January 2007 - Posts

Programmatic Malpractice

Published 31 January 7 10:23 PM | William

In the category of "I couldn't make something like this up even if I tried" comes the following code. Rather than try to dissect what it is that's wrong with it, it's a lot easier to find what's right with it. If the person that...

Filed under: Coding Techniques, WTF

Unpimp your ride

Published 28 January 7 10:52 PM | William

Although I love Pimp your ride, I personally don't like bling on vehicles much. I mean, what looks dumber than a totally tricked out Geo Metro right? Well, come to think of it, it's a lot worse when the car is actually nice. Unpimp your ride

Filed under: Humor, Mindless Babbling

And he videotaped it himself

Published 28 January 7 10:47 PM | William

This is the type of thing you'd do anything to avoid, this poor guy taped it himself: Watch More Videos

Filed under: Humor, Mindless Babbling

Leviton, Microsoft's Z-Wave/Windows Solutions

Published 28 January 7 10:37 PM | William

This is very very cool.

Filed under: News, Compact Framework, .NET General, Mindless Babbling

Well done Hewlett Packard

Published 28 January 7 10:23 PM | William

Today Kim decided to get around to hooking up the computer we got Sarah for Christmas (the Ninetendo DS seems to have went over a lot better with her). We both suffer from major procrastinators syndrome. Anyway, she called me in to see if I could get...

Filed under: Mindless Babbling, Vista

The AngryPharmacist and the Drug Monkey

Published 28 January 7 10:7 PM | William

Every day we go about out lives and we interact with people who we probably don't even think twice about. Many of us interact with pharmacists and never think twice about it, or what they think of us. I know mr 375lb bench press aka 'the lower cased one...

Filed under: Humor, Life in General, Me, Mindless Babbling

Windows Activation Hosting (WAS) and WCF

Published 28 January 7 3:32 PM | William

A few years ago, I took a job at Tiba Solutions . One of the coolest things about that job was working with Tobin Titus . Tobin is pretty much a bad a55 at all sorts of things and one of the things he really rocked at was Remoting . I learned most of...

Filed under: WCF, WIndows Communication Foundation, IIS 7.0

Is my Windows Communication Foundaton Service configured correctly?

Published 27 January 7 11:55 PM | William

One of the really sucky things about doing presentations is that you have to learn what you're talking about first. Actually, there's nothing sucky about learning things, it's just that at until you hit your learning curve, it can be frustrating. It's...

Filed under: WCF, Service, .config, EndPoint, WIndows Communication Foundation, .NET 3.0 Framework, ConfigurationFile

Another big problem with Vista - DRM

Published 26 January 7 6:22 PM | William

Andy has a great post here linking to a story that discusses the problem with Vista DRM . DRM is going to be a problem across the board and everyone is going to face similar hurdles, but since Vista is on bat right now, it's the one that a lot of attention...

Filed under: News, Misc Technology, DRM, Vista

ADO.NET Synchronization Services

Published 26 January 7 3:10 PM | William

So little time, so much cool new technology to play with .

Filed under: Data Access, ADO.NET Synchronization Services, Visual Studio .NET Orcas

.NET University is coming to Charleston, SC

Published 26 January 7 1:30 AM | William

If you're interested, here's the registration info

Filed under: Events

And if Monday doesn't work for you..

Published 26 January 7 1:26 AM | William

I'll also be working at the Ready for a new Day - Launch Tour 2007 February 8, 2007. And yep, I'll be there all day. If you're attending, make sure to stop by.

Filed under: News, Me, Misc Technology

I'll be doing the presentation next Monday

Published 26 January 7 12:39 AM | William

If you're going to be in Atlanta next week, stop by the .NET User Group Presentation . As you probably know already, I tend toward non mainstream technologies. This presentation is going to be on Windows Cardspace , Windows Communication Foundation and...

Filed under: Visual Studio .NET 2005, Coding Techniques, Misc Technology, WPF, Cardspace, WCF

Why the little things Matter

Published 25 January 7 11:51 PM | William

I've ranted over and over again about pieces of shameful incompetence I've come across over time. If you've been in the business more than a few months, you'll see things that make you say "I'm glad I don't do business with them." For instance, I was...

Filed under: News, Mindless Babbling, Misc Technology

How to be really annoying with Pocket Outlook

Published 25 January 7 6:8 AM | William

If you've been following my coding tonight, you can probably tell what I'm up to. If you call me regularly, you probably are already familiar with this little project, aka the CuckooBot. He's up to Version 4.0 and about to be released into the wild. Yes...

Filed under: Compact Framework, Visual Studio .NET 2005, Coding Techniques, Mindless Babbling

My Update isn't working...

Published 25 January 7 5:7 AM | William

A while ago, I used to answer so many "My update isn't working. It doesn't throw exceptions but it doesn't do anything" type questions that I wrote this article . Those days seem long removed, or at least they did. Seems the problem is creeping back up...

Filed under: Data Access

Password Protection != Encryption on SqlCe

Published 25 January 7 3:50 AM | William

I know this probably seems pretty obvious, but believe it or not, it's a very common area of confusion. Take a look at the following declaration: String ConnectionString = String .Format( @"Data Source=\BlueCuckoo.sdf;password={0}" , "SomeValue" ); SqlCeEngine...

Filed under: Compact Framework, Visual Studio .NET 2005, Coding Techniques, Mindless Babbling

SMS Messages with Windows Mobile 5.0

Published 25 January 7 2:40 AM | William

A while ago, I was playing around creating a bot, a Snarkier version of the Mobile Secretary Application . Well, it was late and I got sloppy. So basically, my little app sent out a text message to everyone on one of my company's Outlook distribution...

Filed under: Compact Framework, Visual Studio .NET 2005, Coding Techniques, Mindless Babbling, Misc Technology

A very slick Smartphone Emulator feature

Published 25 January 7 1:25 AM | William

I'm finishing up some SmartPhone articles I should have posted soon but figured I could discuss this one very quickly. Any professional application should be thoroughly tested on a physical device that it will be run on. However that's not practical for...

Filed under: Compact Framework, Visual Studio .NET 2005, Coding Techniques

Where did the post go?

Published 24 January 7 10:33 PM | William

Unfortunately, after posting the piece about that LOSER Charles/Mark or whatever his name is, I screwed up an Update and navigated away from the page. On CS, that causes the post to be lost. Anyway, for those of you not interested in this spat, please...

Filed under: Mindless Babbling