January 2007 Entries

Currently Reading

Here's the list of books that are currently on my nigh stand: Godel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid Douglas R. Hofstadter Yep, it's that time again.  I read GEB  once a year to keep in touch with my inner ComSci geek.  If you're interested in theoritical concepts of Computer Science, then you definitely check it out! Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters that will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity Joel Spolsky I've been...

posted @ Sunday, January 28, 2007 3:29 PM | Feedback (611)

MSI Fun!

So, this is an 'archaic' method of doing a silent MSI install/uninstall but it worked for us! We have an "updater" VB6 applications that checks files on our test server and compares them to the files on your hard drive.  If the application detects a change, then it updates your file with the version on the server. This application only deals with OCXs, EXEs and DLLs.  Since our new environment is all .NET, I needed to add MSI packages to the list (I know I could've done a straight copy but I need to do some COM registration for interop). ...

posted @ Thursday, January 25, 2007 5:48 PM | Feedback (612)

Making a Difference

It's nice to know that your efforts can make a difference or help a fellow developer.  Today, I received an email that read, I was wanting to do an article for Code Project. The article that I wanted to write would be based on the code that you wrote in your article Extending Web Controls With Custom HTML Attributes. What I was wanting to do is to build a plug-in architecture for these "Custom HTML Attributes", where if you wanted, you could add a new attribute simply by dropping a dll into your applications bin folder. I was just...

posted @ Wednesday, January 24, 2007 10:31 PM | Feedback (612)

ASP.NET AJAX v1.0

That's right!  ASP.NET AJAX v1.0 is now live!  So if you've been doing work with any of the CTPs, stop!  Go the final bits and start enjoying the RTM goodness!

posted @ Tuesday, January 23, 2007 2:21 PM | Feedback (611)

Zune'd In

That's right, I've traded my 30GB Video iPod for a 30GB Zune.  Why?  Well, since I'm running Vista Ultimate with Media Center (I'm working on a blog post) the Zune made it easier for me to sync up my recorded shows.  To convert from Media Center format to WMV (MPG, MP4, etc), I'm using Roxio's MyTv ToGo.  When I had Media Center 2005, this product worked great with my iPod.  However, after upgrading to Vista, the software was unable to transcode the recordings to MP4.  I don't know, I guess it's just cool to see my Futurama, Family Guy, The Simpsons, The...

posted @ Sunday, January 21, 2007 6:28 PM | Feedback (612)

VS2005 SP1 Bug List

For those of you that are interested in this kind of stuff, there is a list of the bugs (398 of them) fixed by installing SP1 for Visual Studio 2005.  Go and see if any bugs that you have experienced has been fixed.

posted @ Friday, January 19, 2007 11:18 PM | Feedback (611)

DDD: Date Driven Design

When system design is based on the can we get it done in the given time factor.  Common conversations start out like If we only had a week to design the system, how would I... Nick posted a really good read that covers some of the same topics.  I particular like point that Getting Real makes on building half a product, not a half-ass product.

posted @ Thursday, January 18, 2007 4:42 PM | Feedback (613)

ScottGu on WPF/E, Orcas and IIS7

Check out this cool Channel9 video interview with Rory and ScottGu.  Should help light up some of the future paths the technology (ASP.NET and other MS Web Techs) are taking on the near future.

posted @ Sunday, January 14, 2007 6:46 PM | Feedback (611)

Local Vista Launch Events

If you're in the Des Moines area, you can check out the "local" Vista launch over at the Polk County Covention Center on January 16th.  Pick the correct event that fits your needs: Partner Developer IT Pro Small Business IT Executive Also, you would like to experience the "full effect" a key city launch, you can always go to Minneapolis.

posted @ Sunday, January 7, 2007 8:57 PM | Feedback (657)

VS 2005 Add-in: Modeling Power Toy

I just downloaded the PowerToys for the Visual Studio 2005 Class Designer and Distributed System Designers.  The Class Designer has the following enhancements: Export Diagrams for Web Display Xml Comment Command Documentation Tool Window Filtering Appearance Filtering Lines Filtering Members Fast Navigation Interface Lollipop Labels Commands Inheritance Visualization Commands Show Type Command Association and Inheritance Line Dongles Type Creation Commands Add Member Commands View Class Diagram Command Improvements Go download this powertoy and start enjoying its goodness!

posted @ Thursday, January 4, 2007 10:14 PM | Feedback (611)

ASP.NET RSS Toolkit On CodePlex

Not sure if any of you out there knew about the RSS toolkit for ASP.NET.  Dmitry Robsman created it a while back and now IDisposable has put it out on CodePlex. If you're doing any work with RSS on ASP.NET, check out this toolkit!  It will greatly simplify what you're doing.

posted @ Thursday, January 4, 2007 12:51 PM | Feedback (611)

Dual Personalities

You are Spider-Man Spider-Man 95% Superman 90% Iron Man 70% Robin 65% The Flash 65% Supergirl 60% Batman 50% Catwoman 50% Wonder Woman 40% Green Lantern 40% Hulk 15% You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have greatpower and responsibility. You are Dr. Doom ...

posted @ Monday, January 1, 2007 8:40 PM | Feedback (612)