Sunday, October 28, 2007

Edmonton Code Camp 2007

Last week I was at the University of Alberta attending the Edmonton Code Camp 2007.

The Code Camp is a one day developer conference driven by the local developer community. It happened on Saturday October 21. I was very impressed with the organization and quality of the presentations. I am glad that we have such an engaging .NET community in Edmonton volunteering to organize an event like this.

I attended the following sessions: Introduction to TDD, NHibernate, MonoRail, and Alt.NET.

Some technologies and tools that were presented through these sessions:
  • Rhino Mocks: a dynamic mock object framework.
  • Windsor Container: Inversion of control container.
  • ActiveWriter: an addin for Visual Studio 2005 to design a domain model and to generate code decorated with ActiveRecord attributes.
Some recommended books:

Tool for C# Format

I am using this tool for formating C# code for publishing in a blog:

http://manoli.net/csharpformat/

The formatted code will look like:


using System;

public class HelloWorld
{
public static void Main()
{
// Comment line
Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
}
}

Evidence Based Scheduling

This is a new article from Joel Spolsky talking about Evidence Based Scheduling:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/10/26.html

Friday, September 21, 2007

Creating a new virtual machine for VMWare Player

VMware Player does not allow you to create a virtual machine from the scratch, only to run existing ones. In order to create new virtual machines, you can use the qemu-img.exe program that comes with QEMU.

The virtual machine consists of two files: the vmdk which you create using the qemu-img.exe program, and the vmx file which is a plain text configuration file.

The following post contains instructions of how to create these files:
http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2005/10/26/vmware-player-windows-xp.html

In his example, the author uses the guest Operating System as Windows XP. To create a virtual machine for different operating systems, simply change the value of the guestOS variable located at the vmx file. The following link contains the supported values:
http://www.ffnn.nl/pages/articles/linux/vmware-player-image-creation.php#oscodes

Friday, September 07, 2007

Running a Command Prompt Window as Administrator in Windows Vista

This post has a good tip of how to quickly open a command prompt window as administrator in Windows Vista.

1. Press the Win key
2. Type cmd. Alternatively, you can type cmd /k color 4f to get a window with different color to remind you are running as administrator.
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter
4. Hit Alt+C to confirm the elevation prompt

Sunday, August 26, 2007

How to make Ubuntu look like Mac OS X

This is an awesome article of how to modify your Gnome Linux Desktop to look like a Mac OS X desktop. I am really impressed with it and willing to try it some day.

http://www.taimila.com/?q=node/11

Friday, August 24, 2007

Dell Inspiron 1501 Locking Up Problem

I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 (Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core TK-53 1.7GHZ) running Windows Vista and I was having problems with the system freezing up once a day.

Suddenly, the Inspiron 1501 locks up with no response from the mouse and keyboard, etc. The desktop is gone, the screen becomes blank with vertical white stripes and a small square with red stripes. Pretty weird! This happens randomly, I could be just browsing the Web, reading emails, compiling in Visual Studio, or doing nothing.

After spending a few hours with the Dell Support dude on the phone, we run all the hardware tests and all passed. To run the tests, turn off your computer, then hold the Fn key and press the power button.

It turned out that the problem was the video driver. A new ATI IGP Xpress 1150 driver for Windows Vista was released on August 10, 2007. After installing it the problem was solved!!

It is just surprising that the Dell download pages says that this new driver version is an optional update, but my girlfriend had the same problem on her Inspiron 1501 which was solved with this video driver update. Anyone else experiencing this problem?

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Essential Tools for .NET Development

Read the complete post at: http://shailensukul.blogspot.com/2007/07/essential-tools-for-net-development.html.

I would also add to this list:

Patterns & Practices: Software Factories
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/practices/bb190387.aspx

Code Analysis/Unit Testing
Resharper

Continuous Build
Cruise Control .NET

Source Control
Subversion
TortoiseSVN (Subversion client - Windows Shell Extension)
AnkhSVN (Subversion client - Visual Studio Plugin)

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Roadmap to MCPD Certification

I started working on my MCAD certification a couple of years ago, but didn't finish it. I have completed 70-316 and 70-315 so far. I think this is a good time to take the last exam, and move on to the upgrade to the new MCPD certification. Probably by the time I am done, Microsoft will create a new certification based on MS Visual Studio 2008.
This is my roadmap to get certified:
  • 70-316 (MCP)

  • 70-315

  • 70-320 (MCAD)

  • 70-551 (MCPD: Windows Web Developer)

  • 70-526

  • 70-529

  • 70-549 (MCPD: Enterprise Applications Developer)
  • Wednesday, August 01, 2007

    Online Backup

    I found this online backup service called Mozy. It works pretty well, and it is free!! The free version offers up to 2 GB, and you can backup more than one computer. If you need more than 2GB, their unlimited version costs $4.95 / month.

    For each person you refer, you can have 256MB more. So, if you want to try it, just click here, or goto their website www.mozy.com and use my referral code: SW5GZF.

    Enjoy it!

    Friday, July 13, 2007

    Free Training on .NET 3.0 on WCF, WPF, WF

    I just found this online training on Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF):

    Collection 5134: Developing Rich Experiences with Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio® 2005

    It is free and you can access it for 3 years.

    Enjoy it!

    Thursday, January 18, 2007

    Refactoring to Patterns

    If you are interested in an online course about Refactoring to Patterns, Industrial Logic is offering an online training Refactoring to Patterns Interactive, which costs $150 and provides exercises in C# and Java.

    I am looking forward to take this course.

    Spring Boot Configuration Properties Localization

    Spring Boot allows to externalize application configuration by using properties files or YAML files. Spring Profiles  provide a way to segr...