April 2004 - Posts

• Error messages that tell you what's wrong, but not what's right

  So I'm trying to do the right thing and validate a web page to ensure it's XHTML compliant.  Here's the result: Sorry, I am unable to validate this document because its content type is text/plain, which is not currently supported by this service. OK, great.  You can't handle text/plain.  I'm sorry.  So what do you handle?  What do I need to do to resolve this? Unfortunately, this type of error message is quite common.  If you can give an error description this specific, it's also possible to give the user instructions on how to avoid the error.  The users are your friends -- help them out. Posted Apr 26 2004, 07:37 PM by jeffreykey with 15 comment(s) Filed under: Beef, Development

• ¡ding!

  At least once a day I hear a random “ding!” and I have no idea what's doing it or if it's important.  This isn't very useful to me.  It really makes me appreciate unobtrusive, yet informative notification methods like the little balloons in the notification area that everyone seems to hate.  Like them or not, they're a heck of a lot better than modal dialogs or background “ding!”s.  If you write an app that dings, please stop what you're doing right now and throw a balloon in the notification area.  It won't take that long and you'll sleep better tonight.  Thank you. (This is also the inaugural post in my “beef” category.  I could bitch all day about computer things, but I've never had an appropriate slot for it.  Are you feeling lucky, punk?  Well, are ya?!) Posted Apr 25 2004, 10:05 PM by jeffreykey with 8 comment(s) Filed under: Beef

• Web Design for Morons

  I would be the moron in this case.  I've been doing web on-and-off stuff since way back in the day.  My first e-commerce site was built with the latest and greatest technologies of the time: VBCGI running through O'Reilly Web Server on Win NT 3.5. Background images were the hot new thing and tables had just been introduced into HTML, IIRC. Those were the days! After all these years, you'd think some designer pixies dust might rub off on me, but you would be wrong. (Proof.) Well, no more, thanks to the Open Source Web Design site.  Not all of the mock sites are great, but they're better than anything I can come up with.  Posted Apr 25 2004, 03:48 AM by jeffreykey with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Development

• Operation: Chicago Meet-up -- Success

  Tonight was the inaugural meeting of the “People That Live In Or Near Chicago And Have Somewhat Similar Interests Club”, and I believe it was a success.  Thanks to Geoff, Harper, Ray, Richard, Andy, Brian “no blog yet” Scott, Eric and Eric for coming out.  Big props to Ryan for helping get everyone together.  Four hours of no-agenda goodness. If anyone else works in or near Chicago and would like to join us the next time around, please let me know. Posted Apr 21 2004, 10:49 PM by jeffreykey with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Fun

• IComponentSiteServiceContainer demystified

  Brian Pepin has posted a succinct article discussing our shy friend System.ComponentModel.  The info is useful for working with a number of designer-type things in WinForms and also provides a nice, reusable model for a loosely-coupled services architecture.  Good read.  [via ChrisAn] Posted Apr 20 2004, 09:39 PM by jeffreykey with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Design/Architecture, Development

• Last call for meet-up in Chicago

  A few of us are meeting up at Rock Bottom at State & Grand at 6:00 on Wed.  No agenda -- just beer, talk and good times (hopefully).  Drop me a line if you're interested. Posted Apr 18 2004, 08:52 PM by jeffreykey with no comments Filed under: News

• Winner in the hood

  I read a preview of Apprentice before it came on the air and it sounded like a reality show I could stomach.  Unfortunately, I missed every episode, but found out that the guy that won lives in my neighborhood.  Time to take a walk, introduce myself and find out if Trump needs some rule engines (who doesn't?). Posted Apr 16 2004, 06:40 PM by jeffreykey with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Tech-free

• Clarification on dropped WinFS "features"

  Mazner does his part to clear up some of the recent controversy about WinFS being dropped, not working over the “corporate network”, or whatever your favorite industry rag is claiming.  Yes, things were cut, but chances are you never heard of them or would decide to not use WinFS because they're gone.  Looks like this was just the typical case of technology “journalists” getting a sniff of something and blowing it out of proportion.  What's new? Posted Apr 14 2004, 01:25 AM by jeffreykey with no comments Filed under: Platform

• Now Playing: ReSharper

  The folks at JetBrains are updating ReSharper at least once a week.  I've been checking it out periodically and the latest build seems stable and quick.  I've been using it for a couple hours and haven't had any issues.  I think she's a keeper! Check out this fine tool if you haven't already.  Posted Apr 10 2004, 04:18 PM by jeffreykey with no comments Filed under: Development

• In Redmond, not MVP

  I, too, will be in Redmond from Sun-Fri this week, but for entirely different purposes.  If anyone's interested in grabbing a bite or a beer, please let me know.  Posted Apr 03 2004, 02:14 PM by jeffreykey with 2 comment(s) Filed under: News