Is Microsoft going to kill LINQ to SQL (L2S)?  The rumors are that Entity Frameworks (EF) is the database plan of choice now and L2S is out the door.  There have been a few posts on the topics, here are a couple: http://codebetter.com/blogs/ david.hayden/archive/2008/10/30/linq-to-sql-gets-kicked-to-the-curb-needs-a-good-home.aspx http://ayende.com/Blog/archive/2008 /10/31/microsoft-kills-linq-to-sql.aspx Personally, I think if they just added some method of change tracking to the entities and made disconnected work easier, then L2S would be pretty hot.  I do not like passing around connections (DataContext’s) to different layers and prefer to work in a disconnected form.  Of course, this means you...

News has it that Microsoft Live will be came to be used as an OpenID server so that you can use your Live ID to log into any OpenID enabled site.  That is good, BUT…  What about the other way?  Will this deal be just like Yahoo! where you will be able to use them as an OpenID server but not be able to log into them by OpenID? Come on you big guys quit playing games and allow use to use OpenID to log into Microsoft live, Yahoo! and Google!  Is that so hard?  OpenID NOW! ...

It appears Netflix has released a public API to access their information.  I have not had the time to full investigate their developer pack, but here is the link: http://developer.netflix.com/ There is a post about it here: http://josephsmarr.com/2008/10/01/using-netflixs-new-api-a-step-by-step-guide/ I do have a few ideas how I might use this in the future.   Now if I can just dig around here and find the time for it :)

Well, not exactly, but you can now partake of ten free online Computer Science and Electrical Engineering  courses for free.  No need to signup or anything, just browse and view lectures: http://www.deviceguru.com/2008/09/17/stanford-frees-cs-robotics-courses/ http://see.stanford.edu

As a developer, it is obvious that Silverlight is HOT now that 2.0 betas are flowing.  There is a ton of information coming from different sources along with many demos / tutorials.  It kind of makes you wonder if WPF will remain a top-level technologies or perhaps in the future it will be absorbed into Silverlight, with all the pressure from other competing technologies for cross platform stand alone applications. Anyway, amongst all the info out there, AppDev is providing four hours of free Silverlight 2 training.  Here is the blog post I found about it: http://weblogs.asp.net/lduveau/archive/2008/07/16/4-hours-of-microsoft-silverlight-2-training-for-free.aspx   When was the last time...

I seem to have forgot to post about this app, but it is one I use often and it is free!  Hey, how can you beat that? There are many file search programs out there and you have Google desktop search and even Vista comes with a file search ability built in, but I still end up falling back on this useful utility program.  I know it is not specifically a development tool, but it is handy when you need to search files beyond the simple Find in Files options of Visual Studio. The product is called Agent Ransack from Mythicsoft...

Wow!  That is about all I can say, Wow!  I can even say it backwards Wow! Yahoo! is now going to support OpenID for its services.  That means millions more people will be using OpenID every day.  This could be just the boost OpenID needs to jump into prime time and consume the lead in login systems.  I know I am ready!  I have wanted OpenID to take over for some time now.   It is a simple and easy method for the consumer along with making life a LOT easier for webstie owners. WIll have to check into the state of OpenID...

Looks like Microsoft added so many features to Silverlight, they are setting it now as version 2.0.  More info in my post at: http://www.SilverlightCity.com  

Some have run into the problem where you try to use the "(?i)" in a ASP.NET RegularExpresssionValidator to ignore case in the search.  JavaScript does not understand this and will generate an error on the client side, while it still works as expected on the server side.  I do not know of a method that will allow a search to be case-insensitive by supplying a regular expression to JavaScript, due to the "i" flag being a modifer and required to be supplied as a parameter to the RegExp().  So, the soution I came up with is to replace the ASP.NET "RegularExpressionValidatorEvaluateIsValid"...

Are you planning to upgrade your Visual Studio 2008 to the RTM version?  You need to plan some time to fix a few breaking changes.  When I first started upgrading some of my sites: www.SilverlightCity.com www.TheSilverlightDirectory.com www.TheWPFDirectory.com www.WhatsNewLocally.com I found this link useful: http://weblogs.asp.net/bschooley/archive/2007/11/21/converting-web-site-projects-from-visual-studio-2008-beta-2-to-visual-studio-2008-rtm.aspx The post details changing the DataSetExtentsion referrence from 2.0 to 3.5 and changing LINQ 2 SQL Add/Remove method name changes, OneValidate method change and how to change your *.dbml files to load in the designer.  

This is an older article I happened to find recently that opened a few more areas of thought about LINQ.  Yes, I know LINQ is used for many things, not just data storage, XML or easy of collection handling.  That said though, I really did not thnk about it in the use of a type of logic parser.   What a good idea! This is article gives examples of how to use LINQ to reduce the coding and complexity of scoring Yahtzee results on dice.   Pretty cool! http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/mgold/Yahtzee LINQ07222007010520AM/YahtzeeLINQ.aspx  

Just spent another couple days trying to track down and work around an issue I was having with LINQ 2 SQL and the current entity structure that is used.  The problem is basically, the change tracking routines to keep up with what changes you have made to an entity, is handled by the DataContext and not in your entity.  If you close your DataContext, you will have no change tracking.  Even worse yet, you will have problems "attaching" that instance to a new DataContext unless it is truly detached and you have a copy of the original data that the...

Here is a handy little tool to play around with: http://www.albahari.com/linqpad.html It allows you to play around with LINQ queries against your database in a friendly manner. 

The word is out!  The next version of Silverlight will show why the current 1.1 is called alpha.  The juicy little taste that came out today points to Silverlight 1.1 having "many, many, many, many big features" along with new controls, layout, template/styling, databinding and much more.  Even supposed compatibility with Windows 2000! It looks like Silverlight 1.1 Beta will bring Silverlight Primetime!  I posted more information on : http://www.SilverlightCity.com  

Managed to get the new http://www.TheWPFDirectory.com site launched today!  Does not have a lot of content yet, but hopefully soon, takes time. Now we can add that to the others that recently launched: http://www.TheWPFDirectory.com http://www.TheSilverlightDirectory.com http://www.SilverlightCIty.com Yes, they all seem to have a similar look :) Hopefully this fall we will get http://www.DevsForHire.com up and running!

Just launched http://www.TheSilverlightDirectory.com site today!  It has been a bit of work, but the site appears to be fully functional. If you happen to run into any issues, but sure to let me know! Now the real works begins, adding all the content.  Looks like a busy time for a couple of weeks If you happen to have or know of an article, product, tutorial, demo or even websites and blogs that are focused on Silverlight, adding them to the listing would be appreciated!  BTW, the http://www.TheWPFDirectory.com site will launch on July 30th.  It will have the same looks and features as the...

Have you looked at or even heard of Mirosoft Acropolis yet?  It is suppose to be a type of RAD application builder primarily for business solutions.  Here is a an intersting overview of Acropolis: http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2007/06/20/great-acropolis-explanations.aspx Also check out: http://windowsclient.net/acropolis/  

Well, after a bit of work, Silverlight City (http://www.SilverlightCity.com) has finally launched.   It is basically a never ending thread of posts about blog posts, articles, or resources all about Silveright.  Got some juicy info on Silverlight?  Drop by and add a post all about it!   

There was a good post by Scott Guthrie part 1 of Using Linq to sql.  It is a nice start for those beginning Linq including updating, deleting and server side paging of data: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/ 05/19/using-linq-to-sql-part-1.aspx  

Today I was browsing around for things "Silverlight" and ran into a new service coming out from Microsoft called Popfly.  At first it just seemed like a place for kids to do mashups.  After watching the video though, I wonder where this is going and just how it will relate to developers.  It is not that I think it will take our work away, but it might be another door performing more projects.  At the very least, it is a good example of the basics of Silverlight. I have posted more on teh Silverlight blog at: http://blog.silverlightcity.com/archive/2007/05/21 /Popfly-Check-this-out.aspx  

Well, I am now “Empowered”!  Yep, I applied for and received the Microsoft Empower program for ISVs.  Much to my surprise, it was fairly easy and had no hitches, applied on Thursday and had an email about being accepted on Saturday morning.  Just waiting for the MSDN subscription to become valid (says up to 72 hours).  I had heard of people having problems in the past, but at least for us, it was a simple matter.  Categorizing your product is a bit rough if it is not targeted to a specific business sector. For those that are not familiar with the...

I was thinking a bit more on the OpenID and Cardspace issues. OpenID seems like it would be the better of the two in that it is truly open and everyone can use it regardless of platform and technology.  Also, it does not have the "Microsoft" label attached to it, so it is more likely to be accepted by those that do not like Microsoft for one reason or another. So, what could take OpenID from a possible death march to become the great system it was designed to become?  Opps, "death march"?  Yeah, it does not seem to have the...

As might be obvious from my posts on web standards, there are some issues I really hate.  That said though, one of my biggest headaches comes from all browsers not being compliant with the standards already in place.  If tomorrow, the major browsers became compliant with all the standards, most developers would still be faced with supporting prior versions for at least a few years and possibly up to five or more years.  I am just currently cutting up IE5 and below.  At the present rate it looks like it will be another twenty years before we see all today's...

Want a full grid for WPF with lots of cool featuers?  There is a new one available from XCeed that you can have for free as long as you register with them before they push it commerical.   They say that even after it goes commerial it will be free for you.  http://xceed.com/Grid_WPF_Intro.html

Have you been looking at the different versions of Visual Studio and wondering what is the real differences?  Well, for some time I was wondering what the differences of the Standard version compared to the Professional or Team Solutions versions. http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/products/compare/ While the site above shows some of the differences, there are some items I was not sure about such as the missing “Server“ node, “Sql Server 2005 Integration“ and mostly, the “Simplified menu options and defaults“.  The latter, had me wondering if the Standard version would have the same menu options as the Express versions.  The simple answer is no. First, here is...

Ever have those times you are in the middle of a project and want to test out a simple one or two line method just to make sure your brain cells are still flowing, but you do not want to create a temp project just to test those few lines?  For some time now I have used the Snippet Compiler: http://www.sliver.com/dotnet/SnippetCompiler/ For just those situations.  You do not have to make a project or even save a file, right there in its basic IDE, you have the frame of a console app ready to go, just plug in your lines of code...

After having the Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 for several months, I finally got around to trying out ASP.NET V2.0 and converting a small application over to it. The conversion did not go too smooth.  The project uses URL Rewriting and a custom form tag to strip the page name from the form action.  The custom form tag allows the page to postback without having the URL in the address bar of the browser expose the true page name the browser is viewing.  An example would be pages: MyWebSite.com/Home/ MyWebSite.com/About/ MyWebSite.com/Services/ In each of these folders is a default page.  When someone uses the...

Microsoft is having a busy day today!  It is hard to keep up with all that is coming out their door now, can hardly imagine what it will be like as Windows Vista starts to roll out! Here are a few links of stuff I am checking into today.  Lots to cover and play around with.  So much for being productive today :)   I have already spent more than a couple hours and there is no end in sight ;) http://msdn.microsoft.com/msn/ http://atlas.asp.net/ http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/future/linq/default.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/max/ http://msdn.microsoft.com/vcsharp/future/ http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/future/ I sure feel sorry for my little brain trying to find more room for all of this! :) ...

My original .Text blog handles all my posts and any topic.  I decided to split the blog up and have just a Dev blog. Over the next few weeks I will begin to get some posts in here. One of the posts I plan for this space is a new DNN generic data store module I am woking on that allows a person to design new modules without the need of specific database data stores (tables, stored procedures, etc).  This means modules will be able to function on different databases without change.  Anyway, more on this coming shortly along with the free...