Over the past few months I've been writing articles for the .NET Insight insight newsletter covering various ASP.NET AJAX concepts.  You can read those article here.  I've wrapped up that series and have started writing about Silverlight 1.0.  Each week a new article will be published and I'll update them here so check back.  The articles are designed to be focused and concise and get straight to the topic without a lot of fluff.  

• Getting Started with Silverlight
• Using Microsoft's Silverlight Control in a Web Site
• Understanding Silverlight's createObject and createObjectEx Methods
• Silverlight XAML Primer 1: Exploring Canvases
• Silverlight XAML Primer 2: Rectangles, Ellipses, Lines and Text
• Silverlight XAML Primer 3: Working with Image Brushes

Found a MSDN blogger who created a spell checker add in for Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008.

Get it here: http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2007/12/13/spell-checker-for-html-asp-net-jscript-vb-c-css-and-c-for-visual-studio-2005-and-2008.aspx

C# and C++ source code for .Net application packer tool

Visual Studio Add-in that uses JSLint to verify JavaScript files that are part of a Solution

LINQ in Action won't be available as a paper book before January, but the e-book is already available in preview, and of course .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 are there. This is why we are now able to publish the complete source code for all the samples included in the book (this includes updated source code for LINQ to Amazon). Feel free to download it even if you don't own the book (yet) and provide feedback in the book's forum.

Enjoy LINQ!

Cross-posted from http://linqinaction.net

Yesterday, Volta was made publicly available for the first time.  It is an experimental project in the early stages of development.  The team decided to release an early technology preview so that developers everywhere can help guide the project through experience and feedback.  We want your feedback.

The first release provides the basic feature set that will be improved upon with time.  It has some obvious shortcomings that we are aware of and are actively addressing.  But really, at this stage, the preview is more concerned with sparking your imagination about what is possible than ironing out all of the details.

Perhaps you disagree.  Maybe the most important feature to you is the completeness of a final product.  If that is the case, then say so and we will seriously consider making it a higher priority for the upcoming early experimental releases.

At some point, Volta may become, feed into, or inform a product, but that is a little way off yet.  So let's enjoy the unique opportunity of working together to make something great.

In the coming months, I will alternate between three types of posts:

1.  Volta focused posts: explaining the motivation, features, and technical details

2.  C#: this includes both 3.0 and eventually 4.0 features

3.  Random thoughts: like it says; two that will be discussed soon are programmer tests and continuations

I hope you enjoy the posts and I look forward to engaging with you in discussion.

SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 is now available . Among other features it includes integration with ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 and support for custom HTTP and SOAP headers with Business Data Catalog entity models....(read more)

This article disscusses about the Architectural Considerations for ASP.NET 3.0 and Building Multi-Tier Application Using LINQ to SQL.

I really like the ASP.NET AJAX script library. The Sys.UI.DomElement class in particular has some really useful pieces parts. As much as I'm enjoying using it, every once in awhile you find one little thing you wish it did.

For example, I have a little script does the expand/contract on user info in the new forum thread pages. It figures out how big to expand the div by looking at the CSS class that it uses. While this sounded like a good idea at the time, in order to avoid hard-coding heights into script or the page, it ignores the fact that you can have more than one style sheet, and for that matter, more than one style class on the element. I wrote this a long time ago, and I don't remember for sure, but I think my original issue was that I couldn't simply render the div hidden, read its height, then make it visible and start at height zero because the hidden-ness doesn't work the same in each browser.

This is where you start to wish something had that one more feature. I mean, all things considered, that script library does an awesome job of isolating you from so much crap, so I can't really complain. I'm just a big fan of taking advantage of solutions to problems someone else already solved!

 

Imagine cup is the world’s premier technology competition for students. Each year, students are provided with a theme – this year, the theme is extremely topical and relevant – “Imagine A World Where Technology Enables a Sustainable Environment”. Last year, we had over 100,000 students enter worldwide... think about that – that’s 100,000 bright young minds working to solve the world’s biggest problems.

 

This year, students can go in the draw to win internships, trips to France, cash prizes, xbox 360’s, HTC touch mobile phones and internships at Readify Consulting. This marks the biggest prize pool for Imagine Cup Australia to date, and provides a compelling reason for students to enter. There are 9 categories students can enter:

Software Design – Games Development – IT Challenge – Algorithm – Project Hoshimi Programming Challenge – Photography – Short Film – Interface Design – Embedded Development.

 

The Software Design category is particularly important, so if you know any young coders out there, please get them to visit http://www.microsoft.com/australia/imaginecup.

 

Cheers,

 

~Jen

In this article, I would like to share my experience and knowledge about ASP.NET Caching and how it can improve your website performance.

Crystal Report with paging and Navigation Functionality with C#.NET

 

For some reason 4 out of the 5 Windows Server x64 SKU's we have running in our office decided to reboot last night.  I checked the one that did not, and it had issues downloading the updates (thats a seperate issue).  Of the 4 that did reboot, I checked Automatic Updates and it appears that *somehow* they are all now set to download and install updates automatically.  Now, as most of us know you should set this to never install updates blindy on production machines.  Its always good to stage/test any new software installed into production, including service packs and Windows updates.  I double checked with my IT guy and he defintely remembers changing that setting during intial install (its part of our standard checklist).   

 

 This happened at 3am:

 Restart Required: To complete the installation of the following updates, the computer will be restarted within 5 minutes:
- Security Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB944653)
- Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB942763)
- Security Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB941569)
- Update for Outlook Junk Email Filter 2007 (KB943597)
- Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool x64 - December 2007 (KB890830)
- Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 7 for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB942615)
- Security Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB941568)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

 

Restart required?  And it actually forced it?  Wow....   Anyone else notice this?

 

This just feels dirty to me...

 

In this article I try to highlight some issues in the .Net framework generic list and how to circumvent them.

If you're near the Indianapolis area tonight stop by the Indy .NET Developer's Association "InstallFest". The registration is filled, but you could get on the waiting list for a free copy of Visual Studio 2008 along with other prizes.  I've got what I think is an interesting demo planned for "demo time". I'm not going to give any details because I wouldn't mind being voted "best demo" and winning a Zune. All very hush-hush, top secret stuff. Oh, and if you're attending: vote for my demo!! :)

Probably most importantly, if you're coming, do make a quick stop at the Walmart located practically next door and buy a toy or three for kids who otherwise won't get any. We really have no excuse not to!

Hope to see you there.