Jason N. Gaylord's Blog

Update your Windows Phone App to Support Theme Changes

2013-05-30T21:39:00Z

If you’ve ever built a Windows Phone 7 or Windows Phone 8 application, you may have found that your app looks great when building it in Visual Studio. However, as soon as you attempt to change the theme of the application, the design would not appear Read More......(read more)

What came first? The baby or the app

2013-05-21T11:00:50Z

So today is the big day where my wife is being induced with our fourth child. Given the past, today’s experience should last between 6-10 hours. Knowing I’ll be hearing monitors in the background, I figured I should do some work. Since I haven’t spent Read More......(read more)

Professional ASP.NET 4.5 in C# and VB

2013-05-07T18:03:37Z

On May 3rd, Wrox Press released Professional ASP.NET 4.5 in C# and VB . I co-authored this book with two Microsoft employees ( Pranav Rastogi and Scott Hanselman )as well as two Microsoft MVPs ( Christian Wenz and Todd Miranda ). The book is packed with Read More......(read more)

How the Web has Changed–As witnessed through the Webby Awards

2013-04-02T15:31:00Z

Earlier today, the Webby Awards and Internet Explorer teams announced a joint project to showcase the Webby Award winners since the awards were handed out in 1997. This new website is built on Web standards which are truly emphasized in Internet Explorer Read More......(read more)

Get the Nth Past Date After Removing a List of Dates from MSSQL

2013-03-06T03:02:15Z

This stemmed from a strange request that came across my desk. I had the need to pull a date 7 business days ago by using T-SQL in Microsoft SQL Server. Sounds simple right? Here’s the catch: the date had to be the 7th business day in the past after removing Read More......(read more)

Getting the Shutdown Dialog in Windows 8

2013-02-27T22:24:49Z

One of the tasks that seem awkward in Windows 8 is the shutdown and restart process. One of my co-workers, Mark Beleski, had discovered a nice keyboard shortcut today. It’s nothing new, but something that I rarely used. Alt + F4 If you’re in an application Read More......(read more)

On the Surface, the Marketing Stinks Already!

2013-02-09T03:26:16Z

Tonight, February 9th, Microsoft is releasing their second tablet, the Surface Pro . Besides the Microsoft diehards, such as myself that will be ordering one within the first few minutes possible, I’m concerned that the masses are unaware. So, to solve Read More......(read more)

Microsoft Surface Hard Drive Size Is Not An Issue

2013-01-30T12:03:00Z

Yesterday, there have been numerous reports discussing the hard drive size of the Microsoft Surface Pro. I’ll be getting mine when they come out and will be getting the 128 GB size. Most of the world recognizes that 1 GB is 1024 MB and that 1 MB is 1024 Read More......(read more)

New Year, New Post

2013-01-01T13:00:00Z

So, it's been just over a month since my last post. But, I haven't been too quiet. In fact, I was hard at work customizing and updating one of my other websites, MyLightDisplay.com . Each year the holidays tend to consume any time I'd typically Read More......(read more)

Dropping MS SQL Tables that have a Prefix using T-SQL

2012-11-16T22:43:29Z

How many times have you wanted to drop a selection of Microsoft SQL Server tables that have begin with some common characters? I have many times especially when I’m testing certain web applications, such as Orchard CMS, and using different database prefix Read More......(read more)

Being a Microsoft MVP for 10 Years

2012-11-16T02:37:22Z

First of all, thanks to all who are involved with the Microsoft MVP program for acknowledging the technical community. It is much appreciated. It’s hard to believe, but it’s been 10 years since I first became a Microsoft MVP. I still remember where I Read More......(read more)

Embed JavaScript in Custom ASP.NET Server Controls

2012-11-09T05:54:26Z

As ASP.NET evolves, using ASP.NET WebForms is still the most popular way to serve up ASP.NET. One of the biggest benefits of ASP.NET WebForms is the fact that we can use re-usable code in several ways including in a compiled server control. What you may Read More......(read more)

Windows Store is Missing Enterprise Capabilities

2012-11-07T15:45:45Z

The Windows Store is great. Seriously, it is. There are some minor issues with it that I’d like to see such as a way to track “recommended apps” by either your friends or by Microsoft and a way to sort Games by “Xbox” titles. However, the biggest thing Read More......(read more)

Did Acer hurt the chances of the Microsoft Surface?

2012-10-23T19:28:21Z

Remember back in August when Acer’s JT Wang suggested that if Microsoft priced the Surface with Windows RT at $199 that it would negatively impact it’s partners and vendors ? So now that the Apple event is over and we heard Apple announce the iPad Mini Read More......(read more)

Windows 8 Pre-Orders Prevalent

2012-10-23T03:01:19Z

With Windows 8 just 3 days away from being officially released to consumers, manufacturers are pushing machines out to distributors everywhere. Don’t wait in line or miss out on the machine you’re looking for. Pre-order from one of the following websites Read More......(read more)

Verizon Needs to Step Up

2012-10-22T13:56:22Z

Verizon and other telecommunication organizations are falling behind. Technology companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are announcing cutting edge technology every day. When was the last time Verizon announced expanding FiOS coverage Read More......(read more)

Windows 8 Color Palette

2012-10-19T19:55:52Z

So Windows 8 has a new custom Start screen that allows live tiles to be displayed and rearranged on a per user basis. They also allow complete customization of the new Start screen. This includes a few backgrounds that are updated based on the color choice Read More......(read more)

Marking Code as Deprecated in .NET

2012-10-04T16:16:10Z

Do you work on a team that shares code libraries? Have you ever wanted to implement a new method to replace an old one (with a differing signature) and simply deleted the old method? You can handle these situations easier by using an attribute on a class Read More......(read more)

I'm a Microsoft MVP... Again

2012-10-02T15:23:51Z

So, I’ve been officially renewed as a Microsoft MVP again. Too often, I’m asked about the MVP program. I’m asked what it is, what it means to get it, and how I was nominated and won. What is the MVP Program? The MVP program was designed Read More......(read more)

Authentication, Cross-App Redirects, and ASP.NET 4.5

2012-09-13T21:13:53Z

I started to test out the migration of our web applications with ASP.NET 4.5. In many cases, we have a login page that redirects from one domain to another domain or sub-domain. In those instances, we’re setting the enableCrossAppRedirects property in Read More......(read more)