Archives

Archives / 2005
  • Three Config File Reading Examples

    Here are three examples of config file reading.  I couldn't easily find enough information in one place and the MSDN documentation wasn't obvious enough.

  • Design Patterns in C# - A Good Read

    I picked up the book, "Design Patterns in C#" by Steven John Metsker a few weeks ago.  I was looking to finally get the Gang of Four book but since it wasn't on the shelves that night, I got this one.  It doesn't replace the legendary book, "Design Patterns", but it is a great addition, especially for us C#'ers.

  • Web Hosting and DNN Woes

    What a weekend with my webhost.  I've appreciated my host for VinceB.com for years but now I actually want to use the site for more than 10K of usage per month.  OK I can penny up more money for SQL, pay for play.  I can even spend a few nights copying projects and trying to get a DotNetNuke DB uploaded. 

  • War of the Worlds - Review

    If you haven't seen War of the Worlds, it is worth it, even at theater prices.  It held many of the original book content with some modern twists.  Tom Cruise did a great job at presenting the character's personality but it wasn't his best acting performance.  There was plenty of action and some great effects.

  • SQL 2005 - The Easy Uninstall Tool

    Thank you Microsoft SQL Team for the SQL 2005 Beta uninstall tool.  I don’t think that it was announced or mentioned loud enough.  Most people will be running Add/Remove which is a bit tedious.

  • Running a .Net SIG - Very Rewarding

    Running an INETA sponsored group is actually some fun.  It keeps me involved with the technology and with some of the professionals who enjoy it almost as much as I do.  John Davis and myself run the Dallas C# SIG.  We meet at the Microsoft Dallas campus on the first Thursday of each month.

  • VinceB moves on to dataReference - Dallas, TX

    I have gladly accepted a position as Architect at a very professional consulting company, dataReference.  It’s been quite a ride while at Progression Technologies for the last two years.  That was some seriously long nights, weekends, “agile” specifications, and even some architectural accomplishments that really are great.  Now it’s onto working with the great development team at dataReference.  Good luck to Progression, I really appreciate everyone there and wish the best for their product.  Hello dataReference.

  • ANTS – A Great Profiler

    We can get so object oriented and code reuse centric that we can slow the application down.  It can be like making SQL stored procedures and user defined functions object oriented – just a bad idea. 

  • The Next Indigo ETA?

    I keep looking around for an ETA on Indigo that will work with Visual Studio 2005 Beta2.  All I see is the Indigo team reporting, “When It’s Ready”.  I also see in the FAQ that within a few months, we’ll have a Beta1.  Then the final ETA will be in a year and a half with Longhorn.  Knowing project plans, I understand this slightly ambiguous ETA.  A nice deliverable schedule would be very helpful for other project schedules.  I stand on the banks of the WinFX shore watching and waiting.

  • Tried TDD again but…

    Test driven development sounds great, looks great, smells great, but is it really that useful for server applications?  Unit testing means units of course but what happens when the unit is not a dumbed down component?

  • Community Server 1.0 - It Couldn't Be Easier

    I just installed Community Server 1.0 twice and I must say that it can't be much easier.  Too bad we can't get away with this simple, "Readme.txt 1-2-3" when deploying commercial applications.  The database was done well and has some great stored procedures.  The package obviously had some bugs fixed and now runs well enough to be a real 1.0.

  • Remoting Comparisons

    Here is a remoting comparison with some interesting results.  The numbers represent the call count after 5 seconds and after an initial hit for JIT compiling the Web service and IIS application.  The simple object that was returned contained only a name and price property.  The Remoting TCP’s well known type was a singleton but a single call was about the same performance for the IIS and WS to TCP object retrieval.

  • Notes on DVD Media Quality for Videos

    After a few days of media trial and error, here are some DVD media notes that maybe someone else can consider and save some video editing and burning time.  The final DVD project was grainy so I suppose other factors are to be considered but this is when you see how the DVD media is going to treat you with a video deadline.  Several methods were used to burn the DVD but I ended up using Pinnacle to Verbatim media and had no failures at all.

    Project:          106 minutes compiled with Pinnacle 8.  Usually exceptional quality but this one was a bit MPEG grainy.
    Media:           DVD-R
    DVD Player:  One unit with Progressive scan and one without.

    DVD Brand and Quality Note
    ________________________
    Memorex (4x purchased two months ago - unavailable now) - 100% Reliable, never pauses.  The best you can get.
    Memorex (8x - the only Memorex -R available) -  4 out of 5 would not play at all on either progressive scan or non-PS.
    Sony - Pauses during play on non-PS.
    Fuji - Pauses during play on non-PS.
    Great Quality - No quality.  Always pauses and even with simple data backups will read slow.
    Platinum - Least expensive and 95% reliable.
    Verbatim - Least expensive and 100% reliable.

    Time is money when we use bad media for training videos or other small DVD based projects.

    Your mileage may vary.