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Three interesting things about Apple Safari came out this past week. Apple Safari 3.1 passed the Acid 3 test Apple Safari running on a Mac was hacked in 2 minutes flat at PWN To OWN and fell in the second round using a default install of Mac OS X software. Even Vista made it to the third round where it was successfully hacked through the Adobe Flash plug-in for IE 7. Apple is pushing Safari to Windows users with out their permission. In my opinion it is great that the Apple Safari team is working very hard to support web standards. However that should be secondary to building a secure browser platform that is going to protect their user base. This should be obvious to every developer with in Apple, because Acid 3 features aren’t currently out on the net, so support isn’t that critical, however browser exploits are out there right now just looking for prey. ...

There is a simple way to tell if you can use MVC in your web application. If any of the following are true, you probably shouldn’t: You require the ViewState This includes any 3rd party control… Quick way to check this is disable ViewState and check to see if you application works as expected. You require post backs This usually is required by Web Forms or Microsoft AJAX Toolkit… Fortunately most of the post back functionality can be duplicated on the client side with AJAX. I fine jQuery makes a real easy job of this. So that is all that you need to ask your self when thinking of upgrading or deciding which route to take when planning your new application.

So I just read Rob Conery’s blog post on Securing Your Controller Actions in MVC. I was a little perplexed about why guys at Microsoft love to reinvent stuff they have already done. I know Rob Conery is a really smart guy and has a wonderful grasp of the .NET framework, so I would have to assume he knows about what I have outlined below. My only guess is that he just wanted to re-invent something that is already built in to the framework using his own code. ...

I have been a huge fan of Fiddler the HTTP Debugging Proxy for a couple years now. However one thing that always bugged me about any network debugging tool was the fact that it could not debug localhost or 127.0.0.1. However I just found a solution while racking my brain for a way to debug one of my local projects. I don’t know if many of you are aware but the website http://localhostproxy.com points to 127.0.0.1 as a standard for URL examples. ...

My last article on ASP.NET MVC CAPTCHA was very well received by many of my readers and it even caught the eye of the DotNetKicks crowd. Now that MVC Preview 2 was released last week, many new features make encapsulating my CAPTCHA control even easier. Most notably is the ActionFilterAttribute which allows you to override the Pre and Post action events for any action the attribute is applied to. Basically everything works the same as it did in the previous article. I just modified things for MVC Preview 2. To validate the CAPTCHA you add the attribute CaptchaValidation to the action. ...

Today Apple had their big iPhone SDK press release. They opened up the phone and added a bunch of Enterprise features that many small to large corporate customers have been asking for. But they still haven’t implemented the features I am looking for in a smart phone, and until they do, they will not see my money. Microsoft Exchange Direct Push Tethering 3G Network (I currently use Verizon) I know #2 will be coming, if not through Apple somebody else will do it, since Apple has unlocked the iPhone to developers. However #3 is the one that I may have to wait for Verizon to switch to GSM in the distant future. Other than my last 2 requirements I am sold on the iPhone.

So today it was brought to my attention that the design of my blog needed work. Since good design is a very subjective term, much like good programming: your program (n): a maze of non-sequiturs littered with clever-clever tricks and irrelevant comments. Compare MY PROGRAM. my program (n): a gem of algorithmic precision, offering the most sublime balance between compact, efficient coding on the one hand, and fully commented legibility for posterity on the other. Compare YOUR PROGRAM. ...

Just saw on OSNews that Microsoft Research has just released the Singularity Source Code on CodePlex. Microsoft has released source code from the Singularity research project onto Codeplex under an academic, non-commercial license. “The Singularity Research Development Kit is based on the Microsoft Research Singularity project. It includes source code, build tools, test suites, design notes, and other background materials. The Singularity RDK is for academic non-commercial use only and is governed by this license.” ...

Note: Most recent update for MVC Release Candidate 3 is out. So my MVC application that I have been working on required a CAPTCHA today. The problem is that all of the solutions out there, that I could find for ASP.NET, are control based and I wanted a more MVC approach. I know I could have easily implemented one of them using the Html.RenderControl(), however I want to use a MVC approach to the CAPTCHA authentication box. So I started out with Jeff Atwood’s CAPTCHA Control made for ASP.NET 2.0 in VB.NET 2005. I then converted it to C# and modified and expanded on it for the MVC framework. The following is the result of my work. ...

I would like to congratulate the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON™), it is the largest student-run philanthropy in the world, and this past weekend they raised $6,615,318.04 for children with cancer. And a special congratulations to my fraternity Alpha Phi Delta, Chi Chapter, for participating and helping to raise money for this great cause.