Web control library project in Visual Studio 2005

Today I wanted to create a custom ASP.NET 2.0 control (not to be mistaken with Web user controls a.k.a. ASCX controls). For this reason, in Visual Studio 2003 I used to create a stand-alone Web control library which actually contains the new custom control (s). Because the whole Web project base is changed in Visual Studio 2005, you won't find a "Web Control Library" project in New Web Site dialogue. Finally I made it through! This project type is now located in Windows section - point to File | New | Project ... and choose this project as shown on the screenshot below:

And now you can start add your custom controls to the Visual Studio 2005 Toolbox by right-clicking on the specific tab. Then select "Choose items.." from the context menu. In the ".NET Framework Components" tab, locate the assembly file of your Web control library and choose the controls you want to use. And that's it ..

Google Calculator

Today I had to convert quickly from pounds to kilograms. Hence, I hit the Internet to see what the aspect ratio is between those two measurement units. I was really nicely surprised by Google, which provides a service called "Google Calculator" (link). Using it, you just have to type "1 pound in kilo" in the search criteria and you are all set! It is really small things that make people happy :-)

CopySourceAsHtml add-in for Visual Studio 2005 / 2003

Yesterday I was writing a post and I wanted to send some sample code. However, it would have been great if the code keeps the formatting which it has in Visual Studio 2005. That said, I searched for an add-in and I found this one - CopySourceAsHtml (link). The most important one - it is free. So far it seems to be working nicely and integrates really seamlessly with VS2005. It also has version for VS2003 (for those of you who are still using it :) ).

ASP.NET 2.0 Tips, Tricks, Recipes and Gotchas (on ScottGu's Blog)

I found this very interesting post about ASP.NET 2.0 tips & tricks. Not surprisingly it is on ScottGu's blog - the ASP.NET 2.0 guy :). Really, lot's of valuable hints, resources, best practices and advanced topics can be found there. A must-read article for every ASP.NET 2.0 developer.

Review: Flock browser

Today I ended up on this cool piece of software. Its name is Flock and is currently in beta. Basically, it is a new generation Internet browser, which has very handy integration with many famous Web services. It is based on the Mozilla technology. Although it is still in beta, I find it pretty stable. What I most like with it is that it has seamless integration with some popular Web 2.0 services like Flickr, Blogger, del.icio.us, which I personally adore. Actually, right now I am writing this post from the Flock browser itself, which on the other side will communicate with Blogger to publish the post.

What gives me the integration with del.icio.us? Well, I have tons of bookmarks and I am working on 3 machines - one at home, one at the office and my personal notebook. So I am indulged to sync my links among all these machines, which is really very tedious and boring task. Flock solves this using the del.icio.us service, which among all provides bookmark management to its clients. And it is free :)

Another story is the heap of pictures I got. I am currently using Yahoo!Photos for this purpose so every time I want to publish new album and pictures, I have to login there, create a new album, drag & drop the new pictures, etc. Now, I can to this with couple of clicks and drag & drops :) That is because Flock uses Flickr for photo management, which collaborates with Yahoo!Photos. Simple as that.

Well, the history shows that each Internet browser has it own particularities in regards to page rendering. Because my experience so far with Flock is not that much, I can't say whether it working sound. I read that it is based on Mozilla technologies so provided that most pages try to be compatible with Mozilla I guess that there won't be any problems. But will see ..

If you want to try out this browser, just go to its page and download it [link].