Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day

A MVVM framework “…three hour tour…”

2009-11-14T08:29:00.001-08:00

JAPF - A quick tour of existing MVVM frameworks

“…

One year ago MVVM wasn’t very famous. I remember the first article I read about it, about using MVVM to simplify the management of treeview controls. In the last six months, MVVM has been quickly promoted to THE methodology to use when developing WPF applications. During this amount of time, famous WPF developers started to merge their existing MVVM classes into libraries. Those libraries are now known as MVVM frameworks and contain classes designed to help developers to use MVVM in their projects.

In this article, I’m going to make a quick tour of the available MVVM frameworks.

…

”

Wow, I knew there were allot of MVVM framework, toolkits, etc, but not this many. As you might know I’m a fan of MVVM, it’s the first WPF pattern that I actually saw “work” and you know how you always remember your first…;)

What I’d really like is to see is “patterns” baked into the Visual Studio IDE. I would like to be able to set Visual Studio to use specific pattern and then have it help me conform to that pattern. So for example, there would be the “Code Behind” pattern (i.e. today’s behavior), the MVVM pattern, the MVC pattern, etc. And based on the selected pattern VS’s behavior would change, working to help you fall into the pit of success for that pattern.

I wonder if the new MEF based extensible IDE support in VS2010 would let me build something like that? Hum… Sounds like a good topic to bring at next week at PDC (Being me, I’ve already chatted up people about this, Patterns baked into the IDE, idea at TechEd, etc :)

(via @JungchanHsieh – tweet)

Win 7 USB/DVD utility to be re-released next week, this time under GPLv2 (yes, that means source too)

2009-11-13T13:51:00.001-08:00

Port 25 - Update on the Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool

“As you've likely read, we've been investigating a report that the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, might contain GPLv2 code. The WUDT is a free tool which was offered by the Microsoft Store that enabled customers to create bootable USB drives or DVD backup media from the electronic software (ESD) edition of Windows 7 that comes in an ISO format.

…

When it comes to our attention that a Microsoft component contains third party code, our aim is to be respectful of the terms under which that code is being shared. As a result, we will be making the source code as well as binaries for this tool available next week under the terms of the General Public License v2 [GD:Emphasis added] …

…”

Nice. I’m glad they are not fighting, hemming and hawing over this and instead are making the right call. Sure they might not have much choice, but still, they could have fought harder, meaner, lamer, etc. Hard right over the easy wrong. Hard right, own up, re-release it honoring the license they found themselves stuck with, move on and learn from it.

(via @giovanni – tweet)

SQL Server 2008 Enterprise feature coming to SQL Server Standard 2008 R2 – Backup Compression

2009-11-13T08:21:00.001-08:00

Roman Rehak - Backup compression no longer Enterprise edition only

“Last week at PASS I had a discussion with a program manager on the SQL Server team and he told me that in SQL Server 2008 R2, backup compression will be available in the Standard edition. I suspect this announcement will leave many of you very happy. It is certainly good news for my company since we have quite a few auxiliary servers with large databases, but not critical enough to justify enterprise licenses.

For more details about feature breakdown in R2, look here - http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2-editions.aspx.

…”

Nice. I’ve been trying to build the case for SQL Server 2008 Enterprise, with compression being one of my selling points. While this move is only backup compression and not data compression, still it’s nice to see Enterprise features move down the stack. Now if I could get transparent encryption and data compression I’d be a happy camper (and would finally shut up about Enterprise… ;)

Maybe by the time we get everything in place for our SQL Server 2008 Migration maybe R2 will be out and we can move directly to it.

New Amazon Web Services (AWS) .Net SDK Released

2009-11-12T06:18:00.001-08:00

Amazon Web Services Blog - New AWS SDK for .NET Developers

“The new AWS SDK for .NET Developers will provide you with the libraries, code samples, and documentation needed to build an AWS-powered application using any programming language capable of making .NET calls including C#, Visual Basic, Windows PowerShell, and so forth.

The SDK includes the following goodies:

A new AWS .NET Library - This library provides a set of developer-friendly APIs that hide much of the low-level plumbing associated with programming for the AWS cloud, including authentication, retries, and error handing. The library supports the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, Auto Scaling, Amazon CloudWatch, Elastic Load Balancing, the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, Amazon SimpleDB, the Amazon Simple Storage Service, Amazon CloudFront, the Amazon Simple Queue Service, the Amazon Relational Database Service, and Amazon Elastic MapReduce.

Code Samples - The SDK includes practical examples in C# to show you how to build applications that make use of AWS.

Visual Studio Support - The SDK includes Visual Studio templates to give you a running start on your application.

Documentation - The SDK has a Getting Started Guide along with reference documentation for the library and for AWS.

We also set up a dedicated .NET Forum and created a Windows & .NET Developer Center. …” [GD: Post Leach Level: 95%]

Amazon Web Services - AWS SDK for .Net

“The AWS SDK for .NET makes it even easier for Windows developers to build .NET applications that tap into the cost-effective, scalable, and reliable AWS cloud. Using the SDK, developers will be able to build solutions for AWS infrastructure services, including Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), and Amazon SimpleDB. With the AWS SDK for .NET, developers get started in minutes with a single, downloadable package complete with Visual Studio project templates, the AWS .NET library, C# code samples, and documentation.

”

A nice touch is that besides the DLL, docs (in Help 2 form) and some samples, they have also released the source to the library too (so you can see the magic behind the curtain, etc).

PDC guide for the busy guy

2009-11-11T10:52:00.001-08:00

First check out last year’s PDC Guide post, “The Devil’s Field Guide to the PDC” – Eight tips toward a better PDC experience, and also the referenced The Spider King - The Devil’s Field Guide to the PDC. While it’s dated a bit (last year’s PDC was five days with pre-con, this year it’s four, etc) 99% of it is still valid.

Second here are some reminders, tips and thoughts;

A) If you’re local, i.e. live in the Greater LA monster-plex, only a sucker would make the drive (cough… unless you’re working a vendor booth, like Craig… cough… ;). Take the Metrolink to Union Station and Metrorail to the Convention Center. It’s not hard, only two transitions, Metrolink to Red Line to 7th & Metro get on the Blue Line and you get off at the first stop, Pico. Also your Metrolink ticket is a free transfer to the Metrorail. Come on, how often do you get to ride the subway in LA! (Yes, LA has a “real” subway… ;)

B) “Only suckers stand in line”. No swag is worth it, no session is worth it, no food is worth it. Most, if not all, sessions will be recorded. Vendors have tons of swag. There will be tons of food al over the place. Schedules are flexible. Don’t. Stand. In. Line.

C) PLEASE don’t be the stinky guy! I swear I get stuck behind the stinky guy at least once a show. In the US it’s customary to shower daily or so. We have this personal space thing and that includes your… um… scent. If I can smell you a row or two away, then… um… err… I hate to say it… but you’re the “Stinky Guy”

D) Swag day is the last day. The last day of the show, the last day that the partner pavilion will be be open is swag day. You might not get the best swag, but you’ll get allot as no one wants to take any of it home.

BUT keep your eyes open for the “cool” swag. Sometimes there’s swag items that are in limit supply (the Azure backpacks from PDC08 for example) and those will always run out. Get those early…

E) Don’t be afraid of the Microsoft’ies! There will be about 1.9 zillion Microsoft employees and MVP’s around. Wandering the floor, speaking, manning a booth, etc. THEY ARE THERE FOR YOU! Don’t afraid to spark up a conversation with them. No, your question is not stupid. Who cares if you think someone else might of asked it before, if you need to ask it, ASK IT! From personal experience, they love to help you, to answer your questions and to just chat with you. You will find some major names just hanging out and waiting to talk TO YOU. If nothing else, just say “hi”… :)

F) Overcrowded sessions, look for the overflow room (or catch the video). Some sessions will be so packed that people will be filling the rows and standing on top of each other. If massed crowds make you queasy, then look for the overflow room or catch the session after the fact. The videos of the PDC sessions are outstanding, are free and will be available within about 24 hours of the session. The HQ ones are just as good as almost being there.

G) When walking between the South and West Halls, take the back route. There’s a very cool, outside and usually not crowded path between the West and South halls. It’s around the back, outside. This is my preferred route from one side of the show to the other. I think we’ve scheduled nice weather, so enjoy it with a short stroll outside… :)

H) Pace yourself. It’s going to be long couple days. Open your mind, let the information flow in and don’t stress if you miss something. Remember, there’s the video if you missed, skipped or spaced something.

Enough for now… See you there next week. :)

SQL Server Management Studio for SQL Azure now available

2009-11-11T09:37:00.001-08:00

SQL Azure Team Blog - SQL Server Management Studio Support for SQL Azure!!!

“…

Just a quick post to let you know that the long awaited build of SQL Server Management Studio with support for SQL Azure is available today for MSDN and TechNet subscribers and will be generally available for the rest of the world as of tomorrow. The download page can be found here. I will post a link to the tools only install when it becomes available tomorrow.

This support is included as part of the November CTP release of SQL Server 2008 R2.

…”

That’s pretty cool…

As SQL Azure get closer to a more traditional SQL Server the entry level decreases and my interest increases.

I believe you can get just the tools, just the SSMS here, Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 November Community Technology Preview - Express Edition (This is SSMSE so maybe I’m not sure… If/when I get a Tools/SSMS only link I’ll update this post)

Every industry deserves it’s own apparel, doesn’t it? Now there’s apparel for the EDD Guy or Gal in you…

2009-11-11T08:41:00.001-08:00

PRWeb - Logik Launches eDiscovery Apparel Website eDDstuff.com

“Washington, DC (PRWEB) November 11, 2009 -- Just in time for the upcoming holidays, Logik, a Washington, DC -based eDiscovery company, is proud to announce the launch of the world's first and only eDiscovery apparel and merchandise website at www.eddstuff.com. Visitors of all ages will discover fun, hip designs professionally printed on a variety of apparel and merchandise, including comfy t-shirts, warm hoodies, large coffee mugs and even downloadable versions of the fun eDiscovery images for both computer and iPhone wallpapers.

“When we told our friends, family and clients that we were launching an eDiscovery clothing and merchandise website,” laughs Andy Wilson, Co-Founder and CEO of Logik, “the one question we heard over and over was… ‘Why? Who does that?’ When we first came up with the idea, it just made sense to us. Logik is energetic and passionate about what we do. We wanted a different way of showing that.”

So, why would an eDiscovery company launch a website featuring whimsical designs on clothing? There’s a simple answer to that: it’s just one more example of how Logik thinks differently than other companies.

…”

eDDStuff.com

eDDStuff designs

eDiscovery Ninja

Terabyte Twos

eDiscovery Nerd

eDiscovery Evolved

eDiscovery…It Happens

When I Was Your Age…

I’d Rather Be Denisting

It’s All In The Family

Logikbot Broken Apart

…”

Okay, that’s just awesome. I love a company that has this willingness to smile, dare I say laugh, at itself, especially one that is part of the legal industry complex [insert your own statement here about legal system and humor]

Some of the designs had me snort-laughing (which you all know how much I hate when I do that.)

Personally I think this really DOES same something about the company, something great. I applaud these guys and their willingness to be “human.”

I think I’m going to have to get my team some mugs… ;)

Related Past Post XRef:
Something we all need sometimes, some “Logik Redaction”

Veterans Day, November 11th

2009-11-10T14:58:00.001-08:00

As a veteran I will be honoring and celebrating my fellow veterans this Veterans Day, Wednesday, 11/11.

Please remember freedom is not free. Freedom is bought and paid for in time and blood by those who have served in the US Armed Forces. Veterans Day is the day of the year for you to remember and thank those who have, or are currently, defending your right to be free.

Thank you. Thank you for all you sacrifice now, in the past and in the future. Thank you for your time, effort and willingness to be the sharp point of the spear. Thank you for your blood, sweat and tears. Thank you to your families who also sacrifice so much. Thank you for defending me, my family and my freedom. Thank you, God bless you and God bless the United States of America…

Greg Duncan
SGT, US Army & California National Guard (1985-1996)

PowerShell your PDC

2009-11-10T09:59:00.001-08:00

Development in a Blink - 25 lines of PowerShell to Navigate PDC09 Sessions

“I find the PDC09 site a bit frustrating to navigate the sessions I want to attend.

So I whipped up this 25 line PowerShell/WPK GUI. Type in the search box to find matching session titles. Click on a title and the browser navigates to PDC session page.

…

”

Got to love the power of people conforming data to better fit their needs (and then sharing that. :)

On a related note as I’ve mentioned, I do wish there was a Microsoft Conference API (ConfAPI) or SDK. The RSS feed is a nice, but it sure would be cool if those of us interested in crafting our own UI to Microsoft Conferences didn’t have to reverse engineer the conference sites/feeds and were instead embraced by Microsoft. Fan “Conference UI”’s, with appropriate disclaimers, etc would IMHO only increase the value of the given conference, spread the word, show off MS tech and would be done for free. Now that’s a deal!

Now I’m not saying the teams that build/built the existing conference sites are bad or anything. Heck, it’s the reverse! They are doing a great job in what I’d guess is a pretty thankless position. Those team(s) are great and are constantly working to improve and adapt.

I just want to make their job easier, I want to do some of their work for them for free! :) lol

But I need them to meet us half way. Give us, your community, a supported API/SDK/Web Service layer that will span conferences (Mix, PDC, TechEd, etc) and I bet you’ll be surprised at what your community will do for you…

Related Past Post XRef:
MonoTouch your PDC

Cool Command line utility of the day: clip

2009-11-10T09:08:00.001-08:00

The Old New Thing - Little-known command line utility: clip

“Windows Vista includes a tiny command line utility called clip. All it does is paste its stdin onto the clipboard.
dir  clip
echo hey  clip
…”

So much that I don’t know…sigh (TG cause otherwise this job would get SO boring ;)

This is a pretty cool Windows Vista/Win7 (and probably post Vista server OS’s too) utility that pipes into the clipboard. If you’ve ever redirected/piped a command line utility into a text file just so you could then easily cut-n-paste from it, then this utility is just for you (been there, done that, got the T-shirt)

So since I’m on a PowerShell kick, I did a quick 5 second search for doing something similar in PS and it’s not quite so easy (kind of, sort of).

Since PS has the power of .Net behind it, you can use .Net’s clipboard goodness to make it happen, Windows PowerShell Blog - Copy console screen to system clipboard. Yet if you look at that code in the post you’ll see it’s not really all the pretty. Not hard, yet not as easy as the clip utility or some kind of more integrated solution.

A much prettier solution is the PowerShell Community Extensions (PSCX) Out-clipboard, shown here, The Endeavour - Manipulating the clipboard with PowerShell

And of course, clip can just be used from PS too… ;)

Related Past Post XRef:
PowerShell Community Extensions V1.1.1 Released

MonoTouch your PDC

2009-11-09T12:55:00.001-08:00

ConceptDev (Craig Dunn's blog) - Another MonoTouch 'conference app' – PDC09

“I'm not planning on making a habit of this, but having spent the time putting together the Monospace conference app and seeing tweets from various Mono people that they were heading to PDC09, I figured it wouldn't take too long to copy some PDC data into the existing MonoTouch C# app 'framework'.

A new view (Sessions), a new icon (Speakers) and a new location (Underground) are the main changes - the rest is just SQLite and graphic tweaks. The source is available for download …

…

UPDATE: to be clear, this app is not available on the AppStore -- it is just an example of the kind of thing you can write in C# for the iPhone using MonoTouch from Novell. If you have a MonoTouch licence then you can download the source (124Kb) and install it on your phone.”

That’s pretty cool and made me chuckle (don’t let Mr. Ballmer see you… lol ;)

Now if I only I had a not-dumb phone… (Santa, can I have a Droid or Verizon WinMo 6.5 phone? I’ve been… mostly good… ;)

(via Miguel de Icaza's web log - MonoTouch application for the PDC)

A Feed You Should Read #11 – The Road to Know Where

2009-11-08T09:39:00.001-08:00

In this week’s Feed, our journey takes us down a slightly different path. Not as dramatic a difference as last week’s, yet still different than most of the past posts.

A blog can sometimes fall into a general category or type. Link blogs, where a post, for the most part, contain X number of links to other blogs. to original content blogs, status blogs, pet blogs, personal story blogs, etc.

There are also re-blogs. A re-blog is where the blogger finds stuff and re-blogs about it referencing and quoting to original content, usually with one re-blog per post. My blog, the one you’re reading, is 98% re-blog.

Today’s feed you should read is a also re-blog, yet with a great deal more to it than that…

The Road to Know Where

Background:

The Road to Know Where is a re-blog mostly focused on Microsoft tech, IT content, with cool and dev stuff thrown in for flavor. But beyond the daily’ish posts of cool stuff found and shared, there is also a great list of free Microsoft software (well actually a number of lists, as you can see above). These are must read lists of free utilities, applications and such that you have to check out…

Blake Handler’s blog, The Road to Know Where, has been going strong since mid 2005 and I’ve been following since nearly then (looks like my first post related to it was Feb 2006) and I’ve not looked back since I found it (I’ve re-blogged him 26’ish times ;)

Blake is a local guy too (as local as can be in the monster-plex that is the Greater Los Angeles area), which is cool. As small as the world has become with the Net, locality is still important.

Why do I like this feed and think you might also?

I dig his posts because his IT POI helps me see beyond my usual scope of interest. His area of interest while mostly Microsoft focused, is scoped very broadly. From Windows Home Server, client OS, server OS, MS mobile, games, system admin utilities, to training and fun stuff, it’s all there and more.

Look, are you using Microsoft tech? Do you like free software? Are you a Dev, IT’er or power user? Then you need to subscribe to The Road to Know Where feed and ALSO check out his free software lists.

This is one of those few blogs that should be at the very top of your daily reading list. One of those blogs that if you don’t have time to read everything you subscribe to, you at least always read this one. One of those blogs where you can almost be certain you catch something new, interesting and useful…

Snap of the latest post:

Blog Information:

Name:	The Road to Know Where
URL:	http://bhandler.spaces.live.com/default.aspx
Feed:	http://cid-70f64bc910c9f7f3.users.api.live.net/Users(8139776703460931571)/Main?$format=rss20
Post Types:	Re-blog of Windows, IT, and cool stuff posts

Paint.NET 3.5 (Final) now available

2009-11-07T07:52:00.001-08:00

Paint.NET - Paint.NET v3.5 (Final) is now available!

“Thanks to everyone who helped out with the extensive alpha and beta releases with all the bug reports, crash log submissions, and feedback. It has all been a huge help in creating the best Paint.NET release ever.

As usual, there are two ways to get the new version:

Preferred: Use the built-in updater from within Paint.NET. If you are using version v3.36, simply go to the Help menu and click on “Check for Updates.” For v3.5 alpha/beta, go to the Utilities menu instead of the Help menu. Or, just wait for the update prompt to come up automatically within the next week or so.

Download directly from the website: http://www.getpaint.net/ . There is no need to uninstall the old version; that will be taken care of automatically.

…

Changes since version 3.36:

New: Refreshed user interface with new icons and visual styling. On Windows 7 and Vista, it is enhanced for Aero and "glass".

[GD: Way to many for me to leach.. click though for all the details]

…

”

You all have Paint.Net, right? One of the must have Windows utilities? No? (–10 geek cred, sorry ;)

All kidding aside, congrats to Rick on his release and for thank you for your outstanding work on this rock’n product!

Let's Paint the town red... Paint.Net 3.3 Released
Paint.Net 3.2 RTW
Paint.Net 3.1 Released
Paint.NET 2.5 RTM
Paint.NET v2.1 Released
Paint.NET 2.0 Released
Paint.NET v1.1 is now available!

Almost everything you ever wanted to know about the MSG (stand alone Outlook Email message) file format but were afraid to ask (Part 1)

2009-11-06T15:59:00.001-08:00

Microsoft Open Specification Support Team Blog - .MSG File Format (Part 1)

“In my previous two blog entries, I’ve focused on becoming familiar with the Compound File Binary Format which we discovered was similar to a FAT file system within a file. With that exercise behind us we’re ready to step up a level in the ecology of file formats. Analogous to ascending from chemistry to simple cell organisms, CFBF has given us the building blocks with which the great variety of application file formats are assembled.

Recently, I took the time to expand my view of application formats by investigating the workings of Outlook’s .msg format. Specifically, I was required to explain how a Rights Managed Email message could be dissected in order to read the contents hidden within. Having only a cursory knowledge of the Outlook message file format (.msg), and that being based of course, on CFBF, I needed only to discover where the critical components of the email message could be found. I will divide this blog into two parts. In part 1, I will overview the message file format described in MS-OXMSG in preparation for part 2. In part 2, I will describe in some detail, including code fragments how to find the compressed email attachment in a rights managed email and how it can be decompressed in order to read it plainly.

.MSG

In this overview section, my goal is to describe the message store structure in a way that will enable you, the reader to recognize quickly the storages and streams in a sample .msg file and understand what you’re seeing. As always, to get the nitty-gritty detail of property names and fields sizes and the like, please refer to the actual documents that I’ll list as we navigate them.

…

”

[MS-OXMSG]: .MSG File Format

This post, and part 2 when it comes out, warrant a much closer look (due to what I do in my “day life”)

Upgrading your OS or maybe moving to a new PC? Don’t have your device driver disks? Double Driver to the rescue!

2009-11-06T10:16:00.001-08:00

BooZet Freeware - Welcome to Double Driver

“One of the main reasons why you would want to collect installed drivers is if you don’t have the Driver CD that came with the computer or they are unavailable online. This comes in quite handy if you purchase a computer and want to backup the initial set of drivers. It can be quite difficulty for example to find drivers for hardware installed in a notebook if the operating system has to be setup again. Luckily Double Driver can now lend you a hand with that and save you a lot of time.

Double Driver is a very simple and useful tool which not only allows you to view all the drivers installed on your system but also allows you to backup, restore, save and print all chosen drivers simply and reliably.

Double Driver analyzes your system and lists the most important driver details such as version, date, provider, etc and offers you the chance to update to the latest version. All drivers that are found can easily be backed up the application and easily restored at a later point in one go.

Double Driver is freeware. Feel free to use and give this program to anyone you know. Your donation or feedback would be greatly appreciated. [GD:Description leached in full, click through for the download link]

…

”

Backup’s are good. Say it with me, “backups are good”.

But when we usually think of backups we think “my files” or system files, or disk image, etc. This is a targeted backup solution that will scan, backup and restore your system/device drivers.

The utility fired up and scanned very quickly on my Win7 x86 notebook. I’ve not tried to backup/restore… And do I need to say that this, should simple and easy to use, should be used (i.e. if you restore) with care and caution?

Still if you need it, you’ll need it. And the price is just right…

(via Scott Hanselman, @shanselman - tweet)

SQL Server 2008 FILESTREAM Best Practices

2009-11-06T09:57:00.001-08:00

MSSQLTips - Best Practices – When Using FILESTREAM Feature of SQL Server 2008

“Problem
In SQL Server 2008 one can store BLOBs (e.g. Images, video, Word, Excel, PDF, MP3, etc) in the NTFS file system rather than in a database file. This can be done by using the new FILESTREAM feature which was introduced in SQL Server 2008. In this tip we will take a look at some of the best practices which a database administrator can follow to get the best performance when using the FILESTREAM feature of SQL Server 2008.

Solution
If you are new to SQL Server 2008 and haven’t used the FILESTREAM feature yet, then I would suggest you start with the following tips.

…

FILESTREAM Best Practices

Some of the best practices which can be leveraged by database administrators when using the FILESTREAM feature of SQL Server 2008 are listed below:
…
”

I’m starting to see a little movement in my day life toward SQL Server 2008 and a little interest in the FILESTREAM feature so when I saw this, I wanted to make sure I captured it for future reference and sharing…

This is a great post which summarizes a number of FILESTREAM best practices I’ve seen and heard about in the last couple years. Both configuration (i.e. turn off Last Updated and 8.3) and usage (what file sizes are best stored where) tips are included.

Visual Studio 2010 Power +25 with PowerCommands 10.0

2009-11-04T07:02:00.001-08:00

FreeToDev - Power Commands for Visual Studio 2010

“Moving to VS2010 felt like a step backwards in some respects as it doesn’t implement many of the great productivity enhancements that the Power Commands for Visual Studio 2008 offered.

The good news is that the PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2010 are are now available here.

One thing to note is that after installing the Visual Studio extension, you will probably need to enable it for administrators.

…” [GD:Click through for the simple “enable it for administrators” instructions. If you install it and it doesn’t seem to work, do this…]

Visual Studio Gallery - PowerCommands 10.0

“PowerCommands 10.0 is a set of useful extensions for the Visual Studio 2010 adding additional functionality to various areas of the IDE. The source code is included and requires the VS SDK for VS 2010 to allow modification of functionality or as a reference to create additional custom PowerCommand extensions. Visit the VSX Developer Center at http://msdn.com/vsx for more information about extending Visual Studio.

Enable/Disable PowerCommands in Options dialog …
Format document on save / Remove and Sort Usings on save …
Clear All Panes…
Copy Path…
Email CodeSnippet…
Insert Guid Attribute…
Show All Files…
Undo Close…
Collapse Projects…
Copy Class…
Paste Class…
Copy References…
Paste References…
Copy As Project Reference…
Edit Project File…
Open Containing Folder…
Open Command Prompt…
Unload Projects…
Reload Projects…
Remove and Sort Usings…
Extract Constant…
Clear Recent File List…
Clear Recent Project List…
Transform Templates…
Close All…

Cool…

On a related note, I’m not seeing the mentioned “included source”, but that could be because I’m looking directly into the vsix file. Maybe it’s in the referenced VS SDK? Or am I having an ID-10-T moment? (I’ve asked the question and will update this post when I know more).

VM Workshop – The multifactor, multifaceted, open source, example MVVM app in Silverlight, WPF, WebForms, ASP.NET MVC, Ajax, WinForms flavors (all in both C# & VB too)

2009-11-03T13:19:00.001-08:00

Craig Shoemaker - Learning Model View ViewModel and Presentation Model

“I recently posted details on a new open source project I have started that aims to help you learn the intricacies of using Model View ViewModel and Presentation Model. The project is called VM Workshop and it’s initial offering includes demonstrations on how to implement a simple list/edit/persist scenario using the following UI platforms:

Silverlight

WPF

WebForms

ASP.NET MVC

Ajax

WinForms

Code is available in C# and VB.NET.

…”

Craig Shoemaker - VM Workshop: Model View ViewModel (MVVM) and the Presentation Model Pattern in 5 UI Platforms

“For some reason the family of design patterns that exist around the Model View Controller pattern seem to be an elusive band of characters. The first time I encountered Model View Controller I studied the text hard trying to understand how the Strategy, Observer and Composite patterns worked together to accomplish some goal that – try as I might - remained fuzzy. Somehow I have a sense that I am not alone.

…

Introducing VM Workshop

The VM Workshop is a simple reference application demonstrating the Model View ViewModel and Presentation Model pattern in a number of different UI platforms.

…

…and as an open source project, you are invited to help add examples of how to deal with a myriad of different UI use cases!

The purpose of the VM Workshop is to be a working programmer’s reference, not an exposition in pattern purity. Therefore you may see small details that may not fit the textbook definition of the patterns, but the point is to provide a template for effective pattern use. For instance there is an example in ASP.NET MVC is included in VM Workshop. Obviously the pattern being implemented is Model View Controller, but the construction of a “view model” class is still relevant in this context. While referring to ViewModel class in a ASP.NET application may be technically inappropriate, I use the term “view model” to interchangeably refer to a ViewModel or Presentation Model class for simplicity.

…

…”

VM Workshop

The one and only Craig Shoemaker has done it again, this time with a VERY cool project. He’s podcast before about taking a similar project, building it using MVVM for WPF and then for Silverlight (Hands-On Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) for Silverlight and WPF), but this time he has GONE TO FAR!

He’s taken a similar project and MVVM’ed it in C# and VB for FIVE different platforms.

All I can say is, Wow…

The WPF Starter Kit – A simple, barebones, pick it up in an afternoon, MVVM/Navigation/Commanding Framework

2009-11-03T06:19:00.001-08:00

Knowledgecast - The WPF Starter Kit

“If you're looking to get straight to the code, go here: http://wpfstarterkit.codeplex.com/

…

When I started out with this application I really wanted to use the Model View View Model pattern. Not only because MVVM is the hot new pattern (which it admittedly is) but also because I think MVVM is what MVC always wanted to be. Of course, WPF's brilliant data binding and commanding support only helps. We did evaluate what was then known as Prism (http://compositewpf.codeplex.com/) but found it a little too complicated for a project this size (the application only has about 30 views). Another thing that didn't fit was the large learning curve. Most of the people on the project, while quite well versed with managed code, we new to the WPF way of doing things.

That was when I made the decision to build a up a barebones, simple MVVM/Navigation/Commanding framework that would be easy to pick up in a single afternoon. While it does not have the modularity, complexity or extensibility of Prism, it worked very well for our application.

…”

CodePlex - WPF Starter Kit

“The WPF Starter Kit is a great way to get started building Model View ViewModel based WPF applications. Unlike other MVVM frameworks, the starter kit makes it easy for people new to WPF to jump right in. Here's what the WPF Starter Kit supports:

A simple, easy to use implementation of the Model View View Model pattern

A navigation framework that allows for clean navigation between View/ViewModel units. This framework is based on built-in WPF navigation

Support for passing data between View Models

Support for generic exception handling

Support for long running operations on the UI thread

…”

Simple is good. Getting up to speed on MVVM and Commanding/Command Routing is not DARPA Hard, but it’s not easy either. And if you’re trying to ALSO learn WPF at the same time, well I’ve seen brains leaking from ears… It was not pretty… :o

BTW, there’s a PowerPoint presentation if you help to need to sell “someone” on MVVM…

Note to Self: Learn PowerShell by using it. Do one PS thing a day…

2009-11-03T06:04:00.001-08:00

James O'Neill's blog - You can’t be a 21st century admin without PowerShell

“…

I’ve been saying the same thing in different ways a lot recently. The slide on the left was in the session I delivered at the big Wembley event in October. A few people picked up that I’d said “Everyone should learn PowerShell”, and I’ve since had to explain that this requires a suitable definition of “Everyone”. But it is my firm belief that IT professionals working Microsoft technology are at an advantage if they know at least the basics of PowerShell. …

…

I took the following list from one of the Slides in the Wembley deck: – it is not designed to be complete but to show pre-eminence of PowerShell in the Microsoft world.

In Server-R2 there is:

PowerShell for Active Directory

PowerShell for Applocker

PowerShell for Best Practices

PowerShell for BITS transfer

PowerShell for Clustering

PowerShell for Group Policy

PowerShell for Installing components

PowerShell for Migration

PowerShell for Remote-Desktop

PowerShell for Server Backup

PowerShell for Web admin

Not forgetting that we also have;

PowerShell for Exchange 2007

PowerShell for HPC

PowerShell for HyperV @ codeplex.com

PowerShell for OCS in the OCS Res-kit

PowerShell for SQL 2008 R2

PowerShell for System Center

You can see anyone who says “I don’t do PowerShell” is at a disadvantage, …

…

The successful admin is not automatically the one who knows every possible way to use every possible command in PowerShell. Nor the one who turns their back on GUI to do everything from the command line , but the one who understands the tools available for the task at hand, can select the right one, and can put it to use competently. PowerShell is one of the tools available in so many cases in the Microsoft world, that you can’t meet that definition without it.”

I really want to get comfortable with PowerShell. Like James I feel that not knowing it, not being comfortable with it, is going to put me at a disadvantage.

So I’m going to try something. I, like most of us, learn by doing so I’m going to try to do one PS thing a day. I’m not going to bore you all with posts of my journey, but instead simply try to make PS a part of my day to day life… We’ll see. Worth a try at least… :)

From the I may never need this but it’s still interesting pile: “A literary appreciation of the Olson/Zoneinfo/tz database”

2009-11-02T06:58:00.001-08:00

Jon Udell - A literary appreciation of the Olson/Zoneinfo/tz database

“You will probably never need to know about the Olson database, also known as the Zoneinfo or tz database. And were it not for my elmcity project I never would have looked into it. I knew roughly that this bedrock database is a compendium of definitions of the world’s timezones, plus rules for daylight savings transitions (DST), used by many operating systems and programming languages.

…

What I didn’t appreciate, until I finally unzipped and untarred a copy of ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2009o.tar.gz, is the historical scholarship scribbled in the margins of this remarkable database, or document, or hybrid of the two.

…

But look at the rules for Feb 9 1942 and Aug 14 1945. The letters are W and P instead of D and S. And the comments tell us that during that period there were timezones like Eastern War Time (EWT) and Eastern Peace Time (EPT). Arthur David Olson elaborates:

…

”

The tz db/file is an acquired taste and one that most will never need to acquire. I’ve known about it for a few years, yet never knew ,or groked, the details Jon provided. Pretty interesting in a academic kind of way.

Given the US time change this past weekend, this quote made me chuckle, “Daylight Saving Time was first suggested as a joke by Benjamin Franklin in his whimsical essay, ‘An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light’…”

(via Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - A literary appreciation of the Olson/Zoneinfo/tz database)

Interesting .Net 4 thing of the day: String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace()

2009-11-01T10:03:00.001-08:00

MSDN Library - String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace Method

“Indicates whether a specified string is Null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic), empty, or consists only of white-space characters.

…

IsNullOrWhiteSpace is a convenience method that is equivalent to calling the Trim() method followed by the IsNullOrEmpty method.

White-space characters are defined by the Unicode standard. The IsNullOrWhiteSpace method interprets any character that returns a value of true when it is passed to the Char.IsWhiteSpace method as a white-space

Module Example
   Public Sub Main()
      Dim values() As String = { Nothing, String.Empty, "ABCDE",
                                 New String(" "c, 20), " " + vbTab + "   ",
                                 New String(ChrW(&h2000), 10) }
      For Each value As String In values
         Console.WriteLine(String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(value))
      Next
   End Sub
End Module
' The example displays the following output:
'       True
'       True
'       False
'       True
'       True
'       True

…”

I love seeing these kind of helper/convenience methods that we all write/re-invent get baked into .Net…

(via William Bartholomew - New Method: String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace() andalso This Week on Channel 9 - TWC9: Asli Bilgin, Halloween, VS2010, and community events)

A Feed You Should Read #10 - Tales from the Road: A Traffic Cop's Stories

2009-11-01T09:42:00.001-08:00

“Now for something completely different”

For today’s feed I wanted to reach WAY outside my usual scope and into the “Real World.”

Tales from the Road: A Traffic Cop's Stories

Background:

It’s sometimes hard to remember that our world, the world of development and IT, isn’t a 100% accurate representation of the “real world” (gee… No way! lol :p ) Sometimes the real world crashes into our lives, yet on average, we usually leave it alone if it leaves us alone. A live and let live mentality.

Yet the “Real World” is out there none the less. And it’s both funnier and uglier than most of us can imagine. Today’s blog is from someone who’s on the front line of the real world and he’s giving a chance to ride along with him.

I’ve been following his blog since its start, as well as his previous blog, Jaded: Thoughts of a Rookie Cop. He’s shared his journey as a police officer, from being a rookie new on the job, to someone who now knows the ropes, been there, done that, yet still has hope and enjoys the good that his does.

Why do I like this feed and think you might also?

His posts are not a reality show, but reality. His feelings and thoughts are real and it shows. More than once the posts of his experiences has made me laugh out loud and shake my head in wonder.

Why did I think you might like it? I don’t know that you will, but sometimes we all need a little real world to remind us of what we have…

On a related note, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, thank God for our cops. You rock. Thank you for helping keep my family safe.

Snap of the latest post:

Blog Information:

Name:	Tales from the Road: A Traffic Cop's Stories - Random entertaining stories of life as a traffic cop.
URL:	http://trafficcopstories.blogspot.com/
Feed:	http://trafficcopstories.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
Post Types:	Personal blog of daily’ish life/work experiences and thoughts

MSBuild & Virtual PC’s – Like peas in a pod?

2009-10-31T09:31:00.001-07:00

Guy Smith-Ferrier - Automating Testing Using Windows Virtual PC

“As promised here are the slides [GD:Click through for all the slide/source links] and source code for yesterday's "Automating Testing Using Windows Virtual PC" presentation at the MVP Open Day. The sister presentation to this one is "Automating Testing Using Virtual Server 2005" and you can download the slides and source code for this one. If you are using Virtual Server 2005 you might like to download both as the Windows Virtual PC presentation is more recent and contain slightly more code that is still applicable to Virtual Server 2005” [GD:Post leached in full]

From the slides;

What caught my eye in this was that the MSBuild Extension Pack was getting some Windows Virtual PC msbuild task love… that’s cool…

For years now I’ve been wanting to see about using virtual machines in my dev/test processes. VS2010’s Lab Management is a huge step in the right direction, but it’s still just one step. The inclusion of MSBuild tasks in the MSBuild Extension Pack (and the Virtual Server tasks in the SDC Tasks) is another…

The thought of queuing a build (or via CI/nightly) and getting a VM out for delivery/testing seems to be too darn cool to me. I know some of you might have been doing this for years already (cough… like Scott Hanselman, who’s chatted about it in his podcasts) but some of us are in environments that have barely graduated to automated builds let alone embrace virtualization (and the thought of the two of them together, well that’s like WAY out there! ;)

Anyway… This will be an area, especially in the VS2010 wave, that I will be keeping a closer eye on.

(via FreeToDev - Automating Testing Using Windows Virtual PC)

The SDC Tasks Projects is alive and well... v2.1.2978 Released
SDC Tasks Project's New Home on CodePlex
MS UK Enterprise Solutions Build Framework (SBF) Updated
MSBuild Community Tasks Project
More on the Solution Build Framework (SBF) (MSBuild Tasks) From MS UK
MS SDC.Tasks, a MSBUILD tasks library with over a hundred new tasks...

“Outlook 2007 Best Practices” – 37 Pages toward email nirvana (well… that might be reaching a little, but you get the idea…)

2009-10-30T14:55:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Downloads - Outlook 2007 Best Practices

“This article is intended to provide users of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 guidance on how to best use the product.

…

File Name: Best Practices for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.docx

Version: 1

Date Published: 10/30/2009

Language: English

Download Size: 607 KB

…”

From the document;

“…

The purpose of this paper is to provide customers of Microsoft^® Office Outlook^® 2007 messaging and collaboration client with guidance on how to best use the product. Created by the product team who created Outlook 2007, this guide represents our advice on how to get the most out of Outlook 2007. By no means comprehensive, it covers just a few core scenarios.

This guide is intended for people who:

Work for a large company with an IT department.

Receive more than 30 e-mail messages a day.

Spend lots of time every day using Outlook 2007 to send and receive e-mail and to set up and/or attend meetings.

Are using Outlook 2007 with a Microsoft Exchange Server account.

Regardless of your server setup or organization size, this document will be useful to you.

Why an Outlook "best practices" document?

We wrote this paper for the best possible reason: Our customers asked. We designed Outlook 2007 to be used by a wide audience with many work needs and styles. Although there's no one "right way," there are a few ways of working in the program that we know to be easier than others. We hope that by being aware of the best practices, you will have the best experience possible using Outlook.

…

Basic principles of good time management

Outlook 2007 is a tool to help you manage your e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks. As such, it is at the center of not only your communications but also your time-management. To get the most out of Outlook 2007, we suggest a few basic principles:

Reduce the number of places where you read e-mail. Filter all of the messages you need to read into one place — your Inbox by using a series of rules.

Let some e-mail messages pass by. Use rules to send the e-mail you need to read into your Inbox and then let the rest flow untouched into distribution list folders (DL folders). You don’t need to read every message sent to you. Only the important ones should go to your Inbox. Remaining messages can be useful to keep — in case you get looped in on an issue, for example.

Reduce the number of places where you manually file e-mail. Reduce the mental tax of filing by relying on search to locate messages.

Process your e-mail by using the Four Ds. When reading your e-mail, decide whether to
    Delete it.
    Do it (respond or file for reference).
    Delegate it (forward).
    Defer it (using categories and flags) for a second review in your task list.

Reduce your to-do list to one list. Use a single to-do list and calendar to manage what you need to do.

Work in batches. Use categories to help you group similar tasks together.

Use good judgment when sending e-mail. Follow the dos and don’ts of writing great e-mail. Review your time and tasks regularly.

…

Many of us use Outlook day in and out yet how many of us use it well?

Personally I’ve achieved the much vaunted goal of the “Zero Inbox”, but it took a while to train myself to get there. How? Mostly by doing step #4 above (i.e. the Four D’s). Given that (and that, or maybe because, I’ve been using Outlook for forever) I still got some good ideas from this document.

Anyway, given how my time we spend in Outlook it seems a good time investment to ensure we’re actually using it smartly.

File Name:	Best Practices for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.docx
Version:	1
Date Published:	10/30/2009
Language:	English
Download Size:	607 KB