This is another rant post.

be warned.

I guess when you are playing with fire, you need to take into consideration that you might get burned.

Well I have been working on a Asp.net application recently. All went well except some minor irritating issues, not something surprising when dealing with betas.

Anyway, after developing on the ASP.net development server for a few days, the time had come to deploy it to the IIS, right?.

It just didn't work.

First I thought it must be some firewall/router issue. I am not that an network expert - Port 80 forwarding sounds like a good idea. It wasn't.

I took me some time to realize that not only my new shiny Ajax extensions Web app doesn't work, even a miserable default.html with some hello world typed into didn't show up.

http://localhost should get you into a default IIS page.

I just didn't show up anything.

OK, iisreset -> IIS couldn't start.

Damn.

Why didn't you say something???

I started digging into, googling like a crazy man.

On one site I found which wasn't really related to my issue, but gave me some useful info. I went and check the WAS service (The Windows Process Activation Service (WAS)) status, it was down and like the IIS couldn't go up. It just kept bubbling on some cryptic error code (13) and "Data is very bad" generic message.

Getting into event log yielded out no more information.

Well at that time, I said to myself, just reinstall the damn thing.

And after spending quality time with the install windows component window doing some trail and error. I finally managed to get down IIS and WAS.

I installed them again, and Yes it worked! I was an happy camper again.

I've got IIS.

This was 2 days ago.

Today I resumed my efforts to get the my app into IIS, after some working with Inetmgr, I got an error of writing to some config files, the config file got messed up, and like a tower made of cards, the IIS died and of course his best friend the WAS.

I got really annoyed.

Again uninstall and install - at least I'm getting expert with that window.

But now I've got more info than the first time. (I guess I missed the error window prompting of the config file writing failure).

So now more focused search found the reason for the all mess.

http://blogs.iis.net/wonyoo/archive/2008/03/24/applicationhost-config-file-getting-corrupted-when-onecare-or-forefront-is-running.aspx

The culprit is the Forefront application, believe it or not.

the link I posted in here instructs us of a workaround until the Forefront team will publish a fix for it.

So far so good, applying the workaround seems to solve the issue.

Ariel

"Could not load type System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.ContentPlaceHolder' from assembly..."

This problem was very annoying: for every second (you read it right) run of my website I got this exception. Next time it would go up fine.

It was very consistent in a very inconsistent way.

Searching for a solution turned out nothing.

After some trail and error I found out this section inside the web.config.

   1: <dependentAssembly>

   2:   <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions" 

   3:                     publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />

   4:   <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0" />

   5: </dependentAssembly>

   6: <dependentAssembly>

   7:   <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions.Design" 

   8:                     publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />

   9:   <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0" />

  10: </dependentAssembly>

My guess is that there is some incompatibility between version 1 and 3.5 and that why "old" web controls like my ContentPlaceHolder got confused.

Anyway commenting this section removed the annoying exception without any strange behavior, in other way of saying it, it worked for me. :)

Ariel

Like some of my colleagues, I too prefer to go sessions made by non-Israeli guests, and Ron Jacobs reputation is well ahead of him, note the ARCast show he been running in the past.

Well Ron is a good lecturer, funny, honest and smart but or he wasn't prepared or a very extreme case of bad luck happens to him, because the presentation just didn't take off. A plague of problems varying from screen resolution, unresponsive IIS to non-working demos. And boy the demos where supposed to be simple, nothing complicated, running an HTTP Post command to his web server.

I also doubt the reasons he had for making this session, it felt like we got down to earth session, about a guy trying to find his way on a new domain, we all can sympathies with it, but is it what you came to listen to in Teched? I don't know.

The main conclusion I got from this show, don't try using REST with WCF without an WCF expert watching your back, there is so little information about that you will be on your own fighting IIS, WCF, HTTP handlers that doesn't behave.

I don't want to be a pioneer in this issue, if Ron got problems what you will do?

I would wait for ADO.net data services before trying my hands with REST.

Ariel

BTW this REST hype really got me off my guard, when it is becomes such an hot subjet?

I believe in telling the truth, I think that a genuine building critics when it is delivered in a professional way is very important for both sides. I think that the blogging platform puts us in a unique position where our thoughts and criticism can be heard up. Even an experienced lecturer may err and each and everyone us can learn and improve. Maybe because of the natrue of live blogging, criticism is more impulsive but the issues are still there.

I have been to good lectures and bad ones, but this one really surprised me. The session just didn't fulfill it's promises, and Laurence is a nice guy, I don't know how a 300 level session becomes a 100 in a way like this.

From the the discription of the session, you are let to the belief that this is going to be a "Getting dirt all over our hands" session.

It been a while since I used Silverlight and I wanted to see what have changed between the Silverlight 1.1 alpha version I knew and now.

To my great disappiontment we never got to the code, well I'm little exaggerating here in here, we do got into code, but it was in the last 5 minutes and it hadn't had much impact over the session, it was the regular marketing style presentations about Silverlight, which was already shown in the Keynote.

Life is short, I move on :)

Ariel

Well, Noam make his music act, today with a crazy funky electronic saxophones (I hope I am not wrong with that).

Noam choose an hard stuff for this demo. Noam introduced two brand new technologies that are still half-baked and smell like Atlas CTP, Dynamic Data and MVC. I still have nightmares from Atlas, all three at this stage felt right, and give you the feeling that you really want to use them now, because this is the right way to build web applications, also it's an infrastructure that you know you need, I know that I have built stuff like that for ages now, but I know that you need to wait at least for a half a year for that to build up more meat and move away from early labor pains.

Dynamic data, looks nice, God know how many times I've build stuff like that for ASP.net. It is a way to model how your data is going to be rendered on ASP.net web pages. It is a sign that ASP.net is getting more mature as we progress.

MVC for ASP.net is making a drastic change on how ASP.net developing model is going to be. although it is based on ASP.net engine and thus you can make use of Security, Profiling and all those stuff. The development model is changed because the old way Webcontrols work doesn't work in MVC. The infrastructure looks very harsh in policing how you gonna develop your application. But maybe if it for the best. Finally a testing approach for Web development, we all know Ajax and 3rd party controls are very hard to test, I hope it will change that.

Noam made the whole rather hard demonstration at leisurely pace, the code was understandable, and the result where good, and the music pieces with the slides where refreshing.

It still stinks like Atlas, lots of potential, I don't envy the pioneers with those technologies.

Ariel

Second day, and it is a better day.

First I am feeling much better, the keynote headache is gone, and I got enough energy to get me trough the day and the party of course.

And the day still got better with this session.

The session was high pace, but still Pablo the lecturer was clear and focused, and barely made it all in time.

I got to admit Entity framework is a technology I just didn't had the time to use and play with it. I came to this session to understand what is going on with all the OR-mapping technologies that recently popped out like fresh mushroom after rain.

I didn't know when we are supposed to user SqlMetal mapping and when entity framework (short answer, simple scenarios use Linq mapping, customized model over various DB vendors, use Entity framework).

So as you can see by now I do have my answers and even more, I got the feeling that I saw some of the features already but still the session got a very clear flow, and features like using Sprocs with the Entity framework were very informative.

I liked that Pablo is live coding, and I really admire people that have the guts to do that, hell I try to do that when I lecture.

So if you missed that one, see the recording if it's already available.

Ariel

Hello,

I will not bother your time with my experiences, in the airport, early arrival into the Hotel, and unfortunately I was to sick to do anything then rest in my hotel, until it was time to go to the bloggers event.

Even to that I was late. But I got the feel of it, and got the lovely bloggers goody box.

I attended the main Keynote, which I suspect was too long, and I left it with a growing headache that didn't help me with my Indian illness.

I Admit that I was surprised, In the bubble I'm living in I thought that everyone could develop LINQ even if waken up in the middle of night, but I was wrong, major part of the audience just gape on the first linq expressions, I was very deprest of being intreduced to Linq again.

I also thought that Laurence part of not that impressive and Yochai can take the lightsaber act much more than he did. I think it is fun when you have a recognizable act, that becomes part of whatpeople get to know you by. I just had the feeling that Yochai wanted to become serious, but the change was to sudden from his hasty entrance. It was a nice try to make the keynote really into code, and I liked Shash's trivia, although it felt unconnected to the rest of the keynote. I had a feeling he got introduced as a bizarre notion of a comic relief. But still it was to heavy for this part of the day, getting into workflow was to much for most of the crowd, and most of the crowd got to much information.

I also got the feeling they (Galit and Yochai) were very nervous, and it took them time to get into the rhythm of facilitating an event of that magnitude.

So next session I went to hear the "Software Strategy" Session. I decided to go to this session by using the elmination system, I don't like VB, my knowledge of VS2008 is fairly good, let's hear something new.

It was very disappointing session, it was a Microsoft vision marketing session. I was hoping for really best practices and strategy guidelines of building new application.

I was wrong, I thought that maybe because I am sick it didn't work for me, but it was both sides I guess.

After that I had to give up the next session, and I got back to my room.

Not to much to say about the marketing evening. It was fun to socialize with people but nothing more than that.

Ariel

Hello everyone,

kind of late, this is my first post about Teched08.

Well, I've recently came back from India, and I got me some Indian flow. So I've been quite, trying to recover myself before Teched and failing bad in it.

From your responses I am starting to develop a reputation of a one that is making much traveling, well it's true :) Everybody try to make there own.

So what I'm going to do next is publish my almost live insights from the sessions I've attended.

Some of the insights are only half-baked but this is the fun of live blogging. Me and the other live bloggers are reporting from the field, I do hope to write some more thoughts after I will have time to think about them.

One more thing, the Sela uniform is giving people the feeling I'm part of the video team, so please I don't know why the audio doesn't work.

Ariel

This is part 2 of my India story.

This is part 1.

When at first I thought about the option to go to India, I didn't really believe that I could. The reason is what is stopping most of us of doing crazy stuff. We have our scheduled work ahead of us, and so did I.

When I asked my bosses at Sela if it is possible for me to go on a 3 weeks holiday to India with only one week notice, I also asked them to handle it in a try-catch clause, I was willing to abandon this if it turned out to be to much trouble. To my great surprise not only they where willing but also asked me if I want to do some work. Without knowing what I'm suppose to do I accepted without any consideration, why not?.

I knew that it is going to be an experience to matter what, and oh-boy I was correct.

So, the "fun" part of the trip was over, and now it is getting serious.

2 weeks of intensive advanced .net course for Indian people who are needed to fit for immediate jobs at one of the biggest international companies represented in India.

My weeks are coming after one week of basic c# course, and during my weeks the people will go through Threading, remoting, distributed applications, TDD, VSTS anc .net 3.0 framework including in-depth into Workflow.

This is a pretty steep learning curve for anyone.

When I began my week, the morale was low. The Indian students felt that the first week was not going well enough.

I knew a change is necessary, the approach of the course was changed from minute one, and till the end was very open, I kept the communication flowing and made them participate on the decisions we need to take as a course.

It was going very well, and before to soon I found out that I really care about them, and now I know that I love each and everyone of them, and with this all together I found myself putting extra effort on everyone of them.

The culture difference between them and the Israelis students really interested me at first and when it came knocking on my door it was still surprising.

They are polite and knows when it is time to be quite and work. They have discipline that many Israelis student lack, they will keep working till be told they can go on a break, launch, home. Telling Israelis when they can go home, that really funny :).

But they are quick to laugh, and many times I felt like I was an High school teacher and not an High-tech instructor.

My experience wouldn't be whole without mentioning the 2 Amits. my co-workers from Sela/India.

Amit Pardeshi was my right hand and helped me with everything I needed, we have become fast friends.

and Amit Andre which preceded me and now continuing the course after me.

I enjoyed each day of the course, and really was happy of the privilege of teaching and instructing such good people, I hope they will all succeed.

On the last day, one day before my return to Israel, they throw me a goodbye party. It was a rewarding time because I felt that my work and love I felt were felt and received.

So now I'm back to Israel.

And Will try again to resume my life :)

Ariel

To live simple life, is really living it.

There are time in a man life, that a he knows that a change must comes.

It's like a gnawing feeling in the guts, doubts before falling a sleep, disturbing thoughts.

I was really trying to return to the high pace of life. Life we are all experiencing it. High school -> Army (for the Israelis one :)) -> University -> Work -> Marriage -> Children...

I took a break, went to South America, and was looking forward of working at Sela, and resume the race.

But something has been stopping me, the same feeling in the guts.

I went to speak to someone, who told me that I need to let my mind slow down, give him quite. it was during a memorable weekend which I close down my cellphone, I was out of the computer and was set to a beautiful point in the south Golan area. And for the first time of my life I did meditations. it was really an amazing experience for me.

It was really surprising that only 2 weeks after I was on a plane to India.

I took it as a sign, something is not working in my life, it had begone in my Army service and not changed even when after I left it. I need to find peace of mind.

When my friend Yaniv told me he is going back to India, I knew it just what I needed to do aswell.

it was really surprising that only 1 week after he told me that, we were together on a night train from Mumbai to Hampi.

My first time on India! man the stories I've heard, about people who couldn't heed the dirt, pollution and mass of people and went back to where everything make sense.

I was fascinated, I was feeling with all my senses and it was threatening to gauge me like the smell of urine in Victoria's train station in Mumbai.

We had 3 weeks together, and the privilege to take things slow. We everyday to see the sunset of varius special points. The area around Hampi looks primordial mainly because of the huge enigmatic boulders at where thrown all around, a river is intersecting the landscape like a golden snake. Hampi is fairly touristic place, once a mighty city, a capital to the Vijayanagara empire.

Life in Hampi, was easy for us, wake up, reading books, playing chess, eating food, running away from the heat, going to somewhere nice like the Monkey temple of Anoman, the "lake" (a huge reservoir water created by a damn), meeting with friends, playing backgammon, eating some more.

After a week like that we found ourselves on the beaches of Goa, on the touristic focus point of Palolem, a gem of a coast, attracting people from around the world.

The main difference we found out is that when it is hot, we can just go into the sea, and feel the relieve.

Except that we still maintained a pretty leisurely pace.

Palolem is not the place to lose yourself to parties as it was, police is keeping the level of noise well at bay, which gave way for headphones parties, a bizarre version of a quite party.

After again a week of really doing nothing we got into a local train to the city of Gokarn. Gokarn has many beautiful quite beaches and we soon found ourselves well in love in Ohm Beach. Rare, quite and very social beach. without to much to do after 20:00 you can really get to know some people, and soon I found myself attached to Swedish, Canadian and French people all around us.

Ohm beach was a place to really keep you pace down, think of what you want to do with you life, and it's so quite that only some cows and parties of Indians are what keep it from being really deserted.

Gokarn itself gave me my local experience for this part of the trip, for holding a Shiva festival.

Me and Yaniv got back to Mumbai where we spend our last day together on India.

I got recruited into a Bollywood TV series, to play a foreigner.

Yaniv flew to Israel, and I got to Pune.

Pune, this is where my work is about to be. I got there a week earlier. 2 main reasons why I got that early, I didn't want to spend time on traveling far when I had only one week.

Second, friends told me about the Osho Meditation Resort and I wanted to check it out.

So I got welcomed by the Sela people in Pune, and got a nice apartment, laptop and an internet connection!

Osho is quite a a character, There are people who worship him and there are people of loath him, I choose not to take a stand on this debate, I neither worship him nor loath him.

But you can't stay natural to the beauty of the complex that he had versioned and build in Pune. The main Auditorium is a black pyramid, and you need to cross a bridge to get in.

While you are inside the complex you must wear a maroon robes. It makes a feeling of unity between everyone. Only during a special time each day when a meeting is called than you are dressed in a white robe, at first I felt reluctant, it feels cumbersome to change your robe for the meeting but when everybody came with there shining white robes, it felt like friday evening or an Holiday.

I've stayed for a few days at the complex, trying to recieve as much as I can from this unique place.

This is the end of Part 1.

More of my Indian pictures.

Osho Meditation Resort

Hello everyone...

I'm back from India.

It was a unique experience. I will be separating this post into 2 parts. for you own convenience.

Part 1 : Traveling trough India.

Part 2 : Working at Sela/India.

A few weeks prior to my visit in India, I had been to the movie "Outsourced". I have seen this movie again after I got back. Well it is remarkable how much of the movies plot I can identify with my own. (Maybe except to love plot between the American guy and the Indian girl).

I really encourage you to see this movie and if you can go to India, I haven't thought about making another traveling so soon after coming back from South America but it had happened to me, very out of the blue, without much planning, and I'm very thankful for that.

Ariel