Work vs. Play

New Pictures!

Todd — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:40:00 GMT

I uploaded a bunch of new pictures from this month... Hiking on the AT & Wiley Shelter (I only got 4 days in, but still very fun. I can't wait to go again. I'll post separately on this.) http://longlostcousins.com/photos/todd/category1030...(read more)

Video from Wiley Shelter on the AT

Todd — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:03:00 GMT

Here's a video of Wiley Shelter in NY where I stayed one of the nights on my recent hike. I was out for about 4 days. This is really my favorite shelter although I've only been to a few of the hundreds that are on the trail. The video shows the...(read more)

Posting from the Dark Side

Todd — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:16:00 GMT

I'm typing this post on a MacBook; my new MacBook to be exact. Why such silliness you ask? Well, I needed a new computer, and since I expect to be doing a whole bunch of Apex programming in Eclipse in the near future, I figured I would take the plunge...(read more)

Getting SPUnit Test Results As XML

Todd — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 08:38:40 GMT

Using SPunit ( cookbook / Sourceforge ) to test your SQL stored procs? Want some NUnit style xml output? I haven't actually tested this on my CCNet installation yet, but it works with the dashboard's standard xsl file. Use this instead...(read more)

More Quick Wins...

Todd — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 04:49:31 GMT

Over the last month or so, I've gotten to work on some cool new stuff and see some new technologies - I recently updated my blog theme, went to DevConnections, and have focused on testing and CI at work. Here's some new stuff I discovered (or...(read more)

The first rule of any technology used in a business...

Todd — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 04:45:00 GMT

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. Bill Gates...(read more)

Blog Theme Help

Todd — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:26:00 GMT

I'm working on updating my Community Server blog theme so it won't look so much like the out of the box themes. A couple of good resources for people who are only marginally creative like me: :) www.colorsontheweb.com has a whole bunch of tools...(read more)

Thoughts about DevConnections Sessions

Todd — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 01:40:00 GMT

UPDATED: 11/17/2007 - added some links to speaker & session info and fixed a couple of typos Since I'm going to have to review this at work, I thought I'd get some thoughts together about the sessions I attended at DevConnections last week...(read more)

Back from DevConnections

Todd — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 01:12:00 GMT

I spent last week in Las Vegas at the DevConnections conference. It was my first BIG conference, although I've been to many are Code Camps and MSDN Events sessions. This was a whole 'nother ball game. ( A few more pix ) There must have been 5...(read more)

I'm going to Vegas!

Todd — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 01:23:00 GMT

DevConnections here I come! Got the conference registration, flight, and hotel all booked up today! I'll be attending mixture of ASP.Net and Sharepoint sessions, but I'll be sure to catch at least one OpenForce session - Jim Bonnie and Rob Connery...(read more)

A Nice Trick for Caching by User

Todd — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:41:00 GMT

I wrote a quick overview of caching (and state) the other day and saw a great VaryByCustom tip on Steven Smith's blog today . VaryByCustom allows you to use a global.asax method ( GetVaryByCustomString ) to return a string that will act as your VaryBy...(read more)

Quick Wins - SQL Unit Testing

Todd — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 20:01:00 GMT

I've been looking into unit testing in SQL as a quick way to check out the effects of database changes. I've been spending a fair amount of time working on SQL-only type changes - things that unit or functional tests won't catch either because...(read more)

Caching In 10 Minutes

Todd — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 03:57:00 GMT

This is some stuff I've been meaning to post to the wiki at work because I've been asked a lot of questions about it, but just haven't gotten around to yet. It's a little bit intro, but I couldn't find a good snapshot anywhere else...(read more)

Fumbleview on iPhone

Todd — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 21:00:00 GMT

I blogged in the past about my iPhone. It's a decent phone, but not really worth all the hype IMHO. As the "platform" matures, some cool sites are popping up.Fumbleview lets you get up to the minute football game progress on your iPhone. It works great and the phone integration is so tight it won't even load on the Windows browsers I tried. Worth a bookmark for every iPhone owning football fan.

http://fumbleview.com/

Sent from my iPhone

A Better Developer - Two Months In...

Todd — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:48:00 GMT

Two months ago, I posted about being a better developer in 6 months just like everyone else. Since I want to keep this going, I’m grading myself periodically to see where I stand…

1.      Blog more.
Not Changed: Exactly the same as last month… “OK, I really said every other day, but I have improved. Hey this is my second post today! :)” (C)
2.      Finish and Expand the SDK for work.
There’s still plenty more to do on this, and hopefully I’ll make it a priority this week by writing this! It has spawned a couple of blog posts though.    (B-)
3.      Upgrade this website.
Well, if you’re reading this you can probably tell that I’m not running dotText and DotNetNuke anymore. Sorry, I really wanted to work with DNN but the upgrade path was a killer (in part because I didn’t keep up with the upgrades as they were released, but there’s just so damn many, and even one at a time it still failed more often than not). I also tried dasBlog in the meantime, but couldn’t get it to play nice on my ISP. So, here we are, one third of they way through, and I can (almost) officially mark this as done. We’re kicking Community Server 2007 now. Guess I’ll be reading Dave Burke’s blog posts a little more carefully now, like this one. J (A)
4.      Learn the Castle stack.
I still don’t like it. With the imminence of ScottGu’s MVC framework, I may not have to worry. I still want to learn the concepts though. And because of some work projects headed my way, I may have to add SharePoint to the list. I may need to refactor this goal. (C+)
UPDATE 10/24/2007: OK, I'm starting to like it more, but still wary of troubles with using 3rd party controls.
5.      Get comfortable with Orcas.
Not Changed: “Haven't touched the bits I downloaded.” (D)
6.      Stop writing classic ASP.
Not Changed: “This will hopefully become much easier when I finish #2, but so far I'm still in it.” (D)

Overall, a reasonable improvement for month 2, but still a solid C. I'll grade myself again next month, but in the meantime, how’s Jim doing?