If you create a file named App_Offline.htm in the root of the web application, asp.net will shut down the app domain for the application and return the contents of the file in response to all requests. Once you’re done updating, delete the file and normal service will resume. Much simpler, especially if you’re deploying via FTP.

Full details in a post from Scott Guthrie here.

I’m now coming down and trying to adjust to the idea of becoming human again. I’ve learnt and experienced a massive amount, but it’s also taken quite a lot out of me, and I think it will be a little while before I can properly focus on moving on to something new.

I started out with massive enthusiasm and great intentions, but if you’re under pressure for a prolonged time then gradually all of the non-essential things start to drop away, until eventually this includes learning, passion, curiosity, friendships etc. I think once I’ve started to defrost then these will all return quite naturally.

Anyway, enough self-pity. To kick-start my rebirth I’ve set up Vista on a shiny new MacBook. Apparantly this either means I’m gay or a girl, but that’s ok.

The reason for the same is the Visual J# Redistributable is not a part of Visual Studio 2008, unlike earlier versions of Visual Studio. You can go ahead and install Visual J# Redist (v2.0/or 2.0 Second Edition) on your machine.

You can download the redist from here - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vjsharp/bb188598.aspx

What started out as an overheating CPU turned into an addictive major hardware overhaul and fresh install of Vista. However, I now have lovely fans. And a pretty glowing fan controller on the front.

So for the past week I’ve been coming home from long stressful days and getting fist-deep into my case. The idea is to come out with a stable, work-worthy machine so that I can fit in the impossible by spending evenings and weekends coding.

Pretty damn useful that I like what I do.

http://blogs.msdn.com/sourceanalysis/archive/2008/05/23/announcing-the-release-of-microsoft-source-analysis.aspx

I would love to be able to give a list of my favourite bands, and subscribe to a feed of gigs they are planning in my area; or give a list of my preferred cinemas, and find out whenever a new film is showing at any of them.

Once you are providing more personal feeds, then authentication becomes an issue. There is fairly widespread support in aggregators for both SSL and Basic Authentication, but this can be overkill for certain situations.

The data we are exposing is not particularly sensitive, and it would be a real pain for a user who has authenticated with the main site to be challenged when they subscribe to a feed. Instead, the approach we’ve taken in…

• When a private feed is available on a page, the meta tag in the head includes a token on the querystring for the feed URL that is generated based on the currently authenticated user
• When serving up a private feed for a particular user, we expect the token on the querystring, and bounce the request if either the token is missing, or is incorrect

This means…

• An authenticated user can subscribe directly to a feed without an additional challenge
• If you know the URL to your own feed, you can’t get access to others simply by changing the feed URL
• The mechanism used for feed authentication doesn’t expose anything related to authentication on the main site

We’re exposed to the feed URL and token being sniffed on the wire, but unless the content is particularly sensitive this seems like a suitable, practical approach to ensuring some degree of privacy without introducing complexity and barriers to subscription.

Although this is very appealing and a very cool idea, I just don’t think it makes sense. When looking at a page on screen, there are lots of visual cues that help you make sense of the content. This means that we can apply different presentation and design without leaving you confused about what you’re looking at.

When content is read, one of the main clues you have to differentiate and make sense of content is how the content is read. This means it makes sense for different content to stick to the same presentation, or conventions, so that you can learn what those conventions are, and what they mean. If everyone has control over audio presentation of their content, there is no pattern to learn, and it must be much harder to switch from document to document while listening.

Not that this really matters yet, but it may have more impact as there are more embedded devices with connectivity - so being able to listen to blog posts in your car etc.

The lesson for today:

Whenever I need to provide data to someone, I should pause, breathe, consider, then build a report rather than running an ad-hoc query. The next time they need it, I’ll be laughing. Really. And looking smug.