Vapor Blog

Programming ASP.NET 4.0

2009-10-29T12:32:00Z

That's the title of my new book. Woohoo! Should be out in February 2010. 7 Chapters, heavy on the code, light on the fluff. It will sticker for $20, printed and eBook versions along with code download. I'm targetting about 300 pages, give or take a few....(read more)

Oh my it's been too long.

2009-08-14T15:28:00Z

I'm ashamed for not posting any sooner than this. I forgot my password for the longest while...Have you noticed how many passwords people now have. There's work, there's home, there's social sites, there's chat clients, there's taxes, banking...On and On. And they are all different right? Because, oh no, you don't want to share the same password across all these sites. What if the booboo man gets a hold of it? I think we've pinned ourselves into a corner here......(read more)

.NET 3.5 SP1 Breaking Change to WCF

2008-11-14T10:04:00Z

I walked into a booby-trap with .NET 3.5 SP1. Here are the details. You receive a 401 authentication error when you upgrade your server running WCF service to .NET 3.5 SP1. The WCF run-time now requires an identity to be passed in on the call. The identity or SPN is not verified for authenticity, it just needs to be present. You can fix the issue from code or by inserting the identity tag into the url. The authentication failure is triggered if all of the conditions are met The scenario uses ClientCredentialType...(read more)

VSTS Giveaway is Back!!! Visual Studio Team Suite 2008 with MSDN Premium

2008-09-25T14:06:00Z

Community: I have a one licensed, legal VSTS 2008 with MSDN premium subscriptions to give away to the community. If you care to take part, please send me an email with 1 paragraph explaining why you think you should be considered. That's it, no gimmicks, strings or anything funny. I'll take the best 1 on October 31st and provide the subscriptions to the lucky person. Your contact information and email will not be published or distributed. To participate: Send email to vstsgiveaway@live.com...(read more)

Giveaway!!! Visual Studio Team Suite 2008 with MSDN Premium

2008-06-08T17:09:00Z

Community: I have a couple of licensed, legal VSTS 2008 with MSDN premium subscriptions to give away to the community. If you care to take part, please send me an email with 2 paragraphs explaining why you think you should be considered. That's it, no gimmicks, strings or anything funny. I'll take the best 3 on July 31st and provide the subscriptions to the lucky ones. Your contact information and email will not be published or distributed. To participate: Send email to vstsgiveaway@live...(read more)

WPF Accessibility Support Issues

2008-04-15T14:11:00Z

Aint it great that the latest from MS falls short of the accessibility mark? Gotsta luv it. Here are the details. Zoomtext does not work correctly with WPF. WPF rendering is based on DirectX not GDI. If Adaptive Technology does not support DirectX, there won't be support in the tool for WPF controls. The JAWS cursor doesn't read any of the text/information in the native WPF screen content. The issue affects applications that render read-only text on screen. Microsoft is aware of the issue...(read more)

COM+ The run-time environment has detected an inconsistency in its internal state.

2008-04-07T12:52:00Z

DeskTop Heap Exhaustion Ran into another mine field the other day - blew my foot right off before I could even realize what was happening. The client received this error: The run-time environment has detected an inconsistency in its internal state. This indicates a potential instability in the process that could be caused by the custom components running in the COM+ application, the components they make use of, or other factors. Error in d:\nt\com\complus\src\comsvcs\threads\stathread.cpp(284), hr...(read more)

How Old is the Earth - the answer.

2008-03-13T16:59:00Z

Several readers found it necessary to email me with their comments and answers to the post http://msmvps.com/blogs/alvin/archive/2008/01/07/how-old-is-the-earth.aspx . Unfortunately, there isn't a correct answer though there may be several plausible answers. The story tries to describe the starlight problem. Starlight from distant stars travel several million years to reach the earth - we all agree on that, meaning that when we look up into the night sky, what we see is the past. Based on the...(read more)

VB6 Conversion issues

2008-03-13T16:30:00Z

Part of my day job is to lead the migration project from VB6 to .NET. You need to be shot at if you think the migration wizard will solve your problems. That's putting it bluntly. To be politically correct, there are lots of issues. I'll document those as I run into them and keep adding to this post. Hopefully, I'll have time to write some kb articles on this as well. The estimate of 7000 lines per week of converted code is fairly accurate. This improves with familiarity and it is possible...(read more)

How old is the Earth?

2008-01-07T20:05:00Z

A scientist and a preacher observe a man standing on the shore next to a harbor looking at the neighboring island. A boat is docked in the harbor. Both the scientist and preacher agree that the boat likely came from the island. If it did, both agree that the boat would have taken approximately 10 hours to make the journey. The scientist and preacher ask the man 'How long have you been standing there?'. The man does not answer. Instead, he turns his head to look at the boat in the harbor....(read more)

Black Book New Pricing

2007-10-30T12:40:00Z

Blame it on the strong Canadian dollar! Enjoy this new price of $19.99. I've gotten a lot of comments on shipping to different parts of the world - customers want the Black Book and they want it yesterday. Lulu will ship anywhere and expedited shipping is possible for a very reasonable price. Don't hold your breath on an eBook download; that's not happening. Period. Your best bet is to buy using expedited shipping. The reason why the book is not on Amazon is that the ISBN package required...(read more)

RequiredRuntime fails for targetting CLR versions

2007-10-26T14:38:00Z

Recently, I walked right into an ambush with .NET. A client asked how best to target a CLR version from a .NET application. Easy right? Just use this in an app.config file: <startup> <requiredRuntimeversion="v1.0.3705" safemode="true"/> </startup> As it turns out, this simply won't work for any version above 2.0. Bummer! I hate those issues because it makes you look stupid as a consultant. Even worse, it makes the framework looks like it is broken - ofcourse...(read more)

The Black Book, 2nd Edition Now Available!!!

2007-10-03T17:03:00Z

The Black Book, 2nd Edition is now available at an amazing price of $24.99. However, this price is only available on www.lulu.com/owc. Amazon will continue to stock the old item. I strongly recommend purchasing the new item from www.lulu.com/owc. The book is updated to provide: 1. More code. 2. Sample working projects with code snippets for each component. 3. WCF examples. 4. Better images. 5. Corrections and updates to licensing....(read more)

The O.W.C. Black Book 2nd Edition due out in October

2007-09-07T15:19:00Z

I am currently wrapping up work on the 2nd edition of the Black Book. It is expected to hit shelves in October 2007. The update includes Code corrections Licensing information changes WCF programmability with the components WCF programmability with the components Updates for Visual Studio 2005 Updates for Visual Studio 2008 Direct binding of components to datasets As you know, the Black book was an independent project not backed by any major publisher. But it has been one of my most successful books...(read more)

InvalidOperationException in loop

2007-08-31T18:46:00Z

This issue seems to be raised a lot in the newsgroups. When you iterate a container, ArrayList for instance, you cannot remove items in the contain inside the body of the loop. You get a nasty exception if you have no regard for the rules. Apparently, the run-time imposes a read-only restriction on the iterating container. The read-only restriction forces all assumptions about the container to be valid during the loop iteration process. There's an article here that discusses this in more detail...(read more)

HTTP Module limitation

2007-07-27T16:36:00Z

When calling code in an ASP.NET website is transferred using server.transfer in an HTTP Module, it is not technically possible to get the virtual directory for the destination page in code. There is no current work around for this issue....(read more)

KitchenAid Architect II Electric Double Oven Fraud - UPDATE

2007-07-14T00:28:00Z

Sears contacted me this week to apologize. As a token, they've offered me $75 on a gift card. I think there is a lesson in there: as a consumer, you do have a voice. And if you make a lot of noise, you can get attention. Matter closed. I'm happy about the apology. I don't really care for the token but I guess it is the thought that counts....(read more)

KitchenAid Architect II Electric Double Oven Fraud

2007-06-20T23:52:00Z

Occasionally, you run into some experiences that you absolutely must share with others. Here is my experience with Sears Canada. I bought this unit in May. The Microwave glass shattered in June. I am so far unable to determine why the glass shattered. Previously, we had used the oven to bake a cake. Inspecting the microwave after the incident, the door appeared warped and the sticking agent had leaked out. I came to the conclusion that the heat from the oven must have warped the door of the Microwave...(read more)

Programming Excel Services

2007-05-13T15:49:00Z

Here is a link to the new book: https://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/10933.aspx Here are a couple of paragraphs exercepted from chapter 1: Every now and then, a product hits the market that causes a significant shift in the way software is designed and built. Excel Services is one such product; it completely changes the way Microsoft Office applications are written. Chapter 1 will focus on introducing and explaining the Excel Services architecture that drives this fundamental shift in thinking...(read more)

VB6 Migration

2007-05-10T18:58:00Z

As the VB6 migration deadline looms closer, business are starting to push back. Microsoft has softened their position quite a bit with respect to support of the VB6 run-time. Now, the VB6 run-time will be supported until 2017. In addition, Microsoft has set aside special support options for customers on a per seat basis for 3 years. This means that you can actually purchase support for VB6 run-time and design-time issues. There are strict entry criteria for entrance and the pricing is pretty steep...(read more)