Let me first clarify - John Bristowe is a great speaker, but what he was presenting - shame on Microsoft Canada.The topics promised so much, the *real* thing was so disappointing. A few samples:

• Subject: browser support / JavaScript issues. Sample: document.all.placeholder --> common, that's the cross-browser?
• Subject: XHTML and strict mode --> What about how to make VS.NET digest it?...
• Bunch of tools that should be presented at a webcast, not a national tour
• More...

Now the question - is this the REAL development for web community? Am I missing something? Felt like attending a show for kids, and not developers. No wonder Java community folks are looking at us as armatures. Why it has to take an 'underground' meeting like ALT.NET to address the REAL development? Time to mature for ASP.NET community.

PS: Yes I am furious because I want to move forward and instead get entertained by 'drag-n-drop', with a bunch of developers that are excited about fancy UI showing no idea to go deeper than that.

Scott Hanselman produced an awesome screencast on configuring IIS7 and PHP with FastCGI . He also does some live performance testing of the Qdig application using CGI, FastCGI and the new kernel-mode caching in IIS7. From Scott's blog: You can watch the video/screencast on the new Hanselman Silverlight Player (thanks Tim!) or download the WMV directly . If you guys want more IIS7 videos in detail, give me feedback in the comments and I'll see what we can do about putting together a series over on...(read more)

http://www.devconnections.com/

 

I'm going to be there this year.  My crew and I are staying at the Luxor rather than Mandalay Bay!  Post a comment or send me an email if you're going to be there and we'll arrange to get together.

I am using 3-Tier architecture in my different projects, but adding a 4th tier is a novelty for me. After reading this article, I can see the benefits to add a Business Access Layer in some complex scenarios. From the author: Almost all of us must have heard about 3-Tier architecture but what is this 4-Tier architecture? What are the benefits and how it is different from other architectures? Well, the architecture I am going to demonstrate here is just enhancement of 3-Tier archicture. In this architecture;...(read more)

The language specifications for the upcoming versions of the C# and VB.NET languages have been published by Microsoft.
The Word document for C# 3.0 contains no less than 519 pages. Something to keep you busy for the week-end...
The equivalent document for VB.NET 9.0 contains only 338 pages, but it's only a pre-version of the specification. The author, Paul Vick, lists what's in and what's out in this post.

Cross-posted from http://linqinaction.net

I have been developing in ASP.NET since the beginning.  I have been training in Visual Studio since I can remember.  I have learned many keyboard shortcuts over the years.  I cannot believe it has taken me this long to discover a keyboard shortcut for one of the most common tasks I do  - View In Browser.  If you have not stumbled across it yet, it is [Ctrl]-[Shift]-[W].

An Article on Implementing MySQL Providers for ASP.NET 2.0 Membership, Roles, Site Map and Personalization

Learn how ASP.NET 2.0 makes it simple to implement Web site navigation by combining Menu and TreeView server controls with SiteMap data controls. Also discover how to associate client behavior with a server control using the ASP.NET AJAX extender framework.

The .NET Framework 3.5 is shipping later this year at the same time as Visual Studio 2008. The .NET Framework 3.5 is an additive release, meaning that it adds functionality in terms of classes in assemblies to the previous versions 3.0 and 2.0 of the...(read more)

Jon Box (Architect Evangelist extraordinaire) thought my post discussing risk differences between Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 was a "Nice Job".

He actually did have a few comments on the new mobile-related features. He was right on, but he's too busy to post them. Let me post it for him.

There are also a set of enhancements for mobile development (native and managed). Unit testing, LINQ, new .NETCF CLR, subset of WCF and WCF over email, improved emulators (in WM6 SDK), WM5 SDK included now, etc.

With WM6, we get Security Configuration Manager, WISP, new sound APIs, CabSignTool, WM6 SDK (Fake GPS, FakeServer, Cell Emulator, Hopper, etc).

I've just come across the Windows Live SkyDrive beta which is basically an online storage facility that is driven by your Windows Live ID. Some of the features that is offers are: 1 GB of free online storage. Create personal, shared, and public folders -- you decide who has access to each folder. Your personal folders are password-protected with your Windows Live ID, so only you have access. When you create a shared folder, the friends you're sharing with need to sign in with their own Windows Live...(read more)

To follow my previous post on HTML emails, I should also mention the excellent gallery of different designs posted by Campaign Monitor. Check here the galery......(read more)

This article discusses how to create an HTML Editor server control for use within an ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 environment.

You may have seen the article on ASP.NET Charting with NPlot on the 4 Guys From Rolla.com web site. Unfortunately, all of the sample code provided only shows you how to create line charts. If you visit the wiki for NPlot you will only find a plea for a BarPlot tutorial. I sent an email to one of the NPlot developers asking for some sample code for creating bar charts and he provided enough code for me to figure it out. I contributed several examples of NPlot bar charts in VB.NET and C# using the Northwind database and even one using XML as the data source but these examples have not been added to the wiki. I will provide you with enough information here to create bar charts in case someone is still looking for a solution.

First copy all of the sample code from the 4 Guys From Rolla.com web site article because you only need to change a few lines. The first step is just to change the type of plot object you are creating, obvious enough:

'One Plot for each timeseries:
Dim npPlot1 As New NPlot.BarPlot
Dim npPlot2 As New NPlot.BarPlot

The tricky part that is not documented and which you cannot figure out without a clue is how to assign the data to each axis. It is slightly different from the Line Chart example:

<>'Timeseries 1 to Plot 1:
npPlot1.AbscissaData = X1
npPlot1.OrdinateDataTop = OT1
npPlot1.OrdinateDataBottom = OB1

Here OT1 and OB1 are arrays of double values and X1 is whatever data your X axis uses:

OT1 = New Double() {2, 4, 6, 4, 12, 5, 8, 1, 3, 9}
OB1 = New Double() {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}

If you use a table for your datasouce then use the columns for the axis data:

<>npPlot1.DataSource = objDataSet.Tables(0)
'Column names in the dataset were established in the SQL statement
npPlot1.AbscissaData = "AbscissaData"
npPlot1.OrdinateDataTop = "OrdinateDataTop"
npPlot1.OrdinateDataBottom = "OrdinateDataBottom"

I had a short video that I needed to share with family this weekend so I thought I'd try out the Silverlight streaming service that's currently free. I started out with this guide Your Video to Silverlight Streaming 101 which seemed pretty straight forward....(read more)