All students around the world, check this website and download Microsoft tools at no charge:
https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/
The list of downloadable tools include:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
Microsoft Expression Studio
XNA Game Studio 2.0
XNA Creator Club Online
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual...
Due to overwhelming responses to my blog (all 2 of you :)) I'm definitely doing a workshop stylee thing on creating ControlTemplates for WPF Buttons in Expression Blend (2.5), and I have my powerpoint loveliness done for a small chat about SCC, in particular branching...
I couldn't think of a way to put them together, SCC the WPF Way! sounded nifty, but just seemed too complicated to join together :) So maybe both? Is that allowed.. Gah, first time, we'll see!
In terms of topics to see, I'm...
ThreadAbortException:
Unable to evaluate expression because the code is optimized or a native frame is on top of the call stack.
Read the full article here...
Taken from the MSDN documentation:
The finally block is useful for cleaning up any resources allocated in the try block as well as running any code that must execute even if there is an exception.
So in other words whatever code you have in your "finally" block will always execute when an exception occurs, right? Wrong. The correct answer is - it depends on the error...
Read the full article here...
Something I have been working on recently is a utility that will watch the configuration file and let me know when it changes. It is a work in progress (I am always tweaking code) even though it works now and I am always open for feedback. I was heavily influenced by looking at how log4net implemented the same thing with the XMLConfigurator (although they used a custom way of getting the file). Basics of How to Receive Configuration Updates Without Restarting a Service To start setting up...
This is a simple technique I recently started using to clean up MVC views.
Here was my first attempt at rendering a list of alerts:
<table class="tabTable">
<tr>
<th></th><th>VEHICLE</th><th>ALERT TYPE</th><th>WHEN</th><th>ACT</th>
</tr>
<%
foreach (FleetAlertDTO alert in ViewData.Model)
{
%>
<%= Html.RenderUserControl("~/Views/Alert/FleetAlert.ascx", alert)...
When it comes to programming time critical applications in Windows, life of a programmer can become much more easier if he/she knows a few tricks
One has to understand that setting only the thread's priority does not help. It is the magic combination of the process's priority class and the thread's priority level that decided the final priority of the thread's execution. Below is a link to microsoft's detailed explanation on the above topic.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms685100.aspx
But...
You know you've had a certification a long time when it's retiring. http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcpexams/status/examstoretire.mspx Not sure if I will get another one yet or not. In the world of programming, I have noticed that certifications really don't seem to mean as much as in other career paths. Some may disagree with me on that statement and that is fine. But having the certification doesn't mean I am better at what I do over the next guy, and it certainly isn't a legal requirement...
The Philly Dot Net user group has anounce yet another code camp. the 3rd one for this year. In the past we have had up close to 600 fellow developers. This time I would personally like to see that record broken. We are currently looking for 55 good speakers. Share your .NET, SQL, SharePoint, BizTalk, Visual Studio, and infrastructure knowledge with your peers. We are always looking for new talent.
We will be have 11 tracks and this time we are pleased to announce two new IT/infrastructure tracks....
I tend to be a loner and blaze my own trail, ok that is not entirely true. I really, really dislike 'groupiness'. As I get older and mellow a little I realize that I actually need others to further grow as a person. This blog is a baby step towards contributing to the community at large. My goal is the 'middle way' of community involvement.
I do not wish to have a cult following or anything like that, but a few people to provide feedback every now and then would be nice. I used to despise...
Websiite: http://www.itsmfusa.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=3009
Date: Thursday, September 25, 2008
Time: 1:00 PM-4:00 PM
Registration opens at 12:30 PM
Topic:
ITIL and Governance
IT Governance has emerged as one of the top 5 concerns of business executives and CIO’s. Business and IT leaders widely agree that role of IT is to enable the enterprise to meet its business objectives, yet surveys of CEO’s and business executives continue to report that IT is not meeting their performance...
You've probably just converted your vs 2005 web project with ajax to vs 2008. This is because Visual Studio 2008 has a newer, built-in version. The fix is short and sweet!
Remove the System.Web.Extensions from references, then add them back again! That should connect you with the correct assembly. If you're uncertain how to remove the reference, check this out: http://geekswithblogs.net/AskPaula/archive/2008/09/04/124948.aspx...
Let's say you've converted a vs 2005 asp .net project over to vs 2008 and you have old ajax references like System.Web.Extensions, etc. that you want to get rid of, but they don't show up under the Solution view. The way to remove those references (or add new ones) is to do the following:
Right click on the solution (assuming the solution view is active)
Select Property pages
At the bottom of the dialog box you'll be able to Add, Remove or update...
In relating the last post to someone (another productivity enhancer this exercise fosters), I was reminded of a similar exercise I went through 'back in the day' at either Sperry or Honeywell, I don't remember which version of the company it was at the time. I was at a point in my career that I was learning Windows programming, and they were trying to figure out where to put me. So I found myself in 'Desktop Support' for a while.
This was about the time that Viasoft almost imploded by having some...
In one of my previous blog posts I was sizing up 3 different methods of generating SharePoint solutions in Visual Studio. It was a fairly lengthy post about using things like the Visual Studio Extensions, WSPBuilder, and BAT files, but one reader bought to my attention that I never evaluated the STSDEV Solution Generator.
Well lucky for me the reader chimed in and let me know that there was a hole in my post.
I finally was able to find something to try the STSDEV Solution Generator on to try...
In the years since the .Net runtime was first released I've seen a number of ways of accessing a SQL database from within VB.Net (or C#). One person I worked with had a nifty utility which would take any database and generate all the code to access it. It has been on my list of jobs to do to implement my own such tool but like other jobs, such as winning the National Lottery or a high stakes poker game. OK the poker game is something my wife will have to do - she is better at poker than me.
What...
I can understand my client's IT department blocking MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. I might not like it that Twitter is blocked, but I do understand. I don't understand if they work so hard keeping their employees off Internet sites, then why they allow them to use IM on the Intranet, but hey... that's why I write software, not set policy I guess.
So today's exercise in useless time is spent getting ready for a software audit. Now, of course, I'm not dumb enough to be running a cracked...
Alan Smith launched a new community site "bloggersguide.net" a community site that will host resources for BizTalk Server and the up and coming Oslo technologies.
If you have lot of questions regarding BizTalk and Oslo technologies...go there..almost everything answered!
You can find the latest bloggers guides (Oslo and BizTalk) in the download section.
Make sure to remove the "%20" (space) character from the downloaded file names to open them properly.
You may also needed to unblock the...
I just ran into a strange problem where all the links on a list are getting dropped. The anchor tag was still there but the href was gone. I tracked it down to a bug in the cache. Here is the scenario. I am building a fairly complex bullet list in code that will change very infrequently so I cache the user control for 24 hours. The problem is anything being built with an HtmlAnchor control is losing the Href value, but not anything else. This breaks: var anchor = new HtmlAnchor { HRef = "http://www.juggle.com/",...
The quickest way is to do the following:
Go to Start>Settings>Control Panel
Select Add/Remove Programs
Scroll unitl you find BizTalk
Click on the support anchor (see screen shot below)...
C# (or .NET): Primitive Types, Value Types, Reference Types and System.ValueType.
I think this is one of the most important topics in .NET, but it is interesting to see what kind of misunderstandings are out there. Even with programmers who have used .NET for years.
DISCLAIMER 1:
The goal of this blog entry is not to give another in depth, all-encompasing overview - but rather a summary of the conversations I've had with people and a summary of some confusing MSDN documentation. Also I won't address...
Chris Cavanagh with YouCube, Bart Czernicki with a Multithreading control, Doug Blackmore with a SL2 Combobox, SilverlightShow with a 'glow' effect, SilverlightGirl on making a text appear and disappear, Peter McGrattan with a 3-part series on WCF Polling Duplex Support, IdentityMine with Desklighter, Shawn Wildermuth on the new build of DataServices library, Jonas Follesø with presentation material, and Chris Hay with Manic Miner on Spectrum Emulator.
Yeah... I know I've got a couple database...
