Home » Learning Resources
Showing posts with label Learning Resources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Learning Resources. Show all posts
Free JavaScript & jQuery learning resources
, ,

Free JavaScript & jQuery learning resources

Read More
Older ASP.NET Starter Kits
,

Older ASP.NET Starter Kits

The current ASP.NET Starter Kits page does not show older Starter Kits built on ASP.NET 2.0 & links to them that you may find in old articles may be broken. When I have to refer these useful oldies to folks in need, I keep going back to the search engine. Rather than waste time searching, I thought I'll place them all at one place. So here goes -

Read More
Free, online, open-source book on web performance - Book of Speed
, ,

Free, online, open-source book on web performance - Book of Speed

Stoyan Stefanov, a web performance expert, Facebook engineer, ex-Yahoo, smush.it creator & YSlow 2.0 architect, has released the draft of Book of Speed for free & public access. Currently 5 of the planned 9 chapters are online.

In his blog post announcing the release, he also mentions another free, online JavaScript resource by Marijn Haverbeke - Eloquent JavaScript. 


Read More
, ,

Notes from Pluralsight course "Introduction to Visual Studio 2010 - Part 2"


Introduction to Visual Studio 2010 - Part 2  importantly covers IntelliTrace & Extensions. Some interesting facts about VS from the video course -
  • You can debug a release build. Release folder can contain .pdb. PDB – Program Debug Database
  • Deploy Release version of build. Depending on the third party libraries you are using, their licensing terms  may not allow you to deploy the Debug version.
  • Build > Clean Solution throws away all the products of a prior Build. This will mean that the next build will be full build.
  • Rather than doing a Clean Solution & then Build Solution, you can directly do a Rebuild Solution
  • Look at Locals window after a breakpoint is hit for variable values. Use Watch window for specific variables
  • DataTip dimensions can be modified  
  • Ctrl + Datatip – for a transparent background, useful when you want to see code behind a datatip
  • Pin a DataTip to see variable value change dynamically inside it.It can be dragged, unpinned or closed.
  • Trivia: Codename of IntelliTrace was Historical Debugging
  • IntelliTrace is available in VS Ultimate only  
  • Saves a trace file of execution path & values of member variables
  • By default has very little performance impact
  • IntelliTrace can provide time travel & space travel (you can test a iTrace file on computers other than originating one to analyze "works on my machine" scenarios)
  • When you close VS, itrace files are gone so save it elsewhere. You can get the iTrace file's location from Tools > Options | IntelliTrace > Advanced 
  • You can open a itrace file within VS. Double click main thread in thread window to replicate scenario & start debugging on a different computer.
  • Using traces from other machines lets you share bugs with other developers or avoid "works on my machine"
  • Visual Studio Extensions can boost productivity. There are over 2400 extensions for different versions of VS on VisualStudioGallery.com
  • Use Tools > Extension Manager to enable/disable/uninstall update
  • Productivity Power Tools by Microsoft is a bundle of popular extensions that includes features that go on to become standard features in future VS versions. Some features in Pro Power Tools include -
- Highlight current line
- Auto brace completion
- Ctrl-Click Go To Definition
- Column guides (to check length of each code statement does not go beyond a specific column number)
- Quick Access (Windows Vista/7 like universal Find)

Read More
Free videos from major Microsoft Developer events are archived on Channel9
,

Free videos from major Microsoft Developer events are archived on Channel9

Read More
Free SQL Server Goodies
,

Free SQL Server Goodies


Michael K. Campbell has shared some useful SQL Server goodies that are available online, in his article in DevProConnections. I picked the ones I liked -

* Scripts - TechNet's Script Repository has a vast repository of scripts provided by Microsoft and by its users/customers that you can adapt for your own requirements.

* Books - Red Gate Software which sells some great developer tools also publishes books. Some of them are available for free download in PDF format -
  • SQL Server Stumpers Vol.5 

  • Inside the SQL Server Query Optimizer 

  • SQL Server Execution Plans 

  • Mastering SQL Server Profiler

  • SQL Server Statistics 

  • The Red Gate Guide to SQL Server Team-based Development 

  • Defensive Database Programming

  • Confessions of an IT Manager

  • SQL Server Tacklebox 

  • How to Become an Exceptional DBA

  • The Art of XSD 

  • SQL Server Hardware

  • The SysAdmin Handbook - The Best of Simple Talk 

  • Brad's Sure Guide to SQL Server Maintenance Plans 

  • Exchange 2010 - A Practical Approach 

  • Don't Just Roll the Dice

  • Protecting SQL Server Data

  • Book of Red Gate (about Red Gate, not SQL Server) 

* Videos
Related:
Free SQL Server Videos
HOW TO try Windows Azure & SQL Azure for free (without any credit card)
Read More
, ,

Things I learnt from the Pluralsight course "Introduction to Visual Studio 2010"

Visual Studio is a complex IDE that mostly looks simple on the surface but has a number of invisible features. In the Pluralsight video training course Introduction to Visual Studio 2010 (duration: 4h 37m), Kate Gregory does a walk-through of the useful features of Visual Studio 2010. Many of the tips also apply to VS 2008. My notes -
  • You can export & import Visual Studio settings. A whole team can identify best practices & share the same settings. 
  • .NET tab in Add Reference lists assemblies stored in the Global Assembly Cache.
  • There are 50 VS toolbars! They show up in context. 
  • To learn the names of toolbars, right click on a toolbar & the currently opened toolbars are shown in the context menu with a checkbox next to it. Check additional ones that you require to make them show up. The last option of this context menu is Customize. This can be used to add new commands to a specific toolbar. This is one way to control what commands are on each toolbar.
  • The keyboard shortcut Shift+Alt+Enter lets you go Full Screen so that you can focus on just your code.
  • VS 2010 is multi-monitor aware. Panes can be on a second or third(!) monitor.
  •  A code window can be made to float outside of VS 2010!
  • Class View is a great way to study other's code. Familiarity with the Class View and Object Browser Icons can help you grasp code faster.
  • Besides using Go To Definition (or F12 keyboard shortcut) to jump to the dependent member, you can use the Code Definition Window (View > Code Definition Window) to view dependent code in a docked window without having to navigate back & forth. 
  • The Call Hierarchy option under the View menu lists dependencies of a member. It shows who calls a specified function & what this function calls.
  • Dock the Quick find dialog box to prevent the dialog box from jumping around while you continue searching for keywords. Use the Bookmark All next to the Find Next button to conveniently move between references to the search keyword.
  • Use Ctrl+Scroll wheel (on a mouse that has it) to zoom the text in & out. This zoom trick works in browsers too.
  • Use the Zoom level dropdown in the status bar of VS 2010 to get a bird's eye view of the "shape" of the code. Once you recognize the blocks of code by their shape, you can jump to the required one with a decreased zoom level.
  • Visual Studio can not only resolve namespaces for classes that don't originally have a reference but also intelligently build method stubs (Generate > Method Stub, from the context menu) on request for a custom method that you may have declared but not defined. Like a chess player, VS is busy figuring out your moves while you are typing out your code.
  • Using the Help Library Manager (Help > Manage Help Settings), you can choose whether to invoke online help or local help. You can switch between the two whenever you like.
Related:

Read More

My 30-day personal project - watch 100 hours of Pluralsight videos

Inspired by Matt Cutts' 30-day challenges, I plan to watch 100 hours of Pluralsight online videos to get up-to-date with current & emerging Microsoft technologies. I find its faster to learn with videos than books. Moreover, videos are quicker to get detailed & structured info on emerging topics. Books are great as a reference but may not be suitable for emerging technologies. I hope to post my notes & reviews of the courses I finish.

Here's a tip about Pluralsight videos to jump back to the last topic that you were viewing. I've been watching the videos on & off since several weeks now & the path that I've had to take after logging in, is to go the Course Library & scroll down to the course and then drill down to the specific topic to continue that series. I recently discovered that you can save a few seconds by clicking on your name in the header (highlighted in the image below) & it'll show you the link to the topic you were viewing last.

To make this more obvious, Pluralsight could show this link directly on the home page after a user logs in.
Read More
,

Free eBook: The Insider's Guide to Mobile

If you are involved or interested in Mobile development, check out Tomi T Ahonen's free eBook - The Insider's Guide to Mobile. It has 11 case studies, 7 essays & exposes 8 myths.

Also read Peter-Paul Koch's assessment of the Smartphone Browser Landscape.

Read More
Rate your SEO skills with these Quizzes
, , ,

Rate your SEO skills with these Quizzes

Did you know, for high-volume search phrases, the Search Engines usually will NOT differentiate between singular and plural versions of a term? Check it for yourself by seeing the search results on these phrases - cell phone vs. cell phones. I was under the impression, until I took the SEOmoz quiz, that this was a case of stemming & there should be differentiation.

Here is my compilation of all the interesting SEO Quizzes I have found (work in progress) -



Trivia: PageRank is actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page
Read More
, , ,

How the Internet thing works


“20 Things I Learned about Browsers and the Web”  is an online illustrated guide from Google aimed at casual users. You can browse though it to catch up on the buzz-words or pass it to friends & relatives who want to know about the Internet thing. It is also available in PDF format for offline reading.

It covers the following topics in a lighthearted, non-techincal way -
  • What is the Internet?
  • Cloud Computing
  • Web Apps
  • HTML, JavaScript, CSS and more
  • HTML5
  • 3D in the Browser
  • A Browser Madrigal
  • Plug-ins
  • Browser Extensions
  • Synchronizing the Browser
  • Browser Cookies
  • Browsers and Privacy
  • Malware, Phishing, and Security Risks
  • How Modern Browsers Help Protect You From Malware and Phishing
  • Using Web Addresses to Stay Safe
  • IP Addresses and DNS
  • Validating Identities Online
  • Evolving to a Faster Web
  • Open Source and Browsers
As it is built using HTML5, JavaScript and CSS3, it is best viewed with a HTML5-compliant browser.

A user named Nephron reports (in the comments section of this post) that the source is about 3500 lines of code & utilizes jQuery. Google plans to open source the entire code soon. The code for this web book is now open sourced on Google Code (2-June-2011)
Read More

Free MS Press ebook: Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions: From the Desktop to the Datacenter

Do you feel left out & tongue-tied when your colleagues talk about Hyper-V, Private clouds & other virtualization jargon? If you always wanted to know about Virtualization but didn't know whom to ask,  the MS Press book, Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions: From the Desktop to the Datacenter is for you.

The freely downloadable ebook (10.6MB) has 450+ pages & the following six chapters -

Chapter 1 - Why Virtualisation?
Chapter 2 - Server Virtualisation
Chapter 3 - Local Desktop Virtualisation
Chapter 4 - Remote Desktop Virtualisation
Chapter 5 - Virtualisation Management
Chapter 6 - Cloud Computing
Read More
jQuery videos for ASP.NET developers
, , ,

jQuery videos for ASP.NET developers

As a convert to jQuery, I'm glad to see the support that Microsoft is lending it. Today, I went through possibly the first video tutorial exclusively on jQuery on the official ASP.NET website's training video series. Video content is sometimes easier to absorb than flipping through books or reading online articles. I plan to list all the good jQuery videos I find -

(work in progress...)
Read More
Why YQL?

Why YQL?

Christian Heilmann who is quitting his job as a full-time developer evangelist at Yahoo has made available a demo chapter from a prospective book on YQL.

In case, you haven't heard of YQL, its "a technology that turns the web into a database and allows you to mix and match and filter before writing your first line of code. It also allows you to release an API without any infrastructure, knowledge of authentication and access control. In essence you can use Yahoo’s server infrastructure and processing power to unleash the awesome of the web into your products or the awesome of your data on the web."

Chris has to be one hard-core evangelist because he has published scores of presentations on SlideShare, numerous tutorials & even a handbook on Developer Evangelism

Also see:
Screen scrape with jQuery, AJAX, JSONP & YQL
Read More
Free Learning Resources on WPF, WCF, WF, XAML, Sharepoint 2010
, , , ,

Free Learning Resources on WPF, WCF, WF, XAML, Sharepoint 2010

The following material is available for free on Microsoft eLearning -

1. Collection 6261: Developing Rich Experiences using Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008 consists of 3 2-hour premium clinics -
  • Clinic 6262: Introducing Windows Workflow Foundation using .Net Framework 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008
  • Clinic 6263: Introducing Windows Presentation Foundation using .Net Framework 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008
  • Clinic 6264: Introducing Windows Communication Foundation using .Net Framework 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008
2. Clinic 6375AE: Introduction to XAML
 
3. Two introductory clinics on Sharepoint 2010 -
 
Related:
Free Sharepoint 2007 goodies on Microsoft e-Learning
mvark
Read More
Free C#, XNA, Windows Phone 7 learning resources from Rob Miles
, ,

Free C#, XNA, Windows Phone 7 learning resources from Rob Miles

Read More
, ,

Free eBook - jQuery: Novice to Ninja

The SitePoint website has been running a promotion celebrating the Football World Cup. Each country that entered the quarter finals has been assigned a SitePoint book. The price of each book was determined by the outcome of real soccer games. The book mapped to the team winning the Cup is being given out free.

Spain was mapped to jQuery: Novice to Ninja & this ebook is available for free if you download it before the next 24 hours.

20
Read More
Web Applications - Tips & Tricks
, ,

Web Applications - Tips & Tricks

Did you know, you can append +any-word to a GMail address & use that word to filter emails or distinctly identify where the mail has come from? For instance, any email sent to the following email address: example+webapps@gmail.com will be recieved by example@gmail.com because gmail ignores the "+" and anything after it. In fact, you can also have multiple full-stops or dots WITHIN the actual address as GMail won't recognize them. This literally means you can have unlimited email addresses based on your primary GMail email address & they will all reach a single inbox.

This is a tip from WebApps.StackExchange.com, a new Q&A Forum (currently in beta) for power users of web applications from the makers of Stack Overflow. There are lots of other interesting tips & tricks there related to commonly used websites and if you have some pesky problems you can post yours as well.
120
Read More
, ,

Velocity 2010 Videos & Slides

If you find Web Performance exciting, you shouldn't miss watching the Velocity 2010 videos & slides.

Velocity is an annual Web Performance and Operations conference conducted by O'Reilly Media.

There are a lot of speed tips, suprising facts & interesting thoughts shared by experts. Did you know, seventy five percent of that traffic comes through third-party apps via the Twitter API rather than the Twitter.com web site? Twitter manages 700 million searches & 65 million tweets a day. There are sessions by folks from Facebook and Twitter on how they scale to millions of users.

The list of videos also includes Lightning Demos of Web Performance & Analysis tools like HttpWatch, AOL Pagetest, Speed Tracer, Fiddler, dynaTrace, Firebug, YSlow, and Page Speed by people directly involved with the development of those tools.

Among the few I watched already, I liked Lenny Rachitsky's "The Upside of Downtime: How to Turn a Disaster Into an Opportunity". Taking a contrarian view, he says downtime can be an opportunity to build trust.


Also see:
Free Web Performance Analysis & Optimization tools
180
Read More
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)