DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by RyanSmith

How to check email works with no SMTP

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:01:02 GMT

Testing code that sends email has always been a pain. You had to set up a SMTP service just to test that your .NET application sends the e-mail correctly...

The VB.NET Salary Gap

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:46:01 GMT

Have you ever wondered what the salary difference is between a VB.NET and a C#, C++ or Java job? I did a little research on this tonight, courtesy of Indeed.com, the job listing aggregation site. What I found really wasn't all that surprising but it was interesting none the less.

Phone Number Validation and Formatting with JavaScript

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 08:49:44 GMT

Yet another approach to validating phone number input with JavaScript. Unlike many of the other schemes, this validation function takes any valid 10 digit phone number in any format, validates it, then sets the value of the text field to the desired format of the programmer. Much more user friendly than those rigid validation schemes where the user is forced into a format.

Don't Be a Validation Nazi

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 06:31:02 GMT

"Postel wrote that in an RFC that defined TCP, but it applies much more broadly. It's natural that developers, used to the exacting nature of writing code for a compiler, where even the most minor of typos can bring a program screeching to a halt, have a tendency to apply such exactitude on their users."

Scott Hanselman's 2007 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tools

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:01:02 GMT

Scott's fantastic list of essential tools updated for 2007

DotNetKicks Beta 1 Available For Download

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 11:46:02 GMT

I have just tagged and uploaded SVN revision 132 as DotNetKicks Beta 1. Enjoy!

Creating Excel Spreadsheets from VB.NET

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 08:37:59 GMT

This article provides a nice simple introduction to creating Excel spreadsheets with multiple worksheets programmatically from VB.NET Simple straight-forward tutorial with full source code.

The real reason SELECT * queries are bad: index coverage

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:46:02 GMT

Are SELECT * queries bad? Sure, everyone know that. But, why?

Getting with it: Test-Driven Development

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:01:02 GMT

Introduction to Test-Driven Development, from a developer who should have learnt sooner.

ASP.NET AJAX Chat Tutorial

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 08:58:29 GMT

A nifty little tutorial that teaches you how to create an AJAX driven web chat with ASP.NET and SQL Server as the back end.