Filling Little Thoughts With Little Ears

Joe Sorren is disgustingly good. I’ve not seen much work of his that hasn’t caused me to salivate.

I already own two cloth-bound hardbacks of his work: the collection In Celebration of Balance and Opposable Thumbs, and one documenting his exhibition When She Was Camera.

The latter book provided me with my first Sorren print, which accompanied it, noted as a ‘finger painting’ -  its texture is a bit like one, but the figure of the portrait also has a small finger coming out the top of its head.

I’m distracted…

Today I bought the above. It’s as the title to this post says. Discovered at the treasure trove that is Popup, it is one of 45 signed prints worldwide. As soon as I opened the display draw half an inch I knew who the work was by, and the more that came into view the more excited I became.

The arhythmic heart patterns that followed had me so concerned I had to buy it to resolve a dangerous health issue.

It’s a reasonably large print, and is brilliant above the bed, in pride of place. The theme, as the title suggests, is rather circular. Probably hard to pick out at this scale, the amorphous figures, adorning and even cocooning out of the tree, are both conveying words from the main figure and whispering back to him in a loop. There are other parallels and resonances in the detail.

There is too much that I like about Sorren, but one of the key points, brought out in a work like this, is the way he plays with layers and texture.

His website / blog has a great demonstration of a painting in progress.

So in previous two examples we have dived into how to make and show popUp’s in your Flex application. What if for example we have a Flex application that has a white background and when we show the popUp, we want the color of modal part to be a little darker. See two images below.

We would want the background around the popUp to be darker

Looks much better doesnt it

As you can see the 2nd popUp looks a bit nicer than the first. We can set the modalColor of our popUps to any color we like. We have 4 styles that are associated with popUp’s and Alerts in Flex. Those are:

• modalTransparencyColor – color of the modal part of the screen
• modalTransparency – transparency of the modal part of the screen, goes from 0 – fully transparent to 1 – no transparecy
• modalTransparencyBlur – blur of the background
• modalTransparencyDuration – how long should be the transition of modal part of the screen from not visible to fully visible

We have to set this styles in our Application MXML tag or Application styleTag when using stylesheets. For our example we used modalTransparencyColor=”#000000″ (black) and modalTransparency=”0.7″. Just playing a bit with these 4 styles can yield some interesting results when dealing with popUp’s and Alerts in Flex.

Happy Coding

Today I am going to show you how easy it is to show popUp windows in your Flex application.

Above is a picture of our simple application that only has one label and a button, when we press the button a nice popup with rounded corners pops up and if we click close button in the popup it disappears.

In order to make this work, we have to build two files, one will be our application with the text and button to show popup and another file that will be a MXML component (in Flex Builder you just go to File -> New -> MXML Component). Both of the files have to be saved in the same directory on order for this example to work.

Application source code

To use popups Flex has a manager that is devoted specially for that. In our Application under script tags we import mx.managers.PopUpManager. This will allow us to show the popup windows, center them and close them when needed.

As you can see above the application is very basic, on the button click we call showPopUp() function. In this function we first declare a local variable of type IFlexDisplayObject, because this is what createPopUp method from PopUpManager returns.

createPopUp method accepts 4 arguments, 2 of them are optional. First we have to specify the parent of the Popup, this will help Flex set up coordinates and such when we want to later center the popup. Since we want to have our application as the parent we input this as first parameter.

Second parameter we input the name of the MXML component that we made as our PopUp window, in our example file is popUpWindow.mxml, thus we put popUpWindow as second parameter.

The third parameter is optional – modal:Boolean, so it can be either true or false. If we set it to true, than we will not be able to do anything other than interact with popUp window, if it is set to false, than we can still interact with application even when our popUp is on screen.

All there is to do now, it to center our new popUp window with PopUpManager.centerPopUp(popUp). The argument popUp is IFlexDisplayObject that we have created with PopUpManager.createPopUp() method.

Blow is the source of the popUpWindow.mxml file. The only thing worth noting here is that we have assigned a click action for a button, which calls PopUpManager.removePopUp() method. Arugment is this, since our mxml file is the popUp that we want to remove from stage.

popUpWindow.mxml file

I must say that I have always loved pop-up books; they’re pretty damn clever — and are a category or genre of their own. Recently my interest have been rekindled by reading pop-up children’s books at my kids’ bedtimes.  Sadly, my little boy is in the middle of the terrible twos and so likes to destroy anything that has flaps or pop-ups.  Oh well.

Maybe when they’re older, and can appreciate the art of the pop-up, I will be able to get them something fabulous — possibly something like the works of Marion Bataille — check out www.abc3dbook.com/.

The abc3d book is just wonderful, despite it’s simplicity, it remains creative and ingenious.

embedded video from youtube.com:

This is Marion’s first UK publication, so I wish her all the best. It’s available on Amazon.co.uk

§

There are many ways to call a popup window from aspx. I only post the ones I have used. If you have used other ways. Please feel free to contribute. Thanks.

Sorry for the lack of explanations, as I am still learning myself.

Dim PopUpScript As String

PopUpScript = “javascript: window.open(‘Popup.aspx?’,'popupage’,’scrollbars=yes,width=790,height=510,resizable=no,left=10′)”

ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(Me, Me.GetType(), “PopUpScript”, PopUpScript, True)

To pass a variable ID to the next page, I use:

PopUpScript = “javascript: window.open(‘Popup.aspx?ID=1′,’popupage’,’scrollbars=yes,width=790,height=510,resizable=no,left=10′)”

2nd Method

Protected Sub lnkbutton_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles lnkbutton.Click

lnkbutton.Attributes.Add(“onclick”, “window.open(‘http://www.yahoo.com’,'null’,'height=768, width=1024,status= no, resizable=yes, scrollbars=yes, toolbar=no,location=no,menubar=no ‘);”)
End Sub

Este ejemplo utiliza un Hook para interceptar los mensajes de Windows que llegan a nuestra aplicación, y de esta forma poder deshabilitar el menú contextual de un TextBox al hacer click derecho (el menú de copiar, pegar, seleccionar todo, …)

Para inicializar el hook se debe llamar a la función Hook y para removerlo o finalizarlo , la función UnHook.

A los dos procedimientos, se le debe pasar como parámetro el Hwnd del control Textbox.

Para deshabilitar el menú:

Call Hook (Text1.Hwnd)

Para habilitar el menú:

Call UnHook (Text1.hwnd)

Colocar un control Textbox llamado Text1 en el formulario. El Hook o procedimiento que procesa los mensajes, debe estar obligatoriamente declarado en un modulo:

'Función Api SetWindowLong
Public Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long
' Función Api CallWindowProc
Public Declare Function CallWindowProc Lib "user32" Alias "CallWindowProcA" (ByVal lpPrevWndFunc As Long, ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal Msg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
'Constantes
' mensaje para el menú contextual
Public Const WM_CONTEXTMENU = &H7B
Global lpPrevWndProc As Long
'Comienza el Hook
Public Sub Hook(Handle As Long)
lpPrevWndProc = SetWindowLong(Handle, -4, AddressOf WinProc)
End Sub
'Termina el Hook
Public Sub Unhook(Handle As Long)
Call SetWindowLong(Handle, -4, lpPrevWndProc)
End Sub
'Procedimiento chequea los mensajes que llegan para ver si se despliega el menú contextual en el textbox indicado
Public Function WinProc(ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal Msg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
' Chequea si el mensaje  es WM_CONTEXTMENU (el menú contextual)
If Msg = WM_CONTEXTMENU Then
WinProc = True
Else
WinProc = CallWindowProc(lpPrevWndProc, hWnd, Msg, wParam, lParam)
End If
End Function

Y colocar esto en el formulario:

Option Explicit
Private Sub Form_Load()
'Inicializa el Hook ( Indicar el Textbox a deshabiltar )
Call Hook(Text1.hWnd)
End Sub
<p>Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
'Remueve
Call Unhook(Text1.hWnd)
End Sub

Si quisieramos deshabilitar el menú contextual de todos los controles textbox que hay en el form, podemos hacerlo con un bucle For Each:

Option Explicit
Private Sub Form_Load()
Dim Ctrl As Control
'Recorre todos los textbox del formulario
For Each Ctrl In Me.Controls
'Verifica que el control es un textbox
If TypeOf Ctrl Is TextBox Then
'Inicia el hook
Hook Ctrl.hWnd
End If
Next
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
Dim Ctrl As Control
'Recorre en un bucle  todos los textbox del form
For Each Ctrl In Me.Controls
'¿ Es un textbox ?
If TypeOf Ctrl Is TextBox Then
'Finaliza el hook
Unhook Ctrl.hWnd
End If
Next
End Sub

Otra forma de poder realizar esto sin un Hook, es creando nuestro propio menú con el editor de Visual basic, y en el evento mouseDown del textbox, desplegamos un menú propio:

Private Sub Text1_MouseDown(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
If Button <> vbRightButton Then Exit Sub
Text1.Enabled = False
Text1.Enabled = True
Text1.SetFocus
'Despliega el PopupMenu en el textbox
Me.PopupMenu mnu_popUp
End Sub

Die meisten Nutzer stören sich bei der kostenlosen Avira AntiVir-Version über das Werbe-Popup. Mit Windows-Bordmitteln gibt es eine einfache und legale Möglichkeit dies zu unterbinden.

Leider funktioniert dieser Trick nur ab der Professional-Edition, wie sie bei Windows XP und Windows 7 heißt und bei Windows Vista auf den Namen Business-Edition getauft wurde. Bei den Home-Editionen fehlt der Sicherheitsrichtlinien-Editor, hier hilft nur der Umweg über eine Registry-Änderung, wofür man im Netz einige vorgefertigte Dateien findet.

Ansonsten einfach folgende Schritte durchführen:

• Unter der Systemsteuerung, im Unterpunkt Verwaltung die lokalen Sicherheitsrichtlinien aufrufen
• Dort unter den “Richtlinien für Softwareeinschränkung” auf die “zusätzlichen Regeln” klicken
• Dort dann per Rechtsklick eine neue Pfadregel erstellen und als Pfad die “avnotify.exe” im Antivir-Installationsverzeichnis angeben (meistens unter C > Programme > Avira > …)
• Unter Sicherheitsstufe noch auf das “nicht erlaubt” achten und dann sollte das Werbefenster verschwunden sein

Sono sempre di più i siti che, quando visitiamo lo loro home page ci  salutano per nome,quasi come se a quel indirizzo fossimo ormai di casa. Eppure non ci siamo mai registrati , ne abbiamo mai fornito altri dati personali. Come è possibile? L’arcano mistero è presto svelato. Quando navighiamo su internet lasciamo sempre delle tracce che, se seguite permettono di risalire alla nostra identità. Può sembrare un problema da nulla , ma non lo è affatto .E’ un pò come avere sempre alle spalle qualcuno che ci spia e sa tutto quello che facciamo durante le nostre navigazioni. Per fortuna non è difficile difendersi , ma prima di farlo dobbiamo conoscere bene il nostro nemico.

SIAMO TUTTI SCHEDATI

Ogni volta che ci colleghiamo a Internet ,il nostro Provider ci assegna un indirizzo IP,ovvero un gruppo di quattro numeri ,compresi tra 0 e 255, e separati da un punto ( ad esempio 217.201.196.16) A qualsiasi nostra azione compiuta in rete viene associato questa sorta di codice personale .Un indirizzo IP ‘ univoco e permette di identificare in ogni momento l’intestatario della linea telefonica usata per connettersi a Internet. In linea di principio ,soltanto i Provider e le autorità giudiziarie possono associare un indirizzo IP a una persona fisica .In realtà ,basta compilare un modulo di registrazione con i nostri dati per fornire di fatto all’amministratore di un sito la possibilità di identificarci e capire chi siamo , sul momento e in futuro anche mediante l’utilizzo di altri strumenti di controllo ,come i famigerati Cookie archiviati dal Browser , che tengano traccia delle nostre abitudini in rete. Non sono pochi ,poi i siti Web che vendono tutte le informazioni che hanno sul nostro conto ad aziende specializzate nelle ricerche di mercato che utilizzano a loro volta per inviarci pubblicità mirata tramite fastidiose finestre Popup.

RENDIAMOCI IRRICONOSCIBILI.

Per difendere il nostro anonimato , basta camuffare l’indirizzo IP assegnatoci dal Provider e mostrarne uno diverso ai siti Web che visitiamo. Occorre però camuffare adeguatamente il Browser, usando ad esempio i cosiddeti  Proxy, dei particolari dispositivi che fungono da intermediari tra il nostro sistema e il sito che vogliamo visitare, scaricano per noi le pagine nella loro memoria interna e solo dopo le inviano al nostro computer. Tutto questo “traffico” risulta completamente trasparente ai nostri occhi , ma permette di proteggere in maniera abbastanza efficace la nostra identità, in quanto al sito internet visitato risulterà solo l’indirizzo IP del Proxy e non il nostro.

LA RETE? E’ ANONIMA !

L’utilizzo di un semplice Proxy , per quanto efficiente non basta però a garantire il perfetto anonimato in Rete: basta infatti scardinare le misure di protezione per scoprire cosa fanno gli utenti che lo utilizzano e soprattutto chi sono. Per superare anche queste limitazioni  esiste il progetto TOR ( The Onion Routing)

Si tratta di una rete di comunicazione che permette ai suoi utilizzatori di difendersi dalla cosiddetta “ analisi del traffico” che consiste nel monitorare le nostre connessioni per scoprire cosa facciamo su Internet.Il funzionamento di TOR riprende quello dei Proxy , migliorandolo significativamente. L’dea alla base del progetto è semplicissima: perché usare un solo Proxy ,quando possiamo utilizzarne tanti ? I questo modo , le nostre richieste per il caricamento di un sito Internet passano attraverso almeno tre “intermediari” , chiamati in gergo Relay , in modo tale che nessuno malintenzionato in grado di spiare un solo punto del percorso possa capire dove sia diretta la richiesta e, soprattutto da chi è stata effettuata. I dati scambiati fra i diversi Relay , sono cifrati e ognuno conosce solo quale Realy gli ha passato le informazioni e a quale inoltrarne , senza sapere chi ha dato vita alla richiesta di tale informazioni., cioè il nostro computer. In questo modo anche se un Relay venisse compromesso , sarebbe impossibile a differenza dell’utilizzo di un singolo Proxy , risalire alla nostra identità. Tutta la rete TOR , inoltre è strutturata in modo da modificare automaticamente ogni 10 minuti il percorso seguito dai nostri dati , per evitare che qualcuno possa collegare le azioni che noi effettuiamo su Internet

E SE NON BASTA ANCORA………

L’aver camuffato il nostro indirizzo IP non ci mette ancor al riparo da altre pericoloso minacce: Cookie ,e codici Javascript malevoli sono sempre in agguato .Brevemente si tratta di semplici file di testo archiviati nella Cache dei Browser dai siti internet visitati e in cui vengono memorizzati alcuni nostri dati personali .I questo modo , viene facilitata la navigazione , evitandoci ad esempio la seccatura di doverci identificare ogni qualvolta usufruiamo dei servizi offerti. E fin qui , non ci sarebbe niente di male nel loro utilizzo. Il fatto è che i cookie permettono di associare l’indirizzo IP alla nostra identità. E se pensiamo a quanti Banner pubblicitari ci sono sui vari siti Internet e a tutte le aziende senza scrupoli che si nascondono dietro , è evidente quanto poco rispettata sia la nostra privacy. C’è poi da tenere in considerazione il fatto che ogni volta che clicchiamo

un link all’interno di una pagina Web , il nuovo sito internet può conoscere esattamente l’indirizzo di quello da cui proveniamo , il cosiddetto Referer. E la stessa cosa può succedere anche quando clicchiamo su un collegamento presente in un messaggio di posta giunto alla nostra Webmail. Un malintenzionato capace di metter emano al codice HTML delle pagine Web può iniettarvi dentro dei pezzi di codice Javascript in grado memorizzazione dei cookie nella cache del Browser e disattivare l’esecuzione di codice Javascript . Ma in questo modo dovremmo rinunciare a molti servizi , animazioni e contenuti multimediali presenti sui tanti siti legittimi e “FIDATI” sparsi per la rete. La soluzione ? Usare due Browser : il primo per la navigazione tradizionale , il secondo io consiglio Firefox , opportunamente configurato per muoversi in anonimato e senza lasciare traccia .

Domani leggerete come configurare Firefox ( in abbinata a THOR ) per non lasciare tracce

Owners.com wurde 1995 gegründet und zählt zu den ältesten Webseiten auf Ihrem Gebiet. Mehr als 1 Million Hausbesitzer in allen 50 Bundesstaaten der USA haben die Website genutzt. Das macht ein Transaktionsvolumen von über 200 Milliarden Dollar aus. Die Seite nutzt verschiedene Popups wie Google Maps, was sie aber nicht bedeutend von anderen unterscheidet. Die lange Existenz auf dem Immobilienmarkt spricht jedoch für sich. Das Design ist einfach gehalten.

This post deals with opening default web browser from a .NET Application (esp. a Windows Application).

First, copy the following code and paste it in your class.

Private Declare Function ShellExecute _
                            Lib "shell32.dll" _
                            Alias "ShellExecuteA"( _
                            ByVal hwnd As Long, _
                            ByVal lpOperation As String, _
                            ByVal lpFile As String, _
                            ByVal lpParameters As String, _
                            ByVal lpDirectory As String, _
                            ByVal nShowCmd As Long) _
                            As Long

Then, you can use the function ShellExecute() as follows.

Private Sub Button1_Click()
   Dim objBrowser As Long
   objBrowser = ShellExecute(0, "open", "http://easyvsto.wordpress.com", 0, 0, 1)
End Sub

We can also open the default web browser as:

Process.Start("http://easyvsto.wordpress.com")

I usually create a Form and place a WebBrowser control in it and use it for opening any web pages. I will get back to you with that soon.

Microsoft reference for the topic, Click here

En uno de los sistemas que estamos desarrollando (hace ya bastante tiempo) tuvimos la necesidad de desplegar nuestros reportes generados con Crystal Report en formato PDF.

Al principio (antes de generar reportes con CR) se desplegaban usando PopUp Modales, pero cuando migramos y exportamos a PDF simplemente no se desplegaban quedando la ventana en blanco. En ese entonces como el tiempo apremiaba se decidió usar popup tradicionales (window.popup) y por un largo tiempo todo estubo bien.

Durante las pruebas de la aplicación a nadie le parecio molesto, pero realizando pruebas de rendimiento mas a fondo y en produccion me di cuenta que en ciertas versiones IE genera un nuevo proceso para esta nueva ventana, esto se traducia en un tiempo extra antes de la presentación del reporte. Decidí volver a intentarlo con ventanas modales y buscar una solución!

Reproducir el problema es bastante simple, basta con abrir una ventana modal (showModalDialog) que abra directamente un archivo PDF.

La Solución

Para permitir que dentro de un popup Modal  se visualice un PDF solo se debe insertar un IFRAME dentro de la página que se paso como parámetro al popup.

<iframe src=’<%=psRutaReporte%>‘ width=’100%’ tabindex=”0″ style=”height: 680px” onload=”ocultarTabla()” frameborder=”no” id=”frameReporte”></iframe>

La función ocultarTabla() se ejecuta apenas se carga la pagina que esta siendo solicitada en el IFRAME y esta aplica un estilo a un DIV que presento con la frase “cargando reporte…” para ocultarlo. Asi evitamos mostrar un “blanco” al usuario.

La variable psRutaReporte es una variable pública del Codebehind para pasarle la ruta del reporte que debe cargar de forma parametrizada, como comprenderán algunos, estoy utilizando una única ventana como puente para desplegar los reportes.

Saludos!

Normally to open a new window using javascript we write the following code:

// open new window with specified path

function OpenWindow(url)

{
    newwindow = window.open(url, 'mywindow', 'width=500,height=400');  

}

Now In .aspx.cs page or server side to use the javascript window open you have to use the following code

 StringBuilder popupScript = new StringBuilder();
 popupScript.Append("<script language='JavaScript'> window.open('ViewReports.aspx?groupid=" + ddlreportGroup.SelectedValue.ToString() + "&FromDate=" + Convert.ToDateTime(txtDate.Text) + "&Todate=" + Convert.ToDateTime(txtToDate.Text) + "&Report=Rptname" + "', '', 'width=950, height=580,scrollbars,status,menubar=no,resizable,toolbar=no,titlebar=no,location=no');</script>");
// if you are using script manager - update panel then this
 ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(this.Page, Page.GetType(), "PopupScript", popupScript.ToString(), false);
//else
Page.RegisterStartupScript("PopupScript", popupScript.ToString());

Dubbing itself “The Ultimate Popup Blocker” is rather insulting I think. It does so much more than that.

So, I have Spyware on my computer, and it usually detects 30 to 40 viruses weekly, which seems like rather a lot to me. Recently, however, for some stupid, long-to-get-to reason, I did, in fact, download HotBar. I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with this parasite, but it is an abomination, catastrophy, demon, or any other word you want to use for Hell-hole-pain-in-the-ass. Now, don’t get my wrong. HotBar didn’t sizzle my computer into steam and goo, but it DID continue to piss me off, incessantly poping up, if not once per page then once per second after a long time of poking around on the internet I realized that the solutions availble were to either A) do it manually, and that was for supercyper hacker extraordinares only, OR B) download a device to remove the product. Unfortunately, I didn’t really trust any of the downloads available or they didn’t work.

After a lot of hair pulling and nail biting, however I did stumble across a miracle.

STOPzilla.    …   Wow.

Now keep in mind, I have Spyware and Anti-virus and, what I thought, were pretty much all the bells and whistles. Stopzilla, however, is different. First of all, it’s NOT free, like a lot of the other downloads that seem to be availble. It DOES work though, unlike the other ones.

But here’s why it gets my Nod of the Day:

First of all, it detected, not the usual 30 or 40 threats, but 600! And it fixed them all.

Second of all, it DID rid my computer of HotBar. Rather quickly too. And anything else I never knew I didn’t want on here.

Third, it doesn’t detect like your normal Spyware or Anti-virus protect. Even if you have those, I can guarantee Stopzilla is a huge upgrade. It protects your computer with the protection of BOTH of those combined, but it let’s you keep your internet more private and safe, while protecting your computer from ADWARE (which is just as bad as Spyware).

Fourth? Well, if the first three weren’t enough, this product isn’t free but it’s cheap. Stopzilla is free to download and run, allowing you to scan your computer and see the threats for free BEFORE you choose to buy the solution. For $10, you can move on to the next step, which is cleaning out all, and I mean all, threats from your computer. And that ten bucks lasts you the duration of one whole year, unless you rather get a lifetime supply for just 40 bucks. Either way, it’s a great deal. Plus they give you a 30 day money-back guarantee, so there’s really nothing to lose.

I’m happy to say, my computer is back on track now, and running faster than it was before. That’s probably because STOPzilla got rid of, not only HotBar and Zango (yuck), but a bunch of threatening infections that I never knew my laptop had before. Who knew a complete computer miracle was available for just $9.95?!

A+ 

Check out STOPzilla’s numerous computer fix-it devices!

We know the folks at MIT are the cutting edge scientists of tomorrow right? We’re always impressed by the stuff coming out of their labs. Well, almost always.  This rethinking of pop-up books does not let us down. We’ve seen some pretty complicated pop-up books. Some that made us really wonder how they pulled it off. But all of those were simply paper and card stock. At MIT, they’re wondering how we can improve the interactive experience now that the electronic components are so cheap and easily available. Even if you don’t have kids, or have no interest in pop-up books, consider this some inspiration for things like packaging and art. This looks fantastic and we know we would enjoy it. Then again, a few flashing LEDs always pique our interest.

[via Gizmodo]

you can use this function to make the parent page refresh.
function closeWindow()
{

window.opener.RefreshPage();
window.close();

}

if you want to fire an event based on the pop up click then u can do so by
window.onunload = unloadPage;

based on that function calling u can refresh ur parent page by the following fuinction
function unloadPage()
{
//window.opener.RefreshPage();
window.opener.document.forms[0].submit();
}

this function will make ur parent page refresh while u click on the close button of the pop up window. Let me know if you have any query regarding this.

Regards

Munir

Stumbled upon this at the weekend. Very, very lovely.