-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
Do you put on summer computer camp for kids? Would you like to put on a computer summer camp but don't know where to start?
If so, this blog is for you.
For the seventh year in a row I put together a summer camp for the local high school students.
It was by far the most successful camp yet due in no small part to the great programming products Microsoft now offers to the public at no charge.
Here are the free Microsoft products and resources students downloaded, installed, and used during the three-day computer camp.
Visual Basic Express 2005
A free streamlined windows application development environment that is focused on the needs of hobbyists, enthusiasts, and students.
Visual Web Developer 2005
A free streamlined web development environment that is focused on the needs of hobbyists, enthusiasts, and students.
SQL Server Express 2005
SQL Server Express is a free, easy to use, redistributable version of SQL Server 2005 designed for building simple data-driven applications.
Introducing Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 for Developers
A free electronic book from Microsoft Press.
During the camp we introduced the Coding4Fun web site and used the on-line Absolute Beginner’s Video Series and Video Series: Visual Web Developer for Beginners.
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
For some reason I have the urge to buy a Nintendo DS. Perhaps it’s the chance of making me more intelligent by playing Brain Training, or perhaps I just need to play Mario Kart again!
Anybody out there got one and recommend them?
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
We've had this a while in our Live Communications Server product. The ability for corporate users to have contacts that are external to their company. We call it PIC (Public Internet Connectivity), and here's some information on it if you'd like to try it out within your organisation, and some issues you may run into..
But now, we've announced that we've entered into an agreement with Yahoo, so that if you're using Yahoo messenger, you can talk to your buddies who use MSN Messenger, or Windows Live messenger as it's now called. Pete, my favourite Web 2.0 blogger, gives you some more information on other products in the queue, and Kiltak's blog gives you the download links...
I just need to find some Yahoo buddies to talk to now...
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
Jim Holmes and James Avery have a new book on O'Reilly about the various tools you can use while developing for the windows platform. It has contributions from a great many folks, of the folk I know of include Jay Flowers, Jamie Cansdale and Grant Drake.
MbUnit is featured in the book, Jim did ask me to write it's chapter but a family crisis at the time halted it and Jim took the helm. I did tech review for the chapter (along with Phil Haack) so hopefully it should a nice little journey into MbUnit world. I was upset that I missed the chance to write in a O'Reilly book it's a life ambition, maybe one day.
Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
The upcoming Scottish Developer's mini-conference is almost full. So if you still want to go you'd better sign up quick - extra quick if you want to take advantage of the early bird discount! Sign up by the 15th July (only 2 days away) and you get in for as little as £10!!!
The session topics are:
- .NET debugging, tracing and instrumentation - Duncan Jones of Merrion Computing
- Code Coverage in .NET - Craig Murphy of Scottish Developers
It takes place on Thursday August 3rd in Microsoft's offices in central Edinburgh.
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
While looking at creating better API documentation for work projects it's occured to me that this space is very much in a bit of chaos at the moment. NDoc was asleep through .NET 2.0 and the lack of generics support is upsetting a lot of folk. The project is alive but like a lot of OSS projects, it's main man has a life and it comes first.
I do note with interest that Microsoft are planning to release their internal documentation tools to the masses, this forum says that this should have happend in June (with RTM in August) and it's now mid July....
While the doc generators sort them self's out I did manage to find this very nice VS add-in that combines the DXCore (CodeRush) plug-in framework with Lutz's old documenter source. It not only adds a nice little preview window but also a context menu to help add further doc xml elements, very sweet.
Update: How could I forget GhostDoc too, does a much better job than the C# /// way.
Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
I recently looked into how ping and tracert worked only know that they use something called ICMP. Its fairly straight forward (well the basics) so thought I would provide a dummies explanation so don't use this a a foundation of a PHD on ICMP.
Ping is the transfer of a packet of data to a destination. It gets passed from router to router until it gets to the destination.
For the ping to work each router needs to be configured to pass on the packet of data and the destination needs to be configured to respond to the ping.
Many people disable the passing of ping and responding to ping requests for security reasons.
Tracert is simply multiple pings.
The packet of data used in a ping includes a number called the TTL.
The router only passes the packet on to the next ip address if the TTL is greater than 1, if it isn't it returns a TTL expired status and the ip address of the router on which it expire.
When the packet is passed on by a router it decreases the TTL by 1.
This means that if you do a ping with increasing TTL values starting at 1 you should find each router that is used to get to the destination ip address.
So this is what tracert does. It actually does each step 3 times so you can get an average
Try it your self "ping www.site.com -i1" will return the ip address corresponding to the first line in the "tracert www.site.com". (include -a to get the name of the router) In this case my firewall (which isn't named)
The final point to note is that
- a router may not decrease the TTL and so you may not get all the routers.
- a router may be configured to pass on the ping request but not respond,
this will result in a timeout in the tracert but subsequent rows returning
an ip address
- the route each ping takes may be different which can result in the same
router appearing twice. (the internet is just a spider web of networks)
You may wonder why a SQL bod is posting about this well keep posted and you will find out.
Cross posted from SimonS blog on sqlblogcasts.com
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
I recently looked into how ping and tracert worked only know that they use something called ICMP. Its fairly straight forward (well the basics) so thought I would provide a dummies explanation so don't use this a a foundation of a PHD on ICMP.
Ping is the transfer of a packet of data to a destination. It gets passed from router to router until it gets to the destination.
For the ping to work each router needs to be configured to pass on the packet of data and the destination needs to be configured to respond to the ping.
Many people disable the passing of ping and responding to ping requests for security reasons.
Tracert is simply multiple pings.
The packet of data used in a ping includes a number called the TTL.
The router only passes the packet on to the next ip address if the TTL is greater than 1, if it isn't it returns a TTL expired status and the ip address of the router on which it expire.
When the packet is passed on by a router it decreases the TTL by 1.
This means that if you do a ping with increasing TTL values starting at 1 you should find each router that is used to get to the destination ip address.
So this is what tracert does. It actually does each step 3 times so you can get an average
Try it your self "ping www.site.com -i1" will return the ip address corresponding to the first line in the "tracert www.site.com". (include -a to get the name of the router) In this case my firewall (which isn't named)
The final point to note is that
- a router may not decrease the TTL and so you may not get all the routers.
- a router may be configured to pass on the ping request but not respond,
this will result in a timeout in the tracert but subsequent rows returning
an ip address
- the route each ping takes may be different which can result in the same
router appearing twice. (the internet is just a spider web of networks)
You may wonder why a SQL bod is posting about this well keep posted and you will find out.
Cross posted from SimonS blog on sqlblogcasts.com
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
A recurring conversation I have on MSN Messenger goes along the lines of:
MikeO says: Hi
- SmarterChild - says: Glad to see you again, MikeO! We haven't chatted in weeks... Hope you've been well!
MikeO says: Yes thanks
- SmarterChild - says: Hey, no problem.
MikeO says: You smell of cheese
- SmarterChild - says: Smell of cheese? You think I smell of cheese?
MikeO says: Yes I do.
- SmarterChild - says: K.
MikeO says: Gruyere with a hint of Stilton i think
- SmarterChild - says: OK.
MikeO says: Can you smell something
- SmarterChild - says: Smell something? Can I ever.
MikeO says: Cheese?
- SmarterChild - says: Cheese is a great food.
MikeO says: Is that why you smell of it?
- SmarterChild - says: I believe that is why I smell of it.
Now you’d be well within your rights to think that’s a bit odd. And I’m sure you realize that I’m talking to a bot rather than a person (SmarterChild being a popular bot that can provide you with various bits of useful(less) information). I understand that one definition of madness is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results. But each time I do this I’m hoping that someone at “SmarterChild” is reviewing the logs for “odd questions that our AI engine doesn’t understand”, they’ll spot this one and provide a witty response. It hasn’t happened yet…
Now’s your chance to do better as we’re currently running a bot development competition called “Robot Invaders” (hey, I don’t come up with the names, I just work here!). There’s also a local UK version of the contest running as well – so you stand to win twice as much!! All you have to do is come up with a great cheese-bot… Actually, I don’t think it’s quite that straightforward but I’m sure I’ve given you a great idea and I’ll expect full credit for it.
Maybe you could build a train timetable bot (as Ian talks about in his comprehensive post on the competition) or a song lyrics bot or a Dilbert “management speak” bot. How about a footballing trivia bot? Well, I’m sure you have better ideas than me but it sounds like fun – pity I’m not eligible for any of the prizes…
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
FAQ - whats the differences between WSS v3 and MOSS 2007 ??
From Rob Garrett...
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
Check this site, the MbUnit combintional\row test is very much like this.
Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
A while ago I blogged about Web Services and REST but Zapthink have just published a much more in depth and considered article which I completely agree with. 
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
FAQ - How do I enable auditing?
There are several options:
- For a whole site collection:
In 'Site Settings' click on 'Audit Settings' or navigate to http://xxxx/_layouts/auditsettings.aspx
Select the actions you want to audit.
- For a particular document library:
In 'Document Library Settings' : 'Information management policy settings'
Click to create a local policy and select Auditing and actions
- For a particular content type:
Just create a content type and click on 'Information management policy settings'
Click to create a local policy and select Auditing and actions
To view the Audit Log Reports you have to activate the Reporting feature:
- Navigate to: http://xxxx/_layouts/ManageFeatures.aspx?scope=Site
Find Reporting and click on 'Activate' (if not activated)
Go to 'Site Settings' then you should see 'Audit log reports'.
You can click on the link and then you can select the report you would like to generate.
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
SCE = System Center Essentials, the tool that we’ll ship soon that will help you manage your computer infrastructure, specifically designed to bring Enterprise-style systems management tools to smaller businesses or branches.
It will do *monitoring* of your environment (to ensure things run well, and avoid the avoidable), and even do simple deployment of application updates.
I’ve got lots more to say about this products, but I don’t want to jump the gun and tell you too much too early. Watch this space!
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
SCE = System Center Essentials, the tool that we’ll ship soon that will help you manage your computer infrastructure, specifically designed to bring Enterprise-style systems management tools to smaller businesses or branches.
It will do *monitoring* of your environment (to ensure things run well, and avoid the avoidable), and even do simple deployment of application updates.
I’ve got lots more to say about this products, but I don’t want to jump the gun and tell you too much too early. Watch this space!
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
Talking about location and friends: I’ve been in Italy last Sunday with my family, and what a pleasure it has been to soak up the atmosphere! When in Rome... I’ve been cheering for Italy at the local Fire station in Villa Minozza, complete with Pizza in my hand and all!
I can’t imagine what our forefathers did without good maps! I’m now so dependent on my GPS and mapping software! In the UK I’m using TomTom Navigator, buy because I was too stingy to buy the EU maps (and not willing to use an illegal copy that I accidentally bought on ebay*), I reverted to the copy of Pocket Streets that came with MapPoint 2006. Pocket Streets don’t do navigation, but it can connect to your GPS and show you the arrow of where on you are, centred on the map, which helps a lot, albeit not proper navigation.
*Lesson learnt from dodgy eBay purchase: Always read the label , even if you are bidding on an item via your PocketPC with a tiny screen! Always read the label!
If you don’t know MapPoint, then here is a short primer: It does mapping J Autoroute, it’s smaller brother, does mapping, route planning and also PC-based voice & graphical navigation. MapPoint does all of that, plus it can do some very clever graphing of your data on a map. Have a list of postcodes of where your event attendees came from? Map it. Have invoices with post codes? Map it in a flash. Think “the power of Excel graphing” married to maps. For my Italian trip, I’ve used it to export maps to my Pocket PC of the areas that I was planning on visiting, and it worked like a dream.
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
Talking about location and friends: I’ve been in Italy last Sunday with my family, and what a pleasure it has been to soak up the atmosphere! When in Rome... I’ve been cheering for Italy at the local Fire station in Villa Minozza, complete with Pizza in my hand and all!
I can’t imagine what our forefathers did without good maps! I’m now so dependent on my GPS and mapping software! In the UK I’m using TomTom Navigator, buy because I was too stingy to buy the EU maps (and not willing to use an illegal copy that I accidentally bought on ebay*), I reverted to the copy of Pocket Streets that came with MapPoint 2006. Pocket Streets don’t do navigation, but it can connect to your GPS and show you the arrow of where on you are, centred on the map, which helps a lot, albeit not proper navigation.
*Lesson learnt from dodgy eBay purchase: Always read the label , even if you are bidding on an item via your PocketPC with a tiny screen! Always read the label!
If you don’t know MapPoint, then here is a short primer: It does mapping J Autoroute, it’s smaller brother, does mapping, route planning and also PC-based voice & graphical navigation. MapPoint does all of that, plus it can do some very clever graphing of your data on a map. Have a list of postcodes of where your event attendees came from? Map it. Have invoices with post codes? Map it in a flash. Think “the power of Excel graphing” married to maps. For my Italian trip, I’ve used it to export maps to my Pocket PC of the areas that I was planning on visiting, and it worked like a dream.
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
I stumbled upon this yesterday. If an external class needs to be referenced in a XAML file, a namespace must be mapped for it, so the compiler knows where to find that class. For example, I had a DataTemplate for a specific type in my file:
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type arbitraryName:Klasse}">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
[...]
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
I want to talk about expo.live.co.uk, SCE and mapping...
Expo.live.com (for the US) has launched today, and is out of Beta. And at the same time, I’m *delighted* that we’ve got a UK version in beta from today onwards.
What is it? Think “Classified listings”, locale sensitive, with knowledge of people.... e.g. I can imagine that one day soon I might be able to say “I’ve got a shed that I want to get rid of” on Expo.live.co.uk. Someone in my neighbourhood who wants a shed can not only see that I’ve got one and that I live around the corner, but she might also know that I’m reasonably trustworthy since we share a common friend. I think the UI says a lot... (see picture)
Buy from/swop with everyone or anyone, or only really from you close circle of IM buddies? Local, or anywhere?
See, when I buy a software upgrade (yes, I was stung yesterday with dodgy software on ebay L), I might buy it from anywhere in the world since it’s easy to ship the content, but when I buy a shed I want to buy locally. I might be willing to buy the shed from anyone nearby, but when I buy the second hand Porsche Boxster, I might be more interested in buying it from someone I know, or a friend of a friend, maybe someone at work...
I really can't recall when the last time was that I actually looked through the paper's classifieds. When it is easy, free, simple to do this online and see local and/or global content, I might just never go back!
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
I want to talk about expo.live.co.uk, SCE and mapping...
Expo.live.com (for the US) has launched today, and is out of Beta. And at the same time, I’m *delighted* that we’ve got a UK version in beta from today onwards.
What is it? Think “Classified listings”, locale sensitive, with knowledge of people.... e.g. I can imagine that one day soon I might be able to say “I’ve got a shed that I want to get rid of” on Expo.live.co.uk. Someone in my neighbourhood who wants a shed can not only see that I’ve got one and that I live around the corner, but she might also know that I’m reasonably trustworthy since we share a common friend. I think the UI says a lot... (see picture)
Buy from/swop with everyone or anyone, or only really from you close circle of IM buddies? Local, or anywhere?
See, when I buy a software upgrade (yes, I was stung yesterday with dodgy software on ebay L), I might buy it from anywhere in the world since it’s easy to ship the content, but when I buy a shed I want to buy locally. I might be willing to buy the shed from anyone nearby, but when I buy the second hand Porsche Boxster, I might be more interested in buying it from someone I know, or a friend of a friend, maybe someone at work...
I really can't recall when the last time was that I actually looked through the paper's classifieds. When it is easy, free, simple to do this online and see local and/or global content, I might just never go back!
-
Published on 13 Jul 2006 from
OK so this is clearly a "Marketing thing" but it's aim is pure and simple - to encourage people to browse the wealth of information on TechNet to help everyone get the most from the features of our products.
The competition is free to enter and the overall winner will receive an XBox 360. The four runners up will each receive a Creative Zen MP3 Player.
The quiz covers a wide variety of infrastructure topics including of course Security and Interoperability - I wrote those questions :-)
If you'd like to play simply click on either the image above or TechNet Trevor - you only have to answer ten questions - the interesting part is that it's against the clock.
There's a high score table too so you can