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Improving Visual Studio 2005 — It’s not perfect yet!

Dec 30th, 2005 by

I like Visual Studio.  I’ve been using it for years and years and I know it’s quirks intimately.  The new VS 2005 has lots of great features that help me write code faster.  There are also a few annoyances, like little burrs under my shirt collar, that chafe me and make me want the slam my fist through the… Oh wait a minute.  Just kidding.

I’m constantly on the look-out for new keystrokes or shortcuts to speed up coding.  I relentlessly explore new tools and add-in, looking for the next one that will help make the Visual Studio IDE even better. One of my favorite add-ins is CodeRush.  Simply put, CodeRush is an AWESOME tool.  But I’ll write more about CodeRush another day.  Today I want to talk about Eclipse.

Whoa.  A Java tool?  Did he have one too many rum balls during the Christmas holiday?

No.  Working with Visual Studio 2005 is very gratifying, but there is still room for improvement.  Jon Skeet has a fabulous comparison of Visual Studio and Eclipse (the Java IDE).  Read it. See what we are missing from our beloved IDE.  Let your friends at Microsoft know that there is still room for improvement in Visual Studio 2007.

update:

Be sure and read the comments.  There are lots of reasons given for liking VS too.


Posted in VisualStudio | No Comments »

Ensure Your Data Is Really Gone? – SecureDelete from Sysinternals

Dec 28th, 2005 by

I had a hard drive crash a couple weeks ago.  Dell sent me a free replacement (I’ve had great success with Dell technical support) which I installed without much trouble.  I have to send the old disk back to Dell however and this means that I need to wipe out my data.  

The drive has some project files for some of our clients.  Our policy here is to use a disk-wipe utility to insure that no company data leaves our office. Scenarios where this is useful or sensible:

  1. Donating computers
  2. Discarding hardware
  3. Selling hardware
  4. Warranty returns

I love the Sysinternals tools.  I use many of them weekly.  Today I added another of their tools to my utility folder.  SDelete is a simple command line utility (this is important because I can run SDelete from a boot floppy or USB drive) that overwrites the contents of each file deleted with junk data.  There are details on the Sysinternals site:

Implements the Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DOD 5220.22-M
Presented with full source code


Posted in Tools | No Comments »

Free 16 x 16 Icons -SILK

Dec 27th, 2005 by

Nice set of 700 Icons for your projects.  Distributed under the Creative Commons license they are free for normal use.


Posted in Tools | No Comments »

Another Foxit Reader Convert – Dumping Adobe Acrobat

Dec 27th, 2005 by

I see that Scott Hanselman decided to make the switch to Foxit Reader.  I switched last Winter and haven’t regretted it for even one minute.

Quote from myself:

Foxit Software makes a variety of PDF tools.  Check out their Foxit PDF Reader.  It’s lightning fast, easy to install and you can replace Adobe Reader in about three minutes.  Plus it is free.

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Amazing Software — Really Cheap (as in Free)

Nov 7th, 2005 by

Microsoft announced the pricing today for Visual Studio Express and SQL Server Express.  Total cost to you, $0.00

That’s right, free, nada, nothing.  This is really an INCREDIBLE deal. 

From the Microsoft FAQ:

We are announcing a pricing promotion for Visual Studio Express – for the first year after the products launch on November 7th, 2005, customers will be able to visit MSDN to download their copy of Visual Studio Express for free!**

Our customers are very excited about the release of these products, so this limited-time download is our gift to the hobbyist, student, and novice community – we’re excited to see the amazing applications they’ll build!

Note that SQL Server 2005 Express Edition is also a free download. The free pricing for SQL Server Express is not limited to the same one-year promotional period as Visual Studio Express.

[**We plan to launch the non-English versions of the Express products sometime within 2-3 months after the English version launches on November 7th. The same pricing promotion will apply to these products, and will remain in effect for one full year after their respective availabilities.]

Is there a catch?

The question that I have heard today — Do we have to pay later?  Seems that that is covered in the FAQ too.

Do customers who acquire the Visual Studio Express products during the free promotional pricing period have to pay after the first year if they want to continue to use them?
If you acquire Visual Studio Express products within the one-year promotional period, you will enjoy the rights granted in the applicable license at no cost for the term of that license.

That answer is a bit vague.  But if you look at the license, you will see that you ‘won’t’ have to pay a fee next year.  The key point is, register your product as soon as you download it.  That’s all.

Free does not mean useless

What can you do with Express?  Anything that is do-able in .NET can be programmed with VS Express.  Many of the advanced ‘enterprise’ tools are missing, but for many programmers that’s OK. 

I expect to see thousands of applications written in the next year using the Express version.  You’re essentially are getting Microsoft’s premier development tool for nothing.  Yes, you  have to write code in .NET.  Sure it needs to run on a Windows machine.  Do you care?  Hey mister, it’s free.  If you don’t use it –so what?  Didn’t cost you anything.  But if you do try it you’ll find that .NET is a great programming platform.  Especially .NET 2.0. 

Grab it today.  Play with it.  Go to the Coding 4 Fun website and see what you can make.  Try programming again, if you’ve been busy doing other things.  Remember, it used to be fun.

Posted in .NET, VisualStudio | No Comments »

.NET Run times, Redistributable and More

Oct 31st, 2005 by

The .NET 2.0 framework will be released in about a week.  That’s the official release date anyway.   If you are an MSDN subscribers you can download the new bits already.

You can also get the 2.0 runtime now.  I found a webpage that lists all the runtime and redistributable you’ll ever need.  Bookmarked!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Royalty Free Music for Presentations, Applications etc.

Oct 30th, 2005 by

I’m working on a project, can’t say much about it right now, and I was looking for some royalty free music.  Music you pay for once and then won’t have to pay for every copy sold with your application  or shown with each presentation. 

The Music Bakery looks promising.

 

Comments

10/30/2005 8:44 PM Adam Jones

Wired magazine ran an issue on this topic not too long ago. The issue even included a disc of music that was "open source" so to speak. Anything released on the Creative Commons license should be good for the uses you intend. Happy hunting!

11/6/2005 8:54 AM Cheryl

Hi Walt, try searching up Google with the term Royalty Free Music or Background Music.
Lots of other libraries like <a href="opuzz’>http://www.opuzz.com">Opuzz</a>, <a href="music2huses’>http://www.music2hues.com">Music2Huses</a>, <a href="partnersinryhme’>http://www.partnersinryhme.com">PartnersInRyhme</a>.

11/8/2005 10:55 AM Gilles Arbour

Hi Walt, you may also want to take a look at our royalty free music library at http://www.premiumbeat.com We do have a good selection of excellent music.

7/6/2006 4:07 PM Ben

Have you thought about using music loops ? It is a good way to add background music to a presentation or an application because it never stops.
Try looking at our music loops library at http://www.soundloopstudio.com

Posted in General | No Comments »

The Wait is Over – VS 2005 is Here!

Oct 27th, 2005 by

Man oh man.  I’ve been waiting for today.   The day that I could have the finished bits of .NET 2.0.

For the last couple of years I’ve been actively working with Whidbey.  Of course Whidbey changed it’s name during the project — becoming Visual Studio 2005.  Early in the product cycle I became convinced that Visual Studio 2005, and the accompanying .NET Framework 2.0, are going to be phenomenal products.  Giant steps beyond what Microsoft created in .NET 1.x.

I’ve spent days and weeks investigating the new features.  Lived through frustrating hours trying to get various Alpha and Beta products to work together.  I’ve wrestled with bugs, fought for feature changes, swore at the documentation and generally had a great time learning everything I could about .NET 2.0. 

You’d have to have been living in a mine shaft during the last couple years not to been inundated with information about .NET 2.0.  Generics, improved data-binding in WinForms and ASP.NET.  Partial classes and anonymous methods.  Stellar improvements in developer tools and work-flow in Visual Studio 2005.  There are so many it’s impossible to list more than a small fraction here. It’s all been a journey to this moment.  The golden bits are done and released to the world.

If you’ve got a MSDN subscription then you can download your copy today.  If not you’ll have to wait until November 7th to get one.  However you do it, get your hands on a copy and start writing code in VB 2005 or C# 2.0 .  See the absolutely amazing things that the Windows Forms group and the ASP.NET team have produced.  This is a MUST HAVE upgrade.

Other views

I’ve got my copy now. The last bits of SQL Server 2005 just finished trickling onto my hard drive. 

It’s time to start building cool new applications.  Let’s go.

Posted in VisualStudio | No Comments »

Seattle Code Camp 2005 — You should have been there

Oct 23rd, 2005 by

It’s over, the first ever Seattle Code Camp in officially over.  I spent Saturday and Sunday down in Federal Way Washington participating in sessions and workshops, meeting people and presenting several talks about programming.  There were nearly 70 sessions scheduled in eight separate rooms.  There were LOTS of sessions that I wanted to attend. Like any good conference there was always 2-3 talks that I wanted to see but  couldn’t because they were scheduled at the same time. 

One of the benefits of speaking at national conferences is that I can attend any of the other sessions.  Trouble is, I’m often very busy working on presentation stuff during the conference.  So I end up not seeing much.  Code Camp and some of the local community events are more casual and more participatory.  Like the upcoming Seattle Mind Camp.  That’s what Jeff Barr (Amazon) was telling me this weekend.  I learned a lot this weekend, saw software that made me think, listened to experts in every field imaginable and saw enthusiasm everywhere I looked. 

I had a good time during my talks.  I also had a good time watching the other sessions and thoroughly enjoyed the conversations in the cafeteria and hallways.     Networking with other attendees is one of the best aspects of conferences; don’t you think? 

We had nearly 450 people sign up for the event.  Since there is usually a 25-30%  no-show rate I’d guess that we had ~350 show up.  Jason Mauer hasn’t posted the numbers yet, but that’s my first guess for the number of folks attending Code Camp. 

We will have more Code Camps so keep your eyes open.  You won’t want to miss the next one.

Posted in .NET, Conference | No Comments »

Kids at Seattle Code Camp

Oct 19th, 2005 by

This is cool.  We are expecting some kids and young adults (8-18 years old) to show up for the Seattle Code Camp.  At the Portland Code Camp there were a number of young ones attending the sessions.  This is a great opportunity to show your tech oriented children the world of programming.  Real programming, not that stuff you learn in junior high school classes.

Think about the opportunity here,

  • a full blown developer conference
  • priced for free,
  • in your local area
  • open to children as well as adults

I was astounded today to see that we will have an 10 year old presenter (Alan Stagner) at the Code Camp.  The session is on Kids Programming Language (KPL).  He is presenting with his father, a very cool idea indeed. http://pacwest.ms/codecamp/sea/1/presenters.html

Bring your own kids

Do you know a youngster close by that would like to learn more about the art, craft and profession of software programming.  Bring them to the  Seattle Code Camp.  It’s not too late to sign up.

Posted in Conference | No Comments »

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