I recently had a conversation about .NET connection pooling, and how this compares to reusing a single open connection.  I have always “known” that connection pooling helps, but that it isn’t as efficient as reusing the connection.  Since I...

As most people know by now, support for Visual Basic 6 expired in 2008 ( http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?sort=PN&alpha=visual+basic+6&Filter=FilterNO ). However, I frequently receive questions about the risks of NOT...

I recently had a need to prove that my home router was not the cause of some networking issues.  So, I pulled an older router out of the closet and hooked it up.  I quickly noticed that there was a problem.  My Windows XP machine could...

During a conversation today, a colleague of mine pointed out something that I didn't know:  A Compressed Folder in Windows XP can be protected with a password.  Like many of you, I've been using XP for years, and yet I somehow missed this. ...

Microsoft has launched a new web site where IT Professionals can store and share Internet bookmarks.  Each bookmark can be tagged and given a friendly name and description, which makes it pretty easy for others to search through the list of bookmarks...

I recently decided to fire up SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on my Vista laptop. I installed SQL Server 2005 (with SP2 of course!) and made sure that I used the SQL Server User Provisioning tool to give myself full rights. I then launched the Report...

Today at MIX, Microsoft unveiled Microsoft SQL Server™ Data Services (SSDS), a Web-facing utility-based service designed for businesses and developers that need scalable, highly available, secure and easily programmable on-demand data storage with...

I've been trying to get SQL Compact 3.5 working in Visual Studio 2008. Since SQL Compact 3.5 ships with Visual Studio 2008, I thought that this wouldn't be a problem. All I needed to do was to create a new Windows Forms project and add a Local Database...

Ah.... VB 6.  It's been one of my favorite languages.  Over the years, I've created all kinds of programs with it; games, business applications, hardware control systems, etc.  Although I was among the first to admit its faults, I was also...

In part 1 of this series, I showed how to make one web part accept data from another. In part 2 , I showed that this can be extended so that one web part can provide data for many. In part 3 , which I thought was going to be the last part, I showed how...

In a previous post , I talked about Alternate Data Streams and how some virus-scanning engines use them for tracking purposes. When this happens, the file is changed. It doesn't matter that the "real" data hasn't changed. The system still knows that a...

I want to recap a topic that has been around for a while: Alternate Data Streams. This topic has resurfaced again in an interesting way. I'm going to tell you about it in later post. However, I thought I'd explain Alternate Data Streams again, just in...

In part 1 of this series, I showed how to make one web part accept data from another. In part 2 , I showed that this can be extended so that one web part can provide data for many. Now, in this final post of the series, I'll show how a single web part...

In part 1 of this series, I showed how to make one web part accept data from another. In this part, I'll show how one web part can send data to two different web parts. Let's add another web part. We already have a web part that allows the user to...

Josh Holmes recently asked me to present a couple of small demos for an ArcReady event in Memphis. While looking through my material, I discovered a couple of web parts that I had written a while ago. I wrote these web parts in order to investigate how...

In my last post , I discussed the Microsoft product lifecycle site, and how you should use it to ensure that your products remain supported. If you have a lot of products, this can be pretty time-cosuming. There is a better way. Simply subscribe the the...

Many people know about the support lifecycle site at Microsoft. It contains information about the support policy for Microsoft products. It allows you to look up a specific version of a Microsoft product and to see when support for that product ends....

Bill Laing has been quoted as saying that “Windows Server 2008 would be the last 32-bit Microsoft server operating system.” Apparently, Windows Server 2008 R2 will be 64-bit only. However, the story for the desktop may be different. Alex Heaton says ...

Hello and welcome! My name is Jerry Dixon and I am a software developer living in Memphis Tennessee. (Well, I actually live in Olive Branch, Mississippi, which is about half a mile south of the state line.) I've been around a while, developing applications...