Today we find Jeff trying to spend his ad revenue Supporting Open Source Projects in the Microsoft Ecosystem perhaps the most interesting comment was not a suggestion for which lowly OSS to toss money at and make dance but a far more serious question:

So here you have all of these people raving about the OSS projects/products that are making their lives easier and I just have to wonder how many of them have contributed anything at all to these projects themselves?

Do we need Jeff to go out and get a list so that HE can contribute something on our behalf? How many of you who raved about Paint.NET actually clicked on the "donate" link and sent in a few dollars? BTW, I have.

Get off of your lazy butts and do this yourself instead of bashing Microsoft for not contributing to the tools that YOU say are helping YOU save time and money!

"I find Paint.NET useful and think it's a great program. Why isn't Microsoft paying them money so that I can continue to use it for free?". Sheesh!

-Matt on June 27, 2007 07:45 AM

But OSS isn't about money at least not on the DotNet side, its about passion, shared owner ship and community(Money has its perks just look at Mono, FireFox and Community Server.).  But the failure of the OSS communities, the difficult times they living is by no means caused by MS or a lack thereof. Rather this failure rests souly on the PM's shoulder.  The arrogant and elite leadership of the OSS project. The very leader ship that tells all willing to help "your not trust worthy" go do our dirty work and write documentation, file a bug report, donate your money.  Yes life can be difficult when one builds them selves up into the Ivory tower. 

To be sure this does not describe all projects but look in to a failing OSS project and you will find a broken leader. 

 Found this in the new MSDN help.  Pretty nice feature this rebuild after an assembly change has driven us nuts for years. 

Managed Incremental Build Support

The compiler supports managed incremental builds

When you specify this option, the compiler will not recompile code when a referenced assembly changes. Instead it will perform an incremental build. Files are recompiled only if the changes affect the dependent code. For more information, see General Property Page (Project).

What's New in Visual C++ Codename "Orcas"

I have notice the online MSDN is much better now.  Slow but I do like the article version specific note along with links to newer and older versions.

For full details check Scott's announcement DasBlog 1.9.7 Release - Final ASP.NET 1.1 Version

This will be the last version written for dot net 1.1 and the blog engine that could will move off to the richer 2.0 class library.  The next milestone will be DasBlog 2.0 which will be compiled under Visual Studio 2005 ( One could use Orcas) and run in medium trust environments.  This should allow for DasBlog to run in most hosted environments.

The IEBlog posted a short list of Web Development Tools for Internet Explorer and demo videos.  Most of the tools are free but not all.  I've used Nikhil’s Web Development Helper and IE Developer Toolbar but I still find The web developer tool bar and FireBug for FireFox to be a much better set of WebDev tools.  also on the list is Fiddler but this works for both browsers.

CSS Zen Garden Resource Guide

CSS Layout Techniques: for Fun and Profit

Holy CSS ZeldMan

mezzoblue CSS Crib Sheet

Title:

Coffee vending machine filter paper support

Document Type and Number:

United States Patent 6401597

Link to this page:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6401597.html

Abstract:

A filter paper roll support apparatus for a coffee vending machine, having a fixed arm and a pivotable arm spaced from the fixed arm for supporting opposite ends of a support roll on which the paper roll is mounted for rotation. The pivotable arm is hinged and spring biased towards the fixed arm. A spacing element is formed in each of the arms to engage the opposite sides of a roll of filter paper to keep it from rubbing on the main bodies of the arms.

Microsoft KB article 894435

Microsoft's SoftGrid Video

With Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization, you can turn Windows applications into centrally managed, virtual services that are never installed, and can be instantly streamed to any desktop or laptop. In this one-hour video, learn how SoftGrid's virtualization technology can simplify desktop administration by automating processes for deploying, patching, updating, and terminating applications. It is now easier—and requires fewer IT resources—to address complex critical business projects such as OS and application migrations, security refreshes, and disaster recovery plans.

As an ISV I am trying to think how I could leverage this to ease my deployments.

This old code is now back up and running on thisoldcode.microfisch.com its old home where 99% of the perma links exist.  It turns out I had tried redirecting with a CName and this caused an issue with the forwarding.  If the Godaddy tech that I waited on for 5 hours bothered to look at the site settings rather then telling me to wait 48 hours I would have been up faster.  Why offer support if you just brush people off.  You only anger your customers that know it doesn't really take 48 hours to update DNS and if you ping the site and it resolves something is not right.  What ever happened to customer service?  I will be calling support from now on.

How nice Donny@nilsabbas DotCom sent me malware

To view your eCard, choose from the options below.

Click on the following link.

http://www.americangreetingsDoTcom/ecards/view.pd?i=439899392&m=2157&rr=y&source=ag999 <http://americangreetingscDoTnet/en/viewcard.html>

Or copy and paste the above link into your web browser's "address" window.

If you have any comments or questions, please visit

http://www.americangreetingsDoTcom/help/index.pd?source=ag999 <http://americangreetingscDoTnet/en/viewcard.html>

Thanks for using AmericanGreetings

So sweet.

Even though a call to tech support should take 5 minutes of wait time i chose email with a 5 hour wait time.

My Question: 

Over the weekend I removed my subdomain and created a new one for forwarding so thisoldcode.microfisch.com would forward to thisoldcode.net
If i ping thisolcode.microfisch.com it resolves to thisoldcode.net however if I try to browse the site in the webbrowser I receive Bad Request (Invalid Hostname). I am not sure if the DNS still needs time to propagate through your servers or, I have an incorrect setting

Godaddy Reply:

Dear Aaron Fischer,
Thank you for contacting Online Support. Changes to the settings of a domain take up to 48 hours to become effective because of the number of networks involved, and because these networks are controlled by several different agencies. This delay applies to all domains with any Registrar, not just Go Daddy. Please allow for this delay when planning web sites or configuring a domain to work with your services.
If, after 48 hours has passed, you still receive the same issue please contact us so that we can further investigate. I apologize for any inconvenience.

This is my blog the most outward facing site I have, its partially(Perma links are dead for all intents and purposes) down for any one that uses the old link so I am a little nervous about down time.  Would it have been to much for the tech to look at my settings and reassure me its just a mater of time for the DNS to resolve properly?

Check out the TechNet Webcast

TechNet Webcast: The Next Release of Microsoft SQL Server: Overview

O'Reilly announced they are now selling one chapter of a book very similar to the buying songs online

(Buy O'Reilly Books by the Chapter) I am not sure how usefully this is typically songs stand quite nicely by them selves but a single chapter in a book?  For 3.99 a chapter it only takes about 3-4 chapters to justify buying the whole book.  I will admit I do have a few books where a few chapters were a waste of my time, sadly you have to read said chapter before you make that evaluation.  In music you hear the song on MTV, Radio, or Sirius.  How do I preview the chapter before I buy? 

SunbeltBlog posted on one of the vicious IRS phishing sites and Earthlinks incompetent handling of the situation.

A dangerous, live IRS phish -- and the abuse desks are closed

Scott posted a nice article Tip/Trick: Creating Packaged ASP.NET Setup Programs with VS 2005  for deploying your Visual Studio 2005 project.  While Scott's article is focused on deploying to a customer I have found those scenarios to be beyond what VS offers and requires Install shield.  I do this this post is a handy trick for moving your project from dev to QA to staging maybe even production.

If your moving MFC or C++ extensions to dot net 2.0 here are a few items you might find useful

• Dudelabs offers RC converter which will take MFC resource files and convert them into Winform ( I have played with the demo it looks like it will help this conversion process).
• Microsoft offers VC++ 2003 Managed Extensions to VC++2005 C++/CLI Conversion Tool, a tool that was never finished but allows help for converting managed extensions to C++/CLI.  You can down load it here
• Microsoft has a C++/CLI Migration Primer that is worth a read.
• Microsoft also has Managed Extensions for C++ Syntax Upgrade Checklist article.
• Another Microsoft article Translation Guide: Moving Your Programs from Managed Extensions for C++ to C++/CLI
• Codeproject has dot net Document Management Toolkit Library adds the idea of document/view
• Codeproject also has C# SDI/MDI Application wizards
• Codeguru has a article on Converting dialog resources to C# forms Dialog Resource to C# Form Converter

I never new there was a debate.

 Want to gable with your debt and credit rating?  Read Can you make money in the balance transfer game?

SMTP Server = relay-hosting.secureserver.net

Notification E-Mail address = WhateverYouWant@yourdoman.com

check Enable SMTP basic Authentication

You will need one of your godday.com email account user name and passwords for sending.

Smtp user name= youremail@yourdoman.com

smtp password= yourdoman email password

smtp port = 25

Have fun.  I wouldn't recommend having notifications for referrals and pingbacks.

Today Phil announced Subkisment ( Introducing Subkismet-The Cure For Comment Spam).  I believe this will prove quite beneficial to many  a project.  Be they open or closed source.  What's more interesting, later on today  Mads published Think twice before using any third-party assemblies were he emphasis the exact opposite approach to development.  There is little debate that taking on a third party dependency is not to be taken lightly.  However the benefits can and typically do out weigh the doing it in house.  Lets take a blog engine as an example.  If you roll your own text editor, is that really a core goal of your product?  Do you always want to add improvements and features to your text editor?  Why not pick up a dependency on FreeTextBox or FCKeditor and periodically merge their changes, reap the hard work of another project focused on creating a great text editor?  dependencies are not always about control especially when they are open source. dependencies are a statement, we choose to let a focused community work on this feature.  It is an important feature that needs to evolve but its not our focus. 

Mads maybe correct in his assertion

CAPTCHA controls
There exists hundreds of CAPTCHA control libraries for ASP.NET both visible and invisible ones. However, a CAPTCHA is one of the simplest things to write – it takes only 20 lines of code to create a rock solid invisible one – so that’s what we did.

But does your project want to pick up this torch and stay at least one step ahead of the hoard of SPAM developers?  Or would you rather trust a community dedicated to this goal such as Subkisment?

In an open source project it should be a no brainier, take on as many other open source dependencies.  Run your community with unwavering focus on your core goals.  Besides you have the source if you ever need it.

 This is priceless

SAN FRANCISCO -- Internet search leader Google Inc. is trying to convince federal and state authorities that Microsoft Corp.'s Vista operating system is stifling competition as the high-tech heavyweights wrestle for the allegiance of personal computer users.

In a 49-page document filed April 18 with the U.S. Justice Department and state attorneys general, Google alleged that the latest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system impairs the performance of "desktop search" programs that find data stored on a computer's hard drive.

Google Complains About Microsoft's Vista - washingtonpost.com

I tend to think of this as the best way to stifle innovation.  I really feel sorry for Microsoft.  That company is held to a crazy standard.  Imagine if Apple was held to that same standard.  What would happen if Microsoft released the next windows mobile and would not let third party code execute on it?  What if Microsoft had an Ilife they bundled on Vista?  The irony is that windows is such an open platform that its almost its own worst enemy.

Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 now available

details

download.

You need to use a Key for Google's AJAX search.  This key happens to be per domain sub folder.  Since you can get to my site via thisoldcode.net or thisoldcode.microfisch.com Googles search would throw an error depending which entry point you enter.  I don't seem to have the ability to forward all thisoldcode.microfisch.com traffic to thisoldcode.net ( I should but the godaddy settings are not taking).  In the search api documentation they load the search via a js file with a hard coded key.

<script src="http://www.google.com/uds/api?file=uds.js&amp;v=1.0&amp;key=This Old Code Key" type="text/javascript"></script>

so I added a simple JavaScript function to dynamically write this include based on the website entry point.

    function SetGoogleSearchKey()
    {
        var DomainKey = 'This Old Code Key';
        if( document.domain == "thisoldcode.microfisch.com" )
        DomainKey = 'Microfisch Key';
        
        var ScriptTag = 'script';//trick the bloody browser.
        document.write('<' + ScriptTag + ' src="http://www.google.com/uds/api?file=uds.js&amp;v=1.0&amp;key=' + DomainKey + '" type="text/javascript"></' + ScriptTag + '>');
    }

It would have been nice if Google's JS script file did not display an alert when it cannot load do to the key error. I would have simply allowed thisoldcode.microfisch.com to have the search. after all I don't really need two. But its cool.

Blog Posts

• class to create generic property get and set delegate
• Strongly Typed DynamicMethods
• Turn MethodInfo to DynamicMethod

Code Project

• Evaluating Mathematical Expressions by Compiling C# Code at Runtime
• .Net Expression Evaluator using DynamicMethod
• Fast late-bound invocation through DynamicMethod delegates
• Dynamic Code Generation vs Reflection ( class to create field and property get and set delegate and create instance.)

So what happens when Mr. Spock falls asleep in a sitting position?

BBC NEWS | Health | Patient bleeds dark green blood

There was a new drop of the AJAX Control Toolkit 10606 release.

for more details about what was included see Delay's notes.  If you would like pics with that visit Shawn's notes.  And just to play with the new coolness.

I have set the blog address to thisoldcode.net with some luck it will make this blog searchable.  I also added windows live search :( no Google search.  Why because I could not get Google form based search to work on this blog, live on the other hand uses some nifty java script and worked with out a problem. ( maybe the search box should resize with the page.)

I look forward to seeing a nice search from Google that rival the look of live search and ease of setup.

courant.com | Amero Granted New Trial

Go figure Computer experts know more then a police stations self proclaimed computer expert.

The judge cited a forensic computer analysis conducted by the state police crime lab - conducted after the guilty verdict - to support the argument that the verdict should be set aside. She said the lab report "contradicts testimony of the state's computer witness."

It doesn't look like there will be a new trial thankfully.

Prosecutor Smith said state would take no position on Dow's motion for a new trial, making it unlikely she will be tried again. Smith also acknowledged that erroneous information about the computer was presented during trial.

Evidently if people opine it is an attempt to improperly influence the court.

Judge Strackbein criticized the bloggers today, saying they tried to "improperly influence" the court.

I think Strackbein should lose her job over that comment.  Its a free country and an open court. the trial was over for the criminal conviction.  The one thing that is clear to me, Amero was jury was her peers the held a very naive view about what unscrupulous people can do with modern technology.

Jeff likes this comparison of Background compilation to background spell checking(Background Compilation and Background Spell Checking).

Perhaps the my issue is not with the concept of background compilation but its current implementation. Background compilation is some what slow process on my machines.  If I trigger it, I will be forced to wait 15-20 seconds before I can do any thing in that IDE.
I remember a time when the red squiggly first appeared in Word and I turned it off because it was to slow.  Unlike Jeff and Ian my spelling and grammar are atrocious.  back ground spell check is now at the point where it really is seamless.   And a great benefit to my written communication.  I find its most beneficial feature is that it offers practical suggestions to my mistake as apposed to just flagging the word.  Grammar check on the other hand, well we just don't get along

Long behold Microsoft has a reason for their Surface demos to still being in Flash

# re: Microsoft Surface and WPF

Wednesday, May 30, 2007 8:06 PM by ScottGu

Hi Portman,

The www.microsoft.com/surface site above is still in Flash, but will move to Silverlight (along with the other parts of Microsoft.com) once Silverlight 1.0 ships this summer.  

Some companies ban installing beta software on client machines, which is why for really big announcements we still need to use non-Silverlight solutions in the interim.  We are, though, starting to pilot using Silverlight on www.microsoft.com for "opt-in" scenarios already, and will use it in a lot more places once the final 1.0 release ships.

Hope this helps,

Scott

go figure.

ARIN love the name too.

Ripe