All things related to .NET software development, ASP.NET, SQL, AJAX, VSTS, Silverlight and so on and so forth. I also hold forth on learning methodologies, acquiring new skills, and other random subjects that wander into my mind from time to time...
bfinnerty
http://blogs.innerworkings.com/brian-finnerty 
All things related to .NET software development, ASP.NET, SQL, AJAX, VSTS, Silverlight and so on and so forth. I also hold forth on learning methodologies, acquiring new skills, and other random subjects that wander into my mind from time to time...
Displaying 1 to 25 of 31 archived entries.-
Published on 18 Sep 2007 by Brian Finnerty
We get a ton of product feedback from our free trial, evaluations, web buyers, and large customers. Fortunately, we built a comments and rating feature into the product in the early days so the flow of feedback that can be acted upon is ever present. Occasionally, we’ll get an independent prod
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Published on 14 Sep 2007 by Brian Finnerty
Who said competition for customers was dead in the airline industry? I’ve noticed some clever innovations coming out of Virgin America Airlines recently, which would make you wonder if you’re on a plane or in a luxury spa: mood lighting to induce relaxation (nah, I’d rather be assa
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Published on 22 Aug 2007 by Brian Finnerty
CodeProject’s daily newsletter (which I’m 100% addicted to reading each morning) tipped me off to the following article on Predicting the Next Software Decade by M.R. Rangaswami, co-founder of the Sand Hill Group. Despite the title, this excellent survey shows you what happened in enterp
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Published on 07 Aug 2007 by Brian Finnerty
I’ve been impressed by the output from Microsoft’s Silverlight team for several months now, but I’m always a bit wary of the hype machine at work. I did “see the light” (dodgy puns will continue throughout this post) when I attended an excellent talk by Scott Guthrie, w
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Published on 25 Jul 2007 by Brian Finnerty
The team at InnerWorkings is constantly trading interesting blogs, editorials, research, and other goodies that reflect our collective interests. More often than not, these recommendations are directly relevant to our world of software development, .NET releases, or new learning methods. Occasionall
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Published on 13 Jul 2007 by Brian Finnerty
I’ve just returned from Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in the massive Colorado Convention Center in Denver, which will be home to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Similar levels of spin and PR were at play during the Microsoft event, but I came away from the show with two mai
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Published on 11 Jul 2007 by Brian Finnerty
Have you noticed anything different about www.innerworkings.com? Please say yes, as we’ve spent several months working on a completely fresh presentation of the company website. Last weekend, after a few Wimbledon-inspired rain delays, we launched the company’s new website. In a word, this project w
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Published on 06 Jun 2007 by Brian Finnerty
If you’ve been following InnerWorkings and our monthly content releases, you’ll know that this SQL Drill has been waiting in the wings for quite some time. I’ve seen it hovering around the latter part of our roadmap for many months like a nervous teenager about to MEET THE PARENTS
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Published on 27 Apr 2007 by Brian Finnerty
What is it about human nature that makes us so inclined to rely on the opinions of others? There’s something very compelling about a well reasoned recommendation from a person whose option matters to you or whose expertise on a subject is self-evident. But the key to a good testimonial is alwa
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Published on 21 Mar 2007 by Brian Finnerty
OK, so this is a small disclaimer. I don’t claim to be a user interface design expert and how an application looks is really a bit superfluous, isn’t it? Well, not really - some of the very best apps combine pristine simplicity with a killer presentation layer. You know the ones I’
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Published on 24 Sep 2007 by Brian Finnerty
I’m pleased to announce that InnerWorkings is supporting an upcoming Silverlight event in Dublin, home to our own R&D team. Before anyone hops on the BART, please note that I’m referring to Dublin, Ireland - not Dublin, Pleasanton! This Silverlight event is scheduled for Thursday, Se
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Published on 09 Oct 2007 by Brian Finnerty
At InnerWorkings, we’ve been tracking the progress of Visual Studio 2008 (Orcas) for most of this year. While the official ‘release’ and ‘launch’ dates continue to confuse my addled brain (release party in November, launch party in February), there’s no doubt that
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Published on 06 Nov 2007 by Brian Finnerty
OK, so this post has been burning a hole in my to-do list for a few weeks now. We managed to release our first LINQ to SQL training content for .NET developers about a month ago. As is our wont, we released LINQ for C# developers first followed (shortly thereafter) by LINQ for VB developers. So no [
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Published on 27 Nov 2007 by Brian Finnerty
Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 is history and Microsoft actually hit its public milestone for the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) version. Nice work from the Developer Tools division in Redmond and Soma must be grinning like a Cheshire cat! It’s almost enough to banish the memory of waiting months o
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Published on 06 Dec 2007 by Brian Finnerty
I was reading B.L. Ochman’s blog today when I saw this YouTube clip, which had me sniggering and chuckling along. The video content is quite dense and WAY too fast in some cases, but the overall effect is just hilarious. It’s a clever parody on the glut of web 2.0 business plans and ofte
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Published on 31 Dec 2007 by Brian Finnerty
OK, so I have to disclose that this post is a thinly veiled attempt to get one last blog entry before the curtain falls on 2007. One more post actually makes my pitiful stats look a little better this year! If I believed in New Year’s resolutions, you can probably guess that blogging more woul
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Published on 11 Jan 2008 by Brian Finnerty
It’s election primary season for both political parties in the U.S. — essentially there is a two party system here I’m afraid. Fortunes wax and wane, established front runners get derailed, some scream too loudly, others cry and fuss, but there can only be one winner from each part
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Published on 11 Jan 2008 by Brian Finnerty
<a href=”http://technorati.com/claim/9wi7mqrjrz” rel=”me”>Technorati Profile</a>
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Published on 15 Jan 2008 by Brian Finnerty
It’s so easy to become disconnected from others in this increasingly ‘connected’ world. This is quite an irony — the more technology facilitates an always-on interconnected life, the easier it is to become an email hermit and avoid frequent human contact. Often I find that it
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Published on 30 Jan 2008 by Brian Finnerty
How do you define a work of art? That may seem like an easy question - just visit Michelangelo’s David in Florence, or view Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ in Dublin. Read the first few chapters of Joyce’s modernist masterpiece Ulysses or explore a collection of Dorothea Lange
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Published on 08 Feb 2008 by Brian Finnerty
Microsoft’s MVP network of technology specialists has always struck me as a good idea. According to the MVP site, Microsoft created the Most Valuable Professional designation to “thank individuals for their exceptional contributions to technical communities worldwide”. With about 3
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Published on 11 Feb 2008 by Brian Finnerty
The InnerWorkings R&D team in Dublin is just emerging from the weeds of revising our catalog of coding challenges to support Visual Studio 2008 RTM. Converting our learning material and sample code from its native VS 2005 to VS 2008 was no trivial matter, but it’s clear that our customers
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Published on 15 Feb 2008 by Brian Finnerty
For those of you that have simply run out of space and time in your first life, I sympathize. Or maybe I empathize. At any rate, I’d encourage you to check out C# Day on Second Life. InnerWorkings has teamed up with Michael de la Maza from DRC, Microsoft, and the SLDNUG to offer this virtual [
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Published on 20 Feb 2008 by Brian Finnerty
I blogged about our first Silverlight coding contest at Sogeti a few weeks ago and congratulated our winner on his Silverlight coding prowess. Now I’ve two more very worthy winners to announce, which makes me feel a bit like a virtual game show host. On that note, the following winners should
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Published on 19 Mar 2008 by Brian Finnerty
We’re always on the lookout for slightly madcap events that support the developer community. Imagine our wry smiles when Tim Heuer approached us about backing the latest brainwave from Microsoft’s Developer Platform Evangelists (DPEs). The Code Trip is basically a two month tour of the W
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