Archives
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Krzysztof Cwalina: Design Guideline Digest
Two of my favorite Microsoft blogs to read are Brad Abrams and Krzysztof Cwalina.
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Method-ology: Getting return values from methods?
Introduction
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MSN WebMessenger solves corporate firewall IM issue
Microsoft now has a web-based version of their popular IM utility.
http://webmessenger.msn.com/
This is 100% Port-80 HTTP traffic, so you will have no problems with the corporate Firewall preventing you from doing IM!!! -
SphereXP 3D Desktop
Wow! This is one of the coolest things I have seen in some time.
http://www.hamar.sk/sphere/ -
Update: C# Coding Standards v1.13
You can now download version 1.13 of my C# Coding Standards for .NET.
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FW: Data structures in C#
Bit by bit, C# is finding its way in the academic environment, I just found out a C# version of Bruno Preiss "Data Structures and Algorithms with Object-Oriented Design Patterns". The book is available online (text and code!) here: http://www.brpreiss.com/books/opus6/
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Quote of the Day
Persistence
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Blogology 101 : Classification
Lately, I have done alot of thinking about blogs and blogging-behavior. In general, it seems that bloggars fall into 6 categories:
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Yummy.... Key Lime pie!
find your inner PIE @ stvlive.com -
DateTime woes and "The Pit of Failure"...
Having had my own struggles with DateTime parsing, I completely concur with the comments from my peers as they replied to Brad Abrams and the BCL team on the past, present, and future of DateTime processing in the .NET Framework.
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Update: C# Coding Standards v1.09
After receiving a few emails requesting a rules-summary, I made some changes this weekend. Version 1.09 of the C# Coding Standards document is now available for download.
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Update: C# Coding Standards v1.08
I just published the latest version (v1.08) of my C# Coding Standards.
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.TEXT Hacking....
While working on my blog's appearance, I ended-up doing quite a bit of hacking on the layout. After receiving several posts, and emails asking how to make these changes, I figured I should post a few simple hacks to the .TEXT templates. Most use CSS, but a few really bad hacks include some JavaScript. Here are some examples:
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MSIL.Gastropod anyone?
Symantec Antivirus deleted a zip file containing a .NET assembly today during my weekly scan. It identified it as a “MSIL.Gastropod“ virus. For now, I will omit the name of the file, since I feel that it comes from a reputable source.
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CSS, Blogging, and WinForms...
After spending some time updating the UI for this blog, I have renewed my love for Cascading Syle Sheets(CSS).
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API Useability article (pdf)
I found this Dr. Dobbs article on API Useability while reading the WindowsMobile Team blog.
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C# Coding Standards
I recently started documenting my own C# Coding Standards and best practices. The current document is very much a work-in-progress, but I am making it freely available for download. Please reply with any comments, questions, or feedback on this blog entry.
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1980's Flashback (16k and a Tape-drive)
This morning, I began having hallucinatory flashbacks, started regurgitating PET Basic code, and felt obsessive cravings for my old Commodore 64, 13" TV, 1541 Drive, and 300baud modem! Don't even get me started on my old Vic 20 & Tape drive.... ;)
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FW: Obsolete members coming in .NET Framework 2.0
From Brad Abrams' blog:
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A Plucky little RSS Reader...
I have tried NewsGator, RSSBandit, and numerous others, but they all had some quirk, design flaw, or useability issue that turned me off and eventually made me uninstall them. In fact, I have generally been disappointed with all of the RSS Readers/Aggregators I have found over the past year.
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XPath'ing HTML in IE via JavaScript! Woohoo!
All I can say is...Wow! What a great idea to be able to navigate an HTML document via JavaScript.
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Thank You For Your Donation!
Your donation means alot! It's the principal, not the amount that matters. Your donation tells me that what I do is worthwhile, and that you want to see more in the future. I guarantee that every little bit will make me work that much harder every day to do even more for you.
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Sony's Paper Blu-Ray Discs
From GizModo:
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Sql 2000 Reporting Services Links, Resources, and Information
Below is a list of links I have found useful when developing or learning how to develop with Reporting Services.
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FIX: Error "ASP.NET v1.1 not Installed" while installing Sql Server 2000 Reporting Services
I finally had the chance to rebuild my dev machine with the RTM version of Sql Server 200 Reporting Services [SQL2kRS] and ran into an unusual error. During the "Check Prerequisites" stage of installation, it said that I didnt have ASP.NET v1.1 installed on my PC. Considering that I do web-development with VS.NET 2003 on this PC I was a bit perplexed why it said that.
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Parsing Rss/Opml DateTimes
I have been fighting a bit with how to "correctly" parse DateTimes from RSS & Opml feeds. After much wrangling, I decided to go with the most strict form of parsing, whereby I assume the datetime is in RFC822 or RFC1123 format.
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RSS DateTime (revisited)
After my previous post/rant on the abuse of “pubDate” in RSS feeds, I received comments about and discovered other, often more eloquent, discussions of RSS's RFC822 dates. One of the more useful ones being Scott Mitchel's comment about RFC1123 being an extension of RFC822.
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String Formatting
I constantly see people write code like this for formatting numbers as strings, and wonder why:
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Organizations fighting Software Patents
As a follow-up to my previous post on the abuse of software patents, here, I wanted to share a couple links to sites fighting against Software Patents:
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My Projects...some Free, some not, and many not even completed yet...
At any given time, I have several side-projects going-on. Here is a list of those utilities, projects and any downloads related to them:
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VSS 6.0(x) Info, Links, Articles, code, and other resources.
After years of automating Visual SourceSafe(VSS), I am beginning to post and organize all my knowledge via this article.
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Design Pattern Links, Articles, eBooks, and other resources.
Having noticed the many common patterns in programming, I have begun studying GoF Design Patterns in an attempt to internalize and integrate them into my development thoughts. This article is an attempt to catalog all the links to various Pattern articles, tutorials, and other resources I have stumbled upon in my research:
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.NET Interop - COM+, P/Invoke, etc.
I am constantly discovering some new tidbit of information on Interop with .NET and other technologies. This article is an attempt to organize and catalog links to helpful articles, reference material, tutorials, and other reference material on COM Interop, P\Invoke, J2EE interop, and more application-centric interop issues.
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Best Practice: Set Minimum Capacity
An often overlooked performance enhancement is to set the Capacity for a type. This leads to the following Best Practice recommendation:
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ASP.NET: The life of an HTTP Request
The Technologist has an excellent blog post explaining what happens when IIS handles a request for a page served by ASP.NET.
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NASA: "Mars was once drenched in liquid water"
I just watched the live news-conference from NASA on the results of tests from the Mars rover “Opportunity”.
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Date Time Best Practices & RSS
I quickly recognized many of my pet peaves with DateTime problems from the recent MSDN article, "Coding Best Practices Using DateTime in the .NET Framework".
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Freeware for the PocketPC...
Here is an interesting site dedicated to free software for the Pocket PC.
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Is that a Mozilla in your Pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
Just stumbled across “Minimo“ a port of the Mozilla browser for the PocketPC on MobileSlash:
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Enterprise Performance Analysis
Over the past several weeks I have been working on performance & scaleability issues across multiple systems in our Enterprise. We have a mix of Legacy Systems, e-Commerce, MRP, DRP, BizTalk 2002, .NET Applications, and Sql Server 2000 that perform a range of business and EAI functions. Once you add network monitoring, and the use of SAN and NAS devices for storage you end up with a potpouri of analysis challenges.
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Diagram Drawing libraries for .NET?
Does anyone know of a good, open-source, class-library for .NET for rendering visio-like drawings and diagrams?
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Fixing Lost PerfCounters in .NET
Here is a question I recently answered on the MS .NET Framework Newsgroup:
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ADO.NET Connection Pools
Sometimes I run across such a great article that I keep referencing and sending-out to friends or posting to messageboards in response to a question.
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P&P Articles Rock!
As many of you may know, Microsoft has published many books and articles on development methodology and best-practices. They generally are under the category of "Microsoft Patterns & Practices". One such article I recommend often, is their boiler-plate explanation of how to setup, manage, and maintain your development environment.
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The continuing saga of issues with my Dell Axim X5 and Dell D600!
Here's another "fun" link to my ongoing demands to Dell that they fix or replace my Dell equipment!!
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Sql Server 2000 Reporting Services
After months of developing reports with the various Beta's, its nice to finally see the official product launch.
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Win32 to .NET API Map
Those of us coming from a background in ASP and Visual Basic have been hamstrung a bit with the .NET Framework because most of us don't have much experience with the Win32 API, and therefore didnt understand what functions each class or namespace was wrapping within the OS. Its one of the reasons I believe that many C++ programmers (esp. MFC) have seemed to have a leg-up on the rest of us.
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Rant: Patents on Software
This SlashDot article "Parens on Patents" really struck a chord with me, and brought back alot of anger I have repressed for some time. (yes, I am seeking professional help now :p )
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THE END IS NEAR!!!
If this article is true its time to get religion and prepare for the final days before the apocolypse, because there can be no other explanation for the headline “Sun machines to run Windows”!!!
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internal research Xen : X#, C# { // The Future?? }
Many of us have heard the occasional rumors and comments about Microsoft working on a new XML-based programming language.
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Export IE Favorites To OPML file!
Lastnight while working on some new RSS-related projects, I created a simple app to Export your entire list of IE Favorites to OPML (XML).
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"VS.NET 2003 Build Here" bug-fix...
I just posted an update to the utility to fix a bug that left the /bin folder empty after a build.
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"VisualStudio.NET 2003 Build Here" Explorer Extension
Have you ever wanted to build a project or solution without opening up Visual Studio.NET?
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Unit Testing in .NET
TheServerSide.NET has an excellent article on Unit Testing in .NET. Having used NUnit for some time, I found alot of statements I agree with, and even a few techniques and philosophies I hadnt explored.
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Free WinForm Tree Control
in the latest MSDN Flash newsletter, there is an offer from Infragistics for a FREE CD-Key for their UltraWinTree control.
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MS Research "Demos & Downloads"
Quite a fun page to dig through!!
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The return of "Archon"!!
Although this isnt new, I just discovered that one of my all-time favorite games for the Commodore 64 (C64), Archon, is being Re-released with new graphics, audio, and Network play!! Woohoo!
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Bill Gates @ CES
Bill Gates' Keynote address at the 2004 International Consumer Electronics Show(CES) is now available.
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FREE eBooks & Whitepapers
This is a repository for all the links to FREE eBooks, MS Word Documents, and Whitepapers I discover from time to time. Please notify me if any of these links are broken.
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Request for Whibey Team
I occasionally add code to my projects for testing purposes only. In most cases, I just bracket such code with preprocessor directives such as #if DEBUG .... #endif
However, in some cases, this code references another assembly, and this is where the problem begins. If the only purpose of the assembly is for this code, it's really annoying, since you have to constantly remove the reference to avoid having to deploy this depenency.
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Another MS PM Blog...
I recently started reading Srinath Vasireddy's blog after seeing him respond a few times on a GDN messageboard.