DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by wisemx

How to script all my database objects?

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:50:28 GMT

One question that sometimes arises is "How can we script all database objects throught some kind of automation?"

Microsoft ADO.NET team: The future of LINQ To SQL

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:37:55 GMT

I always get the same question about the future of LINQ to SQL. Finally the ADO.NET Team, which is supporting both LINQ to SQL and Entity Framework, made some clear statements. It is now clear that as of .NET 4.0, LINQ to Entities will be the recommended data access solution for LINQ to relational scenarios. The original statements can be found here: 1st: http://blogs.msdn.com/adonet/archive/2008/10/29/update-on-linq-to-sql-and-linq-to-entities-roadmap.aspx 2nd: http://blogs.msdn.com/adonet/archive/2008/10/31/clarifying-the-message-on-l2s-futures.aspx

The simplicity that is the Asp.Net MVC

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:56:19 GMT

Today I was browsing my list of RSS feeds and I stumbled upon a posting that showed some Asp.Net code. This code was nothing out of the ordinary, it was simply someone building a table with a repeater. . .

Visual Studio Tip: Bring up Intellisense Shortcut

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:45:01 GMT

When I first started, I would attempt to access an object's method only to realize I had selected the wrong method. I would then need to delete past the period, then press period again to see all the Intellisense options. Now, I know and use all the time the shortcut CTRL+SPACE to bring up the Intellisense menu.

Free IIS7 Web Deployment sandbox accounts: DiscountASP.NET

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:45:26 GMT

MS Deploy - Fundamentals If you aren't familiar with this tool yet, you're going to want to take the time to browse the documents and give it a try. It is one of the fundamental building blocks that IIS will be building on the next several years. In it's current beta form, it can be used to: .Migrate entire servers or individual sites from one machine to another (IIS6 -> IIS7) .Sync Servers, Sites, and Applications (IIS6 -> IIS6, and IIS7 -> IIS7) .Create offline packages that can be used as backups, version control, and deployment units Visual Studio 10 Integration! The beta also provides support for 'delegated' publishing, which enables Administrators to grant control to developers and Web site owners to do the packaging and publishing without being a machine administrator. This is going to be a huge boon for Shared Hosters especially, allowing richer application publishing than ever before. DiscountASP.net, one of our close hosting partners, is offering 2000 free accounts as part of a limited Beta which allows you to try out this new functionality - sign-up today, availability is limited.

IIS7 URL Rewrite Module - Video Walkthrough

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:29:55 GMT

This video demonstrates how Microsoft URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0 can be used to accomplish common URL manipulation tasks: .Enabling user friendly and search engine friendly URLs for dynamic web pages .Enforcing canonical host names for web sites .Using rewrite maps .Blocking unwanted requests Also the video shows how to troubleshoot and debug rewrite rules.

Dev humor: Halloween, Daylight Saving Time, Bill Gates' new company

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:00:04 GMT

Halloween, Daylight Saving Time, Bill Gates' new company and other mysterious things I've read this week ...

LifeHacker: 5 best URL Shrinkers

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:47:31 GMT

When every character counts, the right URL compacting service can mean the difference between saying what you want and desperately trying to fit a coherent thought into a few insufficient words. Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite URL shrinking tools, and now we're back with the five most popular answers. Read on for a closer look at the five best URL shrinkers and to vote for the site you like best.

Silverlight & ASP.NET MVC vs Web Forms (Very High Level)

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:34:05 GMT

A high level Pros and Cons look at Silverlight vs ASP.NET Web Forms (based on pros/cons offered by ASP.NET MVC)

Tips, Tricks, and Hidden Gems In SQL Server 2005/2008

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:41:05 GMT

Browsing stackoverflow for SQL Server tags has now become a habit that I do on my free time. For some reason I missed this interesting post about Hidden Features in SQL Server.

Microsoft launches DigiYouthz site for Irish students

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:46:21 GMT

Microsoft today launched DigiYouthz, a new programme designed to help Irish students see the incredible opportunities available from a career in the technology industry. The programme aims to address outdated stereotypes and to open students' minds to the wide array of exciting business and technology career opportunities in the IT industry. The event will provide them with hands-on to experience of the very latest technology from computer gaming to online services and movie production. They'll have the opportunity to use these technologies and hear from people working in a wide variety of roles at Microsoft. http://www.digiyouthz.com/

Even more assorted Visual Studio tips

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:40:44 GMT

Kirill Osenkov blogs about his favorite often used Visual Studio features, including advanced debugging with sos.dll and XML code snippets.

Speech Recognition in Microsoft Word 2007 with Visual Studio 2008

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:04:50 GMT

A new community submitted article was just released on the Office Development with Visual Studio portal by MVP Alessandro Del Sole. In this article learn how to control the Vista operating system's speech recognition engine in .NET from a custom task pane in Microsoft Word 2007. This article compliments Alessandro's previous article on a text-to-speech add-in for Word 2007.

Whats up with Stored Procedures these days?

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:46:19 GMT

When life throws you hard balls, you can either step back and take a swing or bunt the hell out of it. I just recently went to an information session on T-SQL, Stored Procedures and now LINQ. These folks discussed stored procedures and why they are so important in the world today.

ASP.NET MVC Pro's and Con's

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:16:06 GMT

Some of the main pro's and con's of the new style for building web applications (ASP.NET MVC).

Load and Play Media Files at Runtime using Silverlight 2

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:16:02 GMT

Sometime back, I had written a similar article Load and Play a Video File at Runtime using Silverlight 2 Beta 2. The article made use of the OpenFileDialog class in Silverlight Beta2 to load files at runtime. There have been quite a few breaking changes from Beta 2 to the final release of Silverlight. One of these changes affects Silverlight 2 application using the OpenFileDialog. In this short article, we will study these changes and explore how to load and play media files at runtime using the OpenFileDialog control using the final release of Silverlight 2.

Customizing a Silverlight Control ToolTip

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:50:20 GMT

ToolTips are quite useful for for displaying helpful information when the user hovers over a control. The way that ToolTips are usually used is by setting the ToolTipService.ToolTip property to some text. This will display the text in a rather bland rectangle, without wrapping. Here are some ways to make your ToolTips more useful and nicer looking.

Scaling out SQL Server Reporting Services

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 11:28:28 GMT

Links to good resources for scaling out Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services for a high-volume, fault-tolerant environment.

Fix for the Hotfix for EnCoder 9

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 01:32:04 GMT

Hotfix 929182 not updating Windows Media Encoder 9 components as expected on Vista I was in training a few weeks ago (WMS 2008 new features) and found that no matter what I did I was not able to get hotfix KB929182 installed on my Vista lab machine. The hotfix would act as if it installed correctly but the affected DLLs were not updated. The title of the KB in question is: "FIX: You may experience issues when you use Windows Media Encoder 9 Series on a computer that is running Windows Vista". After having a number of CDNs report this issue, we investigated further and another engineer on my team was able to figure out the steps necessary to get this KB to actually install as expected. We think we know why this is occurring but we are still investigating. The steps below should help you to get around the issue until we can get the patch updated (assuming our requested changes are accepted).

A Guide to Learning ASP.NET MVC Beta 1

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:31:03 GMT

ASP.NET MVC Beta1 learning guide by Stephen Walther

MSDN Ireland: Webcast with Tim Heuer on Silverlight2, 15th October

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:09:20 GMT

Tim will talk about using ADO.NET Data Services with Silverlight. As Silverlight 2 releases more organizations will be looking at the platform for business applications. Of course, most applications leverage some type of data in the workflow, whether that is simply presenting it or enabling users to operate (create,update,delete) on that data. We'll take a look at how some pieces of the .NET ecosystem help enable this quickly for Silverlight developers, specifically Silverlight 2, ADO.NET Data Services and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. This will be broadcast live on Wednesday 15th of October at 15:00 (Irish time!)

Silverlight 2 Released

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:16:25 GMT

Today we shipped the final release of Silverlight 2. You can download Silverlight 2, as well the Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend 2 tool support to target it,

Minrosoft: Silverlight 2 is Live

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:16:10 GMT

Redmond, Wash. - Oct. 13, 2008 - Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of Silverlight 2, one of the industry's most comprehensive and powerful solutions for the creation and delivery of applications and media experiences through a Web browser. Silverlight 2 delivers a wide range of new features and tools that enable designers and developers to better collaborate while creating more accessible, more discoverable and more secure user experiences.

WPF Elliptical Layout Control II - 3D Carousel anyone?

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:16:06 GMT

A follow up post to my elliptical layout control which takes it in to the third dimension. The result is a FrameworkElement derived control which takes a collection of UIElements as its content and internally wraps them in Viewport2DVisual3D objects, displaying them in a Viewport3DVisual. Using the elliptical layout code with a few enhancements we essentially have a 3D carousel control where the parameters used to define the imaginary layout ellipse are fully configurable. Source code and a demonstration app are included and free to use for whatever.

Gary on Advertising ROI (Devs...Show this to your boss!)

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:05:11 GMT

ROI. I am talking about Return on the Investment of your advertising dollar. Traditional media advertising is incredibly expensive and doesn't provide nearly the rate of return you can derive from intelligent web-based marketing campaigns in 2008 and beyond.