Visual Basic Power Packs by Bashar Lulu On May 06, 2007
Ever since it introduced Visual Basic .Net some six years ago, Microsoft has been striving to have developers jump the VB6 wagon and onto the .Net one. Being a VB6er myself I can sympathize with all those who still find it difficult to do so.

Animator vs Animation! by Bashar Lulu On Apr 28, 2007
The same site has this flash.

Enter into the Matrix! by Bashar Lulu On Apr 28, 2007
A friend of mine was trying to get in contact with me but could not because my phone's battery was dead. I later bumped into him coming back from Friday prayer and as soon as he saw me he said; "Did you see the email I sent you?" and I go; "No, what email?" and he goes: "Well, check your email. I'm expecting your call 8 minutes later." and he gives me a big smile.

Take Control of Your System by Bashar Lulu On Apr 16, 2007
First a personal piece of information: my MVP status has been renewed! Wooohooo! I'm happy :-)

A lesson in Project Management by Bashar Lulu On Apr 11, 2007
I've had my fair share of failed projects. Not as little as I'd wanted, but nonetheless, fair. One day, I realized I've had one too many and have since then embarked upon a number of project management courses.

Quickie: SQL 2005 Service Manager by Bashar Lulu On Apr 02, 2007
Remember the service manager in SQL 2000. Yes, that nice little icon near the clock in the system tray that showed the status of the SQL Server service. Well, it went missing in the 2005 version of SQL.

Quickie: Paint .Net by Bashar Lulu On Apr 02, 2007
Great tool to use. Check it out and download it now.

Hold on sugar!! by Bashar Lulu On Apr 01, 2007
My reply to Mahesh Chand's 'C# or VB.Net' blog!

Quickie: SQL 2000 with SQL 2005 by Bashar Lulu On Apr 01, 2007
Here's a quickie; if you need to interoperate two SQL servers, one version 2000 and the other version 2005.

My.Settings by Bashar Lulu On Apr 01, 2007
Back in the VB6 days, when creating applications that required specific settings unique to a particular machine (such as screen sizes, fonts or even connection strings), I used to use either an INI file or the registry for storing these settings.

Back from the dead! by Bashar Lulu On Apr 01, 2007
It is amazing how big an effect jet lag has on ones body. Ever since my return from Seattle I've only come around to blogging, today! Enough said. When I'm coding (and I'm doing a lot of that nowadays) I always have a problem with connection strings. I cannot seem to remember the darn things.

Parallel Processing? by Bashar Lulu On Apr 01, 2007
If any of you is interested in what BillG had to say in the MVP Global Summit in Seattle, here's the transcript.

Farewell Seattle... by Bashar Lulu On Mar 24, 2007
This summit has been tremendously successful and lots of fun. I got to meet some wonderful people, Billy Hollis (we had a lengthy but lovely chat over lunch, thank you Billy!!), Shaun Walker (the founder of DotNetNuke) and Sean O'Driscoll (the MVP boss of them all).

I saw Bill Gates!!! by Bashar Lulu On Mar 24, 2007
Yep, its true, I saw the man himself. Wild experience to say the least.

I'm in Seattle!! by Bashar Lulu On Mar 24, 2007
Ok, lets see. I left Kuwait at 9am. 7 hours later I was in Heathrow. Left London at 6pm Kuwait time and more than 10 hours later... I'm in Seattle. After a total of over 18 hours of fly time!!! I'm here to attend the MVP Global Summit 2007.

The Year of the Mobile!! by Bashar Lulu On Mar 07, 2007
That's it! Its official! I'm calling 2007 the year of the mobile! First Apple announce their upcoming iPhone, then Nokia announces their new E90 Communicator. Then i-mate announces their Ultimate range. And the cherry on top off the cake, Microsoft announces their new Windows Mobile 6.

Understanding: Interfaces by Bashar Lulu On Mar 07, 2007
When creating applications, there sometimes comes the need to use interfaces. An 'interface' is one of the types available in the VB .Net language (and for that matter almost all other OO languages). Interfaces are perhaps one of the most difficult types to explain. Most writeups or articles explain it as a contract; a contract that binds two classes together.

Vista Speech Recognition by Bashar Lulu On Mar 04, 2007
I've always been a fan of speech recognition. I don't really know why though. I'm a touch typist and I don't really need voice recognition to speed things up, so that never was the reason. Something about its sci-fi appeal I guess.

Virtual PC 2007 by Bashar Lulu On Feb 28, 2007
Virtual PC 2007 is available and it is absolutely free.

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 by Bashar Lulu On Feb 26, 2007
Yes, SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 is available for download.

Nokia E90 Communicator by Bashar Lulu On Feb 24, 2007
Oh... my... god!!! That is the first thing that came out my mouth when I saw Nokia's upcoming new communicator. I've always been a sucker for gadgets; I don't go for everything, I have a budget to keep.

Geeks 2 - the Return of the Code by Bashar Lulu On Feb 22, 2007
It seems the rumors of a major Microsoft event in the Arabian Gulf area at the end of March is becoming more and more fact. A speaker at the presumed event has disclosed to a fellow MVP that there is in fact an event on the way.

Vista vs. OS X by Bashar Lulu On Feb 21, 2007
The question has been asked again and again, and again. I've read so much about it; in fact, I've seen a coupla videos on You Tube that mock the similarities between the two operating system. In last weeks InfoConnect 2007, I've had people come up to me and ask that, with a 'gotcha' grin on their faces. Is Microsoft imitating OS X; or any other operating system?

CLS Compliancy by Bashar Lulu On Feb 20, 2007
Each .Net language has its own syntax, and when run on its own will work perfectly well. However, a problem arises when you wish to interoperate between these languages.

Building Custom Types by Bashar Lulu On Feb 19, 2007
When creating applications, I predominately use 'Classes' (sometimes, where appropriate, 'Structures') to model real life problems. However, to set things straight, it is important for everyone to realize that the .Net Framework offers 6 (5 in C#) types to build custom types.