May 201024

Visual Studio Command Prompt Here

I'm rebuilding my computer after a hard drive failure, and I keep running into issues where things I've taken for granted are missing – things such as the "VS Command Prompt Here" Windows Explorer context menu items. Years ago, Scott Hanselman posted INF files to add VS 2005 to the context menu. Using that as inspiration, I've created a version of the file for VS 2008 and another for VS 2010. For what it's worth, I tweaked his VS 2005 file because my copy of VS is installed in "P... [More]
Categories: Development | Work | Technology | Software Projects | Code | Professional

Jul 200925

Meeting Cost Calculator

Have you ever been in one of those meetings where it seems that everyone in the company is there, even though they don’t need to be?  I think everyone has and it is especially frustrating when you are one of the ones that doesn’t really need to be there. Well, based on a web site I saw a few weeks ago (the link escapes me at the moment), I wrote a little Windows Mobile app that will calculate just how much any given meeting is costing you and your clients. It’s a pretty simple application... [More]
Categories: Development | Work | Technology | Software Projects | Tools | Professional

Jun 200925

Twikini – Windows Mobile Twitter Client

I have an HTC Windows Mobile phone (touch screen + keyboard).  For the last several weeks, I’ve been using a trial version of Twikini to access my Twitter stream. I really got to like it.  There are a few things I’d like improved.  For example, on refresh it seems to have to get the whole stream and reload it rather than just getting updates since the last request.  Also, it does a timeline refresh after I tweet instead of just adding mine to the list on the client side.... [More]
Categories: Personal | Community | Technology | Blogosphere | Tools | Professional

May 200924

June? Seriously? (And Tech-Ed)

June is just a week away.  That’s insane.  It’s cliché to say it, but time goes so fast.  My son is already four months old, and my daughter is getting hilariouser by the moment.  (I know some of you may not consider hilariouser a word, but as I mentioned before, I make up words and add them to my dictionary to get rid of the red squiggles.) So anyway, I went to Tech-Ed a couple weeks ago and it was great.  I had a lot of fun, met a lot of people, caught up with a lot o... [More]
Categories: Development | Personal | Business | Community | Work | Technology | TechEd | Family | Professional

Mar 200916

Jeffrey Palermo at UWM

On Friday, April 17, Jeffrey Palermo will be giving a full-day seminar on ASP.NET MVC at UWM in Milwaukee.  The event isn’t free, but is affordable at $125 – cheap for a day-long training session, especially from someone of Jeffrey’s caliber. If you’re interested, you can find out more at Jeffrey’s blog.  I’m hoping to be able to go myself, but haven’t got that worked out yet. P.S. This is not a WI .NET Users Group event, so I don’t have any more details than what you can find on Jef... [More]
Categories: Development | Community | Technology | Blogosphere | Professional

Aug 200806

Curly Brace Placement

I've been writing code with curly braces for a dozen years or so, starting with C++ in college, then JavaScript for many, many years, and for the last few years, C#.  In all that time, I have been a fan of putting the opening curly brace on the same line as the declaration or control statement.  For example: private void DoSomething() { // ... if (somecondition) { myval = true; } // ... } At work, though, I have been working on someone else's code, and... [More]
Categories: Development | Work | Technology | Software Projects | Code | Professional

Aug 200805

GiveCamp MKE

I'm very excited to announce that we are planning the first ever GiveCamp in the Milwaukee area: GiveCamp MKE.  In fact, it's one of the first GiveCamps anywhere. "What's a GiveCamp?", you ask.  In short, it is an opportunity for developers, designers, DBAs, project managers and anyone else involved in the software development process to give back to the community.  And we do it by doing what we know how to do best -- building software.  We will soon be accepting a... [More]
Categories: Development | Personal | Community | Technology | Blogosphere | Professional | GiveCamp MKE

Jul 200822

I Am Excited About... A Conference Call?

For the first time since -- ummm -- since ever, I am looking forward to an upcoming conference call.  And I'm really looking forward to it.  I don't want to say too much, yet, because I want to get some very basic details ironed out first, but I will say that it is about a special project we are working on for the WI .NET Users Group. I've been thinking about this project for a few weeks now, and I've actually taken notes.  If you have ever been with me to a meeting, that stateme... [More]
Categories: Community | Technology | Software Projects | UG | Professional

Jul 200816

Testing PreCode

I'm using this post to test PreCode -- a code snippet formatting plugin for Windows Live Writer.  It uses SyntaxHighlighter on the client side and this plugin just sends the needed code to my blog engine. As a test I thought I'd just add a couple short snippets, using some of the different available options. //C#, using PRE bool b = true; ' VB, using TEXTAREA, "Showing Columns" Dim b as Boolean = True ' VB, using PRE, Starting at line #20 Dim i as Int32 i = 1 i += 3 M... [More]
Categories: Technology | Blogosphere | Tools | Code

Jul 200813

TimeSnapper

I've been using the free version of TimeSnapper off and on for some time now, but pretty regularly over the last few weeks since I started my new job.  I'm doing billable work again, and am notoriously bad at getting my time entered.  TimeSnapper helps by taking screenshots at some interval throughout the day and allowing me to play them back like a movie. I've been thinking about getting the Pro version for a couple weeks because there are a few more features that could be helpful.&#... [More]
Categories: Development | Work | Technology | Tools | Professional