497 posts from: Julie Lerman Blog
SQL Server delay does not impact Entity Framework
(Indexed 2008-01-28):
A questioncame up in the EF forums today asking if the delayof SQL Server 2008's release will mean EF will be delayed.The two are not related.There is a misconception that Entity Framework is tied to SQL Server 2008. It's definitelynot. These are .NET APIs and will work with many database providers (whenthose providers are written).As far as I know, the official word on EF's release remains "1st half of 2008". Somethingtells me that won't be any time in January. [Image][Image]
Creating and consuming a WCF service to test the EntityBag class
(Indexed 2008-01-25):
DannySimmons has posted the code for his EntityBag class (aka "Perseus") on the MSDNCode Gallery Site here.I grabbed it last night and set up a test project so that I could see what the payloadlooks like.The results of that test are in thisblog post, Testing out the EntityBag.There were a few tricks for getting the web service to work properly if you are notfamiliar with using WCF, so I wanted to show that code.I started by creating a DLL library just to host my EDM.Then I created a WCF Service....(truncated)...
Entity Framework Toolkits and Extensions collection on MSDN Code Gallery
(Indexed 2008-01-25):
Zlatko wrotethe eSQLBlast tool.Danny'sbeen writing Extension Methods and the ENtityBag class.There is also a new tool for examining how code generation is done from an EDMX file.(As well as a blog by Sanjay about howcode gen is done.)All of these and future stuff are now collected under one umbrella, the EntityFramework Toolkits and Extensions page on the new MSDN Code Sharing site.It also has an RSS feed, so you can see what gets added in the future.Thanks Diego forpointing it out.[Image]
After three years, I discover how to choose a ClickOnce Icon in MageUI
(Indexed 2008-01-25):
This is completely insane. Someone from Romania emailed me about selecting an iconfile for a ClickOnce deployment so that the application icon is used for the installationand for the shortcut.He had tried my hack that I have bloggedabout, written about in CoDeMagazine and shown in conferencepresentations. The hack requires manual editing of the manifest file and I learnedit in the forums. I had never been able to discover any other way to do it.There is a new version of the MAGEUI tool, the UI f...(truncated)...
Should database providers be targeting LINQ or Entity Framework?
(Indexed 2008-01-24):
People are always asking "when will I be able to use LINQ against databaseA or databaseB?"and "when will I be able to use Entity Framework against databaseA or databaseB?"In my mind this is the same question, though most who are asking don't realize it.Why?An Entity Framework provider gets all of the benefits of the Entity Frameworkand also gets LINQ for free by way of LINQ to Entities.If a database vendor wants developers to be able to perform LINQ queries againsttheir database, it's not a stre...(truncated)...
Just deployed my first production app that uses LINQ to SQL
(Indexed 2008-01-24):
This is a small milestone for me.I had to add a feature to a website for a client and thought it would be a great opportunityto use LINQ to SQL. So I built the feature with LINQ to SQL , had the sysadmin add.NET 3.5 runtime to the webserver and deployed it.Works great!Big grin....[Image]
Speaking of Ent. Framework providers - what about Access/OleDB?
(Indexed 2008-01-24):
My last post was about LINQand EF Data Providers, which made me think of this.I received an email recently asking if I knew of anyone writing an Entity Frameworkprovider for Access. I don't happen to know of any.However there's a reason.In the forums, there is a post from July where Danny Simmons explainedthe hurdles with a possible Access provider:The OLE-DB ado.net provider has not been extended to support the entity framework,and we do not currently have plans to do so in our first release. ...(truncated)...
Am I a web site or a web app project: CodeFile vs. CodeBehind
(Indexed 2008-01-23):
I accidentally opened up a web application project as a website. That's not too hardto do. Just say you want to open a web site and point to the folder. It had been awhile and I forgot that it was a WAP.So I'm working on a web page and double click on a control and find myself in themarkup with a new script tag and the .net code for the click event of the control.That wasn't good considering I already had some nice event handlers for that controlin my code behind.I spent a lot of time going back...(truncated)...
Danny Simmons is providing guidance for dealing with EF and Web Services
(Indexed 2008-01-23):
It seems to me that DannySimmons must be working on v2 of Entity Framework.The posts he has written in the past week are examples of things that would probablyhave been in V1 had they had the time and resources. Now they are winding down v1,building up the team and thinking about v2.Danny has written three blogs posts filled with really handy extension methods forentity framework (and LINQ to Objects) [here'sthe third which contains pointers to the first two] and now he is building a statebag fo...(truncated)...
New Burlington PHP User Group! Next meeting is Wed, January 30th
(Indexed 2008-01-23):
Burlington,VT PHP Users Group MeetingRSVP RequiredWhen: Wednesday January 30th, 2008, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pmWhere: Brown& Jenkins Coffee Roasters, 91 Ethan Allen Drive, South Burlington, VT 05403Topics Bradley Holt will be giving a presentation on developing a web application using ZendFramework. Bradley Holt is founder and web developer for FoundLine, a local design and development studio which has used Zend Framework in severalrecent projects. He also works as a software developer for a local non-p...(truncated)...
Mutable and immutable anonymous types in VB
(Indexed 2008-01-23):
BillMcCarthy explained this to me in an email.He wrote about it in this excellent article in Visual Studio Magazine "DrillDown on Anonymous Types".But it still bit me in the ass!So I am stamping this into my memory:in a queryresults in...select cust.CustomerID.cust.CompanyName... Immutable anonymous type...select New With { .CustomerID=cust.CustomerID, .CompanyName=cust.CompanyName} ...Mutable anonymous type...select New With { ...(truncated)...
VS2008 includes shiny new images to use in our apps
(Indexed 2008-01-23):
Ranting about the lack of updated images to use in our app development was a passionof mine for a short while (prior to VS2005). I just looked at what's included in VS2008and was happily surprised! Readmore...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Thinking about the EntityDataSource
(Indexed 2008-01-22):
I've been thinking about the EntityDataSource that has been mentioned in the forums.It is something that is going to be added to Entity Framework by RTM, but it doesn'texist in current bits for us to experiment with.The reason I've been thinking about it is because of some of the issues/confusionwith the LINQDataSource and I'm really hoping that the EF team will be looking atthat, learning from it, and making sure that some of those problems don't exist inthe new component.Most of the issues wit...(truncated)...
David Chappell is keynoting at the Developer Summit in Stockholm in April
(Indexed 2008-01-22):
I was just bemoaning the fact that I won't be able to drive to Boston for DavidChappell's special appearance at a multi-user group event at the end of the monthwhen I discovered that he'll be doing the keynote at the DeveloperSummit in Stockholm, Sweden where I will also be presenting. I'll be doing a full day workshop on Entity Framework as well as an AdvancedEF session and a Silverlight Annotation session.[Image]
Sharing Settings and Resources across projects in VS2005 and VS2008
(Indexed 2008-01-21):
Kathleen Dollard recently wrote about VS2008 letting us easily make our app settingspublically accessible to other projects. It inspired me to share my solution for howI did this in VS2005 when it wasn't so easy. Readmore...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
IBM tops the U.S. patent list for the 15th consecutive year
(Indexed 2008-01-20):
And you thought Microsoft files a lot of patents!Here's the article:http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...(truncated)...
My Dumb WCF Lesson for the day
(Indexed 2008-01-18):
I was moving some code around and had a nice WCF Service Interface and Service Classcreated. So I copied them into a new project where I was re-creating my work.When I tried to debug (self-host) the service, just to test it out with the embeddedWCF Test Client.But I kept getting this error:"The client was unable to retrieve service metadata. Make sure the service is runningand exposing metadata."This made no sense. My config file was fine. I even created a new WCF service in thesolution, confirm...(truncated)...
Entity Framework Extension Methods
(Indexed 2008-01-18):
A few weeks ago, I was mooningover Extension Methods. Somehow, in the collection of language enhancements toVB9 and C#3, they have become a bit of a sleeper feature in light of LINQ. Everythingis though, right?So I wrote about them and thought about them, but then went back to my task at hand.Danny Simmons also recently started seeing the light about Extension MEthods. Butinstead of going back to what he was doing, he spent quite a bit of time playing withthem and is now blogging an Entity Frame...(truncated)...
The source is really here!
(Indexed 2008-01-18):
You can now finally get at the .NET Source code through VS2008! Readmore[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Jeff McWherter on ASP.NET Performance & Optimization at VTdotNET tonight
(Indexed 2008-01-14):
JeffMcWherter and his very cool wife (what a lucky geek he is!) have come from Lansing,Michigan to Vermont with hopes of ice climbing and so that Jeff can speak at the VTdotNET group.Unfortunately we lost all of our snow in the last week (though it's finally snowingagain) and the good ice for climbing is a little hard to find right now. Our neighbor,a rock climber, made some calls last night and hooked them up with some good insiderinfo on where there's some good ice. I told Jeff he can't do tha...(truncated)...
Teaching Entity Framework at Stockholm Developer's Summit in April
(Indexed 2008-01-13):
I am very excited about this!!I will be presenting 2 sessions and a full-day workshop at the DeveloperSummit 2008 in Stockholm April 9-11.The workshop is "Entity Framework 0-60" and the sessions are Entity Frameworkin the Enterprise and Silverlight Annotation.Patrik Lowendahl, one of the organizers, tells me that Stockholm is really lovelyin the Spring!It also means I get to see my buddy Christian Weyer and meet TessFerrandez (the ASP.NET goddess at Microsoft Support), Jimmy Nillson and abunch ...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Programmer for Accounting Software in Burlington, VT
(Indexed 2008-01-12):
DataSystems has a full-time opening for a good problem solver with a solid programmingbackground and a strong interest in designing, coding and supporting accounting applications.We have an immediate need for an entry-level programmerbut would consider creating a position for the right candidate with more experiencein software development or accounting. Data Systems is a worker-owned corporation andcandidates with an interest in being a business owner are encouraged to apply.Job RequirementsWo...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Job: .NET programmer design a new system in East Dorset
(Indexed 2008-01-10):
--copied and pasted from hiring company --PadPrint Machinery in East Dorset Vermont SoftwareDevelopers Dream Job Heresyour chance become an integral member of a small team now developing an entirely newset of software designs. Conceiveand design software to dynamically create or manipulate graphic image data. Explorethe fascinating real world of digital color management. Experimentwith dithering algorithms for error-reduction in our printing processes. Conceiveand design new software to h...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Web developer in White River Junction
(Indexed 2008-01-09):
RESOURCESYSTEMS GROUP isa multi-disciplinary, employee-owned consulting firm specializing in the planning,analysis, and management of business, infrastructure and natural resources. We serveclients who share our belief that high-quality, objective analysis is a prerequisiteto resolving complex problems. More than just analysts, scientists, and engineers,were communicators our study results are clear, concise, and directly applicableto a clients particular questions and challenges. Our solutions...(truncated)...
Dare Obasanjo agrees that learning LINQ is hard
(Indexed 2008-01-09):
RogerJennings pointed out this quote from Dare:"...even though Ive been using C# for the past five or six years, I feel likeI have to relearn the language from scratch to fully understand or be able to takeadvantage the LINQ features."which lines up with myprevious post talking about what it seems to take to learn LINQ well and comparingit to the 10 years I have spent absorbing TSQL.[Image]
LINQ - Learn by example
(Indexed 2008-01-08):
RogerJennings writes about issues with finding examples of complex LINQ to XML queries.Boy have I been there and done that. One of the problems with learning LINQ is thatyou have two options 1) learn LINQ very deeply so you can do what you needor2) learn by exampleWith LINQ, I tend to start with a need, do what I can until I hit a wall, then lookfor examples that will help me and use them to learn even more. But it meansthat there needs to be a LOT of examples. I have often likened learning LINQ...(truncated)...
SQL Server CE compatibility with EF Beta 3 in a few weeks...
(Indexed 2008-01-08):
As per Jaroslaw Kowalski on the EF team:"We are working with SQL Server CE team to get an updated version of their providerthat will be compatible with EF Beta3 out soon. It is a matter of weeks"source: MSDNforums[Image]
EF Mapping to Read Stored Procs, another twist
(Indexed 2008-01-05):
Entity Framework easily supports mapping to read stored procedures when the queryresults match up with an existing entity in the model. If your query results don't,then you have to create a new read only entity and entity set in teh CSDL and a new"fake table" entity and entity set in the SSDL and then you can do the mappings.Chris Snyder found a new twist. Whatif the result matches an entity, but some of the fields inthe result have been renamed? Unlessyou wanted to create a read only entity to ...(truncated)...
Microsoft hires another Entity Framework/Astoria nut
(Indexed 2008-01-03):
Jonathan Carter was very interested in Entity Framework and Astoria. Last month, hestarted working for Microsoft as an Technical Evangelist. So he gets paid to sharehis excitement about these and other .NET technologies.Guy Burstein was very interested in Entity Framewrok and Astoria writing lots of postsabout the two topics. Today Guyannounced that he has started working for Microsoft Israel with the Developer& Platform and Adoption team. He too says he has found the sweet spot of gettingpaid t...(truncated)...
Security focused MSDN & TechNet Events coming to Burlington Feb 26th
(Indexed 2008-01-03):
According to ChrisBowen's blog, there will be a TechNet and MSDNevent in Burlington on February 26th.The afternoon MSDN event will be two sessions covering:MSDN: "ExploreIIS7, ASP.NET and Tackle Web Security" Check out the latest coding solutions with like-minded developers at MSDN Events.Witness the evolution of IIS and see why IIS7 is our most extensible, manageable andsecure Web platform on record. You'll learn how to extend application services - includingmembership, role management and na...(truncated)...
Big fat puppies and little fat puppies
(Indexed 2008-01-02):
My parents continue to send me pictures of the puppies to put on their website.The firstlitter , which was born on Nov 22 - the amazing litter of 17 - haspuppies that are over 10 lbs. already. They had their first cookies today. Their eyeshave been open for a while.[Image]The second and thirdlitter, born Dec 7 & 8th, are still small, but they are getting fatter andcuter (is it even possible?) every day.[Image][Image] [Image]
Extension Methods are growing on me
(Indexed 2007-12-30):
While there are lots of awesome new features in VB9 and C#3.0, everything has takena back seat to LINQ. I am, however, growing more and more fond of extension methods. Readmore...[A new DevLife post][Image]
Links for keeping an eye on database providers' Entity Framework status
(Indexed 2007-12-27):
I've been snooping around the web and found links for many of the db vendors (and3rd party vendors) to try to watch their own news about what they are doing for EntityFramework.Here's DaveSceppa's list of companies working on EF providers and interleaved with his listare my best stabs at a blog or page on their website to watch:ProvidersTargeting Publicly Available Versions Within Three Months of RTM CoreLab - Providing connectivity to Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite databasesCoreLa...(truncated)...
Telligent has really nailed it with Graffiti
(Indexed 2007-12-26):
Yes, you are reading this on a dasBlog siteand I love dasBlog,but I spent the Christmas holiday playing with the publicbeta of Graffiti and I really do think they have nailed it for a lightweight CMS/bloggingsystem.Out of the box, it is really simple to use, but don't let it's simplicity fool you.It is so customizable on two levels. For any end user, the widgets are fabulous andtake no braincells to use. For those adept in CSS and HTML, the themes can be customizedvery deeply. The macros expose ...(truncated)...
Entity Framework books!
(Indexed 2007-12-23):
No, it's not what you think I was going to say...But DavidSceppa from the EF team is working on one and it's on the MSPress website![Image]Which made me go to amazon and look some more and wouldn't you know I found a fewmore...Not surprised that Roger's atwork on a book![Image]Perhaps there will be more... only time will tell! [Image][Image]
Don Box: VB Evangelist?
(Indexed 2007-12-23):
Last spring, I ran into Don Box in the hallways at MIX07.I hadn't seen him in quite a while and asked what he had been up to lately in hiswizard's tower.Though he couldn't really talk about what he was doing, he did say that he was workingon some cool new stuff and having fun.I had a quick fantasy about suggesting in a blog post that perhaps Don was workingon the next version of Visual Basic, which would have been, of course, a completelyinsane idea. Don has a bit of a history with VB and I have...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Two Software Developer Positions at Vertek in Burlington, VT
(Indexed 2007-12-22):
VertekCorp in Burlington, VT has two software developer positions: Contact for both: Emailresumes to: hr@vertek.com POSITION:Junior Software DeveloperThe Software Developer - Associate position willbe involved in supporting our existing products, and helping Vertek build our nextgeneration platform which will heavily leverage SOA, ESB, BPEL and Web 2.0 frameworks. Theideal candidate will have full SWDLC experience with hands-on experience designing,building, testing, deploying and supporting n-...(truncated)...
Some great Entity Framework Guidance about Performance in client applications
(Indexed 2007-12-21):
I have spent a lot of time thinking about Entity Framework in web applications andin SOA and worrying about performance, serialization and concurrency.But I haven't spent a lot of time worrying about these things with respect to clientapps (winforms and WPF).In a greatthread started by Nick in the forums where he was asking about keeping huge listsaround in an application without having to hit the db over and over, both DannySimmons and I assumed he was talking about web apps and started down th...(truncated)...
Implement SELECT Stored Procedures that return miscellaneous data in CTP2 of EF Designer
(Indexed 2007-12-19):
Note: This blog post explains theory as well as steps to implementing the stored proc.If you read my blog regularly, you are used to this.As with the previous CTP Wizard, the Wizard in the new EF Tools (CTP2) will createfunctions in the Store Layer of the model to represent stored procedures in the databasethat the wizard is building a model from.And as with the previous CTP, that's all you get. It doesn't implement it all theway through to the conceptual layer to be used in your applications. ...(truncated)...
Mike Taulty adds his own take on Getting Started with ADO.NET Data Services
(Indexed 2007-12-19):
I wrote a series of Astoria posts based on the preview and have been thinking aboutupdating them for ADO.NET Data Services, but it seems that it would be pretty redundantconsidering that we have three great resources already doing the same:Mike Taulty has two posts now in a series: ADO.NETData Services - Getting Started (2)Guy Burstein is writing a series:ADO.NetData Services Part 2 - Using Service Operations with WebGetJonathan Carter is writing series: ADO.NETData Services Part 1: ServicesThan...(truncated)...
Who's preparing Entity Framework Providers?
(Indexed 2007-12-18):
I thought I saw this a week or so ago but couldn't find it again, but itjust appeared on David Sceppa's blog."It" is a list of vendors who will have Entity Framework providers out within 3 monthsof Entity Framework's release.While Oracle is not on there DIRECTLY, there are 3rd party companies working on Oracleproviders as well.In the list are:Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Lite, DB2, Informax Dynamic Server, and VistaDB.DataDirect will have their host of providers out sometime in 2008.Firebird w...(truncated)...
Are you using Entity SQL? Do not miss Zlatko's blog
(Indexed 2007-12-18):
Zlatko Michailov has been posting some awesome stuff on his blog.There are two that I want to highlight.The first is because it helps me answer a question I am often asked is explaining whyEntity Framework is not an ORM and how it compares/contrasts to ORMs.The second is announcing that his tool that will REAAAAALLY help with writing ENtitySQL is now on codeplex; it's called eSqlBlast.Zlatko demo'd this in his DevTEach session in Vancouver. HE wrote it himself and itis something like Query Build...(truncated)...
Embedding EDM schema files in Entity Framework Beta 3
(Indexed 2007-12-15):
One of the new features in Entity Framework Beta3 is the ability to embed the csdl,msl and ssdl schema files into the assembly which contains the model.This is useful in scenarios where, like in a few of my solutions, you want tohave a separate project to host the model and then use that project in various applications.In that case you need to make a reference to the dll with the model and the applicationusing the model will need to know where to find the schema files through the metadatapropert...(truncated)...
Visual Studio Magazine gets a new and usable website!
(Indexed 2007-12-14):
VSM hasa new website and it is finally possible to find content! Hooray. Nice job folks.[Image]
ASP.NET Dynamic Data Support - use LINQ to SQL and (in the future) LINQ to Entities
(Indexed 2007-12-14):
Scott Guthrie has a post on DynamicData Support for ASP.NET that's in the Extensions CTP. Based on my little rantfrom yesterday, I wanted to point out this:One of the cool new features is something we call "ASP.NET Dynamic Data Support". In a nutshell this enables you to really quickly build data driven web-sites thatwork against a LINQ to SQL (and in the future LINQ to Entities) objectmodel - and optionally allows you to-do this without having to build any pages manually.[Image]
Jonathan Carter ... the new Technical Evangelist for Visual Studio and .NET Framework
(Indexed 2007-12-12):
When I was at ReMix Boston in early October, I remember that Stan Shultes told methat someone was doing user group presentation on Entity Framework in Florida butcouldn't think of the person's name at the moment. Shortly afterwards, I hadan email conversation with someone who had asked an interesting question on the ADO.NETforums and when he said he lived in Florida, I correctly put two and two together.It was Jonathan Carter who had been doing the presentations.I met Jonathan a few weeks later ...(truncated)...
EF ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntries (plural)
(Indexed 2007-12-12):
I've been using the GetObjectStateEntry method for a while so that I can view andinteract with the state of a particular entity that I have in hand.Today I used the plural version of this method for the first time and boy do I likeit!GetObjectStateEntries takes as a parameter an EntityState enum: Added, Modified, Deleted,Unchanged or Detached.It provides a perfect opportunity to do some work on entities prior to hitting thedatastore during a save changes event.For example, if you have an entity ...(truncated)...
ADO.NET DataServices and ANY IQueryable
(Indexed 2007-12-12):
One of the changes with the new CTP release of ADO.NET Data Services (formerly Astoria)is that you can create a service against any iQueryable, not just Entity Framework.This is huge.RogerJennings points to Guy Burstein's how-to with Astoria (I guess it's time to updatemy own now outdated posts) and makes the following comment:"Like Andy Conrad, Guy uses LINQ to SQL instead of the Entity Framework as thedata source. I have the feeling this substitution will become universal, at leastuntil RDBMS ...(truncated)...
Using Entity Framework entities as Data Sources in a WinForms App
(Indexed 2007-12-12):
I've done this demo many times in conference and user group sessions. Someone on the ADO.NETforums asked how to do it and I thought I would just do a quick tutorial withscreenshots.What this Tutorial does is demonstrate how to create and use a data source froma particular entity in the model. I'm just doing simple drag and drop and no filteringor anything here with the goal of just a quick basic walkthrough for getting started.Start by creating a Windows Application.Add an Entity Data Model.Sele...(truncated)...
"Astoria" (ADO.NET Data Services) CTP Released
(Indexed 2007-12-11):
Finally it's real live production bits to play with!!In addition to finally using real bits, key to this release are the finalization ofresponse formats (XML by way of ATOM and JSON), security, an AJAX client, queryingwith LINQ when you are using one of the clients. THere's a lot more.Mike Flasko published 4 blog posts on the Astoria Team weblog yesterday:ADO.NETData Services ("Project Astoria") CTP is ReleasedViewingData Services Responses Using Atom Serialization in Internet Explorer > ADO.NET...(truncated)...
ScottGu on how to deal with the Microsoft firehose
(Indexed 2007-12-09):
At the Mix n Mash earlier this week, I asked Scott Gutrhie what his opinionwas about developers having to deal with SO many new technologies coming out fromMicrosoft at such a rapid pace.His recommendation was to pick what is core to your work, or what you are really goodat or really vested in and then ignore the rest.Easier said than done.Even if we follow ONLY his blog, we have myriad technologies in our faces. It's veryhard to predict the future. I am currently "ignoring' .NET 3.0 (WPF, WCF ...(truncated)...
Vermont InstallFest and Bob & Chris RoadShow was a big success
(Indexed 2007-12-08):
Although I wasn't able to be in Vermont on Thursday for the Bob & Chris Roadshowor the VS2008 Installfest, I have gotten emails from ChrisBowen and others letting me know that it was a great success. Over 40 people showedup for the installfest, and I learned from DaveBurke's blog that they also had TWO XB0X 360's set up for folks to play with.LarryKeyes blogged his extensive notes from the day.Sorry to have missed it.What I really enjoyed reading was Dave Burke's epiphany about VS2008. The sessi...(truncated)...
At Microsoft talking about MIX08 (and a special guest!)
(Indexed 2007-12-04):
I was invited by the DPE team (Developer Platform Evanglism) along with 9 other peopleto attend the Mix n Mash 08 event where the MIX team is picking our brains whilethey formulate Mix08. Right now we are talking wiht Scott Guthrie about where Microsoftis headed with development tools. Here is the list of people who are attending:Kip Kniskern www.liveside.netMolly Holzschlag www.molly.comJesse Warden www.jessewarden.comJonathan Snook www.snook.ca/jonathanKeith Peters www.bit-101.comKelly Go...(truncated)...
DevTeach and DevConnections session PowerPoints uploaded
(Indexed 2007-12-02):
Although these have been available to conference attendees, I have uploaded the presentationsslides from the following sessions to the TALKS pageof mywebsite:ADO.NET Entity Framework OverviewReal World Entity Framework (multi-tier issues and patterns)ADO.NET 3.5 Data Access GuidanceAccess RESTful DataServices in the Cloud (aka Astoria/ADO.NET DataServices)Databinding in ASP.NET with LINQInking in ASP.NET, AJAX and IE7Annotating and Drawing with Ink in Silverlight [Image]
Vermont is getting a VS2008 InstallFest on Dec 6th.
(Indexed 2007-11-30):
Thanks (humongous thanks) to ChrisBowen for pulling off getting Vermont on the list for the installfest. It willbe an "add-on" to the Roadshow day.Fromhis blog: (read the details carefully.. priority goes to registered attendeesof the roadshow...)Burlington (Williston), VTDecember 6th, 4:15 to 6:00 PMVermont Technical College, 201 Lawrence Place, Room401, Williston, VTIn partnership with the Vermont.NET User Group Like Rochester, we're running this InstallFest in the same room as the Roadshowev...(truncated)...
Another EF Beta 3 Tidbit
(Indexed 2007-11-29):
I attended Zlatko Michailov's talk on Entity SQL today at DevTeach which was definitelyinteresting to me. In showing Entity SQL queries, Zlatko used a tool that he builtas an experiment that evaluates Entity SQL queries (with some intellisense help asyou type them!), displays the resulting provider level SQL and then displays the resultingdata in grids (plural if there is related data in the result). It will be cool tosee that tool evolve into something that we can use...keep your eyes on his bl...(truncated)...
Another new Program Manager on the Entity Framework team
(Indexed 2007-11-29):
I learned today about DiegoVega who is another new hire on the Entity Framework team. Diego is responsiblefor Linq to Entities. As EF grows, there are more and more specialized people on theteam. So now we have Zlatko whois the Entity SQL PM, Alex whoowns the Entity Data Model and Diego will be focused on LINQ to Entities.A funnypost yesterday as Diego gets "revenge" on Zlatko who wrote a post on LINQ to Entities.Diego's revenge is to write a post about Entity SQL. And of course, we're the benef...(truncated)...
Tell me why you don't like Entity Framework
(Indexed 2007-11-28):
I find that people really want to tell me what's wrong with Entity Framework. Thisis a good thing. It's how I learn. It's sometimes a little overwhelming, but sinceI feel like I'm just the messenger, I don't take any of it personally.So go ahead.Tell me why you don't like Entity Framework. Why you think people should stay awayfrom it (I heard this advice was being given in a SQL Connections talk). Why you wantto hit someone. Why it frightens you. Why you think it is a dba's nightmare. Bringit on...(truncated)...
Issues with connecting to SQL Server 2008 from VS2005 & VS2008
(Indexed 2007-11-27):
The Data Programmability team has an extensivepost about current issues with connecting to SQL Server 2008 at design time andruntime via .NET 2.0.If you are using the beta of SQL Server 2008, I recommend checking the blog post![Image]
Esther Schindler asks Is Computer Programming Language Popularity Important?
(Indexed 2007-11-26):
Over on CIO.com where CIOs go to get help with technology direction decisions fortheir companies, Esther Schindler takes a look at the ProgrammingLanguage Popularity (non scientific) study which analyzed search terms for Yahooand craigslist, book titles on Amazon.com, languages used in Freshmeat projects andmore.Language choice is a much different decision for CIOs than it is for developers, Esthersays. While she finds the results"interestingwell, okay, they're fascinating if you're a software d...(truncated)...
More Beta 3 clues for Entity Framework: Compiled queries and TSQL in debugging
(Indexed 2007-11-25):
I sometimes feel like Gretel picking up tidbits on my way to the Gingerbread housewhen it comes to getting clues about what's coming in Beta3 of Entity Framework.The next two I have found are:From AlexJames blog, Entity Framework is getting compiled queries similar to what's inLINQ to SQL. You can pre-compile query expressions, save them and even pass them around.One thing that Alex mentions is that they are not tied to the ObjectContext (whichis how you can pass them around) and therefore it mu...(truncated)...
Entity SQL difference when using ObjectQuery vs EntityClient
(Indexed 2007-11-25):
I went around in circles with this one a few weeks ago (preparing for a session atDevConnections) and saw that someone had the same problem on the forums yesterdayso thought I would blog it.I have no idea if it will change going forward, but this is in E.F. Beta 2.Entity SQL is the query language that you use when 1. querying through ObjectServices directly by creating an ObjectQuery as inDim MyObjQuery=MyObjectContext.CreateQuery(OfMyEntityClassType)(...(truncated)... or 2. querying through the...(truncated)...
Update:[I thought there was an ] Entity SQL difference when using ObjectQuery vs EntityClient
(Indexed 2007-11-25):
*Update* It turns out that I completely misunderstood Zlatko Michailov's emailreply to me when I was having trouble with this. I seem to have freaked out the teamby writing this errant blog post. Sorry guys.When using ObjectQuery, I was doing this:Dim myAWEntities=New AdventureWorksEntitiesdim myObjQuery=myAWEntities.CreateQuery(Of Customer)("SELECT VALUE cust from myAWEntities.Customeras cust ")I was thinking in LINQ, using the variable of the instance I had created.But if I use the entitySet n...(truncated)...
Finally updated the blog to Dasblog 2.0
(Indexed 2007-11-23):
I spent a part of Thanksgiving day updating my blog to 2.0 (written in ASP.NET 2.0).One of the reasons was that my host (ORCSWeb) has been having big problems with my blog app (not like I have the kind oftraffic that ScottHanselman gets on his dasblog blog), but still there's enough and it was eatingup server resources.Rather than upgrading the existing site, I just created a whole new app in a temporaryfolder and then moved over all of the important pieces - content, images, configurationsettin...(truncated)...
My installation notes for Visual Studio 2008 RTM
(Indexed 2007-11-21):
Iblogged my notes about downloading, uninstalling VS2008 Beta2 and installing VS2008RTM over here...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Fix XML encoding in LINQ to SQL files to open up in RTM designer window
(Indexed 2007-11-21):
When opening a dbml file created in a pre-RTM version of Visual Studio 2008, you willprobably see this error message:Cannot load '[filepath].dbml': Error encountered, check Error List window for details.Looking in the error list window, you might see the following errors:Build failed due to validation errors in [filepath].dbml. Open the file andresolve the issues in the Error List, then try rebuilding the project. andThere is no Unicode byte order mark. Cannot switch to Unicode.Opening up the d...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: PHP programmer in Burlington
(Indexed 2007-11-19):
UnionStreet Media, a leading Vermont web design and development company, is seekingto add a new PHP Programmer to our team. Since 1999, we have developed database-drivenweb sites focusing on visual appeal, usability, and search engine prominence. Thecompany serves over 300 clients in three primary business areas: real estate, e-commerce,and content-driven sites. Union Street Media is a young, aggressive company requiringits employees to wear many hats. The PHP Programmer will be responsible for ...(truncated)...
VS2008 RTMs today and Entity Framework Beta3 and Designer CTP2 will be here in a few more weeks
(Indexed 2007-11-19):
Probably no need to mentino that VS2008 RTM (Team Suite ENglish) hit MSDN subscriberdownloads this morning. But what about Entity Framework?According to DannySimmons in thisforum post, we'll have new bits that align with VS2008 RTM in a few more weeks.We're working hard to wrap up the last round of testing and bug fixes onthe EF and the EF designer. The plan is to release beta 3 of the EF/CTP 2 ofthe designer in a few weeks (think "early December").One major thing to lookd forward to is a simpl...(truncated)...
Still under my rock
(Indexed 2007-11-14):
There's something about a conference that inadvertantly makes me go dark.I did 4 sessions and a workshop at DevConnections last week.In the weeks leading up to to this, I was heads down finalizing my presentations.That includes mucking with the PowerPoint's and fine-tuning demos and stuffing asmuch into my brain about the various technologies as I can.While I was at the conference I spent a lot of my time in my room continuing on thispath. The speaker room is a bad place for me to work - too man...(truncated)...
Astoria - what's coming after the prototype
(Indexed 2007-11-07):
Mike Flasko presented on Astoria this afternoon as part of the Data Access track at DevConnections.Being the PM on the Astoria team, Mike's not stuck with the prototype bits like therest of us slackers and was using production bits of what Astoria will really looklike.Here's a few new things:1. No more code name. Bah - I always hate this part. I like Astoria.The official name of the product is ADO.NET Data Services. Oh boring, but descriptive.2. No more POX (Plain old XML) and they didn't go wit...(truncated)...
Architecting ENtity Framework Apps Chalk Talk at DevConnections
(Indexed 2007-11-05):
DannySimmons and Mike Flasko will be holding a 1/2 hour chalk talk on Architecting EntityFramework apps at 2:30 on Wednesday at DevCONnections. If you want to see all of the talks in the special Data Access track (Entity Frameworkand more) checkthis blog post where I have them all listed.[Image]
From the You Can't Know Everything Dept - the AJAX UpdateProgress Control
(Indexed 2007-11-05):
I finally discovered the UpdateProgress control for an easy way of getting an animatedgif to display at the proper times on a page using ASP.NET AJAX. REadmore...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Are you interested in the Jasper project ("Entity Framework on Rails")
(Indexed 2007-11-02):
I stole the little EF on Rails quip from Roger Jennings who asked on his blog "whatthe heck happened to Jasper?" (my words, not his)Here'san overview article on Jasper that I wrote a few months ago.Andy Conrad, who is a PM on that replied that it's still around and they have an internalrevision of the original prototype, but that they need to see more interest in itbefore really making an investment in it. (Again, my words, not his.)Check out Roger'spost and Andy's comment. It's a shame that the...(truncated)...
38 page "Leverage LINQ in ASP.NET 3.5 Projects" article by Roger Jennings
(Indexed 2007-11-02):
Roger's post are so chock full of information, it's easy to miss things on the firstread or two but they are alwasy worth returning to, especially as he updates themto keep them accurate.In a recent post, he pointed to an "article" - 38 pages is quite long for an article- which is part of the WROX BLOX series that you can download for $3.99 LeveragingLINQ in ASP.NET 3.5 projects. Since I am doing a session next week at DevConnectionson ASP.NET Databinding with LINQ, I think I'm going to grab thi...(truncated)...
EDM QueryViews vs Defining Queries (and read-only views)
(Indexed 2007-11-02):
In a recent ADO.NET forum post, someone asked howto do read-only views of data. There were two responses - use a QueryView anduse a Defining Query.What's the difference?A Query view is an Entity SQL Query that exists right in your mappinglayer. It allows you to solve two problems. THe first is creating complex queriesthat you don't want your coders to have to worry about building. You can just buildthe query in the mapping layer, expose the resulting entity in the conceptuallayer and the classes...(truncated)...
Mapping Associations in the EDM Designer
(Indexed 2007-11-01):
I had to figure this out, so here are a billion screenshots so anyone who wants todo this will have an easier time of it!One of the niceties about being able to customize your conceptual models is not havingto bother the dba while they are doing important things like indexing tables and optimizingthe database. If you find you have some tables that came into your entity data modelthat have primary/foreign key relationships that were never defined in the database,then the wizard won't have built a...(truncated)...
A hint of what to look for in Entity Framework Beta3
(Indexed 2007-11-01):
I've found that the best resource for learning about ENtity Framework is in the forums.Today I finally saw a public statement about something I"ve been waiting for for along time.Brian Dawson says:We've been working on making the WCF experience, especially with relationships,a much better experience no matter which serialization scheme you choose. Binary serializationhas been working already, but in the cases where we are doing other types of serialization,dealing with relationships was tricky a...(truncated)...
Silverlight 1.1 - Look before you leap (into LINQ or into WCF)
(Indexed 2007-10-30):
I spent a lot of time coding in javascript for silverlight 1.0 and am having fun nowgetting back to managed code with 1.1. I'm even doing it all in C#, but the main reasonis because I have a lot of nearly reusable javascript code and it's just easierto port that to C#.However, as usual, I am just diving head first and not doing too much advance research.Two things I learned the hard way:Silverlight does not yet support LINQA few months ago, I spent bunch of time buliding a beatiful LINQ toXML m...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: ASP.NET (and more) Developers in Stowe, Vermont
(Indexed 2007-10-30):
Yes, you can have it all! Live in a cool place (Stowe, Vermont)and do the work you love surrounded by smart people! (While you are at it, check out Springer-Miller,also in Stowe who, like Inntopia, has a sizable and brainy team of programmers.) [Image] Inntopia inStowe APPLICATIONDEVELOPERS REQUIREDTECHNOLOGY EXPERTISE 4+ years experience in a majority of the following technologies ASP.NET/C# SQL/T-SQL XML XSL/XPath AJAX/ JavaScript XHTML/DHTML COM/DCOM SOAP/WebServices SOFTWARETOOLS Fami...(truncated)...
Article: Introducing ADO.NET Entity Framework is now online
(Indexed 2007-10-27):
This article, IntroducingADO.NET Entity Framework, which I wrote for CoDe Magazine is now online.You can find it in the Nov/Dec2007 issue which is currently on newsstands (and highly likely to be at availableat your local .NET User Group.)[Image]
Entity SQL Blog by Zlatkov Michailov on ADO.NET Team
(Indexed 2007-10-27):
I have been subscribed to this blog for Zlatkov whichhas was phased out in July and I didn't know he was going to resurface in a new blog.I just happened to come across that today! It is a focused Entity SQL blogblogs.msdn.com/esql[Image]
Future ASP.NET MVC Framework
(Indexed 2007-10-26):
Scott Gutrhie introduces his next fun project, an MVC (Model-View-Controller) Frameworkfor ASP.NEt. Readmore...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
VS2008 Beta2 VPCs will expire November 1st. BACK UP YOUR DATA!
(Indexed 2007-10-26):
FromJeff Beehler on Microsoft's VSTS team:We recently discovered that the VPCs we distributed as part of the VS2008 Beta2release will expire on Thursday, November 1, 2007, much earlier than we had originallyexpected. Since the timeout is at the OS level, we cannot automatically extendthe timeout period. As such we are currently in the process of reissuing theVPCs and expect to make them available early next week. In the meantime, for anyone that has stored information in TFS that they needto a...(truncated)...
Upcoming DevConnections talks: Silverlight Annotation, Ink on the Web, Entity Framework and LINQ
(Indexed 2007-10-25):
The fall DevConnections iscoming up in another 10 days (Nov 5-9) in Las vegas.It looks like they will have about 5,000 attendees again, like last year which isamazing.I will be doing a variety of talks.One that i'm especially looking forward to will be teaming up with John Sudds fromthe Internet Explorer team to present on embedding Ink-Enabled Win Forms controlsinto ASP.NET 2.0 pages. This will be part of the Microsoft Day session forMobile Connections. John brings a new level of expertise to t...(truncated)...
EF EntityClient for performance
(Indexed 2007-10-20):
Earlier this week, I wrote a post discussing when I would choose querying an datathrough an Entity Data Model using LINQto Entities vs. Object services + Entity SQL vs. EntityClient + Entity SQL.One of the advantages I pointed out about using EntityClient is that it returns datareadersand does not attempt to turn the returned data into objects. In re-reading ZlatkoMichailov's EntityClient post from earlier this year, I realize that I didn'thighlight one of the most important reasons about being ...(truncated)...
MSDN Forums are also getting ready for VS2008 RTM!
(Indexed 2007-10-19):
I check the MSDN forums for Entity Framework and Astoria frequently and just noticedsomething today that made me smile.... readmore...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Lots of Entity Framework at DevConnections Nov 5-8, Las Vegas
(Indexed 2007-10-19):
In his "Microsoft'sData Access Strategy" blog post, Mike Pizzo, who is an architect for the overallData Programmability team at Microsoft says:"The Entity Data Platform is a multi-release vision, with future versions of reportingtools, replication, data definition, security, etc. all being built around a commonEntity Data Model. Within the .NET Framework, the ADO.NET Entity Framework is integral to this vision."The first release of the Entity Framework will arrive in the first half of next year...(truncated)...
Choosing LINQ to Entities vs Entity SQL vs. EntityClient
(Indexed 2007-10-17):
The title is a bit of a misnomer and not comparing apples to apples. To do it rightwould have been longer. The real comparison is"Choosing LINQ to Entities vs. Entity SQL+Object Services vs. Entity SQL+EntityClient"When doing an intro session on entity Framework last night for GUVSM inMontreal, even though it's something like the 7th time I've done this session (andevery single presentation has been totally unique from any of the others I have done- shaped by the questions asked), I think I fin...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Job: .NET programmer - Telecommute FROM the Burlington VT area
(Indexed 2007-10-17):
JuniorSoftware Engineer / Product SupportTelecommute/VirtualTeam Burlington, VT area Excellentcompensation package including 401k plan and insurance benefits. CONIXSystems, Inc. designs, develops and maintains software that creates new workflowoptions and improves operational efficiency and customer service for major banks andservice providers. This virtualteam (home-based) telecommute position will be responsible for supporting and maintainingsolutions for Windows and Web-based environments u...(truncated)...
Introducing ADO.NET Entity Framework Article in CoDe Mag Nov/Dec
(Indexed 2007-10-16):
While this is not online yet, I do have the latest issue of CoDeMagazine in my hands which has (among some other great articles!) an intro articleI have written on Entity Framework.I originally wrote the article using VS2008 Beta1 and Entity Framework beta1, then(as it always seems to happen) the Beta 2 bits of EF were released after the articlewas finished and with only a few days before the "going to print" deadline. But Iwas able to rerun all of my tests, through and make sure the content, th...(truncated)...
Unit testing LINQ to SQL and Entity Framework
(Indexed 2007-10-14):
Even though I'm still a Unit Testing luddite, I've been looking around to see howpeople are getting LINQ to SQL and Entity Framework to work in their Unit Testingscenarios even though neither technology is really built to test against well.First, I found thisexcellent post by Ian Cooper that explained not just unit testing, but what makescode apprpriate for unit testing. This was really enlightening for this newbie (that is, moi) and gave me a much better understanding of why the TDD guys have b...(truncated)...
Sad Soap Opera of the tiny town of my alma mater is on CNN.com's home page today
(Indexed 2007-10-14):
I am a graduate of a college that I will love until the day I die, WellCollege. I went to Wells almost begrudgingly, with my heart set on studyingfilm at a giant party school: Syracuse University. Being at a tiny 500 student schoolwith no boys around seemed like hell for an 18 year old. During my first semesterI begged my parents to let me transfer, but they made me promise to see the year out.And I fell in love with Wells and spent my entire four years there, learning,learning who I was and not...(truncated)...
Get Ready for the MSDN Tour, Astoria and Entity Framework
(Indexed 2007-10-11):
The MSDNEvents Tour for Q4 runs from Oct 16 - Dec 31 and hits 51 cities. One of thesessions is about Astoria* and it is called "A New Paradigm for Data Development withWeb Based Data Services". Astoria sits on top of Entity Framework, and the session will also give a brief introto Entity Framework, which thrills me to no end! I can only get to so many usergroups to spread the love (which I'll be doing next Monday, Oct 15th inMontreal by the way!).If you are interested in preparing yourself bette...(truncated)...
Congrats Charles and Deirdre
(Indexed 2007-10-10):
I promise not to say anything along the lines of "it'sabout time". I promise! I won't!(And you can blame Cicero for that little trick I learned in Latin class many yearsago...)[Image]
Custom Operations and hiding entities in Astoria
(Indexed 2007-10-10):
I learned a harsh lesson about Visual Studio and saving code snippets in the toolboxyesterday. Knowing that I am not great at coding Entity SQL on the fly, I stuck mycode for custom operations in an Astoria Web data service into the VS2008 toolbox.I had two instances of VS open when I did this, so when I closed the instance whereI had created the snippets, the instance that was still open is the one that savedthe state and they were lost. Note to self: always have a text file with all snippetsav...(truncated)...
Heading off to REMIX Boston and VTdotNet tonight
(Indexed 2007-10-08):
I'm hopping in the car to drive the 4 hours to Boston forthe sold-out REMIX whichstarted this morning. I'll be there all day tomorrow and will be giving a talk onAstoria tomorrow afternoon.For you locals, the Vermont.NET usergroup is having a special type of meeting tonight - a PubClub! We'll (withoutme - so You'll) be meeting at RiRa's in downtown Burlington. Check the website www.vtdotnet.org fordetails.Thanks to LauraBlood, Tom Cooley and Rob Hale for coordinating and leading the three disc...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Architect and Business Analyst at C2 in Colchester
(Indexed 2007-10-08):
Two job openings at CompetitiveComputing:Contact: jobs@competitive.com SENIORBUSINESS ANALYST / PROJECT LEADWeare looking for a highly-motivated, results-oriented Senior Business Analyst/ProjectLead who will be responsible for delivery of software solutions for our clients. Todeliver best practice technical solutions and business value to our clients, thisposition requires demonstrated leadership skills in IT project management as wellas a personality that thrives in a continually changing techn...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: .NET Software Developer in White River Junction
(Indexed 2007-10-08):
RESOURCESYSTEMS GROUP isa multi-disciplinary, employee-owned consulting firm specializing in the planning,analysis, and management of business, infrastructure and natural resources. We serveclients who share our belief that high-quality, objective analysis is a prerequisiteto resolving complex problems. More than just analysts, scientists, and engineers,were communicators our study results are clear, concise, and directly applicableto a clients particular questions and challenges. Our solution...(truncated)...
Russ' Toolshed returns to Burlington!
(Indexed 2007-10-05):
RussFustino used to be our little secret when he worked out of the Microsoft New Englandoffice. He was well loved by Burlington, VT developers who looked forward to his Russ'Toolshed events. A full day of free training that was before MSDN events existed! Then a dark day came and Russ moved to Florida. There was audible moaning and snivellingto be heard all over the Hudson Valley.Happily, we have been very lucky over the years to have Joe Stagner, Thom Robbins,Susan Wisowaty, Chris Bowen and Bob...(truncated)...
Entity Framework object graphs and viewstate
(Indexed 2007-10-05):
I've been playing with using EF object in code-behind of aspx web pages.The first issue to hit is postbacks.Entity Objects are Binary Serializable so they can be stored in ViewState.Like many other objects, you need to put your entities into viewstate (I'll deal withsession and application caching in another post). Happily entities can be binary serializedso that happens for free when you add an entity object to ViewState. So you canpersist the entities, but you cannot persist the ObjectContext,...(truncated)...
Nullables in VB - must read article
(Indexed 2007-10-04):
There is a lot of potential for using nullables incorrectly in VS2008 in VisualBasic without even realizing there's a problem, or encountering a problem that makesno sense.Check BillMcCarthy's article in the October issue of visual Studio Magazing (not onlineyet but watchthis space) is really helpful for pointing out gotchas.I had a conversation with Bill recently where i was asking some of these questionsand he was happy to be able to say "actually, I just wrote an article about that andit will...(truncated)...
Microsoft is releasing .NET Source code (and for Debugging too!)
(Indexed 2007-10-03):
Are you sitting? Buckled in?Yes it's true. It was just announced. Microsoft is releasing source for .NET binariesand letting us debug into it as well!Readmore here![A New DevLife Post][Image]
Resources for LINQ talk at San Diego .NET
(Indexed 2007-10-02):
Last week I did something that may have seemed a little silly to some, but wasa great deal of fun. I left my house at 7am, drove to the airport, flew all the wayacross the country (from the northeast corner of the U.S. to the southwest corner)to San Diego to give a 2 hour presentaiton to the SanDiego Dot Net user group on behalf of INETA.The silly part was that I spent about 15 hours on 4 different planes to give a 2 hourtalk. But I loved doing it!Frankly, 15 hours on planes gives me more produ...(truncated)...
XML Serializing Entity Framework entities with their children for SOA
(Indexed 2007-10-02):
Another challenge in working with tiered solutions (notably web services) that requirexml serialization of entity objects is that the xml serializer does not serializethe entire graph. It only gets the main object and drops all of the relations. Thisis not because Entity Framework is trying to be mean, just related to how XML serializationworks. In fact, the binary serialization gets the entire graph. But in the web servicesscenarios, we need XML.So how to go about passing the full graph from cl...(truncated)...
More on Disconnected Entity Framework
(Indexed 2007-10-01):
One of the biggest challenges with Entity Framework for updates is that if you wantto move objects across tiers, you lose the object's state. All of the state and changetracking information is maintained by the object context. While entity objects areserializable (xml and binary) and can be transported across tiers, object contextis not. Therefore, if you have objects being managed by an ObjectContext in one tier,then move them to another tier and attach them to a new ObjectContext, you will ha...(truncated)...
Sharing custom types with client and services apps? Use WCF
(Indexed 2007-09-24):
One of the very difficult to solve problems in .NET client & web service solutions issharing custom objects between the web service and the client.Here's the scenario.You have a business layer with some serializable objects. Let's say the namespaceis "MyLovelyBAL" and the object is "MyLovelyObject".You have an operation in your web service that returns one of those objects.Now you build a client, say a Windows Forms app ("MyWinApp") that will call into thatWeb Service, and you are not savvy enou...(truncated)...
Timothy Ng from the Visual Basic team is coming to speak at New England Code Camp!
(Indexed 2007-09-23):
Boy am I excited about this.TimothyNg is on the VB team and wrote the recent MSDNMagazine article on Lambda Expressions for VB developers. I understood lambdasbetter than ever after reading the article ... finally something from the VB perspective.His two talks are:LINQ-ing your dataIn this session, I will explore how LINQ will change the way you think about datain your applications. In particular, I will explore how LINQ provides a higher abstractionfor accessing your data, provides a common ab...(truncated)...
Trying to see what Astoria messages look like in the pipe
(Indexed 2007-09-22):
I don't like not knowing how something works, so I just had to dig further into howAstoria services see requests for queries versus Updates, Deletes and Inserts.Inmy previous post, I dug into the assembly with reflector and could see that aPUT was used for updates, DELETE for deletes and POST for inserts.I turned tracing on for the Astoria service and pushed the trace info to a log file.You can see how to do that at the end of this post.Looking at the messages, you can see the METHOD and the que...(truncated)...
Astoria is sick (as in SLICK) when it comes to DML!
(Indexed 2007-09-22):
I got bored with querying Astoria in the browser and and wanted to see how to useit in an application, so I opened up the sample console app that comes with the bitsand started poking around and was astonished at what I saw.You can create an new WebDataContext based on the Astoria data service.WebDataContext is like an ObjectContext. Here's what it exposes:namespace Microsoft.Astoria.Client{public class WebDataContext: IDisposable{public WebDataContext(string uri);public string BaseUri{ get; }pu...(truncated)...
More fun with Astoria - random queries in the browser
(Indexed 2007-09-22):
I find it helpful to use the browser to visualize immediate cause and effect of queriesto an Astoria web data service. THere's so much more that you can do when you arereally using this in applications, though.In the documentation there'sa list of query operators:callback (specific to JSON for AJAX calls) expand - pull related data using EDM associations format - define format of the response (eg xml, json, rdf) keyset- only return the entityKeys orderby (you know what this is) skip (same as in ...(truncated)...
QuickStart for building an Astoria data service
(Indexed 2007-09-21):
Here's a quick start for checking out astoria. See my blog post "whatthe heck is astoria" if necessary. [Image]Requirements:VS2008Beta 2EntityFramework Beta 2EntityFramework Tools August CTPAstoriaCTP September refreshNote that I had to do this in XP. I'm having a wierd problem in Vista around theASPNETCompatibilityEnabled setting in web.config. You can follow the discussion ofthat if you are interested in thisforum thread. The thread is accidentally a combination of Kevin Hoffman'sissues with ...(truncated)...
What the heck is Astoria?
(Indexed 2007-09-21):
I'll be doing a session on Astoria at REMIXBoston 07 (10/8-10/9) and at the NewEngland Code Camp (9/29-9/30).What is Astoria?Astoria exposes data as web services through an Entity Framework Data Model. Onceexposed, you can use URI based syntax to query data through the conceptual layer ofthe entity data model. You can control what is and isn't exposed and you can alsodo inserts, updates and deletes. The results can be output in a number of formatsincluding JSON and ATOM.It's simplest to understa...(truncated)...
At SQL PASS 2007? Go learn what DBA's should know about Entity Framework!
(Indexed 2007-09-19):
Erick Thompson is at SQL PASS and willbe doing a talk on Entity Framework for DBAs tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon.You can get a preview of what he will be talking about by reading his recentpost on the topic.[Image]
Three great MSDN LINQ resources for VB developers
(Indexed 2007-09-18):
While there are many great LINQ resources for VB, I happened to read/watch/see theseand wanted to be sure to point them out.1) LisaFeigenbaum's LINQ Best Practices webcast. Lisa is on the VB team. This webcastis full of great insights and tips.2) TimothyNg's Basic Instincts: Lambda Expressions article in the current (Sept 07) issueof MSDN Magazine. I've spent so much time trying to interpret lambda articles writtenin C#. Having one written specifically for VB devs is awesome and this article gen...(truncated)...
Using LINQ to query Outlook emails joined with SQL data
(Indexed 2007-09-17):
I watched part2 of Jim Wooley's ASP.NET Podcast show on LINQ and was really impressed withthe creativity of his examples. Having dug deeply in order to write LINQin Action along with Fabrice Marguerie and Steve Eichert, he's way past the how-tobasics and able to see the bigger picture of leveraging LINQ.In his demo, he starts with some simple querying of the file system - a good demonstrationof using linq against objects, but by the time he gets to the end of the demo, heis using JOIN to build q...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Web Application Developer in Middlebury (great company to work for!)
(Indexed 2007-09-17):
This a job with one of my mentoring clients, Co-OperativeInsurance. I absolutely love going to their office and working with thesepeople. It's a small team in a large company. Nice, friendly folks. And it's in Middleburywhich is a great place to work.Web Application DevelopmentExcellent opportunity for a qualified programmer with web application design, development,and implementation experience!Work on the complete product development lifecycle of our B2B extranet, includingrequirements gatherin...(truncated)...
Mark Mullin on WCF & SOA at Vermont .NET tonight
(Indexed 2007-09-17):
We are really looking forward to this talk by MarkMullin tonight at VTdotNET!We also have some great WCF books to give away: LearningWCF by Michele Leroux Bustamante (thanks OReilly and INETA) and ProWCF: Practical Microsoft SOA Implementation from APress.Thanks to Infragistics,we will be raffling off two licenses to NetAdvantage for .NET. One of the raffleswill actually be a fund-raising raffle.We also have shirts and swag courtesy of CodeZone andpiles of CoDeMagazine and aspnetPRO togive away....(truncated)...
Re-Visiting an old VB6 problem - the disappearing mouse wheel-scrolling functionality
(Indexed 2007-09-16):
A million years ago, when Windows 2000 came out, many VB6 developers got calls fromusers that the scroll wheel stopped working in their VB6 applications.It didn't take long for the fix (Install Intellimouse v4.0) to get shared on newsgroupsand forums. (This was pre-blog days; do you even remember those?)I have a client who has that Intellimouse install tucked away on the server to applyto new computers being set up with my old apps and it's worked charmingly for years.But a few months ago, a use...(truncated)...
Entities, Viewstate and postback
(Indexed 2007-09-15):
I was fiddling with Entity Framework in a website and was happy to see how smoothlyobjects serialize (binary serialization) across postbacks. Query for one customer along with their SalesOrderHeaders: Dim query = (From cust In aw.Customer.Include("SalesOrderHeader")Where cust.CustomerID = 151) Grab that customer into an object:Note, I've found a problem with using .First in the query... Include is not working,so this is a temporary long way around... For Each c In query cust=c NextNow shov...(truncated)...
MSDN's Channel8, like Channel9 but aimed at students
(Indexed 2007-09-15):
I just found out about Channel8 whichis in Beta and was launched recently. it's aimed at students - from kids to PhD's.There are arlready some great videos - interns at Microsoft, PhD students describingtheir research projects; blog posts and more.I've been emailing it to all of my pals who are teachers and profs related to allthings nerdy. [Image]
Visual Basic finally gets the LINE back!
(Indexed 2007-09-15):
Finally, you can draw a simple line on a windows form, just like in the old VB6 days.The VB2005 Power Pack has lines and other shape controls. It also has a compatilibitytool for leveraging VB6 printer code. Readmore here![A New DevLife Post][Image]
Query Notifications and LINQ to SQL - Well I'll be, you *can* do it (with caveats)
(Indexed 2007-09-15):
I'm ashamed that this is STILL on my to-do list as I have probably written and presentedmore about QueryNotification than most people. But I see via RogerJennings blog that RyanDunn has the key of the implementation posted on his blog (by way of a hot tipfrom Mike Pizzo on the DP* team [Image]).To activate Query Notification, you need to get a query "registered" in SQL Server'sService Broker then listen for a notification.ADO.NET 2.0's SqlDependency class does all the dirty work then all you nee...(truncated)...
LINQ to SQL and stored procedures
(Indexed 2007-09-15):
I've been watching Roger Jennings blog as he forayed into hammering on the use ofstored procs in LINQ to SQL. Like a great and supportive pal, I sat on the sidelineswhile he dug dizzyingly deeper and deeper to try to work out issues with what a storedproc actually returns (different than using LINQ to get dynamic sql) and it's impacton paging with databound asp.net controls as well as loading children. It also impactsthe use of LINQDataSource.I definitely have an interest as I'm doing some more ...(truncated)...
LINQ to XML in Silverlight - Not!
(Indexed 2007-09-13):
Hey, so I'm not a walking encyclopedia.I thought it would be cool to try to build an xml file from a Silverlight object -namely the StrokeColleciton of an InkPresenter.I coded it up in what I thought was a very nice way: XElement XMLStrokes = new XElement("StrokeCollection"); //create stroke then add to collection element XElement mystroke; foreach (Stroke s in mystrokes) { mystroke = new XElement("Stroke", new XElement("Stroke.DrawingAttributes", new XElement("DrawingAt...(truncated)...
15 New INETA NORAM Speakers!
(Indexed 2007-09-13):
Even though i am on the INETA speaker committee (responsible for the NORAM SpeakerBureau), I didn't really know this was public yet but I'm starting to get some emailsand see some blog posts that people are announcing their addition to the speaker bureau,so I guess it's okay to blog about it now!Must be that the email I got wasn't a "how does this look before we send it out tothe world?" but it was the official email.Fifteen, count 'em 15! new people were added to the speaker bureau. They areal...(truncated)...
Debugging Dynamic XAML in Silverlight
(Indexed 2007-09-13):
I have dynamically generated XAML in a few of my apps. It's not easy to debug so Iwrote a post sharing how I go about tracking down problems that might be in this code.[A New DevLife Post][Image]
LINQ to XML in Silverlight - Not! (Well, not yet...)
(Indexed 2007-09-13):
Hey, so I'm not a walking encyclopedia.I thought it would be cool to try to build an xml file from a Silverlight object -namely the StrokeColleciton of an InkPresenter.I coded it up in what I thought was a very nice way: XElement XMLStrokes = new XElement("StrokeCollection"); //create stroke then add to collection element XElement mystroke; foreach (Stroke s in mystrokes) { mystroke = new XElement("Stroke", new XElement("Stroke.DrawingAttributes", new XElement("DrawingAt...(truncated)...
Entity Framework's Danny Simmons will be hanging out at DevConnections
(Indexed 2007-09-12):
[Image] I was happy to see Danny'sblog post this morning that he'll be coming to DevConnections.He's not even presenting. But since there will be an entire Data Access track (aday of 4 microsoft talks and then 2 days of third party speakers) and in that trackthere will be 8 talks that will either be about Entity Framework or will include infoon it , AND I'll be doing a 1/2 day workshop... he knows it will be the place to beto talk about Entity Framework with interested folks!There will be plenty...(truncated)...
VS2005/2008 Build Error List: Oh, THAT'S how it works!
(Indexed 2007-09-11):
There was something about using the build Error List in VS2005 that has irked me fora long time. The behavior continues in VS2008 so I finally took the time to see whatthe heck it was all about and got a little surprise! Readmore here...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Entity Data Model Associations: Where's my Foreign Key?
(Indexed 2007-09-11):
If you've been playing with Entity Framework and used the wizard to create a modelfrom an existing database, you'll see that the resulting model lookssomething like this which is a small portion of the EDM built from Northwind.[Image] Compare the Orders Entity above to the Order table schema [Image] and you'll quickly notice that the foreign keys for CustomerID, EmployeeID and ShipViaare "missing". We are used to using foreign keys as a means for defining relationships between tablesand realiz...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Web Developer in Georgia Vermont
(Indexed 2007-09-10):
Web Developer PBM,(www.pbmproducts.com) anexpanding, privately owned $200 million enterprise, specializes in manufacturing,distributing, and marketing consumer food, nutritional, and pharmaceutical products.The PBM family of companies has been named in Entrepreneur Magazine's Hot 500 for2007, the magazine's annual ranking of America's fastest growing businesses. Headquartered near Charlottesville, Virginia, PBM consists of PBM Products, PBM Nutritionals,and PBM Pharmaceuticals. We have an open...(truncated)...
Drawing in Silverlight - A quick comparison between 1.0 and 1.1
(Indexed 2007-09-09):
Up until now, i've done all of my exploration of annotation in Silverlight using WPF/Eand then the 1.0 bits. I finally took my first dip into Silverlight 1.1 today andwanted to see what it took to recreate a simple InkPresenter example using the .NETruntime. Hereis what I found.[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: Web Developer at VT Teddy Bear in Shelburne VT
(Indexed 2007-09-09):
Web Applications and Content Developer at VermontTeddy Bear in Shelburne, VTExperienced web developer needed to develop functionality and content for our busyand award-winning ecommerce stores and other websites. The successful candidate willhave: Familiarity with ecommerce platforms such as Yahoo!Store, ePages, Demandware,or Microsoft Commerce Server. HTML, hand-coding skills, CSS, Dreamweaver and PhotoShop. Good sense of graphicdesign and usability. Web programming experience (JavaScript...(truncated)...
Mentoring in I.T. and in the kitchen
(Indexed 2007-09-09):
One of the Womenin Tech essays that has been published so far was about mentoringand inspiring young women who are interested in tech. Nelly Yusupova tells anamazing story about how she was so overwhelmed after day one of a computer class incollege that she almost quit the class. But she decided that somehow she would overcomeher terror and challenged herself to not just take the class but to get an A.And the rest is history. [Image] She also talks aboutthe importance of role models and mentorin...(truncated)...
Finishing up READ Stored Procs brought in by the Entity Framework EDM Wizard
(Indexed 2007-09-08):
When you build an EDM from an existing database in Entity Framework, you can get Views& Stored Procedures in addition to tables. You'll find that if you select Storedprocedures, you will also get your functions.The stored procedures are only defined in the storage layer. The return type is notdetermined therefore there is no Entity created or the mapping that would be betweenthe two.The Entity Framework documentaiton describes how to build Insert, Update and Deletedsprocs but not how to build sp...(truncated)...
Converting a LINQ to Entities query to a DataTable
(Indexed 2007-09-07):
I wrote this in response to a questionon the ADO.NET Orcas forums and thought I would copy it here.Note that Danny Simmons writes more information about Entity Framework and DataTablesin the thread.Here's my solution for now...LINQ to Datasets does allow for conversions from queries to Datatables, but it doesn'tseem to be able to deal with ObjectQueries. I then queried my objectquery to returnan IQueryable and also an IEnumerable, but I couldn't get the datatable conversionto work. Look for Copy...(truncated)...
How do LINQ to Entities queries surface in the database?
(Indexed 2007-09-06):
While JimWooley is looking at performance in LINQ to SQL, I've finally pulled the VS2008installation on my VPC out of the mysteries of SQL Server Express and installed SQLServer Developer Edition so that I can look at my queries as they come into profiler.Note that this is all based on VS2008 Beta2 and Entity Framework Beta2. I'm usingAdventureWorksLT as my test db.QUERY #1A Simple QueryLet's just grab customers with this code:Dim custs = aw.CustomerWhile I might lazily write TSQL that looks lik...(truncated)...
Bob & Chris Roadshow Attendees get free pass to REMIX and a LINQ book
(Indexed 2007-09-06):
The Burlington stop of the Bob& Chris Roadhow is this coming Monday, sept 10th.In addition to a day of great (and free) training on Dynamic LanguagesSilverlightDeveloper Productivity Tips & Tricks for VS2005 & VS2008Understanding Service Oriented software(and a free lunch [Image])Bob & chris will have passes to attend REMIX Boston (Oct 8/9th) for free as wellas a trunk full of the MS Press book "Introducing LINQ".Moreinfo and sign up for Monday's event here.And just a note, VTdotNET'smonthly mee...(truncated)...
LINQ to SQL Performance
(Indexed 2007-09-05):
Developers have been playing with LINQ to SQL long enough now that they are past the"how to" and thinking about performance. JimWooley blogs about LINQ to SQL Perf and using CompiledQuery.Compile to get thebest performance. He also points to a series of postson LINQ to SQL Performance by msdn blogger, Rico Mariani.Of course, the next question for me is how LINQ to SQL will compare to LINQ to Entitiesand some of the other methods of extracting data via Entity Framework. While EntityFramework is s...(truncated)...
Nullables in lambda expressions in LINQ to Entities - today's gotcha
(Indexed 2007-09-04):
It took me a while to figure out what caused this problem, so I thought I'd shareit here.I was trying to write a query in VB to grab customers who have orders placed afterJuly 1, 2007.The query looks like this:Dim q = From cust In nwentities.Customers _ Where (cust.Orders.Any(Function(o) _ o.OrderDate > New DateTime(2007, 7, 1)))But it would not compile. I have Option Strict On and the error was Option Strict On disallows implicit conversions from 'Boolean?' and'Boolean'.What the heck was t...(truncated)...
Sharing Entity Framwork models between projects (or teams) when developing
(Indexed 2007-09-04):
The new Entity Framework tools create an EDMX file which contains all three models:Conceptual, Mapping and Storage, in one file. When your project is built, individualfiles are created for the models, in the [familiar to those who have been using EntityFramework already] CSDL (conceptual), MSL (mapping) and SSDL (storage) files.The connection string used by the Entity Framework contains not only the databaseconnection string, but a metadata parameter with pointers to the three mapping filessepar...(truncated)...
Exploring EntityKeys, Web Services and Serialization a little further
(Indexed 2007-09-03):
I have not been able to stop thinking about EntityKeys, serialization and web servicessince mypost about them yesterday, so I have done a little more experimentation tonight.ObjectContext does have an AttachTo method. In my scenario of the incoming objectfrom a web service client, the EntityKey is not available as part of the SalesOrderHeaderentity because that is currently not being serialized as part of the entity. Notethat this is a bug that the Entity Framework team is aware of and will fix....(truncated)...
EntityKey and ASP.NET ViewState
(Indexed 2007-09-03):
Just to see another aspect the before and after difference of serializable EntityKeysin the Beta2 of EntityFramework, I simply stored a single Customer entity into viewstate,posted back and then looked at the entity in debug to see that yes, the EntityKeyis there.[Image]I went back to my Beta1 VPC and when I try to add a single customer entity objectto viewstate, I get all kinds of serialization errors. No point in analyzing themsince it works now.I'll probably explore some asp.net databinding s...(truncated)...
Entity framework Tools: Package Load Failure when opening up EDMX in designer (FAQs are coming)
(Indexed 2007-09-03):
In the forums, Craig Lee responds to the problemreported in this thread:We are planning on releasing an FAQ of known issues, but here is a preview tosee if this helps you.IssueVisual Studio displays a Package Load Failure error message for Package 'Microsoft.Data.Entity.Design.Package.MicrosoftDataEntityDes...(truncated)... you double-click on a .edmx fileWorkaroundThis issue is caused by earlier installations of the MCrit June CTP.1. If it is installed, uninstall the ADO.NET Entity Framewor...(truncated)...
Knocking off Danny Simmons Entity Framework Beta 2 List: #3 & #4: EntityKey Serialization and new Entity interfaces
(Indexed 2007-09-01):
#1Complex Types #2Span [Include] The next things in the list of what'snew in EF Beta 2 that I have been experimenting with are:Entity key serialization Inprevious CTPs EntityKey objects were not serializable, now they are.Increased persistence ignorance in entity dataclasses We are continuing down the path toward true POCO and persistenceignorance. To that end we have split the original IPOCO interface (IEntity)into two separate, more specific interfaces (IEntityWithKey and IEntityWithChangeTra...(truncated)...
Careful with those lambdas, sonny
(Indexed 2007-08-31):
Well, sonny is me, actually.I spent quite a long time trying to understand why my LINQ average function wasn'tworking.Paring down to a simple example, I wanted to check the average of a filtered subsetof data.Say my data is an array if integers: int[] nums = { 84, 123, 101, 94, 238 };I can get the average of these by calling:var numavg=nums.Average(); --returns 128.0I then wanted to get the average of only those numbers that were greater than 100.But wait, I really started this in VB! So I was ...(truncated)...
VTdotNET's First PubClub Meeting: RiRa's Oct.8th
(Indexed 2007-08-31):
Just for fun, Vermont.NET will have our October 8th meeting at RiRa's indowntown Burlington.No powerpoints, no projector, no screen.Bring your laptop. We'll come up with a topic for discussion in advance.[Image][Image]
Knocking off Danny Simmons Entity Framework Beta 2 List: #2: Span
(Indexed 2007-08-30):
[#1:Complex Types]The next item in Danny'slist that I wanted to look at was this: Bettersupport for span over LINQ to Entities queries Thespan feature makes it possible to pre-fetch related entities. Inprevious CTPs span was specified through a property on ObjectQuery, but inthis CTP span has been changed to work as a builder method, Include, which makes itsimpler to specify span rules in LINQ to Entities queries. Includecan be called on the ObjectQuery used in the from clause of the L...(truncated)...
Knocking off Danny Simmons Entity Framework Beta 2 List: #1: Complex Types
(Indexed 2007-08-29):
I saw complex types in the March CTP of Entity Framework and tried to implement thembut found out the hard way that the functionality wasn't fully implemented. Here'sthe forum thread from that time.So Complex Types were the first thing I wanted to try out on Danny'slist of what's new in Beta 2. Complex types can only be used as properties ofother entities. They have no keys and can only have a one to one relationship withthe main entity.I am using the Adventureworks LT database, which can be fou...(truncated)...
ADO.NET Entity Framework Beta 2 & Tools CTP are Released
(Indexed 2007-08-28):
FINALLY!!!!I'm just downloading them now.Readmore about it and get the links at the ADO.NET Team blog, here.[Image]
First look at the Entity Framework Designer
(Indexed 2007-08-28):
The first thing I wanted to look at after I downloaded the new EntityFramework Beta2 and Tools CTP was the EDM Designer.The designer is displayed as the result of opening up an EDMX file. The EDMX fileis the wrapper for the three Entity Data Model files (CDSL, MSL, SSDL). Therefore,you need to create a new EDM, either from a database or a blank EDM.[Image]For the sake of familiarity, I created one based on the Northwind database and whenasked, I selected all tables, all views and all stored proc...(truncated)...
Specifying named types in LINQ Queries
(Indexed 2007-08-26):
I was looking at a LINQ Query that I wrote when I was first exploring LINQ indepth at the beginning of the year. This example was to see how to create a named anonymous type like this:Dim query= From s In nw.Suppliers _ Order By s.CompanyName _ Select Supp = New With {s.CompanyName, s.Country, s.Products} Looking at it today though I could not see what creating a name (Supp) for the newanonymous type was buying me in this particular case.Its results were no different than Dim query = From ...(truncated)...
Bob & Chris MSDN Roadshow (Burlington Sept 10th) Agenda is now live
(Indexed 2007-08-24):
Chris Bowen has postedthe agenda for the full day of free training aka "Bob & Chris' MSDN Roadshow"that will make Burlington it's first whistlestop on Sept 10th.The day's topics are:Coding in a Dynamic World Practical Silverlight Developer Productivity Tips and Tricks for Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 Software as a Service, Software + Services, Service with a Smile, Can I Get Some Service,Where is the Waiter?Moredetails about the day, the topics and registering are here on Chris' blog.Also, don't ...(truncated)...
Erik Meier kinda compares LINQ to SQL to Entity Framework
(Indexed 2007-08-24):
I just came across thisinterview on the INFO-Q website. I like how they do this. Short questions andanswers. Each q/a has a video clip, where you can watch and listen to the subjectof the interview and simultaneously read the text of the question and answer. Thatmakes it really easy for me to paste these two tidbits.Basiically he says LINQ to SQL is for simple database scenarios and EDM (Entity DataModel) is for very complex schemas and giant databases. Not earthshatteringlydifferent than what a...(truncated)...
So many data access options, so little time!
(Indexed 2007-08-24):
At DevConnections this fall, I'm going to do a post-con,1/2 day workshop to provide some guidance over which Data Access options in .NET3.5 are right for you now that we have MORE choices coming out.Do you use classic ADO.NET? LINQ to SQL? Entity Framework? And if Entity Framework,do you use Entity SQL? LINQ to Entities? Entity Client? More options should be liberating, but at first glance, it's a little daunting, whichis why I am doing this session.While the main conference will have a specialD...(truncated)...
Dedicated Data Access track at DevConnections Las Vegas in November!
(Indexed 2007-08-24):
[Image] I'm very excited about the Data Access track at DevConnections this fall.Generally, people don't know what to do with data access sessions. Dothey go into Visual Studio Connections? ASP Connections? SQL Server Connections? Theybelong everywhere! Whenever I'm submitting ADO.NEt talks for a conference I strugglewith deciding which track to choose, because it belongs in most of them.So we built a single track with nothing but Data Access talks and it'sa rock start line-up!You'll find the ta...(truncated)...
Add great searching to your ASP.NET website for a nominal cost and support the American Diabetes Assn
(Indexed 2007-08-23):
ScottCate found a great way to support Scott Hanselman in his goal to raise $50,000 forthe American Diabetes Association.Scott'scompany is offerering there site search component EasySearchASP.NET for what lookslike maybe only the cost of tax - with all of the real proceeds going directly toScott Hanselman's fundraising effort.Soyou get a great tool for a crazy cheap price and the entire amount goes to the AmericanDiabetes Association.You'dbe silly not to do it![Image]
Implicitly Typed Local Variables in VB9
(Indexed 2007-08-22):
At first glance, the new ImpliciltyTyped Local Variables in C#3.0 and VB9might look familiar to VB programmers.Earlier (that would be "current" as well) versions of VB can do a lot of implicitstuff. This has been a point of aggravation to many non-VB programmers, but I guessthey have a new perspective. Next thing you know they'll be using declarative languages!Eek!In VB2005, we can create an integer implicitly and do integer-like things with it. Dim ii= 5 Console.WriteLine(ii + 2)>Or we can d...(truncated)...
Great time with Richard Hale Shaw, LINQ & C#3 at VTdotNET
(Indexed 2007-08-15):
Thanks again to RichardHale Shaw for driving up to Burlington on Monday (even a flat tire didn't stophim) to give VTdotNETtersa very in-depth perspective on LINQ. Rather than just open up VS2008 and start poundingout LINQ queries, Richard spent most of the time building up our understanding ofthe underlying technology that makes LINQ possible. Custom Iterators, anonymous methodsand generics. Then when he showed us LINQ, it made perfect sense.I know that when I talk about "that which is returned ...(truncated)...
Summertime in Vermont
(Indexed 2007-08-13):
Rich and I work way too much and sometimes forget why we moved to Vermont. Butwe had a perfect Vermont summer weekend this weekend.On Saturday, the lake was calm and we kayaked a 4 mile stretch from a put-innear Button Bay State Park across to Westport NY where they were having a heritageday festival. The wind picked up after lunch and we had a fun paddle against the windon the return trip.(Yes, that is fun. I'm not being facetious.)Yesterday we went on a beautiful bike ride in Addison County - ...(truncated)...
VS2008 SDK August CTP
(Indexed 2007-08-12):
I caught this in the Microsoft Download notifications:VisualStudio 2008 SDK - August 2007 CTP ThisCTP includes tools, documentation, and samples for developers to write, build, test,and deploy extensions for Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2.[Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: VB.NET Developer at Vermont Teddy Bear in Burlington
(Indexed 2007-08-08):
VermontTeddy Bear is looking for a mid-level VB.NET programmer, who is comfortable withOO design principles, using the 2.0 framework and has some experience writing bothWindows and Web applications.Pluses would include writing SQL Stored Procedures, table design/normalization andusing XML. Please forward your resume to Jobs@VTBear.com[Image]
Jasper article on O'Reilly's WindowsDevCenter
(Indexed 2007-08-03):
I've written an articleon the Jasper project that was just published on O'Reilly'sWindowsDevCenter website.Jasper is a new incubation project within the ADO.NET team at Microsoft, that leveragesEntity Framework to allow developers to build websites dynamically. If you are just curious to learn more about what the heck Jasper is, why you should careabout it or want to get your feet wet with the CTP, hopefully this will give you agood start.[Image][Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: .NET Programmer
(Indexed 2007-08-02):
VermontEnergy Investment Corp is looking for an Applications Programmer.The Applications Programmer creates, modifies and maintains database driven applicationsfor VEIC as a member of a software development team. Requirements: Two years experience or demonstrated proficiency writingthe Microsoft.NET applications that use relational databases and undergraduate degreein computer science, computer information systems, or database design and developmentor a similar combination of education and expe...(truncated)...
Entity Framework Visual Modeler in the next CTP/Beta release?
(Indexed 2007-07-30):
In the same MSDNforum thread that I referred to in my post "Beta2- Where's Entity Framework?", DannySimmons says (with my emphasis)Believe me, if there were some way to release it sooner with the level of qualitythat is needed and including the first CTP of the designer which we have promisedwill be part of this release, then we most certainly would.I must have missed the promise in past posts/discussions and had no idea thatwe were going to get our hands back on the Visual Modeler this soon. Wh...(truncated)...
Mike Pizzo on LINQ to SQL vs. Entity Framework
(Indexed 2007-07-30):
Some of the best Entity Framework info is currently living in the MSDN forums.Mike Pizzo is the Principal Architect on the DP(Data Programmability) team.Today, Mike wrote a lengthy response to yet another query on "what is the differencebetween linq to sql and Entity Framework". At DevConnections in March, I asked 5 differentpeople from Microsoft this question and got 5 different answers. [Image] Afew weeks later, I wrote my own answer in thisblog post. The DP team has become much clearer about ...(truncated)...
A few MSDN Forums tips (which I learned the hard way - as usual)
(Indexed 2007-07-29):
Isolved a new showstopper login problem and finally figured outhow to get alerts delivered by email! Read more...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
What's new in LINQ to SQL for VS2008 Beta2
(Indexed 2007-07-29):
Dinesh Kulkarni, a PM on the LINQ team, has a nice list of what to look for in LINQto SQL in the new beta. Readmore... [A New DevLife Post][Image]
Beta2 - Where's Entity Framework?
(Indexed 2007-07-27):
Since this spring, the Data Programmability team has been clear that Entity Frameworkis going to be developed along side of VS2008, but won't be part of the VS2008 installand that Entity Framework will be released after Visual Studio 2008 releases (duringthe 1st half of 2008 is the narrowest timeframe we've been told so far).In thisApril 28th post, Mike Pizzo states: We will continue to ship CTPs and Betas of the ADO.NET Entity Framework that alignwith Orcas throughout the remainder of this year...(truncated)...
Relationship between SQL Server and ADO.NET teams at Microsoft
(Indexed 2007-07-26):
I've always been a little confused about where Data Access fits into the bigger pictureof organizational structure. Even when I speak at conferences, nobody knows whereto put data access talks. Smart Client? Web Development? Architecture? Database? Itcovers all of these areas. At DevConnections, the Microsoft talks about the EntityFramework were in the SQL Server track. So basically developers weren't awareof the talks because the SQL Server schedule was on a different chart than the schedulefor...(truncated)...
Bored with VS2008 already? Try VSTS.Next.NEXT (Rosario)
(Indexed 2007-07-26):
That's right. The first CTP of the next version of Visual Studio Team System willbe released right on the heels of VS2008 Beta2. Readmore...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Astoria becomes a real product
(Indexed 2007-07-26):
Astoria, the data service project (think web services that expose data) basedon Entity Framework, which was introduced at MIX07, has moved from the incubator tobeing a full fledged product with a team and a blog. READMORE.[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Change for Aug. 13th Vermont.NET meeting: new speaker and telerik sponsorship!
(Indexed 2007-07-25):
Unfortunately, we'll have to reschedule Rob Daigneau's Aug. 13th presentation on WCF.We're both bummed, but we'll get him back in the fall, for sure!However, we lucked out because we were able to get RichardHale Shaw to "fill in". Richard is one of the top instructors in the country andlives in Boston, so he is going to come up to present to Vermont.NET for our Augustmeeting.As if that wasn't enough, telerik hasgenerously offered to sponsor this meeting. They will be covering Richard's T&Eas wel...(truncated)...
Fun time at GLUG, GANG and TechSmith in Michigan
(Indexed 2007-07-24):
Funny that my last post was a week ago as I was on my way to Michigan. Perhaps thefact that I have been silent for a whole week is testimony to the fact that I washaving too much fun to sit down and blog about it!Both user groups got "the same" presentation: Overview of ADO.NET Entity Framework,but as JeffMcWherter, (who attended both talks and did a lot of driving to do so!) notes,it was very different from one night to the next.The first night was at the Microsoft office in Southfield, outside...(truncated)...
Two Michigan .NET User Groups this week
(Indexed 2007-07-17):
I'll be in the Detroit area this week giving presentations on the ADO.NET ENtity Frameworkat GANG inSouthfield (Wednesday night) and GLUG inLansing (Thursday night). THe Lansing talk is sponsored by INETA.Read more here...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
ClickOnce on Vista installation problem SOLVED!
(Indexed 2007-07-13):
A few months ago, ClickOnce broke on my Vista machine where I was doing development.I had the same problem on my Vista laptop which I use for travelling and presentations.The short story about the problem is that whenever I tried to install a clickonceapp, Vista went into this never-ending loop of insisting that I install .NET Frameworkand WinFx Runtime Components. The detaileddescription of the problem is blogged here.A few people posted comments saying they had the same problem. Yesterday anot...(truncated)...
INETA North America's new board and Geeking out with your local .NET group
(Indexed 2007-07-12):
INETA Noram's new board began this month. Thinking about INETA and about what a tinypercentage of .NET developers take advantage of their local user groups, I wrote alittle elevator pitch over on my other blog...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Entity Framework, Some Before & After tidbits
(Indexed 2007-07-08):
I wanted to see some of the new Beta2 (in the June CTP bits) functionality of EntityFramework so I've been poking around. You can see a nicelist of what to look for on Danny Simmons' blog.One thing that was a hugesource of frustration was the inability to support database constraints wherea column was both a primary key and also a foreign key of another table. When usingthe EF Wizard to import database schemas, this would be part of a list of errors thatwere generated during the model creation a...(truncated)...
Intro to ADO.NET Entity Framework at VTdotNET on Monday
(Indexed 2007-07-06):
Finally, I get to share Entity Framework with my own user group (in Burlington, VT)!Yay.When: Monday, July 9th, 6-8:30pmWhere: Champlain College, Hauke Building Room 005 (375 Maple Street, Burlington, VT)More info at www.vtdotnet.orgOf course, I'm spending all of my time futzing with the newbits that just got released earlier this week.Not only do I have a cool technology to show off but we've got awesome raffles from Infragistics (alicense to NetAdvantage) and from CodeZone (a fingerprint reade...(truncated)...
Great detailed list of updates to Entity Framework
(Indexed 2007-07-04):
DannySimmons has a great list of changes to Entity Framework that have finally arrivedin the latest CTP. These improvements are not insignificant and thelist is filled with functionality that many of us have been really looking forwardto. I' feel a little harnessed having to use VWD Express right now and haven'ttouched all of these things. But I was happy to see Views & Sprocs listed in thewizard and NOT to have the damn code gen message telling me that associations can'tbe created for a key tha...(truncated)...
Entity Framework June CTP Modified Install instrux for Vista
(Indexed 2007-07-04):
Note that the installation instructions for the June CTP of VWD (which the June CTPof Entity Framework installs on top of) have changed. Seethe ADO.NET Team blog for the updated version of the post.[Image]
Using SPAN to query entities in Entity Framework
(Indexed 2007-07-04):
By default, when querying entities, you need to explicitly use the Load method toget related data. This is often called "lazy loading" and ensure you only get whatyou ask for rather than having a query return ALL related data automatically. Thenew SPAN method forces an entity to include specifid children during a query so thatyou don't have to load after the fact. READMORE[A New DevLife Post] [Image]
June CTP of Entity Framework available
(Indexed 2007-07-03):
The ADONET Team today announcedthat the June CTP of Entity Framework is available. It is currently only availablepackaged with the June CTP of Visual Web Developer Express. Being a CTP release, theyhave just done enough to get something in our hands so we can see what they are workingon.A lot of what is in here is whatI saw Brian Dawson using at DevConnections in March.The ADONET team blog post lists the changes to look for and makes some important notesabout the installation.I'm off to download...(truncated)...
Are there that many people downloading from MSDN today?
(Indexed 2007-07-03):
This is my current internet speed:[Image]yet while trying to install the June CTP of VWD Express on a Virtual PC (that hasWIndows XP on it and needs .NET 3.5 as part of the install) my 3.38Mbps dowload speedis a bit slower - avg 3KB to 7KB (if I have all of my 0's in place, I think this is500 to 1000 times slower). At 3.38Mbps, the 426MB file should take about 20 minutes.This is more like 20 days. Uggh.[Image][Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: [not necessarily .NET] developer in Burlington
(Indexed 2007-07-03):
PragmaticTechnologies in Burlington is looking to fill another developer position."While we don't limit our search to .NET developers the ideal candidate will haveexperience with .NET, particularly ASP.NET."Here is our posting: http://www.jobsinvt.com/seek/resultdetail.aspx?JOBNUM=211553[Image]
My hopes for MSN SoapBox as a source for silverlight videos are dashed
(Indexed 2007-07-01):
Lasttime I wanted to play with using videos as a source for Silverlight media, I foundthat Silverlight's "WMV only, thank you" limitation put the kibosh on my plans. YouTubeand Yahoo are Flash and at the time Soapbox was password protected. Soapbox's latestbeta removed the permissions requirement on June 1 so I finally found some time todayto go digging around to see if I could now use those videos as a source for dynamicembedding in silverlight. I was a little bummed to see that the the videos ...(truncated)...
MVP Year 5
(Indexed 2007-07-01):
My first MVP award was on July 1, 2003. I received an email this morning that Ihave been awarded an MVP(Developer Visual Basic) again. This is my 5th. I am always a littlesurprised since I never really know year to year what the criteria is. I just do whatI do and if that makes Microsoft happy, I find out on July 1st. I was smart this year to spend every last dollar of the past year's Microsoft bucksbefore the end of June. When I was down to $5, I found these cute little "beanie baby"type MSN bu...(truncated)...
15 part Web Cast series on WCF
(Indexed 2007-07-01):
MicheleLeroux Bustamante will be doing a 15 (fifteen!!) part web cast series on Windows CommunicationFoundation starting this month. Michele is a web services guru who has written LearningWCF and knows this stuff inside and out![Image]
Access 2007 installation package and FREE Runtime available
(Indexed 2007-06-30):
I saw this in my Microsoft downloads email yesterday:Access2007 Download: Access Developer Extensions Access2007 Developer Extensions make it easy to deploy and manage solutions built usingAccess.Packing and sharing Access solutions has always been a pain in the rear. My recollection(it's been a while) was that there was no freely available runtime. So every end userhad to have a full license to Access, even if they weren't doing any development.So now the runtime will be free. It's not quite av...(truncated)...
My 2cents on the iPhone
(Indexed 2007-06-30):
As PhilipElmer-Dewitt says on Business 2.0's website: "it may be the most impressivedemonstration to date of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' legendary mastery of the art of mediamanipulation."The hype has definitely works on me and this has a historical basis. I was stuckin an airport lounge late one night just when the Nano was released. I must haveseen the same Nano ad 30 times that night and a few days later, I bought one (my veryfirst iPod ever). But for the iPhone I have a few things to protectme ma...(truncated)...
Hotfix for ASP.NET 2.0 Debugging problems with Vista/IIS7
(Indexed 2007-06-29):
I've been using Mike Volodarsky's patch for a while for sites that I am developingin IIS7 (no problems with file based development server) to get past debugger auto-attachproblems. Now an official hotfix has been released.Readmore here[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Database vendors preparing for LINQ and Entity Framework
(Indexed 2007-06-25):
While at TechEd, David Sceppa wrote about the status of various database vendors asthey create proviers for LINQ and Entity Framework. readmore[A new DevLife post][Image]
My favorite Strawberry Tart recipe that I always lose
(Indexed 2007-06-22):
Every summer, when strawberry season comes around, I have to look through my collectionof old Food & Wine magazines for my favorite recipe. Its a Strawberry Tart andI know enough things about it that I should be able to find the recipe on www.foodandwine.com orjust by googling. One of the interesting things is that the article was about KatrinTheodoli, then owner of the super luxury yachts MagnumMarine, and recipes she whips up in the little galley of the yacht when she'scruising the seas with k...(truncated)...
VS2005 Windows Forms DataSource/TableAdapter Wizard wierdness
(Indexed 2007-06-21):
I recently whipped together a small tool for a client and because it was so small(and for only one person to use), I used some simple drag n' drop wizardry for theform. I created a datasource pointing to a table in the SQL Server 2005 database onmy develpment machine then dragged that datasource onto a form to create a navigationtoolbar and a screenfull of text boxes and checkboxes.When I finished it up and pointed it to the live SQL Server 2000 database I was havingsome strange issues with inse...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Full Time Analyst/.NET Programmer Jobs in Montpelier
(Indexed 2007-06-19):
UnionMutual of Vermont Companies Analyst/ProgrammerPositions AvailableWouldyou like to work for an established local company with a down to earth, employee orientedwork environment?Areyou a creative, analytical individual with solid programming and communications skills? UnionMutual may have a place for youWe areon the search for two enthusiastic developers with that rare mix of programming andpeople skills to join our .NET/web development team. As a part of the team, your responsibilitieswould ...(truncated)...
SQL Server Service Broker at VTSQL meeting tomorrow night
(Indexed 2007-06-19):
VTSQL is having their June meeting tomorrow, June 20th.Our pal, Jean-Rene Roy is coming down from Montreal to do a presentation on SQL ServerService Broker. This is one of those topics I found myself having to learn so thatI could understand how Query Notification works in ADO.NET 2.0. But there's a whole lotmore to leverage from it besides what I'm getting from ADO.NET.Moremeeting info here.[Image]
Login control website spam - fix it with regex
(Indexed 2007-06-12):
Recently, the VTdotNET websitehas been getting hit by some robot entering hyperlinks into the password text boxof the login form.ASP.NET catches this on the server side and pushes out this error:System.Web.HttpRequestValidationException: A potentially dangerous Request.Form valuewas detected from the client (ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$LoginView1$Login1$Password="
Login control website spam - fix some of it with regex
(Indexed 2007-06-12):
Recently, the VTdotNET websitehas been getting hit by some robot entering hyperlinks into the password text boxof the login form.ASP.NET catches this on the server side and pushes out this error:System.Web.HttpRequestValidationException: A potentially dangerous Request.Form valuewas detected from the client (ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$LoginView1$Login1$Password="
Speaking at two Michigan .NET User Groups in July
(Indexed 2007-06-07):
Okay, I lied. I thought I was stayinghome all summer, but it turns out that the GreaterLansing User Group had a request in to INETA and it just so happens thattheir July meeting date falls the same week as the famous AnnArbor Art Fair that I have always wanted to go to. So, I will be doing an INETAevent on Thursday, July 19th in Lansing and as long as I'm going there, I will speakon the previous night at the GANG (Detroit)User Group.Thanks especially to BillWagner and DarrellHawley for their hel...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: ASP.NET Developer in Colchester
(Indexed 2007-06-07):
.NET JobDescription: Workin a team environment in the development of web portal and ASP.NET applications for major client projects. Strong foundation in the concepts of web based application developmentExperience with ASP.NET (C# or VB.NET) using the Visual Studio development environment; SQL server 2000/2005; (X)HTML and XMLStrong understanding of the SDLC Client side development in JavaScript; and a comfort with Object Oriented development methodsCreative, self starterPassion/abili...(truncated)...
Embedding Silverlight Annotation in my dasblog post
(Indexed 2007-06-04):
This was easier than I expected! Go ahead, draw in my blog post! [Image] createSilverlightDrawWithColors();This is the Silverlight setup that I used for my tests on thisparticular page.I put the javascript and xaml files in the relative folders in my dasblog application:thedatafarm.com/blog/xamlthedatafarm.com/blog/jsThen I added the javascript references that are in the header tags of my html pageinto the header tags of the homeTemplate.blogtemplate file in my blog/themes/myfavethemefolder.And ...(truncated)...
My Silverlight Ink Experiments: Next Step... try to look like a silverlight application
(Indexed 2007-06-04):
Inspired by the Scribblerapp (part of the Silverlight 1.1 Gallery), written by Daniel Cook &Pete Blois (with some inspiration from LaurenceMoroney) I decided to spiffup my own drawing application.[Image]Why is it that a black background seems to be the way to makeapps look cool? I even finally opened up MicrosoftExpression Blend to help me since I was getting sick of working in raw XAML andhaving to test each visual change by debugging the app. Last time I looked at thisproduct, it frightened ...(truncated)...
Dan Wahlin's Silverlight/ASP.NET AJAX Album Viewer
(Indexed 2007-06-02):
Dan Wahlin and Matt Gibbs have a book just coming out about ASP.NET AJAX (Prof. Asp.NET2.0 AJAX) from WROX. So Dan has now spent a LOT of time with AJAX and is very knowledgable.Then Silverlight comes out and boom - he's got a SilverlightASP.NET AJAX app that is VERY cool. I'm supposed to be writing an article on EntityFramework right now, but boy do I want to continue playingwith Silverlight. [Image]
Lenovo X60 Thinkpad Battery problems - will there be a new battery recall?
(Indexed 2007-06-02):
The battery on my 3 month old Lenovo X60 is dead and I am getting the dreadednotice in the power manager "Irreparable damage to the battery has been detected.Replace the battery with the new one."In addition to the message in the Power manager, I have the following symptoms:Battery Indicator light is blinking orangePower status says "Plugged in, not charging"Computer shuts down immediately when unplugged (since the battery is dead).This is not atypical of old batteries that need replacement, but...(truncated)...
TechEd Focus Group on LINQ to Entities direction: SIGN UP DEADLINE IS TODAY!
(Indexed 2007-05-30):
The ADO.NET team is conducting a focus group about Linq to Entities during TEchEd.Unfortunately, they posted this today and the deadline to sign up is today.Here'sthe info to sign up.I won't be at TEchEd this year and neither will Roger Jennings, but Rogerhas already created a great list of points he would bring up if he was there.I basically second all of his suggestions. Many of them point to clarity on Microsoft'smessaging around Entity Framework (though I personally feel comfortable with thi...(truncated)...
PDC indefinitely "postponed"... looks like I'm home for more than just the summer
(Indexed 2007-05-25):
While I have been revelling in the thought of not travelling all summer, today I learnedtwo things that translate to my not having any travel plans until November.I had hoped to speak at the SDNconference in the Netherlands in September but none of my session topics wereselected. After that I had planned to attend PDC in October, but that'snot looking so good anymore.Well, I'm definitely going to be in Las Vegas for DevConnections inthe fall. We have a whole track just for Data Access talks in N...(truncated)...
XML Editor and XSLT Debugging in Orcas
(Indexed 2007-05-25):
XML is a pain to work with but because of it's importance, Microsoft is adding toolinginto Orcas to make it easier. So, I was poking around in Orcas looking at what's newin tools for XML and XSLT. I even learned some stuff that was in VS2005 thatI never paid attention to. Readmore here...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Dragon Boat Festival on Lake Champlain in August
(Indexed 2007-05-23):
One of the things I am looking forward to during my summer at home in Vermont is participatingin the DragonBoat Festival/Race/Fundraiser. The even raises money for DragonHeart Vermont (forbreast cancer survivors) as well as for the VNAs Hopsice and the Vermont Respite Housewhich provides care for terminally ill patients.In addition to being able to help these organzations, it is a fun day. I have beenpaddling something or another all my life, from war canoes, kayaks and canoes at theage of 7 at ...(truncated)...
Integrate YouTube videos in Silverlight? Fuggedaboudit
(Indexed 2007-05-21):
While I had taken some baby steps with using the mediaElement in Silverlight(eg playing one of the wmv videos included in the sample videos in Vista) I had notinvestigated much further even though I was having fantasies of a sample Ink in Silverlightdemo that would involve annotating your favorite YouTube videos. I have started playing with drawingin Silverlight in this sample app. The cool thing is that while it works beston a TabletPC, it is not a requirement. You can even use it on a Mac.Howe...(truncated)...
DevTeach ADO.NET 3.5/Entity Framework PPT and Demos
(Indexed 2007-05-21):
My Entity Framework presentation at DevTeach was in the last slot of the conference.It was scheduled in the theater which looks like something out of a Toulouse-Lautrec painting.Some of the speakers were referring to it as the muppet theater.About 5 minutes into my presentation, we were informed that there was a snafu withthe hotel and they had scheduled a dress-up cocktail party in the theater. So we hadto pick up and move to the ballroom on the other end of the conference center. Noworries. Ex...(truncated)...
DevTeach Hacking ClickOnce PPT and Demos
(Indexed 2007-05-19):
Yesterday, I presented a session at DevTeach calledHacking ClickOnce. I have lived the web based deployment pain for many years and finallyfound success with ClickOnce after I worked out some unsupported scenarios with ClickOnce.I wrote about this in an article in CoDe Magazine's Nov/Dec 2006 issue called RealWorld ClickOnce. I then decided to turn my lessons into a talk for DevTeach. At the end of March, I got a new laptop that has Vista on it and have been using itfor presenting ever since. Un...(truncated)...
Strange ClickOnce problems on Vista
(Indexed 2007-05-18):
I have run into a bizarre problem with ClickOnce that is occuring with IE7 on bothof my Vista computers.Both computers have Visual Studio 2005 SP1 and the special vista version of VS2005SP1. And on both of these, I can't use clickonce to install apps from InternetExplorer. The ClickOnce mechanism wants me to install .NET.Firefox doesn't have this problem. (Checkout this earlier post.)Here is a SIMPLE little nothing Hello World app. The only thing in it is this formwhich has ZERO .NET 3.0 stuff ...(truncated)...
DevTeach: Asynchronous ASP.NET 2.0 PPT and Demos
(Indexed 2007-05-18):
On Wednesday, I presented a session on Asynchronous Programming for ASP.NET 2.0 Developers.The purpose of this talk is to introduce programmers to the new async features forASP.NET 2.0 (Async Pages, Asyn Tasks, Event Based Async Web Services, Async DataBindingand when there is time a little pet feature of mine: PostCache Substituion). Theseare some simple functions that programmers can use to go after the "low hanging fruit"Since I have modified the powerpoint for this talk, I put a newer versio...(truncated)...
INETA User Group Leader Summit at TechEd
(Indexed 2007-05-18):
Once again, INETA is coordinating and leading a fullday meeting of .NET User Group Leaders at TechEd. While budget no longer allowsINETA to fund bringing many leaders from across the US and Canada to the event (asthey have done in the past), TechEd is an event attended by many u.g. leaders, soit remains the best opportunity for congregating.Over the years. my best source of information and inspiration for leading Vermont.NEThas come from talking to other user group leaders and learning from thei...(truncated)...
Vermont.NET Double Header Tonight! May 14th.
(Indexed 2007-05-14):
Tonight we have two presentations at Vermont.NET.LauraBlood from BlueNote Computing will present on Windows Services.Mike Soulia, a guy of many hats: Vermont Tech teacher, owner of two great stores inBurlington (Apple Mountain and Kiss the Cook) and a consultant, will digfurther into WPF and Expression.Free pizza and soda sponsored by MyWebGrocer (whois actively looking for .NET developers).It should be a fun meeting.It will be the first meeting ever (5+ years) that I will miss since I am drivin...(truncated)...
ADO.NET Orcas? ADO.NET Katmai? ADO.NET 3.5?
(Indexed 2007-05-14):
I guess we can't call it ADO.NET Orcas any more.... I guess the right name will justbe ADO.NET 3.5.[Image]
DevTeach bound
(Indexed 2007-05-14):
The DevTeach pre-conworkshops are today. I am heading up tonight as the main conference is Tuesday throughThursday. Montreal in the spring - aaaah!There's so much going on at DevTeach.Tomorrow morning, Pablo Castro will be doing his keynote, which I'm looking forwardto. He will follow up wiht a focus group on Entity Framework in the afternoon.There is going to be a lively panel on OpenSource on Wednesday night as well as twoBirds of a Feather sessions.. one on pair programming with Oksana Udovit...(truncated)...
Staying afloat with ADO.NET futures thanks to Roger Jennings and LINQ thanks to Mike Taulty
(Indexed 2007-05-14):
In my short span betwee MIX and DevTeach (leaving tonight), I've been heads down playingwith Silverlight's Inking capabilities and preparing for my DevTeach sessions andavoiding dealing with the delay of EF.In the meantime, Roger Jennings continues to organize all of the info about ADO.NETEntity Framework into comprehensive postssuch as this one. MikeTaulty's library of LINQ to SQL videos has grown by orders of magnitude. Now he'sposting LINQ to XML. When I see how many 15-20 minute videos it is...(truncated)...
Wildcard Mapping in IIS7 - Watch out for mappings order
(Indexed 2007-05-12):
I have spent most of the day going around in circles trying to replicate an app thatI have in IIS6 on my Vista machine in IIS7.The website has some non-asp.net files and they need to be protected. If someone triesto browse directly to them, the wildcard mapping ensures that the user is redirectedto a login page as with any other asp.net file.You can see how to achieve this in II6 in the Tips& Tricks section of quickstarts.asp.net.However, in IIS7, I could not get it working. Two symptoms were t...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Part time .NET Compact Framework dev in Burlington
(Indexed 2007-05-11):
We are a small design & developmentstudio in Burlington, Vermont seeking a part time contract .NET mobile applicationdeveloper (~20 hours/month on average). You would be responsible for helping to developand maintain a mobile application using the .NET Compact Framework 2.0. Specific skillwe are looking for include:C#.NET Compact Framework 2.0Mobile Client Software FactoryObject-oriented analysis and design(OAD) Test-Driven Development (TDD)SQL Server 2005 MobileSubversion/TracIf you are a .NET ...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Entry Level and Experienced .NET Devs in Colchester
(Indexed 2007-05-11):
MyWebGrocer seeksbright, motivated, energetic and inquisitive software developers. Projects vary fromE-Commerce and Social Networks to Website development. We are a small dedicated teamthat is looking for both entry level and experienced developers which share our enthusiasmand dedication to developing market leading solutions. Areas in which we work involveASP.NET, C#, SQL and scripting. Exposure to Web Services, SQL DTS, Flash and/or C++considered a plus. Salary commensurate with experience. ...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Inntopia in Stowe Vermont looking for .NET Dev, Server Admin, Customer Support
(Indexed 2007-05-09):
Inntopia isthe leading provider of central reservation software solutions for the mountain travelmarket. Our rapidly growing client list includes the leading central reservation servicesin Telluride, Breckenridge, CopperMountain, Winter Park, Crested Butte, Stowe, Lake Tahoeand many more. Inntopia team members share apassion for their work, a love of outdoor adventures and a sense of humor. We are experiencing explosive growth, and are looking to grow the team. Inntopia offers a great benefits...(truncated)...
Do you ubuntu? We do in Vermont!
(Indexed 2007-05-08):
EstherSchindler sent me thislink since she saw it came from a library in a small town in Vermont.I never even heard of this linux based o/s (only because I really don't pay much attention...there's already too much for me to learn.). But the video says it all. Happyhappy librarian.[Image]
Dynamic VB
(Indexed 2007-05-08):
IronPython, IronRuby, VBx.. what? "I-can't-get-no-respect"-VB is one of the cool newlanguages? Readmore[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Bob & Chris MSDN Roadshow in Burlington Tuesday May 8th
(Indexed 2007-05-07):
It must have been the Bove's Pasta Sauce that keeps them coming back. Microsoft NewEngland's Bob Familiar and ChrisBowen are back this week for another full day of fabulous and FREE .NET training.REGISTERHERE!Sheraton: 8:30am to 4:30 pmAGENDA: AJAX, Extensible Scrubbing Bubbles and that Cross BrowserCleansing Motion8:30amArrive,check in, grab a nosh and a seat9:00 10:15XML and the DatabaseSQLServer 2005 offers architects and developers a slew of great features for creatingdata driven solutions....(truncated)...
Temporary Silverlight HACK for FireFox
(Indexed 2007-05-07):
The Silverlight Beta 1.0 (golive) has a problem wtih Firefox and apparently it's aFF bug that creates the problem. It completely prevents the embedded Silverlight appfrom being displayed on a web page.EricSowell has a post explaining the problem and points to thisMSDN forum thread which suggests a workaround which is a temporary hack.[Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: .NET Web Developer in Montpelier
(Indexed 2007-05-04):
[originallyposted March 16th. Reposted May 4th]www.kdpyield.comWeb Developer- Montpelier, VT Seeking anexperienced Web developer. Most be proactive and detail-oriented, with strong QA andtroubleshooting skills. This is afull-time, permanent, on-site position, to be filled ASAP. Only serious candidatesshould apply. No contractors or recruiters, please. Primarilyresponsibilities include: - Coding newfeatures for existing Web sites - Troubleshootingexisting Web sites for data and functionality issu...(truncated)...
Jasper and Astoria preview at MIX
(Indexed 2007-05-03):
These two incubator projects build on top of the Entity Framework. It's a very earlylook at what the data access team is working on. READMORE HERE[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Ink Support in Silverlight
(Indexed 2007-05-01):
Silverlight doesINK! Yay. I've been asking about it for a while thinking it was the next natural step.I actually have played with it a bit and have a little app that I wrote that I needto deploy with the GoLive license. This is with the 1.0 version of Silverlight soit is all javascript against the InkPresenter XAML object. This also means that itis very different than coding against the Tablet PC API. However with the .NET runtimesupport for Silverlight that will change.The InkPresenter has a St...(truncated)...
Pablo's got a brand new blog
(Indexed 2007-05-01):
In PabloCastro's session today, I noticed a link on the resource page to his own blog.I have never known that Pablo (tech lead on the ADO.NET team) had a blog andcouldn't believe that I could have missed such a thing. Luckily there is wirelessavailable at the conference so I immediately browsed to the blog and lo and behold,he had made his first post just today! It is on the Astoria Web Data Services.http://blogs.msdn.com/pablo/[Image]
In the hallways at MIX
(Indexed 2007-05-01):
I was happy today to bump into a few people I haven't seen in a while. Don Box isat MIX to give a talk tomorrow with Steve Maine on "Navigating the Programmable Web".RSS. ATOM. JSON. POX. REST. WS-*. What are all these terms, and how do theyimpact the daily life of a developer trying to navigate todays programmable Web?Join us as we explore how to consume and create Web services using a variety of differentformats and protocols. Using popular services (Flickr, GData, and Amazon S3) as casestudie...(truncated)...
ADO.NET team shows off two new incubator projects at MIX
(Indexed 2007-04-30):
I was wondering what "data services in the cloud" ... Pablo Castro's Mix Session,was going to be about.Project Astoria exposes data that is exposed through the Entity Framework. So youbuild your EDM and then the service sits on top of htat.It is two way... you can use HTTP PUT, POST and DELETE. Here is a post on the ADO.NET team blog about the project Astoria, that is the webdata services.I'm in Pablo's talk right now, but you can checkout the project here and the blogpost here.The second one i...(truncated)...
Ruby for .NET = IronRuby
(Indexed 2007-04-30):
Next announcement from Scott Guthrie in the MIX keynote is that Microsoft has createda Ruby implementation for .NET called IronRuby.I'm looking at another SilverLight demo wiht xaml file that has a IronRuby code fileas it's app source. [Image]
An important post from Microsoft about Entity Framework
(Indexed 2007-04-29):
Mike Pizzo writes a post about Microsoft's data access strategy that covers a fewimportant things:1) Announces that EF will not make it into the Orcas release but will ship "A fewmonths after the shipment of Orcas, and within the first half of 2008". This planwill allow them to give us more than what they would be able to give us in the initialOrcas release.2) Addresses the LINQ to SQL vs. Entity Framework question, which has been asked quitea lot.READMORE HERE[A New DevLife Post] [Image]
Mike Taulty's LINQ to SQL Screencast series
(Indexed 2007-04-27):
Mike Taulty has been doing short screen casts about LINQ to SQL. I love his approachas I know from experience how decent it is to try to give a decent presentationof LINQ to SQL in a single 90 minute presentation when you have to start from scratch. There are 9 so far and more coming. Hereis a link to the latest (that includes links to the first 8 as well). Staytuned for more.[Image]
EDM Wizard patch for Orcas Beta1 is available
(Indexed 2007-04-27):
From the ADO.NETTeam blog:Latelast week, after bits had been finalized, we found a bug in the ADO.NET Entity DataModel Wizard that shipped with Visual Studio Orcas beta 1. The problem has now beencorrected. Pleasedownload and install the patch available at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f69...(truncated)... tofix the problem. [Image]
Telerik's new Reporting Tool
(Indexed 2007-04-24):
In their Q1 release, telerik is including the first release of telerikReporting. With my well-documented, love/hate relationship with Crystal Reports,I was definitely eager to see telerik's implementation. Telerik is all about simplicity(of use) and design. So this first pass at Reporting has some really great mechanismsfor formatting reports in a CSS-like manner, which I really like. Another big winfor me over Crystal is that while Crystal has evolved into a .NET tool, telerik'swas designed in ...(truncated)...
Orcas Beta1 EDM Wizard fix coming in few days
(Indexed 2007-04-23):
Although I haven't gotten myBeta1 bits quite yet , I'm keeping an eye on the ADO.NET Orcas forums and sawthat apparently something broke in the Wizard that creates an the schema files froma db. Lance Olson from the ADO.NET team posted that theyare aware of the boo-boo and there will be a fix/workaround posted in the next dayor two.[Image]
Another Ink on the Web article
(Indexed 2007-04-23):
Once I got writing, I guess I couldn't stop.First there was the just published INKED!in aspnetPRO earlier this month.Now I have the latest CoDeFocus Mobile PC Development (special focus issue published by CoDe Magazine) wherealong with a lot of cool articles on WPF and Ink (thanks Billy,it was my first foray into WPF-finally), Ink Analysis and more, is my article on Inkingin ASP.NET 2.0, AJAX and IE7.There's one more coming for MSDN Online on the MobileDev Center. It's just in final edits right ...(truncated)...
Three things Developers might not know about ASP.NET (and should)
(Indexed 2007-04-23):
I watched a short interview with Scott Guthrie and learned some interesting thingsabout ASP.NET (such as it is the technology behind MySpace's 4 BILLION page viewsa day)... readmore...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: Quark Wizard in Charlotte
(Indexed 2007-04-23):
MicrocosmBooks (publishes Marine aquarium books ... cool) in Charlotte.Permanent Part Time job: Book production and web publishing.Not on their website, but it is here in 7Days (print edition) Classifieds.Or just email the owner - contact info on website. [Image]
Post-Tsunami, Indonesia keeps getting slammed: March 2007 Earthquake relief
(Indexed 2007-04-21):
IDEPsappeal to assist survivors of the Padang Earthquakewww.idepfoundation.orgDear Friends of IDEP,Thank you so much to everyone who has sentquestions about whether IDEP will be working in the Padang area to assist with theongoing recovery efforts after the recent earthquake. Following is an overview ofIDEPs plans to work with our local partner in the area KOGAMI to assist some communitiesthat seem to have been forgotten to start recovering their lives.BackgroundAt 10:49 am on March 6th 2007, We...(truncated)...
What do you want to know about the Entity Framework?
(Indexed 2007-04-21):
Check out thispost from Mike Dodaro, which begins with:What else do you need to know about the Entity Framework? We've documentedbasic syntax and provided a few samples. How can we improve the documentation? Send us scenarios you want to implement.[Image]
Waiting for my Orcas Beta 1 bits....
(Indexed 2007-04-21):
Somasegar announced (with great pride) the availability of the first Beta of VisualStudio Orcas a few days ago. There is a huge VPC available for download, but alsoexpress versions. Some other varieties (perhaps an MSI installer) are coming on MSDNSubscriber downloads as well. READMORE[A New DevLife Post] [Image]
LINQ to SQL - not just SQL SErver?
(Indexed 2007-04-18):
huh?[A New DevLife Post][Image]
ADO.NET at MIX07
(Indexed 2007-04-17):
I found some interesting ADO.NET sessionson the MIX site today! REST Services for Data Access over the WebAudience(s): DeveloperIn this lab, build a data service accessible through REST that supports exchangingdata in XML and JSON formats, with full query and update capabilities; and build anAJAX-based client and a managed code client. Accessing Data Services in the CloudSpeaker(s): Pablo Castro - MicrosoftAudience(s): Designer, DeveloperCome learn about new Microsoft technologies that enable y...(truncated)...
INK at MIX 07
(Indexed 2007-04-17):
Tablet PC/Ink related sessions & HOLs I see on the MIX site:SESSION:Ink for Designers and DevelopersSpeaker(s): Sam Geroge - MicrosoftAudience(s): Designer, DeveloperImagine if your users could add handwritten annotations over online photos, greetingcards or video (including live playback of your handwriting). Learn how to use Inkto take your Web sites to new heights of interactivity, personalization, social interaction,and usability. Learn the key design principles for Ink, and see how to code ...(truncated)...
ADO.NET at MIX07: REST? Dynamic? Hmmmm
(Indexed 2007-04-17):
I found some interesting ADO.NET labs and sessionson the MIX site today!SESSIONSAccessing Data Services in the CloudSpeaker(s): Pablo Castro - MicrosoftAudience(s): Designer, DeveloperCome learn about new Microsoft technologies that enable you to make your data availableover the Web through a simple REST interface and using open formats such as plan XML,JSON or even RDF. We also discuss the underlying entity framework that makes it easyto model, publish, and program against your data over the We...(truncated)...
Presenting at Bellingham and Olympia's South Sound .Net User Groups
(Indexed 2007-04-16):
Thanks so much to INETA , Andy Robinson (leader of Bellingham.NET)and Paul Mehner and Camey Combs from SouthSound .NET for getting me out to the Seattle area to present at their user groups. I did a session on LINQ to SQL in Web Apps in Bellingham on Wednesday night afterspending 17 hours trying to get there. (Snowstorm in Chicago - more details aboutthat crazy flight here) I was amazedthat people stuck around to wait for me since I didn't arrive until about 7:45! Idid my session from 8 - 10pm ...(truncated)...
Code Camp 7 New england wrapup (finally)
(Indexed 2007-04-16):
It seems each time I start to write a post about the 7th New England Code Camp ("Deerin the Headlights") that was at the beginningof April, something has gotten in the way. But once again, this event was a blastand a great success. I drove down to Boston with DaveBurke and LauraBlood who were subjected to a much longer than expected business call that I hadto be on. We also lucked out with the weather. The last time we had a code camp inboston in march there was a pretty bad snowstorm (poor Dav...(truncated)...
XNA (Managed) Game Development at VTdotNET tonight
(Indexed 2007-04-16):
Tonight's VTdotNET meetingis a little different for us "must focus on business apps" VTdotNETters.Griff Townsend is coming up from Albany where he has done two XNA sessions (2-D andthen 3-D) at the user group there.I think it will be a lot of fun to open up our eyes to new ways (reasons for) programming.I am hoping that we'll be able to draw some of the students from Champlain College'sGame Development degree program. www.vtdotnet.org formore info....[Image]
Flying in April to avoid snowstorms? Ummm think again!
(Indexed 2007-04-15):
I am currently in Seattle where I did some really fun presentations (thanks INETA)at Bellingham.NET and South Sound .NET (in Olympia) on Wednesday and Thursday. (I'llwrite about them in a separate post). I put off travel until April so that I couldavoid winter travel problems. That didn't work out so well.Flying to Seattle on Wednesday through O'Hare proved to be (as usual) quite a problemas Chicago had a big fat snowstorm. When we landed at O'Hare, we had to wait one anda half hours for gate. T...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: C# developer and Technical Architect at MS Gold Partner in Burlington
(Indexed 2007-04-10):
These jobs are for CompetitiveComputing (aka "C2"). They are a Gold Partner and have some big name clients. C# is a must for both jobsSoftwareEngineer C2currently has openings for intermediate to senior level software engineers to joinour team of application development professionals. In this role, the candidate willbe responsible for working in a team environment in development of web portal andASP.NET applications for major client projects. Theideal candidate will have a strong foundation in t...(truncated)...
Heading out west to speak at Bellingham, WA and Olympia WA User Groups
(Indexed 2007-04-10):
Tomorrow I am flying to Seattle then speaking tomorrow night at the Bellingham.NETUser Group (which is even closer to the Canadian border than where I live) andthen Thursday night at SouthSound.NET in Olympia.Thanks to my pal CameyCombs for suggesting the trip and to INETA and usergroup leaders PaulMehner and Andy Robinson for making it all happen. Apparently, Camey and Paulhave been promoting the heck out of this. [Image]At Bellingham, I'll be presenting on LINQ to SQL and all the fun ASP.NET d...(truncated)...
Pablo Castro, ADO.NET Team Technical Lead, is doing the DevTeach keynote
(Indexed 2007-04-09):
Yay yay yay. I am not sure when this happened, but I just discovered that Pablo Castrowill be doing the keynote at DevTeach (Montreal,May 14-18) and not surprisingly, he'll be talking about the Entity Framework. Morehere.[Image]
ClickOnce fixes in VS2005 SP1
(Indexed 2007-04-09):
I finally noticed that Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005 corrected two ofthe problems that I've mentioned in previous articles and blog posts about ClickOnce. readmore...[A new DevLife post][Image]
Danny Simmons (from ADO.NET team) talks about Entity Framework on DotNetRocks
(Indexed 2007-04-07):
There are a lot of us who have been looking forward to this show being posted: DanielSimmons on ADO.NET Entity Framework. Now I have to find some time this weekendto listen to it. RogerJennings has a fantastic analysis of the show here. While at DevConnections, Richardand Carl were talking about how much fun this show was to do. They didn't know anythingabout Entity Framerwork when they started and were definitely fascinated with it.I'm glad that more people are going to get exposed to EF!Hereis...(truncated)...
Anders Hejlsberg and Me (or is that I?) on LINQ in Redmond Developer News
(Indexed 2007-04-05):
It's not often that one sees their name right next to Anders'(especially considering that I'm a VB programmer [Image]),but check out this LINQarticle in the current issue of Redmond Developer News. While the focusis Anders and this great technology he and others (and always with a nod to Alan Griver)are bringing to Visual Studio .NET, I was asked to give some developer perspective. I'd also like to say that I wasn't literally jumping up and down at PDC. [Image]I know that I have had the same re...(truncated)...
INKED in asp.netPRO
(Indexed 2007-04-04):
My latest asp.netPRO article is about ink-enabling web sites and is aimed at web developerswho are new to the ink APIs for TabletPC development.I LOVE the cover they did for this issue. Coooooool, huh?[Image][Image]
LINQ to SQL vs. Entity Framework
(Indexed 2007-04-04):
A recent LINQforum question asked about the differences between Linq to SQL and the EntityFramework.This is the response that I wrote and thought I would surface it in my blog: Besides that Linq to SQL is only for SQL ([Image])one of the big differences is that the EDM is more flexible and more loosely coupledbecause of the 3-tiered model (conceptual layer, source schema and the mapping layerin between). For example, you could have one conceptual layer and then multiplemapping layers that point...(truncated)...
Beth Massi joins Microsoft to run the VB Developer Center!
(Indexed 2007-03-29):
I was heads down prepping for DevConnectiosn last week and missed thispost from Beth Massi. This is fabulous news, not just for Beth but for anyonewho is a fan of the VBDeveloper Center (and all the new fans that I'm sure she will attract). Beth isone of the most energetic people I know and she's scary smart, too!Congrats Beth!!Thursday, March 22, 2007 6:27 PMYes, I swallowed the red pill, drank the koolaid, been assimilated, whatever...That's right folks, I joined Microsoft on Monday! (Right af...(truncated)...
What to expect in next (and future) Orcas bits for Entity Framework
(Indexed 2007-03-28):
I am at DevConnections whereI was VERY excited to see Brian Dawson (ADO.NET team) do not one but TWO Entity Frameworktalks on Monday.Brian has a newer build than what we are working with in the March CTP and I saw somestuff that made me wanna whine "gimme gimme".SPAN - calling span on an entity sql query will force the ObjectContext to load upan object's entire hieriarchy without having to call Load after the fact to get relateddata. This seems to be available in Object Services but not through ...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: MS SQL DBA near Burlington
(Indexed 2007-03-23):
I want to preface this by saying that I worked at Synergy when I first moved to Vermontand think the world of this company!!--------------------------------SynergySoftware Technologies Inc. is a dynamic, fun and exciting software company locatedjust outside of Burlington, Vermont. Synergy has been in business since1992 and is a leader in software for human services organizations with over 5000 installationsacross the country. We are rapidly expanding our product line and have an immediateopen...(truncated)...
Run Visual Studio SLN file shortcut as Admin in Vista
(Indexed 2007-03-23):
DominickBaier posted this 3 months ago, but I only needed it for the first time today.It's quite handy having the SLN files as shortcts when doing conference presentations,and I am preparing my new Vista laptop for next week's DevConnections.Dominick created a little tool that you can use to run as admin from a file shortcut(not an default option in Vista). I added the tool as a SEND TO option which, whilenot being as great as having the shortcut run as admin on it's own, is still veryhelpful.If...(truncated)...
Office 2007 Activation for MSDN Subscribers - Just Phone Home
(Indexed 2007-03-23):
Activation by phone solved a strange problem which was suggesting that I had activatedOffice 2007 with my product key WAY too many times. Readmore...[A New DevLife Post][Image]
ASP.NET debugging in Vista/IIS7
(Indexed 2007-03-20):
There are two bumps in the road of debugging ASP.NET in Vista. The first is enablingWindows Authentication, which depends on properly installing IIS on your computer.The second is an issue with the debugger not being able to automatically attach tothe process that is running your website. This is gotten around either by manuallyattaching each time (a huge pain in the rear that I got sick of in less than 30 minutes)or applying a quick patch that Mike Volodarsky, on Microsoft's IIS team whipped up...(truncated)...
LINQ to SQL and WCF
(Indexed 2007-03-18):
From the forums (thisthread):A future version of SqlMetal.exe will generate DataContract and DataMemberattributes on your entities for you. Putting them on the DataContext won't workbecause the DataContext is not serializable. (Matt Warren, Microsoft)[Image]
Recent Presentations on what's new in ADO.NET Orcas
(Indexed 2007-03-18):
Last week, I inaugurated my ADO.NET Orcas Overview at the TEchValley.NETUser Group in Albany NY (with thanks to INETA!!). It was a serendipitous nightfor me to present there as they had just moved to new digs for their meeting, a veryconvenient, spacious and high tech location, so they packed the room!The purpose of this presentation is to introduce developers to the Entity Frameworkand to LINQ for ADO.NET (that's the umbrella term for LINQ to SQL, LINQ to DataSetsand LINQ to Entities) and while...(truncated)...
Entity Framework testers are starting to get below the easy, surface-level stuff
(Indexed 2007-03-16):
There are some great questions bubbling up in the forums. THe ADO.NET team is busyin these discussions as well as writing some good blog posts on Entity Framework. Here'sthe current run down...[A DevLife post][Image]
When presentations go bad
(Indexed 2007-03-16):
KateGregory pointed to a blog post by Microsoftie, Darren Strange, who justplain old hada bad day. An experienced presenter, he was well aware that he was in a downwardspiral, but just couldn't seem to do anything about it. (Probably not as badas what he describes.) The hardest part about when talks go south is picking up yourego and moving ahead.I had a horrible conference experience (that I considered confessing to,but decided to keep a little bit of my pride in tact) and not only had to face ...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: .NET and SQL Server Web Developer in Montpelier
(Indexed 2007-03-16):
www.kdpyield.comWeb Developer- Montpelier, VT Seeking anexperienced Web developer. Most be proactive and detail-oriented, with strong QA andtroubleshooting skills. This is afull-time, permanent, on-site position, to be filled ASAP. Only serious candidatesshould apply. No contractors or recruiters, please. Primarilyresponsibilities include: - Coding newfeatures for existing Web sites - Troubleshootingexisting Web sites for data and functionality issues - Contributingto in-house tech support effor...(truncated)...
It's Girl Scout Cookie time
(Indexed 2007-03-15):
I remember trudging through piles of snow when I was little, knocking on my neighbor'sdoors taking (and then delivering) cookie orders.Now if I want cookies, I have to go track them down. I just discovered that there'sa listof where I can buy them all over vermont this week. (I just happened to thinkof it and it just happened to be this week!)[Image]
.NET 3.0 and Vista at VTdotNET last night
(Indexed 2007-03-13):
VTdotNET hadour Vista launch event at last night's meeting and we had a blast. There were about35 people there (which is a crowd for us!). TEKSystems broughtus piles and piles of fabulous pizza and two VTdotNET members,Mike Soulia and Rob Rohr gave great presentation. Mike, who owns two of our favorite local stores in Burlington (Kiss the Cookand Apple Mountain where he has built their POS system) covered WorkFlow,WCF and WPF. Mike teaches software classes at Vermont Tech as well. WF is a hard t...(truncated)...
One of the unforseen benefits of installing Vista
(Indexed 2007-03-12):
My main machine has so many old apps on it that I don't want to install .net 3.0 there.Now that I have my other dev box set up on Vista, I can easily check out all of CharlesPetzolds cool WPF demos that he posts on his blog! (Suchas today's 3D shadow test.)[Image]
Busy week for .NET in Burlington (and free Vista and Office 2007 licenses)
(Indexed 2007-03-10):
The first three days of the week are busy ones!On Monday, Vermont.NET ishaving it's Vista/.NET 3.0 Launch meeting. Local brainiacs Mike Soulia and Rob Rohrwill be presenting (after months of working with the Vista Launch team as part ofthe big user group roll out) and we'll have 5 WindowsVista licenses to give away (plus free pizza & soda thanks to TEKSystems,who recently opened up an office in Burlington).Tuesday is the TEchNet/MSDNEvent in Burlington. It's a day of training on Vista and Office...(truncated)...
Talking about ADO.NET Orcas on MSDN GeekSpeak on Wednesday
(Indexed 2007-03-10):
GeekSpeak isa lot more free-form than a typical webcast and I'm not sure what to expect. I'llhave the new CTP of ORCAS open and I guess we'll poke around Entity Framework andthe three LINQ to ADO.NET techs (LINQ to SQL, LINQ to Entities nad LINQ to DataSet).And the most fun part is that I'll be doing this with hosts GlenGordon (who I did a webcast with on ADO.NET 2.0 topic a few years ago) and SusanWisowaty (who lives right here in Burlington!), from the MSDNEvents team.Moreinfo and registration...(truncated)...
More discussion on LINQ's missing ToDataTable method
(Indexed 2007-03-08):
Erick Thompson from Microsoft followed up on a thread about where ToDataTable wentin the march CTP. http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=130067...(truncated)...
Orcas forum activity - just a weekend thing?
(Indexed 2007-03-07):
I've noticed that the posts on the ADO.NET and LINQ forumsfor Orcas have completely subsided after a flurry over the weekend. I guess everyonehad to get back to work![Image]
LINQ and Entity Framework Resources for March Orcas CTP
(Indexed 2007-03-06):
I wrote up a listof some of the invaluable resources I have been relying on while diving deeplyinto the new March CTP of Orcas.[A DevLife post][Image]
Sorting out LINQ and Entity Framework for Data Access
(Indexed 2007-03-06):
There are SO many ways to "skin the data access cat" in Orcas that I'm getting a littlecross-eyed. (Though this could be from looking at all of the XML in the Entity DataModels.)I thought I would try to sort it out a little here since I have done this for someof the presentations I am putting together.ADO.NET in Visual Studio OrcasThe "new" ADO.NET is not new, but added to. Evolution and backwards compatibilityare key to the ADO.NET team. So in Orcas you will have what you know as ADO.NET 2.0bas...(truncated)...
Stored Procs in LINQ to SQL in March CTP (The VB Version)
(Indexed 2007-03-05):
In a previous interation, I managed to track down some sample code that built a LINQcall to a stored procedure, the class which it returns and executed it in LINQ toSQL.The code has changed dramatically in the March CTP. Luckily, Mike Taulty beat me toit and I leveraged the C# code in his post to revise mine.One of the things I was so silly to do in my previous test was to hand code the returnclass rather than just create it in the designer and return that.But all of this is not totally necessar...(truncated)...
Upcoming Spring INETA User Group Presentations
(Indexed 2007-03-02):
I will be speaking in Albany NY at TechValley.NET onMarch 12th about ADO.NET Orcas.In April I will be doing a two city tour speaking at Bellingham.NET (agroup led by Andrew Robinson, that is a brand new member of INETA) and then at SouthSound .NET in Olympia, Washington run by my old INETA pal, Paul Mehner (with helpfrom another pal, Camey Combs.)In between these two trips, I'll be at DevConnections inOrlando and CodeCamp 7 in Waltham, Mass. I guess "travel season" is starting!I'm looking forwar...(truncated)...
Ooh goody another post on the adonet team blog
(Indexed 2007-03-02):
The ADO NET Team has been cranking out fab content on their blog. BrianDawson just wrote a post all about Object Services.In trying to sort out all of the options that we now have with Entity Framework andLINQ, I'm always happy to see a list like this. But go read the whole post so nothingis out of context Whatcan you do with Object Services?Heres a bullet list of some of the normal operationswhich object services can provide: Queryusing LINQ or Entity SQL CRUD StateManag...(truncated)...
A few of the many syntax changes in VB (and Linq for SQL queries)
(Indexed 2007-03-02):
VB9 has come a long way in the new March CTP of Orcas! Paul Vick has a quicklist of what is now in there. And there are a lot of good details in the msdndocumentaiton that comes along with the CTP.A few things I noticed quickly when bringing my LINQ for SQL demos over to the newbits.First, and happily, the named parameter syntax of := is no longer necessary. You canjust type =, like a normal person. You need to be explicit about using the reference to the entity when refering to properties.In ot...(truncated)...
Orcas March CTP is online and some new ADO.NET Entity Framework posts, too
(Indexed 2007-02-28):
readall about it....[A DevLife post][Image]
How conference speaking changes your dreams (the ones you have when sleeping)
(Indexed 2007-02-27):
There are dreams that are common for people; the one where you are flying, the onewhere you suddenly realize you have no clothes on and the one where you walk intocollege or high school class and there is a big test and you realize you haven't beento any classes all year.Since I've been speaking at conferences, the last one of those has shifted, not oncebut twice.I have often dreamt that I walked into a room to do a conference session and realizedI hadn't even prepared it!Last night I dreamt tha...(truncated)...
Chris & Bob Show - Full Day of FREE .NET 3.0 Training in Burlington on March 1
(Indexed 2007-02-24):
Did I really forget to blog this? I know I have sent out emails to VTdotNET members,but we now have TWO MSDN events in March right here in Burlington. In addition to the "classic" MSDN event on March 13th (Vista/.NET 3.0/Office 2007Development) [register here: http://www.msdnevents.com/march/]...there is the Chris & Bob Road Show.Chris Bowen (our new D.E.) and Bob Familiar, also fo Microsoft New England, will bepresenting a full day of .NET 3.0 development. It's free. it's at the sheraton. It'sM...(truncated)...
One more month as a homebody then it all starts again
(Indexed 2007-02-20):
After 8 INETA trips (speaking at 15 user groups), two code camps (both overnight trips),conferences in Orlando, Milwaukee, Montreal, Bulgaria and Las Vegas and thensummit at Microsoft - all of this in 2006, I promised myself that I was staying homefor the winter. After the last trip (in early December) I was not going to travelagain until DevConnections at the end of March this year. Though it ended up meaningthat I had to pass on the MVP Summit in mid-March, I've stuck to my promise. (I'msneaki...(truncated)...
VTSQL Meeting moved to Wednesday 2/21
(Indexed 2007-02-19):
I didn't realize that the VTSQL meeting originally scheduled for tonight has beenre-scheduled for Wednesday night. More info at www.vtsql.org.[Image]
Oreo's - A great source of calcium
(Indexed 2007-02-19):
At a recent check-up, my doctor reminded me that now that I'm getting to be such anold lady (okay, she didn't quite put it that way) I need to be more conscientiousabout my calcium intake. I asked her if the half & half in my coffee counted.No. How about the small bowl of ice cream once in a while in the evening? No.I remember my mother telling me about a doctor appt she had in her late 60's (notso long ago) when the doctor complemented her on how strong and healthy her boneswere. Her reply to t...(truncated)...
Feb CTP of Orcas with LINQ and more coming soon
(Indexed 2007-02-19):
Since a few people have asked me in email (which is not a problem...), I thought I'dmake mention that the next CTP for Orcas is the February CTP. It is coming out eitherlate February or early March. This version, though still a CTP, should have all ofthe LINQ and EF stuff updated and incorporated, including the UI stuff such as thedesigner and the templates that we currently have to go back to the May CTP for,as well as some major enhancements to LINQ in VB, a LinqDataSource for databindingin we...(truncated)...
ASP.NET AJAX "How Do I?" Videos updated for Final Release
(Indexed 2007-02-17):
JoeStagner re-recorded all of the HowDo I? videos for AJAX that he had created during the Betas. Now they are all updatedfor the RTM version of AJAX. THese are really valuable for getting started (andmore) with AJAX. There are 23 videos. THat must have been some chore. Thanks for re-doingthem, Joe.[Image]
Syntax reference for Declarative web forms pages
(Indexed 2007-02-17):
At this point I shouldn't be surprised by the valuable nuggets that are in the ASP.NETQuickStarts. Here'sthe latest one I wish I'd had taped to my wall for the past few years.[A DevLife post][Image]
A LINQ for SQL ObjectDataSource (Proof of Concept) class
(Indexed 2007-02-16):
I've been farting around with an ObjectDataSource class that I can use with LINQ andbind to a GridView to do editing. Here'swhat I've got worked out so far...[A DevLife post][Image]
The shadowy side of LINQ to SQL
(Indexed 2007-02-13):
Don't get me wrong. I love LINQ and LINQ for SQL. But the more I have been digginginto it the more things I discover that, as a developer, I may want to explicitlychoose how to use. That's probably why my talk on Linq for SQL with Web Apps lastnight at VTdotNET waspretty long. (Going to have to cut it down to fit a one hour slot at DevConnections- egad!)I spent a lot of time trying to be sure people were aware of what is going on in thebackground when they may just see on the surface that they a...(truncated)...
LINQ for SQL is a bottomless pit
(Indexed 2007-02-12):
After living 100% in LINQ for the past week, this is my conclusion. And that'sjust LINQ to SQL. There are just so many ways to skin the database withLINQ. The possibilities seem quite endless at this point.But I'm having fun and we'll see if I can keep it to 1.5 - 2 hours tonightat VTdotNET!Swoon..... [Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: .NET Web Developer in Burlington
(Indexed 2007-02-12):
Qvault, Inc. is actively recruitingindividuals with strong web application, database-driven programming proficiency.Qvault is an entrepreneurial driven product-focused company with a series of excitingopportunities on the horizon. Successful candidates will play a major role in shapingthe current and future products and services the company takes to market. Desirable skills and experienceinclude: Visual Studio 2005Object-Oriented Programming, fluencyin C# ASP.NET, ADO.NET We...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: .NET Web Developer in Colchester
(Indexed 2007-02-10):
RJ Peters Associates (alt site http://www.avmax.net/)is seeking a:NET Web Developer We are looking for amid-level .NET developer to create, update, and maintain internal and customer-facingweb sites, .NET web applications, and XML web services. Althoughthe developers main task will be to write code, he will also be required to maintainthe company databases including adding data, backups, and running reports. Candidatemust be able to manage multiple projects and prioritize workflow, work alone w...(truncated)...
I am an ADO.NET Orcas Guinea Pig
(Indexed 2007-02-08):
Why do I think I'm a perfect Guinea pig for this new technology? Readmore...A DevLife Post[Image]
LINQ to SQL in Web Apps at VTdotNET on Monday
(Indexed 2007-02-07):
I'll be doing a talk on Building Web Apps using LINQ to SQL at VTdotNET onMonday.I have seen ScottGuthrie do a session on this topic a few times and got so excited I wanted todig in more and show it off as well. Scott has probably done this talk at least 20times over the past year, has posted his PPT and demos, writes about it and even has aa recentvideo webcast on the topic.He's a REALLY hard act to follow, but I have tried to stay away from hissession as I build my own so that I'm not just try...(truncated)...
ADO.NET Orcas Entity Data Model - Beyond ORM
(Indexed 2007-02-02):
Looking at a new post from the ADO.NET team about EDM...[readmore][A DevLife post][Image]
SQL Server 2005 Maintenance Plan problems - and some solutions
(Indexed 2007-01-30):
I have SS2005 on my development machine. Normally, I don't need to back up test data,but now that I have started using SourceGear Vault, the source gets stored in thedatabase and therefore I definitely need to do the backups.I've set up backup maintenance plans before for a client, so even though I'm not aDBA, I felt okay doing this.A week later, I looked at the folder for the backups and was dismayed to see thatthere was nothing but my initial tests from the week before. I checked to make sureS...(truncated)...
Check out these HIGH PAYING .NET, C++ & SQL jobs in Vermont
(Indexed 2007-01-28):
I hear a lot of whining that the software jobs in Vermont don't pay well. I was just poking around TechnicalConnection's website and saw a .NET Developer job for $100,000, a C++ job advertisedas "highly competitive for Vermont" and a SQL Server DBA job for $80K+.When I first moved to Vermont 6 years ago, during the dot com BOOM, I had toget a mortgage and the mortgage broker said I had to get a full time w-2 job. I hada hard time, with my 20 years of experience, finding a job over $50,000. So se...(truncated)...
VS2005 SP1 installation: less than 45 minutes?
(Indexed 2007-01-28):
I finally upgraded the first of my boxes with VS2005 on it today. After all the worryabout how long it would take based on so much feedback, I was shocked when it finishedup very quickly! Readmore....[A DevLife post][Image]
Hey dude. Let's steal some computers and sell 'em on eBay!
(Indexed 2007-01-25):
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID...(truncated)...
Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Released and a Resource List
(Indexed 2007-01-25):
Scott Guthrie announced the release of AJAX and lists a bunch of helpful resources,especially for those migrating from earlier versions. readmore[A DevLife post][Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: 2 Web Developer positions at Burton Snowboard!
(Indexed 2007-01-25):
Jr.Web DeveloperOurweb development group is growing and we are searching for a Junior Web Developer.This position is responsible for translating design comps into HTML/XHTML pages andworking with the web developers to integrate and/or write server-side code. Theideal candidate will fear WYSIWYG editors and will be most comfortable hand codingXHTML/CSS/Javascript/DHTML. Youll know W3C standards, specifications and best practicesas well as work-arounds for the infinite number of cross-browser, cro...(truncated)...
Getting Started with .NET Programming Article
(Indexed 2007-01-23):
I wrote an article for .NET newbies for DevSource called GettingStarted with .NET Programming. It goes over the basic "what is .NET" question,then how to get your hands on the dev tools and then lists gobs of resources. It'sshort and sweet. If you know anyone who is asking these questions, feel free to send them over that-a-way.[Image]
VTdotNET is Five Years Old
(Indexed 2007-01-22):
The next meeting of Vermont.NET, Feb 12th, will be our 5th Anniversary! [Image]
Thanks, Scott Guthrie!
(Indexed 2007-01-20):
When we attended the ASPInsiders Summit in December, I was impressed with the amountof time that many of the ASP.NET Team members spent with us over the three days (andnights) that we were there. Notably were Rich Ersek and Scott Guthrie, but reallyso many others that spent lots of time with us.In one of the of the presentations that Scott did for us, we were reminded thathe is a coder first and a manager second as he talked about working out some codingconcepts on a plane but getting cut short ...(truncated)...
Grokking Entity Mapping in ADO.NET Orcas
(Indexed 2007-01-20):
ADO.NET Orcas brings forth a LOT of new concepts, especially for anyone unfamiliarwith Object Relational Mapping.One of the points of confusion is how entities are wired to the database. Now thatI understand it, I thought I would use my own way of explaining it to help anyonewho might have a hard time with the more deeply technical whitepapers out there.If you were to follow the typical scenario that is demonstrated in the EntityData Modeler Hands on Lab, thisscreencast or thisChannel 9 video, y...(truncated)...
"Impedance Mismatch"? "Mismatch Impedance"?
(Indexed 2007-01-19):
If you have read the phrase "ADO.NET Orcas" then you have probably seen the phrase"impedance mismatch" trailing right behind it. Do you even know what it means? I don'teven think the phrase makes sense! Readmore...[A DevLife post][Image]
New England Code Camp 7 : Deer in Headlights! 3/31 - 4/1
(Indexed 2007-01-17):
Ladies n Gents, start your engines!http://blogs.msdn.com/cbowen/archive/2007/01/17/save...(truncated)...
Orcas Jan 2007 CTP and ADO.NET
(Indexed 2007-01-12):
What's in the Jan CTP for people looking for ADO.NET Orcas goo? It's basically thesame as the October bits except the documentation is there. I actually sat here goingback and forth between three VPCs this morning, comparing the August, October andJanuary CTPs, just to be sure. Here'swhat I found...[A DevLife post][Image]
Have you ever resized an ASP.NET Calendar control
(Indexed 2007-01-10):
I hadn't, so when I needed a calendar I could put info onto in a web app (like theone on your wall), it took me a while to realize that all I needed was right at myfingertips. Readmore ...[A DevLife post][Image]
VTdotNET - The tools we love
(Indexed 2007-01-09):
Last night's VTdotNET meeting was a blast. We did something that we have never donebefore. Rather than have one person do a session on a .NET topic, 6 members from theuser group demo'd tools that they love to use when they are programming. Somewere Visual Studio Add-Ins, such as ReSharper.Others were apps help create .NET code such as CodeSmith and CodeCharge Studio. Other's were tools that work hand in hand with Visual Studio, suchas XMLSpy. And then there were a whole bunch thatwere not really...(truncated)...
Thanks Altova! SWAG & PIZZA for VTdotNET
(Indexed 2007-01-08):
Altova is sponsoring tonight's VTdotNET meetingin a big way.They are paying for the pizza and soda, plus they sent a big box o'swag. Check thisout. The bags are for the winners of the 5 DiffDog licenses. They ahve in them a hatand a 128 MB thumbdrive with all of the Altova evals on them.In addition they sent piles of hats and t-shirts (really nice colors!) , pens andlit about their products. This was really generous of them and will make the meetinglike Christmas all over again.[Image][Image]
P.J. Day
(Indexed 2007-01-08):
When it's 35 degrees and raining slush, that's PJ Day around here. Almost every day,I start the day by walking the dogs. But today was so nasty, I just came downstairsin my pj's and let the dogs out to pee and "do the doo" and then right back in.I think people assume that since I work at home, I do this quite often, but it isa true rarity - maybe twice a year!I just realized it's nearly noon and here I am still in my pjs. Just need to rememberto change into street clothes before I head to the VT...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: ASP.NET/more in White River Junction
(Indexed 2007-01-08):
ResourceSystems Group, Inc isan employee-owned consulting firm with offices in Vermont and Chicago, IL. We areseeking talented, motivated individuals to join our White River Junction office. From this location we serve a committed base of regional and national clients. Thefollowing position is available: Associate:Software Development Thisposition involves working in the Technology Group, supporting the firms softwareand analysis needs. The primary focus will be developing fully dynamic web-bas...(truncated)...
Vermont.NET Meeting this Monday! Thanks Altova!
(Indexed 2007-01-06):
Wehave a fun session coming up on Monday. SixVTdotNET members will show off some of their favorite productivity tools. Some ofthese tools are free, some are shareware and some are commercial. The demos will befast and furious. Heres the skinny: MikeSoulia: XMLSpy (xpathfeatures) ChrisDeGuise: ReSharper DaveBurke: CodeSmith RobHale: Beyond Compare BretGriswold: CodeCharge Studio JulieLerman: SnagIt, PureText, TimeSnapper &2 PowerToys ...(truncated)...
Alas, no WPF for me this time ... to solve a RichTextBox problem
(Indexed 2007-01-06):
I had a wierd problem with tabbed data in a TextBox and need to get around it. WPFoffered a solution, but I had to opt for straight .NET 2.0 anyway. Readmore...[A DevLife post][Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: GE Healthcare in Burlington - Senior Software Engineer
(Indexed 2007-01-02):
There is a lotmore info here. Qualifications4 year degree within appropriate Engineering/Science discipline or equivalent.Several years of professional work experience as a software engineer A proven technical aptitude required. Experience with Microsoft development tools(for example, Visual Studio, Visual Basic 6) and web application development (forexample, VBScript, JavaScript, ASP, HTML, DHTML)Good understanding of current software development technologies and methodologies.Demonstrated expe...(truncated)...
Boy, those designer types sure got it made
(Indexed 2006-12-20):
Every time I go to check out the Vermont Flash UserGroup's site to see what their upcoming meetings are, I get flashed with envyat how groovy their website is. Even rescheduled meetings look cool!Sadly, looking at VTdotNET (done by not-a-designer moi) and then looking at theirs,kinda makes me think of those "hi I'm a Mac... and I'm a PC ads". Bah...[Image]
Oracle's SQL Developer at Jan 9 GMOUG meeting
(Indexed 2006-12-20):
January 09, 2007SQL Developer Demo & DiscussionCome see SQL Developer in action. SQL Developer is Oracle's FREE GUIPL/SQL Development tool. www.gmoug.org[Image]
Vermont.NET's Next Meeting: All the tools we love
(Indexed 2006-12-20):
The January 8th VTdotNET meeting is shaping up with a LOT of people demoing theirfavorite tools.Here's the roster so far:VTdotNet'ers show off Developer Tools We LoveChrisDeGuise: ReSharper (20)Dave Burke: CodeSmith (20) Rob Hale: BeyondCompare (10)Bret Griswold: CodeCharge Studio (10)Julie Lerman: SnagIt, PureText, TimeSnapper &2 PowerToys(15) Mike Soulia: XMLSpy (xpathfeatures) (15)Bob LoCicero: NotePad++, ExamDiff, SyncToy, XmlNotepad & Toad Free Modeller (15)>>It's going to be fast, furious ...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: SQL, VB, Crystal and more (7 jobs) in White River Junction
(Indexed 2006-12-20):
Datamann is lookingfor a seven geeks!Visual Basic / SQL Programming:Seeking experienced SQL / VB Programmers. Candidate must be proficient in:Microsoft Transaction SQL programming language; SQL Server Enterprise Manager; VisualBasic programming of interfaces to SQL Databases; Microsoft Access programming withVBA. Should have knowledge of SQL database design and administration. Should knowhow to program database updates in T-SQL Stored Procedures with full input/output/errorloggingAccess / Crysta...(truncated)...
The great PacNorthwest power outage - a NorEaster's view...
(Indexed 2006-12-19):
Here in Vermont, at least in my neck of the woods, power outages are a fact of lifeand we generally expect them. Whenever the wind starts blowing hard, we fill up thetubs and water jugs. We have a few gas stoves in the house and our cooking stove isgas. Most thankfully, we have this great little generator that can run the whole office(what else do I need?) or if need be the refrigerator and a bunch of lights upstairs.So we are prepared mentally and strategically. One of the reasons for this is t...(truncated)...
Minor Update to Blink! app and recompiled for .NET 2.0
(Indexed 2006-12-19):
(OH NO! I think I reinstalled the wronng version now that I'm looking at the timeof this post! Oops!)A change in dasBlog pointed out a small problemwith the Blink! off-line bloggingtool I wrote two years ago. I originally wrote the app as an experiment in tryingto make it fun to use on a TabletPC, but I have been using it to write almost allof my posts (98% of them not on a TabletPC) since then. There are a few minor ittybitty glitches that I will have to work out someday, but since there are pr...(truncated)...
SQL Server 2000/MSDE on Vista? Nope
(Indexed 2006-12-17):
Perhaps it's time to look for the "list of things that won't be supported on Vista". In the meantime, thanks to Kate Gregory for pointing out this one.[Image]
Visual Studio SP1 is here. READ THE RELEASE NOTES FIRST!!!
(Indexed 2006-12-16):
read all about it here.... [A DevLife post]Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org[Image]
ASP.NET AJAX Release Candidate online
(Indexed 2006-12-15):
We're closing in on it!! :-) Read more [A DevLife post][Image]
VTdotNET Holiday 06 Party
(Indexed 2006-12-12):
The VTdotNET Holiday potluck party was at my house in the boonies last night. Someday I will learn how to use my camera but flash photos never come out right. Nevertheless, here are a few. Note the [not yet decorated] tree with all of the GEEKY gifts underneath. We got a pile of books from WROX and I also put lots of other books I've had around for a while and a pile of t-shirts. I noticed there was competition for two items under the tree. One was WROX's gazillion page ASP.NET 2....(truncated)...
C#3, VB9 and Linq - Building up a language
(Indexed 2006-12-11):
We got nearly 3 hours with Anders Hejlsberg at the ASPInsiders Summit last week. He went over language innovations in C#3 and how they feed into Linq. I can't do a full brain dump in a single post, but here is some of what he talked about (with some added VB examples too for fairness, since the new goo in C#3 and VB9 are usually discussed mutually exclusive of one another, though they do have a lot of innovations in common). [A DevLife post][Image]
OnClientClick and Cross Page Postbacks
(Indexed 2006-12-09):
I've been using, writing about and talking about ASP.NET 2.0's OnClientClick mostly in relation to some of the Ink on the Web work I have been doing. OnClientClick (who's functionality you could achieve in the past with control attributes) allows you to associate client side script AND server side code to the click event of a button. One thing I hadn't run into and therefore wasn't aware of was the OnClientClick conflicts with another one of ASP.NET 2.0's new features, Cross Page Po...(truncated)...
The firehose of information at the ASPInsiders summit
(Indexed 2006-12-06):
I'm at Microsoft in Redmond for the ASPInsiders Summit, three days of training by various members of the ASP.NET Team as well as experts in other relavant fields. Most of what we're looking at is what's coming down the pipes in the near future and in the longer term. Yesterday was the first day and it was an amazing amount of content. I've written about some of the things I learned that I hadn't known before over here.... ...(truncated)...
Playing in the land of Drag 'n Drop
(Indexed 2006-12-04):
I'm writing a WinForms app that is only for me to use, so I decided to see what it's like to use the drag 'n drop databinding wizards for the first time ever. Read more... [A DevLife post][Image]
Another Local Indie Bookstore closes
(Indexed 2006-12-01):
Sad news to see Deer Leap Books, a wonderful independent bookstore in Bristol, VT (nearby town) closing. I've definitely tried to do my book buying there when I can, because I want to see these shops succeed. Bristol is a community that loves and supports their local businesses. Another wonderful business, Angel Heart, is closing too. Very special store. The owner has lived in Nepal (or somewhere like that) for many years and buys fabulous stuff there and ships them back to the U....(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: .NET Web Developer/Programmer in Middlebury VT
(Indexed 2006-11-30):
Web Developer/Programmer position: Location: Middlebury, Vermont We are a successful and established Vermont e-commerce web site development and Web marketing firm that offers a fun and stimulating environment with great co-workers, flexible schedules and lots of contact with interesting clients. We are looking for a responsible, team-oriented individual who is interested in programming for Web development in a Microsoft environment. Candidate should be as comfortable in front...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Update of Oracle Position at Burton Snowboard
(Indexed 2006-11-30):
Oracle DBA/SAP Basis Administrator Burton Snowboards is looking for a talented senior level administrator to join our fast-paced IT team to help manage our enterprise database and SAP Basis environments. This position requires a broad set of skills and will be responsible for designing, installing, configuring, documenting, and supporting Oracle databases in an SAP environment as well as providing SAP Basis administration support in a MySAP/ERP/Netweaver lands...(truncated)...
ADO.NET vWhat?
(Indexed 2006-11-29):
Clearing up few points of common confusion about the next version of ADO.NET... read more [A DevLife post][Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: .NET Web Developer in Bennington, VT
(Indexed 2006-11-27):
Title: WEB DEVELOPER Location: Bennington , Vermont (just north of Bennington ) Perks: Relocation assistance available! Plus excellent benefits Salary: $65,000 - $75,000++ Type position: permanent (not contract) Challenging opportunity for WEB Developer interested creating complex, sophisticated features for e-commerce environment. This is truly a unique, positive company...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: IT Marketing Analyst in Bennington, VT
(Indexed 2006-11-27):
Title: IT Marketing Analyst Location: Bennington , Vermont Perks: Relocation assistance available, plus excellent benefits Salary: $65,000 - $75,000++ Type position: permanent (not contract) This is truly a unique, positive company with a hi-tech environment and significant focus on marketing and customer support. Great corporate culture! The IT Marketing Analyst will be a key player in all M...(truncated)...
Slides and Demos Posted for ASPConnections, VSConnections and Mobile Connections Talks
(Indexed 2006-11-17):
I have posted the powerpoints and demos from my four talks at DevConnections last week. They are all on http://www.thedatafarm.com/talks.aspx. Each session is listed alphabetically. At the end of the session description you will find a link for the PowerPoint deck and for the zip file with the demos. The four sessions I just posted are: Advanced ADO.NET 2.0 (3 hour post-conf workshop) Asynchronous Programming for ASP.NET Developers Managing and Deployi...(truncated)...
Vista's Coming. Are you still developing in VS2003?
(Indexed 2006-11-17):
Vista madness (that which comes when Vista is released to MSDN subscribers....(yesterday)) is not quite like Playstation madness, but I'm sure lots of people will be so eager to get their new bits that they might forget this very important piece of information.... read more [A DevLife post][Image]
.NET Jobs through Gem Resourcing
(Indexed 2006-11-16):
GEM Resourcing emailed to let me know they have a bunch of .NET jobs all over the country. If you go to their job search, filter the category to "Information Technology" and then type ".NET" in the Search Words, that shows 13 jobs from Pennsylvania to California.[Image]
I'm downloading Office 2007 as I type this
(Indexed 2006-11-12):
Office 2007 arrived on the MSDN Subscriber downloads this afternoon. It's 70% downloaded on my machine so far. [Image]
Steve Smith makes an important discovery about a SqlDependency gotcha
(Indexed 2006-11-06):
Getting SqlDependency to work takes an enormous amount of orchestration up front - especially with regards to SQL Server permissions. Steve ran into a problem which made SqlDependecy work only intermittently. He finally got to the bottom of it (was related to the dbo owner) and has blogged about it here.[Image]
Do you believe in .NET magic?
(Indexed 2006-11-05):
Torn between wanting to just get 'er done and wanting to have a complete comprehension of everything that is going on under the covers? That's the line I have to constantly wrangle with when giving conference presentations and it's truly hard to please everyone, though I do know who I'm aiming for. Read more... [A DevLife post][Image]
DevConnections in Las Vegas Next week! Last minute reminders
(Indexed 2006-11-04):
DevConnections is this coming up this week! Here are some last minute things to know about. The registration is unbelievable this year. There are nearly 5000 people registered for the combined shows. More stats: 190 speakers and held in a convention center that is literally one million square feet! If it's not too late, don't forget to vote before you leave! Check with your town clerk ASAP. There's a Women in I.T. Lunch on Thursday for attendees and speakers. Spa...(truncated)...
Very proud of one of my clients: MapsAlive
(Indexed 2006-11-03):
One of my clients rolled out the Beta version of their big project this week - a public website with brilliant plumbing that allows end users to build their own interactive floorplans and maps. Drop your map or plan onto the site, upload pictures that represent views of different locations on the map/plan (a bedroom, a vista on a trail map), link them up, type in some descriptions and voila - you have a beautiful end product that any user can easily navigate. There are no refreshes ...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Oracle Database Admin at Burton Snowboards
(Indexed 2006-11-01):
Oracle Database Administrator Burton Snowbards is looking for a talented, senior-level Oracle Database administrator to join our fast-paced IT team to manage our enterprise database systems. This position requires a broad set of skills and will be responsible for designing, installing, configuring, documenting, and supporting Oracle databases in an SAP environment. Responsibilities include installing and configuring software, applying patches, disaster recovery processes, backup an...(truncated)...
John Lam brings his love of language to Microsoft
(Indexed 2006-10-29):
In "blogtime" this is old news, but I just caught that John Lam is joining Microsoft to work on the CLR team, "to help bring the love of dynamic languages out to the statically typed heathens :-)". Great news![Image]
A new Developer Evangelist for New England .NET Devs
(Indexed 2006-10-25):
Though we selfishly were sad to see Thom Robbins leave the D.E. position for New England, the local community was thrilled to see him move to an awesome new job at Microsoft. But the big question was who on earth could fill his shoes? Happily, Thom has made a wonderful choice in a successor. Chris Bowen, a local developer who has been very involved in the community and someone for whom I have always had a ton of respect, will be our new D.E. Thanks Thom! Thanks Chris![Image]
Code Camp 6 Devs on a Plane Rehash
(Indexed 2006-10-25):
Code Camp 6 was this past Saturday. It started out with a somewhat nervewracking 200 mile drive to Waltham due to torrential rainstorms and high winds. But I had a fun companion in the car who kept me well entertained throughout - Dave Burke, who was ridiculously kind when I was adamant that we needed to go south on Route 91 (totally wrong) and let me get away with it for 10 miles before I let him convince me to turn around. I suppose it's one thing to deal with female logic when ...(truncated)...
Scott Guthrie and Brian Goldfarb's ASPConnections Keynote
(Indexed 2006-10-24):
DevConnections (combination of 6 conferences: ASP, Visual Studio, Mobile, Sharepoint, SQL Server and Office) is only a few weeks away. I'm going out to present 2 sessions for ASP Connections (Managing & Deploying ASP.NET 2 Sites and Asynchronous ASP.NET), one for Mobile Connections (an advanced Ink on the Web talk) and a 1/2 day post-conference workshop on Advanced ADO.NET 2.0. I'm sorely disappointed that my flight schedule is having me miss the Monday night keynotes, especially ...(truncated)...
CSS Friendly Control Adapter Toolkit Version 3 is released
(Indexed 2006-10-24):
From Russ Helfand, creator of the CSS Friendly Control Adapter Toolkit, announcing a new version! (Of course, this comes just weeks after my article about them in aspnetPRO is published :-), but I knew that was coming...) I'm pleased to announce that we have upgraded the CSS Friendly ASP.NET 2.0 Control Adapter kit. The new release is Beta 3. The whole kit now serves as a sample of designing markup and CSS that scales gracefully. This includes scaling of the menus, trees ...(truncated)...
Where in the world is Kate?
(Indexed 2006-10-22):
I know very few people who can write sentences like this: "I've been messing a lot with time zones lately, planning my trips to South Africa, Spain, and Denmark...." [http://www.gregcons.com/KateBlog/TimeZones.aspx] This represents TechEd South Africa, TechEd Europe and then some more .NET love in Denmark. It also represents quite a lot of frequent flier miles! :-)[Image]
WS-FTP Pro 2006 and IE7 : "NEVER!" ?
(Indexed 2006-10-19):
I have WS-FTP Pro 7.0 on both multiple computers as well as the newly released IE7. One computer has no troubles. The other gives me this interesting error when I try to start it up: [Image] The only solution is to click ok and then kill the app from task manager. Luckily, I found this thread in the Ipswitch forums (which also decries a lack of support from WS-FTP) where a user (who is clearly a pit-bull and chose not to give up on finding a solution - thank you Suzy!!!) has m...(truncated)...
.NET Jobs: ASP.NET Developers in Lebanon, New Hamphire
(Indexed 2006-10-19):
Nexus Energy Software is growing again. Headquartered in Wellesley, MA, we are looking for professional Software Engineers for our Lebanon, NH office. We're looking for mid-level and senior Engineers to join our talented development team who like to keep their software skills up-to-date and take pride in delivering high quality solutions to satisfied customers. We offer competitive salaries, medical, dental, 401K, and more in a dynamic yet relaxed work place. www.nexusenergy.com>...(truncated)...
Code Camp 6 (Boston) Schedule is up - NOTE SATURDAY ONLY!
(Indexed 2006-10-19):
The schedule for this weekend's Code Camp in Waltham, Mass is live. This Code Camp will be packing all of the sessions into one day - Saturday, rather than spread out over two. If you haven't registered to attend yet, you can register here. I'll be doing three talks throughout the day: 9am: Managing and Deploying ASP.NET 2.0 Website: This talk is aimed at sorting out all of the options for creating, compiling and deploying ASP.NET 2.0 websites along with tips for making the be...(truncated)...
ASP.NET 2.0 Post Cache Substition article
(Indexed 2006-10-17):
The new post cache subsititution functionality of ASP.NET 2.0 is one of the features of ASP.NET 2 that doesn't get a lot of attention, but I am quite fond of it. So I wrote an article about it for DevSource and it is now online. You can read it here.[Image]
The new Jehova's Witnesses?
(Indexed 2006-10-16):
The door bell rang this morning and when I went to answer, I saw the Jehova's Witnesses literature in the hand of the stranger at the door and had the usual dread of wondering how I can politely get her to not take up too much of my time telling me something I'm not interested in hearing. I really can't do it any other way, even when I know that by coming onto my property, invading my space, demanding my attention and time is more rude than I could possibly be anyway. Luckily, it ...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: .NET Developer at Vermont Teddy Bear
(Indexed 2006-10-12):
VT Teddy Bear is looking for a .NET programmer. It is looking for a .NET software developer with database backend experience. The job descriptions should be on its web site soon. Interested candidates should send cover letter and resume to: The Vermont Teddy Bear Company Attn: Human Resources 6655 Shelburne Road , Shelburne , VT 05482 or fax to 802-985-1330 or email in MS Word format to jobs@vtbear.com[I...(truncated)...
Some pics from Bulgaria (where I still am)
(Indexed 2006-10-11):
First of course I want to say how wonderful the DevReach conference was, how impressive the developer community is and what a great time we all had participating in it. It was totally worth coming all the way here. In addition to the two-day conference, the Bulgarians have kept us busy. Here are some pics from the last few days. Sunday night. Dinner at a classic Bulgarian restuarant where we had our first encounter with Bulgarian food ... [Image] ...and the famous Bulgarian Ra...(truncated)...
How do you learn what you need to know if you don't know what you need to learn?
(Indexed 2006-10-08):
I had a mentoring client ask me a question along these lines. She's very ready for the next steps after drag 'n drop .NET. I have been thinking all week about how she can learn the every day things she should know. [Read more ...] [A DevLife post][Image]
Reservations made on the United.com site travelling internationally with a Star Alliance partner turned into a nightmare
(Indexed 2006-10-07):
By tomorrow afternoon, we'll know if I really make it to Bulgaria or not for the DevReach conference, but even though my flight, which I reserved on August 4th, is tonight, there still is no ticket. Here's what happened. Reservations made (8 weeks to go) Booked flights on United.com travelling on Austrian Airlines from JFK to SOF 8 weeks in advance. Flight cancelled (2 weeks to go) Two weeks before the trip, I get an email from (not Austrian and not United but ) the person I...(truncated)...
Survey: What SSL Certificates are you buying for WS-Security with WCF, WSE or other WS-* methodologies?
(Indexed 2006-10-05):
This is one of the most frequently asked questions on the newsgroups. Since Verisign and Thawte do not speak "message-based security", people are always confused about buying SSL Certificates for doing WSE or WCF. It's not just the vendors. Sometimes the people responsible for your networks are also hard to convince since message-based security just does not make sense in their world. They may not know which one is right either. What have you had success with? What actual certific...(truncated)...
Confused about the relationship between .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, VS2005, "Orcas", ATLAS, C#3, VB9, LINQ and ADO.NET vnext?
(Indexed 2006-10-03):
I was so I spent some time trying to get everything sorted back out again. Here's my take on it... [A DevLife post][Image]
When VB and C# collide...
(Indexed 2006-09-29):
I just accidentally wrote a line of code that looked like this: private boolean MyMethod(byval x as someobject) Yes I was going for VB, but I've been doing a bunch of C# coding lately. At least I didn't hit the semi colon, too! :-) The funny part is I although C# doesn't come very naturally to me, there are definitely some syntax things I love. Though I still have a really hard time getting my brain to grok code like Kate writes (thought that's pure C++...)[Image]
MSDN Event in Vermont draws over 110 people
(Indexed 2006-09-27):
I wasn't there to witness it but I have heard from DCC Susan Wisowaty that there were 110 people at the MSDN event in Burlington yesterday. Another attendee told me she had heard it was 117. This is pretty phenomenal for a city that got axed from the schedule due to poor attendance. This is pretty phenomenal for city with a population of 50,000. This would be a good number for an event in NYC or Boston! So, for anyone who thinks that Vermont has nothing but farmers, hippies and sk...(truncated)...
Analysis Services at Vermont SQL Meeting Tonight! (9/27)
(Indexed 2006-09-27):
Vermont SQL Server User GroupNext Meeting Introduction to Analysis Services 2005 Our next user group meeting will be Wednesday, September 27 2006 - 6pm to 8pm at Competitive computing. Session DescriptionAnalyzing data requires different techniques to fit different scenarios. OLAP cubes provide structured hierarchical views of data to aid drill-down analysis, while Data Mining attempts to predict structural relationships within the data. This session will provide an...(truncated)...
Oh hooray. I can travel with toothpaste again!
(Indexed 2006-09-25):
In the past month, I have made a number of short trips that allowed me to get away with a small carry-on bag. My big problem was that I couldn't bring toothpaste with me. I hated the idea of buying toothpaste at my destination, using a touch of it and then throwing it away. I even felt guilty doing the same with teh travel-sized toothpaste that the hotels gave me. Use a small amount and then it gets thrown away. The packaging is my real issue - I am always at odds with the convenien...(truncated)...
Changing font attributes in a RichTextBox (the easy way)
(Indexed 2006-09-24):
Sometimes I feel like I learn .NET one little method at a time. Today I had to do something I'd never done before and the solution was not obvious at first. [Read more ....] [A DevLife post][Image]
The 15 Million Dollar Flight to Seattle
(Indexed 2006-09-23):
I was looking on the United Airlines website at the prices of possibly flying to Seattle in December and had to laugh when this option popped up in the list. For those of you who are comma challenged, this translates to 14,763,950 dollars. Oh, and this is in Economy. I wonder what the Business Class version of this flight costs? :-) [Image][Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: Two .NET Web Developers and a Technical Writer
(Indexed 2006-09-22):
PKC Corporation (which is a very cool company with a product developed by a man who is constantly rumored to be a Nobel prize-winner, which would be deserved, but he's not really) in Burlington is looking for a Sr. Web Developer, a Sr. Software Developer and a Technical Writer. They are a .NET shop and have been so for many years. Find the details here (note the aspx extension on the page ;-)).[Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: .NET (and more) developer in Burlington
(Indexed 2006-09-22):
Company Founded in 1998, Sageworks, Inc., a Research Triangle Park-based firm, is one of the fastest-growing software and information companies in the United States . The firm has many Fortune 500 clients as well as over 4,000 accounting and financial institution customers. The company's recently patented artificial intelligence technology is the first in the World to convert financial data/numbers into concise, plain-language evaluations of business performance....(truncated)...
Great FAQ on managing X509 Certs
(Indexed 2006-09-18):
On Thursday evening I gave a talk on WS Security Fundamentals in Dayton Ohio. One of the resources I point to is the PAG Guide on Securing Web Services. On the way home the next day, while sitting on the runway in PHL for 2 hours before taking off (uggh), I was reading the latest ASPNET Pro and Michele Leroux Bustamante's Under the Hood column was all about X509 cert management. It's great advice and I highly recommend it. It's the October 2006 issue which does not have all of i...(truncated)...
More about DevReach Bulgaria
(Indexed 2006-09-16):
(from their press release) DevReach 2006 debuts in Bulgaria The conference is the first of its kind to be held on the Balkans, focused on the latest trends in building software applications with Microsoft development tools. SOFIA, Bulgaria September 04, 2006 National Academy for Software Development - a private education center, specializing in professional training of software engineers, and Telerik Corporation - ...(truncated)...
Status of WS-* Specifications/Standards
(Indexed 2006-09-15):
I was happy to find this very current slide denoting the status of the various WS-* specs. I got to use it in a WS-Security fundamentals talk that I did in Dayton Ohio last night. http://blogs.msdn.com/jevdemon/archive/2006/08/02/686515.aspx[Image]
Three Ohio user groups this week
(Indexed 2006-09-11):
After I warm up by speaking at my local user group tonight (Vermont.NET) about Asynchronous ASP.NET 2.0, I am taking the proverbial show on the road and will be presenting this same session in Cleveland tomorrow night (9/12), then my session called 5 Supposedly Scary things about .NET in Findlay on Wednesday (9/13) and I wrap up in Dayton on Thursday night (9/14) doing a talk that explains some of the security fundamentals that anyone getting ready to do any flavor of Web Services...(truncated)...
Vermont.NET tonight - Asynchronous ASP.NET 2.0
(Indexed 2006-09-11):
I'll be doing a talk on ASP.NET 2.0's Asynchronous features (async pages, async tasks and more) tonight at my home town user group (VTdotNET). Huge thanks to SyncFusion for sponsoring this entire meeting. Not only are they covering the pizza & soda, but they have given us a license to Essential Studio to raffle off. It's a $1300 product (okay, that's the retail price). And there will be even another raffle for an individual license of any one of their components.[Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: C/C++ programmer for digital audio tools company
(Indexed 2006-09-09):
SoundToys in Burlington, VT is llooking for a C/C++ programmer. You can read more about the job in their Seven Days classified ad here[Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: ASP.NET, C#, VT.NET, Java, WinForms contract developers in Williston VT
(Indexed 2006-09-08):
Daybreak ICS, in Williston VT, is looking for software developers (1099s) for short-medium term projects over the next 6 months starting in September 2006, with potential for ongoing work. Projects will include design/build/test/implementation of applications for various aspects of Content Management. Anticipated skill sets include experience coding in Java, C#, ASP.net, VB, and Win GUI development. Project duration could be from a few weeks to a few months, and will include at l...(truncated)...
yes Virginia, SqlConnection.Dispose CALLS SqlConnection.Close
(Indexed 2006-09-08):
I was recently involved in an ASPAdvice thread about close and dispose - an age old .NET debate. (Okay, the "age old" part is relative.) As backup, I quoted the msdn documentation that says "close and dispose are functionally equivalent" and someone pointed out not to believe everything I read and that in .NET 1.1, it was known to be "broken". With a hint from Angel Saenz-Badillos from the ADO.NET team, I opened up reflector to find proof that dispose will close as well . See th...(truncated)...
Accessing VS2005 Resources and Settings in C# when you are used to doing it with VB's My namespace
(Indexed 2006-09-08):
I had to translate some VB code to C# and it took me a while to see the light! Here's the shortcut. [A DevLife post][Image]
More on DevReach Bulgaria
(Indexed 2006-09-06):
I see that DevReach has two new sponsors, CoDe Magazine and MSDN Magazine. This is great news. And even greater, I have learned that Malek Kemmou, who I have not seen since he made the transition from Regional Director (which enabled him to travel to many conferences in the U.S.) to a Microsoft employee (Techology Architect in SOA and Business Process for Microsoft MEA), a job which does not allow us to see him over here any more. Boo hoo. So I'm very happy to hear he will be in S...(truncated)...
Control Adapters and the effect of different browsers on cached pages
(Indexed 2006-09-06):
This is nothing new, but it was new to me and it was messing up my dynamically rendered ASP.NET pages. My lesson in VarybyCustom. [A DevLife post][Image]
Vista and .NET 3.0 Realease Candidates Come online
(Indexed 2006-09-04):
It was an exciting week at Microsoft as they pushed out the RC1 versions of Vista and .NET 3.0! [read more....] [A DevLife post][Image]
Async in asp.net 2.0 - don't forget that iAsyncResult!
(Indexed 2006-09-03):
One of the points of confusion I've seen wrt these new asp.net features is people trying to use them (and getting no farther than head banging) with random functions. .NET 2.0 makes a lot of asynchronous stuff much easier with the Event Driven Asynchronous Pattern. The BackgroundWorker sets up the entire package for you and is a great solution for Windows Forms. But with the ASP.NET 2.0 methods, you must call out to methods that already have BeginInvoke/EndInvoke and that retur...(truncated)...
Petzold's new WPF book: "Availability: In Stock"
(Indexed 2006-09-03):
Huge congrats to Charles on another important Windows programming classic-to-be: Applications = Code + Markup: A Guide to the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation Karsten J (who knows WPF well enough to be a great judge of the book's worthiness) has high praise for the book: "The book is pedagogically brilliant". I especially love that he says: "It actually does read like a novel to me, with a narrative arch as it negotiates its methodical way through the WPF jungle of A...(truncated)...
4 user groups in 4 nights, or is that 5 user groups in 9 nights?
(Indexed 2006-09-01):
I seem to be "just a girl who can't say no". Sept 6th CNY.NET (Syracuse NY - INETA) Advanced Data Access with ADO.NET 2.0 Sept 11th Vermont.NET (Burlington, VT home sweet home) Asynchronous ASP.NET 2.0 Sept 12th Cleveland .NET SIG (OH - INETA) Asynchronous ASP.NET 2.0 Sept 13th Findlay .NET (OH - INETA) 5 (Supposedly) Scary Things about .NET Sept 14th Dayton.NET (OH - INETA) Web Services Security for Humans: Security Fundamentals What w...(truncated)...
ASP.NET 2.0's Button.OnClientClick Property. Cop-out or code saver?
(Indexed 2006-08-31):
Although many are using the new OnClientClick property to ask "are you sure?" before letting users delete records, I have discovered that it can completely change (for the better, for the way better) how I have been constructing code for handling ink on the web. [read more ...] [A DevLife post][Image]
Atlas and Ink on the Web
(Indexed 2006-08-31):
Last night I took one of my demos that I have used in past articles (Persisting Ink on the Web for MSDN online and Ink on the Web for CoDe Mag) and that will be in my session at Mobile Connections in November (Las Vegas) and redid it in a page using Atlas. Anyone attending my session will be the first to lay eyes on it! It was very sweet. The demo has an ink control on the page and grabs ink data from a database and loads it into the control. It's not rocket science and I'm just s...(truncated)...
MSDN Events return to Vermont: Sept 26th!
(Indexed 2006-08-30):
www.msdnevents.com We've been off the tour for a while. If you live in the area, be sure to attend this! Remember that if the attendance is poor, these will go away again. Tuesday Sept 26th 1pm - 5pm Wyndham Hotel, Downtown Burlington Featuring our own MSDN DCC: Susan Wisowaty! REGISTER Get Connected with the .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 (and Beyond) These days, it seems like everything's talking. Smart Client applications are sending emails and uploading and do...(truncated)...
Modifying WSE Policy Files in Production Apps
(Indexed 2006-08-30):
I learned this the hard way, as usual. We had to change the X509 Certificate that we were using for our application. That meant that the policy config file on the client and the app had to have the certificate identity defined by the findValue parameter of the X509 node.
Vermont IT Jobs: Java/.NET Shop in Burlington, VT
(Indexed 2006-08-24):
Talented? Want to work with other talented people? Pragmatic Technologies, Inc. is in search of individuals that want to join our team. If you are inspired by technology and delivering results then we want to meet you. We offer a competitive results based salary, benefits, and individual growth in a great working environment at our office on the waterfront in Burlington, Vermont. Send cover letter and resume to talentscout@be-pragmatic.com Pragmatic Technologi...(truncated)...
Slides and Samples from my NYCdotnetDEV talk on Query Notifications - Samples have been modified!
(Indexed 2006-08-21):
I had a blast presenting in NYC Thursday night on ADO.NET 2.0 Query Notifications. It was also a great whirlwind trip to my old stomping grounds where I lived for my first eight years out of college. I did a little of everything...subway, taxis, Museum of Modern Art, falafels in Union Square, the farmer's market in Union Square, walking through the "new & improved" Times Square, an incredible meal at a French restaurant in Chelsea, Penn Station, NYC bagels.... Stephen Forte and An...(truncated)...
Slides and Samples from Paul Litwin's Vermont.NET Talk posted
(Indexed 2006-08-21):
You can find the slides and demos from Paul's session on ASP.NET 2.0 Data Controls Tips & Tricks on his website at www.deeptraining.com/litwin. Paul blogged about the meeting here.[Image]
ADO.NET v3 August CTP released Aug 15th
(Indexed 2006-08-21):
Read all about it here... [A DevLife post][Image]
Thom Robbins moving up and over
(Indexed 2006-08-21):
I'm still in denial but can't put off blogging about this any longer. The .NET developers and user group leaders in New England have long known that we have been extraodinarily fortunate to have a true mover and shaker as our Microsoft Developer Evangelist. Thom Robbins has constantly pushed the envelope with respect to Microsoft providing amazing resources to the developer community. He has also made himself very available to developers. Personally, Thom has pushed and encourage...(truncated)...
Sasha Krsmanovic finally loses the darned V and "takes the red pill"!
(Indexed 2006-08-21):
This is another thing I've been meaning to get up on a rooftop and shout for joy about! Sasha Krsmanovic, who for years has been a star in the MSDN Canada office as the MSDN Project Manager, was not a Microsoft employee but what we call a "v-dash" (vendor with a very close relationship). Recently, Sasha became a full-fledged Microsoft employee as he stepped into the role of MVP Lead for Canada which is an awesome position for him, and continued great fortune for developers (and n...(truncated)...
Sharing a lesson about VB's Shared and Static Declarations
(Indexed 2006-08-19):
I've long been confused by the fact that static variables in VB are not the same as static variables in C#, but shared variables/methods/classes in VB *are* like static variables/methods/classes in C#. It made for some cumbersome VB code that didn't have to be. I think I finally got it cleared up and here is a blog post I wrote trying to explain it (to myself for future reference). [Read more...] [A DevLife post][Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: Got Adobe Flex and a Web 2.0 mind?
(Indexed 2006-08-18):
Java Engineer Developer Lead We plan to shake up the IT industry with a unique process management software application utilizing Web 2.0 technologies and the software-as-a-service model. Our target is the Global 2000 market. We are in the exciting start-up stage with beta test customers and will release our first version this fall. The application is being built with Adobe Flex on the front end and Java on the back with open source technologies. The founder has a pr...(truncated)...
NYC .NET Developers User Group tomorrow night!
(Indexed 2006-08-16):
I'm psyched to be hopping down to NYC tomorrow do an INETA sponsored presentation at NYCdotNETDev. I lived in New York from 1983 to 1991 (as you can imagine, my impressionable 20's), so it's fun to go back once in a while. I plan to spend Friday at the MOMA and eating great food with friends before taking a late night flight back to Burlington. It's only a one hour flight, so it's a nice and easy trip. I'll be presenting on Query Notifications, a topic near and dear to my heart. M...(truncated)...
Living Publicly on the Internet
(Indexed 2006-08-15):
Rich and I went to this classic Vermont country summer fair last week. Below is a photo of the tractor pull. There were so many garden tractors lined up, this event went on for hours and hours and hours. One event that I wish I had known about (before it happened, rather than hearing about it after the fact!) was a hand-mowing competition (using scythes). I have an old scythe and use it ocassionaly (not for the lawn but for clearing tall weeds) and would have loved to see how it's...(truncated)...
Paul goes to the country (and some asp.net 2.0, too!)
(Indexed 2006-08-15):
Paul Litwin, an INETA speaker, came all the way from Seattle to Vermont to speak at Vermont.NET. Rather than fly in the day of the meeting and out the next morning, Paul arrived on Saturday night in order to enjoy being in Vermont for a few days. Unfortunately, shortly before his trip he agreed to do a project that kept him in front of the computer a good part of the time, but we still managed to get him out to a walk around our neighbor's mountain farm, visit our favorite swimmin...(truncated)...
Sudden Das Blog 1.8 error - look familiar to anyone??
(Indexed 2006-08-15):
DasBlog is an open source project, so I need to be patient while waiting for a response to my query on the forums. In the meantime, perhaps someone else has experienced this and knows the cause and resolution. Since Sunday, my blog has been throwing a wierd error that is causing the events log to bloat to 12 or more megs. My datafarm.com sites are in trouble. My webhost had to restart IIS on the web server. Below is an example of the error. The...(truncated)...
Visual Studio 2005, That Legacy Software!
(Indexed 2006-08-11):
My latest rant (:-)) is in the new issue of CoDe Magazine (Sept/Oct issue) where I bitch and moan about how hard it is to find someone to do user group talks on current technology. It's in print now, but not quite yet online, I think. There are a bunch of great ASP.NET 2.0 articles in this issue in addition to the rest of the usual excellent content![Image]
Vermont.NET Monday Night (Aug 14th) - INETA Sponsored Meeting
(Indexed 2006-08-10):
We are lucky to have INETA Speaker Paul Litwin coming from California to present on the ASP.NET 2.0 Data Controls (Tips & Tricks) on Monday night! In addition to INETA flying Paul here, they pay for the pizza & soda at the meeting, which is always appreciated! AND, that's not all folks! :-) INETA sent out their SWAG mailing earlier ths summer and I'm still pulling treats out of it. This month I will be raffling off a license to FarPoint Spread for Web (ASP.NET Sprea...(truncated)...
ClickOnce HotFix
(Indexed 2006-08-10):
If you are getting either of these errors when using the Publish Wizard for ClickOnce: Cannot publish because a project failed to build. SignTool reported an error 'XmlResolver can be set only by fully trusted code.' ...there is a HotFix available from the Microsoft download. More info here.[Image]
I took the AJAX/ATLAS plunge(s)!
(Indexed 2006-08-07):
Frustrated with the experience of trying to explain the complicated ASP.NET 2.0 Client Side callbacks at user group sessions, I decided to see how this compared to using AJAX.NET and ATLAS. So I rewrote the demo with each of these tools. Here is what I found... [read more...] [A DevLife post][Image]
Western Mass .NET User Group
(Indexed 2006-08-02):
I had a great time speaking at the Western Mass .NET group last night (thanks INETA!) THe group meets sometimes in Northampton and sometimes in Easthampton, Mass. Northampton is a very hip small city replete with coffee houses where the groovy people hang out and vehicles roaming the streets with kayaks on them (sounds like where I live!) I was lucky to stay in a beautiful historic hotel ,Hotel Northampton, in downtown northampton (ask for the corporate rate to get an affordable ...(truncated)...
Two Massachussetts User [INETA] Group Talks next week
(Indexed 2006-07-29):
I'll be presenting at two user groups in Massachussets next week. I will be giving the same presentation at both groups: "Asynchronous Programming for ASP.NET Developers". Description: Asynchronous programming makes so much sense for web applications but is often tough to achieve. With .NET 2.0, there are a number of new methods to simplify asynchronous development. These can be found in web pages, in ADO.NET, in Web Services and other ASP.NET 2.0 functionality. This session will e...(truncated)...
My ASPNET Podcast Interview with Jason Gaylord
(Indexed 2006-07-29):
Jason Gaylord interviewed me last week for the ASPNetPodcast website after I spoke at the DotNetValley user group that he leads. I was impressed with the questions he asked me as it was clear he had done some research. But I think I still surprised him a little with a few of my answers! :-) Here's the list of recent shows. Mine is #59.[Image]
ClickOnce Desktop Shortcuts - A serious update to a previous post
(Indexed 2006-07-28):
EATING CROW! I wrote in May about getting a desktop shortcut with ClickOnce. I have finally discovered a big flaw (well, two actually) in that method. This post explains the flaw and offers up a much better solution! [read more ...] [A DevLife post][Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: Windows C/C++ Software Developer in Williston VT
(Indexed 2006-07-27):
MicroStrain, Inc., a leading microminiature sensor developer, is seeking a Visual C++ developer responsible for creating and maintaining their flagship, wireless sensor network application, Agile-Link. Qualified candidates will be required to write documentation for Agile-Links development, code design, and testing. In addition, candidates must have strong teamwork skills to interact with various engineers, sales, and support staff in the development of custom applications and sof...(truncated)...
INETA Pennsylvania Tour: Powerpoints and Demos
(Indexed 2006-07-26):
I'm finally recovering from my whirlwind trip of three .NET User Groups in Pennsylvania last week. Thanks to INETA fr enabling me to go an to the u.g. leaders for inviting me. Here are links to the powerpoints and demos on my website. I have also given your u.g. leaders permission to put them on your u.g. websites as well, so you may find them there too. Tuesday July 18th: Central Penn .NET: Introduction to Tablet PC Web Development. This was an interesting talk to do. We went...(truncated)...
Fun with VS2005 Debugger Display Attributes
(Indexed 2006-07-22):
I had forgotten how much fun it is to show off the new Debugger Display attributes in VS2005. A recent talk at an INETA user group in Pennsylvania got me thinking about them again... [read more] [A DevLife post] Posted from BLInk![Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: VB Software Developer at one of my favorite local software companies
(Indexed 2006-07-15):
I worked at Synergy Software when I first moved to Vermont. My original motivation was that Rich and I were both self-employed, and one of us needed to be on someone's payroll in order to get a mortgage for the house we were about to buy. I really loved working with this company and was torn when I knew it was time for me to go back to being a full time consultant. Not only is it a great team and a fun work environment, but the company has so much integrity - with regards to the q...(truncated)...
WPF at Vermont.NET on Monday night AND the Adapter Pattern AND awesome raffles! Lucky us!
(Indexed 2006-07-14):
MSDN DCC, Susan Wisowaty (who just so happens to live in Burlington - yeah, that's right, we had her FIRST! :-)) will be presenting an Overview of Windows Presentation Foundation (aka Avalon) this coming Monday (July 17th) at the Vermont.NET User Group. Given the great response to last month's .NET Newbie session on the Observer Pattern (by Rob Hale), this month, Mike Soulia will do the Adapter Pattern during the .NET Newbie session. Thanks to a recent INETA Swag mailing, and th...(truncated)...
All ASP.NET, all the time (these days)
(Indexed 2006-07-11):
I've been spending a lot of time with ASP.NET 2.0 lately whereas I had been focused mostly on ADO.NET and Windows Forms for quite a while. Currently I am working on some articles for aspnetPRO magazine as well as preparing a number of sessions (totaly different topics than the articles) for the Fall 2006 ASPConnections (and two for Visual Studio connections). On the flip side, I have a ClickOnce article waiting inthe wings for CoDe Magazine - it's been written, just not edited yet...(truncated)...
Have no fear of ASP.NET Control Adapters
(Indexed 2006-07-10):
I used to think Control Adapters were for asp.net gurus, but then I got brave and started using them. They're not scary at all. Here's a short & sweet, high-level overview of them ....[read more...] [A DevLife post] Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org[Image]
July INETA Pennsylvania User Group "Tour"
(Indexed 2006-07-06):
It's happened again. Not one, but three user groups in one trip! Here's the schedule of my July INETA user group speaking tour: Tuesday, July 18th: Central Penn .NET, Harrisburg PA, "Developing Ink Applications with the Tablet PC SDK" Wednesday, July 19th: Lehigh Valley.NET, Bethlehem PA, "Customized Debugging in Visual Studio 2005" Thursday, July 20th: Dot Net Valley, Wilkes Barre PA, "Five Scary Things about .NET (That Don't Have To Be)" The icing on the cake is that after...(truncated)...
Roman Rehak - Newest MVP in Vermont!
(Indexed 2006-07-04):
Hip hip hooray! Roman Rehak has been awarded an MVP for SQL Server. Roman co-leads the Vermont SQL Server User group (with Laura Blood) and has been track chair for SQL PASS and the DevTeach SQL Track for a number of years. As far as I know, there are now four MVPs in Vermont. Zoe Hart has also been one for a while and she works at the same company as Roman in Burlington. Anne Stanton is on the NH/VT border and runs a small business server group and is a total CRM guru. [Image]
NH/VT Upper Valley IT Professionals meeting: July 18th
(Indexed 2006-07-03):
NH/VT Upper Valley IT Professionals July Meeting The next meeting is going to be in the morning!! In fact we are switching to either a morning or lunch time format. So mark your calendars. When: July 18th Time: 9 - 11:00 am Where: The Howe Library, Hanover, NH www.thehowe.org Subject: The Human Disasters: How to prepare for when key personal can't get to the office. Ho...(truncated)...
Excellent "starting a user group" story and advice...
(Indexed 2006-07-01):
The Igloo Coder (aka Donald Belcham) who is the president of the Edmonton .NET User Group, has written a wonderful series of posts about his experiences and lessons of starting up that group along with a posse of others. I love that he talks about things like motivation in addition to more practical matters. Highly recommended reading. Also, INETA has been doing a series of webcasts about starting and running a user group. Check them out at live.ineta.org.[Image]
Vermont IT Jobs: .NET Developer in Burlington area
(Indexed 2006-06-28):
This is an informal first pass at looking for an experienced .NET developer living in (or willing to move to) the Burlington VT area. I have a client that is ready to hire their own full time developer and hopefully grow a small team over the next year. You will be building a Smart Client app from the ground up using the latest (released) tools from Microsoft: VS2005, SQL Server 2005. eBay API experience is a big plus. Exper...(truncated)...
In Newfoundland, Canada
(Indexed 2006-06-26):
Continuing our INETA Atlantic Provinces tour, Rich & I have been in Newfoundland since Friday. We are staying with Amanda Murphy and Shane Perran who have been fantastic hosts and tour guides. Amanda runs St. John's .NET User Group, the local user group where I am speaking tonight. She is also a board member of INETA. But most importantly, since we met in the blogosphere a few years ago, I think more of Amanda as a little sister. We have been having a blast here! For those of yo...(truncated)...
DataSets are for Dummies
(Indexed 2006-06-25):
Okay - the post title is meant to be facetious, but this blog post on my DevLife blog is some early thoughts on the ADO.NET vnext whitepapers and some of the ORM community's reaction to them as well. [read more ...] [A DevLife post][Image]
Nova Scotia.NET and some tourism, too
(Indexed 2006-06-24):
Yesterday Rich and I drove from New Brunswick, where I had spoken at the local .NET User Group, to Halifax Nova Scotia, about a 2 1/2 hour drive. Before heading into the city, we drove out the coast a bit to an absolutely-not-to-be-missed treasure of Nova Scotia called Peggy's Cove. Peggy's Cove is a very historic fishing village that provided respite from the wind but easy access to great fishing. It is a beautiful rocky place with a famous lighthouse that also houses the local pos...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Contract .NET Developer
(Indexed 2006-06-22):
Technical Connection, Inc contract.Net Developer Summary: This position is responsible for the design, development, implementation and support of systems for our Vermont based client. Essential Duties and Responsibilities: ...(truncated)...
Fundy Bay
(Indexed 2006-06-20):
Last night I did an INETA event in Moncton New Brunswick (northeastern Canada). We came early and spent the weekend in the Bay of Fundy area. The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world thanks not only to the shape of the bay, but the fact that the amount of time that it takes for the tide to move into the bay happens to be the same amount of time between low & high tide (6 hrs 13 min) . The tides can be up to 46 feet high! We stayed in Fundy National Park the first night ...(truncated)...
The World Famous Sticky Buns of Alma, New Brunswick
(Indexed 2006-06-20):
On our second day in Fundy National Park, we went to Alma for breakfast. We had a yummy classic diner breakfast of eggs, bacon & toast, then I headed over to the local baker, Kelly's Bakery, to get a sandwich for our hike. I ordered the sandwich while enjoying the smell of the sticky buns that had just come out of the oven. Everyone coming in was ordering sticky buns. Then asking me (an obvious out of towner) didn't you get any sticky buns? No, but they smell great. But you must hav...(truncated)...
TechEd is to the World Cup as an INETA presentation in Canada is to ...
(Indexed 2006-06-19):
Tonight is the last game of the Stanley Cup. Edmonton and Raleigh have both won three games so this is it. I was really surprised that the attendees of the New Brunswick .NET user group stayed for the whole meeting. Even my husband is at the local pub cheering on the Edmonton Oilers! Posted from BLInk![Image]
ADO.NET v3 Whitepapers online
(Indexed 2006-06-17):
Thanks to Fabrice for pointing out that the whitepapers for the next gen ADO.NET are online. I am really excited abut this stuff. I'm printing them out for my airplane reading. (Which is wholly unlike me!) I better get back to packing! Next Generation Data Access ADO.NET Entity Framework Overview [Image]
Data Access in the Atlantic Provinces
(Indexed 2006-06-16):
Tomorrow I leave for a trip that I am really excited about. I am going to speak to INETA user groups in some of the most beautiful places in North America: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. These are places I have wanted to visit for most of my adult life. I'll be talking about Advanced Data Access in ADO.NET 2.0 on the first two nights and the ADO.NET 2.0/SQL Server 2005 Integration on the third. In between talking about data,I will be kayaking in the Bay of Fundy, tou...(truncated)...
Pablo Castro on ADO.NET 3.0
(Indexed 2006-06-12):
I am still in Vermont and missed Pablo's ADO.NET 3.0 talk. Kent Tegels was there though... [read more ...] [A DevLife post][Image]
ADO.NET Tech Ed meetup Tuesday early evening
(Indexed 2006-06-10):
Jonathan Bruce from DataDirect has organized a data access geek meetup with ADO.NET Technical Lead Pablo Castro (who's name I must mention 10 times every time I do an ADO.NET talk!) and Bob Beauchemin on Tuesday afternoon from 4pm to 6pm. There is limited space at this event, so head over to his blog for details![Image]
ASP.NET 2.0 Illustrated: pant pant
(Indexed 2006-06-09):
I am looking forward to being able to get my hands on the RTM version of the ASP.NET 2.0 book that Alex Homer & Dave Sussman have coming out TechEd. The previous versions (alpha and beta) were also co-authored by Rob Howard. I have great expectations for this final version, that is written against the final release of ASP.NET 2.0 [Image][Image]
Presenting an MSDN Webcast, my first solo experience
(Indexed 2006-06-08):
I just did my first solo MSDN webcast today. Being the worrywart that I am, I was a little nervous. Here's the lowdown ...hopefully useful for other first timers! [read more....] [A DevLife post][Image]
WSE3.0 WebCast: Powerpoint and Sample code online
(Indexed 2006-06-08):
I have posted my version of the powerpoint (not the pretty MSDN version since I don't have that) and the sample code from today's Intro to WSE 3.0 webcast. You can find them on my TALKS page. Scroll down to Introduction to.... and you'll see the zip and ppt files. Thanks to all who attended! I hear there was a snafu with the survey and MP3 Raffle and that emails will be sent out to attendees on how to get back in the game (within 24 hours, they told me)[Image]
Demos just don't work like real life
(Indexed 2006-06-08):
I did an MSDN Webcast today on Introducing WSE 3.0. Since I had an unusually short amount of time to get through all of my demos,I practiced them over and over (even though they were old hat to me ;-)) just to make sure nothing unexpected happen. On the very last demo, where I created a new Policy that had "SecureConversation" turned on, it threw an error when I ran the client side app. There was not time to deal with the error and since I knew I had done everything correctly, I mov...(truncated)...
Debugging that nasty VS2005 Windows Forms designer error
(Indexed 2006-06-05):
I have definitely had this screen and fuddled my way through making it go away. I wish I had seen thisarticle! [Image][Image]
Programming in VBA - kinda like typing with your fists
(Indexed 2006-06-05):
Okay, bad analogy... I admit it. But it's early and I've only had one cupajoe. I was helping someone out with some VBA code in their Access 2003 database. (It was not a situation where moving to VSTO was an option, in case you were about to suggest that.) I was just helping them get something working. It's really painful coding in VBA after years of .NET, not only the IDE experience, but going backwards with things like instantiating a variable (which you ...(truncated)...
Hey Wally, April Fools is on April 1st, not June 1st!
(Indexed 2006-06-05):
http://weblogs.asp.net/wallym/archive/2006/06/04/Sql-Server-...(truncated)... Forget: www.acehaid.org[Image]
Some of the dumb things I have done with ASP.NET 2.0 Membership: Intellisense and provider configuration
(Indexed 2006-06-04):
There will surely be more posts like this on this blog. This one talks about the being a little overzealous with password security on a user group website applicationName element in membership provider config and intellisense in web.config. [read more....] [A DevLife post] Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org[Image]
In the "I just cannot keep up with all of this stuff" category: Database becomes part of VSTS
(Indexed 2006-06-04):
DataDude - the Database Developer Team System SKU Now what I wanna know is if Red Gate has a role in this? (by way of Kimberly Tripp's post: "DBAs definitely should NOT read this blog entry...") Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org[Image]
Vermont.NET User Group Site:Showcasing a bunch of ASP.NET 2.0 features
(Indexed 2006-05-31):
I have finally made the v2 of the Vermont.NET site live. It's an ASP.NET 2.0 with SQL Server 2005 on the back end. I challenged myself to use lots of new ASP.NET 2.0 features that I hadn't played with yet. [Read more ...] [A DevLife post] Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org
Web Services/WCF WebCasts Series in June: I'll be doing the WSE 3.0 Overview one
(Indexed 2006-05-30):
Kirk Allen Evans has organized some of the top WCF/Web Services gurus (and me,too!) to do a web cast series through June. For those of you securing web services TODAY, my webcast will be Overview of WSE 3.0 . June 8th at 11am EST (that's 8am PST). More info here Also oooh aah a raffle for attendees!! Attend any webcast in this series and qualify to win a 40 gigabyte Creative Zen MP3 player (official rules). Here is the full of the schedule The Lifetime of a Message in Wi...(truncated)...
So you want to start a user group? (or get ideas to improve on one?): Wed May 31st
(Indexed 2006-05-29):
Dave Noderer, Jason Beres and I will be doing an INETA Live webcast this Wednesday, May 31st at 3:30 EST, about Starting a User Group. Dave started and runs one of the larger groups (a consortium of groups, actually) in the U.S., Florida .NET, which Jason helped start. I started and run Vermont.NET, one of the smaller groups in the U.S. With our involvement in INETA oer the years, Dave and I have talked with many many user group leaders and done lots of hand holding to groups th...(truncated)...
What lucky geeks you are! A new MSDN DCC.
(Indexed 2006-05-28):
MSDN has added another female Developer Community Champion to it's ranks. Meet Lindsay Rutter: [Image]> Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Southern California, Virginia, West Virginia http://blogs.msdn.com/lindsay How many Microsoft presenters can claim they were locked in at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Mira Sorvino? Lindsay, for one. Its a story youll have to get strai...(truncated)...
MSDN Webcast Series: End-to-end Reporting Services for SQL Server 2005
(Indexed 2006-05-28):
MSDN DCC (and our local Burlington, VT based pride and joy) Susan Wisowaty started her 6 part Reporting Services series this month. If you missed the first three, there are 3 more to go in June! Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org
The misnomer of SSL Certificates
(Indexed 2006-05-27):
This has always been a big point of confusion, both for developers (like me) and admins. SSL Certificates are misnamed. They are not for SSL only. I wish all of the CA's would just call them "Web Server Certificates". How and where you install them determines whether or not they are used for SSL. I remember my first conversation with tech support at Verisign trying to find out how much one cost. This was when I was playing with WSE 1.0. I was extreme...(truncated)...
Is VS2005 what the hold-out VB6 developers were waiting for?
(Indexed 2006-05-27):
Interesting comments from Rocky Lhotka ... [read more...] [A DevLife post] Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org
How FAJAX saved my website - goodbye refresh flashing!
(Indexed 2006-05-26):
I remember Steven Smith sitting right here in my office over in the LazyBoy chair behind me a few winters ago suddenly saying "wow, look at this cool effect" and showed me a website that had pages fade in and out of each other. By the next day ASPAlliance had the same effect! You see it a lot on sites now. Leon Bambrick wrote a funny post showing how the use of this can eliminate most of the awful page refresh flashes. He called it FAJAX (as in Fake AJAX), since it accomplishes in...(truncated)...
Using your own sql database for ASP.NET 2.0 membership
(Indexed 2006-05-26):
I seem to be getting this question through my blog and elsewhere often enough to justify a post about it even though there are many great (and more detailed) articles on this topic. How do you use your own SQL database for ASP.NET 2.0 Membership instead of the default SQLExpress database. The default db is configured under the covers as a membership provider. What you need to do is override this in web.config. Note that you will have to do this for roles and personalization as w...(truncated)...
Mega User Group Meeting at TechEd!! Monday night June 12th.
(Indexed 2006-05-23):
New England Mega User Group Meeting Developing with .NET in 2006 -- What's Hot and What's Not Register Now! Monday, June 12, 2006 Boston Convention Center/TechEd 2006, Boston, MA 6:30-9:30 p.m. Room information will be posted here before the event Panel and Mini-Cabana Discussions Do you develop in the world of Microsoft .NET? Would you like to know more about .NET technologies? If you answered yes to either question, don't miss thi...(truncated)...
ASP.NET 2.0? Don't forget to check cross browser support!
(Indexed 2006-05-21):
I did. For shame, eh? I have been playing with a new Vermont.NET user group website and using lots of new asp.net 2.0 UI features. I put it up and quickly got a reminder from ASPInsider, Aaron Seet, (who I'm grateful to for checking) that there were some messy areas when he opened it up in FireFox. I don't, well didn't, even have FireFox on my computer. So I downloaded it and saw the mess right away. I wasn't sure how to fix it at first, but after looking at that page in the d...(truncated)...
www.vtdotnet.org v2.0
(Indexed 2006-05-20):
I finally put the new ASP.NET 2.0 version of the Vermont.NET website up. I have been using it as a playground to finally fiddle with the new UI stuff as well as recently released projects. I have not moved all of the content over from the original site. It doesn't have any Atlas on it yet, but give me time. :-) There is a page called About this Site that highlights all of the features I experimented with for the site so far.Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org
Vermont IT Jobs: Project Coordinator for Technology Center
(Indexed 2006-05-19):
[Found in SevenDays] www.burlingtonhousing.org The Burlington Housing Authority is looking for a full-time Project Coordinator to manage a NEW 12 Computer Technology Center at Decker Towers serving low-income seniors, persons with disabilities and families. The ideal candidate should be detail-oriented and organized, possess strong written and verbal communication skills as well as computer skills. The coordinator will manage the Cen...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: IT Specialist for State of Vermont Dept. of Education
(Indexed 2006-05-19):
IT Specialist III for Department of Education [Found in SevenDays] www.vermontpersonnel.org bettyfrederick(at)education.state.vt.us (Anticipated Opening) We are seeking an experienced network administrator who is proficient in Windows 2003, Linux and Apache to join our team. You should have experience configuring and managing I...(truncated)...
Vermont User Groups: VT Area Group of Unix Enthusiasts: May 18
(Indexed 2006-05-18):
Wow - I didn't know about this group until just now and they are having a meeting tonight! VAGUE Date: May 18th Time: 7pm Topic: A general presentation on network security and exploits by Sam Hooker will be followed by a portion on PHP-specific issues from Jim Grady of Code4Design. The presentations will be followed by an informal organizational meeting about the group's activities Location: ClearBearing 208 Fl...(truncated)...
Vermont User Groups: NH/VT Upper Valley IT Professional
(Indexed 2006-05-18):
June 20: What is in Your Toolkit? Location: The Howe Library, Hanover, NH Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm More info: http://thenorwichgroup.blogs.com/uppervalleynhvtsbs/ Local Groups Vermont.NET> (Burlington) VTSQL (Burlington) Green Mountain Oracle User Group (Burlington) Vermont Flash User Group (Burlington) Ruby on Rails (B...(truncated)...
Vermont User Groups: VTSQL June 19th
(Indexed 2006-05-18):
www.vtsql.org When: Monday 6/19 - 6 to 8pm Where: Competitive Computing - Colchester Subject: What's new in SQL Reporting Services 2005 Presentor: Susan Wisowaty, Microsoft Local Groups Vermont.NET (Burlington) VTSQL (Burlington) Green Mountain Oracle User Group (Burlington) Vermont Flash User Group (Burlington) Ruby on Rails (Burlingt...(truncated)...
ASP.NET Contract Job (18 months): Cleveland Ohio area
(Indexed 2006-05-18):
Location: Independence, OH Duration: 18 Months Compensation: $70-$80/hr. (40hr/week) Skill Set: C#, ASP.NET, SQL Brief Description: The Client is working on Version 2 of their Dealer Software. The lifecycle takes about 12 months for each version, and there will be some maintenance involved with the previous version, as well. The software is being developed in VS.NET 2003 using C#, WinForms, and WebServices with a SQL Server 2000 backend. ...(truncated)...
INETA Speaking "Tours"
(Indexed 2006-05-16):
Somehow, almost everytime I schedule an INETA speaking event, I end up getting asked to speak at another nearby group as long as I'm there. Why not? I say. It's fun, and I control my schedule. Luckily, the user group leaders have been flexible enough so that I can do the talks on consecutive nights. I have 3, not 4 such trips coming up. The first is a twist on the concept: my "Atlantic Provinces Tour". I am speaking at 3 groups in Canada's Atlan...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Two .NET Jobs at MyWebGrocer in Burlington
(Indexed 2006-05-16):
www.MyWebGrocer.com is seeking bright, motivated, energetic and inquisitive software developers. Projects vary from E-Commerce and Handheld PDA applications to Interactive Web Solutions. We are a dedicated team that is looking for additional developers who share our enthusiasm and focus in developing market leading solutions. The successful applicant will have experience with ASP.NET, C#, SQL, CSS, JavaScript and Visual Studio.NET. Exposure ...(truncated)...
LINQ and ASP.NET from Scott Guthrie, the How-To Machine
(Indexed 2006-05-15):
Scott Guthrie's blog has turned into one of the best resources on future ASP.NET related bits. Each of his posts lately, is a complete article on how to get started with a particular technology that ties into ASP.NET, complete with screenshots and code. The latest is Using LINQ with ASP.NET (part 1). Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org
Vermont Software Developer Alliance May Meeting with Thom Robbins from Microsoft!
(Indexed 2006-05-15):
www.vtsda.org Wednesday, May 17, 2006Speaker - Thom Robbins, Microsoft NewEngland Topic - Trends in Software DevelopmentSoftware development is changing at light speed. Gone are the days of single persondevelopment. Team based development with faster cycle times and quality code are becominga driving force in the industry. Of course that doesnt negate the need for securityand standards. Well it may look murky but there are several trends that every softwaredeveloper should keep an eye on as th...(truncated)...
Vista versions keep on rolling
(Indexed 2006-05-14):
Last week I downloaded version 5365 of Vista. Today I finally had some time and went to burn the image onto a DVD to install onto my laptop, only to discover that 5381 was now available. I have mid-speed DSL so these suckers take a good 12 hours to download! But it didn't make sense not to get the latest, so I'm now closing in on hour ten and hopefully will get a peek at the latest sometime tonight. Much of this is thanks to Kate Gregory's blog post about h...(truncated)...
DevTeach Day 1
(Indexed 2006-05-10):
What fun to be here at DevTeach! The day started out with being woken up by the slamming of the door of a nearby hotel room - a good thing in my case since it was 7:45 and Alan Griver's LiNQ keynote was at 8am - and NOT to be missed! I took a lot of notes during his talk and I'm even more excited about LiNQ now. I'll write more about that in another post. There is a fantastic collection of speakers here - many of whom I've become friends with over the...(truncated)...
Databases? Objects? Where do you store your data?
(Indexed 2006-05-10):
Some big brains duke it out over objects vs databases at the DevTeach panel. Read more...>[A DevLife post]Posted from BLInk!
ASP.NET 2.0 Challenge: How many new ASP.NET 2.0 features can you incorporate into one site?
(Indexed 2006-05-08):
Now that I finally have some time to write a new version of the VTdotNET site, I wanted to try to get my hands on as many of the new key ASP.NET 2.0 toys as I can. [read more ...] [A DevLife post] Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org
DevTeach bound! Yay!
(Indexed 2006-05-08):
Though I sadly had to miss this weekends Code Camp 5: Code Frenzy in Waltham (stay tuned here for a report from Dave), I will get 3 days of communing with geeks up in Montreal at DevTeach. This is DevTeach's fourth year. It is a fun smallish (200-300?) conference in a beautiful city with a host of top-notch speakers. I am proud to be countedin the ranks of this great group of presenters. The pre-con is today, the post-con on Friday, with the main conference running from Tuesday...(truncated)...
Spring Vermont Treats this evening: a summer-like night, a Moose and a Woodcock
(Indexed 2006-05-05):
We got a call from our neighbor telling us there was a moose heading up the road. So we ran out and there it was just at the corner of our property. I ran back to get my camera while Rich and our neighbor Tom watched him (I think it was a male). It was bent down on it's front knees eating grass. Though it wasn't quite dusk, I couldn't get a good picture. The flash, I now realize, was focusing on the white street sign and everything else was dark. Without the flash it was blurry. S...(truncated)...
May INETA NORAM Newsletter is out
(Indexed 2006-05-04):
The May 2006 INETA NORAM Newsletter is out and there is a wonderful article in there by INETA Speaker Kathleen Dollard on a recent 3-user group tour to the Gulf Coast region. Kathleen also donated all of her honorariums for the user group events to local organizations and makes some suggestions how we can continue to help this still devasted area. Also in the newsletter is information about the success of Deeper in .NET which was a full day event put on by the Wiscosin .NET user g...(truncated)...
Huntsville Alabama VS.NET User Group
(Indexed 2006-05-03):
(will plug in links when I get home) Today I flew from Burlington to Detroit to Huntsville, Alabama to speak at the Huntsville VS.NET User Group. Lori McKinney was a wonderful host. Lori reads my blog and knows about my donut woes and actually bought me my very own doughnuts (for people who leave the state to go to work!) - yes dOUGHnuts, not just donuts. She also put togehter a goodie bag of great Huntsville mementos. Huntsville is an incredibly historic city with amazing antebel...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Job: (well New Hampshire) .NET Software Engineer
(Indexed 2006-05-01):
Software Engineer positon in the Lebanon, New Hampshire. The qualified candidate will work as a member of a software development team designing, developing and unit testing company applications. Company applications provide billing, account management and energy analysis functionality for utility customers. Requirements The successful applicant will possess the following qualifications: 2 + years software development and progra...(truncated)...
The new improved Alentus web host
(Indexed 2006-04-29):
Alentus has always been one of the ASP.NET hosts out in the front of the pack. It is where my own website and also the Vermont.NET site is hosted for nearly 4 years. I just happened to cruise to their home page and saw that it has been totally spiffed up! That struck me because I have watched their "visual branding" evolve over the years. They really now finally have a good solid look that evokes the professionals that they are. I also see they're now hosting WordPress and DotN...(truncated)...
More thoughts on TabletPC Killer App
(Indexed 2006-04-27):
This is definitely something that's on my mind a lot. I'm not marketing person and it's not something I've been tasked with by a marketing person or the TabletPC team. It's just something that keeps popping up and is very interesting to me. This weekend while visiting friends outside of Madison, WI after Deeper in .NET, I learned that my friend's partner, a painting contractor who is extremely non-technical, has a TabletPC. [read more ...] ...(truncated)...
Pictures from Deeper in .NET and Wisconsin
(Indexed 2006-04-26):
Some pics of my fun trip to Deeper in .NET in Wisconsin and a look around WI afterwards! Flying out of Burlington VT, I finally got a decent picture of Lake Champlain. Of course this is nothing compared to what I was looking at. [Image] Flying into Chicago here is the torquoise Lake Michigan. [Image]>> [Image] Avonelle and Val> >[Image] Bill Hatfied and Korby Parnell> ...(truncated)...
Next stops for speaking
(Indexed 2006-04-26):
Milwaukee was great at Deeper in .NET. I wrote a littl about that this morning over here. Next week I go to Huntsville, Alabama as an INETA speaker to talk about Advanced Data Access Techniques with ADO.NET 2.0. Then the next week is DevTeach in Montreal. Hopefully it will be springier there than it is here! Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org
Korby Parnell's report from Deeper in .NET
(Indexed 2006-04-22):
I was nicely surprised to see Korby Parnell in Milwaukee at Deeper in .NET. Luckily for me, the one session I had to miss, Scott Hanselman's (I was in my room doing one last run through of my talk), Korby has laid out in detail. But not so much technically as about what an unbelievabley phenomenal presenter Scott is. I laughed when I read that Scott makes fun of VB programmers who comment using this '//this is my comment which I do i...(truncated)...
Taste of Milwaukee and Wisconsin at Deeper in .NET
(Indexed 2006-04-22):
I'm in Milwaukee for the Deeper in .NET event that is happening today. Five speakers back to back all day starting with Michele Leroux Bustamante doing a talk on WCF, then Scott Hanselman, my (data access talk), Bill Hatfield and Jason Beres. I hear there are nearly 500 people registered. Wow! Yesterday I had a great look at and taste of some of the specialties of the area. My first surprise was the Bloody Mary that had something a little different in it [Image] Yes, in betw...(truncated)...
Code Camp 5 Waltham Mass - keep on submitting those abstracts
(Indexed 2006-04-21):
Code Camp 5 is only in a few more weeks. The abstract list is looking a little light (although Thom could be just having a hard time deciding from to many?) But it's not too late to submit your talks and certainly not too late to register. Here are the details. I'm still on the fence since I have to drive to Montreal on Monday for DevTeach where I give one talk a day for three days. Waltham is about 4 hours southeast of where I live and Montreal is about 3 hours north. So you can ...(truncated)...
Joel Spolsky's Chicken and Egg Theory and TabletPCs
(Indexed 2006-04-20):
Joel Spolsky's May 2000 article on the Chicken and the Egg Problem seems like a good place to look for solving the adoption problems of the Tablet PC (remember "Mobile PC" now) which is discussed endessly by Tablet PC developer ("make tablets easier to buy so people will buy our software!") and the manufacturers ("make more software so people will want to buy our tablets!"). [read more ...] [A DevLife post] Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org
DevConnections Decks and Demos all on line
(Indexed 2006-04-18):
Now that all three of my DevConnections powerpoint decks and demos are online, I just wanted to have one post for linking to them all. If you were an attendee of ASPConnections or Visual Studio Connections, you should have password access to this stuff on the DevConnections site. Otherwise, they are on the presentations page of my pwn website. On that page, the talk are listed alphabetically. Look for: Advanced Data Access Patterns with ADO.NET 2.0 Five (Supposed...(truncated)...
The great WSDL debate
(Indexed 2006-04-18):
Some very knowledgable people are debating WSDL first. I think reading these types of threads where you get not only people's opinions of pros and cons, but the why's start getting answered too. It starts with Craig Andera's post about protecting himself (and the world) from poorly written WSDLs by implementing iXMLSerializable. This post woke Tim Ewald out of his blog slumber who, as a big contract first proponent,thinks that Craig's ...(truncated)...
Thanks Wisconsin! Cabot Cheese - World's Best Cheddar Again!
(Indexed 2006-04-18):
As I get ready to head to Wisconsin for Deeper in .NET, I see that Vermont's Cabot Cheese has once again won a bunch of gold medals at the "olympics of the cheesemaking industry", the 2006 World Championship Cheese contest. And just to be clear, it was the Wisonsinites who run this contest so thanks Wisconsin! from the Cabot site: 26th Biennial World Championship Cheese Contest Selected Results March 21-23, 2006 in Madison, Wisconsin Results for Cabot Creamery Cooperat...(truncated)...
Maple trees are budding
(Indexed 2006-04-18):
I took this pic of one of the red maples on our property yesterday morning. Kinda gray but the buds are pretty. the picture wasn't impressive in a small format, but it looks so nice big that I have it for my screen background now. Spring is coming. Yay! [Image]> Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org
Sudoku addiction targets the developer community
(Indexed 2006-04-17):
It's everywhere it's everywhere! And now it's even on MSDN, too! [read more...] [A DevLife post] Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org
WSE3 Demos recorded in Camtasia
(Indexed 2006-04-16):
I recorded my basic "Securing a web service with WSE 3" demo using Camtasia. There are two versions of this. In the 30 minute version, I spend a lot of time looking at config and policy files as well as tracing and debugging while implementing the security. The shorter 15 minute version does not take any stops along the way although we do inspect the trace file at the very end just to prove that the message was secu...(truncated)...
Vermont IT Jobs: Green Mountain Power: IT Point person (interpretor for the development team)
(Indexed 2006-04-13):
Green Mountain Power IT Point Person Do you have great programming and communication skills? Were looking for an energetic professional to join our programming team who has that rare mix of programming and people skills. If you like a fast paced user-driven environment working on a wide-variety of systems, we have a great job for you. You will be the point person for a high-powered software team responsible for triaging requests, writing ...(truncated)...
Vermont.NET: Five Supposedly Scary Things in .NET powerpoint and demos online
(Indexed 2006-04-13):
The demos from my talk on Monday night at Vermont.NET are on the TALKS page of my website. They are listed alphabetically, so look under "F" for "Five..." The link to the PPT and ZIP files is below the session description. I'll get them onto the Vermont.NET website shortly. Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org
CoDe Magazine: Ink on the Web and Query Notification demo code is online
(Indexed 2006-04-13):
Code Samples from my two latest CoDe Magazine artcles: Ink on the Web SQL Server 2005 Query Notifications Tell .NET 2.0 Apps When Critical Data Changes are on the "articles" page of my website. Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org
DevConnections Demos and presentations online
(Indexed 2006-04-13):
I have been doing a bit of organizing and gotten the following two sessions from DevConnections on-line. Advanced Data Access with ADO.NET 2.0 Five (Supposedly) Scary Things about .NET These can be found on the "talks" page of my website. The talks are listed alphabetically with links to the PPT and ZIP files just after the descriptions. I still have to package up the code from the third talk: "Preparing WSE3 Web Services for WCF Clients". Don't Forget: www....(truncated)...
SQL Permissions for SQLNotificationRequest in ADO.NET 2.0
(Indexed 2006-04-12):
Though I have the necessary permissions for using SqlDependency almost memorized (as well as documented in my presentations and my new CoDe Mag article on Query Notification), I tend to forget that when using the lower level SqlNotificationRequest, that you need permissions to send and receive on your custom services and queues. Here's how to do that and here is the MSDN Documentation on the same. In this example, the ASPNET account is the ...(truncated)...