Chris On the World Around Him

Windows Azure (Part 1) Migrator Dotnet

2012-12-12T10:24:00.000-06:00

I like to use Migrator Dotnet in my projects to manage database changes during development. I know EF has it's own migration engine and I really should use it, however I just like Migrator Dotnet better. One thing I was worried about when I was moving a site over to Azure Websites, and Sql Azure, was how to manage database changes. I new Windows Azure supported Entity Framework Migrations, but

Windows Azure (Intro)

2012-12-12T10:05:00.001-06:00

I recently signed up for a free Windows Azure account to learn more about the cloud offering from Microsoft. Windows Azure is a Microsoft product. Described below by Wikiepedia. cloud computing platform used to build, deploy and manage applications through a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. Windows Azure allows for applications to be built using many different programming

NCrunch

2012-05-14T22:27:00.000-05:00

I am back! OK I really didn't go anywhere I just haven't posted anything in a long time. So thanks to my buddy Dan, I am going to rave about a new tool called NCrunch. NCrunch is an automated parallel continuous testing tool. Holy cow what does that mean? Well it means that after installing the plugin, Visual Studio will continuously run your unit tests, or any tests you tell it to run.

Random

2011-11-08T15:11:00.002-06:00

So I haven't blogged lately mostly because I haven't done anything really cool lately to discuss.That said here are some random things....Some good sites.StackOverflow is a site I love. I really don't ask or answer a lot of questions but I do read many. It is very informative. It is odd when you interview people and ask them where they go on the internet to look for help and very few people

We Are Hiring

2011-10-14T15:12:00.002-05:00

Take a look at the StackOverflow ad for more details. We're hiring 2 Senior developers and 2 Junior developers (and more: QA, BA, and a GUI developer). It's a fun environment with a strong technical team, so we're looking to keep the team strong. If you're around the Milwaukee area and are interested in more details, let me know.

Scrum Master

2011-07-27T17:14:00.004-05:00

Monday July 18th and Tuesday July 19th I attended Srum Master Training. Going in I was excited at the opportunity to learn more about Scrum and to become a better Scrum Master which is on of three roles in the Scrum process. I just recently took on this role part time. Although I have been doing scrum for for 5 years, I have always been part of the team role.At the training I learned a lot. I

Subversion Setup for c# Developers

2011-05-19T15:39:00.014-05:00

At work we use TFS for everything and I hate it. I like Subversion and find it very easy to use. I often hear that Subversion doesn't integrate well with visual studio, and that it is hard to setup and run. Well both these assumptions are wrong.If you are running any of the windows OSes all you have to do is install SvnServer, configure it, install TortoiseSVN so you can work with svn

BDD and Specflow

2011-05-06T12:22:00.002-05:00

So recently I did a talk on BDD and showed off Specflow. Below are some of my notes from the talk, and I will try to find a place to host the code from the talk.BDD Technique that encourages collaboration between developers, QA and non-technical or business participants in a software project. It was originally named in 2003 by Dan North[1] as a response to Test Driven Development, including

Walter Peterson

2011-03-28T13:09:00.003-05:00

My Grandpa passed away last week and I wanted to write some things in memory of him.The Joker.My Grandpa had a great sense of humor. He was witty and always had a joke ready. The great thing though he wasn't funny to be the center of attention, he just wanted to make you laugh. My favorite joke of his was when he told me "he dropped out of school in the 5th grade." I was ready to hear

jQuery UI and MVC

2011-01-27T15:19:00.004-06:00

So I have been working on an ASP.Net MVC app in my spare time and have found at times that the UI is a little stale and clicky. What do I mean by clicky, well I mean the user has to do a lot of clicks to do certain tasks. All these clicks require full post back to the server. I like how I broke up the tasks into steps, but wanted a jazzier way to for the UI to work with the user, so low and

WiZdl Tool for Testing Services

2011-01-11T14:24:00.003-06:00

This is a blog post I should have done months ago, but finally I am getting around to it.Where I work we have many web services to support. Every new release it seems we are adding to the services or making changes to them. From the development standpoint we can create unit tests to test parts of the service, but when the QA folks need to do their testing it was a challenge. See we created an MVC

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T12:20:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year to you all. Hopefully you will have a healthy and fruitful 2011. This time of year really gives me time to reflect on the things I did in the last year and where I really want to grow my skills in the coming year. In the last year I really focused on MVC.Net for the most part. I also took some time to look into Entity Framework, Silverlight, StructureMap, NCommon, among some

Badgers Rock

2010-10-17T21:39:00.000-05:00

I have a Right Vs. Right Thing to Do

2010-09-08T15:59:00.004-05:00

I try to not get political in my blog. As many of my friends know I will speak my mind about many political issues, but I decided I didn't want my blog to really be political. I wanted it to be more a place to go to learn about technology or see my views on sports and movies. That said I am taking a little detour today.This is a post I have been wanting to write about since the 4Th of July but

This and That

2010-08-13T15:41:00.003-05:00

I know I haven't posted anything in a long time. It is not for lack of topics but really the things I wanted to post really didn't have much depth, so this post will have three mini posts in it.1) lucene.net2) My new Zune HD3) Airline travelSo first....I love lucene.net. In today's world of ever changing technology, it is great when a product like lucene can stand the test of time. Lucene is a

Jim Henson

2010-05-17T12:24:00.002-05:00

So the twentieth anniversary of Jim Henson's passing was just recently. I wouldn't have know except I stumbled across another blog post. I started thinking about how Jim Henson and his characters impacted my life. I remember watching the Muppet show reruns with my Dad, Sister and Grandma Walber. Dad would stop to pick us up from work and we would beg him to let stay longer so we could finish

NCommon Repository, and Unit of Work

2010-04-28T12:11:00.007-05:00

This will continue my talks on NCommon.One reason I like NCommon is it implements some patterns I like. One of my favorite patterns is Unit of Work.From Martin Fowler: A Unit of Work keeps track of everything you do during a business transaction that can affect the database. When you're done, it figures out everything that needs to be done to alter the database as a result of your work.So lets

NCommon Setup

2010-04-09T13:00:00.002-05:00

Today I finally get to a post my friend Dan has been riding me to do for some time. How to setup NCommon and StructureMap with Asp.Net MVC.Before I get started I want to talk a little about what NCommon is. Simply put, NCommon is a library of commonly used design patterns when developing applications. I took that right from the project website. It was developed by Ritesh Rao. The code can be

Rackspace Cloud Sites

2010-03-12T15:49:00.003-06:00

So in a previous post I talked about cloud computing and what is offered by Rackspace. This post will talk more about their Cloud Sites Product.Before I do I again want to point out, that I am not being payed by rackspace for this post, and I do not currently use any of these products personally although I have had clients who have used rackspace in the past. I do plan to use this product in

Floating on a Cloud

2010-03-05T13:37:00.005-06:00

In a previous post I discussed some topics I would like to explore and share. Today I am going to share my thoughts about The Rack Space Cloud Products. I want to point out, that I am not being payed by rackspace for this post, and I do not currently use any of these products personally although I have had clients who have used rackspace in the past. I also plan on using every product I am

Bad Blogger

2010-02-25T13:32:00.003-06:00

I have been a bad blogger. I have not updated or posted anything in a long time. Well I am going to change all that. Hopefully. In the coming blog posts I am going to discuss what I have been doing in the world of computers. Below is a list of some of the things I want to blog about int the next few blog posts. Some of the items might be multiple posts. So in no particular order here

New Year

2010-01-06T11:34:00.003-06:00

I first would like to wish everyone a happy new year. I have not blogged in a while so this post will be somewhat of a catch up.Last week my good friends Josh and Jess got married. Their wedding was so much fun. One of the best weddings I have been too and part of. I know they will have a long and happy life together. Last month we lost to dear people. One was Evelyn Simono. She lived a

Badgers Schedule to Easy

2009-11-10T17:08:00.003-06:00

For those who think the badgers schedule is to easy please see the quote from Coach B down below.Brian (Lucas) pointed out, everybody wants to talk strength of schedule. Everybody wants, Coach B doesn’t play these teams … Well, we have the, we have by the NCAA, and I love that Web site, because it computes your strength of schedule as it’s real. It computes what teams have played, what their

Badgers and Packers

2009-09-28T13:55:00.003-05:00

So the college and pro football seasons have been going on now for a few weeks. Here are my observations of the Badgers and Packers.Badger Observations.Going into their 5th game of the season they are 4 - 0. Their next game is at the new stadium in Minnesota. The two teams play each other for Paul Bunyan's Axe. The Badgers have won the last five meetings.First the offense. The Badgers have

phone blogging

2009-09-23T15:52:00.000-05:00

a quick post today. I just learned how to post from my phone. now when I am out with buddies I will be able to post about our interesting nights.