Archives
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I really thought I blogged more from PDC....
Man, this past week just flew by. I really thought I had blogged more about it. There were a few times where I went to post from the Internet Alley, and I stepped away from the machine for a few seconds to talk to someone, and it automatically logged me out. Oh well, I'll give your aggregators a rest and bring the blogosphere up to speed on my exploits next week. I must say that it was probably one of the best experiences of my life, and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone that I did. I met some outstanding individuals that really have a passion for this stuff, and it was great to talk and share experiences.
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Microsoft Fires Stupid Blogger, Scoble Gets Links
Scoble got linked on MSNBC.com in an article about blogging. Microsoft recenly fired an intern who lapsed judgement when posting information he was privy to a few days ago. Gosh, I wonder why he got fired? Maybe because he was dumb?
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The Day is Finally Here!!!
It's Official! GenX.NET 3.0 is complete and has been released to the public! Check it out today at http://www.genxdotnet.com. GenX.NET is the first DTS engine available for the .NET Framework. Using an application architecture that will be used heavily in ASP.NET “Whidbey”, GenX.NET 3.0 is extremely extensible, while still being simple to use. It features 100% integration with ADO.NET, and supports ANY ADO.NET Data Provider. You can format and output data into a variery of ways, and GenX.NET has the most features for your buck of any other component available.
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The Tuesday of Randomness
Yesterday may very well have been the coolest day of my life. It started out with a chance encounter with Erin Joyce, columnist for InternetNews.com. She wrote a killer article on blogging and Longhorn last week, and by pure chance, sat next to me at Eric Rudder's keynote. As Paschal pointed out, she quoted me for her article on WinFS. (I'll cut her some slack even if she got my company name wrong. That was quite interesting, and she's a really interesting lady.
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Made it to PDC... First Thoughts...
OK, I braved the Grayhound, and am going on 2 hours sleep, but I'm here, and I have a few thoughts about what I've seen so far...
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Stuck in Phoenix
My flight was rescheduled for Tuesday morning, which means I'm screwed. Gonna get on a Greyhound tonight if I can't get a rental car. If you're stranded in Phoenix, there is a bus leaving tonight at 1:45am, and gets in at 8:50am. Call me at 480-699-1046 or my cell 480-710-2770. Lets see if we can get this taken care of... I have to be there in the morning.
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STRANDED PDC SPEAKERS
If you're a speaker at PDC and you're currently stranded somewhere, call Robert Scoble on his cell.... (408) 314-8233.
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LAX CURRENTLY CLOSED
Due to wildfires, LAX is currently closed. If anyone is in-transit, you will probably be delayed. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get there.... I may be renting a car. If any of you get diverted to Phoenix, call me at 480-699-1046 or 480-710-2770 and, depending on what I decide to do, we may drive out (only about 6 hours from Phoenix).
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Let us not forget....
While there will be a lot of MS guys talking at PDC, and it will be a hige deal for everyone involved, let us not forget the thousands of MS employees who have worked tirelessly to bring the code, demos, and cool stuff that make up everything that is being released this week. These guys are definitely underappreciated and deserve our thanks.
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PDC-Related News
OK, now that I've FINALLY got everything squared away with my company stuff, my online store is finished, GenX.NET is moments away from launch, and my PDC plans are finalized... here's an update on what is going on next week. I'm really excited to meet all of you, and it should be a really great experience. So without further ado, here is what's going on RE: PDC.
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Cool Contest
Just caught this neat contest on LonghornBlogs.com. First prize is a Media Center PC for $1500. Pretty cool.They'll be using .Text to post screenshots of the contest. Anyone up for writing a voting module for .Text?
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Bluetooth Woes
Well, I got my new Bluetooth keyboard today, and I was unable to get it working with Windows Server 2003. I got the Bluetooth stack working (Hacked the XP QFE for it), but couldn't get IntelliPoint and InteelliType working for it. I'm really pissed off at Microsoft on this one, because Windows 2003 is newer than Windows XP SP1, and Bluetooth should be supported and enabled. And the stupid Intelli____ software should be able to work with it too. So, after having just wiped my computer 4 days ago, looks like I'll be wiping it again Thursday morning to downgrade to Windows XP. If I really need to do something on 2003, I guess I'll just use VMWare. I waited a year to get this keyboard, I'm not just gonna let it sit in my closet while MS sits on its butt over this one.
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GotDotNet Workspaces Upgrade
I'm surprised no one noticed it yet (well, not really since most people probably use them through Visual Studio), but the team at GotDotNet released an upgrade to the Workspaces. From what I can tell, here are the new features:
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HOW TO: Configure Windows Server 2003 for DTC
Many of you may have read my earlier rants about my problems with transactions on my servers. Well, this little situation has occupied most of my brain for the better part of the week, and thanks to the guys at OrcsWeb, it is no longer an issue. I'm going to detail here briefly what to do, and then later next month it will appear in an article for Builder.com.
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Referrer problems with new blog update?
Is anyone else having issues with their blog referrers? Mine seem to be all hosed up after the latest update. Every one seems to point to weblogs.asp.net. Any ideas?
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Final BOF Session Times (and Rooms) Posted
MS just finalized everything for the BOF Sessions at PDC. This year, I'm running 2 marathon back-to-back sessions. We'll start off Monday evening with a conversation about how to start building ASP.NET 2.0 features into ASP.NET 1.X Server Controls, and right after that we'll talk about everything blogs that is developer-related. Here are the official write-ups:
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Words Cannot Express...
... the relief I feel now, having FINALLY fixed the MSDTC issue that has been plaguing me for OVER A WEEK now. FINALLY everything is in place for me to launch my products, and God forbid, make some money.
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StringWriter Encoding Hack
A few months back I blogged about the problems I had with the System.IO.StringWriter when dealing with XML. This whole dealing with XML things is not very intuitive IMO. There are way too many steps involved in making it work. My other problem with it is kind of complicated to explain, so I will try my best.
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TweakXP for Windows Server 2003
TotalIdea seems to have taken their TweakXP tool for Windows Server 2003 offline. It's actually like it doesn't even exist anymore. Their new website (www.totalidea.com) doesn't even mention it. I stumbled across a Polish Microsoft site that still has it. This is the only place you can currently get it, so make sure you grab it while you can.
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Who screwed up the Weblogs?
Someone stuck some DHTML transition code in their post, and it's screwing with the way the site is displaying. Can whoever did it please take it out? It's kinda distracting. That would be really cool. Thanks :)
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Scoble's Been Busy
Robert just posted the list of nearly every blog that he follows. Over 500 people just got a serious hit of Google juice. Interesting.
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Me = Kid + CandyStore
I got my MSDN discs today. I'm so excited, but I was kinda disappointed cause i figued they put the binders together for you. Then I thought “well, that doesn't make sense now does it?” BTW, these binders are freakin awesome. So I figured, it's a pretty quiet weekend (the calm before the storm of PDC) So I'll throw this out to you guys for some feedback:
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Bluetooth in Windows Server 2003?
Brian was having trouble getting his new Bluetooth keyboard working on Windows Server 2003. I recently ordered the Microsoft Optical Keyboard/Mouse for Bluetooth. The problem is, the Platform SDK says that Windows 2003 supports Bluetooth...
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My Biggest Beef with VS.NET
My biggest beef with VS.NET deals with assembly references. Since I'm a component developer, these issues are near and dear to my heart. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this, and have decided to put it into three very clear scenarios to help people understand the problem. These use cases are extremely common, and the problems encountered are a royal PITA. See for yourself, and read on.
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Compilation Woes
The code for GenX.NET 3.0 FINALLY went RTM today... one of the complications of such thorough documentation (generating docs from source code comments using Fesersoft's still unreleased update to VB Comments Creator and NDOC) with source code control is that, if you find problems in the docs, you have to update the source code. So I've been pouring over the Object Reference, making sure that everything is 100% accurate, with no typos or grammar mistakes. Since we haven't made the providers public in this release, there are tons of comments in the code that never made it into the public API (but will be available in the SDK). One of my biggest beefs is when documentation is incomplete, inconsistent, or not in the same “voice” throughtout. So I've taken extra time (well, the same time that I take with my code) to make sure that it's all in the best possible state of completeness. In case you didn't know yet, I'm kind of a hard person to please when it comes to code quality.
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BOF Sessions Simplified
Jeffery McManus took a few minutes and simplified the PDC BOF Schedule for us. There will be some changes over the next day or so, but oh well. My Server Controls session will be changing days, as I won't be getting into town until late Sunday night. I'll be posting final BOF times shortly.
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MS: Please Improve KB Searches
Why didn't a search of the MS knowledge base for DTC come up with this?
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Why I Dislike Symantec
So, I just got off the phone (a little while ago now) with Symantec Technical Support, and I sit here in front of my computer with a renewed dislike for everything the company does. I don't want to say hate, because I don't really feel like ranting today. I am however, extremely disappointed at the whole mess I went through today.
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How to Hose a Server in 3 Easy Steps
Step 1: Start using a component that requires transactions.
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Monkey See, Monkey Do
MSNBC.com reported today that a group of researchers have given monkeys neurological implants that let them control a robotic arm with only their minds. Take a few minutes and read the whole article... it's absolutely fascinating.
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Offline Notice
LonghornBlogs.com and PatchDayReview.com will be offline for the next several hours while I troubleshoot some pretty serious COM/MSDTC issues. I'll post more about it after I get the servers back online.
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My Next PC
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LISP.NET
I've seen a lot of people talking about LISP lately. I have no idea what the heck it is, but I was searching my hard drive for a User's Guide I wrote for GenX.NET, and I found this link. It's a LISP compiler right inside the .NET Framework 1.1 SDK. Look on your hard drive at this location:
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PDC BOF Sessions
Well, I just got notified that my Whidbey Server Control BOF session was accepted. That brings the number of BOF's I'm running to two. WOO HOO :). Next week I'm going to hit this stuff up heavy, so be sure to send me some ideas. Oh yeah, and I'm also running the Weblogger BOF session. In addition to what is listed, we'll also be discussing the future of LonghornBlogs.com, getting your feedback, and signing up bloggers. Both sessions are going to be awesome, so make sure you're there if you're at PDC. I'm really looking forward to it. :)
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Dubbya.NET?
Well, at least SOME parts of the government understand the coolness of .NET. George W. Bush's re-election website runs on ASP.NET. HA! Take that Howard Dean! Your plain jane HTML just can't stand up to the awesome power that is managed code. There is only one problem. Dubbya's blog is not powered by .Text. I don't even think it's his blog, just someone on the campaign. ScottW, come on man. Get to lobbying! Just cause MovableType was on CNN doesn't mean you can drop the ball like that. ;)
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My Tablet PC
Someday....
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Drew's been busy..
HOLY COW! PDCBloggers.net just launched a slew of new features to the site. They have a new user control to put on your site, as well as a brand new design, and a whole bunch of PDC related materials. Go check it out! Great job Drew & Gang!!
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It's All In Your Head
OK, so GenX.NET has been slower to launch than I wanted it to be. WAY slower. Part of the reason was because we've been building the the new “Store” and “MyAccount” sections of the website. Since the hostages have not been freed yet, I've had to start over on a lot of my DB work. But, since the new system runs completely on top of XHEO's yet-unreleased application suite, I haven't had to do a whole lot of DB work thus far. The biggest problem though, has been all in my mind.
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HOLY SH!T!
Look everyone. Posts by Rob Howard and Scott Guthrie... in the same week!!! And look, ScottGu posted 3 times. Woah.
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Why I Love Working With Microsoft
I get asked all the time, “Wouldn't you love working for Microsoft?” My answer is always “Hello no, I'd rather work with them. That would be much cooler.” Well that's pretty much what I do now, although on a largely unofficial basis. I did, however, come across one of the reasons that Microsoft is my favorite company. I thought I'd share it with you.
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Make Adobe Acrobat 6 Load Faster
Here's how to do it:
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Are YOU In Design Mode?
Scott Hansleman talks about page instantiation while designing ASPX pages in the IDE [via Daniel Fisher]. Good stuff.
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Writing Secure Code
So, after reading “Writing Secure Code, Second Edition”, I've totally changed the way I program. Here is a prime example, taken from the book:
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New Bloggers Added
I just added some new bloggers to LonghornBlogs. Read all about it here. Welcome aboard guys!
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I'm dumb
Why? Because I JUST NOW started using the Data Access Application Block for building middle tiers. Uh, yeah I should have done this a long time ago. Well, I haven't needed to do any middle-tier development for a while now. I just slayed 300 lines of code from my custom XHEO|Licensing web service implementation, which is always nice. Maybe I'll be able to wrap up this conversion quicker than I thought.
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Today's News:
This just in. Scoble gets interviewed by .NET Rocks and gets torn a new a-hole by Roy Osherove. Film at 11.
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Website Organization Strategy
One of the biggest problems I've always had with maintaining several related websites is that I can never keep my images synched up. One other related problem would be that, if I ever threw an image up onto the web server, and referenced it on another site, it would throw off my web server statistics. A perfect example is the signature graphic I use on the ASP.NET Forums. That would throw of my stats by thousands of visitors every week.
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First Day Stats
OK, my new ventures have been up for a full day now, and here are some statistics.
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Caching Confusion
OK, so I was getting this funky error on www.interscapeusa.com, and it kinda pissed me off. I couldn't track down why the site would randomly insert JavaScript into my web pages, throwing a really odd error in IE. Well, it turns out that Paul added a really nifty feature to XHEO|WebSkin that fixes the Framework 1.1 PostBack issue (you know, the one Microsoft still won't release a public fix for). Well, I was caching my pages without varying the parameter, and so at one point, a Netscape browser requested the page, and that output was cached. So when IE browsers hit it, it gives you the JavaScript bird and throws an error.
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Big News #3: New Home for Patch Day Review!
Well, my Patch Day Review has gotten pretty popular. So popular in fact, that I decided to make it a service of my company, and give it a new home. www.patchdayreview.com runs on the same .Text blogging engine, which allows me to have a lot more control over the format of the site, and automatically creates an RSS feed for me, which was the main reason for using this engine. You'll notice a slightly different format that what I was using before. This is because I wanted to be able to have patch categories, so you can see what alerts affect which products. So from now on, you'll see the patches individually, and you'll also see a summary post for the week. This is the one place where I hope I don't have to post a lot.
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Big News #2: New Community Site
OK, this has been several weeks in the making, but thanks to Robert Scoble, and the amazing graphics work of Paul Alexander, THE next exciting community is officially online!
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Big News #1: It begins....