Moving to FeedBurner

Hi

I decide to move my RSS feed to FeedBurner.
If you're reading this blog, please update your feeds to the my new RSS - http://feeds.feedburner.com/VladimirVexlersBlog

Enjoy.

Asynchronous Programming with MSMQ: and it's installation issues.

MSMQ has already been there for while. Actually it has been here at least 5-6 years (that is only the time I am familiar with it).
The Idea of it is pretty simple:

1. You have an application with some logic.
2. Part of this logic is to perform asynchronous calls to some other application logic.
3. You do not wish that it will affect your performance.
4. The order of handling those calls has to preserve - the FIFO method.

So, back in the begging of the millennium Microsoft released a nice, free of charge, comes with Windows (PC & server), service called MSMQ - Microsoft Message Queuing. It was not the first attempt but it was stable, free, already inside solution.
This is the idea how it works:

1. Your main application during it's work can send Messages to some queue (in this case, one of queues inside MSMQ,). This is done by using the System.Messages library.
2. Some other application, a Windows Service for example, listens to this queue.
3. Each time a new message arrives it reads it and executes some logic.
4. After reading the message the message is automatically deleted from the Queue.

This is how it looks :

Here are some links of Basic and advanced programming:

1. Good starting review and examples : Programming MSMQ in .NET : http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/mgrmsmq.asp
2. Some more advanced stuff: MSMQ for .NET Developers (Part 1): http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/27560/0/page/1
3. Some more advanced-advanced stuff :-) : MSMQ for .NET Developers, Part 2: http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/27922

How to install MSMQ?

Installation process is quite easy (you might need your Windows installation disk):

1. Control Panel
2. Add or Remove Programs
3. Add/Remove Windows Components (on the left sidebar)
4. Select "Message Queuing"
5. Next, Finish

Sometimes happens this installation issue/problem :
This issue happened to me yesterday, when I was trying to install the MSMQ on my newly formatted computer:
"
The MSMQ Service cannot be started.

Error Code: 0x42C
Error Description: The dependency service or group failed to start.
"

This is what you need to do:

1. Start button
2. Run
3. services.msc - Open the services console
4. Enable this service "NT LM Security Support Provider". In addition, set it to Manual mode
5. Install MSMQ again

Hope this helps,
Vladi

Capital Raising - Do your homework

Part of the strategy of my company is to raise a capital from VCs (Venture Capital Funds), Incubators or Angels.
Since I believe in "If you fail to plan you plan to fail", I am planning very carefully everything and, in this case, my approach to the fund raising procedure.

On last weeked I worked for 2 days and reviewed all VCs in Israel.
What did I do and what was I looking for?

1. Investing strategy: What is their investing strategy? Do they invest in pre-seed, seed, or later stage only? Maybe they are inveting only in well financed companies that wish to expand?
2. The Portfolio - Your Niche: It is very important to know in what kind of companies this particular VC has invested in the past. It can learn you things like:
1. Does this VC like and understand the niche your startup is working at? When I say like I mean they believe that there is big money in it.
2. Are there too many companies like yours, maybe your direct competitors? If there is a direct competitor maybe this VC will not invest in you because you are jeopardizing other VC's portofolio companies.
3. The Portfolio - Your Competitors: Are there any competitors to my startup that I don't know about yet?
4. How does this VC work: What is the standard process in this VC? What are they looking for?

It was a very intense work but I learned many things from it.

Here are the full complete list of Venture Capital Funds that work in Israel: http://www.science.co.il/Venture-Capital-Funds.asp
and this is the Incubators list: http://www.science.co.il/Technology-Incubators.asp

Hope this helps,

Vladi

How to raise money from VCs

Some of you already know that I have founded a new startup company.
It is called DCF Technologies.
What it is about - It is still a secret, but I promiss to reveal details soon.

I will do something even better:
I will try to post my experiences of starting a new company and all the things that comes with it...

In a mean while, Here is a nice, funny, clip with some advices about raising money from VC funds: How-to-raise-money-from-VCs

Enjoy

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