John Papa [MVP C#]

January 2006 - Posts

• Released - Enterprise Library for .NET 2.0

  If you haven't seen this yet, Enterprise Library for .NET 2 has been released this month. Ent Lib 2's download is available as well as some webcasts and PowerPoint presentations that go through the features. Looks like the hands on labs will be coming soon.  Even if you never checked out Ent Lib 1.1 for .NET 1.1 you should spend some time looking at the new version for .NET 2. It comes with a series of application blocks that can jump start your application's development. Of course my favorite is the Data Access Application Block but I am also a fan of the Crypto Block, too. :-)  I'll be putting an article together for MSDN Mag that should appear later this year on the Data Access App Block in Ent Lib 2, as well. This is taken from the Patterns and Practices web site: Enterprise Library, the collection of reusable and extensible application blocks for enterprise development, has been improved and updated specifically for Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0 (January 2006) Posted Jan 25 2006, 09:30 AM by John Papa with 1 comment(s) Filed under: .NET, ADO.NET, Ent Lib

• Looking for a New Job? - Developer Positions in Upstate NY

  A colleague of mine is a recruiter in upstate NY and she is always on the lookout for good developers. I usually don’t post such positions on my blog but Susan has a great reputation in the area for placing good people at good companies, so I thought I might see if any of you codebetter readers are in the market. If you are interested, contact Susan (do not contact me). I have no affiliation with nor do I get anything if you apply or get hired. I am simply the messenger :-) Here’s what she is looking for: Software Developer to join a growing company in Rensselaer County (NY).  (must be local) Responsible for coding, unit testing, and debugging as part of the development lifecycle of companies software products, as well as communicating task status relating to assigned activities. Essential Responsibilities Development of application components, pages and functions. Understanding and application of functional and technical specifications. Understanding and application of corporate code and style guides. Communication of status, progress and issues to team. Qualifications Minimum of 2 years of Microsoft ASP.NET and VB.NET development experience. Minimum of 2 years of SQL experience (any database, SQL Server preferred). A thorough understanding of general business concepts, processes and principles and their applications in a software environment. Outstanding communication, organization and documentation skills and the ability to interact with a wide range of business units, customers and vested partners. Excellent written, verbal, presentation and interpersonal skills. Experience with various Internet technologies. Positive attitude, enthusiasm, motivation and a desire for continuous improvement If interested please send resume as attached word document, salary range and best time to reach you to: Susan Lundberg Capital Tech Search 518-435-0716 susan@captechsearch.com Posted Jan 23 2006, 03:58 PM by John Papa with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Random Stuff

• Why Scoble Needs Windows Vista

  If you haven’t read this yet, or more specifically you haven’t watched this yet, check it out. Here are 15 reasons why Robert Scoble is moving to Windows Vista … yes, he expressed his reasons with video. Are you going to move to Windows Vista? Posted Jan 22 2006, 11:30 PM by John Papa with 1 comment(s) Filed under: .NET

• Interviewing Tips

  I’ve been on many interviews and (in my past) as a manager and VP of Technology I’ve interviewed more people than I can count. I thought I would share some of my interview experiences from the manager side with you. I have a particular style when I interview people and its a bit odd to some. You see, I look for the right fit. First, to get in the room with me for an interview I look for the basic technology skills. If I am hiring for a particular job I look for the person to have most of the skills on his./her resume with some work experience to back it up. After that, I leave it up to the person to sell themselves to me. The job interview is process is a 2 way street. You are looking for a job and the employer is looking for an employee to hire. You both need to interview each other. So many people go into the interview with 1 or the other in mind. You should not go into an interview with the thought that you just want to get the job. It shows a lot to an employer when you show that you want to know more about the company and your role in it. It shows that you have interests and motivations and that you truly care about where you work. When I hire people, I want people who want to be here. But you also shouldn’t go into an interview thinking that you are the one interviewing the company. (Even if it is true in your mind.) Walking in the door and having an attitude that your questions are more important or that you are more important is a great way to not get the job. OK, you might think this does not happen but I have witnessed several different people walk into interviews and act like they are too good for the job … have an attitude of “what can you offer me?” right off the bat. Even if the candidate is the most technically qualified, I won’t hire them if they have a “me first” attitude. Been there, done that, made that mistake. Even when you KNOW you are over qualified, show confidence, not arrogance. It is a fine line but if you can walk it you can write your own ticket. When you know you have the skills they need, always show interest in the interviewer. Make eye contact. Listen to everything they say (not just hear it, but listen). I’ve interviewed people who knew their stuff backwards and forwards but then blew it because they talked trash about their old company, talked trash about their colleagues, talked trash about coding in any way but a particular way … basically, some of the people were so rigid and stuck in their ways that it gave me great concerns about their ability to fit into the company’s style. Now I am not saying lie. Never do that. If you firmly believe a coding style is poor, then say so. But say it professionally. And for goodness sake, don;t ever disrespect anyone in an interview … not your former employer, not your colleagues, nobody! Even if it is funny and makes the interviewer laugh you are showing disrespect and are giving the person a reason to think “hmmmm … is this person going to be loyal?”. Negativity is not a good thing. OK, what should you do? Don’t put something on your resume unless you know it. No excuses. This is a huge red flag. never do it. Never. Did you hear me? Never! Make eye contact (no, don’t stare even if the person is cute). Seriously, eye contact shows confidence, interest and a hundred other great qualities. Do it. Ask questions. Candidates who don't ask questions make interviewers have to guess if you are interested. Ask questions at the appropriate time. Yeah, don’t go crazy with asking questions … but do it when asked if you have any. Always answer questions. If  you don't know the answer, then say that. Don’t think about it in the interview for 10 minutes. Yes, I have seen this repeatedly. You’d be amazed at how many people will sit there and try to think of an answer to a question for an eternity. If you do not know, that’s OK. Say you don;t know but follow up with how you would figure it out. Know how to solve a problem. The answer is important, yes. But knowing how to get to the answer is more important. It shows you can think on your feet as opposed to showing you know a particular factoid. I want people to work with me that can solve problems, whatever they may be. Once of the best hires I ever made was to a guy who knew very little about programming but he was excellent at working with people and knew he could figure anything out quickly. These people are golden. I hire them instantly. Be comfortable. Very important to relax. This is your potential job where you will spend a ton of your time. Yeah its important, but do you think they want to hire someone who can’t handle pressure? Chill out, relax, wear comfortable clothes, and just relax. Be honest. Don’t guess at questions. If you blow smoke, someone will catch you.   There is a lot more to keep in mind but in short … be honest, relax and show that you are a likeable person. (Hey, you can use those 3 tips on a date too).     Posted Jan 22 2006, 10:57 PM by John Papa with 13 comment(s) Filed under: .NET

• The Zenker Has Landed!

  A very talented former colleague of mine has entered the world of blogging. You can check out all that The Zenker (Andreas Zenker) has to say at his new blog at http://www.dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/azenker/default.aspx. Posted Jan 16 2006, 11:24 PM by John Papa with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Random Stuff

• Refactoring Tools - Come on, Let's Get a Move On!

  <anxiously awaiting> DevExpress has this awesome tool called CodeRush, JetBrains has Resharper and there are a lot of other competitors out there too like JustCode. What I don't get is why the best features from all of these aren't in one package yet. CodeRush has some awesome templetes and the visuals are very good. Resharper has the Find Usages and the pre compilation (which is just #1 in my book). I know thenext versions ar enot out yet, but I have to beleive that these products know they can get a real competititve advantage if they include all of the top used features of each tool in their package. OK, yeah they are probably already thinking this and I am certainly on board with whoever  hits the market with it. But let's go guys :-) The beta released by JetBrains is OK, but it still lacks some of the features to put it over the top. IMO Microsoft has left this market wide open for these companies to take the lead and blow the rest away. Now its just up to whichever company has the ... um ... gumption to do it :-) </anxiously awaiting> Posted Jan 16 2006, 09:00 PM by John Papa with 4 comment(s) Filed under: .NET

• LogMeIn - Remote Control Software Review

  Lately I have been on a quest to try out the leading remote control software programs. I need something that helps me remotely control my PC, performs well and can let me invite people to watch me demonstrate something on my PC. I've narrows my search down to a few products including: LogMeIn GoToMyPC WebEx While there are other products out there, hey, this is my blog and these are my choices :-) The first product I looked at is LogMeIn. Mostly because this product is the only one of the 3 that still has a free version. You can get a free version of LogMeIn that has some scaled down features which basically let you remotely control your PC (sans file transfers). If that suffices for you, then you can stop looking right now as its free, performs fairly well and allows remote control. The LogMeIn Pro version adds a few more features including file transfers and guest invitations. The former allows you to pass files back and forth and the latter allows you to invite another person to either come watch you demonstrate something on your PC or to remotely control your PC while you watch. This latter feature is great for me for a few situations right away: I often want to show a customer some progress I have made without having to post the code to a web site. It also comes in handy to be able to invite another developer in to help me debug a situation. I can remotely control my PC when I am on the road (this includes full access to email, my file system, and printers). I've used this product for a few days so far and haven;t hit all of the features yet, but so far I have been impressed with its feature set. (All of my remote control tests were done over the Internet.) How does it perform? Well, I was skeptical of this tool mostly because of 2 reasons: I had never heard of it before and its free. Most of the time those 2 combinations add up to a sloppy product. But I have been pleasantly surprised by the features included in LogMeIn as well as the performance. It far out shines the old style remote control programs that repaint screen shots on the screen and kept up fairly well with all of the movements and screen changes I tested. On the downside, I certainly wish I could invite more than 1 person to watch me demonstrate something. As far as I can see they do not offer an upgrade to be able to invite more than 1 person to view my PC at a time. If I am missing something, I will revise this review later. I cannot compare this to the performance of GoToMyPc and WebEx yet as I have not tried them yet. But when I do, I will offer a more extensive comparative analysis. But so far, I have to say that if you look no further than LogMeIn with its free version or even its Pro version of $70/year subscription, IMO you are getting a good value. Even with the cost of its Pro version, LogMeIn is still cheaper than the subscriptions to GoToMyPc and WebEx.           Posted Jan 16 2006, 04:31 PM by John Papa with 9 comment(s) Filed under: Reviews

• Forms Authentication with SQL Server Reporting Services 2000

  A few days ago I mentioned that my colleagues and I worked out some kinks and got SQL Server Reporting Services  (SSRS) to use Forms Authentication and integrate withour ASP.NET project. It was not as straight forward as we had all thought heading into this endeavor and we did not find much help on the web. But the help we did find was very useful. For example, here is a very good article posted on MSDN that discusses and demosntrates how to implement Forms Auth with SSRS. The article discusses what needs to be done to set up a sample application (which is downloadable) to work with Forms Authentication. We still had to tweak it here and there to meet our needs of course, but overall this is the scheme that we followed. I'll followup with other tidbits of our findings, but if you are looking for a good jumpstart into SSRS and Forms Auth, check out this article.   Posted Jan 06 2006, 12:44 AM by John Papa with 11 comment(s) Filed under: .NET, SQL

• Binary Serialization, Batch Updates, and DataView Enhancements

  The January 2006 issue of MSDN Magazine is now posted online. My latest Data Points column answers a few questions I have received from readers reagarding how the XQuery works with the SQL Server 2005 XML datatype as well as the new large datatype enhancements.  You can read the article online here.   In the upcoming issues I'll be getting into some more of SQL Server 2005's new features including DDL triggers. I'll also focus on SQL Server Reporting Services article in the near future, too. Posted Jan 05 2006, 11:59 PM by John Papa with no comments Filed under: .NET, SQL

• Thanks for the Nomination

  Congratulations to Geoff for getting his MVP award today. I also owe a great big thanks to those who nominated me and a thanks to the MVP team for awarding me with the MVP award. I was notified earlier today that I am now an MVP for Visual Developer - Visual C#. Yes its just a status, but its pretty cool to be nominated and I am personally touched that some of you nameless few out there nominated me for the award. Anyway, that's enough self indulgence for the day for me :-) Oh ... I guess I can talk smack to Sahil now that we are both MVP's. :-)   Posted Jan 04 2006, 09:47 PM by John Papa with 6 comment(s) Filed under: .NET, Random Stuff

• Tip: Side by Side Installation of SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000

  Tip: when installing SQL Server, consider using named instances. I recently installed SQL Server 2005 on my PC. It went fairly quick and installed with 0 issues. I was also quite pleased that it installed very nicely side by side with a SQL Server 2000 installation already on my PC. Now when I installed SQL Server 2000 on my PC way back when, I installed it as a named instance called SQL2000. Thus, my server name is MYSERVERNAME\SQL2000 in all of my connection strings and so on. One of the nice things about installing all of your SQL Server instances as named instances is that they stay isolated from one another pretty well. OK, to better demosntrate how named instances work ... For example all of my folder in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server directory are as follows:  \80  // This folder seems to have assorted SQL 2000 files in it \90  // This folder seems to have assorted SQL 2005 files in it \MSSQL  // This folder contains SQL 2000 SQL instance's reporting services \MSSQL$SQL // This folder contains SQL 2000's SQL instance's system files & data \MSSQL.1 // This folder contains SQL 2005 system files & data \MSSQL.2 // This folder contains SQL 2005 reporting services Notice that all of the folders are segregated from each other so that the SQL 2000 and SQL 2005 installation do no interfere with each other. Also, the Reporting Services installations for both 2000 and 2005 have separate virtual web sites and separate services. While this isn't earth shatterring news, its still pretty darn cool. I certainly don't take for granted that these products work side by side nor that Visual Studio.NET 2005 and Visual Studio.NET 2003 work side by side. I've been through too many backward incompatible and version incompatible nightmares. Side by side is a good thing. Virtual PC is nice, but side by side is better.   Posted Jan 04 2006, 12:54 AM by John Papa with 9 comment(s) Filed under: .NET, SQL

• SQL Server Reporting Services 2000 and Forms Authentication Works!

  Wow. Several days of anguish is finally paying off. My colleagues and I have been trying to implement a SSRS 2000  with a web site using Forms Authentication and it is not as easy as you might think. It certainly hasn't been for us. Microsoft's own documentation is built upon Windows Integrated security which is awesome, but not always practical. They also expand on it by offerring examples on how to use Forms Authentication with SSRS 2000 by expanding on the SSRS archtitecture. Their examples aren't bad at all, actually they helped quite a bit. But they did not take us all the way home. We had to improvise on how to pass the credentials and then parse them on the SSRS side. Anyway, I'll be blogging more about this fun weekend (was there a holiday to enjoy?) once I take a breather. But I wanted to get this poost out to say "Yes! You can use Forms Authentication with SSRS!!!" <collective sigh/> Posted Jan 02 2006, 07:33 PM by John Papa with 5 comment(s) Filed under: .NET, SQL