Here We Go
Inevitably, someone will ask why I decided to start a blog. Why would someone opt to indulge in yet another task that is bound to be demanding of an already strained schedule? Well, there are several...
View ArticleUpdate Time
Few people would argue that 7 months between blog posts is excessive. This is something I've been struggling with, but I've decided to make an honest effort to post more frequently.It's difficult to...
View ArticleKids Programming Language
Years ago I toyed with the idea of writing my own programming language.The simple problem was that while I had the desire to build a better mousetrap, I had no idea how to make the existing mousetrap...
View ArticleFinding Your Audience
Arguably, one of the challenges of writing – particularly technical writing – is deciding who your audience will be.Are you writing to a very high level that will help PhD candidates conduct their...
View ArticleImplementation and Inheritance Primer
* Note:This post is geared toward beginners, and should be relatively easy to understand. (Note 2: forgive the lousey code formatting -- I'll figure something out for that)Lacking a more in-depth...
View ArticleC# Ternary Operator
Although it is sometimes misused, the ternary operator (also called the conditional operator, although I personally prefer ternary) in C# can be quite a timesaver. For those who don’t’ know, it is...
View ArticleSorting Directly in a Data Table
One of the nice things about ADO.NET is that it provides a rich set of functionality for sorting without retrieving new data from the database. Furthermore, with ADO.NET, data binding has moved out of...
View ArticleSingleton Duplicity in 5 Minutes
Once you've finished laughing at the tongue-in-check title of this post, you can read on for a discussion of the Singleton Pattern. This is not meant to be an all-inclusive resource for Singleton...
View ArticleMaking a Sortable Collection
Today I needed a collection that would be self-sorting, and I came up with this handy technique for making one. This approach should work for any object that inherits the...
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Programming Evolution
The other day I was talking to a friend about how programming has changed in the last 15 years. What used to be required (to be a decent programmer, anyway) was an extreme depth of knowledge. You had...
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Comments
Okay, I realize this is a techie blog, so there should be some technical meaning to this post. Accordingly, I'll post my thoughts on commenting the code you write.The real reason for this post,...
View ArticleSpeeding Up MSDN Downloads
I normally try to avoid regurgitating other peoples' posts, but in this case I'll make an exception (System.PlagerismException?) because the information is so valueable. We actually use this technique...
View ArticleVeteran's Day Code
foreach (Soldier thisSoldier in US.Population){ ThankSoldier(thisSoldier, DateTime.Now());}
View ArticleQuote of the Day
Unfortunately, I'm forced to agree:"Programmers have huge and fragile egos."- Philip Greenspun, MIT ProfessorFrom his article "Managing Software Engineers"
View ArticleThe Great Debate
The Visual Basic versus C# debate has raged since Microsoft released the very first version of .NET. Is one language better than the other? Does one offer superior processing performance? What about...
View ArticleMicrosoft Confirms My VB Assertions
Tom Archer, the MSDN Program Manager and Content Strategist for Windows Vista, the Windows SDK and Visual C++, seems to have confirmed my thoughts about VB programmers in a recent blog post in which he...
View ArticleShifting Focus
I've been doing some thinking, and one question that has been nagging at me is whether or not the world really need another blog that harps about the importance of understanding how to implement...
View ArticleIIS Manager Shortcut
Here's something cool if you're a command-line junky like me. The Run command to open up the MMC console for IIS is "inetmgr". Give it a try!
View ArticleASP.NET 2.0 GridView Control Bug
Okay, I'm posting this in the hopes of saving some other poor sod some hair pulling. It turns out there's a bug in the 2.0 version of the GridView control that causes a double-postback when the...
View ArticleThe Machine is Using Us
A colleague of mine sent me a link to a wonderful YouTube video. It's definitely worth taking a peek. I personally find it thought provoking to say the least.
View ArticleAnother Certification
Well, yesterday I passed the 70-630 SharePoint exam, so I have a slick new acronym: MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist). I suppose it also qualifies me to speak on the subject, which is a...
View ArticleError Enabling MOSS Publishing Feature
I've been working on a new Extranet project (details to follow once it is publicly announced), and I need to enable the MOSS Publishing features. Unfortunately, I ran into the following exception when...
View ArticleGreat Tool for Virtual CD/DVD Drives on Vista
For years, I've used the Microsoft Virtual CD tool even though it hasn't been officially supported. Today, I needed to mount an .ISO DVD ROM image to install Visual Studio on my home machine, but I'm...
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