My friend Rob and I don't always agree on technology but we do agree that This American Life is one of the best, if not the best podcast in the world. That podcast is all about storytelling. It's masterfully produced, thoughtfully narrated and generally loved. It's cared for, curated and shepherded. It's nurtured. Rob's new experiment, This Developer's Life is, on its surface, a straight and unapologetic rip-off of This American Life; but in the flattery is the sincerest form of flattery se... [read more]

When an error occurs within Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 a Correlation ID will be displayed in the error message: This Correlation ID is logged within the SharePoint log files and you can use it to find out more details about the error that occurred.  The two pieces of information you will need from the error message above are the Correlation ID and the date and time of the error.  Once you have those two pieces of information, browse to the SharePoint log files on you... [read more]

Just find few useful tips/tool when I try to compare the schema and content of two SQL databases: DBComparer (free)Find out DB lock: select distinct object_name(a.rsc_objid), a.req_spid, b.loginame from master.dbo.syslockinfo a (nolock) join master.dbo.sysprocesses b (nolock) on a.req_spid=b.spid where object_name(a.rsc_objid) is not nullList all tables in database: SELECT * FROM sys.TablesList all tables and their row countsSELECT     [TableName] = so.name,     [Ro... [read more]

In .NET, it’s very easy to set up custom configuration section handlers to handle your application or component’s configuration needs.  As my previous post shows, it’s also very easy to configure these with attributes that enforce required fields and other validation.  However, over time it’s very easy to create fairly large configuration sections that violate the Interface Segregation Principle, which states that classes shouldn’t be forced to depend on things they don’t need. Consid... [read more]

O’Reilly Media has placed the new edition of my book available  in their “Deal of the Day” program today. You can get the ebook version for only $9.99. That’s TODAY only, though: Monday August 30, 2010. Go to http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596807269 and use the discount code DDPEF. If you miss it today, you can get a 50% discount on the ebook from O’Reilly (not sure about a deadline) with the code MTKED. THat code is also good for a 40% discount on the print co... [read more]

I have always had a very Microsoft Windows centric environment in my house with all of the machines in the house joined to an Active Directory domain to provide management capabilities such as centralized login, software deployment, re-direction of My Documents folders to my NAS, and more. Up until a couple of years ago, I even used to run a mail server at home.  Overkill, I know, but this was not a case of "need" as much as "just because I could" and since I don't do this p... [read more]

Here's how most folks use the Web. You get a link in email, Twitter, Facebook, IM, whatever and you open it in a new tab. Then, at some point in your copious free time, and possibly while reading other more pressing things, you'll read these 43 tabs, right? Even better, some of the articles are 8 pages long so you'll load up pages 1-4 and 6 and you don't even know why. Then, maybe your browser crashes or your system reboots or something locks up or you get confused as to why you wanted to r... [read more]

I am broken, my friends. I've blogged before on: The Computer Back - Pain and the Programmer in 2004 The Programmer's Hands also in 2004 Today I'm wearing a neck brace. Yes, I'm one of the "looks like they are suing someone" people. I hate those people and now I'm one of them. I was totally fine, all was well, playing at the playground with 2 and 4 when I decided to do some chin-ups on the monkey bars. I can usually do ten good ones so I didn't think it was a big deal. I work... [read more]

There's lots of info spread around on how to install various older versions of Ubuntu under various older versions of Virtual PC, but I didn't find any referring to the newish Ubuntu 10.4 and VPC on Win 7. I did now find some useful command-line parameters in this blog post from Mark Wilson. I'm trying to make this post as complete as possible. If you have new or update or better info that is specific to the new changes in Ubuntu 10.4, let me know. Here's what I did. Download Ubuntu. D... [read more]

  Last night most of the DotNetnuke team and I traveled into Burnaby, to the BCIT campus where I gave a real quick (1 hour) presentation on the WebMatrix Beta, and Razor Syntax. I was happy to see that we had over 60 people attend.  It was awesome to see the turn out on a hot summer evening.  Download the Slide Deck There were a number of questions which came up, I will try to remember them all here.   Working with Data – the db.Query() execution, can it be parametrize... [read more]

Below is my current checklist for startup businesses in 2010.  This is meant to be relatively industry-agnostic and focuses primarily on online components of the business (meaning, it may not apply to businesses which avoid the Internet for whatever reason).  I’ve included numerous links to more information and references.  Checklists are a great way to ensure you don’t forget important things – check out the Checklist Manifesto for how one doctor is attempting to apply this lo... [read more]

This awesome blog post, Complicated Mechanisms Explained in simple animations, does a great job of explaining how engines, gears, and even sewing machines work:

I just ran into an odd issue with a VS2010 project.  In my case it was an MVC 2 application I was upgrading from VS2008.  One of the built-in controllers (ProfileController) was failing to compile because it could not resolve the Linq extension method symbols Single() and Matches().  These are located in the System.Core assembly.  I checked my project references in Solution Explorer, and System.Core was not listed.  So I tried Add Reference, and System.Core was listed as... [read more]

TeamCity is a great build server tool from JetBrains (makers of the awesome Visual Studio add-in, ReSharper).  The user-interface and features of the TeamCity web front-end are wonderful and are leaps and bounds easier to use for new users than my previous favorite, CruiseControl.Net, which required much XMLness to configure.  However, one of my favorite tools from CruiseControl, CCTray, still has no equal among competitors like TeamCity and even the Visual Studio tray watcher for Team... [read more]

With the principle of least privilege of application / database account, web app normally uses a DB account with limited permission to specific database objects in Connection String. Manually typing of "GRANT EXECUTE ON <Object> to <User>" seem handy but it's hard to manage if the number of SPROCs, Functions or Views is over tens or hundreds. This article shows how can we grant permission in batch easily: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/T-SQL.aspx The key point is to retrieve ... [read more]

Last week I was working with a client and we were creating some repositories to use with EF4 entities in her application. I felt kinda dumb because I couldn’t reason out where to put a method to retrieve “child” data, e.g., GetEmployeesForCompany(Company company). The method not only retrieves the employees but attaches them to the company, returning a graph. My conundrum was should the method call go in to a repository who’s root was Company or the one with the root, Employee? So I tweeted it... [read more]

I've published the chapter list for the latest edition of Programming ENtity Framework on the book's website. You can read that here: http://learnentityframework.com/book/chapter-list-for-programming-entity-framework-2nd-edition/

In a 900 page book, this was the only creative writing I got to do so I had some fun with it. :) There are a lot of hyperlinks to push into here for the blog post, I will come back to that task later. Acknowledgments And now for the most rewarding writing task after completing over 800 pages of technical writing—thanking the Academy. My academy is a host of bright, generous, and dedicated geeks (and a few nongeeks) who have helped make this book the best it can be. First nods go to the... [read more]

UPDATE: Why my own MacGyver solution was brilliant in its horrible way, the folks over at World of VS have taken up the challenge and created a proper Visual Studio extension that you should use. I'll chat with them and get some details and maybe a write-up of how they did it. So, while I encourage you to enjoy my tale below, go get the World of VS Default Browser Switcher now! I've heard and seen lots of complaints about how it's hard to set the default browser that Visual Studio launches when... [read more]

This is in reference to Programming Entity Framework 2nd Edition When I originally wrote the directions for modifying the T4 template in Chapter 18 (Using POCOs and Self-Tracking Entities in WCF Services), I was working with the “almost” RTM version of the Microsoft’s POCO T4 template. Since my modified template continued to work after RTM, I never thought to revisit that text and discovered yesterday that it doesn’t follow the current version of the template and therefore the instrux are uncle... [read more]

My two-hundred-and-twenty-sixth podcast is up. Scott catches up with Pete Brown after they've both built their "Ultimate Developer PCs." Any regrets? What'd they learn and how you can learn from their mistakes and successes? UPDATE: Pete and I did a Skype call with Joel Barsotti and he guided me in the overclocking process and I was able to easily take the 3.33Ghz Intel i7 processor I have to 4.0Ghz, a free 20% speed gain while staying on air cooling. I'm sure I could take it beyond ... [read more]

Scott talks to Mike Calvo, a Microsoft Lead Developer based out of Minnesota (!) about Expression SuperPreview. SuperPreview helps developers and designers with cross-browser CSS and HTML issues. How'd they build it and with what? What's inside? How does the cloud fit in and how do they support Safari? I played with SuperPreview a bit last year, but started looking at it again last month when I noticed that version 4 has introduced support for Safari on Mac via a Cloud-based Remote Service. I ... [read more]

Scott talks to Jeff Wilcox, a Developer on the Silverlight Team about developing on Windows Phone 7. What kinds of performance can we expect from the phone? Jeff Wilcox shows Scott some tips and tricks on how to get the smoothest animations from your phone. Frame Rate Counters and more fun are explained! NOTE: If you want to download our complete archives as a feed - that's all 228 shows, subscribe to the Complete MP3 Feed here. Subscribe: Download: MP3 Full Show Links from the Show ... [read more]

In a shared environment you typically don't have access to delete your database, and recreate it for fresh installs of your product.  I managed to find these scripts which should help you clean out your database. Use at your own risk.   Delete All Tables --Delete All KeysDECLARE @Sql NVARCHAR(500) DECLARE @Cursor CURSORSET @Cursor = CURSOR FAST_FORWARD FORSELECT DISTINCT sql = 'ALTER TABLE [' + tc2.TABLE_NAME + '] DROP [' + rc1.CONSTRAINT_NAME + ']'FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.REFEREN... [read more]

We are having a fun coding contest to find the best solution to a fairly trivial coding problem.  Come along and show off your skills … you might just win a totally awesome Gyroscope Powerball! Participate in the Code Contest!