DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by cbenien

Vista DWM Hacking - Capture and Stream D3D/WPF Windows Real-Time

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:16:09 GMT

This prototype project uses undocumented Vista DWM calls to get reference to a Direct3D surface the Vista DWM uses to paint windows. The D3D surface is then able to be rendered in a WPF application like a "VisualBrush". Because this is done in the GPU, it is very efficient. The sample application will also let you stream a high quality, high fps capture of your video to Silverlight or Windows Media Player.

nPlus1.org: A New Resource For Architects

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:46:04 GMT

I came across a new resource for developers and architects at nPlus1.org. With it just recently going live, this user submission site holds a lot of promise on the information that will be provided.

LINQ To SQL is Dead - Read Between the Lines

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:46:13 GMT

David Hayden with some great points on the Linq to SQL announcement and some ideas on how the project could be saved.

Microsoft kills Linq to SQL

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:01:13 GMT

Ayende (aka Oren) expresses disbelief at Microsoft's decision to effectively kill off LINQ to SQL.

SVN-Monitor is finally out for free download!

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:31:02 GMT

A full-featured .net application that integrates SubVersion, TortoiseSVN and all your checked-out folders and repositories. Use it to perform all your svn commands and monitor all your projects' activities in a single place. Access all commands from the tray menu or from the main window. This is a must-have tool for every windows+svn user!

Copy text from a MessageBox

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:31:02 GMT

How many times you wished you could copy text from the MessageBox. YOU CAN.

Anders Hejlsberg: The future of programming languages

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:31:02 GMT

In this video Anders Hejlsberg takes a look at the future of programming languages and sees the trends; declarative, dynamic and concurrent. As the chief designer of the C# programming language and a key participant in the development of the .NET Framework Anders Hejlsberg has a lot to say about this development - not just as a wish but also as something that can be realized.

10 Programming Proverbs Every Developer Should Know

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:01:02 GMT

Proverbs are used to express universal truths or life lessons in a short and memorable fashion. I find that they are a great way to keep things in perspective, both in life and in work. Because of this, I have assembled 10 programming proverbs that every developer needs in their arsenal.

Mono 2.0 Released

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:01:15 GMT

The Mono Project has released version 2.0 of Mono, enabling developers to run their .Net 2.0 applications on Linux and OSX.

Windows comming soon to Amazon EC2

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:01:15 GMT

This is big news! Amazon are to enable Windows Support on EC2. this will allow users to kick of Windows images for running SQL Servers, IIS instances and anything else (even HPC stuff) in the cloud! SWEET!

101 Free Silverlight Controls

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:31:10 GMT

Awesome collection of FREE silverlight controls.

Two ASP.NET/VS 2008 Performance Tricks That Even Microsoft Didn't Know

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:46:02 GMT

Two interesting ASP.NET with Visual Studio 2008 performance tips that were not documented and discovered by chance

Overriding ToString() Makes Debugging Easier

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:46:02 GMT

Make your life easier while debugging in Visual Studio, see your objects in thier full glory using ToString.

FFlib.NET released!

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:46:02 GMT

Are you web developer? Are you looking for video conversion library for long time? So, be happy! We are pleased to introduce you the first release of our .NET & FFMPEG based video conversion library - FFlib.NET.

Top 10 Things That Annoy Programmers

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:46:03 GMT

Programmers all have their personal pet peeves. Whether it's scope creep, Hungarian notation, or smelly coworkers, there are certain nuisances that we must put up with in our line of work. The following is a list of the top 10 things that annoy programmers, compiled from the results of my recent question on StackOverflow along with some of my own experiences as a programmer:

Launch Firefox Instead Of Internet Explorer When Debugging

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:46:02 GMT

This article tells you how to launch Firefox instead of Intenet Explorer when running an ASP.NET web application in debug mode. This is something I needed to troubleshoot a project that presented a problem only in Firefox.

Running Applications in IronRuby

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:46:03 GMT

Simple as that. Shows you how to get a Ruby app running in IronRuby. Who doesn't want to write Ruby on .net!?

Compress WebResource.axd in ASP.NET

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:52:23 GMT

A lot have been written about the compression of WebResource.axd over the years, but as far as I know, nobody has come up with a simple solution to it. Miron Abramson does have a very good library for compressing a lot of different file types, but I've never been much in favour of third-party libraries. There are several reasons why you want to compress the WebResource.axd. First of all you want to reduce the size of your website. On this blog ASP.NET inserts two WebResource.axd script with a combined file size of 43.3KB. If I use compression and minify the scripts, the total file size will be 8.1KB. That is a significant gain. The WebResource.axd is cached in the browser until midnight the same day, so the file size might not be that big a deal. Well, if we can make it expire on a much later date it would be much better since it never changes. So, if the WebResource.axd is minified, compressed and set to live longer in the browsers it really adds up.

15 Tools to Help You Develop Faster Web Pages

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:16:14 GMT

Response times, availability, and stability are vital factors to bear in mind when creating and maintaining a web application. If you're concerned about your web pages' speed or want to make sure you're in tip-top shape before starting or launching a project, here's a few useful, free tools to help you create and sustain high-performance web applications.

Presenting Expression Blend 2.5 June Preview

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:16:02 GMT

Expression Blend 2.5 June Preview is now available which can be downloaded here. Now it's possible to edit the ControlTemplates from Blend using Visual State Manager to change the look and feel of the controls.

Scrum Explained in 5 Minutes

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:01:02 GMT

PDF entitled "Scrum in Five Minutes" from http://www.softhouse.se/

Silverlight 2 Beta 2 To be released this week!

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:46:10 GMT

Finally!!! This should include a go-live license, increased support for WCF bindings (other than basic), control gallery updates, performance/bug fixes. Beta 2 is probably going to be a "feature complete" or close to the 2.0 release this summer. So, this is an exciting time to be a RIA developer :)

ASP.NET "VaryByCustom" page output caching

Sat, 24 May 2008 13:09:32 GMT

With the VaryByCustom feature of the ASP.NET output cache, you can vary the response by server variables, e.g. the Session ID or the user name, without forcing you to put that into the query string.

Microsoft Source Analysis for C# Released

Fri, 23 May 2008 18:31:14 GMT

From post: "Source Analysis is similar in many ways to Microsoft Code Analysis (specifically FxCop), but there are some important distinctions. FxCop performs its analysis on compiled binaries, while Source Analysis analyzes the source code directly. For this reason, Code Analysis focuses more on the design of the code, while Source Analysis focuses on layout, readability and documentation."

Capture Image Files to the Cloud using Amazon S3

Tue, 20 May 2008 22:16:10 GMT

Amazon has a very inexpensive storage platform called S3 that lets anyone who signs up store data in their cloud for incredibly cheap. Pennies per Gigabyte per Month. After creating your own AWS S3 account, you can use this application to retrieve documents from your own S3 bucket, and capture documents using a scanner directly into the same bucket. Application + Source Code included.