DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by dnksid

Wave Reflection Effect

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:01:05 GMT

Reflection effect using Pixel Shader in WPF 3.5 Sp1

"Add Service Reference" missing in Visual Studio 2008

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:20:12 GMT

The article describes a scenario in which "Add Service Reference" will not appear in Visual Studio 2008 projects.

Which kind of cast should you use in C#?

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:01:04 GMT

C# offers two casting operators: the prefix-cast and the as-cast. Although the two operators compile to different op-codes in the CLR, the practical difference between them is in how they handle failed casts. Prefix-cast throws an exception on cast failure, while as-cast returns null. It's easier to implement correct error handling when you use prefix cast, because it doesn't require manual checks for null values that can cause problems in distant parts of your program. Prefix-cast should be the default cast operator on your fingertips, that you use for everyday situations - reserve as-cast for special cases where performance matters.

Using C# 3.0 (.Net 3.5) syntax in a .Net 2.0 application

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:16:02 GMT

An overview of using C# 3.0 syntax in a .Net 2.0 application.

Simple report generator

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:46 GMT

This article describes a way to generate simple RTF reports from your application without using any 3rd party components or requiring Word to be installed.

Zune for Developers (Part 1)

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:11:48 GMT

Learn to program the Zune.

A Programming Job Interview Challenge #6 - C# Games

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:01:11 GMT

the sixth of the series of programming job interview challenge is out. try your power...

How to Find Memory Leaks With CLRProfiler

Fri, 30 May 2008 14:01:07 GMT

Track down, discover and eliminate memory leaks in your applications with this free open source tool.

The Open Closed Principle

Fri, 30 May 2008 13:16:10 GMT

The first installment of a new MSDN Magazine column by Jeremy Miller.

Detailed code metrics with NDepend

Fri, 30 May 2008 08:01:12 GMT

A while ago, I blogged about code performance analysis in Visual Studio 2008. Using profiling and hot path tracking, I measured code performance and was able to react to that. Last week, Patrick Smacchia contacted me asking if I wanted to test his project NDepend. He promised me NDepend would provide more insight in my applications. Let's test that!

Eight Simple Tips To Improve Your Presentation Skills

Sun, 18 May 2008 20:46:02 GMT

Recently, a user group held a conference whose subject was Domain-Driven Design with nHibernate. Now, this is a really cool topic of discussion! So, I decided to attend the conference in order to improve my perspective and knowledge on the subject. Little did I know that the speaker was an introverted programmer who greatly lacked in public speaking skills. Many people, including myself, left early, as the presentation became unbearably tedious and awkward.

How to Capitalize the First Letter of All Words in a string in C#

Sat, 10 May 2008 14:01:02 GMT

Often we need to capitalize the first letters of some word or some text (for example when we want to display users name or city name etc). Since string class does not have a method to do this we could think that there is no built-in solution in C# for this problem, but...

Using a Windows Service just to run a scheduled process is Wrong!

Sat, 10 May 2008 17:46:02 GMT

A classic post by Jon Galloway: A Windows Service is the wrong solution to scheduling one-off custom processes. The right solution for scheduling simple processes is the Windows Task Scheduler.

Great Silverlight 2.0 example application

Mon, 12 May 2008 03:31:02 GMT

Great example of how to make rich line-of-business apps using Silverlight 2.0. Scalable UI, DeepZoom, animation etc.

EntitySpaces and Silverlight Demo (Part 1)

Tue, 06 May 2008 14:46:03 GMT

I was asked to see how easy it would be to get EntitySpaces objects to work inside Silverlight, and to demonstrate my findings. This was a curiously interesting notion, since many have pondered whether Silverlight is a valuable runtime environment for LOB (line-of-business) applications. There are a number of reasons why Silverlight, at least in its Version2 flavor, would be very ideal for building client/server applications ...

New F# Compiler Released

Sat, 03 May 2008 02:01:02 GMT

The new version of the F# Compiler was released May 1, 2008. Go download it now.

Tips for what you should do in a software project

Fri, 02 May 2008 17:03:23 GMT

The article describes some tips for improving the outcome of a software project.

(Better) JQuery IntelliSense in VS2008

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:16:03 GMT

If you are like me and you've read the many articles about how to get other javascript libraries to work in VS2008, you'll know that all you really need to do is install the visual studio HOTFIX. This patches your VS and among other things, gets the javascript intellisense working nicely.

Porting Silverlight 2.0 to WPF

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:53:04 GMT

Lessons learned in porting a Silverlight 2.0 application to WPF.

How "csc /optimize+ handles emptry blocks"

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:51:28 GMT

The article attempts to clear some incorrect information available in a number of forums, supposedly provided by someone in the C# compiler team, about the way the C# compiler handles empty try/finally blocks.

Is Switch same as a bunch of If-Else-If statements?

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:29:53 GMT

The article describes how the C# compiler handles the switch statement, which might be a bit surprising for some.

Free screen zoom & annotation tool for technical presentations

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:40:11 GMT

I am planning to use this tool in future technical presentations where I need to show some code. I am pretty sure the folks here would find it useful too. A demo video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jMLAF-9ACk. ZoomIt is available for download from Microsoft TechNet for free.

Out, Out, Damn Ref

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:01:02 GMT

The difference between the out and ref keywords in C# .. and other questions this brings up.

Five recommendations for starting a startup with ASP.NET

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:16:03 GMT

Here are five practical pieces of advice for developers who want to build a web startup, and use ASP.NET to do it.

Building Domain Specific Languages on the CLR

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:16:05 GMT

Nice article on DSLs in the .NET space