Adding my space to your space

Posted on September 3, 2008 by JohnHowell
 
I’ve gotten numerous requests to add my space to other people’s spaces.  If you have a valid relevent request and you get denied, please send me a message or email and I will review your request.  Sorry to be a pain, but I get many requests that are, uh, shall  we say, not relelvent to topic.  Wink
 
Happy Coding.
 
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Hug a developer…

Posted on September 3, 2008 by JohnHowell
 
Ok, you people know I don’t normally do this, but ANYONE who’s been doing development for any real length of time knows this video is spot on.
 
Happy Coding.
 
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VS2008 Beta SP1 removal

Posted on September 3, 2008 by JohnHowell
 
Many of us jumped on the VS2k8 beta just as soon as we could.  And the outcome is that we have another great release of VS.  The problem is that on some machines, getting that beta off can be, well, let’s just say frustrating.  In comes Microsoft stage left.  They now have a utility to help in cleaning off the beta debries.  It’s located here from MSDN.  Hopefully that will help (and reduce my inbox!). 
 
Happy Coding!
 
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Axialis IconWorkshop Lite for VS08 – FREE!!!

Posted on August 21, 2008 by JohnHowell
 
Anyone that has done development on Windows has had their fair share of frustrations on getting nice icons for their application and their buttons.  I’ve used Axialis IconWorkshop on and off until a couple of years ago and have missed it ever since.  It’s an absolutely wonderful product.  And get this!  Now, he’s offering a FREE add in version for VS 2008!!!!  I’m downloading this very minute!  You should too!
 
Happy Coding!
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I’m in denial!!!

Posted on August 21, 2008 by JohnHowell
 
I just can’t believe it! 
 
Lutz Roeder is handing .NET Reflector over to Red Gate Software!!!  I know that it had to be a challenge to build and support a product for free for eight years, but this is a tool that a great many of us have come to rely on.  Lutz says in his blog:
 
"After more than eight years of working on .NET Reflector, I have decided it is time to move on and explore some new opportunities.
I have reached an agreement to have Red Gate Software continue the development of .NET Reflector. Red Gate has a lot of experience creating tools for both .NET and SQL Server. They have the resources necessary to work on new features, and Reflector fits nicely with other .NET tools the company offers.
Red Gate will continue to provide the free community version and is looking for your feedback and ideas for future versions."
 
I’ve been in this business for a great many years and have seen stuff like this happen before (does anyone remember PKZIP?).  I can only hope that RGS lives up to the intent of the agreement and doesn’t basterdize the free version to force you to buy a usable version.  I have so much great respect for the great yet humble Lutz Roeder.  Even if RGS does what I suspect they will do with it, LR has created a legacy that almost every single .Net developer out there today has been positively affected by. 
 
Thank you, Lutz, for 8 years of a great tool and great support.  And thank you for helping me learn so much about the .Net Framework internals as a result.
 
Happy Coding
 
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Dictionaries and Threads

Posted on July 14, 2008 by JohnHowell
    Back on March 27th, I posted the entry "Thread synchronization with Collections".  That information came from a .Net Threading class I had taken that was taught by a very prominent .Net teacher (who’s initials are JR).   The topic came up in class about how to safely assign to a dictionary entry.  Somehow I had come away with the notion that mydictionary["mykey"] = value was thread safe.  Apparently that was something that was brought up in class and was just never refuted.  When I asked the instructor about it, he simply responded with "Dictionary is NOT thread-safe for any operation." (no comment was made about the fact that it was brought up in class).
   Therefore, I have removed that posting.  According to the MSDN:
 
Thread Safety

Public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

A Dictionary can support multiple readers concurrently, as long as the collection is not modified. Even so, enumerating through a collection is intrinsically not a thread-safe procedure. In the rare case where an enumeration contends with write accesses, the collection must be locked during the entire enumeration. To allow the collection to be accessed by multiple threads for reading and writing, you must implement your own synchronization.

This just goes to show you that you should always test the information you come across to validate it.  Especially when (1) you have some doubts about it and (2) it’s too good to be true.

 

 

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VS 2005 Test logs

Posted on July 1, 2008 by JohnHowell
Visual Studio 2008 is an absolutely incredible product.  But there are a few gotchas here and there and one just knocked me in the head.  Not a big deal, but upon first glance, if you’re in a hurry, you might just get ticked at VS08.  If you use VS08 to open a test log (TRX) file that was created in VS05, all VS08 will show you is that the test failed.  For some reason, it doesn’t display the error details that are contained in the file.  Opening in VS05 works just fine of course. 
Just another tidbit for those watching.
 
Happy Coding
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The end of an era

Posted on June 27, 2008 by JohnHowell
 
The Gates-Microsoft era is coming to an end today.  Thirty-three years of incredible innovation and leadership.  All of us in this industry (whether we admit it or not) owe him thanks for the great livelihood that he has generated through his time at the helm.  We are all now looking towards the new chapter that is about to begin.  Thanks BillG.
 
 
Bill Gates as a Microsoft Employee
September 15th, 1975 – July 27th 2008
 
 
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Hyper-V RTM’d Today!!!!!!

Posted on June 26, 2008 by JohnHowell
 
Hyper-V went RTM today!!!!  Everybody get up and do the virtual boogie!!!
 
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Windows 2008 Server and Windows Mobile 6.0

Posted on June 24, 2008 by JohnHowell
 
    Just a quick update.  The problem I was having sync’ing between my Windows 2008 Server and my Windows Mobile 6.0 Treo was due to a problem in the phone, not in     the Server.  After a couple of hours on the phone with AT&T (thanks you guys!), I’m now able to connect and sync beautifully!   Mobile 6 is MUCH faster than 5, the connectivity to the Server is much more stable and reliable, the syncing both connected and disconnected is an absolute dream!
 
    Great going Mobile Team!!!!!
 
MH.
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