Darrell Norton's Blog [MVP]

Managerial Things Not to Do

darrell — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:39:57 GMT

Apparently GE is considering selling its century-old appliances business.

General Electric CO said on Friday it may sell or spin off its century-old appliances unit in a bid to lower its exposure to the slumping U.S. housing market.

Let me get this straight. Right now the housing market in the U.S. is in a slump. So they are going to try to unload a business that is directly affected by this slump at the bottom of the market.

I always thought you were supposed to buy low and sell high, but I guess that's why I'm not in executive management. And these corporate executives get paid a lot more than you do. I guess all that money pushes out the common sense.

SourceSafe Binding Remover

darrell — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:35:00 GMT

I updated this to run in Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5. It should work down to .NET 2.0.

The download is an attachment to this post.

Technorati Tags: SourceSafe

Entertaining Company

darrell — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:03:01 GMT

Apparently there is a "mobile alcohol breath testing" company for events in the United Kingdom. It's name? Blow Me.

Don't let the Emperor catch you drinking!

Technorati Tags: funny

Upgrade to Windows Live Writer

darrell — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:32:44 GMT

Figuring that some (most) of my resistance to blogging is the difficulty in writing posts (tired of using Frontpage - now rebranded as "SharePoint Designer"), I decided to check out Windows Live Writer.

If you see this, I don't think it's that bad. :)

Richmond Code Camp 3

darrell — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 17:55:00 GMT

I have to blog more often.

Richmond Code Camp 3

When: Saturday, April 28 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM
Where: ECPI Innsbrook Campus (map)
Cost: FREE! Lunch provided!

What: Code Camp is by developers, and for developers...it's an idea that started in the Eastern U.S. and has taken hold throughout various development communities in the U.S., and around the world. For more information on Code Camp and its origins, please visit the Code Camp Manifesto.

The general goal of Code Camps is to provide an intensive developer-to-developer learning experience that is fun and technically stimulating. Code Camp is created and run by and for the local community. This is your event. The primary focus is on delivering programming information and sample code that can be used immediately. The event and all slides, CD’s and demo code are provided free to all attendees.

Visit the web site for more info: RichmondCodeCamp.org

Second Richmond Code Camp - Register Now!

darrell — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 19:35:00 GMT

The 2nd Richmond Code Camp will be held on Oct. 7, 2006 at the ECPI campus in Innsbrook.

Saturday, October 7, 2006 - 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM
Location: ECPI-Innsbrook 4305 Cox Road, Glen Allen, VA

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032308404&Culture=en-US

I will be presenting an Intro to WCF session and an Intro to WPF session. Come join us for a great day of code, food, and fun!

Guide to using Ethereal

darrell — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 10:08:00 GMT

Chris Sanders is working on a series of blog posts called Packet School 101 on network traffic analysis. It is using Ethereal, which anyone who has to debug network issues should definitely have.

FolderSize for Windows

darrell — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 20:01:00 GMT

A cool little utility: FolderSize

Microsoft acquires SysInternals

darrell — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 17:55:00 GMT

Fantastic!

From TomArcher:

From the standpoint of someone working at Microsoft and responsible for the Windows SDK, this is incredible news. We are basically acquiring some of the best tools for that space (low-level, hard-core devs) as well as the services of two very talented people in Mark Russinovich and Bryan Cogswell.

I don't know what this will mean to who the Winternal and Sysinternals tools will ship in the future - as part of the Windows SDK?? - but will post here as soon as I know something that I can share.

WCF Hands-On Book updates to Chapters 5, 7, 9

darrell — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 22:35:00 GMT

Marc Mercuri has released updated code samples for Chapters 5, 7, and 9 of the awesome WCF Hands-On book:

Chapter 5

Chapter 7

Chapter 9

New Laptop - Dell Latitude D820

darrell — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 17:37:00 GMT

Yesterday I got my new Dell Latitude D820 laptop.

We spec'd out something that could do some serious Windows Presentation Foundation development:

Intel Core Duo T2600 (2.16GHz) 667Mhz Dual Core proc
15.4 inch Wide Screen WUXGA LCD screen - 1920 x 1200 native resolution
512 MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache video card
2 GB DDR2-667 SDRAM
100 GB Hard Drive at 7200RPM
9 cell battery

So far the system rocks.

At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Boston

darrell — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 01:02:00 GMT

I'm at the WPC 2006 in Boston, MA USA this week. I'm staying at the Hampton Inn Braintree (otherwise known as the hotel for people who did not register in time). Contact me if you want to catch up!

ServiceModelReg

darrell — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 00:56:00 GMT

In WCF, you need to register the Xml Web Services with IIS. Formerly you did that with xws_reg.exe with -v -wsat+ command line parameters.

In WCF Beta 2 however, xws_reg has been replaced by ServiceModelReg.

Just like ASP.NET, you register WCF with IIS with the -i parameter:

servicemodelreg -i

ServiceModelReg.exe can be found in the C:\WINDOWS\WinFX\v3.0\Windows Communication Foundation folder.

Installing the June CTP of .NET 3.0

darrell — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 19:37:00 GMT

To install the June CTP of the newly rebranded .NET 3.0, you must first uninstall Beta2 first. The directions to do that are here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AAE7FC63-D405-4E13-909F-E85AA9E66146

There is a link to download an uninstall utility - do NOT use it! It will attempt to remove almost everything from your machine. Just follow the manual instructions instead (which are also at the link above, just scroll down).

Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer Tutorials

darrell — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 19:27:00 GMT

Check out a few good online tutorials here:

http://www.bildsajten.com/egd/egd.htm