Lavanya Deepak

Microsoft Office 2007 Beta Delivery

Check out the free downloads of Microsoft Office 2007 or free shipment of CD from this URL http://www.microsoft.com/india/office/beta/. It takes about two weeks of delivery time.  You may need to login with your Windows Live account to proceed with the order.

Online Tamil Keyboard (for Mozilla FireFox)

Check out TamilKey, an elegant solution in all Mozilla-based web browsers like FireFox to instantly toggle between Tamil and English. A JavaScript version of the browser for Internet Explorer is also available in Thamizha.com homepage over here.

Free ASP.NET 2.0 Hosting Accounts

Developers using .NET Framework 2.0 would be trying to find out some free hosting accounts where they can play around with .NET Framework 2.0 applications. During the initial stages of .NET Framework 1.1, we had the following websites that supported free .NET Framework hosts. Check out the following comprehensive lists:

1. Brinkster Inc.
2. DotNetPlayGround [currently free signups or hosting is unavailable]
3. ASPSpider
4. Maximum ASP Beta [ASP.NET 2.0 with IIS 7 Trial Account]

Visual Studio Project Convertor

It would really be a daunting experience after downloading a Visual Studio .NET project file and your Visual Studio refusing it to open complaining that it has been designed for another version of the product. I came across a tool called VSConvert from CodeProject, which I would like to share the information with my readers and which I hope would greatly help in converting project files across .NET Framework (1.0 and 1.1). Check out this tool from CodeProject VSConvert page.

Currently, conversion of project files to 2.0 framework is possible using Visual Studio 2005 itself as the IDE pops up a wizard. However, the reverse might not be possible since there are a lot of changes from 1.1 to 2.0 version of the framework.

STS 121 Discovery -- Flash Demontration

Check out the Flash Demonstration Application hosted on NASA website in its STS 121 Discovery Shuttle Mission Page. It is really exciting to even click and view the application and I am sure it is really a life's best experience travelling to outer space, doing research there.

Check it out for yourself.

No spams on Blogs

One of the most dreaded threats that any blogger faces comes in the form of comment spamming.  A lot of people would have confronted with spurious comments posted by automatic bots on pills etc and also from persons sans ethics using others blogs to solicit visits to thier websites.

There have been a diversifed ways of combating this. Till now, the following have been used popularly.

1. Comment Moderation
2. CAPTCHA

Comment moderation enqueues all the comment till the blog owner/administration peruses through the comments that are pending approval and gives a nod. CAPTCHA filters all the comments that are posted by spam robots since it generates a dynamic image which is readable only by human eye and not by spam robots.

I came across this website similar to Email Relay Blacklist services which offers spam blacklisting webservice for blogosphere also. Check it out at Akismet. It is free for personal use too. So, I think, you can start using it as a valuable tool to combat spam and keep your weblogs healthy.

Develop without Borders

Check out a Microsoft Office 97 programming contest.  This seems to be a very innovative programming contest where the contest works are going to benefit a lot of charities worldwide. The contest is jointly managed by Microsoft and HP.

For further details, check out Develop without Borders website and/or the Source URL in Chennai .NET Usergroup Message.

Asia Pacific Telecommunity Elecution Competition

The Asia Pacific Telecommunity and ICT development forum is organizing an International Conference in Chennai between 10th and 14th July, 2006. The event is hosted by the Department of Telecommunications and managed by BSNL, Chennai Telephones.

As part of the international conference, an elocution competition for college students is being planned out, in alliance with Anna University.  Students of Anna University and/or its affiliated colleges are eligible for participation in the same. Each college may nominate two UG/PG students for the same. The event is going to be one-of-its-kind in the international arena of telecommunity and would be a most right and an apt platform to showcase the potential and prowess of the students and the institutions.

All participants get a certificate of participation whilst winners stand to get attractive cash prizes besides an invitation to attend the main conference.

1. Enrolment Form: http://chennai.bsnl.co.in/apt/EnrolmentForm.htm
2. Venue and Prizes: http://chennai.bsnl.co.in/apt/VenuePrizes.htm

Source Courtesy: Chennai BSNL

JavaScript Framework Library

JavaScript has been an inevitable scripting language that developers worldwide rely on ranging from the simplest forms of form validations through interactive animations on the web browsers. There have been JavaScript applications running from Windows Desktop as well.

Check out this elegant Javascript library called Prototype, which makes development of web applications easy, giving enormous flexibility to maintain as well.