Larry Smithmier: C# For You (with a side of SQL)

Win7, VS 2010

Larry — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:17:52 +0000

My last post asked about development on Win7 and Vista. I still have tons of complaints about Vista, but I have been developing at home using Win7 exclusively for 3 months now (mainly ASP.NET) and I can’t really complain much anymore. The VS 2008 development of web sites on Win7 is about as painless as it can get. I modified my shortcut for VS to launch as admin, and everything just flows.

I just got the VS 2010 Beta down and I must say, it is quite pretty. I like the new look and feel quite a lot. I am looking forward to putting it through its paces, but I am afraid that most of the really cool new stuff (testing enhancements and such) will have to wait until I get to use it at work. At home, I should probably try the Professional Edition rather than the Ultimate, but I just love the gadgets. I really like the fact that they made Architecture a first class citizen (it has it’s own top level menu structure).

Say what? (or, why should we use Vista or Windows 7 when we can’t easily develop on it)

Larry — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:24:06 +0000

You know it is bad when you find statements like this in a Microsoft document (the emphasis is mine):

Windows XP SP2 and Visual Studio .NET 2005
The recommended development environment for HealthVault applications is Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and Visual Studio .NET 2005. Some of the security settings in this guide are specific to this environment.

Windows Vista and Visual Studio .NET 2008
The HealthVault application environment is fully compatible with Windows Vista. However, Windows Vista locks down many shell and application security settings that are relevant to Web application development. If you choose to develop in Windows Vista, you need to manually configure the Visual Studio development environment to run in Administrator mode. In addition, you will need to take additional steps to configure security settings and grant local user permissions for your application development certificate. Some of those steps may depend on your local environment and are beyond the scope of this document

Looking for hosted SVN? Beanstalk could be your solution.

Larry — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:54:04 +0000

Signed up for a free account at Beanstalk and am loving what I have seen so far. I like the focus they have and the exposed API to allow mixing their service with another best of breed. They have also done a lot of the interfacing to other services already for you. For now, they are my source control vender of choice. I have started my startup repository and work is underway. Progress has been made and code committed.

Sort of gives me goose bumps. :-)

A quick post with a work around for adding a sleep to a batch file

Larry — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:02:21 +0000

Add the following line:

ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 > nul&ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 > nul

replacing the 2nd 2 with the number of seconds you want to delay.

Some code to walk projects in VSX

Larry — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:22:54 +0000

Just a little sample that I couldn't find anywhere. This will walk the active project of a solution. I am refining it to walk the entire sollution (all projects) and will post that when done.

PLAIN TEXT

C#:

private void TestProjectObjectModel()
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
Array currentProjects = (Array)this._applicationObject.ActiveSolutionProjects;
string indention = "";
if (currentProjects.Length> 0)
{
foreach (Project currentProject in currentProjects)
{
parseProject(sb, currentProject.ProjectItems, indention);
}
}
Console.WriteLine(sb.ToString());
}
private static void parseProject(StringBuilder sb, ProjectItems currentProject, string indention)
{
foreach (ProjectItem item in currentProject)
{
if (item != null)
{
sb.AppendFormat("{3}Name: {0}, Kind: {1}{2}", item.Name, item.Kind, Environment.NewLine, indention);
}
if (item.ProjectItems.Count> 0)
{
parseProject(sb, item.ProjectItems, indention + " ");
}
}
}

Spent an hour with TechRanchAustin Friday

Larry — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 05:57:30 +0000

So I dropped by a local Incubator on Friday to get my BizSpark started and had a blast. Jonas and Kevin were awesome to talk with, and they imparted a load of information in the hour. We went over my Executive Summary (one pager that covered the concept, market, principals, and plan) and then just jammed about technology and startups. It was a truly high bandwidth discussion. It will take a while for me to fully digest everything and get it blogged about. I have a couple of books to track down and loads of work to do. Once I get product out the door, I will probably engage much more fully to try and ramp my growth. I hope to also get some good local networking out of it.

Certification run on hold for a little bit.

Larry — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 05:15:18 +0000

Heather's mother is coming into town for a visit, so this past week has been more 'honey do' than study. This is just a delay, not a termination of my quest for certification.

Pass! 794. I am now an MCSA

Larry — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:31:00 +0000

I passed! I reviewed last night with 6 practice tests and got a 1000 on all but one (933) and took the exam today. I found the exam included more low level diagnostic details than the review material, but that the form and material covered was very similar. I felt confident throughout the test and was very sure on 70% of the questions. I believe I marked 8 of the 10 or so questions I missed. My pass was a 794 with my Implement, Manage, and Maintain Routing and Remote Access being less than 50% correct. I believe this is the first (or at most the second) exam I have taken that I got a full bar as a result (Implement, Manage, and Maintain IP Addressing). On the whole, I found the uCertify test preparation to be well worth the time and effort. The material was presented well, the questions covered the material, and the structure allows for a good way to top off your knowledge preparing for a test. It definitely directly contributed to my passing the exam.

I now have my MCSA in Windows 2003. I will be taking the SQL Server 2008 exam next, but I want to eventually upgrade my MCSA to an MCSE in 2008 with the security component. I believe that to be a good complement to my development and Architecture background.

Final uCertify test with a 950 (38/40 correct)

Larry — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:58:56 +0000

I am reviewing the entire question list, but I believe I am 'good to go' for the exam tomorrow. I am scheduled for a 1:30 start time and have a 3 hour and 30 minute window to complete the exam. More when I get through.

Last test completed with a 759765, review test at 901900+

Larry — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:22:51 +0000

Took the last regular exam and scored a pass, but just. Took an adaptive test and got an 840~~850~~, took a test containing all questions that I had missed in the past (81 total) and got a 901~~over a 900~~. Looking ready. Final test tonight (new questions) and additional study work. Signing up for the exam tomorrow if possible, today was just to packed with meetings.

Edit: Updated from home with the actual prep tool in front of me to be accurate with the numbers.