Hi Dear Reader. Eons ago I kept my blog over here on http://blogs.msdn.com/jblizzard , but then moved to my own site, http://snowstormlife.com/blogs/bliz . This evening, on a lark, I looked back here and yes, my old blog is still working, and I was even able to retrieve my old password. And just over...

I must be crazy. I've left the safety and warmth of http://weblogs.asp.net to move out on my own. No longer will my posts be displayed on that central page, ready to be viewed by the masses. Nope, I'm now on my own, but using .Text as my blog engine. Why? Just for kicks. I created snowstormlife...

During the general meeting , Cory Isakson and I will be talking about state management for web sites. After the general meeting the MCAD SIG will meet. See you there!

Last month I though I saw a cool geek shirt with the slogan “got msil”. Turns out that the shirt didn't say that. But now David Scott has created a real version of the shirt . Be the first geek in your user group to get one! Very cool...

Heh. Someone out there needs to know what to do in a snowstorm. How do I know? Well, weblogs.asp.net now has a cool stats section that shows referrers (thanks Scott!). Someone did a Yahoo! search for “what to do in a snowstorm” which returned one of my posts: “Do that newsgroup thing…”...

Scott Stanfield from Vertigo Software gave a talk last night at the Portland Area Dot Net User Group (PADNUG). He made an interesting comment, with the net of: If you’re going to fail, you want to fail fast. That way you can figure out what went wrong, make changes, and try out something else...

Quite a bit. Otherwise, why would a grown man, driving to work in his car, have tears coming down his face while listening to names being read by children? September 11, 2003. Two years later, and it still seems just like it was yesterday.

See you there!

For using the .NET Framework.... for System Administrators for Developers

So how did you prepare to take a certification test? Did you use the MS Press study guides? Exam Cram series? Other non-study-guide books? Hands-on experience? Sample exams? Newsgroups? MSDN? GotDotNet? Quickstarts? WWW.ASP.NET ? Other? Did you buddy-up with anyone or go it alone? What worked for...

I’m sitting through day 1 of a 2-day planning session, with about 100 people in attendance.  If I see another presenter get up and say the words “I know you can’t read this slide…” I believe I’ll scream.  (Everyone in the Chicago area, keep your ears open, because it will happen.) Please, please,...

I just finished rebuilding my laptop hard drive with Windows Server 2003.  It's going to be fun to play with the new IIS6 features.  I'll keep you posted on how things go.

I work with the Boise .NET Developers User Group (NETDUG -- gotta luv that name).  They’ve started an MCAD SIG, so I work the study guide labs along with them.  I wanted to do some cross-language inheritance from VB (parent) to C# (child), just to see how MustInherit, MustOverride, etc. in VB would force...

Not trying to start any language religious debates.  Just trying to inform. ;)   This article  describes VB.NET, C++ .NET, C#, and J#, providing the language features, programmer constituency, unique language features, and unique environmental features for each.

Cool.  There's a site for people who will be blogging at the PDC.

Here's the place to look:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cpconhowruntimelocatesassemblies.asp   (see also the additional steps described in detail under that section (look in the table of contents)).

I need to drive to Seattle today, tweezers in hand .  Looks like they're going to arrest one of the Blaster dudes .

In VB.NET 2003, when you create an instance of a class and there are no parameters to pass to the constructor, the parentheses will not show.  You can type them, but the editor will remove them.  They didn't disappear in VB.NET 2002.     myNewObject = New Foo() will turn into     myNewObject = New...

I'm working with the Boise .NET Developer User Group .  We're doing an MCAD certification study group, using the MS Press study guides as our primary reference material. I looked at the ton of labs we’re going to be working during our study group.  Then I thought about how cluttered my inetpub...

Last night I was writing some demos that do distributed transactions across databases.  It started getting late (or early, depending on your point of view), but I was making good progress and didn’t want to stop. I took a break after reaching a roadblock.  I fired off a quick e-mail to myself letting...

From Scoble's blog, a reference to a ComputerWorld article .

OK. OK. OK.  I'll be at the PDC too.

Saw a reference on Chris Sells' blog , about this posting by Eric Sink .  Chris' words: “There's just so much good advise in this post and it covers so much ground that I can't even think of a clever summary. Just go read it.” ( An aside: Am I arrogant if I point you to something that Chris Sells...

MSDN just posted a new Developer Center .  “Visit the new one-stop shop for all mobile and embedded information, including the .NET Compact Framework, Visual Studio .NET, Pocket PC, Smartphone, and Windows CE .NET.”

Newsgroups are such a wonderful resource.  People can post questions and get quality answers.  I use Outlook Express and lurk in the “microsoft.public.dotnet.*” groups.  What's really cool is that there are people who are experts in their field(s) who provide top notch answers.  And you'll probably see...