It’s about six years I’m blogging my life and using BlogEngineto publish my posts; because I believe it’s the best blog engine ever. As a matter of fact, BlogEngine is doing everything I need as a blogger and sometimes more than that. I highly recommend using it if you’re blogger!

But this post is not about BlogEngine itself! In this post I’m going to introduce a new theme for BlogEngine which is so cool!

Note: If you don’t know BlogEngine yet, please check out its website at: http://dotnetblogengine.net.

It was about five months I was going to change my blog’s theme to a new one that includes latest web standards such as HTML5 and CSS3 but I didn’t have time for that. Yesterday, I decided to change my blog theme and it took about 12 hours to create a new one. In fact, I didn’t create the theme from scratch!

The ELEGANTBLUE Theme

ElegantBlue originally designed by freecsstemplates.organd I’ve changed it a lot to get it compatible with BlogEngine. Here’s the list of things I’ve changed:

HTML5 & CSS3

Everybody is talking about HTML5 and CSS3 these because it’s awesome! It’s about a year that I’m using these in my projects. HTML5 and CSS3 give me lots of capabilities I didn’t have before and help me create user-interfaces like never before. Also, they help search engines to index your website faster than before! For example, with the new <header> HTML5 tag, search engines can recognize where your website’s header is. The ElegantBlue theme for BlogEngine is a HTML5 and CSS3 theme so search engines can find your blog contents faster and the user interface is much cooler!

Razor View Engine

In BlogEngine 2.5, you can create themes and extensions using Razor view engine. Here’s a brief explanation about Razor:

The Razor syntax is a template markup syntax that enables the programmer to use an HTML construction workflow and is based on the C# programming language. Instead of using the ASP.NET .ASPX markup syntax using <%= %> blocks to indicate code blocks the Razor syntax starts of a code block with Razor using a @ character and does not require explicit closing of the code-block.

I totally used Razor view engine in ElegentBlue theme for BlogEngine.

Note: In order to implement Razor view engine, BlogEngine has RazorHost directory in the theme folder of the application. RazorHost folder is like a default template for Razor themes. If you’re going to use this theme in your website, you need to change the DOCTYPE to HTML5 in “site.master” file because it’s set to XHTML 1.0 by default. Besides, I include this change in the download file at the end of this post.

Download

You can download the theme right from here.

 ElegantBlue.zip (352.05 kb)

Hope it helps.

As you may know, I’m one of the Apple’s fans and love to use my iOS gadgets (iPhone and iPad) in every type of tasks. Many of iOS users are using their iPhones/iPads in enterprise environments and want to connect to their company’s network while at work. In some cases, network administrators set a proxy server so users must connect to that proxy in order to access internal websites and more. As you know, iOS is currently supports HTTP proxy but it’s not enough for many users because their company’s network administrators set SOCKS proxy instead of HTTP!

By the time, there are some applications that can be installed in order to use SOCKS proxy in an iOS device but these apps are only available for jailbroken devices so other users can’t install them!

In this post I want to tell you how to use SOCKS proxy in an unjailbroken iOS device.

Note: In this example I’m using an iPhone to demonstrate the steps but you can use any iOS device; there’s no limitation at all!

The first thing you need is a web server (or any computer which has access to the internet). In this example my webserver is a PC with Windows 7 ultimate installed but you can use any type of web server you want. We use this web server in order to upload a .pac file!

The .pac file

A proxy auto-config (PAC) file defines how web browsers and other user agents can automatically choose the appropriate proxy server (access method) for fetching a given URL.

A PAC file contains a JavaScript function "FindProxyForURL(url, host)". This function returns a string with one or more access method specifications. These specifications cause the user agent to use a particular proxy server or to connect directly.

For more information about PAC files Click Here

Now you need to create a PAC file like the following:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{
  return "SOCKS 192.168.0.1:3128";
}

After you’ve created the PAC file, upload it to your webserver.

Finally, you have to configure your iOS device. In the Setting app, tap on the Wi-Fi and then tap on the arrow in the right side of your selected access point:

Then set HTTP proxy to “Auto” and then enter the URL of the PAC file you’ve uploaded to the webserver in the URL text box.

You’re done! Now you can access to your SOCKS proxy server!

If you have any question about this post, please leave your comments down below and I’ll answer them as soon as possible.

Hope it helps.

I really believe that HP is one of the best brands in computer industry with its great products. In fact, I’m currently using a HP G62 laptop and I’m really satisfied but one of the things that made me sad about it was the function keys.

As you know, I’m a software developer and using Visual Studio IDE. One of the most important shortcut keys in Visual Studio is F5 that complies and runs the application you’re developing. Since the function keys in HP laptops (some of models) are disabled by default, you have to hold the “fn” key and then press F5 in order to compile your application and it will bother you, I swear!

So in this post, I’m going to show you how you can disable the action keys and get back to the old-style keyboard.

There are lots of solutions over the web. Here’s an example from eHow.com:

1. Press the "Fn" and "Num Lk" keys on the keyboard simultaneously. The "Number Lock" indicator light should turn off, indicating that the letter keys will once again type letters when pressed. This combination should work on the majority of recent HP laptops. If it does not, try one of the alternate key combinations in this article's remaining steps.

2. Press the "Fn" and "F11" keys simultaneously, then attempt to type a letter. If the combination does not work, continue to the next step.

3. Press the "Fn" and "Scroll Lock" keys simultaneously, then attempt to type a letter. Continue to the next step if this does not work.

4. Press the "Fn," "Scroll Lock" and "F11" keys simultaneously.

Source: http://www.ehow.com/how_5997115_unlock-function-keys-hp-laptop.html

Unfortunately, this works only in few models of HP laptops not all of them!

The Solution

• All you have to do is to go to your machine’s BIOS configuration by pressing F10 on system startup.
• In the configuration page, navigate to System Configuration tab
• And finally disable the [Action Key Mode]
• You’re done!

Now you don’t need to hold “Fn” key when want to press F keys. but if you want to let’s say turn your volume up, you need to hold the “Fn” key.

Hope it helps.