Gabe on Software

Cloud Computing Meatwad!

gabeb@microsoft.com — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:46:00 GMT

How to Re-Sign (Strongly Name) an existing .NET Binary

gabeb@microsoft.com — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 03:30:00 GMT

Do you have an existing .Net binary you are trying to use with an existing project that uses strongly named binaries? If the pre-existing binary is not strongly signed too, you can't use it. Doh! I found this nice tutorial that shows you how to de-compile and existing binary and re-sign it with a new key!

A reader suggested a similar tool, ILMerge that does something similar.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

gabeb@microsoft.com — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:49:00 GMT

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and wish everyone a wonderful Christmas! :)

I'm Famous!

gabeb@microsoft.com — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:19:00 GMT

I'm on the news

Converting C# to VB.net

gabeb@microsoft.com — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:49:00 GMT

I had one reader from Germany contact me regarding porting a sample section of my blog posting on using the MpApi in .Net. Unfortunately, I don't use VB.net that often and my time to port it to VB.net is limited, however I found a great online tool that can do this for you.

KamalPatel.net has a nice tool, ConvertCSharp2VB. It's rather simple, you copy and paste C# code into the form and it spits out the same code on VB.net. Here's the sample in C# and VB.net that I used:

C# Sample
SmsMessagingClass messaging = new SmsMessagingClass();
ISmsMessage4 message, reply;
smsMessaging.CreateMessage(out message);
message.SetTargetEndpoint("MyDummyEndpoint");
message.SetPort(80);message.SetBodyFromString("MyMessageBody");

// Send the message using HTTP
messaging.Invoke("http://myHostname", message, out reply);

// Do something with the reply here...

VB.Net Sample
Dim messaging As SmsMessagingClass = New SmsMessagingClass()
Dim message As ISmsMessage4,reply As ISmsMessage4
smsMessaging.CreateMessage( message)
message.SetTargetEndpoint("MyDummyEndpoint")
message.SetPort(80)message.SetBodyFromString("MyMessageBody")

' Send the message using HTTP
messaging.Invoke("http://myHostname",message,out reply)

' Do something with the reply here...

Free Agile Development Talks from

gabeb@microsoft.com — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:32:00 GMT

These are some great talks from the best minds on agile software development giving their talks at this years agile convention in Toronto. A lot of them are being posted online free to view!

"We Suck Less!" Is Not Enough

Enabling Debug and Verbose Logging in ConfigMgr 2007

gabeb@microsoft.com — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:30:00 GMT

I adapted this from the SMS Client FAQ section since I get so many questions on how to do this. Debug and Verbose provides additional information on error conditions for clients and servers. Setting this flag automatically triggers more information in the logs and does not require a reboot or restart of the system.

Enabling Debug and Verbose Logging

To enable debug logging after installation, create the following registry key:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CCM\Logging\debuglogging

To enable verbose logging after installation, change the following value to 0. You will need to right click on the @Global key and change permissions to allow the current user to change the data in the key.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\CCM\Logging\@Global\Loglevel

You're done! Log files should now start producing A LOT more information.

Muppets Mahna Mahna Video

gabeb@microsoft.com — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:50:00 GMT

Hahahaha! It's the little stuff like this that takes me back to the days I wish I was a kid again..

New Paper on Tools with Kent Beck

gabeb@microsoft.com — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:59:00 GMT

Microsoft recently released a new paper on Tools and the Visual Studio Team System. It's a great read regarding tools development and how they support the Scrum framework.

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System : Tools for Agility

Scrum Makes You Smarter

gabeb@microsoft.com — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:29:00 GMT

Although it's a bit controversial, Jeff Sutherland posted an article citing that Scrum makes you smarter. Although I tend to agree with that finding based on my personal experience, I think it's a bit controversial! Looks like this article was also on Association for Psychological Science as well.

Certified ScrumMaster

gabeb@microsoft.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:44:00 GMT

I'm now officially a certified ScrumMaster! And, I'm certified by the famous Jeff Sutherland, Co-Creator of Scrum, and Mitch Lacey. It was a great honor to meet him and I cannot stress how important it is to hear it from the source. If you are considering a ScrumMaster certification, I would go out of my way to meet the man in person.

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SDK Released

gabeb@microsoft.com — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:19:00 GMT

For those of you that are waiting for the RTM version of the ConfigMgr 2007 SDK, it was just released today including an updated version of the MP API.

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Software Development Kit (SDK) v4.0

Microsoft Recruiting Makes Local Paper

gabeb@microsoft.com — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:45:00 GMT

The Lansing State Journal covered the Microsoft Job-Cuzzi at Michigan State University. I was attending to help with running the event to help students understand what working for Microsoft is like. The actor in the job-cuzzi was hilarious and reminded me of Steve Carrell from The Office.

Configuring ISA Firewalls for ConfigMgr

gabeb@microsoft.com — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:47:00 GMT

In case you are doing Internet Based Client Management (IBCM), Adam has a great article on configuring ISA for IBCM. It's not an easy task to accomplish and his tutorial really sheds some light.

Firewalls and Internet Based Client Management : Part 1

Firewalls and Internet Based Client Management : Part 2

Documentation

If you have read the blog entries and still have questions on setup, you can request documentation from the ISA Server team for how to configure ISA with Internet-based site systems in Configuration Manager 2007, send an email jointly to isadocs@microsoft.com and smsdocs@microsoft.com.

Configuration Manager 2007 Error Codes

gabeb@microsoft.com — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:08:00 GMT

In case you bump into some of the more obscure error codes, there is a large list available on the TechNet documentation page. It helped me out quite a bit.