Exploration of Thought

Sara Ford posted a blog entry (which I got from the VS2008 Tip of the Day Gadget on Vista) which made me slap my forehead and say "... #$@#! why didn't I find that before." Pretty much, you can show syntax highlighting for custom file extensions.   When I make build files, I like to name them .build…

I'm getting ready to move over to BlogEngine.NET and I was working with the DasBlog Converter that comes with BlogEngine.   To get this tool to work you have to set your feed to something like 1000 items your RSS feed. That way the importer can read the feed, and then pull in everything from…

Argh! Nearly an hour wasted, I was building a source tree today for a new TFS installation and in the middle of my workday VS2005 decided to puke on the screen. It straight up died, froze, hung, whatever you want to call it, it was gone and it wasn't coming back. I was forced to…

I recently help set up a CI (Continuous Integration) environment using CC.NET (Cruise Control.NET) at a client that I'm at. We're in the process of implementing TFS (Team Foundation Server) but until some red tape is cleared we're still stuck on VSS (Visual Source Safe). While setting up the environment we were given a test…

I'm not going to lie, I'm a NUnit guy. I've used it for years. But just recently I've decided to start using MSTest. I run Team Suite and I've been using it for some basic integration and functional tests, but not full on TDD. Well this weekend I embarked on a task that utilizes full…

It's common to see a developer use a StringBuilder or basic string concatenation to concatenate strings in .NET code. You'll usually see something like this: string comma = ","; StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); sb.Append("Donn"); sb.Append(comma); sb.Append("Felker"); sb.Append(comma); sb.Append("Jiu-Jitsu"); sb.ToString(); And this will return "Donn,Felker,Jiu-Jitsu" But the .NET framework has something built in just for…

As developers we're constantly inundated with requests like this .... Can you add a button that does does ________ On this screen _________ I need to have a chart of ________ displaying data ... I need a report that shows me _________ Can we add _______ to this page? It shouldn't be too hard to…

There are a ton of HTML DOM inspectors out there. I mean, a lot of them. They're helpful as hell when you're in a pinch and you can't figure out what the DOM is doing. I've used all kinds, from FireFox add on's to IE gadgets, to custom ones... But for the last couple of…

  Everyone and their mother has already posted this type of post, but this time I need to keep track of the code/processes I WANT TO LEARN. I'm positive these will help me in my everyday career as well as for my own well being and knowledge. Some of these things I want to know/do just…

Reading Jeff Beehler's blog posted a thread here stating that the VS2008 VPC's are going to  terminate prematurely because of an OS expiration date of Nov 1st 2007. If you're using any of the VS2008 VPC's you'll want to read this. You're going to have to back up your TFS database, and then restore it…

I always get tired of looking up content types so I created a static class file for it. Use this class anytime you need to access content types in your code (like sending a user an attachment via a web interface). Download the file at the bottom of this post. using System; namespace Example.ContenTypes {…

Ok, that's it... time for a confession... I hate balancing my checkbook. I mean, I REALLY HATE it. I avoid it like the plague. Ever since I've started making decent money in software development I've only balanced my checkbook on a semi-regular basis. Maybe twice a month. Unfortunately this doesn't cut it these days when you're trying to plan…