Presentation - Sydney .NET User Group - LINQ to SQL and WCF
Some thoughts scribbled down on Wednesday 20 August 2008 at 11:19 PM
Today I presented at the Sydney .NET User Group. The topic was using LINQ to SQL with WCF in a three tiered architecture.
It was quite a good turn out and I had lots of good audience feedback during the session. Thank you to all those who attended the session. I hope you all found it useful.
Resources
Weekly Training - JQuery, simplify scripting in javascript
Some thoughts scribbled down on Tuesday 19 August 2008 at 01:10 PM
This weeks lunchtime training at SSW was about working with javascript and specifically using the JQuery framework.
JQuery Training Video from Eric Phan on Vimeo.
Resources
Presentation - Canberra User Group - LINQ to SQL and WCF
Some thoughts scribbled down on Tuesday 19 August 2008 at 07:41 AM
Yesterday I presented in an unusually cold Canberra. The topic was using LINQ to SQL with WCF in a three tiered architecture.
There was a lunchtime session at King O'Malley's Irish Pub followed by an evening session at Microsoft Canberra.
A big thank you to Adam Cogan and Justin King for accompanying me to Canberra and proving useful feedback. Also a big thank you to those who attended the seesions for the interesting view point and discussions we had on the topic.
Resources
Silverlight Slide Show
Some thoughts scribbled down on Tuesday 05 August 2008 at 03:51 PM
Justin King pointed me to a Silverlight slide show control a while back and I decided to give it a whirl and implement it own my own site's photos section.
The control is called Slide.Show and is made by the guys at Vertigo.
The configuration and setup itself was not too difficult, as long as you follow the Quick Start Guide. I pointed the control to my Flickr account by adding a data section in the Configuration.xml file
I did hit one snag though, and that's a combination of Firefox 3 and Silverlight that many other users were experiencing too. Basically what was happening was that I had Silverlight 2 Beta installed and this control was a Silverlight 1 control and did not render and prompted you to download Silverlight 1 again.
The issue here is because the detection script bundled in Silverlight 1 had an issue with Firefox 3. To resolve the issue you need to replace your Silverlight.js file with the updated one provided on the Microsoft Silverlight.js code page.
After replacing the Silverlight.js file the control renders fine in Firefox 3 with the fullscreen button not working under Vista. It works fine under Firefox 3 and OSX.
Weekly Training - Working with large sets of data in ASP.NET
Some thoughts scribbled down on Tuesday 29 July 2008 at 07:44 AM
This weeks lunchtime training at SSW was about dealing with large (over 50,000 records) in ASP.NET. It was also my first screencast, so be sure to check out the video.
The Databound Drop Down List
I covered the disadvantages of trying to display a list of clients in a drop down list. The rendered page for 50,000 records
The drop down list:
- Rendered out a 5MB page
- Took 17 minutes to load on a dialup account
The RadComboBox
So instead we should use paging, search and AJAX to reduce the initial hit and only load what you actually need.
I used a very versatile control from Telerik called the RadComboBox. It has support for AJAX calls (ItemsRequested event) as well as virtual scrolling.
This reduced the rendered page to:
- 155KB (150KB cached javascript resource files)
- loading in a few seconds
Resources
- Screencast
- Slide Deck
- Firebug (for Firefox)
Weekly Training - Debugging in Visual Studio 2008
Some thoughts scribbled down on Monday 21 July 2008 at 06:03 PM
I recently had a few of the junior and work experience developers asking for some help in solving some coding issues.
More often then not the answer was in front of them but they didn't know about tools such as Quick Watch, Navigating through code, Breakpoints and the Callstack window.
I decided it was time to get back to basics and show them all the tools they can use to find and solve the issues themselves.
So this week's training was about "Debugging in Visual Studio 2008"
I went through trying to fix a real bug in the SSW .NET Toolkit's Northwind Order form.
I demonstrated:
- Setting breakpoints & bookmarks
- Viewing and modifying runtime values of variables and controls using:
- Quick Watch
- Add Watch
- Immediate Window
- Autos and Locals window
- Step over, step into, step out
- Changing the currently executing line
- The Call Stack
Resources
Concise Code - Does it make things hard to read?
Some thoughts scribbled down on Monday 07 July 2008 at 07:50 AM
I was using Resharper 4 and noticed some nice code cleanup advise that it gives. One to note it the compression of:
// Create job if quote is won
if (CurrentQuote.Status == "A")
{
quoteView.FindControl("btnCreateJobCard").Visible = true;
}
else
{
quoteView.FindControl("btnCreateJobCard").Visible = false;
}
To the one liner (which I prefer)
// Create job if quote is won
quoteView.FindControl("btnCreateJobCard").Visible = CurrentQuote.Status == "A";
I like short succinct code. I think the shortened form is better, but I know some people need to do a double take to see what it's trying to do.
I would love to hear your opinions on this.
Test web pages in different versions of IE with IETester
Some thoughts scribbled down on Sunday 06 July 2008 at 11:22 PM
Designers should love this windows download. Instead submitting your design into a web site that generates images for you in different web browsers, you now have a windows app that allows you do this and interact with the site on your desktop.
It's called IETester from the folks at Debug Bar
My weekly podcast routine
Some thoughts scribbled down on Sunday 06 July 2008 at 11:17 PM
I listen to a mix of science and technology podcasts with a few entertaining shows mixed in for some variety. Here's my list:
.NET
- .Net Rocks!
.NET Rocks! is a weekly talk show for anyone interested in programming on the Microsoft .NET platform. The shows range from introductory information to hardcore geekiness.
- dnrTV
dnrTv is a fusion of a training video and an interview show. Training videos are typically sterile and one-way. Let's face it, you can only take so much. But you need to see the code! In this format, you get the spontaneity of an interview talk show, and the detail of a webcast or training video.
Technology News
- Cranky Geeks
A roundtable discussion about the week in technology with a focus on business analysis.
- Diggnation
Diggnation is a weekly tech/web culture show based on the top digg.com social bookmarking news stories.
-
Mac Break Weekly
Get the latest Mac news and views from the top journalists covering Apple today. This roundtable discussion is audio only, and complements the video only MacBreak. Another great show from the Pixel Corps and the TWiT.tv network.
- Security Now
A weekly discussion about all thing security
- Systm
Systm is the Do It Yourself show designed for the common geek who wants to quickly and easily learn how to dive into the latest and hottest tech projects. We will help you avoid pitfalls and get your project up and running fast
- Tekzilla
Embrace digital technology. Join the Tekzilla crew and make your tech work better for you. Or you can go live in the woods with an axe. Every Friday, Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont deliver product reviews, computer help, tech tips on everything from iPods to camcorders, HD to the Internet, plus do it yourself projects.
- This Week in Tech
Roundtable discussion about the latest trends in technology
- Windows Weekly
A weekly look at all things Microsoft including Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Xbox from the foremost Windows expert in the world
Science
- Science Mornings on Triple J
Join Zan Rowe and Dr Karl, with a bunch of curious triple j listeners for a weekly injection of science, myth-bashing and answers!
- Science Talk: The Podcast of Scientific American
- 60 Second Science
Daily quick fix of the latest science news from the team at Scientific American
- The Naked Scientists
The Naked Scientists are a media-savvy group of physicians and researchers from Cambridge University who use radio, live lectures, and the Internet to strip science down to its bare essentials, and promote it to the general public. Their award winning BBC weekly radio programme, The Naked Scientists, reaches a potential audience of 6 million listeners across the east of England, and also has an international following on the web.
Photography
- This Week in Photography
A weekly discussion about all things photography, from the latest camera models, lenses, shooting techniques and gear.
Other
- Scam School
If Harvard offered a PhD in deceit, this would be it. Award-winning magician Brian Brushwood takes viewers on an inside tour of bar tricks, street cons, and scams. If you watch carefully, you'll never have to pay for a drink again!
- Good News Week
This is my weekly fix of aussie comedy hosted by Paul McDermott, Claire Hooper and Mikey Robins
Windows Live writer
Some thoughts scribbled down on Wednesday 11 June 2008 at 10:20 PM
I picked up a post on Lifehacker about Windows Live Writer Tweaks, Tips, and Updates and decided to give it a spin. In fact I’m writing this blog post with the latest CTP (12.0.1366.1026).
For my past posts I have been trying out ecto and MarsEdit on OSX since I' usually blog when I’m at home and predominantly use OSX for my everyday needs. I only pop into windows at work (through VMWare Fusion) to do .NET development in Visual Studio 2008.
I must say, I’ve always heard great things about it but, I never expected it to be this rich and intuitive. It even picked up my CSS styles in my edit window.
Images
The image insertion is great and allows you to crop, resize, and add cool effects like drop shadow and rounded corners. A very rich interface indeed.
thoughts
So far it looks great. It’s very snappy and responsive (unlike other bloated windows applications) and I will do a proper review and write up to compare it to the desktop blogging applications on OSX.
You can get Windows Live Writer from http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/default.aspx