DonXML Blog

Calling All NYC Area Nerds!

Rory is coming down from Connecticut on Friday April 30 to visit NYC for the weekend, which means it is time for the first NYC Nerd Dinner.  Where and when?  Well seeing that there is a special meeting of the NYC .Net Group that night, we will probably meet there and go out afterwards.  This is Rory’s first time in the big city, and it is up to the NYC nerds to “show him a good time”.  Don’t disappoint him.  Just watching Rory on a NYC subway train should be worth the trip (Germ phobia, OCD and NYC Subway just does not mix, ah the lovely smell of urine on the 3rd rail on a hot and humid day).

Enter -- The SQLDiva

Hey, I finally got my wife to start blogging about her experiences with SQL Server, OLAP and how she manages her tech career and  family.  She will be down at the SQL Server Connections in Orlando next week, and will be blogging about it. 

Problems Installing VS 2005 CTP

It seems like Stuart is having problems installing VS 2005 CTP.  I also had a bunch of problems, but I figured it was just the way I was installing it, but it seems that my problems may not have been unique.  So here is what I had to do:

I’m installing VS 2005 CTP on a Win2K3 VirtualPC disk.  I figured that I could connect to the VS2k5 image file via VirtualPC, but it seems as though VirtualPC doesn’t like the format.  So on my host system (WinXP) I used the Virtual CD-Control Panel (which is an unsupported MS download that is only referenced on the MSDN FAQ page ) to test the image that worked fine, so I had VPC attach to the virtual CD drive (I know, it is a bit of a kludge), and then Win2k3 VPC could read the disk.  I proceeded to try to install by about halfway thru the install it failed with an error stating that it could access the file “/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio 8/Common7/IDE/1033/vsrwui.dll” even though I could find on the drive.  So I dropped back and punted that solution, went to my host system, and copied all the directories and files out from the Virtual CD to a physical location (boy do I love my 160GB Seagate Firewire drive).  Then I just shared that directory with the VPC and everything worked fine.  Just remember to mark your share as permanent, so that when it reboots during the install, it can find the install files went it restarts.

Current Reading List – Programming Books

I haven’t been good at letting folks know about the programming books I’m currently reading, but here’s a list of what is currently laying around my desks (or in the car, because you never Know when you will have 5 minutes of “free” time sitting in traffic or waiting for your kid to get out of some after school event):

• Application Architecture for .Net: Designing Applications and Services by MSPress– I got this book in the mail from Microsoft via the MVP program.  I wasn’t sure if I could talk about it, but it seems that it is publicly available (it is on Amazon), so I guess I can.  If you dabble in architecture with .Net on any level, you need have this book.  It is from the Pattern and Practices group, and although some of the material is covered on the Architecture site, there is a lot that isn’t on the site, and it is much easier to find in this book that on the site.
• XQuery : The XML Query Language by Michael Brundage – If you are playing with Whidbey, or are interested in XQuery, I highly recommend this book.  XQuery is a new language that does for XML the same thing SQL does for relational databases.  Michael does an excellent job covering the language, and has a bunch of tips and tricks embedded in here.  XQuery is definitely something that fits very well into my toolbox of languages.
• First Look at ADO.NET and System Xml v 2.0 by Alex Homer, Dave Sussman, Mark Fussell – I’m reading this as part of the .Net Book Club.  Great intro to the new features of System.Xml 2.0 and ADO.Net.  If you are reading this book, come join us in the book club.
• Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture by Martin Fowler – This book has earned a permanent place on my desk.  I’m always turning to it to either check out a good pattern for some new code I’m working on, or to help document stuff that I’ve already done.  Although not specific to .Net, it does have some .Net examples, but the true beauty of this book is that it isn’t as generic as the GoF book, but not as specific as say a cookbook.  Plus, as Martin says, he started this book just to help communicate his architect ideas to other developers, and that is exactly what I find most useful about the book. 

There are more books than these 4 that I’m currently reading, but these are the top 4 that I haven’t talked about recently.