overview of what we showed today, across performance, standards, hardware-accelerated HTML5 graphics, and the availability of the IE9 Platform Preview for developers. Read the rest of this entry »

Windows 7 Interface: The New Taskmaster

Operating System | Posted by Sanjiv
Jan 21 2010

The Windows experience occurs mainly in its Taskbar – especially in the Start menu and System Tray. Vista gave the Start menu a welcome redesign; in Windows 7, the Taskbar and the System Tray get a thorough makeover.

The new Taskbar replaces the old small icons and text labels for running apps with larger, unlabeled icons. If you can keep the icons straight, the new design painlessly reduces Taskbar clutter. If you don’t like it, you can shrink the icons and/or bring the labels back.

In the past, you could get one-click access to programs by dragging their icons to the Quick Launch toolbar. Windows 7 eliminates Quick Launch and folds its capabilities into the Taskbar. Drag an app’s icon from the Start menu or desktop to the Taskbar, and Windows will pin it there, so you can launch the program without rummaging around in the Start menu. You can also organise icons in the Taskbar by moving them to new positions.

To indicate that a particular application on the Taskbar is running, Windows draws a subtle box around its icon – so subtle, in fact, that figuring out whether the app is running can take a moment, especially if its icon sits between two icons for running apps.

In Windows Vista, hovering the mouse pointer over an application’s Taskbar icon produces a thumbnail window view known as a Live Preview. But when you have multiple windows open, you see only one preview at a time. Windows 7′s version of this feature is slicker and more efficient. Hover the pointer on an icon, and thumbnails of the app’s windows glide into position above the Taskbar, so you can quickly find the one you’re looking for. (The process would be even simpler if the thumbnails were larger and easier to decipher.)

Also new in Windows 7′s Taskbar is a feature called Jump Lists. These menus resemble the context-sensitive ones you get when you right-click within various Windows applications, except that you don’t have to be inside an app to use them. Internet Explorer 8′s Jump List, for example, lets you open the browser and load a fresh tab, initiate an InPrivate stealth browsing session, or go directly to any of eight frequently visited web pages. Non-Microsoft apps can offer Jump Lists, too, if their developers follow the guidelines for creating them.

The Benefits of ASP.Net Excel

Website Development | Posted by Sanjiv
Oct 05 2009

In business, spreadsheets have become a necessity. They are used for a wide range of purposes, including calculations and tracking. But how do you know which version is being used by end users when you send out a spreadsheet-related application or documentation? Some users may have Excel, others may have Open Office, and still others might not even be using spreadsheet software at all on their computer. What can you do to ensure your program or files are still going to operate? One option might be a program supporting ASP.NET Excel.

Finding the Right Spreadsheet Option

When you’re working on spreadsheets, you need to feel comfortable with the software. You don’t want to worry about whether or not you’ll open it on a different computer using different software and end up losing all of the formatting. You also want more convenient options so you can use the data in other ways and can convert the files into other formats, such as text files. This isn’t always possible with current spreadsheet software.

Another common problem with spreadsheets is that each software program tends to have their own calculation functions so you won’t necessarily be able to read the calculations made from one program in another spreadsheet. That can be a real problem if you need to continue on the work someone else started.

The bottom line is that whether you’re looking at paid software or open source programs, you’re going to run into many of the same limitations, especially when you’re working with a wide range of people who are using different programs or versions of spreadsheet software. You need some way to ensure consistency no matter what. Otherwise, you could end up with poorly formatted spreadsheets and unprofessional-looking finished products. You don’t want that to happen so you should look for an ASP.NET Excel program.

The Right Alternative for You

Bytescout Spreadsheet SDK (bytescout.com/bytescoutspreadsheetsdk.html) is just such as ASP.NET Excel program. You can use this program on any computer without even needing to have another spreadsheet program installed. Even without Open Office or Excel, you’ll be able to open spreadsheets saved in their file formats and can read, modify, change, or export those files into other formats, including XLS, XLSX, CSV, HTML, and TXT format for added flexibility and convenience.

With Bytescout Spreadsheet SDK (bytescout.com/bytescoutspreadsheetsdk.html), you can still use dozens of common functions for calculations and can still do cell formatting as needed. The program can also be used as part of ASP.NET, Visual Basic.NET, and Visual C#. The number of file formats that can be read and altered using the program, as well as the number of export file formats supported makes it one of the most versatile and useful programs available for spreadsheet users.

Even better, purchasing the program entitles you to free one year of free updates and technical support, as well as royalty free distribution with your application. This means you won’t have to worry any longer about which spreadsheet program is being used by end users. With the ASP.Net Excel program, they can use your application or view your documentation even if they have no such program installed.

Mark is the freelanced .NET and ASP.NET developer, with experience on different href=”http://bytescout.com/bytescoutspreadsheetsdk.html”>ASP.NET Excel and other back office projects

Computer Operating Systems-Understanding How They Work

Operating System | Posted by Sanjiv
Sep 13 2009

The definition of an Operating System is the software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs (Britannica, 2008). Each new computer brought home from the store already has an operating system installed and ready to use, but it wasn’t always this way.

When Personal Home Computers (PCs) were first introduced in the early 1980s, they didn’t have an operating system; most didn’t even have a hard drive! These early PCs needed a floppy disk with stored drivers n order to get the operating system started. You then had to remove the operating system driver and insert a new floppy that contained the program you needed to work with. This second floppy would not only contain the individual program (word processor, spreadsheet, etc) but all the drivers needed to communicate with the PC as well. This time consuming and frustrating process of switching from floppy to floppy gave birth to the integrated operating system.

An operating system performs many functions; it keeps track of where things are stored on the hard drive, manages each components activity, and allows users to interact with the system by either typing commands on a keyboard or by using a Graphical User Interface (GUI, commonly pronounced gooey).

The most important function of an operating system, however, is translating the commands issued via keyboard or mouse into binary code; the language of computers represented by zeros and ones.
Because the operating system is now integrated directly onto a computer’s hard drive, the floppy disk has gone the way of the horse whip and become obsolete. Programs, along with the drivers and other necessary components, are stored directly onto the computer and available whenever the program is accessed.

Although there are many operating system’s available today Windows Vista, Mac OS X, Zeta, IBM, Unix, and Linux to name a few; Apple was one of the first to use an operating system in their Macintosh computer. This established a user-hardware relationship with a user-friendly interface and helped pave the way for future operating systems.

Caution must be taken when attempting to upgrade an existing operating system and a check for the necessary hardware is advisable. For example: if your computer had Windows 98 installed and you are attempting to upgrade to Windows XP, you would also need to install extra hardware components that were unavailable when Windows 98 was introduced. The new operating system will search for hardware that is unavailable and fail, thus making it impossible for your computer to function.

One other word of advice is to be sure to install an operating system that is compatible with your current system. For example: the hardware of a Macintosh is very different from that of a Windows computer and it is impossible for a Windows operating system to work on a Macintosh!

Operating systems have advanced tremendously in the last 25 plus years and will continue to improve. They have integrated themselves into everything from game consoles to PDAs and not all the uses have been discovered. It is very important to keep in mind the exact type of hardware and system being used so upgrades will be easier but the outdated use of floppys is (thank goodness) a thing of the past.