musings from a snowstorm....

A few weeks ago I had one of those days... I hosed my development environment, so that every time I attempted to create a new ASP.NET web application in VS.NET 2003, I would get the following error message:   The Web server reported the following error...

I just passed 70-300, the last exam for my MCSD for .NET.  Wa Hoo!

Wow, that rant felt good. Turns out, all I needed to do was UNPLUG the cable modem from the wall (I went ahead and disconnected the ethernet cable, and the coax just to be sure) for 30 seconds.  Did the same for my laptop and my wireless router.  Just...

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...

I upgraded my sorry Pocket PC phone's operating system to Pocket PC 2003 and a new radio stack. Bingo! Home run! Connectivity issues are a thing of the past. I can finally use IM on the thing. And it synch’s with Exchange automatically every...

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...

As I was sitting at a long red light this morning, trying to get out of the neighborhood, facing a 30 minute drive into work, I decided to sync my e-mail.  There was a request from one of the account managers asking if a particular customer could get...

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...

I went to an informal gathering of bloggers last night at the Crossroads.  Met a number of cool people.  Caught up with Joshua Allen , an old friend from my consulting days at Microsoft.  I only had a side view of one person, and from what I could...

Well, my VPN capability is being held hostage. Comcast is my cabel modem ISP.  (Right now, if I could switch I would.)  I've recycled my cable modem & PC about a half dozen times.  That didn't help, so I called Comcast tech support. Because...

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.

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....

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...

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!

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...

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...

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.

This one has me stumped.  I never have been able to connect to my IM account from my PPC phone.  I “tap here to sign in” and the phone connects to something, but I never can get logged in.  Big bummer.  Anyone able to get it working?  Any secrets?

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...

Phil Scott  mentioned that I just announced to everyone that I have some say in who gets to beta test Whidbey... No, not really.   But I can ask.  ;-)  And I'm sure (at least I hope!) there will be a public beta period, similar to the one for “Everett...

I'm attending a VB6 migration lab with a client this week in Redmond.  There's a VB6 add-in (“Code Advisor“) that tells you where you'll run into issues during the upgrade. It's best to take care of as many things as you can on the VB6 side before...

Hot off the presses at MSDN : Learn how to move Microsoft Windows Pocket PC 2002 software development from Microsoft eMbedded Visual Basic to the Microsoft .NET Framework and Visual Basic .NET. The release of the .NET Compact Framework enables mobile...

Here’s some good info…  “ .NET Remoting Architectural Assessment ” on MSDN.

You do have to do an initial installation of the app on the desktop, but from then on, it will update itself automatically.  The app can run when disconnected from the network.  But you don't have the deployment nightmare of traditional smart client applications...

CNET , ADTmag.com , eWeek , InformationWeek , and InfoWorld , to mention a few.