DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by bcanonica

Visual Studio Tips & Tricks from Sara Ford Flix by Scott Cate

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:46:18 GMT

Visual Studio Tips & Tricks from Sara Ford Flix What a great idea One of my favorites it to expand VS over two monitors

Why Windows 7 Will Save Microsoft

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:16:02 GMT

I was doing some thinking over the past few weeks and I came to a realization. Windows 7, with all of it's improvements in performance, new features, and more streamlined development process, will actually save Microsoft and redeem them from the whole Vista crash. So I decided to write up WHY Windows 7 will tromp every previous Windows version and why we should pay close attention to it.

Saving DotNetKicks

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:16:03 GMT

Keyvan wrote something about our popular social bookmarking site, DotNetKicks and talked about some spamming problems on DNK and discussed about saving DNK from this situation. A must read post for all DotNetKicks lovers!

VisualSVN 1.6 Released

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:46:11 GMT

VisualSVN team released the new and improved version of the professional Subversion integration for Microsoft Visual Studio - VisualSVN 1.6. This release brings significant usability improvements such as Quick Revert, editor-aware status and Hot Switch features.

Development Tools I Use & Recommend

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:16:03 GMT

Eventually I will get to some technical code Posts. But for now, I'm a bit delayed with some other things at work lately. I will be blogging about Code Generation, OOP, and other topics very soon though. In the meantime, I wanted to share a list of tools I regularly use now or have used in the past as a C# / ASP.NET Engineer listed below:

Not doing TDD is worst than doing it wrong in the beggining.

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:16:02 GMT

Check this out, and make a learn from it.

5 Useful Tips for ASP.Net Application

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:16:02 GMT

There are so many tasks or operations that are repeatedly used in ASP.Net applications. This article will list some of the useful tasks that we can use in our asp.net application extensively.

Path to .NET 3.5 Developer Certification

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:31:05 GMT

If you are trying to figure out the new certification exams for Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) or Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist (MCTS) for .NET Framework 3.5 / Visual Studio 2008 then you may be interested in a diagram that I put together to helped me to visualize the path through the required certification exams.

Roland WeigeIt's GhostDoc for Visual Studio

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:31:12 GMT

I have been using Roland WeigeIt's GhostDoc 2.1.3 for both Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 for about six months, and I am hooked. Here's a quick tutorial to get up and running with this free tool.

30 Common String Operations in C# and VB.NET - Part I

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:01:08 GMT

This article compiles some common String operations that we encounter while working with the String class. In Part I, 15 common string operations have been covered .

Starting with jQuery - Effects

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:31:09 GMT

This is second post in a string of posts where I chronicle my adventure in learning jQuery from having no previous experience with the framework. This week, we look at basic animation effects that affect an element's visibility that are available "out of the box" with jQuery.

Why I Am No Longer Supporting IE6

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:46:03 GMT

In the recent relaunch of this site, I created a new custom skin for Subtext. Since this is just a personal site, I threw things together fairly quickly, testing along the way with Firefox3 and IE7. Once I was getting closer to complete, I took a look at my new site in all the usual browsers, including IE6. Ugh, it looked terrible. I gave it some thought and made some decisions about supporting IE6. I'm not going to support it. Not on this site and not on others that I have a say in. I'm not talking about leaving my site unusable for IE6 users - they just won't get as good of an experience. I'm not alone with this decision. Read on to see why I am no longer supporting IE6.

10 Invaluable CSS Resources

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:01:13 GMT

First things first. I'm an application (middle tier) developer. My design skills while adequate, are not by any means what I'd like them to be. Like a good geek girl, I've been working on this. I've put together a list of very helpful CSS resources I've stumbled upon in my quest to improve my presentation layer skills. I thought I'd share them:

Open popup windows in IE/Firefox and return values using ASP.NET

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:31:16 GMT

This article explains how to transfer values between the Parent page and a Pop-up window. The code has been tested against IE7 and Firefox.

12 Unit Testing Tips for Software Engineers

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:01:18 GMT

"In this post we look at a dozen unit testing tips that software engineers can apply, regardless of their programming language or environment."

The Complete Reference for Any jQuery Developer

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:31:02 GMT

If you ever to do something with jQuery, you should find it in this extensive list.

Free Visual Studio File Explorer Add-in

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:31:03 GMT

The Visual Studio File Explorer Add-in (sexy name we know, but hey, it's self documenting) is a free Tool Window add-in for VS 2008 that provides a Windows Explorer style file system view. It's particularly useful for performing routine file system tasks without the need to "context switch" away from Visual Studio, which can be time-consuming over the course of days and weeks. It is shell-enabled so extensions like TortoiseSVN work too.

The Agile 800 Pounds Gorilla

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:46:02 GMT

I woke up this morning and I was Agile. We are all Agile now. Or we are gonna become Agile. Soon. No doubt about it. It is an order. And orders are not to be discussed, just executed. The Enterprise goes Agile! With the elegance of the huge battleship being pulled across a desert between oceans by slaves, camels and elephants, the Enterprise goes Agile.

Encapsulation for Beginners - Oldy but a goody.

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:48:13 GMT

This article (2001) gives some great examples of encapsulation for beginners. Making more secure and well developed classes is one of the biggest challenges for beginners I have found. I would recommend this to all beginners when trying to understand the basic concepts of encapsulation and class design.

SlickEdit Versioning Toolbox Screencast : Visual Studio Hacks

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:46:03 GMT

A quick screencast showing off the cooler features in the SlickEdit Versioning Toolbox

Visual Studio Item Templates

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:46:03 GMT

Sometimes we are using the same patterns of code over and over again. Those of us who are lazy (but smart) will create their own code snippets, if you are not familiar with this subject, read about how to create code snippets easily. But what if we need to create lots of classes with the same pattern? Code snippets may not be enough because they lack of some functionality which is needed to achieve our goal.

C#: Generate WebPage Thumbmail Screenshot Image

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:16:08 GMT

There are a few services out there that serve up screenshots of any webpage for you to display on your website. One popular one is Kwiboo; this is the one that DotNetKicks uses. For some time now I've wondered what the easiest way to do this in .NET was, and today I stumbled upon the undocumented WebBrowser.DrawToBitmap method that makes this extremely easy to do.

What a C# Coder Should Know Before They Write VB

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:31:12 GMT

"I just had an e-mail exchange with someone looking for a VB lead in Colorado Springs. I think they are going to have trouble filling it with an existing VB expert, and it occurred to me that someone who had led a successful VB 6 -> C# project could fit the bill, if they knew some key things about VB. I told the recruiter I thought the right person with a C# background and the right (respectful) attitude could be a good fit with two weeks work."

Interfaces vs. Concrete Classes

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:01:12 GMT

When designing architectures in .NET, I frequently use interfaces for parameter types in my method signatures. This post will help to explain why I choose to do this and the benefits of coding in this manner.