The title of this post could also have been "Move over Hyperlink, here comes Actionlink" or "Creating interactive text in Silverlight." But alas, there can be only one. Hyperlinks are very useful. However, they are also limited because their action is fixed: browse to a URL. This may have been adequate at the start of the Internet, but nowadays, in web applications, the one thing we do not want to happen is a complete change of context. In applications we typically like a hyperlink selection to initiate...
Topeka DNUG is free for anyone to attend! Mark your calendars now! SPEAKER: Troy Tuttle is a self-described pragmatic agilist, and Kanban practitioner, with more than a decade of experience in delivering software in the finance and health industries and as a consultant. He advocates teams improve their performance through pursuit of better practices like continuous integration and automated testing. Troy is the founder of the Kansas City Limited WIP Society and is a speaker at local area groups on...
I came across this error when i was trying to ajaxify my sharepoint site. After adding the AjaxifyMoss from the codeplex developed by Richard Finn. And tried loading my site i got the error Error: The base type 'System.Web.UI.MasterPage' is not allowed for this page So i decided to check the web.config and i noticed the SafeControl tag doesn't have the .Net 2.0 assembly included despite the fact i added both vsersios 2.0 and 3.5. Its possible the.Net 3.5 assebply overwrote the 2.0. Anyway after i...
Hello everyone, long time no blog… I’ll try to get back in the game soon but with 2 customer and user group and life in general let’s just say I’m busy. In the meantime I’m passing along this great offer. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional will launch on April 12 but you can beat the rush and secure your copy today by pre-ordering at the affordable estimated retail price of $549, a saving of $250. If you use a previous version of Visual Studio or any other development tool then you are eligible...
I’m a software developer by trade which means to my friends and family I’m just a “computer guy”. It’s assumed that I know everything about every facet of computing from removing spyware to replacing hardware. I also can do all of this blindly over the phone or after hearing a five to ten word description of the problem over dinner ;-) In my position as CIO of my friends and families I’ve been in the unfortunate position of trying to recover music, pictures, or documents off of failed hard drives...
For years, we have all known (okay, maybe I give people too much credit) that there is a very small finite number of plots. I propose a project. Let’s use the blogosphere to catalog those plotlines, and then find and document the episodes of shows that use them, including the show title. As evidence, how many shows have used the following plot line:? The standard “evil twin” plotline? Once relegated to soaps, it has show up in crime shows, with the twist of DNA. Step one, concentrate one this one....
Cloud computing is here, whether we want it or not. When I say "a walk in the clouds” I am not talking about a pleasant romantic comedy, but a real alternative to hosting applications on-premise. For years we have had the power to host our web sites on remote systems. Sure, challenges existed. Mostly web sites. I could, with a few clicks, create a account at a myriad of web host sites, put my site in the hands of a remote hosting company, and boom, I was a site on the internet. But choices, power,...
Getting started with the basics Validation in Silverlight can get very complex pretty easy. The DataGrid control is the only control that does data validation automatically, but often you want to validate your own entry form. Values a user may enter in this form can be restricted by the customer and have to fit an exact fit to a list of requirements or you just want to prevent problems when saving the data to the database. Showing a message to the user when a value is entered is pretty straight forward...
This is a message I posted to the software craftsmanship group, looking for a week-long, pairing / skill sharing opportunity in the USA. I am a journeyman software craftsman, currenlty living and working in Brisbane Australia. In April I am going to travel to the US to attend Alt.Net Seattle and Seattle codecamp. In between the two conferences I have five days in which I would like to undertake a craftsmanship mini-apprenticeship, pairing and skill sharing with your company. I do not require any...
I use Windows 7 Virtual PC on my current project and I often bring home the files, so I can work some in the evenings. Since my VHDs are large, I’ll only copy the undo disks, saved state, and virtual machine config files from my external drive. I copy them to a small portable drive and once I get home, I’ll copy them to a large external drive. I’ve done this for over a year, but recently I started getting an error when I tried to start the VPC after the copying was finished. It would open the initial...
In the last two days have been trying remove “Iolo System Mechanic Professional” (With anti-virus and FireWall) from 3 of the 5 pc’s we have (3 lap tops and two Desk tops) as it was going to expire on the 13th. So I could replace them with a free anti-virus (AVG) and just use the windows fire wall. I have been using the same set up on one of my desk tops (XP Pro) for 8 months and one of the Lap tops (Vista) for 5 months. The problem was that System Mechanic did not want to go. Even after using the...
One of the things I’ve noticed is that two industry trends are not playing nice together, those trends being multi-core CPUs and massive hard drives. It’s not a problem if you keep your cores busy with compute intensive work, but for software developers the beauty of multi-core CPUs (along with gobs of RAM and a 64 bit OS) is virtualization. But when you have only one hard drive (who needs another when it holds 2 TB of data?) you wind up with a serious hard drive bottleneck. A solid state drive would...
Article Source: http://geekswithblogs.net/charliemott This article describes an approach to the management of cross reference data for BizTalk. Some articles about the BizTalk Cross Referencing features can be found here: http://home.comcast.net/~sdwoodgate/xrefseed.zip http://geekswithblogs.net/michaelstephenson/archive/2006/12/24/101995.aspx http://geekswithblogs.net/charliemott/archive/2009/04/20/value-vs.id-cross-referencing-in-biztalk.aspx Options Current options to managing this data include:...
This gave me a WTF moment recently. MVC? Viewstate? Eh!? All was fine on the dev server, but as soon as I deployed to the web farm this error appeared every time I recycled the app pool. It turns out it was the cookie created by <%= Html.AntiForgeryToken() %> and simply generating a machine key sorted it out. http://aspnetresources.com/tools/keycreator.aspx...
Just a quick update to let everyone know that I have updated the Whiteboard demo application. I added a few options to make it more interesting to use! I showed it to the kids and they loved it (even though they kept asking ME to draw pictures for them)! Here is a list of available options: Color Picker for line color Slider for line thickness Save to valid XAML file Open saved drawing Clear whiteboard Hold down ESC key to erase And here is a screenshot of my beautiful artwork! :) So what are you...
I have come across several instances of people having trouble using the new Reactive Extensions (v1.0.2.5) in projects that reference the Silverlight Toolkit (Nov09) due to the fact that the original release of the Rx Framework (v1.0.0.0) was bundled with the Toolkit. The trouble really becomes evident if you are using the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) to discover and compose portions of your application. Update: After getting some feedback in the comments, I was able to find a solution for...
I completed today the Azure account setup and started working on a project to really test drive the Azure Platform and Azure SQL. Cool stuff! Ready for takeoff into the clear blue sky, where are the clouds...
Arguably, one of the most powerful features of UppercuT (UC) is the ability to extend any step of the build process with a pre, post, or replace hook. This customization is done in a separate location from the build so you can upgrade without wondering if you broke the build. There is a hook before each step of the build has run. There is a hook after. And back to power again, there is a replacement hook. If you don’t like what the step is doing and/or you want to replace it’s entire functionality,...
Currently having problems with primary PC. Which is where most of my files are and software for most of my job search info is. So I am working that issue for now. Sorry as soon as I have it back up, I will blog...
Time for some book news update. CLR via C#, 3rd Edition seems to have been out for a little while now. The book was released in early Feb this year, and needless to say my copy is on it’s way. I can barely wait to dig in and chew on the goodies that one of the best technical authors and software professionals I respect has in store. The 2nd edition of the book was an absolute treat and this edition promises to be no less. Here is a brief description of what’s new and updated from the 2nd edition....
I've been doing some work with T4 templates lately and ran into an issue which I couldn't find an answer to anywhere. I finally figured it out, so I thought I'd share the solution. I was trying to generate a code class with a T4 template which used generics The end result a method like: public IEnumerator GetEnumerator() { return new TableEnumerator<Table>(_page); } the related section of the T4 template looks like this: public IEnumerator GetEnumerator() { return new TableEnumerator<#=renderClass.Name#>(_page);...
An empty string is different than an unassigned string variable (which is null), and is a string containing no characters between the quotes (""). The .NET Framework provides String.Empty to represent an empty string, and there is no practical difference between ("") and String.Empty. One of the most common string comparisons to perform is to determine if a string variable is equal to an empty string. The fastest and simplest way to determine if a string is empty is to test if the Length property...
An enumerated type, also called an enumeration (or just an enum for short), is simply a way to create a numeric type restricted to a predetermined set of valid values with meaningful names for those values. While most enumerations represent discrete values, or well-known combinations of those values, sometimes you want to combine values in an arbitrary fashion. These enumerations are known as flags enumerations because the values represent flags which can be set or unset. To combine multiple enumeration...
Over the last few months I have had the opportunity to ramp up significantly on SQL Azure. In fact I will be the co-author of Pro SQL Azure, published by Apress. This is going to be a book on how to best leverage SQL Azure, both from a technology and design standpoint. Talking about design, one of the things I realized is that understanding the key limitations and boundary parameters of Azure in general, and more specifically SQL Azure, will play an important role in making sounds design decisions...
This post is for those who want to apply or have already applied (but not finished the interview) for a Microsoft Job. The recruitment process is quite similar for everyone and consists of a few steps. Application E-Mail Interview Phone Interview On Site Interview I will tell you my story and how I went through the four phases. 1. Application My blog's title (Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit) means "Nothing Comes Out of Nothing". You can't get a job at Microsoft by not doing anything - this is true for anything...
In this Issue: András Velvárt, Bobby Diaz, John Papa/Laurent Bugnion, Jesse Liberty, Christopher Bennage, Tim Greenfield, and Cameron Albert. Shoutouts: Svetla Stoycheva of SilverlightShow has an Interview with SilverlightShow Eco Contest Grand Prize Winner Daniel James Svetla Stoycheva of SilverlightShow also has an Interview with SilverlightShow Eco Contest Community Vote Winner Cigdem Patlak File this under #DoesHeEverSleep, Nokola has an EasyPainter Source Pack 1 Refresh And another filing in...
Preamble: In an attempt to keep an ageing mind alive I have decided to write an iPhone web app. The app will pull together a whole host of disciplines and should be a challenge. The App: Over the last month or so I have been playing around with Google maps and Instead (see InstaMapper.com) so decided the app must build on this learning. Looking to create an Uber-where’s Tigger! Framework: After an exhaustive research period I’m going with JQTouch. tPhone Simulator: MobiOne More to follow later……...
If you’re like me, you might see the open source Eclipse IDE as a copy or, more generously, a port of the Microsoft’s Visual Studio for the non-.NET world. It’s not that Microsoft invented the IDE (I would credit Borland with that), but they really took the idea and ran with it for the first version of Visual Studio .NET in 2002. The question is whether someone outside of Microsoft could take the modern IDE yet another major step forward in both principle and productivity. I think that has actually...
I was stumped for a little while until running across this article. For those without a background in Oracle development, this was a nice introduction for beginners. http://blogs.msdn.com/kaevans/archive/2009/07/18/connecting-to-oracle-from-visual-studio.aspx...
Well it's the Friday before MIX10, and I'm officially of no use to anybody. I'll be driving up to 'Vegas Sunday ... hopefully rolling in mid-late afternoon, checking in at my $31.50/night (including WiFi) Motel, and getting registered then hanging out around registration to see who is there. First organized thing to do is 9PM, so I'm open to suggestions Sunday evening... maybe we can get a gang together for dinner ?? Monday is the Keynote ... I'm addicted to the buzz in the ballroom the first day,...
Responding to a tweet I received, asking if I found it hard to write a blog and keep it interesting. This is one of the situations where a 140 character response doesn’t do a question justice. There’s a lot to think about between the subjects of writing, subject matter, and entertainment. Here’s my take on each of these three topics: There’s all types of writing you can do with various degrees of difficulty. If you’re writing a book and you have a gazillion editors bleeding over your every utterance,...
Today I investigated one strange error working with Dynamic SMTP Port. Event Type: Error Event Source: BizTalk Server 2006 Event Category: BizTalk Server 2006 Event ID: 5754 Date: ******** Time: ********AM User: N/A Computer: ******** Description: A message sent to adapter "SMTP" on send port "*********" with URI "mailto:********.com" is suspended. Error details: Unknown Error Description MessageId: {********} InstanceID: {********} My code was pretty simple and the source of the error was hidden...
Many people in the mod community were very excited to see the release of the Unreal Developer Kit (UDK) a few months ago. Along with generating excitement into a very dedicated community, it also introduced many new modders into a flourishing area of indie-development. However, since UDK is free, most beginners jump right into UDK, which is OK though you might just benefit more from purchasing a shelf-copy of Unreal Tournament 3. UDK UDK is a free full version of UnrealEd (the editor environment...
So, I busted my old blog and hadn't been keeping up with it. Decided it would be easier on me to use software that I didn't maintain, so several months ago I signed up for a GWB account. You are a witness to procrastination at its finest! I was remarking to my friend Abby that I hadn't written anything in ages, that I've typed a bunch in the last 5 years or so, but that the typing belonged to someone else as work product, was boring technical mumbo jumbo, or was only good before it spoiled, that...
I didn’t break any speed records getting getting to 200 posts, but I am here. So what is the prize for getting here? You have to put out the obligatory post announcing the achievement. It also means that it is time to put “Yes, I’m a geek” on your business card. Well, there it is. Now go about your business. Nothing to see here. del.icio.us Tags: 200th post...
The Lake Count .NET User Group is putting on it’s second Chicago Code Camp on May 1st. I would encourage everyone to come out and participate in the Chicago area .NET community. You can register here. Better yet come of with a presentation of your own. I have submitted an abstract for a presentation on Office Open XML. del.icio.us Tags: Chicago Code Camp,presentations,Office Open XML,LCNUG...
I run my development server by boot to VHD (Windows Server 2008 R2 x64). In that instance, I also have an attached VHD (I attach via script at boot up time using Task Scheduler). That VHD I have my SQL instances installed. So, the other day, acting hasty, I chmod my ACLS – wow, what a day after that. So, in order to fix it I created this set of BAT commands that resets it back to operational state – not 100% of all what you get, I also didn’t want to run a “repair” – but, all operational again. setlocal...
I just posted on the bits you need to install to explore all the features of Entity Framework 4 with the Visual Studio 2010 RC. I’ve also had a quick look (March 12th 2010) to see what new resources are out there on EF4. They appear a little thin on the ground – but there are some gems. The following all caught my attention: Julie Lerman has published 2 How-to-videos on EF4 on pluralsight.com. You need to create a free guest pass to watch them. Getting Started with Entity Framework 4.0 – Session...
Show 5 is finally up with special guest Steve Michelotti. We talked about ASP.Net MVC, how to get started in the community and more! Steve Michelotti is a Microsoft ASP.NET MVP and an Architect/Developer for Applied Information Sciences (AIS). He has consulted at Advertising.com/AOL where he was the Tech Lead for one of the highest volume .NET applications in the world. He previously was the Chief Technologist at e.magination. Steve is a frequent presenter at developer user groups and Code Camps...
Next week (17th March 2010) I am presenting on EF4 at www.devweek.com in London (and Azure on the 18th). Today I wanted to get all the latest bits on my demo machine and also check if there are any cool new resources I can point people at. Whilst most of the new improvements in Entity Framework come with the Visual Studio 2010 RC (and the RTM), there are a couple of separate items you need to install if you want to explore all the features. To demo EF4 you need: Visual Studio 2010 RC Download and...
Hello Everyone! This is Me, Dave. From Now on I'm going to share my experiences with .net mainly with ASP.net 3.5 Dave...
I recently gave a presentation on Prism at the Ann Arbor .Net Users Group. I have made my slides and demo available for download: Slides Demo Some interesting links associated with prism: Composite Application Guidance Composite Application Library Codeplex Site Great 4-part video series Another video series that David Giard pointed me towards...
Se volete approfondire le vostre conoscenze su Windows CE (anche relativamente alle novità introdotte con la versione R3), o desiderate acquisire le basi per cominciare a lavorare con questo sistema operativo, questa è un'occasione da non perdere. Dal 12 al 16 Aprile si terrà presso gli uffici di Fortech Embedded Labs di Saronno (VA) il corso "Building Solutions with Windows Embedded CE 6.0", tenuto dal sottoscritto. Per maggiori informazioni sui contenuti e i costi: http://www.fortechembeddedlabs.it/node/27...
In the previous post I mentioned about manipulating SharePoint PeoplePicker control using JavaScript, in this post I will show how to validate the InputFormTextBox contol using custom JavaScript function. Here is the nice post by Becky Isserman on why not to use RequiredFieldValdator or InputFormRequiredFieldValidator with InputFormTextbox. function ValidateComments() { //retrieve the text from rich text editor. var text = RTE_GetRichEditTextOnly("<%= rteComments.ClientID %>"); if (text !=...
It seems that the RSS feed is not updating. If you missed the last post, here's a list: Silverlight for Windows Embedded tutorial (step 4): http://geekswithblogs.net/WindowsEmbeddedCookbook/archive/2010/03/09/silverlight-for-windows-embedded-tutorial-step-3-again.aspx XAML2CPP 1.0.1.0: http://geekswithblogs.net/WindowsEmbeddedCookbook/archive/2010/03/08/xaml2cpp-1.0.1.0.aspx...
Hi, If you are integrating with SQL Server and dealing with batch messages, you may encounter this problem. And this is evitable. The reason is the contention of resources. If your batch contains four messages and all the four messages have to be updated to SQL Server and then at the same time four process will contend for SQL server table and resources and the obvious result will be, few of your transaction will be left uncomitted and if you are not handling dehydration [not modifying the default...
In this Issue: Walter Ferrari, Viktor Larsson, Bill Reiss(-2-, -3-, -4-), Jonathan van de Veen, Walt Ritscher, Jobi Joy, Pete Brown, Mike Taulty, and Mark Miller. Shoutouts: Going to MIX10? John Papa announced Got Questions? Ask the Experts at MIX10 Pete Brown listed The Essential WPF/Silverlight/XNA Developer and Designer Toolbox From SilverlightCream.com: How to extend Bing Maps Silverlight with an elevation profile graph - Part 2 In this second and final tutorial, Walter Ferrari adds elevation...
Shiju Varghese posted an article on his(her) blog and said that the RTM of the ASP.NET MVC 2 had been released and available to download. You can get the installation packeage and the release note here. And based on the release note there’s no breaking changes from RC2 to RTM. Let’s play with the new ASP.NET MVC and look forward the Visual Studio 2010 RTM...
I had an awesome time at the NYC Code Camp last weekend and as promised here is the demo code and presentation that I used: http://s3.amazonaws.com/devstuff/EF4DemoNYC.zip A special thanks to the organizers, you guys did an awesome job! I can't wait for the next one...
Here is the code to get the Current Quarter End for a Given FYE Date: 1: public static DateTime ThisQuarterEnd(this DateTime date, DateTime fyeDate) 2: { 3: IEnumerable<DateTime> candidates = 4: QuartersInYear(date.Year, fyeDate.Month).Union(QuartersInYear(date.Year + 1, fyeDate.Month)); 5: return candidates.Where(d => d.Subtract(date).Days >= 0).First(); 6: } 7: 8: public static IEnumerable<DateTime> QuartersInYear(int year, int q4Month) 9: { 10: int q1Month = 3, q2Month = 6, q3Month...
Geekswithblogs Gets a Facelift
Celebrating the five year anniversary of the first post on Geekswithblogs, the GWB team has launched a new look and functionality for the community designed to help the community continue to grow and increase interaction amongst bloggers.
The new design offers bloggers and readers the ability to quickly check recent posts, popular posts, Twitter users from the community, community news, and featured bloggers.
The redesign also makes it easier for bloggers to find tutorials on how to get the most from their blogs, support information, and a community-wide tag cloud.
We hope that you will enjoy the new features and look. Here’s to another five years and to everyone that makes up Geekswithblogs!
GWB Goes to PDC ’08 – Let Us “Tag Your Top”
Geekswithblogs is proud to be a Silver Media Sponsor for the upcoming PDC ’08! This will be a great opportunity for face-to-face interaction with the developer community.
If you happen to be going to Los Angeles for the PDC, and we highly suggest you do, make sure to swing by the Geekswithblogs booth (#100) in the Expo Hall to say hi! We will have some amazing looking Geekswithblogs stickers hot off the press ready to “tag your top” – so bring your laptop by to take it from drab to fab!
GWB Podcasting from PDC ‘08
Make sure to look for fellow Geekswithbloggers Chris Williams and D’Arcy Lussier roaming around the floor. They will be playing the part of on-site GWB ambassadors and roving reporters; stop and chat with them!
We’d like to know what you think about the upcoming podcast. We are thinking of firing PodcastStudio.net (the official podcast of GWB) back up after the event and would like to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
GWB and PDC ’08 – We’ll Make You Famous!
A major part of our display at our PDC booth is going to include a video featuring none other than the Geekswithblogs community members! We’re proud to have you as contributors to a large, healthy blogging community and want to give you some additional exposure.
Here’s what to do; record yourself saying “I’m a geek with a blog, and I…”. Simply fill in the rest with something interesting about yourself. It could be anything from what technology you love, what you like to do in your spare time, where you live, etc.
Examples include:
- I’m a geek with a blog, and I rock at ASP.NET.
- I'm a geek with a blog, and I support my development community by presenting at user groups.
- I'm a geek with a blog, and I love playing guitar.
- I’m a geek with a blog, and I volunteer to help the homeless.
- I’m a geek with a blog, and I chug energy drinks.
First 30 bloggers that send in a video with at least 5 statements get a ultra-stylish Geekswithblogs t-shirt with their blog URL on the back!
Stay tuned for FTP information for uploading your files!