Monthly Archives: April 2008

Desktop Toolbar

Most Windows user might have known that we can create a toolbar which maps to a certain folder in your PC by right-clicking on the taskbar. But, not all people are using that feature of Windows. A few weeks ago, I happened to drag a folder on my Vista desktop to one of the corners of my desktop. It automatically became a toolbar!!! I was so happy. Then, I created a folder in which shortcuts to my frequently accessed folders were put. Then, I made a toolbar for that parent folder on my desktop. Hmm.. Nice.

Today, I told Chris that I found out that feature of Windows. I even told him that I thougth it was introduced only in Vista. He said it had been there since Windows 98 or something. :D :D :D Why didn’t I find it out? Maybe I use keyboard more than mouse – Chris guessed. 

Formatting Dates with English Suffixes | Hiding Ribbon in MSO2007

When we need to format dates as 1st Jul or 22nd Mar, we can use the following code.

  1. DateTime todayDate = DateTime.Now;
  2. DateTime dt = DateTime.Parse(todayDate.ToShortDateString(), CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo(“en-US”));  
  3. string month = dt.ToString(“MMM”, CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo(“en-US”));  
  4.   
  5. Calendar calendar = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture.Calendar;  
  6.   
  7. int dayOfMonth = calendar.GetDayOfMonth(showDate.ShowDate);  
  8. string suffix = string.Empty;  
  9. string formattedDay;  
  10.   
  11. switch (dayOfMonth)  
  12. {  
  13.     case 1:  
  14.     case 21:  
  15.     case 31: suffix = “st”; break;  
  16.     case 2:  
  17.     case 22: suffix = “nd”; break;  
  18.     case 3:  
  19.     case 23: suffix = “rd”; break;  
  20.     default: suffix = “th”; break;  
  21. } 
  22.  
  23. formattedDay = dayOfMonth.ToString() + suffix + “ ” + month;

Simple enough, huh? :) Oh.. one more thing I just wanna jot down. If we need more space for reading or inserting data in MS Office 2007, just hit Ctrl+F1 to hide the Ribbon. The key combination is a toggle key. Hitting them again will bring back Ribbon.

Thingyan 2008

Well, nothing much for me to do here, except missing Yangon. This year it is a 5-days festival. Burmese people here would be quite happy to welcome the festival on this weekend, I guess. Actually, even in Yangon, I did not fully celebrate it like others. My dad sometimes brought us in his saloon with glass doors closed and we looked around Yangon.

But, just before I came to Singapore, my family went to Maymyo - my favourite place on earth – during Thingyan festival 2005. It was so cool to travel all the way up there. Along the highway, local people threw water at us (or our car). It was such an exciting experience in my life. I would never forget that journey. Aww.. It has been already 4 years since then…

C# ‘HTML to PDF’ Conversion Component

Today, I was tasked to look for a solution to generate some PDF file from aspx. I spent some time exploring any available projects on SourceForge. I found almost a dozen. Some well-known are PDFizer, PDFSharp, SharpPDF, and my choice - iTextSharp. We also have commercial solutions such as ExpertPDF HtmlToPdf Converter and HTML to PDF Converter for .Net.

PDFizer could read just simple HTML tags. It could not even support HTML tables (yet). And, after reading some more forums, I found iSharpText quite appropriate to deploy. I have to structure my PDF much like we use HTMLTextWriter. I tested it. Not so bad. I managed to generate a PDF in which user input text was rendered.

Today, I would like to thank Chris for introducing Hide Menubar and Faviconize Tab Firefox extensions. I need some screen space! =)

LTNP (April)

Long time no post. When was my last entry posted??? Hmm… December 16. Almost 4 months already. Well, I am just using Twitter and Tumblr more.

Now, I am working full-time. So, I don’t have much time to write here, plus nothing interesting to talk about these days. Yep, at the end of January, I went back to Yangon (Rangoon of Burma). I stayed there for 1 month + 10 days. I had a great time there. I went to Chaung Tha beach and Maw-La-Myein (Moulmein) with my family. 

I came back to Singapore on March 10. I stayed home for a few days and I started looking for a job. Thank God. I got a job within a couple of days. I thank Chris, Wai Phyo and Pyisoe for this.

Working full-time, I couldn’t even update my Burmese blog very well. But, we’re thinking about purchasing some web space. Hehe. Web hosting for personal usage and some undisclosed project. A project for Burmese people. Hint: It’s a blog. Blog, again!?? :D

I also wanna buy 160GB portable HDD. It is getting cheaper. But, actually, I am not even using my old 40GB Ext HDD. Hmm., I don’t think I’m gonna buy that.

Oh yep! last Monday, I went to SMU to sit for admission Interview. It was an awesome experience. It took us 2 hours to complete the entire interview process. During the interview, I got to understand Fermi Question and its significance. (Classic Fermi Questions)

Actual question that we encountered was:

How many mandarin oranges were sold during Chinese New Year 2008?

Haha… my answer was 65 million. Don’t ask me how I come up with that answer. :D Anyway, it’s time for bed. Let me stop writing. I hope I update this blog regularly. (Most posts will be personal things, perhaps.) 

That’s all for now. Peace out.