I just set up this bad boy:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/cgi-bin/hpdirect/shopping/scripts/product_detail/product_detail_view.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0177360986.1044552879@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdjadchhifiehicfngcfkmdfondfgg.0&product_code=DA219A%23ABA&cat_level=2&browse_link=true

Here are some leads:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;271776
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318453

Hope this works!

Yes - just copy all the CDs to the network share and install from there. Whenever a topic comes up that the viewer cannot find, just change the URL to the share location. I think this is explained in the readme.

Thanks guys, I'll give those a shot next time I do the install. I've been just using what comes with VS.NET for my classes, which I haven't seen any "leave on server" type option. I'll play around with this later...

I don't run OS X, so maybe I'm missing something here.

It seems like they are writing about a development environment in which you can write reusable application bits, which can run on your desktop?

How is this any different / cooler than the .NET control architecture? Is it the skinning?

I think it is really just an environment to host real simple applications. By simple, I mean you aren't going to be creating inventory systems in it, but instead of having 50 seperate programs running in your taskbar, you just have one hosting 50 different apps. I need to fix my link about too...

Phil Scott's WebLog

Thanks Phil, great site.

Amazon, slow, are you kidding me! I blogged about this last week on my http://dotnetrocks.blogspot.com/ blog. Totally random on when you will get something from them. Try bookpool.com, takes about 3 days and they are much cheaper.

I tried the 2 day delivery last week. Weel, what they forget to tell you is it will take 5 days to get it ready for shipment! Try complaining, they gave me a $10 coupon...wohoo!!

I've had good luck with Amazon themselves (they ship just south of here), it's the freakin' postal company that is devilish.

Instead of everyone having to do the same thing, if you have it and can post it, that'd be cool!

Thanks!!

Sure, let me put together the code. It was really quite simple. Most of the work was striping apart the Javascript into it's own JS file, along with getting the CSS to look ok on my page. I don't think there is any server side code at all.

What I *want* to do is make it into a server control, and generate the menu's dynamically. But my menu won't change more than once every two or three months, so it isn't a big deal. Although, that didn't stop me from picking up the ASP.NET Server Controls and Components book :)

Have you taken any other exams? If so, any tips on the books/courses you used to study?

I've found these links quite good: http://www.codeclinic.com/certification.htm

Pretty much go down the list of what to know, and link you to where to get the info. I've taken just the web exam, but I just kinda winged it and passed. Wasn't very difficult at all I thought. Lots of questions related to tracing/debugging and deployment though.

Yeh, I've found that the questions aren't explicit enough as well. They *really* should have worded it with more details, maybe:


*********************

You, not anyone else, not any of your family members or friends, just you, create, that is, you take a concept, do some planning, perhaps a bit of research then develop an Extended Markup Language (XML) Web service...

Hooray for School! : Phil Scott's WebLog

Attack of the certified : ISerializable

Thanks. I wouldn't worry about the bandwidth too much.

If it ever becomes an issue, I will just decrease the number of items in the RSS feed. At the moment, it shows all of your posts for the last 7 days you made a post (note, not calendar days).

-Scott

Thanks for the kind comments about the book. It was a lot of fun to write. I am especially fond of my "XML is like Esperanto" lead-in, although most of my friends hated it.

To be honest, that's one of the little saying I've ripped off when I run across those developers who've never seen XML. That and "XML is the tofu of the internet" from David Platt's Introducing Microsoft .NET.

Of course, I've also had to explain what Esperanto is to most of these people too.

RSS is not mature - continued : ISerializable

Office Betas : Jesse Ezell Blog

Don't be lyin bout no Wrox BS, mofo.

Another good one that I am currently reading is C# Class Design Handbook. So far I might even say it's the best Wrox book I've read.

I've have heard some good things about the Handbooks they have. I believe Greg wrote one too. Those books seem to have done away with my criticism of filling it with fluff to get it to the $50 price range.

I was working on something like this a couple of months ago, before my real job roared its ugly head :)

You can find a very unfinished website at http://ztv.arsware.org, where you can at least get an idea of what I was trying to achieve. The links there do not point to the latest versions of the code, I still have them on my laptop, if you are interested in helping the development of this application just let me know :)

The glasshaus/Friends of ED people were officially notified Peer Information group is bankrupt.

If anyone reads this and is a former Wrox/glasshaus/friends of ED author and wants to join our support email group (for legal discussions and so on) email me at jen@flash-mx.com and I will add you to it.

Best of luck to everyone.

cameron crazy? Ha!

I am a huge fan of coach K, but I would choose Rutgers over Duke any day...if they didn't suck and actually made it to the tournament.

SQL Server System Table Map : Phil Scott's WebLog

Day One : Phil Scott's WebLog

I have an account, clicked on already have an entry...confused at this point...how do i get in the league?

It's true. Wrox Press is no more. So are all other Peer information brands.

Too bad.

InfoPath - all hype, or not? What are the alternatives? : Tim Walters .NET + Flash Blog

InfoPath - all hype, or not? What are the alternatives? : Tim Walters .NET + Flash Blog

Agreed. I would generally never worry about such small changes.

I this case, I was simply stating what I thought was a fact...but it likely wasn't worth the bandwidth :D

Weighting optimizations' worth : Fabrice's weblog

Who is in 1st after night one...hmm, that would be Big Daddy G-Man!

Did anyone not pick NC-State?

I tend to ignore such remarks, regardless of whether or not someone as "famous" as Icaza says it. I would have at least liked to hear why he thinks Win Forms "stinks." I think they might have taken his comments out of context a bit. They chose to keep quotes that they know will elicit flamewars in the community yet left out any explanation of why (assuming he offered an explanation).

I just think it's funny how everyone picks their own team to win it all... like my buddy, who's a die-hard UConn fan, and in all his brackets he of course has them winning :)

Being a fan gets in the way of betting... :)

check out my finals picks, think my hey days are over... :-(

Damn ACC

My taking all the way to the National Championship screwed me.

That kid shot 8/10 from 3pt range for christ sake...sigh.

works fine if you remember the quotes.

http://www.google.com/microsoft?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22ado.net%22&btnG=Google+Search

Oh, but that's cheating :)

Google and dots : Loosely Coupled

You can also simply search at the following sites, or others like them, using the "Search only in ..." feature:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=microsoft.public

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=microsoft.public.dotnet

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=microsoft.public.ado

Here is an example of a search URL for "remoting" in microsoft.public.dotnet:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=remoting&btnG=Google+Search&meta=group%3Dmicrosoft.public.dotnet.*

Onec you have a URL like that, you can easily put a different search term into it, instead of "remoting". You can even script a bunch of these things to perform a series of searches.

I often use groups.google.com to restrict searches to useful subsets of the Net (such as comp.lang, etc).

Enjoy!

Phil-I've got a big bag full of Microsoft New England t-shirts. Big bag! Want one? Send me your snail mail. It will be a present from the Vermont .NET User Group! <g>

for what it's worth, I only buy C# books now and have never taken a class. Back when I would have taken a class, I would have taken VB. Not that I speak for everyone, but I really am a strong believer in "those that can, do, those that can't, take a course".

And the title is...? I know it's <impersonation enable="true"/>, but that's only cause I can see it in the comment text box. It's not showing up on the page or in Syndirella. Just thought you might like to know. :)

Son of a...Thanks David!, I'll get to editing. I guess this slipper just didn't fit. HA HA HA HA.

I'm terribly sorry about that joke, it's the mountain dew speaking, not me.

Forget those KB's....Checkout this piece of work: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetsec/html/secnetlpMSDN.asp

and this link for has answers all kinds of connection scenarios to db: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetsec/html/SecNetch12.asp?frame=true#secnetch12_authentication

Hmmm... I'm certainly interested in whatever my keep my virtual machines small... so, count me in

I think it also speaks to the type of developer that takes MOC courses.

No comment about the MOC, but my classes I'm told are good.

Of course, I've been known to rewrite entire courses lab files so they are actually useful...

Hi,

the point I was trying to make is that if this article is correct then Microsoft have developed an application that could help sell Office and then limit it to large customers. What about the non corporate purchasers of Office ? What about the developer who is not an MSDN subscriber how do they get hold of Infopath. I want Microsoft to distribute Infopath and not limit it to the corporates.

my prediction:
a free, better, open-ish version of this tool written by a pissed off (meaning "inspired") MS-centric developer. Once the idea for a product is out there (and infoPath has entered the geek-public consciousness now), improved variations are sure to pop up all over.

Or, maybe people will just use the free tools like this: http://www.altova.com/download_plugin.html

This gentleman keeps a fairly up-to-date copy of the browscaps.ini file on his web site. I've been using it for a while without any trouble...:

http://www.garykeith.com/browsers/downloads.asp

anyone have a nice automated way to turn that into the browserCaps section of the .config file?

http://www28.brinkster.com/froinlaven/blogs.opml

It's not quite done yet...I did the best I could to separate everything out while tired and quite ready to go to bed last night. I'll be breaking down the .NET Blogs section some more later today, and I'm not quite sure yet if I got the Microsoft Blogger section right(aka, if everybody there is actually working for Microsoft)...but it's a start. And yes, I subscribe to the general Dotnetweblogs feed and several individual feeds just because I like to see posts that appear from new people that I wouldn't notice otherwise.

Very cogent arguments, Phil. I am glad I evoked a response!

I still disagree, though. I don't doubt that many of the MCSDs out there are very talented and the certification is a testament to their experience. But I also am very familiar with many who are not. These are people who readily admit to barely having seen the technologies they tested on.

A buddy of mine *recently* passed his MCAD. He shose BizTalk as an elective. Not only had he rerely used XSLT, barely understood XML, and had never loaded BizTalk on any computer or ever seen it run, he passed the test. From a book. They guy is bright, but c'mon... he had never seen the technology and passed the test.

At another client, there were 3 MCSDs who admitted to being Transcender MCSDs as well, and barely had a clue when it came to COM or SQL Server. Bright buys, each with about 2 years' experience under their belts. Ask them to solve a complex algorithm, and you got a deer in headlights look.

My problem is that a lack of true understanding of programming skills seems replaceable with 4-6 tests.

You don't just pull up Visual Studio .NET, run through the QuickStarts, and suddenly understand recursion. It is much more likely you will understand how to bind data to a datagrid or how to use attributes to create a simple web service. But the QuickStarts don't often show real programming technique.

Not that recursion is necessarily the measure of a programmer, but it should definitely be a tool as available as a monkey wrench in a plumber's toolbox: not frequently the best tool for the job, yet the best solution in many circumstances. Recursion is but a single example. Ask just about any Georgia Tech or MIT grad (reference my original post for context) what a hash does and is useful for and what its limitations are: you will get a prompt and correct answer. Ask many MCSDs with community college training, and they will say &quo

(truncation continued)

Not that recursion is necessarily the measure of a programmer, but it should definitely be a tool as available as a monkey wrench in a plumber's toolbox: not frequently the best tool for the job, yet the best solution in many circumstances. Recursion is but a single example. Ask just about any Georgia Tech or MIT grad (reference my original post for context) what a hash does and is useful for and what its limitations are: you will get a prompt and correct answer. Ask many MCSDs with community college training, and they will say "you're talking about the method on System.Object that nobody really uses." (That is a quote from a recent IM chat).

I don't doubt that most, if not all, MCSDs / MCADs are well-qualified for a wide variety of jobs. But I have taken the tests in the past, and was dismayed at the content. I would much rather see the test ask questions like "what type of exception would be thrown here, if any, and why?" I would like to see more questions revolving around inheritance models and why changing a base class can be devastating for a project.

I want to see more questions on team development with Visual Source Safe. I want questions that ask the difference between JavaScript in IE and code-behind, the ramifications of Session and ViewState, why loading up 3 Gigs of data in a DataSet in ASP.NET is a bad thing, and why binding an ASP.NET grid to 1 million rows to enable paging or sorting is a bad design choice.

Beyond ASP.NET, show me more about exceptions, garbage collection, the Dispose pattern, finalizers, indexers, threading, services, remoting, and complex web services. Then I might have more faith in the MCSD program.

You're the second! Send me your mailing address (keithp@guideddesign.com). Oh, and the 3rd persona is Elvis. And the names are actually poorly chosen: the names themselves shouldn't imply any meaning.

ISO Image Tools : Dan's Brain Droppings

Interesting points. What book are you using? Or is it material you've developed yourself?

Marcie

I'm actually using Microsoft Official Curriculum. Course 2373 to be precise. It actually quite a good class, and coming from me that's saying a lot. I've been pretty vocal in the past about the quality of the MOC courses (especially on the VB6 side of things), but they've done a great job putting together demos, labs and materials that are actually very useful and informative.

Past MOC courses I've been known to throw out all of the labs and use my own, and I hardly followed the book at all. So far, I've been happy with all the courses.

In case you haven't already, check out the following sites for some really great CSS layouts:
http://glish.com/css/
http://www.bluerobot.com/web/layouts/
http://www.saila.com/usage/layouts/

I totally agree. I have found the book published by the c-sharpcorner.com creators to be the most useful .NET book (even though it was written about c#) and would highly suggest it for reading.

THis is the gayest website I have ever seen. What is the point of having this webpage?

Make it go away. You are stupid. You are Stuwpid. You suck. Go bye-bye forever. Ypur webpage sucks. ha ha ha aha hahah haha. You are stupid.

Revision:

What is the point of having this webpage? This is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. Go make your own OS.

You suck.
This site sucks.

ISerializable

I'll second this! Senseless is the ONLY answer, much as Phil has pointed out. And even if someone can come up with some good reason, chances are that there is just as good of a way to do it in a non-case-sensitive language...

That's funny. I was just wondering the other day why anyone would want a case insensitive language. I guess it's just depends on how you learned to program...

-Dustin

The only place I use it, and the only place you really should use it according to the docs, is when differentiating between a private field and a public property:

private int myInt;
public int MyInt
{
get{return myInt;}
set{myInt = value;}
}

Phil Scott's WebLog

AS already pointed out, there are historical reasons for case-sensitivity. Another is that computer languages were originally used by mathematicians who usually like to give 'x' and 'X' different meanings. We also use case to imply semantics in natural language but not as strictly. I guess the best example is that a 'Polish salesman' is not necessarily the same as a 'polish salesman'.

I think the most compelling argument for case-sensitivity is that it means you use member names exactly as you declared them. If you're mistakenly using 'arga' instead of 'argA', what's to say you didn't actually mean 'argB'? My point is you *should* be thinking carefully about how you spell and case identifiers, just as you should be thinking carefully about how you format and comment your code. It's all down to maintaining *consistent* style and standards. You have yours and I have mine.

Ignoring the idioms of VB/C#/C++, don't forget that the underlying CLR allows full use of Unicode for member names as well the use of names which are reserved words in one language but not in another. This means I can create a class called 'ForEach' or 'Next' in MC++ because the CLR doesn't know that they're reserved words in VB. For fun I can also call it '???' or 'ïnt' or any of 12 variations of 'Hello' using the Unicode characters that look almost identical to 'e'. Open up charmap.exe and see how obfuscated you can make your code... and then please never use that functionaility again ;-)

"...I can also call it '???' or 'ïnt'..."

Clearly this comment makes no sense.

'???' was a string of Japenese characters which are valid in .NET, but obviously need to be transmitted and stored with the right encoding! Part of my point is that some languages don't have casing and that casing/formatting rules extend past the 26 letters of the alphabet *I* use (check out how Korean characters are combined).

Again, it's all down to style and actual usage. A similar argument crops up with Hungarian prefix notation. Some people swear by it while other argue that it has no place in a strongly typed language. It can be a powerful feature if used consistently and correctly and can add meaning beyond that of the underlying language, but thinking about it, I don't think I'd like to get compiler errors saying "Error: pszName is not a string pointer"...

I just bite the bullet and paid my own. My company was exactly like yours. You think a developer on the R&D team would get a free trip down there, but no. I am now trying to get the time I am gone to be considered "Educational" and not "Vacation".

Can they be any more vague? Geez, I was already ready to put out the word, and buy a copy myself thru vLane, but now I'm not so sure. How can they play games with licensing if MS is supplying the license. Doesn't make sense. Sounds like a marketing scam by MS to get more people hooked into MSDN, and then nail them on the renewal subscription next year for the full price.

DonXML Blog

"Note, the copy from TweakXP isn't for the weak of heart. It involves replacing your uxtheme.dll in recover mode with a version hacked out to enable custom themes..."

Phil: StyleXP's (http://www.tgtsoft.com/prod_sxp.php) approach is much cleaner. I'm running the Watercolor theme on my desktop right now!

Eric J. Smith's Weblog

Thanks Phil for your help but how I am supposed to disassmble and see my code. the decompile option is always disable whatever the assembly I chose.

If it's decompile option isn't enabled, make sure you've got a method selected.

It unfortunately can't decompile the whole assembly, really just method by method. Perhaps Lutz might implement that in the future...

Yep. This is the one I found and am going to use to go through some of my assemblies. Appears to be very solid piece of work.

Andres Aguiar's Weblog

<quote>The only problems I had where simply bugs in the IE CSS rendering engine, and it looks like implementing something like max-width can't be done without a change to the underlying OS</quote>

I think that statement is a little misleading. MS have leaked information that they wont be upgrading IE as the underlying OS is holding them back. However, in my mind that points to the user interface of the actual application, not the ability to render HTML. The actual CSS parser and rendering code is not part of the OS and if mozilla can do it, so can IE. MS just can't be arsed fixing the browser to standards compliance. After all, when you own 90% of the market, why bother, you are the standard.

<quote>The only problems I had where simply bugs in the IE CSS rendering engine, and it looks like implementing something like max-width can't be done without a change to the underlying OS</quote>

I hope that was sarcasm/disdain for the MS view of "we own the browser war, why bother fixing our product".

We need a website like Eric's that will validate a browsers' CSS compliance. That way, the next time somebody claims their browser is CSS1 or CSS2 or CSS3 compliant we have a way to validate it.

You can replace embedded IEs with Mozilla by running IEPatcher.
It's from the same guy who wrote the ActiveX wrapper to gecko.

You can find more info at http://www.iol.ie/~locka/mozilla/control.htm

I'm confused... I know an eMac is the cheap version of the iMac, CVS is a chain of drug stores (formerly Revco), Ghostview is either a video game or a japanimation flick (or both?), xdvi is a pirated video codec, LaTeX is a great fetish magazine, "vi" is the upcoming prequel to Se7en, but I have never heard of the others...

I agree, and my proposal is that web masters start to put "best viewed with Mozilla" logos, along with explicit IE page wreckage. Exemplifying exactly what Microsoft has been doing for years, against Netscape and the like. Sounds harsh, but this could stimulate competition, better products.

I would have to disagree slightly with your ASP.Net argument. While it is true high levels of ASP.Net are catered pretty much to IE the structures underneath are base on standard HTTP and looks/works very similar to Apache.

Yeah Jonathan, I probably should have qualified my statement by saying I was talking about mostly the design time controls and the html/css they produce. ASP.NET itself works great until you start trying to use the Calendar or any other fancy control in Mozilla or Opera. And that is probably less related to ASP.NET and more with flaws in IE's support of DHTML.

If microsoft truely stops the development of IE, then even companies will eventually switch to another alternative. In my opinion Opera would be the most likely candidate, though I'd personally like a Mozilla/Firebird best.

It is the same thing that happened when Netscape decided to stop active development on the 4.x and 5.x branch and giove full support to the mozilla project. This move resulted in a Netscape 4.x that didn't change in supported functions and cool features for almost 1 1/2 year (maybe even longer) and cost them almost all the markedshare they hand't already lost to IE.

It would be very cool if the mozilla team would show a few ASP.net controls that use XUL to do some very nifty things, I've seen a few demo's and everything is possible :). And then also integrate a DHTML version of the control for use in Internet Explorer, which will never be as cool as the XUL version, because there's so much more one can do with XUL.

The one problem would then be that Opera can't display the XUL, maybe Opera should team up with the Mozilla team...

If I had a tablet, I would have a subscription to something like this. I had a Books 24/7 subscription but I let it go because I really can't stand sitting in this chair reading more than a page on the monitor. I want to sit and read a book as if I were reading a real book.
I couldn't care less about touchscreens and Ink and all that, I just want to read book on a tablet.

Jim Meeker

Ricardo Figueira Blog

I completely agree with your choice of Mike Gunderloy's books. They rock. It absolutely helped me pass the Web test. I'm awaiting his Web Service book so I can take my test.

Phil,

What you think about "microsoft books (mspress)" ?


-MCAD/MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit: Developing Web Applications with
Microsoft® Visual Basic® .NET and Microsoft Visual C#™ .NET

-MCAD/MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit: Developing XML Web Services and Server
Components with Microsoft® Visual Basic® .NET and Microsoft Visual C#™ .NET

-MCSE Training Kit (Exam 70-229):: Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Database
Design and Implementation

Is better the Mike Gunderloy's books ?
I dont know what to buy ?!?!?

Thanks,
rbfigueira

I just wanted to point out that Louisville is not nearly the 15th largest US city. I'm originally from KY, so I just happened to know that it couldn't possibly be. Louisville and Lexington together doesn't get you to 15.

You can check out the stats here if your interested: http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t5/tab02.pdf


emacs, vi, LaTeX, CVS, Ghostview, xdvi, ps2pdf, xpdf, and dvipdf

Doh, I meant to say there at the bottom that I found your blog on "emacs, vi, LaTeX, CVS, Ghostview, xdvi, ps2pdf, xpdf, and dvipdf" particularly funny ;-)

I was mistaken. We are 16th.

Rank City Population
1 New York 8,008,278
2 Los Angeles 3,694,820
3 Chicago 2,896,016
4 Houston 1,953,631
5 Philadelphia 1,517,550
6 Phoenix 1,321,045
7 San Diego 1,223,400
8 Dallas 1,188,580
9 San Antonio 1,144,646
10 Detroit 951,270
11 San Jose 894,943
12 Indianapolis 791,926
13 San Francisco 776,733
14 Jacksonville 735,617
15 Columbus 711,470
16 Louisville-Jefferson 693,604
17 Austin 656,562
18 Baltimore 651,154
19 Memphis 650,100
20 Milwaukee 596,974
21 Boston 589,141
22 Washington 572,059
23 Nashville-Davidson 569,891
24 El Paso 563,662
25 Seattle 563,374

We merged with the county this year :) Tajke that stupid Austin!

I honestly haven't looked at the MSPress books from developer training yet, but based on past expierence I would recommend Mike's book. The MSPress books have been known to skimp on coverage of all the material needed to pass the exam.

As for the SQL Server book, grab Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming by Rob Veira and print out the exam matrix for course 70-229. If there is something listed on the exam matrix that you don't know well, flip through Rob's book and read up on it.

Good luck with your tests!

That's funny that people aren't going to C# because it is case sensitive.

I worked at a company many years a ago whose internal C compiler only paid attention to the first 8 characters of function names (e.g. hellohello() called the same function as hellohelsinki()). Everyone wanted to change the compiler to start matching against all characters in the function name but after years and years of people being lazy and incorrect, the cost was considered to be too high.

Where do I send the check?

Then just VB. It can be that hard to imagine why compiler engineers want foo to be different from Foo or _foo vs _FOO.

hehehe. That's an interesting way for us hicks to cheat. I can just imagine the meeting now.

"I just found out that we aren't this hugh metropolis that I always thought we were. Well, we'll show them. We'll just call our whole county a city." ;-)

If you compare counties - Jefferson ranks 73rd. Of course, it's kind of arbitrary where you say a city begins and ends. For instance, I currently like outside the San Francisco Bay area and we did a quick little estimate at work the other day and we estimated that "Bay Area" (depending on what you call that) has about as many people in it as all of KY. It's kindo of silly to compare any of it as individual cities to other individual cities as you can't really figure out where any of those cities begin and end without signs or a map.

So I say let us Kentuckians have our delusions of grandeur, but I don't think anybody that goes to Denver, Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle, Boston, Baltimore, or Atlanta are really gonna believe that Louisville is bigger than those.

by the way: I don't know how I could have written this post without the use of: emacs, vi, LaTeX, CVS, Ghostview, xdvi, ps2pdf, xpdf, and dvipdf . . . I can't imagine anyboy just using the little comment box on the web site to write all this ;-)

Hi Phil,

I would like to have your opinion about the books... i can’t buy all them :(
I will do the MCAD and What you really recommend for this exams:

-Exame 70-305
-Exame 70-310
-Exame 70-229

Thanks,
rbfigueira

Phil Scott's WebLog

http://www.syncfusion.com/faq/winforms/search/675.asp

Bookmark the main page of that site. :)

That still doesn't solve the problem of the me.close. I mean, the Validating events were supposed to be there to solve the problem with the LostFocus/SetFocus issue. I'd rather deal with that than this crap.

Plus, I'm not trying to get it to work, I'm trying really to figure out if this is intended operation, and if so why. I'm not a big fan of restricting a user's input order, so I stick to just showing errors and disabling Ok buttons.

It's intended operation, at least in .net 1.0. I've asked this last year in the newsgroups. It's completely unnecessary that the form calls the validators, but MS decided otherwise. I don't know if its different in .NET 1.1, but I doubt it.

MS didnt give a reason why the validator is called in the close operation though.

Thanks for your help here Frans. I tried it in 1.1 and same behavior. I guess I need to update the courseware I teach from to "don't use the cancel and here's why."

Sigh.

You need to put some logic in your validating event to figure out what caused validation to be fired. The usual solution to allow the close box is to check the mouse position. If the mouse is inside the client area of the form then the user navigated to another control; if not then the user probably clicked the close box. Just don't do the validation if the mouse is not inside the client area.

I got through, but trying to register a number caused another time out, the second try went through. While it didn't have a UI that is as pretty as something like salesforce.com or other biz apps with a web front end I did find it very usable and clear. It has a sort of minimalist elegance to it :)

Tried again from the beggining with my home number. This time it took three tries to go through. My biggest complaint is that the site is not running through SSL or otherwise secured. Your email address and phone number show up in the querystring after step 1. D'oh! It would be quite ironic if there was a compromise and ~250 million numbers and emails were harvested and used for spam and telemarketing.

I used ASP.NET full-time developing web sites for corporate Intranets. The only IE-specificity about ASP.NET are some of the built-in controls, which I don't use (I *like* the page-stateless model). Instead, I write my own controls and develop targeting IE6 and the latest Mozilla Firebird builds. For ad-blocking and tabs with the IE6 engine, BTW, I use AvantBrowser (free).

You have described Visual Basic .Net's standard for its identifiers can start with a letter or an underscore, and may contain of course numeric digits. Their ability to start with an underscore is new as of .Net.

You may well ask why digits cannot also start identifiers while we're at it. I think the problem is that the resulting lexical grammar would be ambiguous as regards floating point numbers: for example, would 1e2 be an identifier or the real number 100 or what?

Although I have used C extensively I am to be brutal unimpressed on balance with the way in which a C "block" is created, by surrounding zero, one or more semicolon separated statements with curly braces.

This is because the curly brace is, in many fonts and on many screens, harder to see as opposed to the implicit block structure provided by Visual Basic keywords.

When you get to be my age you are somewhat less able to see these characters.

Now, I am well aware that many VB practitioners do not know that If condition Then, and End If, surround in effect a block...which is, as of VB.Net, a unit of variable allocation in a way to do the restless ghost of Edsger Dijkstra good. At best many practitioners in MIS will refer to this vaguely as Structured Programming which they know is a Good Thing.

Nonetheless, the semantics are provided in a more visible way than those funny little braces used in C and C#.

I do not mean to push Visual Basic syntax as millenial or the greatest thing since sliced bread, only to point out that for a scientist as opposed to a craftsman, the reality of a language is something more than its glyphic appearance. It is instead the shared content of minds able to appreciate things like block structure.

If this is elitism, it is an elitism of a strange sort, for it is an elitism accessible to understanding alone.

Hi,

why Slashdot is like Parlov's dogs. If you rang a bell they would think they were about to get food and start to produce saliva. Slashdot is the same mention Microsoft and all the dogs think dinner is available. However, as I discussed in my weblog http://weblogs.asp.net/mspedding there is still a big problem that people like .Net when they can see what it can do for them but Microsoft's marketing mistakes and the FUD spread by the ABM/Java crowd has made acceptance difficult. Interesting question...if .Net has failed and C# is not being used why is Sun adding many of the C# featurs to Java ?

So in conclusion think of Slashdot as comedy piece. I have yet to see any rational discussion there.

I was going to put this in the post, but I figured I'd piss even more people off. I see slashdot like Fox News. You just aren't going to get objective reporting from them on Microsoft stuff. Anytime you see .NET or MS on there you know it will be just like Bill O'Reilly on liberals. A lot of twisting of the facts to prove a point, and just in general teeth knashing comments.

MS definitely does have a problem with the FUD, and they almost caused it for themselves. It is easy to say .NET is going away, because look at all their server products. They removed .NET from their name. Case closed, right?

Somebody just shoot me in the head.

Authentic by the company that makes XMLSpy is available in desktop and web editions and is free.
http://www.xmlspy.com/products_doc.html

Take a look at http://www.dataweb.com. There is a free 30 day trial.

www.questback.com has a html based tool for this. otherwise I'm making a product called eDocument these days. http://weblogs.asp.net/mnissen/posts/9808.aspx

unfortunately there are no product information availible in english at the moment. if you are interested i can give you a demo copy.

Interestingly, we're working on exactly the same thing for a client. I'll check out the links above. Thanks, gents.

Beta 1 will be public (it's currently in Alpha right now) and apparently going to be available at PDC (saw someone's blog mention that).

"How do you exactly unit test a webform?" - check out http://nunitasp.sourceforge.net

Dangit, walked right into that one. I even knew it existed. My brain is already on the weekend :)

I've been a lazy bastard and ordering my Papa Johns for a long while now...love it :D Good to see everyone's gettin' on the wagon! *thumbsup*

Have you noticed the checkbox you click when you pay? It's about 10 times the size of a normal checkbox!

che te gusta???

bueno espero q tengas guita



(pa comprar un nuevo disco rigido GILA)

te gusta gil?

The URL says it all really.....

Yeah, I always thought his take on XP and the sockets were a bit extreme, but his article on the DRDoS is a classic.

It looks as if the 9 year old son of the CEO at Pizza Hut built the interface.

I've been ordering pizza online for a few years now....first using Pizza Hut and later using Donatos/Food.com. However Donatos recently changed providers for their online ordering, and I think it is a major step backwards on usability.

I'll have to check out Papa Johns sometime.

Sure would like to see other places get into online ordering....

We considered a large number of sites, from what I hear. One problem is that since we have so many Microsoft employees flying down, it's easier logistically to have it on the West Coast (Seattle's airport connects with Los Angeles several times a day). That increases the chances that we'll get all the best program managers, executives, and employees there.

Did you realize that every Microsoft employee attending has to pay to go to the PDC too? (Their group has to approve the cost, which is pretty close to what attendees pay).

It's funny, but we're getting a lot of pushback about the cost from inside Microsoft too.

This is not an event, by the way, for you to become a better marketing tool for Microsoft. 99.9% of the sessions are highly technical and are done by our best developers.

There are plenty of other events where we do do marketing. :-)

Phil, I have some interesting comments on this too on my blogs. Worth to see them

Various thoughts:

(1) First off, let's all remember that Robert is first and foremost an evangelist. Not a technician. BTW, another word for evangelist is marketer in many cases. Not to slight Robert, but when he speaks of anything regarding technical value or profit or what the PDC is all about, we need to factor in exactly where he is (and by all means should be) coming from.

(2) He commented on Paschal's blog that MS is not making a profit. Um, excuse me, but why should they? This year's PDC is meant to hype in very positive ways the products MS will be releasing over the following 18 months. Seems like a contradiction that MS should expect to profit from beta previews to me.

(3) Extending this 'profit' argument is his words here about costs to MS employees. Are we to believe that somehow these costs are part of their personal wages? Or is it more likely the case that this is all properly budgeted and planned for at the corporate level - and therefore part of this bottom line of no profit from the PDC?

(4) Somebody asked somewhere else about SP1 for VS.NET 2002. From what I could tell there was no reply. Instead we have VS.NET 2003 and soom VS.NET 2004, 2005 and so on. I remember VB4 being released (I think) about Q1 1995. VB6 went gold in Q3 1998. That's 3 releases over a span of 15 quarters. From the sounds of things, we'll have 4-5 versions of VS.NET in the same span anymore. Personally, that's just WAY too much.

Why should I build anything in ASP.NET today? The hype machine (this time I mean it negatively) is already everywhere saying that ASP.NET 2.0 will come close to achieving a 75% code reduction. (But, um, they can't say anything more. Gotta love all those bloggers who hint almost daily and then end with NDA claims.)

So let me get this straight....

Hype from every corner of the .NET blog universe. Hints with absolutely no meat (NDA of course). Yearly releases. Hire a blogger who can package and deliver hype that is easy to swallow... hype that is - oddly enough - strangely similar to what Dave WIner blogs so much about in regards to RSS (no offense meant Dave, RSS is a very good tool and you keep on hyping it like you've been). Get him to lay out hint after hint of PDC.

Here's the real rub. You want the alpha? Beware, you can't do much with it - after all we all know how buggy alpha bits can be. You want a beta? Same caveat. MS will not - and should not - be legally liable. Funny thing.... the track record is that if you want the beta all you have to do is buy an MSDN subsciption. The cost is comparable to attending the PDC _and_ you get much more.

Okay, so you want that all-important sneak preview. What for? Oops.... got off track there with a question that somehow bypasses the current hype. Okay then, how about this instead. Calm down people. Let the hype engine pass by. Control your jealous instincts over those 'fortunate' ones who will attend. Once you've conquered that, you'll get your sneak preview. Read their blogs.

My title is "technical evangelist" so that's not altogether true. I'm not in marketing.

Also, the PDC is NOT to hype things that won't ship for another 12, maybe 24 months. We don't want hype to happen in October. October 2005, yes. Not this October. The PDC is COMPLETELY TECHNICAL AND AIMED AT GETTING DEVELOPERS TO BUILD APPS using Longhorn, Whidbey, and Yukon.

Every session, except for maybe a keynote, will be completely technical and done by our top developers, not marketing dweebs, or even "evangelists" like me.

If all you want is a beta or an alpha, then the PDC isn't for you. Yes, you're right there.

If you're a developer and are looking to keep your skills relevant (translation: not shippable to India) then you'll want to be at the PDC.

Heh, heh. I didn't intend really this post to be like this. Do I think the PDC is well worth two grand? Yes. Can I aford two grand? Nope. Talk to me two years ago (and maybe even just last year), and I would be there in a heart beat. Perhaps I need a new job...

Anyways, I'm not asking for MS to lower the price. I'm not asking for a free plane ticket, a hotel room and free entry to the conference. I'm just hoping there would be away for people who can't make it there to smooze with BillG and get face time could at least be able to purchase the DVDs and get their hands on the software.

Okay, I stand corrected. Appearantly MS wants me to gain technical knowledge and develop THIS October on platforms that are being released to the general public sometime shortly after the PDC. You know, platforms like Longhorn that will be released... um, when? December 2003? Or maybe Yukon which is definitely slated for release in conjunction with Whidbey, right? Oh wait.... MS announced a delay on that. So that definitely means Whidbey must surely being released before EOY 2003. No, wait....

But wait a minute Robert. If you aren't hyping the PDC 2003, if you aren't hyping these current pieces of vaporware, then exactly what is all these posts in your weblog meant to do?

Yep. Okay.... that's right. SOmehow communicate to me that my skills will become irrelevant shortly after PDC 2003 when all these new products will be released. Oh wait a minute. They won't be. But then I guess I'll have to call that last sentance in you last comment.... HYPE.

Forgive the flippancy. I _do_ have MUCH respect for you Robert, for MS and all the VERY cool things they are doing anymore, and for the technical things that happen at most PDCs in the past. It's just that this one is truely being hyped way out of proportion.

Do the math.... if you want hype to not happen until October 2005 yet feel I must attend the PDC 2003, then the main things happening in October 2003 concern products that are not reaching most business concerns until 24 months later.

You're right, most of these products won't be out until 2005. But, most of them have thousands of new APIs. Not easy to learn in a month.

Look at .NET, most people have spent a year learning it, and still there are very few "experts" out there at it.

So, if you wanna have your skills ready for 2005, good to start now.

But, really, what's the PDC for? It's to get apps built for the platform so that when we release it, there's a TON of new apps out.

We're going to create a TON of economic activity around the Longhorn release. Don't underestimate that.

Developers will want to have products ready to go on day one. How long does it take to develop an average app these days? Most apps we see, like SAP? Years. Games. Years. Shrinkwrap apps like Quicken. Years. Photoshop. Years. Flash. Years.

So, if you want to be a part of the economic wave that'll take place when Longhorn comes out, you'll be there and you'll invest the $1800. If you don't, hey, stay home. MSDN will get you much of the tech content eventually.

It's not about hype. It's about reality. The reality is that in 2005 we're gonna ship a freaking lot of product. You wanna try to learn that all in one month, that's cool with me. Most people who have major stakes in the market (devs who work for major employers like Adobe, Macromedia, AOL, SAP, etc) should be there.

And, you think I'm overhyping the PDC? Most of the industry insiders (and employees) say we're actually underhyping it.

I'm trying to be sensitive to the fact that not everyone can afford to go. I couldn't afford to go to Gnomedex last week either.

First off, I apologize for my sometimes abrasive comments here. Never intended to start a flame war or whatever it might have sounded like.

Second off, I just concisely commented in a more appropriate place - Robert's weblog, where I can address my thoughts most directly.

Finally, I'll add only one thought in reply to the above comment. Just because Longhorn MAY be released in 2005 doesn't mean the market will embrace it immediately. Bill Gates himself is speaking of various factors that will contribute to a more normal life cycle (similar to that of .NET) like larger hardware requirements and completely different file system. Most businesses didn't really ramp up with .NET (many still haven't even) and the truely great product has been in RTM for almost 2 years. XP - for all it's evolutionary, not revolutionary traits - hasn't gained any abnormally large upgrade base either. It's much more reasonable to expect Longhorn - with it's incompatabilities with all other Windows releases - won't require much of my time until 2007!

Do the products you plan on shipping in 2005 deserve a ton of hype? Hell yes. But in 2003? Nope.

Hahaha. Love the mod to the image Phil. The points about the conference cds is just. I don't think anyone took it as negative criticism. (Atleast I didn't... that was what my post was for :) )

Good luck on the adventure to get to the PDC. Who knows.. maybe the moons will align and I will end up there too... and we can have a drink together!

Oh lord, you start adding alchohol consumtion during my "vacation" and I might have to add another $700 bucks to the budget as I buy everyone who's helped me out a beer or eight.

One thing about the costs. What I have done in the past is to split costs between myself and my employer. For instance, in some cases I have paid for the airfare and hotel, and my employer has paid for my time and the registration for the event (and it is amazing the deals you can get on that - I recently got through a week in Seattle, all expenses, for around $1200, including airfare from Newark, NJ).

I am currently self employed, so the onlyone I need approval from is my wife ;-), but in my experience, it is easier to get approval from an employer if you are willing to incur some of the expenses yourself. And in the end, keeping up to date is part of <b>your</b> job, 'cause no one else will care so much about it.

>we're working on exactly the same thing

aren't we all? [wry grin] this seems to be one of those things that every group wants and every web developer of any kind (including me) ends up writing over and over and over and over ...

LOL - I was looking for a reason not to name my stored procs with SP (another developer I work with uses this notation).

This is a great tip.

Well said. I have made this recommendation to my teams for awhile. Thanks for the public reminder again.

I've standardized for the last few years on using "st" rather than "sp" as the prefix for stored procedures because of just this problem. Thanks for reminding everyone...

a dba at a company for whom i consulted got me started with a pretty cool method. he prefixes everything with "usp" for "User Stored Procedure." somehow, i've grown accustomed to that.

Nope, OlyMars prefixes SPs with sp[DISU]_ and not sp_.

Well said and its something people should be reminded of.

Sad thing: it is clearly stated in the documentation.

But modern developers dont read documentation anymore.

"Sad thing: it is clearly stated in the documentation.

But modern developers dont read documentation anymore. "

Nice. Where do I get a job where I've got time to read the entire BOL :)

Good point, Phil. I've always used "p_" since beginning working with SQL Server in '96. Didn't realize that it was a good thing to do but it turned out to be a lucky habit.

This is the same set up that Domino's Pizza uses in their online pizza ordering.

I've seen no specials online that they give.

Papa John's has been my favorite since they began, a lot of specials, and you know the price.

"If I see anyone else using InStr to search through strings I’m just going to snap."

Phil: What's wrong with using InStr to search a string?

The syntax is soooo crappy. The IndexOf method is so much clearer.

instr(string1, string2)? What's that. Which one are you searching? It just isn't clear at all without either memorizing the syntax or checking the documentation.

Good stuff. Thanks for the list!

Hmmm, I guess it's a matter of personal preference. I don't like that IndexOf returns -1 if the search string is not found; makes it impossible to use it as a boolean, e.g., If InStr(a, b) Then...

Besides, InStr has been part of BASIC for almost 30 years; how long has IndexOf been available? If you're going to write VB code, you may as well write it in VB, no? ;-)

Heh. I just turn the one in my office off, and tell people to go use a different one.

--Brian

OK, since I am jealous of these blogger dinners and such I think we need to arrange a blogger gathering for KY, IN and OH bloggers. What you say!

~keith

Sounds like a good plan. The big question of course is were do we eat...

I don't like the hardware or the application troubleshooting part this life either. It is especially frustrating when it is your family calling for help so you can't just tell them to "reboot". I've wanted to buy one of these shirts many times...http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/388b/.

Sounds good Keith. How about in Cincinnati? <g>

-Nino

Phil,

Please email me at kw@lobresearch.com; need to talk.

~mkw

System.Management? I think WMI has been unduely undersold.

I am working on Infopath for the web. Check out xmlprofessionals.com.

Yeah. It's gonna be pretty tough. At least your not alone.

Phil, Congrats on having the courage to do the right thing. It isn't always easy, but sometimes you have to make the tough choice between what you want to do, and what you should do. If you don't have the money, there is no shame in that. It has been a tough couple years for everyone. And you should be able to get the bits later. To make up for the lack of networking, I'd suggest heavy blogging.

DonXML

You do realize that you can install them and just not reboot? That does basically exactly what you suggest here its just more flexible because you get to choose when to reboot ;)

Also you can configure the auto updater so that it should automatically download the updates, install them at a certain time of the day ( say, 3 am ). If it installed any updates which need a reboot you will see a little notification about it first thing in the morning.

Yeah, I have my work machine setup to install at 4 a.m.

But I was thinking more along the lines of Joe Home user.

Hmmmm. i havent had my machine off in quite some time. well properly off anyway. i have rebooted once in the last 3 weeks. Tobias makes a good point in not having to reboot when you install an update. do they function as well as they should if you dont update though?

If you don't reboot, you aren't patched. Windows probably has a death grip on the dll or whatever that needed to updated, so it needs to do the install prior to windows booting up.

That is clearly the problem, the death grip situation. Hopefully in Longhorn we'll see something like the shadow copy stuff we have in ASP.NET so that reboots aren't needed for critical updates.

Quite often the stuff can be patched without even needing a reboot. Patches usually replace files. There is a special flag for the CopyFileEx api which tells the system that if the operation cannot be completed it should be done upon next reboot. In this case it returns a special return value and the Please reboot message is presented at the end of the patch process. It happens every once in a while that you don't have to reboot.
What I'd really like to see is a more intelligent patching engine. For example the archive could contain a little vs script which would just stop the a service which than can be updated without a reboot and restart it after wards ( if it was running ).

Frankly, the constant reboot thing is the last oddity of windows. Linux does that much better than windows.

I think it's similarly bad when people put EST. Your average users doesn't know that's their time zone.

P.S. New York, incidentally.

I know my time zone where I live, but not always when I travel. My cell phone automagically knows the local time, I wish my laptop and Pocket PC did the same.

The icon Critical Update puts in the taskbar is so univerally ambigious why would anybody know what it is? The combination of the Windows logo with the Earth? How about a big yellow (!) to get ther user's attention that there's updatin' need to be done?

Good point on the travel thing. But I would be far less likely to get the correct time zone from this list if I was traveling I think.

Indianapolis is basically north of Louisville (ok, a bit to the west). We have a problem here at work when people are signing up for the service that this list appears in choosing Indianapolis or wondering why Louisville isn't in the list.

I'm surprised how many people don't realize Louisville is in the eastern time zone, and so is New York. Just seems like even if you know your time zone, you have to think too much.

How about a picture, ala old school Win95?

I'm interested. Personally, I still don't know if it's worth taking the exams or not. I've heard from both sides... Either you know the stuff, and passing the exam is just a piece of paper to verify it. Or you use the passed exams as resume fluff to convince prospective employers that you know what you were tested on. The side issue is that the real world is different than tests, so how do you determine if someone that passed 8 MS tests deserves to be hired over the person with more "real-world experience." So perhaps information about the exam(s) would clarify this a little more for me.

I'm interested. I've already got the MCSD .NET cert, but I always enjoy going over the material, especially if it is presented in a new and different form.

While that is a nice theory regarding the MCSD I think you're failing to take into account the MCSD-mills. Companies who exist solely to train people to pass the MCSD courses. We're talking about people who prior to taking the 'courses' given by such a company.. didn't even know what 'Visual Basic' was.. An easy way to catch this though is to ask 'Where/How did you gain your MCSD?' I'd much prefer someone who did it on there own time.. or through work then someone who use to be a travel agent but took a 6 month course.

> You have two developers with pretty similar resumes: BS in Computer Science,
> four-six years developing for the heath care industry and both list themselves
> as being an “expert in .NET” on their resumes. But one is an MCSD.

Phil: What if one candidate has a BS in Comp Sci, and the other has an MCSD but no college degree? How important is the degree in predicting developer skill/performance?

Shane: I actually work for what a lot of people would consider a cert factory. Well, I'm at a CTEC. Two or three years ago we'd have these career days were people looking to change careers could come and learn about all the money they could make getting their MCSD. Actually I should say their MCSE. People going for their MCSD usually were overwhelmed pretty quickly by it all. Some of that is my fault because I really wouldn't tolerate someone who didn't have the drive and desire to go home and play, and get excited. I would hate myself for teaching people to pass tests. We did have people who came in who had never heard of VB6 and got their MCSD, and I really felt they earned it. But they were few and far between. I think the MCSD milled people stick out on their resumes when they list 15 years of roofing on their resumes. But if they went through the process of getting their MCSD, they at least hopefully have a desire to do development work. If not, they probably would have gone the MCSE route. But I wouldn't hire them unless they were willing to work extremely cheap in internship capacities to prove to me that they have the drive to be a professional developer.

I've interviewed a fair amount of people, most of them with Certs and no degree with about 4-5 years of VB experience. I never put much stock in certifications/degrees, but experience counts for a lot in my book. I usually make a decision by trying to gauge how well the candidate knows .NET, if they've written any articles about .NET, do they belong to .NET user groups, how they answer interview questions, etc. After all this, if I have two or three candidates I'm on the fence with, my rankings are:

Lot of experience, 4+ year degree
Good experience, 4+ year degree, MCSD
Good experience, 4+ year degree
Good experience, 2 year degree, MCSD
Experienced, 2 year degree, MCSD

Since I plan to get the MCAD certification soon and the MCSD within a year, I'm interested too.

I have been using Papa Johns ordering for a couple years now and it is much better that any other pizza website. I like Papa Johns coupons on the main page and the pizza arrives fast Papa Johns is the best one so far.

Does that make .NET the Hummer to Java's Rav4? :-)

No, .NET is more like the Lada ... it's a "company town" and you get the best that you can get, given a complete lack of choice.

After seeing a '60 minutes' expose on CBS (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/11/60minutes/main562824.shtml) - I don't think the term 'SUV' can be a compliment but then again for Java... ;-)

The solutions provided here are install POINT but not install DESTINATION.

Phil,

Did you try requesting dynamic pages like asps and see the response. I am interested in knowing whether a Http1.0 request for a page which is more than say 8k also returns a Connection : keep-alive and Content-Length header.
I havent got to trying this yet but was hoping you've attempted it.

If there's any sanity in the world, ATI's new 9100 IGP chipset should take over the low-end Intel market pretty soon. Roughly Radeon 9000 level graphics from integrated video is not bad at all.

as much as you can, put more memory (> 512mb or so)... it goes a long way..

What the...! This is kacey69. I'm surprised I made to the top 40 of anything, I never realised the Blogger fresh blogs pages came up on my template, and I have never seen them there. Maybe it was because I didn't use it for a while, and it became inactive and redirected to blogger.com? I apologise it has irked you.

<blink>blink</blink>

:-) go for it.... the job is there !

I agree with your suggestion. Who knows somebody on the VS.NET Team? Tell them to buy his graphics!!!!!!!

Cory, I think Phil's comment about AndAlso is that he understands short-circuiting and doesn't need to use VB's old non-short-circuiting semantics. At least that's how I read the post.

If you come from a Java/C#/C++ world, you're used to And short-circuiting automatically, so it seems like extra typing to have to enter AndAlso. Of course, the reason AndAlso was used was to ease porting and provide that much more backwards compatibility, but it still would be nice to be able to do: Option MakeAndShortCircuiting (although being able to rewire the semantics of an operator via an Option statement would make for some frustrating bugs down the road! ;-)

But you also have to remember that And is also used as a bit-wise operator on integer values, so by default making it short-circuitable would break a lot of functionality.

Oh, I'm perfectly aware of how it is suposed to work. I just received an e-mail from someone who assumed that the lifetime of the variable would be at the block level because that's where they declared it. Therefor, the variable would be "recreated" each time through the loop in some magical way, or at minimum reset to the default value. After all, most books say in some way or another that when you declare the variable, it gets set to zero automatically. You are "declaring" it five times. Not really of course, but I could see where the mistake could be made so I thought I'd point it out.

As for the And / AndAlso debate, I can't fathom writing code that would rely on the fact that VB doesn't short circuit and / or statements. And I'm sure that the compiler designers could figure out when And was being used as a logical operator or a bit-wise operator.

Sometimes I just get frustrated with the language nuances in VB.NET that exist because people have been writing bad code, and VB.NET had to be backwards compatable to keep those few people happy. It just introduces MORE bad code. It would be like if IE 6 still supported the BLINK tag to keep old sites looking the same.

Ah... understand now about the declaration. Now your point makes sense.

As for And / AndOr, here's an example:

If a And b = 1 Then
End If

If a andAlso b = 1 Then
End If

These two statements are very different. The first will do a bitwise operation on a and b then see if it equals 1. The second one will check to see if a is true and if b = 1 is true.

How would the compiler know that you wanted the function to work one way vs. the other?

Also, for clarity, I would write the first example as:

If (a and b) = 1 Then
End If

It's seems to be clearer to me...

"How would the compiler know that you wanted the function to work one way vs the other?":

Simple. Strongly typed variables. It's been a while since my compiler construction class, and I'll be the first to admit I'm pretty ignorant of these topics, but the compiler should be able to determain boolean data vs integer data.

In fact, with option strict on, and with a and b both integers, "If a And b = 1" won't even compile (cannot convert integer to boolean). You have to write it as "(a and b) = 1"

BTW, your transpanel and label demos are pretty damn cool.

I'm not quite sure why they need TWO text editors (emacs and vi, for sirshannon's benefit!), but then maybe if there were two authors doing it?

As for all the others: LaTeX is a bunch of extra formatting commands for Donald Knuth's TeX language (the 'e' should actually be a subscripted E); GhostView is a PostScript viewer using the GhostScript not-actually-PostScript interpreter; CVS is the Concurrent Versions System, a source control tool; xdvi is an X Windows viewer for TeX's DVI output format; ps2pdf is part of the GhostScript suite for converting PostScript files to Adobe PDF; xpdf is a GUI PDF viewer; and dvipdf generates PDFs from DVI.

Word can't quite hack a full non-fiction book with decent sidebars, illustrations and surrounding text flow. I believe MS Press still uses FrameMaker for publishing their books. Fiction rarely uses such devices, so Word is perfectly acceptable.

Yes, you get lots of control over your text with LaTeX, but you have to type all the control codes yourself. Into a text editor. Generally with no preview. It's a little like, well, writing a program in emacs then running it to see if it works.

If you know how to use styles in Word, and you can put up with later versions thinking they know more about what you want to do than you do, it's very easy to prepare copy for import into a serious DTP package.

You are right about strongly typed, unfortunately, VB.NET is able to run in a mode where Option Strict can be turned off (personally I think that is a mistake making this something that can be turned off and on globally, should be granular). If the language was always strongly typed, I'd agree with you. As it is, even in the VB6 days, you'd get a little bit of wierdness using And all by it's little lonesome. Also, it was not short circuited. I personally wouldn't have a problem going the other direction, but I do understand the reasons why they went the way they did.

So personally, I just got used to always using AndAlso and OrElse. Just had to get into the habit of doing so, now it's no big deal.

Thanks for the complements on the TransControls project. The first article got a little bit of traffic, but I'm not sure if people have come back to see part two, which IMHO is where things are starting to come together and the screen shot is much more impressive.

YO... YAO... YO... YAO...

Very nice.

Nice. NOT. We'll end up with Windows apps that all look like Flash web sites! ;-)

Excellent book, my company recently bought a few copies and gave them to clients - really is a very accessible, sensible book. Just finished reading About FACE 2.0 by Alan Cooper - kind of the next step after this book, also excellent and very thought provoking...

My favorite usability error is at the office of my current client, they have glass doors with handles on both side of the doors... but of course you can only pull the doors from the outside and push them from the inside. Everyday I watch people try to pull the big ass handle, which is begging to be pulled, only to look like an idiot when nothing happens.

-James

Nice one in windows...to stop our pc, you click 'start' :-) Think Raymond Chen covered the reason for this...

Whatever happened to "Keep Moving"

That's a gem...thanks for the tip!

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that playing freecell during setup is probably a bad idea :-). I just thought the concept of play freecell while waiting for the thing to install was kinda funny.

Anyway,s this would have saved me some time in the past. On my MSDN cds I burn I tend to add a cdkey.txt file because I can't read my handwriting with the install key. I started an install of windows, and the only copy of the cdkey I had was on the cd. If I knew I could at least print out the contents of that txt file, it would have saved me at least a half hour of shenanigans.

Why not just have playoffs? It seems like more and more college watchers are elaning towards that, what do you think about college playoffs?

What exactly does this have to do with .NET?

You MUST be talking about King of Prussia? :)

"Don't Stop" on a green sign would be best I would think. "Go" would just confuse the lemmings. I am reading About Face 2.0 right now, seems interesting so far, but it is a pretty long book. Much longer than I expected.

Did anyone ever see that Far side comic with the kid entering a building with a sign that said "Midvale School for the Gifted"? He is leaning on the door as hard as he can, but there is a sign on it that says "Pull". That might be my personal favorite farside ever.

Should have come last month when Dave Wanta spoke.

link to webcast - http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032240622&Culture=en-US

Wow, right from the source! Thanks Srinath!

I'll be there! =)

Happens to me too (without the Enter key). Two much thinking between keys... or is it sleep? ;-)

Hi,

Good work, well done

The whole premise of the apache vs IIS argument is a bit daft anyway as it's comparing apples to oranges. Apache is an excellent server for static webpages, as is IIS. Most issues in IIS come about from implementation of various scripting extensions such as hdr and asp. When you add server products to Apache, it starts to suffer similar problems e.g. search through securityfocus vulnerability archives and look at the large number of php or jsp security holes. Almost all of these were exploited on Apache installations, but are not regarded as Apache bugs.

I do not like to vomit. It’s tacky and messy; therefore I do not read Slashdot.

I believe you will start to see IIS based hosting for similar prices to Apache by 2005. Why? A few reasons:

1) There is now a web server edition in the Windows Server family (starting with Windows 2003/IIS6) that is substantially cheaper than the Standard, Enterprise, et al are today or were in the past. In addition to the price/licensing changes, Win2k3/IIS6 scales better than its predecessors so the hosts will be able to do more with less (I know it's marketing crap but it is true in this case).

2) Microsoft understands that cost with web hosts is one barrier to adoption and we are addressing that in a variety of ways (i.e. special programs for hosters, etc.).

Alex

RealPlayer sucks ass. I hate spyware. Spybot rules!

Real sucks and it always has. I think the last time I installed it would start up with windows and 'suggest' new things that I should download, jeez. Spamware.

If Microsoft behaved half as badly as they do, they'd deserve half the abuse they got.

My comments here:

http://dotnetjunkies.com/weblog/markdigiovanni/posts/4676.aspx

Good to see others sharing the same sentiment I have. Basically, I stopped using Real Player about two or three versions ago when I installed it and it took over all my multimedia shortcuts without asking me. Talk about antitrust or monopolistic behavior. Plus, if I wanted their crap download manager, I would have downloaded it but thanks to their spamware I got it anyway.

Real really sucks.

Real Alternative plays RM files without the spyware: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail.php3?fid=1054136293

I also like QuickTime Alternative: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail.php3?fid=1049831315 / http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/posts/8632.aspx

WMV and ASF are the exact same files, just with different extensions and mime types - i.e., you can rename test.wmv to test.asf and it'll work. It was just a rebranding, I think - from "Advanced Streaming Format" to "Windows Media Video", "Windows Media Audio", etc.

More here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q284/0/94.asp&NoWebContent=1

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=asf+wmv+rename+%22advanced+streaming%22+%22windows+media%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=D5UOiaoVBHA.186%40cppssbbsa01.microsoft.com&rnum=1

hahah :)

They said they're working on a fix for their buffer overflows. I wonder how they'll going to solve it (I bet 5$ on a bigger number than 256)

well... it's still better than MS's response ("merry christmas! no security patches this month!").

Now if the guys that did that patch would fix the "scroll 2 pages" bug in IE that MS gave us with their last update.

Huh huh. Those slashdot guys are idiots. Huh huh.

I have to point out it wasn't Slashdotter's who wrote the app, it was some "security" group. The Slashdotters are the guys who picked apart the source code looking for the nasties.

As for the scroll 2 pages bug being fixed, that would be awesome.

The discussion now in Slashdot is whether this bug was left on purpose...this patch seems to be malicious in other ways too...

The site is completely useless if you try to use a printed coupon or a coupon "in your area". The site keeps telling me it's invalid. I entered 6 coupon codes and only one actually came up valid. NOT the one I wanted. If you are interested in one of their "specials" that come up on the order screen, you're in luck, otherwise you'll have to call it in to use a coupon. But why would I be ordering online if I wanted to use the #@$* phone?!? Hellloooo Papa John's!

This is just biased code. The C# code will run (changed to VB.Net syntax) just fine from VB.Net. VB.Net has access to teh same framework objects.

Sounds like the benchmark is useless - its comparing vb6 code running under the .Net framework to framework code.

Couldn't you pretty much write the same thing in VB.NET (except for the increment operator)

<pre>
Dim streamWriter As New StreamWriter(fileName)
Do While (i < ioMax)
streamWriter.WriteLine(textLine)
i = i + 1
Loop
streamWriter.Close()
</pre>

Now isn't that the same thing, should be the same number of calls as the C# version? The i++ turns into a i = i + 1 just like the VB.NET line. Of course, you are going to easily type 30% more in VB.NET than C# but that's another debate.

I was quite suprised to see how well java 1.4 did ( apart from the trig ), better than c# on a lot of things :|

I agree with the first comment.

OSNews needs to compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges. Just because you can do it that way in VB.NET doesn't mean you should - and shame on Microsoft for giving people who don't know any better the ability to do it.

I've seen such benchmarks quite a lot too (see for example http://www.jroller.com/page/ceperez/20030520 about regular expressions). Luckily we know when we need to ignore things we read, but unfortunately there are always people how believe everything.

Isn't OSNews violating the EULA by publishing benchmark results? According to this:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnnetdep/html/redisteula.asp

"You may not disclose the results of any benchmark test of the .NET Framework component of the OS Components to any third party without Microsoft's prior written approval."

Argh.

Argh, argh, argh.

Like I'm going to choose C, Java, or C# because of a few ticks difference.

What I *really* want to know is why the lights dim and the ground rumbles whenever I try to open up Java GUI apps (not the little toy apps, but think more along the lines of the WebSphere admin piece, or any IDE written in Java).

Rory,

You actually stay awake long enough to see the lights dim? I usually fall asleep waiting for Java GUI apps to start... :)

Let me suggest to learn VB.NET better, before wasting time on this kind of benchmarks

So if you guys can provide better written code then why don't you do so? I'm sure that whoever did the benchmarks wasn't an expert in every language. Write your optimized VB (or whatever) version and send it to them.

Because do you honestly think the person who wrote it really wants the optomized VB? Was it so hard for them to find someone who could provide it?

Interresting thing about this is that managed code doesn't lead to an expensive overhead as compared to native C language compiled with GCC. As the author of the benchmark concludes, the few - hypothetical - percent of performance advantage for native languages are not enough to justify to stay away from managed code and not to take advantage of all the mechanisms provided by the CLR.

(i can't believe I'm about to defend an author who publishes such a shocking piece of VB...)

The author actually highlights an important point here. VB programmers who have upgraded to VB.net are quite likely to write code just as bad as that shown. C# programmers will have tohave a solid grasp of the framework and will almost definitely write code similar to that shown. So in practice, the comparison might actually be a fair one.

Still, in the time it took theVB programmer to write the code get it working, deliver it, deal with the client and fix ten more problems, the C# programmer would've just walked around the office ten times, showing off about how clever he is.

Leon - Exactly! And that's why I made the comment that Microsoft should shoulder some of the blame for deciding to include this VB compatibility library that makes such things possible. On one hand, I can't fault MS at all for their good intentions on making the upgrade path from VB6 to VB.NET as smooth as possible, but on the other hand if we don't provide the "incentive" for them to learn how to do it a better way (some might say "the .NET way"), then we're going to be faced with cleaning up this type of code for years to come.

"The author actually highlights an important point here. VB programmers who have upgraded to VB.net are quite likely to write code just as bad as that shown."

The problem: It's supposed to be a benchmark of languages/platforms - *not* a benchmark of developers.

That said, I don't care what language you code in - 90% of the code that I've encountered in my contracts has been utter, dismal puke. It could, if we really wanted to screw up the benchmark this much (more so than it already is), be argued that any developer approaching any language/platform has about a 9/10 chance of totally botching the job regardless of knowledge.

I don't think there's any justifiable reason for having included the lame VB code as it was. I see your reasoning, but it's making an assumption about the people driving the technology, as opposed to the technology itself.

That, my friend, is one messed up benchmark. It's more like a benchstain.

It's bad.

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

FWIW, the version of IE in WinXP SP2 beta does not redirect, so I didn't get the joke. ;-)

I admit my vb.net classes aren't unit tested; it'd be nice to have the time! I must be an exception too to using classes in VB. There's ~ 130 in my current project ;-) Edit and Continue would have a hell (or heaven!) of a difference to vb.net. My app's in asp.net so the slow startup of the app on making small changes is a killer, but still being able to modify property values etc within the app does also help. Just means making a few more modifications before each build...

wicked stuff Phil

here's microgoogle:

http://www.topfx.com/cgi-bin/mixmaster.cgi?layouturl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dmixmaster%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch&contenturl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com

Pls i want to join this conference and i want you to pay me salary, pls mail me where can iu get in touch with you.
Thanks.

FWIW, the SP2beta update doesn't actually fix the URL display bug, but does manage to break javascript sometimes. That's not actually a _good_ thing.

saini

Plz VS6.0 MSDN

# re: impersonation enable="true"

I am probably stupid. I can't make it work.

I have added ASPNET, IUSR..., IIS_WPG to my sqlserver logins.

I have even made them all Administrators one at a time in order to see if I could figure out who is lacking rights.

NO LUCK.

Is this process spelled out slowly for dummies somewhere?

David Coulter

This project was never finished but it was a much better Benchmarking test of many languages. The reason it eventually was never finished was because they couldn't get enought people to submit code for the benchmark testing. However there are still alot of good benchmarks here from before the project lapsed into apathy:

http://dada.perl.it/shootout/

My bad it looks like someone has picked up the project again. Should be interesting when they get done. All source code is available for each language and also the logs for each benchmark.

That's great !!

LOL, Nice!

I would like any and all phone solicitations blocked from my phone number, my number is, (561) 734-4794. Is that what you do??? I have been told you achieve this and all I have to do is apply

The link for MSSQL2K System Table Map (CHM) is below:

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/productdoc/2000/systables.asp

qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq

sssssssssssssssssssssss

I love isobuster

have a look at asp.net script injection
http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/stefandemetz/archive/2004/02/06/6748.aspx

Both servers rock!

I agree with Cathy. Papa John's site is nice and all, but you can't use any of their printed coupons - and their online coupons are almost always worse than the printed ones (which makes no sense to me). I like Papa John's site, but I only use if I don't have any other coupons. If I have regular coupons, it's just cheaper to call in.

I remember there were some great comments int the Commer Server 2000 BizDesk code.

Whoa, this ain't rocket science.

This error shouldn't happen, it it does email me at @Microsoft.com

Awesome. I am constantly writing small rants in my code. It usually makes for good reading by newbies.....Glad to see others enjoy the same practice.

-Mathew Nolton

Well I can't say I've ever put any profanity in my comments but I have put a few jokes in it a time or two. I like to think maybe someday some one will come along to extend my stuff and have a laugh.

http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/stefandemetz/archive/2004/02/13/7213.aspx
http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/stefandemetz/archive/2004/02/13/7210.aspx

I set the options in IIS 6.0 to use gzip... but when I vew Page Info in Mozilla, the Content-Encoding is never reported as gzip .. and the file size remains constant.

Any ideas on what I am doing wrong here?

LOL! I just *had* to blog this!

"I've been practicing drawing stick figures and pasting pictures of Steve Wozniak's head on them in Paint"

<ahem>

*I* actually prefer to use Alias SketchBook Pro.

I only use Paint for the gruntwork.

[grumbling] amateur stick figure artists...

Hi guys,
I am using windows data grid. I have windows application in VB.net. I have a validate event written for grid. But when i close my form, validate event is NOT fired..how to handle this..?. My fomr is modal. Can any one help..me.
Do reply me at clara.paul@vizual.co.in
Regards,
clara

nil

abcd

i like isobuster

good work
from nederland
ciskoleone

Hi Folks,

I strongly beleive in C# case sensitivity. As a programmer its very easy to incorporate the properties and other logics easily using the case sensivity of C# which is not available in VB.NET.

Cheers,
Krishnan C.G.

dasd

Wow. I don't know whether to laugh or cry!

You have been Taken Out! Thanks for the post.

Well check out this Java vs C# benchmark:

http://www.manageability.org/blog/archive/20030425%23is_java_hundreds_of_times/view

I like that comment - both servers are excellent.

i think apache is a great server - in its own right. iis also has its place. they (like mark said) simply serve different purposes. for my part, i like to believe that companies prefer to go with iis simply because they want someone to be responsible for whatever may come up. i may be wrong, but that's just MO. besides, anyhow, numbskulls will still bash ms (i don't love them either), whether or not they have facts.

You can always use reflection to check from where the validation is originating from.

protected bool formIsClosing()
{
System.Diagnostics.StackTrace stackTrace = new System.Diagnostics.StackTrace();
for(int i = 2; i < stackTrace.FrameCount; i++)
{
if(stackTrace.GetFrame(i).GetMethod().Name == "WmClose")
{
return true;
}
}
return false;
}

Regards
/T

Hi Phil,

I usually train developers in a Portuguese MCTEC, and I have the same problem with 2557 most of developers trying to do an MCAD and many perusing a MCSD are not ready for COM+. This is particularly hard for young developer or developers recently arrived in the Microsoft world, they don't easily see the need of COM+ and it's usually very hard to motivate them.

What I've seen very often is people skipping this course and go for brain dumps to do the 70-310/20 exam. The extraordinary thing is that I have heard of developers taking this exam when they don't even understand the questions regarding COM+ or Remoting. They just memorize the correct answers. There is another thing wrong with 70-310/20 and that is the Remoting questions, as far as I know there are no MOC course that covers Remoting at the level the exams require.

It's nice to see gzip there, but deflate compression, which is approximately the same thing and is supported by browsers as well, is included in II5. It's a bit tedious to set up (a few command line commands), but works. We've been using it for a few years now.

So it's nice, but not really that big of a deal to have gzip in II6.

Put the following in the web.config file.

Good luck

<configuration>
<system.web>
<authentication mode="Windows" />
<identity impersonate='true'/>
<system.web>
<configuration>

Unfortunately, this one's too old and suprisingly not fixed yet..
You can find others here:
http://www.safecenter.net/umbrellawebv4/ie_unpatched/index.html

Btw.. I recommend using "Quik-Fix by PivX", this program will neutralize this threat:
http://www.pivx.com/qwikfix/

Hmmm, so that's where I've seen it before. On a page last updated 3 months ago of unpatched IE bugs. I guess I had to see a proof of concept before I realized how nasty it could be.

My bad for bringing up old news. I'm a real reactionary when it comes to IE, because it is the bain of my existance.

I should also point out when I tried running this on my work machine that it failed because of two reason #1, I run Firefox. #2, even with Ie it failed because it needs admin privledges to overwrite wmplayer.exe. But I'm willing to bet it still could overwrite user files...

You know how to get this bug fixed? Use it to get around CAS in .NET. Claim its a bug in .NET, and you'll get this thing prioritized right quick.

i think complete and utter joke is a little harsh. IE's support for CSS is ok, and was market-leading when first released. The CSS2 stuff isn't there, but it's not half as bad as people make out.

regarding your comment

> The only reason anyone can give for a rational reason to use it would be that they are locked in because some custom control / their design was for whatever reason designed by eight year olds, and requires IE.

This just isn't true. I use MYIE2, which is based on Internet Explorer. All of my colleagues use Internet Explorer. I can't imagine using any other browser.

I have Mozilla installed on my wife's computer and it still shows the same problems that it had in 2000 when I first tried it: namely that the brain-dead moronic, build-your-own widgets in XML simply aren't compatible with Windows. This just kills my productivity. Also I do find sites look nicer in IE, simply because that's what people code for.

oh btw. the bug is fixed. You need to understand that. Microsoft have fixed in XP sp2, which I am running, so it doesn't affect me at all.

Thanks for understanding

how's the adoption of xp sp2 going out there in the wild?

what about machines still running windows 2000? or windows 98? i can't wait for sp2 to be out, and I'll upgrade the machines here at work right away, but this is still going to be nasty for the vast majority of people for whom "upgrade to windows xp and install sp2" isn't an option.

As for the css support, i'd be very embarrassed if I worked for the IE team. It's buggy and doesn't support many CSS2 selectors. A good chunk (maybe 30%) of CSS articles out there are about working around bugs in IE, and the rest need to include things like the box-model hack and other items.

And if you do web development, the only thing made fun of more than IE is Netscape 4. It's simply a pain to develop for.

"A cross-domain scripting vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running IE."

I'd like to point out that this is yet another reason not to run your day-to-day machine as Administrator. If you're running as an ordinary user, it's not possible for a malicious user to delete system files, or take other actions requiring Administrator-level privileges. If you are running as Administrator, and fall prey to this or similar vulnerabilities, it's game over. You might as well reformat your machine and re-install.

With the huge market share that IE now has, if they ditch the standards on the next version (tied into the OS I believe), I'm gonna drop .NET like a bad habit. Sorry, that's the rules.

Armpit of America!!?!?! (We did not get a devDays either)

-James

I mean it all in good fun of course James. I'm teaching up here in rainy and cold Cinci so I thought I'd take a pot shot while I had a chance.

I can't believe Cinci didn't get DevDays, but I just checked and I was wrong. How did Columbus and Cleveland get dates and not cinci? And what's up with Tennessee getting TWO?

Wow! I'm living in 16th largest city of america! Big Thanks to Tim Landgrave for bringing VB.NET tour to Louisville. Now I don't have to travel 100 miles just to get T-Shirt.

I know... :) I think Cinci had horrible attendance one year and they got dropped, I think memphis is going to get dropped anyway... they had like 30 people show up or something. That's ok, because I am in Cleveland for a client and it is even worse up here. :) (But I did get to go to DevDays up here)

-James

I might be there, KYDOTNET email said you need to pre-register

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032249614

Seating is limited!

I'll have to see if my roomate will want to go. I'll hopefully be in town next week. Stupid travel...

Nice review Phil and a great list of resources. Tim's exam guides are terrific especially since they can be used for either the VB or C# version of the exams.

Congrats on passing!

``Yes, you get lots of control over your text with LaTeX, but you have to type all the control codes yourself. Into a text editor.''

As opposed to typing your text, highlighting it, and then clicking in some random menu (or the toolbar eating screen space)? I'd rather type a little, thanks. If you're writing a long document, most of what you type should be the text of the document, not formatting control; since you're mostly dealing with text, your tool should be optimized for that task. Ask anyone who's used some flavor of Unix after working with MS---nothing handles text better than Emacs and vi. If you write a lot, and often compose long documents with multiple revisions, LaTeX (or troff) with the tools above really makes life a lot easier.

Word also has really poor version control, and none worth speaking of if more than one person needs to edit the file at the same time. Most importantly, Word saves files in binary; that means that you can't do _anything_ to them without firing up Word first. Flat ASCII text can be manipulated with hundreds of tools, including entire programming languages designed for text processing, and is guaranteed to always be readable on any platform (including those for which no MS products are available). Plus, LaTeX produces better-looking output with less fuss, and can easily be converted into many different formats: text, troff, PostScript, DVI, HTML, SGML, RTF, and PDF. Word only converts to text, RTF, and HTML, and the markup it produces is horrific.

Like most Microsoft products, Word is bloatware. If you really like word processors, use OpenOffice.org Writer---it's free, saves to XML natively, opens and writes every format known to humankind, and has a homolog of nearly every Word feature (and few of the misfeatures).

Phil,

I am a developer with Transcender and you are absolutely right about the fact that our practice tests are meant for preparing you for the experience of the exam and to determine whether you have the appropriate knowledge, not to give you the test answers. We always recommend that our users read through the questions and explanations to get a full grasp of the concepts.

I also think that www.codeclinic.com offers useful information. I found the MS Press book for this exam to be reasonable, but not great.

Good luck to all those taking this exam!

Hi,

i'm really sick of this "companies need someonw who is responsible" point, it's just western society crap, when something goes wrong, find and sue the one who would make a good scapegoat. Like the jews 2000years ago, every year chose a scapegoat for everything and send that poor guy into the desert.
I dont know what's the problem of solving something.
When i'm looking for a Software, i choose the one i think is best, and not if there's someone behind which i can sue to hell when i think his software is messed up.
And if i know the Software i use is bad, i shut the fuck up and hide in a dark corner, so nobody can see my stupidity of choosing shit, and not yelling my stupity and incompetence of choosing the right tool into the world....

Sounds like my local Borders.

Why not use: Reflector.exe /fontsize:13 (?)

SON OF A BITCH.

i both hate and love you frank

Well now I have to go and do something really cool because the whole internerd knows that I'm too stupid to run a /? on a program.

Reflector.exe /fontname:Lucida Console /fontsize:14

This is not a good way to go to sleep, dwelling on failure....

Think about it this way: You get the credit for making sure everybody finds out this command line switch exists.

http://weblogs.asp.net/psteele/archive/2004/05/03/125135.aspx

@Phil: and if you put quotation marks around the font name it will even work ;-)

I'm about to download this beast, how do you compare it with the PDC build in terms of speed. I mean, on my machine with 2GHz, it would take five minutes for the start menu to come on the PDC build. Off course I have 1Gig of RAM if it would make the difference.

Much faster. Just make sure you install those virtual machine addins after the setup runs.

hey,
i just read about resetting a hotmail password but i cannot do it.
can you plz mail me and explain me how to do it ?

this is my mail: george@achkar.org

george achkar

err, check the date on the original post. that vulnerability was closed up over a ear ago...

Ok, I'll bite. WHy don't you just disable the winfs service and the two or three services that depend on it? Wouldn't that do just as good a job of removing it? And then you don't have to worry about messing with the internals of the system.

You know, I disabled the service and the memory stayed high. I didn't spend too much time thinking about it though, and just removed it. I'll probably be throwing this down on a couple of machines at work, and I'll investigate it a bit further.

well christ, i reinstalled Longhorn overnight to make sure I wasn't go crazy, and sure enough: i'm going crazy. disabling that sucker actually worked this time.

this is twice in a week when all i post is something i found useful, only to find out i did way too much work. which in of itself is rewarding to know a better way, but then again pretty freakin' embarrassing to go through way to much work to solve a simple problem.

sigh.

The problem with using CSS for layout is IE. If you float your side column (on the left) and your contents is too wide IE will align it below the floating DIV instead of putting them next to each other and adding a scrollbar. If somebody has a solution to that I will stop using tables to layout my sites.

Jerry: http://glish.com/css/9.asp

Phil, I need the navigation on the left, not right. If it's on the right it's trivial. And even in the link you posted - if your content is wider than two thirds of the browser window the right column will apear below thw wide element (a table, image, whatever), not next to it - a problem.

I thought red books were free anyway, certainly a large number of them are.

IIS/ASP.NET VS Apache/PHP Myths
http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/stefandemetz/archive/2004/03/31/10465.aspx
http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/stefandemetz/archive/2004/03/30/10388.aspx

For me the funny thing is that I choose Microsoft over Open Source not because of which product is better, I just can't stand the attitude of the free community. Anyone been not www.unixsucks.com?

I think the main point they intend to make, which gets passed over by those not in the know, is that none of their files are stored on the filesystem at all.

Each time one of the multiple authors opens a document, it is automagically checked out of Version Control, and checked back in when done (Emacs does this, and I stumbled upon this page while looking for a how-to!). Vi does too, I am sure.

Now version control integrated with a document, word provides a poor fascimile, but CVS does it all, merging changes, producing reports, blahblah.

After losing too many files and having to figure out, well, this is a letter to family, should I put it in the home/family or home/letters directory I think it would be great to use emacs to do these things for you automatically.

And emacs can not only put the letter in cvs, it is also a newsreader and mailreader, and a superb, ultrapowerful megastable hyperextensible text editor (punctuation removed for emphasis).

Downside, it is hard to get started with. Upside. 5 keystrokes can replace 3 hours of pointing and clicking. When you program for a living, emacs can save your ass. It's that simple. Large amounts of typing? You /will/ make your life easier with emacs. Just learning it is hard :-)

Cheers.. uninvited verbose Passer-by.

I've always said that it is a matter of zooming in/out the whole document like PDF, and saving the ratio in your preferences so you don't have to rezoom everytime.

Resizing fonts in some cases work but in others the font is contained in frames that don't resize as well screwing the layout of the page.

I heaard that Opera does zooming, I'll give it a try.
Btw, Firefox rocks!

I think that ya'lls pizza is the worst pizza I have ever ate in my life

Wtf are you talking about?

For Krishnan:

Can you provide an example of something you would do in C# that you cannnot do in VB.NET due to it's case-insensitivity? Sometimes people interpret "case-insensitive" to mean that they cannot use mixed-case, which is not true for VB.NET.

Thanks,
John G.

I learned this secret when I was dating a runner in Lee's Summit, MO. He managed 16 hotmail accounts he would modify and send odd emails posing as original account holder. CEO of woosch network in Palo Alto. Very Intelligent man I became infatuated with.

Terence: I believe you are referring to Ralph Garvin Jr., or Sr. not sure -- is heavily linked to illegal wire transfers using Yahoo email service and other web-based services. My husband lost $87,000 in an escrow account linked to a Bank in Johannasburg/Africa. International laws protected him and destroyed my husband.

I wonder why amazon.com is using Apache on Linux?
I guess that makes them Tom, Dick and Dmitry like
our good host suggested.
Sorry about this, but sometimes when I read the comments
on some morons' web sites spreading Micro$oft propaganda
I just have to get it out of my system.

And a word of advice to William:
Let's see how you stand Micro$oft's attitude when
finally becomes a monopoly.

The Red Army,
mmmmmm Sounds real!
I am searching for the Lion of the Honker union of china.
Dont worry though its nothing bad just alittle respect coming your way.
I deeply admire your work and your believes.

Yours truely pure.

etcrazypeople@hotmail.com

can anyone help my to get asp.net exams

Phil,

I have been trying to install this beast on VPC, but it does not look like going anywhere beyond the "Welcome to Windows Setup" screen. Or is it doing something?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Foiled again!

this is so true!

>Does anyone else going into a bookstore, and think about breaking in at night and reorginizing their shelves?

there should be some modified subset of dewey decimal system, tailored to the needs of book shops, universally applied. of course, there probably is just such a thing already...

Hi, I was wondering if I need to do this critial updates?????????

comment is like windows dont work and will not install rss or missing drivers or need things. so you give feedback and no one fixs the site. so i say . if no one will fix the site why should we buy microsolf. and how much did we lose on microsolf.

219465265616

its good for you

How THE f Do I geT rID of stickeY kEYS?

Too many crappy web developers only target IE?????????

Its not crappy web site designers thats the problem but stupid management that look at the statistics and say "you designers are not wasting your time on that 1%, we have got other things for you to do." WWW is Corporate now not Techie and corporate means playing the percentages and if that means going microsoft like all the other lemmings thats what the corporate body will do, after all, to parapharase an old saying about IBM, "you don't get sacked for buying microsoft!" I personally do not care one jot which broswer or OS wins in the long run, I just want one core standard that everyone keeps to, like you have in every other aspect of IT

On a somewhat related note... Outside the Inbox, a CD of songs inspired by spam, is rather good. http://www.bradsucks.net/?nav=oti

FYI, I just posted a few links to resources for tableless design with CSS...
http://joeydotnet.com/blog/archive/2004/07/08/150.aspx

Lobby MS to eliminate SQL injection
http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/stefandemetz/archive/2004/07/10/18763.aspx

OMG! Pizza Hut is the best pizza since GodFAthers pizza! Atleast here on the East Coast Anyway!

Please enter a comment

Your post is confusing.

Are you saying that something got installed on your computer from a website? And it is named the same as a Windows Media Player file (wmdmlog.exe)?

Or are you saying the file included by default with Windows Media Player is spyware causing these popups?

If it is a malicioius file (not the default), how did it get installed? Are you suggesting it was installed just by searching for that site?

And what do pop-ups have to do with spyware? Are they normal browser window pop-up ads? Or are they operating system dialogs?

You are trying to help others, but you just confused me.

Sorry about the Josh, I was in a bit of a hurry. The spyware got installed from some page that I accidently visited. Be it a link from spam or off something like Fark which I might have the bad habit of clicking randomly. How it got installed was probably related to one of the many unpatched holes in IE. Some popup ad or even an e-mail that I accidently opened in Outlook Web Access could install that file and set up the needed entries to get the thing loading up on bootup. I heard rumors that some banks sites were attacked. Perhaps my bank was one of them.

It's not related to Windows Media Player besides in name only. Someone went through a list of .dlls in their system folder, and created an executable with the same name to throw people off the chase when trying to figure out what's causing the problems.

Really all I wanted to do was make sure that if someone sees that file in their task list, and hits google up to figure out if it's good or bad, they'll know its bad. How to prevent spyware - I have no idea. I have my machine set to install all patches over night automatically, and run Firefox as my main browser. And I also send e-mails to websites that require IE. But even that hasn't kept me safe.

I just get NTDETECT failed :-( on build 4074

I just get it telling me that there was an error copying files, then restarting the VPC. Maybe something wrong with my install disc :-s

Perros

A couple of comments back Jesse mentions demos of ASP.NET controls producing XUL output..... Does anyone know of such a demo or example? XUL compatible ASP.NET components would be a great step forward. With runtime compatibility between Mincrosoft's .NET and Mono, they could provide a near-universal rich web-app solution.

anyone have some cheap Pizza Hut coupon codes??? I've played the coupon game online with them, but wonder if they have better deals with unique codes.
If not, that's cool.

I agree with Kim, GodFathers rocks!

Thanks for your nice comments about my project. I do have plans to eventually create a .NET compatible version of browscap.ini but that's still quite a few months away. Perhaps with my browscap.csv file you could create a script that makes a somewhat inefficient BrowserCaps insert for .NET?

Yeah, now if MS could just make MSDN not be such a pile of missing files with a practically useless search function. If I need to find anything in MSDN, I always end up using Google to find it (in MSDN).

I speak from experience when I say that this is right on, Philco.

You do have a good point there. Especially the "YOU FOOL !!" part.

The problem with ASP.Net (.Net Framework itself, actually) is that it encompases A LOT.

As such, the syntax is necessarily much more verbose and there is an intricate "page framework" which must be understood before it can be utilized.

Without a tool, an expensive one at that, like Visual Studio.Net, it becomes DAUNTING to write even simple web pages using .Net. I've been doing .Net for 2 years now and I still find myself struggling when I'm working in a text editor

Yes, Matrix is out there (Web Matrix), but it doesn't have enough exposure (perhaps a free editor with Intellisense should be installed with .Net as an option?). Microsoft has addressed this by introducing their "Express" lines of products, but I still feel that something isn't right.

That something is the fact that, as a hobbyist/small site, it still requires learning a new IDE and all of it quirks. Simply put, .Net isn't easy enough for the average Joe-Web-Designer to use when compared to ASP, PHP, Perl, etc. For all of their weaknesses, the aforementioned all offer a low level of knowledge for productivity. For the same reason, you'll see more PHP and ASP over JSP for small sites.

Actually, upon further review of their HTML it appears the site is generated by a $2000 dollar CMS system that was written in ASP.NET.

I better not throw out those PHP books quite yet.

IMHO, Bardstown/Baxter is the best bar strip in the country.

Not all of the crazy people are in Canada. Yet.

Phil,

Glad to see you noticed O'Shea's web site is developed in Microsoft.net. Would you believe Louisville.com is now as well? Tommy O'Shea is a personal friend of mine and we are the owner's of the CMS2005, a product also developed here in Louisville. We had fun working with Tommy on the site and actually have a few new items being added to it soon.

Hey,
Just scanning your post, and css isn't in the front of my mind at the moment, but... the total width of a block element in css is the width of only the content area - NOT including the border and padding. InternetExplorer however incorrectly treats width as being the total width of the border + padding + content. (You can make ie6 work correctly by setting the Doctype to strict.) So I think the width of your inner panel(div) should come out as 552px - so I don't think its a bug... using width of 100% is only really possible if you have 0px for padding and border.

on a slightly stylistic note, I personally make a point of not having any inline style definitions, and moving them all into an external css file - it makes it much easier to alter the visual look at a later date.

Hope this makes sense... its late :)
Cheers
i/Noodle

Indeed a good point I remember how angry they got in the Maxthon forums as I suggested to make it an option. haha

http://andkon.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67

u asshole, how the hell did i get here? where the hell r the papa john coupons? damn its super bowl sunday....u goddamn nerfherder....

How would you encapsulate that in a .browser file? Using a .browser file is easier because you just copy it and drop it into website App_Browsers folder.

Hmmmm, good question. Let's see if I can't figure that out. Thanks for the suggestion.

A browser file like this would change the defaults for an application.

<browsers>
<browser refID="default">
<capabilities>
<capability name="ecmascriptversion" value="1.5" />
<capability name="javascript" value="true" />
<capability name="w3cdomversion" value="1.0" />
</capabilities>
</browser>
</browsers>

Or you could make the changes at the machine level in the default.browser file located in the browsers directory under config and then run aspnet_regbrowsers.

Watched the movie, commented on it:

http://www.sturmnet.org/blog/archives/2005/04/07/crappy-image-library/

Actually seen the library:

http://www.sturmnet.org/blog/archives/2005/04/21/vs2005-imagelib/

Uhm what do you mean no new icons? Most of the new Whidbey toolbar IDE icons are there and all are there with the XP look... It looks like they've basically given us all the icons used in the IDE plus some of the Office icons.

Converting icons to other formats is pretty painless. Check out IconLove which is an icon editor that lets you import and export real easily and set transparency nicely with a few mouse clicks.

I'm referring to the fact there are no Icon files. If you want to recrop a 16x15 to use as an icon for a WinApp, knock yourself out. But they'll look like complete shit.

Now, if you are looking for toolbar graphics, yeah they have quite a few. But as you pointed out, the VS.NET IDE's icons are there. Most people aren't creating development enviornments in their day to day to work. I guess you could force the "Build All" graphic to be used for "New Employee" or whatever, but it would look pretty silly.

Hi Phil,

Most of our sets include alpha blended PNGs as well... and those that don't are being updated and will be free to registered users :)

Cheers,

Dave
www.glyfx.com