Source code is worth a 1000 words.

"I have seen the future... it will be here soon... very soon..." [simplegeek]

Can you show us some code....please...pretty please with sugar on top???

build tools

Sam Gentile's asking about VS.NET vs NAnt for building projects:

"What I would like to know is people's specific pressure points; where they either ran up aggainst VS.NET project limitations or needed to do something more. Any inputs most appreciated!" [Sam Gentile]

I'm not fully versed with VS.NET's build capabilities but there a few areas where I rely on NAnt. One example is for conditionally changing files per build target. I might want to change the source files depending on if it's a debug or release build: controlling strong name key files, config settings, etc. Another area is controlling build versions. You can have NAnt fire off a process that increments the versions systematically. I remember John Lam implementing something similar: http://www.iunknown.com/Weblog/NAntBuildNumbersandVisual.html

mglass3d

glass3d is a GDI demo I wrote a while back. For the heck of it I ported it to use the .NET Compact Framework. Basically all I had to do was strip out a few lines of code. The PDA rendered it at a rate slightly faster than 2 frames per second. Not bad.

mglass3d.cs.txt

I showed the orginal demo to Ken Getz while I was at VSLive. He gave me some really great advice as to how to work with events, threading, and GDI. We stayed in touch after the event as he fixed up my code. His changes were subtle but made a difference in performance and stability. If you're interested check out the source code. It's been a helpful piece of study for me.

glass3d source

.net in the real world

Right now I'm really excited about my job. First off all my work is in .NET. That's something I've been looking forward to. Second, I'm writing softawre for the PocketPC's. The first implementation of our software used the Mobile Internet Toolkit. Currently I'm trying out the Compact Framework to replace some of features. I can't believe how easy it is to work with. I've heard some concerns about the limited functionality but I'm hoping this won't become too much of an issue. Third we're using .NET to interface with Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC's). I work for a large nut processing plant. At the plant we have an engineering team who fabricates the equipment and programs the PLC's to do things like grab scale weights, read little RF readers on the trucks that come in, and other automated tasks. I'm working on building a .NET layer to expose these devices as services to the rest of our application. It's really exciting because I feel like I'm learning a lot. At the some time I feel very fortunate because I know there are a lot of folks out there who are still looking for a job.

new track ball

I've been using Logitech's tackball device for some time now. Last night I picked up Microsoft's Optical Trackball. It's quite comfortable. It's very similar to Logitech's version but feels a bit more solid. I've been going the trackball route because it's less strain on the wrist.

Rob + BlogX = Goodness??

"What I want in a blogging tool: Thin client for composition with a thick client for more complex operations is where it's at IMHO. I also want synchronization between client and server. I want to be able to host it on my box or on a box sitting in a rack somewhere." [at the core]

My good friend Rob is looking for a better blogging tool. Rob, have you checked out Chis Anderson's BlogX? I just downloaded it and was totally impressed. He's got a ton of great ideas.

Introverts

"Introverts are not necessarily shy. Shy people are anxious or frightened or self-excoriating in social settings; introverts generally are not. Introverts are also not misanthropic, though some of us do go along with Sartre as far as to say "Hell is other people at breakfast." Rather, introverts are people who find other people tiring." [theatlantic]

So that's why they make good computer programmers =)

iPods to Grammy presenters and performers

"I read today that this year's Grammy presenters and performers will receive iPods, the popular mp3 player made by Apple. How's that for irony? The artists will get mp3 players when the RIAA is claiming that file-sharing is responsible for the decline of the music industry. (That I think the RIAA is wrong is neither here nor there...)" [Ottmar Liebert]

Petty thoughts on the NET

Okay. I'm used to the garbage collection. I love the DataSet. Reflection Rocks. But I think the most useful feature in the framework is .ToString()....yeaaaa...you know what I'm talking about...

Update on bogus requests

Chris Anderson posted a VERY helpful comment to my post on the bogus requests. He said it was related to fusion looking for localized bits. That sure makes sense. After researching that area a bit more I found this attribute in the documentation:

[assembly: NeutralResourcesLanguageAttribute("en-US")]

Here's the key quote from documentation: "This attribute is used as a performance enhancement, so that the ResourceManager object does not search for resources that are included in the main assembly."
Adding this to my project reduced the amount of web requests made. Now it's down to just a handful:

05:45:29 127.0.0.1 GET /smartclient/myclient.exe 304
05:45:29 127.0.0.1 GET /smartclient/myclient.DLL 404
05:45:29 127.0.0.1 GET /smartclient/myclient/myclient.DLL 404
05:45:29 127.0.0.1 GET /smartclient/bin/myclient.DLL 404
05:45:29 127.0.0.1 GET /smartclient/bin/myclient/myclient.DLL 404
05:45:29 127.0.0.1 GET /smartclient/myclient.EXE 304
05:45:29 127.0.0.1 GET /smartclient/myclient.exe.config 200
05:45:29 127.0.0.1 GET /smartclient/myclient.exe.config 200

I'm still looking into this...but just wanna say thanks to Chris!