PCHenry.com

Blog - The new WP7 Beta is available! YAHOO!

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:16:00 GMT

"YAHOO!" "FINALLY!" "About freak'n TIME!" If those are some of the things you've been muttering...

Blog - What's the BEST (motivational) program in the world!

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:25:00 GMT

Ever wonder what's the best program in the world? iPad? Windows 3.11? Windows 7? Facebo...

Blog - Sara Ford's VS 2010 Tips presentation, check out the cool tips and analysis!

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 05:34:00 GMT

If you are a Visual Studio Ninja, or fany yourself a VS guru, chances are good you know who Sa...

Blog - Sometimes being disconnected is a good thing, "network access optional" as a feature?

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 05:35:00 GMT

Microsoft's been talking about "Three screens and the cloud" for a little while now and this conce...

Blog - AHA! THERE we go, about time, you don't need Java anymore! And here's the stats!

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 06:43:00 GMT

For those of you who know me, I dabbled a bit in the dark side, yes, I did some Java developme...

Blog - About time Apple copies Microsoft! Xcode copies some good features from Visual Studio

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 06:25:00 GMT

Apple finally updated their main development platform, Xcode with a version 4 release earlier ...

Blog - Microsoft's Next Gen Marketplace, what's in store?

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:25:00 GMT

This is what new WP7 devs have been waiting for! The "old" MS Marketplace was NOTHING like iTunes...

Blog - Ready to make your WP7 go live? Check out the requirements

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:29:00 GMT

Today at TechEd 2010 in New Orleans , new WP7 Application Certification Requirements were release...

Blog - I just got my WP7 phone (kind of...)

Sun, 30 May 2010 00:07:00 GMT

This week I read an article by Håkan Reis who created a paper prototype you too can print out and...

Blog - (Some) TechDays 2010 details are up! YAHOO!

Fri, 14 May 2010 06:59:00 GMT

Microsoft TechDays 2010 preliminary details are now up! Very cool! Check out the track details...

Blog - When is a a double an int? When you least expect it for DataTables apparently!

Thu, 13 May 2010 06:55:00 GMT

Today I ran SMACK into a very interesting problem. Let me set it up for you. I have a DataT...

Blog - WP7 April refresh? Do YOUR WP7 apps work now? Mine don't!

Tue, 11 May 2010 05:33:00 GMT

Ok, so you've heard about the WP7 "April Refresh" which lets you install the latest'n'greatest...

Blog - One SURE sign your team is maturing with Agile!

Thu, 06 May 2010 06:26:00 GMT

At my company, we've been doing Agile dev for over a year now, and I believe we've been truely doi...

Blog - Have you tried using Math.Round() before? Did you REALLY test it out?

Tue, 04 May 2010 05:38:00 GMT

Friday I was given a bug, no big deal right? We've all gotten bugs with ambigious algorithms ...

Blog - "Perky Peter" and constructive criticism from my OITD presentation last Sat

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 07:18:00 GMT

This year I participated in the Ottawa IT Day at Algonquin College along with Colin Melia , ...

Blog - About time, Microsoft's competing product to the iPad!

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 06:47:00 GMT

Two months ago, I bought (and returned, DOH!) an Apple iPod Touch . The most attractive feat...

Blog - Why is XAML so long/confusing/verbose?

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 06:07:00 GMT

If you've started doing any WPF or Silverlight developing, you're familiar with XAML. That's the ...

Blog - Things you learn when you don't expect! ODNC study group analysis

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 05:29:00 GMT

In the last two years, I've participated in a number of Microsoft certification exam study group...

Blog - Windows Phone 7 emulator WON'T work on an Atom netbook

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 07:42:00 GMT

While preparing for my Ottawa IT Day presentation on Saturday, I had a bit of a rude awakening! ...

Blog - My presentation at Ottawa IT Day (OITD) 2010

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:57:00 GMT

This year I participated in the Ottawa IT Day at Algonquin College along with Colin Melia , ...

Blog - Are you getting a useless compile error while compiling your WP7 app with Bing Maps SL user control?

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:20:00 GMT

This week, Colin Melia , Louis-Philippe Pinsonneault , Sylvain Boucher and I did a day of ...

Blog - What's the non-breaking whitespace code in XAML?

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 08:33:00 GMT

We've all been there in the past! You're writting a document and the date you're typing out wraps...

Blog - WP7 has limits on what kind of References you can use

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:36:00 GMT

Today I was talking with SB, together with CM and LP, we're working on a demo/showcase WP7 applica...

Blog - Is your WP7 app/emulator unexpectedly dying on you without warning?

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:54:00 GMT

For the last two nights, I've been fighting with my WP7 app dying on me without ANY indications of...

Blog - "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" when you try to run a WP7 app?

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 06:06:00 GMT

So! You wrote your first WP7 app? COOL! Then you goto sleep, next day you wake up, work, retu...

Blog - That's my boss!

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:52:00 GMT

Today, I read an interesting FOIA ( Freedom Of Information Act ) where my boss, Steven Davis...

Blog - VS2010 was released today! COOL! Do you do WP7 Dev? Read on before installing anything!

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:34:00 GMT

Heard the news?! VS2010 RTM (Release To Manufacturing aka Gold version aka the version everyone g...

Blog - Is this another bug with the WP7 emulator?

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:07:00 GMT

Yesterday I was playing around with my app for Ottawa IT Day and well, I thought, hhhmm wh...

Blog - HUH? Catastrophic Failure? I just changed to a Textbox, really!

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:37:00 GMT

Tonight I'm playing with WP7 trying to get ready for Ottawa IT Day . Long story short (ya, y...

Blog - Ottawa IT Day 2010 PowerPoint Template available

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 06:25:00 GMT

If you are lucky enough to be giving a presentation at the upcoming Ottawa IT Day , AND you...

Blog - Good news/bad news about WP7 Task objects

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 06:26:00 GMT

Tonight, I ran into my first instance I really, Really, REALLY want a WP7! The real deal! The ac...

Blog - Do you want the code from Ottawa IT Day? Or are you presenting and want to know how to upload your code?

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 06:18:00 GMT

If you are presenting at the Ottawa IT Day 2010 conference, chances are, you've seen an email fr...

Blog - Ottawa IT Days is coming in less than two weeks!

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 05:17:00 GMT

Ottawa IT Days 2010 is coming April 17th at Algonquin College, register now if you want CHOW for...

Blog - Are you signing up for the Mobile developer program for the WP7?

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 23:24:00 GMT

COOL! After two weeks, I'm now officially part of the "Mobile developer program." The bigg...

Blog - Breaking News, Apple announcing today iPhone 4G to run WP7 apps natively!

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:18:00 GMT

Apple Inc just announced the upcoming iPhone 4G will natively run Windows Phone 7 applicat...

Blog - Uh, when did the definition of FREE change?

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 06:33:00 GMT

Normally, I'm "fiscally responsible." Uh...hhmm if you don't know me....that's code for "I'm CH...

Blog - Sometimes the right decision is the hard one to make

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:58:00 GMT

This week I read about Microsoft's decision NOT too allow native apps onto the WP7. Who's making ...

Blog - Sometimes you just have to ignore the naysayers!

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 04:57:00 GMT

Have you ever had a "OH WOW!!!!!! That's an fantastic idea, I just have to tell someone!" moment?...

Blog - Tips'n'Tricks for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 06:26:00 GMT

When I bought my Apple iPod Touch , I vowed to learn as much about it as I possibly could. In ...

Blog - Cheapest Cable Catcher you'll ever own!

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 06:18:00 GMT

SB showed me a fantastic tip from lifehacker today to help manage loose cables. If you have...

Blog - Does your company have an iPhone/WP7/BB app yet?

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 05:13:00 GMT

Think about all the tools you use at work which are considered common place today, BUT in their ...

Blog - Want to write your OWN Twitter client for WP7? It's easier than you think!

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 06:25:00 GMT

Tonight I thought I would take a crack at ScottGu's Twitter client he "just whipped up" during ...

Blog - Joey deVilla's quick overview of MIX 2010 WP7 presentations

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:39:00 GMT

If you were like me and unable to make it to Las Vegas for Mix 2010, then you're in LUCK! Joey...

Blog - Using VS 2010 RC in place of Visual Studio 2010 Express for WP7 CTP

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:00:00 GMT

This weekend, I got a great comment from KK telling me (and my other two readers LOL), they could...

Blog - Interesting, I got the Zune software tonight in the regular Windows Updates

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:06:00 GMT

Tonight, I did a Windows Update and saw an optional Zune software install. I'm getting into the...

Blog - I think I found my first WP7 API bug?

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:01:00 GMT

Interesting. I think I found a potentail bug with the DateTime.Now API found in WP7. Last w...

Blog - The fastest splash screen you'll ever make! (for the WP7)

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:29:00 GMT

PPPPPSSSSTTTTTT Want to know a little secret?! Want to know the FASTEST way to make a splash s...

Blog - So you wanna do WP7 dev? What do you need to get started?

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:32:00 GMT

If you're like me, you're probably SO JAZZED about Microsoft Windows Phone 7, you're like a Toront...

Blog - Have you taken an Apple Survey recently? I did!

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:13:00 GMT

Today I got an email asking me about my recent Apply iPod Touch purchase. OOOOOOO I was sooooo gi...

Blog - First WP7 won't have cut'n'paste? Say it ain't so?

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:56:00 GMT

I read about the news first tonight from Colin Melia's Tweets about WP7 NOT having copy'n'paste. ...

Blog - WP7 development tools announced but Marketplace still hasn't changed

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:11:00 GMT

I got caught up in all the Windows Phone 7 excitement at MIX 2010 and tonight I tried to sign up...

Blog - MIX 2010 VIDS ONLINE!!!!! YAHOO!!!!

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:39:00 GMT

If you're like me and WISHING you could have gone to MIX 2010 but just weren't able to get away (i...

Blog - First Windows Phone 7 book announced today!

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:04:00 GMT

Today I saw a fantastic link talking about a new WP7 ebook available for a short time! And it's...

Blog - Microsoft makes a HUGE splash in the mobile market today at Mix 2010 in Vegas! And my first Hello World WP7 App!

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:41:00 GMT

Today, Microsoft announced the Windows Phone 7 development platform, and WOW!!!!!!!! What a spl...

Blog - What's the first thing you need to do to make your app "light up on Windows 7?"

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:44:00 GMT

You've decided to try doing some Windows 7 programming? COOL! But what do you need to do to dist...

Blog - Follow up from last week's ONE challenge MS has with WP7?

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:56:00 GMT

I'd like to follow up on last week's blog on What is one of Microsoft's biggest challenge going f...

Blog - A sign of things to come?

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:06:00 GMT

This week, I thought I would try to sign up on the Developer site for the Windows Phone 7 Market...

Blog - What is the ONE characteristic of a "great product?"

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:31:00 GMT

My boss (SD) gave a presentation at a company ops meetings many moons ago, and he said something t...

Blog - Pirates of Silicon Valley, fact or fiction?

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:51:00 GMT

Last night I watched the Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999), awesome movie! Very cool to see Hollyw...

Blog - What is one of Microsoft's biggest challenge going foward with WP7?

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:39:00 GMT

Next week Microsoft is going to make some BIG annoucements at MIX 2010 in Vegas (MAN I wish I coul...

Blog - Ever feel like you're beating your head against the wall?

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:32:00 GMT

You ever get put onto a task at work, go down one path and just feel like you're banging your hea...

Blog - What's the next big thing?

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:00:00 GMT

Are you a programmer? Chances are, you, well.... you are if you're reading this blog! HAHA LOL B...

Blog - Would you like a great deal from Dell and BMO? Read on for this crock of commercialism!

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:33:00 GMT

Yesterday I got an email from Dell with a few advertisements. Nothing new. I get them every few ...

Blog - Top two ways to tell your team is gelling!

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 06:17:00 GMT

...

Blog - Top ten things I want Microsoft to do to make sure Windows Phone 7 succeeds

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:30:00 GMT

There's been quite a bit of press lately about Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 7. Some of the ...

Blog - Visual Studio 2010 RC Install Review

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:18:00 GMT

In mid January, I installed Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 . The results where, well, quite honestly ...

Blog - Another cool thing about WP7, from a HW perspective

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:09:00 GMT

One of the coolest things I saw with regards to the new WP7 hardware coming out soon, isn't the 80...

Blog - What's the best thing about the upcoming Windows Phone 7 release?

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:46:00 GMT

With Ballmer's/Belfiore's Windows Phone 7 (WP7) announcement , it got me thinking, what's the B...

Blog - So long friend, it was nice while it lasted (iPod Touch I mean)

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:56:00 GMT

I've made it no secret, I bought an Apple iPod Touch two weeks ago . I bought the Touch for thre...

Blog - Introducing a new measurement index, the PTI

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 07:41:00 GMT

Are you an MBA person? Chances are you've heard about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) . At ...

Blog - Looks like iPod Touch/iPhone still has work to do on Calendaring functionality, too bad too

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:00:00 GMT

Yesterday I wrote about my HUGE frustrations I was having about my iPod Touch and typical day ti...

Blog - Did you just hear that? The sweet sound of success!

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:19:00 GMT

I can't believe it. The night started out cool, a wonderful supper with my family, special puzzle...

Blog - WARNING! iPhone/Touch users, be VERY careful with your Calendar Events!!!! Chances are high you're not seeing the whole picture!

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:14:00 GMT

For the last week, I've been working VERY hard at replacing my Day Timer. Well, tonight I've NEAR...

Blog - Another chink in the iPod Touch armour

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:50:00 GMT

Tonight I found ANOTHER major problem on my road to replace my Day Timer with my iPod Touch. No...

Blog - Easiest and cheapest way to get holidays into your iPhone/iPod Touch

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:08:00 GMT

If you bought your iPhone or your iPod Touch to replace your Day Timer, then you've probably reali...

Blog - Small chinks in Apple iPod Touch's armour?

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:41:00 GMT

Going on a week and a half of using my Apple iPod Touch and I'm starting to see some chinks in the...

Blog - Seems like I'm not the only one who sees Microsoft's WP7 challenges ahead

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:15:00 GMT

Wired Managize's Gadget lab wrote an article about Microsoft's WP7 main challenge ahead. The ...

Blog - Is that Steve Ballmer doing his "dance" at MacWorld 2010?

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:15:00 GMT

Many, many, many years ago, Steve Ballmer got up on stage at one of the Microsoft AGMs and wante...

Blog - It's time I came out of the closet, I'm now using an Apple product!

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:09:00 GMT

Lately, I've been in a quandary . You see, I'm a bit of a Microsoft fan (yes, just a bit, ...

Blog - Neat trick I found using Amazon.ca for book reviews

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:53:00 GMT

Today I was looking for a book, I found it on Amazon.ca at a GREAT price ! (no, I'm not adve...

Blog - Microsoft announces Windows Phone 7 today

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:33:00 GMT

Today Steve Ballmer announced Microsoft's (next) mobile strategy. Well, hhhhmmmm actually B...

Blog - Starting to learn iPhone development?

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:47:00 GMT

Are you looking at learning how to develop for your new iPhone/iPod Touch? If you are, very cool!...

Blog - Are you looking to get into smart phone programming? You might be interested in this analysis.

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:15:00 GMT

With Valentine's Day coming, I'm falling under a spell. Hey, not THAT kind of spell (well, with m...

Blog - What's the layman's take on the current "smart phone" market?

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:33:00 GMT

Do you have a "cell phone?" Oh, sorry, Smart Phone...do you have a Smart Phone? If it's so smart...

Blog - Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Uninstall (Take 2)

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:05:00 GMT

After yesterday's frustrating brush with uninstalling Visual Studio 2010 , tonight, I thought I...

Blog - Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Uninstall

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:03:00 GMT

After reading Wes MacDonald's blog about Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate being available ,...

Blog - The ultimate "dog fooding!" THIS is confidence in your own product!

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:16:00 GMT

Last year, I wrote a blog titled Do you "eat your own dog food?" which is about using the very...

Blog - A variant by any other name, IS STILL A VARIANT! Didn't we learn our lesson the first time?

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:52:00 GMT

Today I read on C# Frequently Asked Questions about "What is the difference between "dynamic" a...

Blog - When was the last time your boss ever said "Thank you"?

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:16:00 GMT

When was the last time YOUR boss said something nice to you? No, "Hey yo!" doesn't count, tha...

Blog - DotNetNuke Upgrade to version 5 = NOT YET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:21:00 GMT

One of my goals for 2010 , is to upgrade my DNN server to the latest'n'greatest ( ver 5.2 ). W...

Blog - RIP CAS! YAHOO!!!!!!!

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:00:00 GMT

I read today with great excited from Mauro Sant'Anna's blog about how CAS is now DEAD! DEAD! ...

Blog - Top 20 Signs You've Got it GOOD at your Job!

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:20:00 GMT

8:00 AM 9:00 10:30 ...

Blog - What speed do YOU develop at?

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:12:00 GMT

What type of developer are you? In creating a previous blog ( Top 20 Signs You've Got It...

Blog - What do YOU do in your spare time?

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 06:40:00 GMT

What do YOU do in your spare time? Do you play vids? Surf the web? Woodworking? You friends ...

Blog - Top 10 Signs You've HAD IT With Your Job!

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:57:00 GMT

9:00 AM Noon 1:10PM ...

Blog - Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4 Beta 2 Install Review

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:47:00 GMT

Tonight, I figured enough was enough! It was time I got on the bandwagon like everyone else and...

Blog - The Best Movie Trailer of the Year! Office 2010: The Movie

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:01:00 GMT

"From the visionary creators of Office 2007 and Office 2003..." Office 2010: The Movie ...

Blog - What I plan to do this year to become a better coder!

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:04:00 GMT

Last year, I started a "What I plan to do to become a better coder" series, and I think it worked...

Blog - Review: What I plan to do this year to become a better coder!

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:18:00 GMT

HEY! I completed one year of this "what I'm going to do to become a better code" blogging-thing! ...

Blog - 2 GPS Reviews, and one sacrifices itself for science!

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:55:00 GMT

Last year, I bought a great laptop . It was a refurb unit, the price was right (read that as CHEA...

Blog - Top 10 Predictions, Predictions, Predictions, everyone's got'em, why not me?

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:38:00 GMT

Every year at this time, EVERYONE turns into Nostradamus . Well, since I have my own blog, I c...

Blog - Ottawa Tech Days renamed to Ottawa IT Days and scheduled for 04/2010

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:49:00 GMT

Are you familiar with the Ottawa Code Camp held at Algonquin College over the past two years? It's...

Blog - Announcing the next ODNC Web Study Group!

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:32:00 GMT

The ODNC is starting their next study group in February and I held an information session th...

Blog - Do you know how to setup LinkedIn or Facebook to show you new Blogs?

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:33:00 GMT

Want to keep up to date with blo...

Blog - Tech Days Canada 2009 Ottawa (Day 2)

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:21:00 GMT

Today was the second and last day of Tech Days Canada 2009 , Ottawa edition. Yesterday, the ...

Blog - Fastest Draw in the West! (or the fastest way to create New Folders, ever!)

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:49:00 GMT

I ready about a FANTASTIC Windows 7 shortcut from Scott Cate today, New Folder = CTRL+ SHFT+N! ...

Blog - You give presentations and use Windows 7? Here's a fantastic magnifier shortcut!

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:02:00 GMT

You give presentations with Windows 7? Want to draw special attention to a portion of the screen b...

Blog - Tech Days Canada 2009 Ottawa

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:23:00 GMT

Today was the first day of Tech Days Canada 2009 , Ottawa edition. The day looked like thi...

Blog - Getting started with WPF but don't know where to start?

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:13:00 GMT

A few years ago I saw Kevin MchNeish give a presentation at DevTeach about imitating the iPh...

Blog - The best Christmas Event idea ever!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:35:00 GMT

I was never so proud to work for Privasoft as I was this Fri afternoon. If you've read m...

Blog - What to focus more on your UX in Blend? Check out this nifty new feature!

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:27:00 GMT

If you're doing user interface/UI/UX design in Blend, chances are, you're looking at something smil...

Blog - Tired of being asked if you want your files to be reloaded in Visual Studio when using Blend?

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:11:00 GMT

When doing WPF/SL/XAML development, you're constantly jumping from Blend to Visual Studio and back'...

Blog - Expression Blend 3 now has code editing, but you'd never know it! Why?

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:55:00 GMT

Microsoft Expression Blend 3 now lets you edit code without having to jump out to Visual Stud...

Blog - Expression Blend 3 and VisualSVN integration (or the lack there of)

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:10:00 GMT

Things that make you go hhhhmmmmmmmmm???????? That's just not right IMHO! When you adver...

Blog - Ever create a class but can't quite figure out how to easily get user input?

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:48:00 GMT

So you've just spent all morning slaving over a very cool new custom information class! Awesome...

Blog - You only get one shot to make a first impression! (aka Silverlight Splash Screens)

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:04:00 GMT

You've been working REALLY hard learning Silverlight (SL)/XAML and all it's little secrets, but wha...

Blog - Do you want to see your Images/Bitmaps when you're debugging with Visual Studio?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:16:00 GMT

When you're debugging your code and come across an Image/Bitmap, how does Visual Studio show it to ...

Blog - Tired of being told how many rows you can SELECT or EDIT with SQL Server Management Studio?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:35:00 GMT

Since using SQL Server Management Studio 2005, I hated being told how many rows I could SELECT or E...

Blog - Automatic Properties? Heard of'em? They're great for whipping up demo/test stuff!

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:29:00 GMT

First off, do you use Properties in your code? If you don't, thanks for reading so far, but you ca...

Blog - Congratulations Dad! I am so proud of you! And thank you!

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:14:00 GMT

Today as I was sipping my morning coffee, reading my emails, I come upon NK's email telling me h...

Blog - Can you protect your classes? Do you know your scoping rules?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:02:00 GMT

Have you ever created a class, decided to extend it with another one, then play with the ac...

Blog - Update: What I plan to do this year to become a better coder!

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:10:00 GMT

I've been avoiding this posting for a long time. I was hoping I'd be able to have another screen ...

Blog - Visual Studio TnT (Tips'n'Tricks) Presentation at ODNC

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:30:00 GMT

Tonight I am very pleased to prese...

Blog - Why is it so much work to put an Icon on a WPF form?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:05:00 GMT

Learning WPF takes a bit of getting used to. Everything's in panels, XAML, EF to get data, etc. B...

Blog - Are you getting "Unable to connect" error with Oracle and cannot figure out why?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:51:00 GMT

Today while working on a bug...uh..uh..."undocumented feature" (borrowing a term from Microsoft HAH...

Blog - Tired of Microsoft getting credit for YOUR work?

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:39:00 GMT

When you "whip" up a new project, do you always change the Assembly Information? If no, then thank...

Blog - What's the difference between a Pen and Pencil in Expression Blend?

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:27:00 GMT

Somethings always bugged me about drawing tools, especially Expression Blend today. They usuall...

Blog - Too many secrets!

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:36:00 GMT

How do YOU keep track of your passwords in your web apps? Let me guess, you use a string obj...

Blog - Samedi .NET Silverlight in Montreal

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:25:00 GMT

Yesterday, SB and I went to MTL for a Saturday of nothing but Silverlight! It was cool to parti...

Blog - Visual Studio Debugger Visualizers are VERY cool! You gotta check this out!

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:37:00 GMT

While preparing for an upcoming ODNC Visual Studio TnT (Tips'n'Tricks), SG suggested I talk about...

Blog - Are you a VS closet keyboard junkie?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:02:00 GMT

I'm a bit of a keyboard junkie ( carpal tunnel will do that to ya). If you want to keep your hand...

Blog - Is your code "Done-Done?"

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:12:00 GMT

At our company we've informally come up with "done-done!" What's that you ask? Well, how many tim...

Blog - There are four SHA types of has algorithms, which one is for you?

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:30:00 GMT

This week we hashed out some hash algorithms (haha yup, puns intended haha). I was specifically ...

Blog - To Micro-manage or not? And a sad confession.

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:26:00 GMT

Many years ago, I was a team lead. I made one big mistake (well, a few, but this is the one I'm p...

Blog - Thank you very much to the ODNC!

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:48:00 GMT

In 2009 I was again very lucky to recieve of two awards from the ODNC, one for Study Group Leader...

Blog - Who's responsible to motivate the rank'n'file?

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:55:00 GMT

In your company who's "responsible" for motivating people? Is it HR? The CEO/president? Your bos...

Blog - Can you tell me what is wrong with this compile error?

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:23:00 GMT

Order of operations/precedence in programming languages are not to be taken lightly. Every bit hea...

Blog - 911 video, timely, heart breaking and important to try to watch

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:29:00 GMT

Today marks an anniversary. This is the first time I've EVER seen something where the words are mo...

Blog - FINALLY! A true Windows Numb3rs Screen Saver!

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:03:00 GMT

I have to say, I LOVE the show Numb3rs from CBS ! Well, I've been poking around the internet for ...

Blog - Ever want just a part of a URL but Uri or UriBuilder wasn't able to help you?

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:30:00 GMT

Independent of what I wanted to do, I thought I would share a few things I've learned with Uri an...

Blog - Source Code moved over to CodePlex

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:18:00 GMT

Tonight I finalliy pulled the trigger! I moved all my blog's source code over to CodePlex . T...

Blog - Windows 7 Being Released in Aug! YAHOO!

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:26:00 GMT

I've been using Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) on two computers for some time now and I L...

Blog - Swooping in on WPF from 10,000 feet view down to something much friendlier

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:34:00 GMT

Tonight I found a VERY cool article on WPF which will take you from a 10,000 foot view of WPF down ...

Blog - HelloWorld - WPF style!

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:59:00 GMT

Unfortunately a week ago, my motherboard fried on me while downloading some code from CodePlex. Th...

Blog - Dictionary of Dictionaries? WTF?

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:37:00 GMT

The last few weeks I've been working on something at work where I needed to map old primary keys (P...

Blog - Playing with Graphics/GDI+ to screen scrape the Habs current web page

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:21:00 GMT

I've been playing around with graphics a bit and trying to make a screen saver for my favourite tea...

Blog - IComparer, how does it compare? Now introduce Generics into the mix and see how much fun it is?

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:20:00 GMT

Last week I needed to order a directory differently depending on what the context was. In one case...

Blog - How do you disable a WinForms close button?

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 06:35:00 GMT

Today I was setting up a testing program and for my own reasons, I wanted to control a windows cont...

Blog - Update: What I plan to do this year to become a better coder!

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:40:00 GMT

PHEW! Made some progress for my objectives! ...

Blog - How do you run multiple websites on one IIS server?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:38:00 GMT

Early this year I read a blog about running your own server and how it's just asking for trouble ....

Blog - Are you a DISTINCT kind of person with your SQL queries?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:35:00 GMT

A long time ago I learnd about normalizing a db. You know, no duplicates of data, ANYWHERE! What'...

Blog - What's that Windows Prefetch directory all about?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:22:00 GMT

Sometimes during development with C#, you have to clean up temp directories. Ones like "%homedr...

Blog - Ever wanted to create a Windows Service but didn't know where to start? Well, here's a great place!

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:39:00 GMT

Do you have a computer in your office that looks something like this? What a 1980s way to ...

Blog - VS08 showing private constructors via intellisense? WTF?

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:12:00 GMT

This is a VERY weird situation I can't seem to repro at home. Maybe it's a VS08-XP combo thing but...

Blog - What's the big deal between passing a value around by val or by ref?

Fri, 15 May 2009 07:14:00 GMT

Passing values to a method, sounds easy enough eh? hhhhmmmmm since when is anything THAT simple? ...

Blog - Logging Enhancements for Log4net!

Fri, 15 May 2009 05:57:00 GMT

Two days ago I wrote about Log4net , a very cool logging utility which will cut hours/days off you...

Blog - Why isn't Visual Studio's QuickWatch smarter?

Thu, 14 May 2009 06:21:00 GMT

Hopefully you know VS can debug your applications?! Riiiiiiiiight? haha Ok, next, you know you c...

Blog - Were you recently laid off? Are you looking for FREE training? Are you in Ottawa?

Thu, 14 May 2009 05:15:00 GMT

Yesterday I got wind of a FANTASTIC FREE TRAINING OPPORTUNITY in Ottawa this summer! How many time...

Blog - What are you using for logging?

Wed, 13 May 2009 07:11:00 GMT

Last year I had to write a Windows Service and MAN, I did a lot of work to make sure I knew what wa...

Blog - Want to change your Windows 7 Logon Background? Here's how!

Wed, 13 May 2009 06:42:00 GMT

Yesterday I blogged about my Windows 7 install experiences . I also made a comment about the dar...

Blog - SVN's ignore list, what's in your list?

Wed, 13 May 2009 04:46:00 GMT

Today I got burnt. I got "the flower." It's not a complimentary thing, at our company, we have "t...

Blog - First Impressions: Windows 7, a keeper!

Tue, 12 May 2009 07:29:00 GMT

This past weekend I broke down. I'm not quite sure, maybe it's cause Vista's (unfair...

Blog - WOW! Looks like I found a real live bug with CodePlex!

Tue, 12 May 2009 05:19:00 GMT

Thank you Emily for letting me know about the bug you guys fixed! Kudos! :) (and thank you for fol...

Blog - Does your Windows Explorer go for a ride when you try to do something? Are you using SVN?

Fri, 08 May 2009 04:53:00 GMT

This week I got tired of having my Windows Explorer go for a ride every time I went to create a new...

Blog - Ottawa Code Camp 2009 has come and gone, with great success!

Thu, 07 May 2009 06:02:00 GMT

The Ottawa Code Camp 2009 was a huge success IMHO! Here are some of the highlights! ...

Blog - When was the last time you got a fast response for a software manufacturer?

Fri, 01 May 2009 20:45:00 GMT

In the past two months, I've been helping put two projects on CodePlex . The Ottawa Code Camp a...

Blog - Are you a .NET developer? C#/VB.NET code head? Do you live in the Ottawa, ON area?

Fri, 01 May 2009 06:14:00 GMT

Are you a .NET developer? You find those TechEd and PDC conferences too expensive? Too far? T...

Blog - You ever need to a piece of code, BUT just for debugging?

Fri, 01 May 2009 04:45:00 GMT

Come on now! Admit it! We've all done it! We've all put in a printf() statement, or Console.Wr...

Blog - Do you need an alternative to a product you can't get your hands on?

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:22:00 GMT

SB showed me this really cool site this week which lists alternatives to popular pieces of software...

Blog - Using RegEx in VisualStudio's Find or Find and Replace window not working for you neither eh?

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:16:00 GMT

Regular Expressions (aka regex) is cryptic, if you've ever tried to debug one of those regex...

Blog - Do you like to do adhoc t-sql or to do "back of the napkin" kind of queries?

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:08:00 GMT

Has this ever happened to you? You need to write up a t-sql statement that changes data but don't ...

Blog - Do you create multi-lingual applications? Here's a cool tool to try out!

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 06:05:00 GMT

Do you create multi-lingual applications? English/French or en-US and it-it? Here's a Microsoft W...

Blog - Ever heard of SWAG before? What about Chachkas? Ever goto trade show and get free stuff?

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 05:55:00 GMT

I've always known about the term SWAG, I've heard it MANY times before. If you work for a company ...

Blog - ODNC MCTS 70-536 Framework Study Group Information Session tonight!

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:49:00 GMT

Are you part of the Ottawa.NET Community (ODNC) group? Are you interested in getting your .NET C...

Blog - Going to a conference this year? Which one to pick from?

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:38:00 GMT

Within the past two years, I've been VERY lucky to goto two very cool conferences, Microsoft TechE...

Blog - A new tool in my tool box!

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:14:00 GMT

Last Friday I got a brand new tool for my tool box and I LOVE IT! :> For the past few years,...

Blog - Need a quick'n'dirty way to do something to ALL the tables in your db?

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:30:00 GMT

Today I read about a cool undocumented proc for SQL Server! sp_MSForEachTable is a great gem, but ...

Blog - Presentation tips from three guys who should know! (MS techincal guys), become your company's AMBassaDoR!

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:16:00 GMT

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to presentation given by three local Microsoft technica...

Blog - Rumour Mill: Microsoft removing the Framework exam from .NET 4.0 certifications

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:16:00 GMT

MCTS 70-536 - Microsoft .NET Framework - Application Development Foundation to get tossed for ...

Blog - Want to make your WinForms application look just a bit more professional? Check out this easy implementation of the StatusStrip!

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:59:00 GMT

Do you want to make your Windows application look juuuuuuuust that little bit more polished? Just ...

Blog - Do you take FULL advantage of Microsoft PowerPoint when present?

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:07:00 GMT

Yesterday I was at a Microsoft presentation and I learned one VERY cool thing (among other things I...

Blog - Need to convert an Office Live Meeting to a Windows Media file?

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:49:00 GMT

I'm looking at creating a small video recording to setup and config SVN to connect to the OttawaCod...

Blog - Microsoft TechDays 2009 finalized!

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:52:00 GMT

Microsoft TechDays 2009 have been finalized. The one obvious difference is the two day sched for...

Blog - Are you having trouble highlighting code in DNN using the FCKEditor and SyntaxHighlighter?

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 07:23:00 GMT

All that work for one little freak'n icon in DNN's toolbar!!!!!!! :< :< :< :< All for this...... ...

Blog - Ever want to take your IIS website offline quickly to do something? Check out app_offline.htm

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:34:00 GMT

IIS has a cool secret up it's sleeve to quickly take a website offline. If IIS sees a file named a...

Blog - Ever wanted to find out the version of your SQL Server in t-sql? Here's how!

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:37:00 GMT

We all know developing on multiple db platforms can be a royal pain. But having to deal with diffe...

Blog - Excecuting a stored proc and doing something with the returned table data

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:58:00 GMT

Lately I've run into a problem, SQL Server has a stored proc I want to use called sp_pkeys to ret...

Blog - Cursors for the forgetful developer

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 04:45:00 GMT

Last week I was googling for the SQL Server cursor syntax and came across Brent V's blog entry abou...

Blog - Are you getting an IOException on Path.GetTempFileName()? Debugging tells you it's creating an empty ("") filename in the exception?

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:06:00 GMT

In writing up another blog about Exception handling I was timing a path through my code which sho...

Blog - Exceptional Series (3/3): Alternative error handling mechanism for Exceptions

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:50:00 GMT

This is a three part Exception handling series on: 1) Throwing/catching in different ways 2...

Blog - Exceptional Series (2/3): Performance impacts with Exceptions

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:52:00 GMT

This is a three part Exception handling series on: 1) Throwing/catching in different ways 2...

Blog - Exceptional Series (1/3): Throwing exceptions in different ways

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:32:00 GMT

This is a three part Exception handling series on: 1) Throwing/catching in different ways 2...

Blog - IBM close to buying Sun Microsystems

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:09:00 GMT

Unlike a previous report about Microsoft buying Sun , this one's no April Fool's joke. CBC report...

Blog - Ever wanted to see a complete System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser example?

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:46:00 GMT

A little over a year ago a friend of mine (OH) asked me if knew of any tool to let him store, track...

Blog - Late breaking news!!!! Microsoft buys Sun Microsystems!

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:45:00 GMT

In late breaking news overnight, Microsoft bought Sun Microsystems ! Going back many man...

Blog - A great Geek April Fool’s joke for the office HP LaserJet printer

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:34:00 GMT

It's April Fool's Day and do you know where your best April Fool's Geek Joke/Prank is? :> If ...

Blog - Microsoft Word/Excel Shortcuts (follow on)

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:21:00 GMT

In August, I wrote a blog about MS Word shortcuts . Turns out there are a few other one's I've bee...

Blog - MCTS exam taking suggestion

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:55:00 GMT

I've recently written one of the MCTS exams ( Web Forms ). As you can imagine, this requires quite...

Blog - Warning: DOUBLE and TRIPLE check your project URL on CodePlex

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:27:00 GMT

This week I created a new project on CodePlex for the Ottawa Code Camp ! The hiccup came when I...

Blog - First Impressions: Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:17:00 GMT

Today I installed Microsoft SQL Server 2008 on three machines. One at work, one at home on my de...

Blog - What's the difference between constants and read only fields you ask?

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:28:00 GMT

We all know “ magic numbers ” are bad in bad for us, but do you know what to use instead of hard co...

Blog - Taking many pictures with your digital camera lately? Are you backing them up? HOW are you backing them?

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 06:43:00 GMT

Now that it's been a few years (maybe? :>) that you've had your digital camera for, you've amass...

Blog - Since when did the Commodore VIC-20 get a TCP/IP stack to go onto the Internet?

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:14:00 GMT

Tonight while watching TV, I saw the funniest thing! A feather duster using a VIC-20 on the inte...

Blog - extracting paths or directories from SQL Server using sql

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:46:00 GMT

Today at work I was looking at creating Database Snapshots in SQL Server . To do this successfull...

Blog - Ottawa Code Camp 2009 Agenda (Working Copy) posted!

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:04:00 GMT

The preliminary agenda for Ottawa Code Camp 2009 has been posted at this link (http://www.ottawaco...

Blog - CurrentCulture vs CurrentUICulture, what's the difference?

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 08:39:00 GMT

This week I was working on some back end asp.net code for a website. There was a piece of code set...

Blog - Update: What I plan to do this year to become a better coder!

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:55:00 GMT

I've been quiet the past few weeks cause I've been trying to accomplish one of my line items for my...

Blog - Code of Contention: To what intelligence level do you code to?

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:19:00 GMT

I read today with great interest about 10 C# Shorthands that improve productivity (by Martijn Dij...

Blog - Code of Contention: Explicit Interface Implementation

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:15:00 GMT

I was watching an interesting PDC 08 vid this week about Interfaces. It evangelizes using interf...

Blog - Quick Reference: CSS

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:11:00 GMT

I'm told (and read) that table formatting your web pages is dead. RIP. The new way is with CSS, d...

Blog - Everything you EVER wanted to know about cables and more

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:01:00 GMT

I'm pretty sure even if you THINK you know everything about cables you'll still get a kick out of t...

Blog - Revisit: What happens when a constructor references itself (by accident of course)?

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:32:00 GMT

Have you ever written so many constructor's for your PERFECT class that one of them, uh, hmmm, call...

Blog - Code of Contention: Criteria for Code Review

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:24:00 GMT

I saw this last week on Jeff Atwood's blog ( Who's Your Coding Buddy? ) and it's not only hilarious...

Blog - On the lighter side of life: now THAT's a Fan!

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:51:00 GMT

A few friend's of mine (yes I have some :>) and I are big Habs fans! But we got nothing on THIS gu...

Blog - Code of Contention: What coding/naming/development standards do you use? Do you have any?

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:10:00 GMT

Everywhere I've worked, coding standards are always a source of contention. Everywhere except wher...

Blog - Coding Challenge: Can you spot the coding error?

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:44:00 GMT

This challenge starts off innocently enough, here's a Film class. Nothing extravegant, just a titl...

Blog - Further explanation to the ///todo listings in a previous post

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 06:47:00 GMT

I want this blog to gain a positive reputation for helping you (and me too! :>) to become a better ...

Blog - ///todo Management Rrevisited (with help from a reader, Rene)

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:33:00 GMT

I blogged about a cool idea I read about from ShaharY on a blog on Dev102 back in Septembe...

Blog - Setting up Anonymous access to your SVN server?

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:40:00 GMT

Tonight I wrote a blog and wanted to share my code. I had two options. Zip up the solu...

Blog - Saving Window State/Location/Size and Restoring On Reload

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:00:00 GMT

Today I read an article called Saving and Restoring Form Location in a Multi-Monitor Environment ....

Blog - Brackets, braces, parenthesis, oh my!

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:12:00 GMT

With C# growing up from it's C/C++ roots, it seems natural for it to have semicolons. And there's ...

Blog - Can you stop the error in this code?

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:48:00 GMT

This afternoon I was whipping up some code for a new tool I'm writting at work and got myself into ...

Blog - Want to remove adverisements from Microsoft Live Messenger?

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:14:00 GMT

If you're using Microsoft Live Messenger, maybe you've seen advertising flash at the bottom of the ...

Blog - testing

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:21:00 GMT

testing using System; public class Testing { public void Test() { Console.Writ...

Blog - Visual Studio error when trying to load a .csproj file saying the application for that project is not installed?

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:45:00 GMT

Are you seeing this message from Visual Studio when double clicking a .csproj file? "The applicati...

Blog - I goofed once, and someone caught me on it.

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:40:00 GMT

I help out with a local study group for a Microsoft certification exam. Long story short I post li...

Blog - Ottawa Code Camp date released = Sat May 2nd 2009

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:17:00 GMT

I first posted about the Ottawa Code Camp date back in the middle of January . Unfortunate...

Blog - Do you "eat your own dog food?"

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:04:00 GMT

Do you use the "thing" your company produces? If you do, FANTASTIC! Congratulations! You'...

Blog - VS Tips'n'Tricks: Anchor Swapping and Unwrapping Lines

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 07:13:00 GMT

Sara Ford and Scott Cate have their own blogs which talk about Visual Studio tips'n'tr...

Blog - Are you "greedy" or "lazy"? Uh, when you're doing your RegEx matches I mean!

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 06:51:00 GMT

A friend at work (SB) was asking me about RegEx last week and man, "if you don't use it, you lose i...

Blog - CodePlex, not just for your Über Geek anymore!

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:10:00 GMT

Tonight we had our last session of our ODNC web study group . As things were gearing down, we sta...

Blog - Has Visual Studio crashed on you after trying to add items to your toolbox by using "Choose Items..."?

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:05:00 GMT

Today I wanted to add some Telerik web controls to my Visual Studio 2008 toolbar. No probs, I kn...

Blog - Have you ever wanted to mix a TreeView with checkboxes?

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:46:00 GMT

SB asked me a cool question today about judiciously having a checkbox hanging off a TreeView node e...

Blog - Do you have a Microsoft Keyboard with a "Zoom Complex?"

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:57:00 GMT

If you're like me, you LOVE your keyboard and mouse. I don't mean LOOOOOVE your keyboard and mouse...

Blog - Are all tables created equally?

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:43:00 GMT

If you're doing anything extra special with your stored procs in SQL Server, you might find yoursel...

Blog - What do you do when you get a new install of Visual Studio?

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 01:00:00 GMT

I'm configuring my VS install at home. Unfortunately, I found VS' Import feature does NOT work for...

Blog - Scam warning from Canada Revenue Agency (this is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill)

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:17:00 GMT

I got this from a friend of mine (thanks NK) which is a scam warning coming from Canada Revenue Age...

Blog - Ever wonder WTF is that special/customized icon on some webpages?

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:40:00 GMT

Have you visited a website and seen it change the default browser's icon in the top left hand corne...

Blog - Looking for a new job/challenge? What do you do in your spare time?

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:03:00 GMT

Remember that pilot who landed the Airbus in the Hudson River almost two weeks ago? Do you know ...

Blog - Have you ever wanted to customize some of the Visual Studio templates?

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:31:00 GMT

Have you ever been in an organization where how the code looks is more important that what the code...

Blog - Cheetsheets for VisualSVN and CodeRushXpress

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:52:00 GMT

Earlier this month I wrote an article praising CodeRush XPress , and then last week I praised Vis...

Blog - Update: What I plan to do this year to become a better coder!

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:24:00 GMT

I know, I know, it's a bit early for an update, actually it's been exactly three weeks since I wrot...

Blog - Are you suddenly getting Microsoft Word macro warnings? Not sure why? WTF is going on?

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:27:00 GMT

I recently installed the latest Microsoft instant messanger program, now called Microsoft Messange...

Blog - Are you Using Visual SourceSafe (VSS)? You really should be considering an upgrade! Notably VisualSVN!

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:48:00 GMT

I've used VSS for the past two years and it never sat well with me when I would get warnings tellin...

Blog - Humour: FINALLY!!!! :>

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:44:00 GMT

This is too funny! :> It's about time he made it! :> Hey man, if you're not at least chu...

Blog - Ottawa Code Camp date released = Sat April 25, 2009

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:19:00 GMT

The Ottawa Code Camp organizing group have released the date for this years event, Saturday...

Blog - Are you looking to get more out of Visual Studio? Do you use a special refactoring tool?

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:25:00 GMT

In December I watched a vid from MS PDC 2008 called Tips and Tricks For the Visual C# IDE by D...

Blog - This is too funny to keep to myself! Definition of the biggest computer geek of all!

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:53:00 GMT

A friend of mine (thanks NK :>) sent this to me and it's too good to keep to myself, I have to shar...

Blog - Code of Contention: Where are you on this line?

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:53:00 GMT

I was at an interview a few weeks back and someone (SG) asked me a question that went something lik...

Blog - What I plan to do this year to become a better coder!

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:50:00 GMT

In the past few years I've been doing C# and LOVING IT! :> So much in fact I've wrote a ...

Blog - You thinking of running a technical study group? Fantastic, here are a few suggestions from my personal experiences

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:49:00 GMT

Are you looking at getting certified with Microsoft, RIM/BlackBerry, Oracle, Cisco, Sun, IBM or som...

Blog - The place I LOVE to work understands 1 + 1 = 3

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:03:00 GMT

If you could describe your ideal work place, how would you? Not in a novel, as terse as possible. ...

Blog - Going Agile? Looking for tools? Thinking it'll cost you $$$$? It could be cheaper than you think!

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:50:00 GMT

SO! Congratulations you've decided to go Agile (or maybe you haven't but you are looking into it, ...

Blog - Agile Manifesto Principles (Summary)

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 07:03:00 GMT

I'm the type of person who learns by "doing" therefore to try to "do" Agile, I'm going to summarize...

Blog - Agile, What's In It For ME?!

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 09:04:00 GMT

As I'm learning more and more about Agile practises/procedures, I'm starting to see why people fall...

Blog - Contraining Your Generics

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:26:00 GMT

A good friend of mine challenged me a C# technical question this week (thanks SG :>) and we both th...

Blog - Agile getting bad rap at your company? Maybe it's just you?

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 23:40:00 GMT

I'm listening to Ken Schwaber's presentation to Google and it's very interesting. The last ques...

Blog - Are you a "Perfectionist Developer?" Maybe Agile is right for you?

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:07:00 GMT

In my latest ventures down the archaic road of archiving technology ( Ken Schwaber's book calle...

Blog - Learning about Agile

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:54:00 GMT

What does Agile mean to you? Does it mean you have small teams? Are you able to ask the person...

Blog - Invaluable Presentation Utility = ZoomIt

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 23:53:00 GMT

Yesterday I was lucky enough to goto the Microsoft TechDays 2008 and aside from the technical inf...

Blog - .NET Cheat Sheets

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:16:00 GMT

Do you have the .NET String formatting strings memorized? Do you have the entire ASP.NET page life...

Blog - Fantastic use of budget for project management

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:01:00 GMT

Most, if not all developers are geeks at heart and they LOVE to see gadgets at play ....uh.... wor...

Blog - Are you using an LCD with Courier New font in Visual Studio?

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:42:00 GMT

If you're a developer using VS05 or VS08, chances are you're using a relatively new machine with an...

Blog - 10 Ways to Give a Bad Presentation (link)

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:50:00 GMT

I've participated in three study groups and have seen some doozies in the past two years, but at t...

Blog - "Unable to start debugging on the web server" messages from Visual Studio

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:35:00 GMT

I started off my week in Visual Studio like I usually do, opened up VS08, got the latest code down ...

Blog - Senior Developers/Architects should be teachers

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:17:00 GMT

Have you ever asked a senior developer for help? What did they do? Were they actually helpful or ...

Blog - Premature Optimization

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:58:00 GMT

A long, long time ago I was working on an ASP project using dynamic SQL, a well respected senior d...

Blog - Mapping between .NET CLR types and SQL Server types

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:56:00 GMT

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms131092.aspx Here's a quick chart. ...

Blog - Generics, and searching for a needle in the haystack

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:21:00 GMT

Here are the details on the Generic find and a Sort thrown in for good measure. The sample Team cl...

Blog - Using a GridView with ObjectDataSource or SqlDataSource, parameter setting results in Page Not Found error in IIS but works perfectly on Vista?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:30:00 GMT

Are you using a GridView with either ObjectDataSource or SqlDataSource, setting a parameter(s) and ...

Blog - Frustrated using the Tabs at the top of Visual Studio after opening files?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:07:00 GMT

I read today on Sara Ford's blog a VS trick about forcing VS to put the MRU file opened on the far...

Blog - Using the SiteMaps with Role security and STILL seeing menu/tree nodes? hint: google web.config, AspXmlSiteMapProvider and securityTrimmingEnabled

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:08:00 GMT

Last week I was playing around with the ASP.NET SiteMaps and even though out of the box, it gives y...

Blog - T-SQL Date Manipulation

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:50:00 GMT

I'm creating the website for the study group I'm participating in, I've found myself writting a mor...

Blog - Using the MS PasswordRecovery object and getting an SMTP Server authentication connection error, server response was 5.7.0, must issue a STARTTLS command first?

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:00:00 GMT

(PasswordRecovery_SendingMail); Is this rather RUDE exception staring you in the face today/ton...

Blog - VS Tips'n'Tricks: Clipboard Ring

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:40:00 GMT

You're a master of cutting'n'pasting, but every once in a while you cut or copy one thing too far a...

Blog - VS BUG ALERT: creating WebControls and getting an error in the designer about not being able to set a property

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 08:18:00 GMT

I'm working through creating WebControls and got a funky bug tonight (read that as it smelled realy...

Blog - How do you bake constants into your code?

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:03:00 GMT

Since the beginning of programming coders have been using magic strings/numbers in their code. But...

Blog - Are you trying to use Templated User Controls and getting missing using directive or assembly errors?

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:34:00 GMT

In my ODNC MCTS Study group session this week, we did Web User Controls and more specifically Tem...

Blog - Are you a member of the ODNC 70-528 Web Study Group?

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:43:00 GMT

If you are a member of the ODNC 70-528 Web Study Group , then you'll be interested in a ne...

Blog - You can create a Web User Control, but can you hide it now?

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 07:46:00 GMT

In my last ODNC web study group session , we learned about creating and using Web User Controls. ...

Blog - How do you ///todo?

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:44:00 GMT

If you're reading this now, you're a fan of VS' ///todo tags and want to find out how to see ALL th...

Blog - ///todo If you can see this then you're too close

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:32:00 GMT

How many times have you been in a groove, total head's down coding, music-a-pump'n and you're danci...

Blog - A picture's worth a thousand words!

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 05:04:00 GMT

Have you ever tried to explain an error message to someone? Have you tried to decipher what someon...

Blog - What is RSS?

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:05:00 GMT

Short Answer: Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a specially formatted file containing articles of...

Blog - Have you ever had a boss like this?

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:03:00 GMT

Blog - WTF: why do we need/want another tool for WPF dev?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:48:00 GMT

I was reading another blog entry ( Chris Love - Visual Studio Next Wish List ) and something I read...

Blog - Series: Coding Contentions: Constructor Chaining, do you go up or down?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:54:00 GMT

When you write your constructors, do you write the same code in each? If you have each constructor...

Blog - Series: Coding Contentions: Data Types, are you native?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:25:00 GMT

This seems to be another one of those religious types of discussions which companies like to have t...

Blog - Series: Coding Contentions: How do you return?

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:32:00 GMT

At university I got used to writting one and only one return statement at the end of a method. I w...

Blog - Series: Coding Contentions, Chapter: Naming Conventions

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:03:00 GMT

I read today an article over at igloocoder.com by Don Belcham who I saw at Dev Teach in Toronto. ...

Blog - Testing for types using "is" and "as" operators

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:40:00 GMT

We all know in standard event handlers you get two parameters, the first of type object and the sec...

Blog - Save Development Time With These Visual Studio Keyboard Shortcuts

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:27:00 GMT

I've always been known as a keyboard junkie. Even with GUI IDEs, I used to look for the keyboard ...

Blog - Save Time With These MS Word keyboard shortcuts

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:46:00 GMT

We all know (or should know :>) the regular's, Open doc = CTRL+O, Save = CTRL+S, Find, Print, Cut'n...

Blog - Ottawa Code Camp Presentation

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:29:00 GMT

Back in April 2008, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to present at the first O...

Blog - SQL Server Management Studio FINALLY gets Intellisense

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:16:00 GMT

ABOUT FREAK'N TIME!!!! Visual Studio has had this for YEARS! http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/le...

Blog - Do (PDBs == Debug builds) for you too?

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:03:00 GMT

Then you might be very surprised to find out Release builds create them too ! I used to believe...

Blog - Visual Studio SP1 Released

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:59:00 GMT

If you're using Visual Studio 2008 and heard about an SP, here are some details about it. Link: ...

Blog - Searching functionality back up and running

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:37:00 GMT

Since moving to DNN, I've missed my old Search feature . I would set my browser to that default...

Blog - Hello World

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:37:00 GMT

Typically when programmers learn something new, they are usually given the typical "Hello World"...