Bryan Sampica

Windows 7 RC

Freakyuno — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:00:55 GMT

The Windows 7 RC has been officially announced.

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/04/24/windows-7-release-candidate-update.aspx

I for one am very excited about this release. I’ve been using Windows 7 Beta on my laptop for some time now, and other than stuff easily chalked up to Beta bugs, there isn’t a single thing I’ve been disappointed with.

Prish Image Resizer

Freakyuno — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:17:00 GMT

Ok, this is just too cool.

Quote

Talking about Prish Image Resizer – new “Power Toy” replacement for Windows Vista/7/XP

Choose your flavor (64 bit/32 bit)

Current build: 2519

* Added custom resize to context menu.
* Control quality of JPG produced.

Previous build: 2513
* Fixed 64bit
* Fixed Unicode issues.

I just installed it today (Thanks Scott Hanselman for the link) – which takes a lot of pain out of the process. I generally run with Photoshop cs3 installed for the heavy lifting, but have been looking for something like this for a while.

Jamcast Official Beta

Freakyuno — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:12:00 GMT

A good friend of mine recently revealed to me that he's released a beta to the public of a neat piece of software. Jamcast allows the user to stream their digital audio across their network to devices with built in support like Playstation 3, XBox 360. I can't do the description justice, so swing over to his site and read about it. Sounds like wicked code. Even better is, it's entirely built with a .NET foundation!

http://www.sdstechnologies.com/

Building a Composite WPF Application

Freakyuno — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:48:04 GMT

Jeff Brand (Microsoft Evangelist from Minneapolis) has put together the start of an excellent screen cast on throwing up composite applications using the Microsoft Composite Application Library and WPF.

It's worth the 20 minutes or so to watch it -

http://slickthought.net/post/2008/10/Building-a-WPF-Composite-Application-Series-Part-1.aspx

HDC Omaha 2008 - Code and Slides

Freakyuno — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:12:00 GMT

This is the application I demonstrated during my WPF Line of Business presentation, as well as my slide deck.

Demonstrated:

WPF Commanding

Provider based Data Source Handling

Validation

Collections and Binding (ObservableCollection<T>)

LINQ to XML

Iowa Code Camp - Des Moines

Freakyuno — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:56:00 GMT

I'm proud to announce the second coming of the Iowa Code Camp. This sequence follows the amazingly successful event held in Iowa City of May of this year. Nearly 200 people attended for 90% of the event, we gave away upwards of $20,000 dollars in prizes and software and had a generally great time talking code, eating, drinking coffee and meeting our local peers.

The sucesss of version 2 is sure to rival the event - I'll see you there!

More information can be found at:

http://www.iowacodecamp.com

If you are connected to the media in any way, or would like to help sponser this amazing event - plese drop me a line, or use the contact form on the Iowa Code Camp website.

{ T }rite - Source Code Release

Freakyuno — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:20:00 GMT

I've had a few ask for the source control to this project, and amidst my objections, I tried to come up with a good reason not to release it and couldn't find one. :)

The goal of this project was really to push through the app and get a working model up. There are some things that still aren't implemented, or known bugs.

The refresh button does nothing!
Update gives no notification
160 char limit vs 140 (the API says 160!)
No startup notification
Weak threading model (background worker)
No friend interaction
No timeline interaction
I could go on forever on this...those are the big ones
Oh yea, no settings window at all. :)

So without further ramblings by the estranged coder....here's the source. You'll need to modify the settings to reflect your own, if you aren't sure how to do that, read the Twitter documentation on the API.

This is a source code release - this is not a finished, nor a working product and is not intended for end users.

This release includes a precompiled version of FluidKit - more information on FluidKit is available HERE.

If you modify this source, and release something of your own, I only ask that you keep the name the same and add your own spin - such as { T }rite | by Johnson or { T }rite | by Freakyuno....etc

You will need Visual Studio 2008 AND / OR Microsoft Expression Blend March 2.5 Preview installed to work with this project, and knowledge of WPF (XAML) and C#.

Source Code HERE

Good luck, feel free to get in touch with questions.

Bryan Sampica (freakyuno)

{ T }rite - Alpha Release

Freakyuno — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:08:00 GMT

UPDATE: The files have been reposted - you will need to make the configuration file changes in two places. The Trite.vshost.exe.xml and the trite.exe.xml file:

Ok, so I've been playing with this twitter front-end as a way to keep my skills sharp in WPF (and blend). I have to say that I'm feeling pretty good at the speed at which something can be developed.

I've done some pretty hackish things in the code itself, but I've done some pretty cool things too. At the moment I wont be releasing source code - because it's embarrassing, but I will post the app for download.

I must give credit to FluidKit for a truly AWESOME library of 2d / 3d transform animations.

IMPORTANT: Few things to address before you download and fire up this easily breakable software. :)

You'll need to manually edit the configuration file. It's located in the directory and it's called Trite.exe but listed as an XML Configuration File.

The settings you'll need to change are all typed in CAPS inside the file. You should just be able to open it with notepad, if you have problems getting it to run with your edited config, let me know and I'll help you out.

Source Code: DOWNLOAD

Have fun!

Bryan Sampica (Freakyuno)

{ T } rite - twitter toys

Freakyuno — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:19:00 GMT

Just a quick post tonight. I'm working on a little app (mainly for practice), that some have requested a screenshot of, so here it is:

It uses a coverflow system for the people you're following, and a very up2date look for the tweets of the people on your timeline. It's a work in progress. Take a look.

Happy coding -

Bryan ( Freakyuno )

Iowa Code Camp Pictures available

Freakyuno — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:16:00 GMT

I've compressed them all to 800 x 600, if you'd like a larger file, please feel free to email me, and include the 800 x 600 version so I know which to pick.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26369281@N04/

Solving LINQ's N-Tier Issues

Freakyuno — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:44:49 GMT

Ok, so maybe solving is somewhat of a misnomer, but we certainly can combat them with strength and conviction. A little background on the subject first; LINQ has proven to be somewhat of a booger when attempting to work with it in a streamlined development environment when incorporating any sort of N-Tier pattern.

Why you ask should it be a problem...the common answer I've heard many many times is, why should it be any different? You have at the essence of it some pretty simple logical and physical layer guidelines right? It's well known in the industry at this point to create N-Layer app's to solve things like SOC (separation of concerns) and physical or network boundaries.

But what about LINQ....how does it change anything we've done before? Here's the tricky part: LINQ objects, created outside a context are considered unattached - which works great...but the moment you have to refer to an object in relation to it's context you run into major issues. That object is then tied to that context and believe it or not; there's no easy or reliable way to detach it.

Not such a big deal right...statefull objects are a good thing! Not really...

Imagine the very common scenario below:

You use LINQ to query for a customer reference
You add an order to the reference of that customer
You try to put the customer back with the order now attached...

BOOM....head-shot - unless you've got the original context that you queried for the customer under...there is no way to get that customer back into the database. Keep in mind that a DataContext is not serializeable, so if your response is to pass the datacontext around, you'd be right as soon as you enter an SOA pattern.

Now, before you go off the deep end, I realize that this problem is CAUSED by the Utilization of LINQ itself. Because we are passing objects around - we run into the very real situation that the object is carrying a reference to it's context. Rick Strahl has done quite a few posts as of late on this same topic.

The typical solution, and usually one of the first answers on forums, blogs, and otherwise is...pass messages, not objects. Ok, I can concede to that. In true N-Layer applications we can very well send messages. This achieves the whole "loosely coupled" layers, and enables easily things like a provider model, a stateless BLL, an application aware server...etc. My response usually is: I don't need all that...what I need to be able to do is pass the objects back and forth. LINQ was nice enough to generate them for me, so why should I recreate each and every one of my objects (about 300 of them), in a serialized or class object format - just to overcome LINQ being a pain in the ass.

If you read Rick's blog, you'll see a very complete example of creating a set of business objects wrapping the LINQ functionality, where he abstracts out things like the context creation, the submit changes, and attachment of objects. That's pretty cool stuff...but yet even a little to big for my project.

Without you as the reader knowing specifically the scope of my project - it's hard to get behind this article...so let me help you out a little:

Our physical boundary is the SQL state machine, which we can overcome with SQL Protocols
We are working in a thick client, 1 to 3 user environment without a lot of need for initial scalability
Our application state will be managed individually by the client. They don't need to be sentient to other running app's.
We will maintain database concurrence through a first write wins methodology.

Ok, so now that you have the basic layout - you can see that we aren't truly trying to build an N-Layer application. Our use for N-Layer would have been to separate concerns between business logic, and data access. These would be logical layers with little or no need to exist outside the maintainability in our programming model.

Ok, so on to what I'll call the X-Layer pattern. ;) It's always nice to invent something new huh. Maybe it will catch fire. Keep in mind, that the representation of this is only as a "prototype" pattern. I don't have security, object state, or validation included. Those things snap easily into the datacontext though through the extension of the LINQ partial classes.

I could describe the project all day long, but it's just as easy to look at it. So I'll include it for your review:

Download Source

Iowa Code Camp Marked by Success

Freakyuno — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:57:06 GMT

Well, here I sit Monday morning at work, reflecting on Saturdays events. For those reading out of context, the first ever Iowa Code Camp was held Saturday May 3rd at the University of Iowa.

For me, there's always a certain amount of nostalgia involved in this kind of thing. The months of setup, preparation, conference calls and hundreds if not thousands of emails between the organizers, sponsors, volunteers and attendees - all for the culmination of the event itself. Getting Started with an "O'Dark Thirty" wake-up call, and proceeding to the conference center to run around like your hair is on fire for the next 12 to 14 hours, and then....just like that it's done. You shake the last hand and retire to your vehicle for the drive home, or to the hotel room and it's done and gone.

I suppose that eventually people get used to this sort of thing. As a programmer it's somewhat of a unique situation to run an event like this. Our day jobs tend to carry on endlessly. There's always the next patch, update, revision or feature...not so often do we get such a clean break to mark completion of something large scale, or such a finite way to measure our success or failure.

Ok, ok...I know it's getting thick - the event was a HUGE ringing success after-all right? Absolutely...

Rough check-in numbers were quoted somewhere around 120, and we maintained about 95% of our audience throughout the entire conference....until the prizes and giveaways, what's up with that?! We gave away 2 Zunes, 4 360 Xbox games, some very expensive software, some really nice laptop backpacks and a slew of books, shirts and messenger bags...why would you want to leave before that!

We managed to feed everyone Breakfast, Lunch AND dinner, give away prizes, give everyone a free t-shirt and allow them to participate in a beautiful facility for an entire days of events...all at no charge to attendees.

The content was just amazing. We pulled speakers from as far away as Ohio (Columbus?) and Minneapolis which just rocks. I got the "opportunity" to speak twice (the only one on the docket to do so...thanks Greg Wilson), and I can honestly say that our presentation topics were so good I'd have rather been sitting in the audience than at the podium.

I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate the other organizers involved. We actually got the comment at one point from someone I wont name...but they'd know "The bar has been raised for Code Camps" and "This is the highest class no cost event I've ever been to"

Greg Sohl and Chris Sutton - awesome job on logistics and organization. Everything ran perfectly smooth all day long

Greg Wilson - Very nice job on the speaker lineups and scheduling. 5 tracks at a code camp! Rockin'

Javier Lozano - Sponsors....sponsors...sponsors. Very nice job man.

Bryan Sampica - What did I do again? :)

Anyway, a big thanks to everyone that participated. Organizers, Volunteers, Sponsors and Attendees alike...you all played a part in making the first ever Iowa Code Camp one of the most successful code camps in the genre and for that I personally thank you.

Bryan Sampica -

Countdown.To! Iowa Code Camp

Freakyuno — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:31:42 GMT

I'm VERY pleased to announce that the Iowa Code Camp has become a real thing. This is an Iowa first which is very exciting.

Organizers Include

Javier Lozano

Greg Wilson

Chris Sutton

Greg Sohl

Details are available on the web site, additionally Javier made a great post about it here.

That's right! The University of Iowa:ITS, CRIneta and Iowa .NET user groups are joining forces to bring the first code camp to Iowa on 5/3/2008 at the University of Iowa Conference Center in Iowa City, IA!!

You might be asking, what is a code camp? Well, here are some of the basic ideas:

Its for and by developers
Free (for attendees)
All about code, not PowerPoint presentations
What you present on should be available to share with people who attend
Never during work hours, hence usually on Saturday

What a code camp is not:

Corporate product placement
Marketing
Powerpoint centric

We are looking for developers who want to tell other developers about cool developer things they are doing. Topics they really care about. If you are working with .Net, Ruby, PHP, Java, Rails, Python, <fill in the blank> and you want to tell other people about it, then consider submitting a speaking proposal.

If you want to be a speaker, Greg Wilson is who you need to talk to greg-at-solidrockstable-dot-com. Just so you know we are already almost 1/2 full for speakers already.

If you want to help sponsor, contact me at javier-at-lozanotek-com.

Let me know if you have any other questions at christophersutton-at-yahoo-dot-com or you want to help out in any other way.

Our site is IowaCodeCamp.com if you want to keep up with what happens. If you have a twitter account you can follow us at @iowacodecamp!

Remember this an event FOR developers BY developers, so we need you to help us make it succeed!

Please feel free to paste that information in your Blog, or send emails to your friends. This is a great opportunity to interface with your community.

Bryan Sampica

A Better way to Query RSS

Freakyuno — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:56:00 GMT

Recently Scott Guthrie posted a really good article on querying an RSS feed with LINQ to XML. After an initial run through of the article, I felt like something was missing. A good buddy of mine (Dave Yancey), were working on an RSS control and we didn't like having to query the RSS twice. Not to mention we really wanted the Title, description and link of the parent RSS - not just each of the items. our initial query looked something like this:

Dim rssFeed = XDocument.Load(http://weblogs.asp.net/bryansampica/rss.aspx)
        Dim feedData = From post In rssFeed.Descendants("channel") _
                       Select post

        Return feedData

For the project we were working on, it was important that we have the top level channel information, like Title, Description, Link...etc. In the query above, we ended up with an impossible to query result set, a collection of items under the main IEnumerable that couldn't be gotten. I sent an email off to Scott Guthrie about this, whom provided an excellent example by Amanda Silver. (Thanks Amanda and Scott!!)

The key is to requery for the second collection, inside the first query. Much like Nested SQL used to be (which essentially what was happening.)

Dim rssFeed = XDocument.Load("http://blogs.msdn.com/vbteam/rss.xml")


 Dim entries = From post In rssFeed.<rss>.<channel> _
 Select Description = post.<description>.FirstOrDefault.Value, _
 Link = post.<link>.Value, _
 Channel = post.<title>.Value, _
 Items = From item In post.<item> _
 Where item.<pubDate>.Value > #11/10/2007# _
 Select item.<title>.Value, item.<pubDate>.Value, item.Value


 For Each post In entries
 Console.WriteLine("Channel: " & post.Channel)
 For Each item In post.Items
 Console.WriteLine("Title: " & item.title)
 Console.WriteLine("Value: " & item.Value)
 Next
 Next

 Console.ReadLine()

This worked perfectly!

There was also a really really good suggestion about enabling the XML intellisense by including the Schema from XML tool - which is available here.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/bb840042.aspx

I gotta tell ya, if you are working with XML - this will make your life ALOT easier.

-Happy Coding

Bryan Sampica

AuctionSite Starter-kit Update

Freakyuno — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:49:00 GMT

I've done an update to the starterkit today, and figured it might be a good idea to get some screenshots in front of people, as well as a demo site up - so I've done both. :)

The demo site is available at

http://ask.proessent.com/default.aspx

Feel free to register a username and look around. If you don't want to register a username you may use

Username: Testing

Password: testing!

note: the website may be going up and down as I make changes and perform updates. Please be patient. :)