October 2007 - Posts

Happy Halloween!
31 October 07 08:00 AM
One of my very favorite holidays is Halloween. I've always loved dressing up as something really gross or scary and freaking people out. Every year I throw a costume party the Saturday before Halloween. This year I was a demon and Alan was the devil. Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 6 Comments    
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Quickly Import and Export Excel Data with LINQ to XML
30 October 07 08:00 PM
One really handy thing to do with relational data is to import and export it to Excel. This can be a total snap using LINQ to XML in Visual Basic 2008. For example, let's say I want to import data from an Excel spreadsheet into a local database file like Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 69 Comments    
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Attachment(s):ImportExportExcel.zip
XML Literals Tips/Tricks
26 October 07 12:40 PM
A couple quick tips here when using XML literals in your Visual Basic programs. #1: I've started using XML literals everywhere I had been using multiline strings and text merging (as I explained in this post ). For instance, I started using them in my Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 13 Comments    
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It's Conference Time - I'm Speaking at QCon in San Francisco
26 October 07 10:52 AM
I'll be speaking at QCon in SF on Friday morning, November 9th on LINQ to XML in Visual Basic 9 . I'll be with my buddy Rob Windsor on the Bleeding Edge.NET track and it should be a lot of great content. Please drop by and say HI if you're in town and Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 2 Comments    
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Beth's Boo Boo
25 October 07 03:30 PM
No this isn't a Halloween "Boo" as in ghost, but rather a big boo boo or small-ish injury to my thumb. :-( I ended up in the emergency room yesterday because I slammed my thumb in a folding ladder. I knew the instant it happened it was bad news. It felt Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 7 Comments    
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Using My.Settings and WCF Configuration with the Interop Forms Toolkit
24 October 07 01:07 PM
Recently I received a question from a customer asking how to get an Interop User control developed with the Interop Forms Toolkit to be able to read the application configuration settings (app.config) in order to call a WCF service. (If you're unfamiliar Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 4 Comments    
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Attachment(s):SettingsAndInteropUserControl.zip
I'm Speaking at Silicon Valley Code Camp
24 October 07 08:00 AM
This weekend is Silicon Valley Code Camp and I'll be speaking on LINQ. I've got two Saturday morning sessions , one a beginner intro to LINQ and then after that an intermediate talk on LINQ to XML in Visual Basic . I've got so many demos I don't know Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 4 Comments    
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Embed Code and Avoid Underscores in Your Multiline Strings
23 October 07 12:03 PM
One of the things I most dearly missed from FoxPro when I moved to VB.NET was the ability to easily dump a bunch of text (multi-line string literals) into the editor easily and embed code (text-merge). FoxPro has a keyword TEXT...ENDTEXT for this and Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 25 Comments    
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Channel 9 Interview with Erik Meijer and Dave Thomas
22 October 07 01:05 PM
If you missed this intriguing interview on Channel 9 with Erik Meijer and Dave Thomas you should definately check it out. Dave Thomas is the creator of IBM's VisualAge SmallTalk/Java as well as one of the original founders of Eclipse . He has some very Read More...
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Silverlight Does Steely Dan
22 October 07 09:41 AM
Carl Franklin , the master mind behind .NET Rocks and long time Visual Basic guru, is also an AMAZING musician and has put together this entire (re)production of Steely Dan's "Home at Last" in Silverlight . Carl recorded each track himself, including Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 1 Comments    
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6 Months at Microsoft - I made it!
19 October 07 05:34 PM
Today marks my 1/2 year anniversary at Microsoft - wow - it's gone by so fast! I guess because I've been so busy trying to bring you the best Visual Basic content and a fresh Developer Center . I have enjoyed every minute I've spent on doing videos, writing Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 6 Comments    
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Control Your Wiimote with Visual Basic
18 October 07 11:29 AM
Check out this cool article on Coding4Fun that shows you how you can control the Wiimote (the Nintendo Wii's remote) with Visual Basic code via BlueTooth! This article specifically shows how you can use the Wiimote and the nunchuck to control a custom Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 1 Comments    
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Channel 9 Interview: Sara Ford on Community, Open Source, and Katrina
17 October 07 06:58 PM
One of my former teammates and good friend, Sara Ford , did an amazing interview on Channel 9 where she talks about her experience at Microsoft as a tester on Visual Studio as well as her journey into the developer community and open source space. But Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 3 Comments    
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Visual Basic WPF Samples - Basic Brushes
17 October 07 02:14 PM
A few days ago, Patrick Dengler from the VB Team released more VB WPF samples based on Charles Petzold's book Applications = Code + Markup . This time Chapter 2 on basic brushes. Patrick is releasing these regularly on the VB Team blog so subscribe today Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 2 Comments    
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Getting Started with LINQ to XML
16 October 07 02:09 PM
As Rob points out (I actually noticed his post on the Dev Center today!) there are some How-Do-I videos available for Visual Studio 2008 . One of the videos is an overview of LINQ to XML (sorry I can't give you a direct link to the video as they are wrapped Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 10 Comments    
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MSDN geekSpeak: Generics in Visual Basic
14 October 07 08:00 AM
Listen to the always entertaining Jim Duffy , Visual Basic MVP, talk about generics and more in Visual Basic on MSDN's geekSpeak. In this segment, Jim answers common developer questions about not only use of generics, but also some language-specific features Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 5 Comments    
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How-Do-I Videos - in Spanish!
13 October 07 08:00 AM
Another one of our generous Visual Basic community members, Dick Valdivieso , has started translating the How-Do-I Videos into Spanish! He's got the first LINQ video finished and he's planning on releasing more so check back often . English , Chinese Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 1 Comments    
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Visual Basic WPF Samples
12 October 07 08:00 AM
If you haven't noticed, Patrick Dengler from the VB Team has started releasing VB WPF samples based on Charles Petzold's book Applications = Code + Markup . This is great news for Visual Basic developers wanting to learn Windows Presentation Foundation, Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 1 Comments    
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Visual Studio Content - Tell Us What You Think!
11 October 07 10:42 PM
The documentation team has just released a survey aimed at gathering feedback on Visual Studio content. Are you dying to tell us what you think about the Visual Studio content in the MSDN library? Please share your perspective by taking part in the Visual Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 3 Comments    
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Spelunking the DOM with Silverlight 1.1
11 October 07 10:47 AM
If you missed it, earlier this week we posted Rod Paddock's followup article on Silverlight onto the Visual Basic Developer Center . In this article Rod walks us through creating and calling a web service in Silverlight 1.1 clients. If you're just getting Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 1 Comments    
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Channel 9 Interview - Offline Data Synchronization Services in Visual Studio 2008
10 October 07 05:00 PM
Earlier today I posted a Channel 9 interview with Milind Lele showing us his favorite VS 2008 features - the new Data Synchronization designer and how the sync services for ADO.NET work to support occasionally connected scenarios. He shows us how to set Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 3 Comments    
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I'm Speaking Tonight!
10 October 07 04:00 PM
If you're in the East Bay Area tonight, head on down to the Pleasanton EastBay.Net group where I'll be speaking on Strategies to Migrate Your Visual Basic 6 Investments to .NET. Oh and as an added bonus for FUNdamentals, Yag will be walking down architecture Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 1 Comments    
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Scott Hanselman on VB9's New "XML Hotness"
09 October 07 04:25 PM
I've just gotten caught up on Scott Hanselman's latest Hanselminutes and wanted to point out this great show on LINQ to XML and specifically his comments on Visual Basic 9's implementation of XML literals and XML IntelliSense. If you're a fan of Hanselminutes Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 2 Comments    
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LINQ to SQL and One-To-Many Relationships
02 October 07 04:40 PM
Recently a customer sent me a question related to the video I posted on creating a one-to-many form with LINQ to SQL . In that video I use the Northwind database to set up a one-to-many association between the Customers and Orders entities. We all love Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 22 Comments    
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Attachment(s):LINQtoSQLDeleteOnNull.zip
Using Data Across Multiple Windows Forms
01 October 07 11:11 AM
Recently I've had more than a few questions about how to handle working with data across multiple forms. If you've watched my Forms over Data video series you know how to create a database , connect to it , save your data properly , and work with data Read More...
Postedby Beth Massi | 31 Comments    
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Attachment(s):MultiFormSample.zip

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NOTE: The opinions expressed here are MY OWN and are not necessarily those of my employer, partners, customers, friends, or family. ALL content presented AS-IS, for entertainment purposes only with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY expressed or implied.
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