November 2003 - Posts

• .NET Nightly 60

  Everything is winding down for the long weekend, don't look for anything from me until Monday as I am taking this weekend to catch up with the folks and try to get some work done. RSS on ASP.NET - Finally an RSS feed for the articles list on www.asp.net, thanks Rob! Process and Thread Identity in ASP.NET - MSDN TV Episode looking at ASP.NET configuration SQL Server 2000 Best Practices Analyzer - FxCop for SQL anyone? (via Jeff Key) Have a good Thanksgiving! -James Posted Nov 26 2003, 05:31 PM by jamesavery with no comments Filed under: .NET Nightly

• .NET Nightly 59

  My life is slowing being consumed by Knights of the Old Republic, a Star Wars based role-playing game for the XBox. Star Wars or not, this is one of the the best role-playing games I have ever played for a console. (2nd only to FFVII) Hopefully I will beat it soon and can return to a normal life, but at least I still managed to run across a couple links. FeedDemon 1.0 RC 4a - Nick promised that this is the last RC. mobilerss.net - View RSS feeds on any mobile device, including synchronize. (via Larkware RSS Resources) Paper Prototyping Book Review - Good review on an intriguing book and topic. -James Posted Nov 25 2003, 05:56 PM by jamesavery with 2 comment(s) Filed under: .NET Nightly

• Eric Sink is cool

  Eric Sink is very cool, he recently released another article on MSDN called Finance for Geeks where he covers the numerous accounting documents that you would need to be aware of if you were starting an ISV. I remember alot of this stuff from Accounting in school, but I think the one thing that Eric says that is the most valuable piece of information is when he cautions anyone starting an ISV about listening to lawyers and accountants advice, and how their inexperience in dealing with software companies is something to consider when listening to their advice. I would be interested in hearing even more on this topic, I would like to hear what some of the common misconceptions are about software companies in the field of finance professionals. If you enjoy this article be sure and check out some of Eric's other fine work: Whining by a Barrel of Rocks - Eric's first article on MSDN. Marketing for Geeks - Another business subject explained to geeks. Small ISVs: You need Developers, not Programmers - I think this applies to more than just ISVs.. Career Calculus - Good article on taking control of your career, and being responsible for your own future. I guess that is enough ass kissing for today. -James Posted Nov 24 2003, 06:35 PM by jamesavery with 2 comment(s) Filed under: .NET Nightly

• .NET Nightly 58

  We actually got some snow flurries today in Cincinnati, I guess it actually is winter after all. DataSets and Diffgrams in .NET 1.0 and 1.1 - A friend ran into some issues with this today, not exactly intuitive. SOME LINKS #1 - Another New and Notable, .NET Nightly, inspired list. Awesome! A Pretty Good Splash Screen in C# - Tutorial on how to build a full featured splash page (includes fading, progress bar, etc) -James Posted Nov 24 2003, 06:12 PM by jamesavery with no comments Filed under: .NET Nightly

• .NET Nightly 57

  One of these days I am going to have enough time to really put some effort into writing some technical blog entries, I have felt guilty about really only doing .NET Nightly lately... but there never seems to be enough time in the day. So here are some links. Adding Designer Support to the .NET Compact Framework DateTimePickerControl - Jim Wilson tackles this interesting subject. Tablet PC Giveaway - Damn, did not win. :) (via Nino) Strange Tablet PC Design - This design has the display rotating inside a frame, as opposed to the entire lid rotating. -James Posted Nov 21 2003, 05:09 PM by jamesavery with no comments Filed under: .NET Nightly

• .NET Nightly 56

  links... here... Effective XML - 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your XML - Looks like a good book, and I love the stuff that is online. (via Dave Bettin) An early look at Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2004, codename "Lonestar" - A great early look at the next version of Tablet PC Compiling .NET code on-the-fly - Interesting article on generating and then executing code on the fly. Watching Your Server Processes - Kent delivers with an interesting and cool application for http handlers. -James Posted Nov 20 2003, 09:57 PM by jamesavery with 2 comment(s) Filed under: .NET Nightly

• .NET Nightly 55

  I have been working on some very cool custom windows controls lately, but working with windows forms always reminds me of how lacking the help and community sites are for this area of .NET when compared to ASP.NET. (This is more of a compliment to the ASP.NET community than a crack at the windows forms community) Well, have some links... FoodMovers 3: Developing Service-Oriented Architecture - Still working through this article, but so far it is very well written. (via Archipelago News) An Extensive Examination of Web Services: Part 4 - The next part in Scott Mitchell's series of articles on Web Services. Chapter 2 of Introducing Longhorn for Developers - Brent Rector covers the basics of creating a longhorn application. -James Posted Nov 19 2003, 11:42 PM by jamesavery with no comments Filed under: .NET Nightly

• .NET Nightly 54

  I have really enjoyed this recent discussion on stored procedures vs. dynamic sql... my personal view is that they both have a time and place, and the discussion should not be stored procedures vs. dynamic sql but rather when one is better than the other and in what situations. Anyway, here are some links that have nothing to do with this discussion. An Extensive Examination of Data Structures - Excellent article by Scott Mitchell including a rather in-depth look at all of our favorite collection classes (via Duncan) Understanding Reflection, Part 2 - One of the more misunderstood features of .NET gets a good treatment on ONDotNet.com (via tatochip.net FeedDemon 1.0 RC4 - Yet another release of my favorite news reader, the final release should be coming soon Service Herald I - The virus is spreading, another Daily Grind, .NET Nightly inspired list. -James Posted Nov 18 2003, 08:17 PM by jamesavery with no comments Filed under: .NET Nightly

• .NET Nightly 53

  You know, whenever I go to a site and see .aspx pages I like that company a little bit better. (a recent convert is Dell.com) Overview of .NET Programming Features in SQL Server "Yukon" Beta 1 - Overview of CLR features in Yukon, I am more interested to see how people will use this in the long run. (via Larkware) Testing Software Patterns - Outlines a testing methodology and testing critiera to apply to software patterns. Overview of the Visual Studio "Whidbey" SOA Designer - Good stuff. -James Posted Nov 17 2003, 07:27 PM by jamesavery with 3 comment(s) Filed under: .NET Nightly

• .NET Nightly 52

  Finally got my longhorn DVDs today, so I installed it on a spare laptop and the install went pretty well... I left to take our cats to the vet when it started the hardware detection and it was done when I got back so I am not sure how long it really took. I have a question for people already using Longhorn, are you using your test machine to develop on? Or is it a better idea to install the Longhorn SDK on another machine that I already have Whidbey installed on and then just run the applications on my test machine? Anyway, I decided to include this with the .NET Nightly so I would not be berated for another "I installed Longhorn post". So here are some links to make up for the boring post. Hosting the ASP.NET runtime in your own application - This article shows how you can even run ASP.NET from a CD. (via www.asp.net) The benefits of automated unit testing - General unit testing information, but good information if you are trying to convince someone that you need to use automated unit testing on your project. Building an NBA Team Standings Web Service - Cool article, and you can see it in action on Scott's NBA Web Log. -James Posted Nov 14 2003, 05:13 PM by jamesavery with 2 comment(s) Filed under: .NET Nightly