August 2003 Entries
I've always thought cleartype was really just for Laptops...looks fuzzy on a normal
screen...
Brian
Keller knows different (and now, so do I), check
this out
a very cool ClearType tuner...
Got my new little baby server (very powerful baby but baby nonetheless - think 'Hulk
Baby'). So, the new site is finally on the way...the current address will continue
to work - it will be a copy of the 'real' stie for the time being - I have an odd
.TEXT (new site) to BlogX (old site) convertor working which takes each .TEXT entry,
formats a BlogX version and uploads it...anyway, stay tuned - the new site will be
on
http://www.mostlylucid.co.uk - should
be up within the week!
It is VERY interesting on the subject of patching and Blaster -
part
2
Thought this
interview
was VERY interesting, more for the approach more than anything else. It really does
look like MS is changing the way they approach software - the focus on quality over
timeliness and marketing concerns is appreciated. It really does seem that they are
changing the way the communicate with customers and developers (as well as realising
that developers are pretty important members of 'their team')
The one where
the C++ guy doesn't get Chris Sells' jokes :-) Also, did anyone notice that Brad Abrams
and Anders Hejlsberg bear a passing resemblance to someone
else
Just realised how few people use these (quick office poll on the use of Windows-D
to minimise all windows...) So, have a look at this
shortcut
key list
The
Stinger tool is the best I've found
for gettings rid of the recent virii...won't stop you getting it again, for that you
must run proper antivirus software
As usual,
Anydy Smith comes up with the goods with the most
flexible implementation of
MasterPages I've ever seen...
Just noticed that
ASPToday is back and publishing
some good articles (i.e., not Windows Server 2003 adverts by Alex Homer...)! You have
to subscribe to access all the latest ones, but they do provide some freebies to give
you a taster. Along with its' now extensive back catalogue, this is probably the best
source for ASP / ASP.NET information on the web...
Just took a survey here on my Sci-fi/fantasy character....well... hmm...not what I'd
usually expect! :-)
I was thinking recently about how I came to where I am in my career and life, oddly,
one book had a biggest impact on how I approach this industry,
Microserfs by
Douglas
Coupland. THis is a pretty odd book, ostensibly its' about a group of coders who
leave Microsoft and form a startup company, but in reality its' about self-discovery,
friendship, and I suppose the existence of a generation of people who chose to lose
themselves int their work rather than face life. If you haven't read this, I
really suggest you do, its' one of a small collection of books that I read many many
times (as evidenced by its' currently sporting a fetching duck tape binding :-)).
It isn't a 'geek' book and its' not sci-fi, it is a Douglas Coupland book - and
thats' a pretty unique thing!
http://weblogs.asp.net/pwilson/posts/24867.aspx
Short...but pretty cool...reminds me, I must finish that ViewState compression stuff...hmm...
From Paschal L...some pretty interesting fixes...like the DataGrid accessibility update!
This
KB would certainly be of some interest for the .Net community ;-)
I am not sure it's new but I missed it so let share
the info.
-
812686 FIX:
When You Call the Response.ClearHeaders Method in a Custom HTTPmodule, Extra Characters
Are Appended to the Output
-
819612 FIX:
Slow Performance When the Browser Capabilities Evaluator Is Removed from the Cache
-
820621 FIX:
Cannot Download WinForm Application Configuration Files
-
820743 FIX:
ASP.NET Performance Counters Cannot Count More Than 113 Loaded AppDomains
-
820747 FIX:
Cannot Attach a User-Mode Debugger to the Aspnet_wp.exe Process Through Image File
Run Options
-
821155 Background
Batch Compile May Cause a Deadlock When the Thread Pool Has Been Exhausted
-
821349 FIX:
Embedded Null Characters May Bypass Request Script Validation
-
821438 FIX:
Antivirus Programs May Cause Some Web Applications to Restart Unexpectedly
-
821758 FIX:
Server.Transfer Does Not Invoke IsPostBack in .NET Framework 1.1
-
822148 FIX:
ASP.NET Queues Too Many Requests
-
822162 FIX:
ASP.NET Session Variables Can Be Shared Between Applications When Using SQLServer
Session Mode
-
823028 FIX:
HttpApplication.OnThreadEnter May Fail Under Memory Pressure
-
823030 FIX:
DataGrid Made Compliant with Section 508 of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Guidelines
-
821346 FIX:
AspNetHostingPermission Intersect Does Not Handle NULL Target Correctly
This is of course my personal opinion and is based on my personal experiences...:-)
As you may have read in an earlier post, I got a crappy new NEC e606 from
3
which I sent back after a few hours... Well, I recieved nothing more from 3 until
the day after it was disconnected when I got a lovely envelope to send back the phone
they'd just disconnected (and confirmed they had disconnected!). So now, today I have
recieved a letter informing me that a direct debit had been set up...and another one
from my bank telling me that a direct debit for £43.05 from H3G had failed (billing
account which is always empty at this time of the month...)...so they were charging
me £30 to cover administration costs...trying to get feedback from 3 now (but they
say my account doesn't currently exist and they can't give me any information!). So
in summary, my crappy NEC e606 which I had for a total of 9 hours is going to end
up costing me at least £30 (not the banks' fault...) and up to £73.05...this is a
company I want to fail! Update later...
Interesting...a lot of people are talking about
this.
Jans Tielens says it all...so I'll just repeat what he said...
Namespaces in .NET are great! But how many times do you find yourself typing Private
r As xmlreader, and then noticing that there is no Imports/using statement for the
System.Xml Namespace? Then you would have to scroll to the top of your document and
add the Imports/using statement by hand. Alternatively you could choose to add the
namespace to your declaration: Private r As System.Xml.XmlReader. Since we are all
developers, why not develop something to help developers with this tedious task of
namespace lookups?
The first version of this macro was
published some time ago. Thanks to Yves Hanoulle,
Thomas Freudenberg and Guillaume Roberge, a new version is available. Changes:
-
Check if the “Imports/using NamespaceX“ statement is already present in the code.
-
Code cleanup and improvements.
The new version (with installation instructions) can be found on
this page: http://dotnet.leadit.be/typefinder.
A compiled Macro
Project and the source
code in plain text can be downloaded.
As an memory aid...
Andy Smiths' Blog
Found this
site, just has links
to a bunch of useful articles on some more advanced C# topics.
Umm...ok, maybe a bit over the top, but this guy is a brilliant ASP.NET developer,
and along with
Andy Smith produces
some of the most useful stuff around for ASP.NET developers his
site has
a whole bunch of useful stuff such as the
ASP.NET
version switcher, the
Dynamic
Controls Placeholder (which really should be in the core ASP.NET framework - of
course ASP.NET 2.0 might not need it who knows!). The reason for choosing
today is that I've just noticed that he has an
article on
ASPAlliance.com about
his
Hierarchcal
Datagrid thing..which I don't have a use for right now but looks very cool...
I've been thinking a fair bit recently about how small companies can best serve clients.
My conclusion is that its' all about keeping the client engaged throughout the project
- even if this means exposing development versions of code to the client.
I am a big fan of 'open' bug lists - i.e., bug lists which are accessible to the client
through an interface. In a previous company we used software called Serio -
now this was pretty good - over complex - bug pretty good!.
I've taken a look at Fog Bugz which is
excellent - and Joel Spolsky being
a total genius doesn't hurt! Joel recently (well fairly) wrote an article that
ANY developer working on community software (or social software which is the same
thing!) should read - very good stuff!
So anyway, what I would like (if anyone is listening) is integration of a web based
bug management system into Visual Studio.NET & the Source Control system - now
this might exist if it does, please let me know!
At another place I worked (BlackID - now sadly
engulfed by a larger company), they had a sort of intranet, npow they didn't really
develop the idea - but it was becoming something like Sharepoint
Portal - which is an excellent starting point for this type of system, nice
collaboration all that stuff...(oh, and you can develop .NET for it :-))...anyway,
some ideas...anyone else have some!
Bracist - saw it on a
Slashdot post (forget
which one)...all coders I know are guilty of this heinous crime :-)
Just discovered the
dotnetjunkies weblogs ,
where I found
these really
useful links to a bunch of interesting .NET stuff...more later (back to blogging again
:-))
Well, the problem I was having with connection pool appears to have gone...all I did
was reinstall (well, repair) my VS.NET 2003 install. Odd these little strange bugs!
Hmm...following the upgrade to VS.NET 2003 and the concurrent upgrade to 1.1 this
required, an odd bug has surfaced in my code - it appears to be some form of connection
leak. This is a bit odd as I've been using the same code and the DAAB with a connection
string only (which should close the connection once the reader is closed - in the
case of SQLHelper.ExecuteReader).
Keep you posted...hopefully its' just a bit of errant code not shutting the connection
down...hopefully...
P.S. If anyone else has experienced anything like this, please email me at scott@mostlylucid.net ta...
As some you already know, I work for a small company (
StormId),
now normally, this is fine and dandy - I have a good deal of input into what happens
here, its' easy to cut through what little red tape there is etc..
A big problem with small companies is the lack of specialists in certain areas, for
example we have no DBA and no System Administrator here - they just aren't cost effective
in such a small business.
So, when, as happened today, one of the servers gets totally knackered, this is a
major problem - this server also happens to run the Exchange server so we have no
email provision at the moment!
Anyway, thought I'd have a gripe at my 3 regular readers :-)
Please everyone, patch your machine! Turn on the auto updating that all recent versions
of windows have and APPLY THE PATCHES! The recent attacks such as MSBlaster and SQL
Slammer are not an issue if
-
You've applied the patches (the blaster patch has been aroung since March!)
-
You have a decent firewall installed - if you're on the internet (especially if you're
permanantly connected with ADSL / Cable) you have to install a decent firewall
- Zonealarm is free and
easy to use, install it, use it! In preference though, install a NATing router...
-
Install a virus checker and update it regularly - they're wither cheap or free nowadays,
they almost all have an auto update function and they catch pretty much all nastiness...I
recommend Norton Antivirus
Do all this and you will very rearely be affected by all this nastiness - more imp;ortantly,
with all these peer-to-peer worms around, you won't infect me!
Sorry, deep into refactoring and application (well, try complete rewrite of
the core framework of the app!), so I've not had much time to write anything of late.
I am deep into an article on Custom Dictionaries (handy little buggers) - which will
probably be the first article on the new version of this site - which will be
nice...
Anyway, stay tuned, I'll try and post some more vaguely interesting stuff over the
next couple of days, especially on the topic of Lazy Load patterns which are my current
obsession :-)
Hooray...my dreams finally realised :-)
Primate
Programming
Via Chris Sells (do the link later), nice
free
winforms controls for C#...on my current WinForms obsession....
Came across this
http://weblogs.asp.net/tatochip/posts/22873.aspx .. a list of the intrinsic event fired on an ASP.NET page (and controls)...incredibly useful!
Excellent
caching
article by
Steven A. Smith worth a read
by anyone using caching and ASP.NET. I'm currently reading a book on Windows Forms
programming - I'm primarily a web programmer, the WinForms world is new and scary
to me! Anyway, the
book is
Windows
Forms Programming with C# by Erik Brown - so far (I'm about a quarter of
the way through), it's an excellent book and takes a project driven approach to the
subject - which I find far easier that the pure theoretical approach...
Playing with some cool stuff...can't say any more about it right now but stay tuned
:-). Anyway, came across a new blog tonight - contains some pretty useful stuff on
the subject of Custom Controls...
http://weblogs.asp.net/vga