In this section of articles, the history and evolution of computer software is discussed. The different usages of various computer programs are also explained, and some articles break down the way programs operate at the most basic level.
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The OO paradigm enjoys increasing acceptance in the software industry, due to its visible benefits in analysis, design, and coding. Numerous software development organizations have adopted OO as the development paradigm.
Any system that has to be protected might have weaknesses or vulnerabilities, some or all of which may be targeted by an attacker. Hence, one approach to designing security mechanisms for systems is to look at the threats that the system faces and the attacks possible given the vulnerabilities.
In wireless networks, nodes transmit information through electromagnetic propagation over the air. The signal transmitted by a node can only be received by nodes that are located within a specific distance from the transmitting node. This distance is typically called the transmission range.
If you accept my broad definition of web services, including both feeds and APIs, the answer is almost everyone. Most news sites offer at least some of their information via an XML feed. Blog sites almost without exception include some form of feed, and APIs are becoming more prevalent offerings from businesses of all sizes.
To successfully deploy Team Foundation Server, you must take into account the software requirements of each of the components. Here is a drill down of all the required software and additional practical considerations.
D-Link is a $99 device, which includes a firewall, content controls, anti-virus, spam filtering and more, and is a simpler and less-expensive way to protect multiple computers on a home or small-office network. Read on for more information.
The .NET Class Framework contains literally thousands of classes and interfaces. Here are just some of the functions of various libraries in the .NET Class Framework.
Implement the generic interface IComparer with some reflection, and .NET will provide sorting that compares just about any property of any object. See how it's done.
Use LINQ to Objects to easily sort and reshape your data.
The .NET Framework's built-in comparison functions don't handle nulls properly. Learn a couple of functions to take care of this for you.
One of the many new libraries included with .NET 2.0 allows for compression and decompression of files using the gzip file format. Find out how to use it.
Learn how to take a string and convert it into an enumeration value.
Converting strings of digits into numeric data types may not always yield the result you expect. Take a look at three ways to convert a string of digits to an integer and learn what you need to watch out for with each method.
Overloading the constructor of a class, which is the method called when you instantiate an object, ensures that your object is populated with all the information it needs to operate properly.
Creating a custom configuration section in your configuration class will make it more modular and not reliant on the generic appSettings section in the configuration file.
The generic collection introduced with .NET 2.0 allows you to create collections of your objects without having to design a new class.
By using the Ping class, one of the many classes included in the .NET Framework Library, you can create a simple server monitor that ensures your servers are all responding to network traffic.
The singleton pattern can be used in a wide variety of situations. This tip will show you how to create a thread-safe version of a singleton.
Want to make managing the sequence of events within a Web page easier? Simply register for a custom event and run your code when the event occurs.
Here is encapsulation, one of the very basic tenets of object-oriented programming. Using properties instead of public variables helps insulate the users of your class from change, provides you more flexibility, and will ease maintenance of your class.
Are you tired of hard-coding function names in trace messages? Have you ever used cut and paste to copy a trace statement and forgot to change the function name? There'll be no more wild goose chases because of bad function names when you determine the function name dynamically.
Learn how to display all of the fields and properties of any object. By using a little reflection, you can expose the internals of your objects.
Discover how to display the public information for an assembly. This will allow you to get a complete view of the assemblies you are using or creating.
Have you ever needed to execute a system command from your application? You can accomplish this easily with C#.
If you use a return statement within a Try/Catch block, there's a behavior you need to be aware of in your code.
Most applications developers build have lists or dropdowns that need to be filled with values for the user to select. This tip will show you how to use an enumeration to populate your lists.
Use LINQ's from clause to easily traverse the relationships in your database.
Be a good resource citizen by implementing IDisposable. You will be able to ensure that your objects have the opportunity to release all of their managed and unmanaged resources.
The system event log is a good place to store information about your .NET application, and writing entries to the event log is fairly straightforward. You can easily add the code for it to a utility class.
If you use one server to develop your applications and another to deploy them, you probably have to change your database connection settings each time you deploy your configuration files. Learn a quick fix for this problem.
Take control of the lifetime of your objects. Release your object's resources on your schedule, not when the CLR determines they are no longer needed.
Take a look at a couple of the language enhancements in C# 3 (VS2008) that can speed up your development and make your code cleaner: automatic properties and initializers.
Have you ever not known how many parameters a method would need to accept? The C# params keyword lets you pass a variable number of arguments to a method.
Do you need to know when a file or directory has been updated? The FileSystemWatcher class gives you a very easy means to monitor the file system.
Stop unwanted changes to your properties! Discover how to you can stop worrying about accidentally changing values, while still allowing multiple views into your classes!
What do you do when you need to read in an entire file and process it as a string? Here is a simple solution.
Allow a single call to your method to return multiple objects using the ref keyword with parameters.
The .NET Framework 2.0 gets very fussy when you try to run both ASP.NET 1.1 and ASP.NET 2.0 sites in the same application pool. Learn how to support both versions on the same Windows 2003 machine.
System event logs can provide valuable information, but manually finding the worthwhile details in them can be difficult. Learn the easy, automated ways .NET provides for reading and searching event logs.
Provide your own comparison algorithm when sorting by implementing the IComparer interface.
Allow your classes to easily be sorted they way you would like by implementing the IComparable interface.
Use @-quoted strings to avoid escape characters in your string literals.
Stop writing more code than needed. You can streamline your code if you use interfaces. You will be able to write simpler, more flexible, and more maintainable applications when you apply interfaces.
The TcpClient class enables you to test whether services such as FTP and SMTP/POP3 mail are running and responding properly.
Use custom exceptions to add information that will be more meaningful to your users when exceptions occur. And, you still can maintain all the information from the original exception.
Handling exceptions can sometimes be a little tricky. If you are not careful, your code may act on the wrong information. Learn how to bubble up exceptions while keeping the original exception information intact.
Use some of the language's lesser known features for safe type casting and comparison.
When you're creating a function that needs a variable list of arguments, use a parameter array.
Extension methods allow you to create utility functions and have them appear to be part or your classes or the built-in classes. You'll learn by making a method from an earlier tip available as an extension method.
LINQ can be used for much more than just accessing data stored in your database. Learn how you can use the from clause with other types of data.
Create a class to add Error, Warning, and Information entries in the Windows event log.
Would you like your life to go much smoother? Follow these rule and you can make it happen.
Are you hesitant to initiate an SOA project? Follow these ten steps and you'll be on your way to success.
A program that leverages Windows terminal services and provides individual application publishing with seamless windows to remote machines.
Platform provides for the central management of thin client devices, including the ability to convert existing/older PCs for thin client use. Now with configuration redundancy and PXE boot load balancing/HA features.
30 Boxes, a remarkably powerful, flexible and easy-to-use calendar and schedule application is as close and accessible as the nearest browser. Read more to find out how this program can keep your business organized.
The best way to make 3d animation is to get your hands on a software program that is specifically made for creating 3d animations. However, there is a lot of software tailored for creating 3d animation. These programs include: Poser, 3d Studio Max, Daz 3d, Bryce, Carrara, Animation Master, Maya, and Blender. Since there is lots of 3d animation software available, it is important to discover the best one for your current needs and circumstances.
Advances in modern CAD/CAM software quickly cuts preformed parts on a multi-axis rotary laser saving hours or even days in fixture design and construction, programming, and fine-tuning. A number of 3-D laser software packages generate cutting data for the part’s work-holding fixture, as well as the 3-D part itself. Such software allows fabricators to laser-cut or trim hydro-formed, spun, formed, or stamped parts with little setup or programming time.
Before embarking on the journey of building game animations, you need to have a good idea of the task at hand. One of the first things to do is to look for all the various game elements that use 3D animations. 3D graphics and animations are used pervasively in games, and new uses are appearing all the time. As you play games, start looking for the places where 3D animations are used, and think about how you can use 3D animations in a similar way within your game.
3D-FTP brings a refreshing new look to a venerable protocol most often served by equally venerable clients.
The aim of 3D-Space VFS (visual file system) is to make drilling down through multi-level file systems easier by displaying files and folders in three dimensions.
A platform targeted to financial organizations that provides a centralized authentication interface for customers. The release includes support for RADIUS and Sun's OpenSSO Access Manager.
5200 Series Tool Aggregator both aggregates and distributes SPAN port traffic to all those devices that need it.
Designing an administration solution for your real-time data warehouse is important to the long-term success of your BizTalk solution. Picking a platform your users are comfortable with is a good start.
This article is a brief overview of the evolution of Microsoft Windows from its earliest days with Windows Me to its latest program Windows XP. Additionally, the article explains the future of Windows.
Discover the conceptual framework where customers, iterative and incremental delivery are key.
Get started on the path to taking programmatic control of your files and adding value to OpenOffice.org's no-cost price tag by using XML.
Discover how reporting applications can adapt to changing reports by shifting its report-related information into a database.
Looking for a powerful concept that works with any existing Java web application and makes the process of web remoting easier?
Discover a unique way of Ajax-enabling existing Java server-side code by exposing it in JavaScript.
SQL Server Everywhere you will have an extremely lightweight (under 2MB disk footprint), easy-to-redistribute, free database from Microsoft with a syntax that's a subset of full SQL Server Transact-SQL.
The Visual Studio team has taken a first step toward integrating the BI (Business Intelligence) Report Wizard—a baby step.
See what Visual Studio 2008 Shell has to offer and how it can help you.
Look into the image-filtering classes of the Java 2D API. Also learn how to write a framework program that makes it easy to use those image-filtering classes to modify the pixels in an image and to display the modified image.
Putting objects in the right place can help performance in the short term, allowing your existing configuration to do more, as well as setting you up for larger horizontal scaling options with server farms.
Looking back on the reputation of Windows Vista's predecessors, you find that, while there was some challenge accompanying the transition to each one, in time every one of these operating systems proved to be a solid investment.
To begin writing raw PDF files, you need a solid working knowledge of PostScript—and that's not pretty. In reality, you need a complete PDF library that handles all your document-creation needs.
Windows Communication Foundation is set to become the platform for all .NET communication and therefore the underpinning for future versions of Microsoft products. Where should you begin? With this article.
Take a quick look at the upcoming release of the new Visual C++ release slated for release in late 2008—Visual C++ Orcas. The Orcas release builds on the heritage of C++, offering great new features for achieving deep integrating with Windows Vista and better support for interoperating with managed code.
Use this interactive workbench to gain a better understanding of the behavior of digital recursive filters. Then learn how to write the code to do recursive filtering as well as to evaluate recursive filters using a workbench-style program.
Discover a few ideas that will help make schedules more realistic.
Don't overlook the productivity gains you can achieve when you use Visual Basic.NET and skilled Visual Basic developers.
Reliability is a big issue in Internet Web services integration. Learn how to mitigate Web service reliability problems by using an asynchronous messaging approach.
A line of document management tools that allows the conversion between document formats. The programs can also split and combine PDF files.
Able Fax Tif View is a document viewer and converter for Windows; enabling you to view, edit, print, save, and convert compatible files. It can show all kinds of FAX images, multipage FAX and TIFF images.
With up to 32GB on your person, it's annoying that neither the iPhone nor the iPod touch can be used as portable storage. For a few pounds, DataCase adds this capability, so you don't have to carry a USB flash drive around with you.
if you value your productivity, don't attempt to install Djay on your work computer. What's more, if you value that of your colleagues, don't let them play with it, either. This app is addictive and could eat up hours of your time.
If you're one of those people who loves to keep your Mac's desktop nice and tidy, you're going to love Hazel.
There are plenty of alternatives to Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop, but following the demise of FreeHand, Corel Draw and Canvas on the Mac, there are fewer alternatives to that other software behemoth, Illustrator.
Once you have seen one photo management application, you've seen them all - until you try MemoryMiner. It offers a genuinely fresh way of exploring, annotating and sharing photos.
Released on the Xbox 360 and PC more than a year ago, this wartime combat game centres on the Battle of Midway. It blends strategy and arcade combat, but doesn't fall victim to the impenetrable or repetitive nature of hardcore titles in either genre.
Is open-source still a grassroots social movement made up of idealistic underdogs trying to revolutionize an amoral industry? Or has it become a cloak used by IT vendors large and small to disguise ruthless and self-serving behavior? Read this article and know more.
It pays to give a game a chance. After a few minutes of playing Redline it's tempting to dismiss it as another insipid racing sim for the Mac.
In this Masterclass, we will use iMovie 4 and Photoshop Elements 3 to produce a two second-clip simulating biometric identification by a retinal scan machine.
Every single review of Sequel is honour bound to mention its conceptual and cosmetic similarity to GarageBand. It's a fair cop. So with that out of the way, what else does Steinberg's consumer-friendly music-making app have to offer? Read this aritcle and know more.
While Apple has been keen to trumpet the extensible architecture in Aperture 2.1, third-party publishers haven't exactly been falling over themselves to get on board. In theory, Aperture could one day match Photoshop for versatility, but for now at least Aperture plug-ins are arriving in a trickle rather than a deluge. Having said that, one of the biggest names in the plug-in world, Nik Software, has already developed three Aperture plug-ins - Viveza, Silver Efex Pro and Color Efex 3.0.
Multiple products offer business management and groupware tools, including scheduling, appointment management, planning and forecasting.
PC-based network acceleration software leverages compression, application-level optimizations, and a proprietary transport protocol.
Take a look at XFire, a Java SOAP framework that makes working with web services fast and simple. You will create a SOAP client and see how easy it is to use XFire.
Both Acrobat 5.05 and now 6.0 provide an easy-to-use feature for building batch sequences that can automate repetitive tasks such as this.
As a part of the overall Microsoft Office family of products, Access finds itself in an interesting position. It provides many tools that Access developers and programmers at all levels use to create robust database applications for themselves or their users.