DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by zvikara

10 Reasons for Database Outsourcing

Thu, 14 May 2009 21:16:05 GMT

A simple but to the point list of Top 10 Reasons for Database Outsourcing. This should be bookmarked or saved for personal archieve.

Top 10 .NET Twitterers

Sat, 02 May 2009 13:46:11 GMT

If your not on Twitter you are missing out - here are some .NET tweeps to get you started.

Git/Github survival guide

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:16:10 GMT

Now that all the cool guys are moving to Git/GitHub, Ivan posts a survival guide, with all the most useful commands of git and how to get started with github/git

How .NET Regular Expressions Really Work

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:46:04 GMT

A very deep dive into the source code for how .NET Regular Expressions really work

.NET - Health Monitoring in ASP.NET 3.5

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:31:02 GMT

I am a big advocate on less is more, and when it comes to writing code to monitor an ASP.NET application, less code is definitely more. As a developer, once you have finished developing your application and it's deployed into production, you'll need to monitor it and have it notify you when something goes wrong. There are several ways to do this, from utilising the global.asax file to writing custom classes. But a little known feature in ASP.NET is health monitoring. This gives you the ability to monitor the health of an ASP.NET application. This article won't delve into the specifics of creating your own custom health monitoring class, but it will focus on what is available to ASP.NET developers out of the box.

12+ open source projects for .NET you probably didn't know about.

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:01:02 GMT

Here's a few of the better .NET open source projects which are making a difference to .NET developers worldwide, and it just shows that the open source .NET community is alive and well.

Ruby inspired C# Extension Methods for natural DateTime operations

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:16:02 GMT

FluentDateTime is a open source library of Ruby inspired C# Extension Methods for easier and more natural DateTime handling and operations in .NET that allows you to write code like this: DateTime.Now + 1.Week() + 3.Days + 14.Minutes(); 3.Days().Ago(); 5.Days().After(new DateTime(2000, 1, 1)); DateTime.Now.NextDay(); DateTime.Now.WeekAfter(); DateTime.Now.Midnight(); DateTime.Now.SetTime(11, 55, 0);

15 Helpful .NET Extension Methods to Increase Productivity

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:01:17 GMT

Alright folks, this is my arsenal of useful Extension Methods for .NET 3.0+ mostly written by me to help with development productivity. Some real time-savers in here such as .ToInt() and .ToDateTime() (with and without a default fallback value), plus...

Programming for Vista, Part 2: Adding Aero Glass in Managed Code

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:01:26 GMT

In part 1 of my Vista programming series I discussed how to add CommandLink's to your application. In part 2 this chapter, I wish to discuss how you can enhance your Windows smart client application (primarily targetting Windows Forms in this example) adding a Windows Vista Aero "glass" effect to your application.

Sad Way To Do Business

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:01:03 GMT

how to make a bad impression with poor support and bad atitude and throw away thousands potential customers.

An Illustrated Guide to Git on Windows

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:16:03 GMT

"This document is designed to show that using git on Windows is not a difficult process. In this guide, I will create a repository, make several commits, create a branch, merge a branch, search the commit history, push to a remote server, and pull from a remote server. The majority of this will be done using GUI tools."

Raising Events the right way, the easy way, with an Extension Method

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:16:19 GMT

Raising events takes 3 lines of code. Let's follow the DRY principal and get that down to one line. Less noise, more action, very tastey. Merry Christmas.

The Ten Most Asked SQL Server Questions And Their Answers

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:01:14 GMT

Then 10 most asked SQL Server Programming questions and their answer

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 CTP

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:31:13 GMT

"Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 are the next generation development tools and platform for Windows Vista, the 2007 Office System, and the Web."

Free Winforms and ASP.NET Chart Controls

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:31:02 GMT

Directly from Microsoft

SVN-Monitor is finally out for free download!

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:31:02 GMT

A full-featured .net application that integrates SubVersion, TortoiseSVN and all your checked-out folders and repositories. Use it to perform all your svn commands and monitor all your projects' activities in a single place. Access all commands from the tray menu or from the main window. This is a must-have tool for every windows+svn user!

Client Templating with jQuery

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:16:05 GMT

Client templating in Javascript can be a great tool to reduce the amount of code you have to write to create markup content on the client. There are a number of different ways that templating can be accomplished from a purely manual approach to a full templating engine. In this entry I'll look at several different approaches.

If the .Net BCL is drywall, Extension Methods are spackle

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:46:49 GMT

I know many people get upset at the very idea of Extension Methods, but I already consider them to be an indispensable part of my programming toolkit. I'm seeing so many times where a quick extension method can make code be much more readable. Other times an extension method against even a core BCL type seems to fill in a natural hole in the official API's and knocks out a lot of duplication.

jQuery and Microsoft

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:01:02 GMT

ScottGu announce that Microsoft will be shipping jQuery with Visual Studio going forward. We will distribute the jQuery JavaScript library as-is, and will not be forking or changing the source from the main jQuery branch. The files will continue to use and ship under the existing jQuery MIT license.

jQuery, Microsoft, and Nokia

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:16:03 GMT

news today: Both Microsoft and Nokia are taking the major step of adopting jQuery as part of their official application development platform. Not only will they be using it for their corporate development but they will be providing it as a core piece of their platform for developers to build with.

Sending Email in a Development Environment without an SMTP Server

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:46:02 GMT

Very handy... I'm forever looking this stuff up :-|

Comparing .NET DI (IoC) Frameworks, Part 1

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:18:44 GMT

A first part of feature comparison between the most popular DI (IoC) Frameworks: Castle, Unity, Autofac, Ninject, StructureMap and Spring.Net.

Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:16:07 GMT

It's finally here! I haven't seen an official announcement yet, but I did a search for "Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1" on Microsoft's Download Center and found the following downloads added today: Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (exe) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fbee1648-7106-44a7-9649-6d9f6d58056e&DisplayLang=en Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (iso) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=27673c47-b3b5-4c67-bd99-84e525b5ce61&DisplayLang=en

Visual Studio Theme Generator

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:16:02 GMT

A fun little ASP.NET MVC Application I wrote to generate Visual Studio themes based off of 3 given colors. I have always felt that selecting every color to make a decent theme is way too repetitive. This web application automatically chooses complements / contrasts based off your initial color selections (and uses jQuery to let you preview your theme before creating). Check it out and let me know what you think.

Software I can't work without

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:46:10 GMT

I'm about to configure a new development machine this week. It's going to be my 3rd install from scratch in the last 12 months, which I know is not all that much, but certainly more than I wish I had to.