BIG BALL OF MUD

Looks familiar, doesn't it?

ASP.NET 2.0: Cross Page Postbacks

Most regular Web pages written by professional developers in ASP, PHP or other conventional languages use HTTP POST operation for submitting data from one page to another, often hidden page which manages data submission and normally updates a database. It was considered to be a bad practice to POST to the same page. First of all, it leads to inability to use browser's Reload/Refresh button (you would get "Page expired" message) unless some special manipulations with cache are performed. Also, it potentially leads to multiple modifications of a database in case Reload was performed.
ASP.NET introduced a paradigm of POSTing to a same page as a main method. It used internal tricks to deal with "Page expired" and multiple data updates. In my opinion, it was teaching newbie developers, who didn't realize what happens under the hood to a bad technique. (Not a first time MS is doing that, though).

It looks like obvious considerations started to overturn strange ideas of MS Web designers - thus "Cross Page Postbacks" are introduced in ASP.NET 2.0. Most of experienced Web developers who are not inclined to a weird Microsoft's idea of transforming page-based architecture of World Wide Web to Windows desktop applications behavior used it all the time in most Web languages...

ASP: Server.Execute vs. server-side includes

I suddenly realized on advantage Server.Execute() command has over server-side includes in a classic ASP: Server.Execute() is a part of normal execution flow and thus works as a conditional include. There is no normal way to include files conditionally with <!--#include file [or virtual]="_our_file.asp"-->, because those includes are treated with something like ASP preprocessor. On the other hand, local variables declared in calling file are available inside include and are not available in executed file - that's one reason I never used it.

VB.NET vs. C#

1) Is it right that anything which could be done with C# could be (as easy and elegant) done in VB.NET?

2) What programmers are easier to find on a market, VB.NET or C#? Which out-of-school (university) programmers are easier to find, VB.NET or C#?

3) Which programmers tend to get more money, C# or VB.NET?

ASP.NET 2.0 Demo/Test Playground

I've just launched my ASP.NET 2.0 Demo/Test Playground

FireFTP

FireFTP is a very convenient FTP client program: it runs directly from your Firefox browser and is organized very well. It's my favorite now.

Bookmark synchronization

I finally found a working software for bookmark synchronization across separate computers. Bookmark Sync and Sort This add-on works with Mozilla Firefox and allows to upload your bookmarks to FTP address of your choice (I use a directory on my domain) and to download them to another machine. I just synchronized bookmarks on my machine here with my home Firefox. I also found another software which allows to synchronize bookmarks (favorites) across many different browsers on a single machine http://www.syncbookmarks.com/ (they are planning to add FTP and http://del.icio.us/ synchronization later on). So, together this add-on and this application allowed me to synchronize bookmarks on all browsers at home and on my Firefox at work!

Update, July 25, 2008: Unfortunately, neither "Bookmark Sync and Sort" plugin nor Syncbookmarks application work with Firefox 3. Syncbookmarks does not report any error, but doesn't pick Firefox's bookmarks. I'm switching from to a new and powerful Foxmarks plugin. It works beautifully in a fully automated mode. A version for IE is going to be released. To sync bookmarks for SeaMonkey or Opera you can use Foxmarks for Firefox and Internet Explorer in a combination with Syncbookmarksto to copy IE favorits into SeaMonkey or Opera bookmarks. (I always use Firtefox as a main bookmark source.)

Folksonomy

More and more often I have a feeling that Web-related knowledge increases in a chain reaction manner and I'm falling behind. Thanks to Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, and Google but... how to cope with it?
Did you here about Folksonomy and Tag Clouds?

Interview with Jakob Nielsen, a world athority in Web usability

Matt Mickiewicz interviews Jakob Nielsen, author of the brand new book "Prioritizing Web Usability," about AJAX, usability's close link to keyword advertising, and some of the advertising formats we're seeing around the Web today.