May 2008 - Posts
This is widely known, but I still run across people who use IE 7, and/or Firefox but don't use this little trick. On most mice, the scroll wheel is a button as well as a wheel. Click on links using the scroll wheel, and the browser will open that page in a new tab in the background without taking focus away from the current page.
I find this extremely handy when browsing results from a search engine. As you visually scan through the search results, click the links that look promising using the scroll wheel. The browser will set to work to load those pages in the background as you continue to scan. After you've got a good batch of pages loaded in your tabs, you can skip through the tabs quickly.
We are starting a .NET user group in Mankato, which is in south-central Minnesota. Hopefully we can attract developers in the area that (like me) sometimes find it hard to make the 1-1/2 hour drive to the nearest .NET user group in Minneapolis. They're doing a great job up there in the Twin Cities, and I'll still try to make it to some of their meetings, but I just have a feeling there is a community of developers here that don't get much of a chance to hang out with geeks and talk shop.
So we have set up a web site, and set the date and time for our kickoff meeting.
Mankato .NET User Group Kickoff Meeting
When: Tuesday, June 10, 7:00 - 9:00
Where: Bethany College, 700 Luther Dr, Mankato, Minnesota We'll be meeting in Meyer Hall room 130. If you park in the Meyer Hall lot, room 130 is the first door on the right when entering from the lower level entrance. Map can be found here, http://www.blc.edu/facilities/map/.
Agenda:
- Introductions
- Discuss regular meeting times & format
- Discuss how to spread the word
- Brainstorm topics and presenters
- Presentation on new features in Visual Studio 2008 that make it a compelling upgrade
Web site: http://www.mankatodotnet.com
If you are a developer in south-central Minnesota, consider joining us. If you know a developer in our area, we'd much appreciate if you pass this on to them.
I've praised this mouse before, but just discovered that the wireless model of the Evoluent Vertical Mouse is now available. I have the wired version, and it is without a doubt the most comfortable mouse I've ever used. I throw it in my bag and drag it back and forth between the office and home. (I wonder how long before the cord gets a short?).
The only modification I made was to physically disable the large bottom button closest to the desk by inserting a small rolled up piece of paper behind it because I kept hitting it inadvertently while just moving the mouse.
The wireless one would be nice if anyone wants to buy it for me, my birthday is coming up. Anybody have one yet? How does it work? How is the battery life?
After listening to a DotNetRocks podcast that interviewed Kevin McNeish on DSLs and Software Factories, I was curious to check out the DSL toolkit for internal use by our developers. After installing the Visual Studio 2008 SDK, I started seeing a “VSIP License Required” in the Visual Studio 2005 splash screen, and “A VSIP license is required to use this version of Microsoft Visual Studio” in the about box of Visual Studio 2005. However, within Visual Studio 2008’s about box I see “Visual Studio SDK License”. I was confused and wondered exactly when a VSIP license is required. I contacted someone at Microsoft and received clarification on this.
The Microsoft person verified that it is not necessary to join the VSIP program in order to build and use your own DSL implementation, internally or externally. Apparently when Visual Studio 2005 was first released, extending Visual Studio was only allowed by licensed partners, but this restriction was later lifted, and licenses aren't necessary anymore. Unfortunately the messages in the splash screen and about box were not updated. Good to know.
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