The package has now been released back into the tracker. It's odd how certain things crop up that you wouldn't have expected. So - our friends across the pond (from my perspective) have a different way of handling decimal points than myself. This came as no shock to me, but when running your code as a combination of JS from a remote server (in our case google), JS from the local server, SQL from the local server and VB.net on the local server, somehow it becomes as annoying as trying to handle t... [read more]

One of my favourite clients (he let me ride his new motor bike) created this comparison grid when they were deciding on a platform for the future. They chose DNN of course. This is the list of CMS's they investigated. AxCMS.net Cuyahoga DotNetNuke mojoPortal MOSS 2007 OXX Publisher 3 Powerslave ECMS QuickerSite Rainbow redcms(c) Sitecore V5 Smartsite CMS TrioVis.CMS umbraco VWD-CMS The table is very comprehensive and should serve you well when talking to your clients.

I recently signed and sent off my official appointment letter which stated: I am pleased to offer you an appointment as Lecturer in the [Johns Hopkins University] Whiting School's Engineering and Applied Science Program for Professionals. It is my understanding that you have agreed to teach the following course(s) for the Spring 2008 semester: 605.702.31 - Service-Oriented Architecture ... [read more]

DevTeach is one of the very fun conferences I speak at regularly, based in Canada. It is small, intimate, attracks some great speakers, and has support from Microsoft. There has long been plenty of good reasons to attend, as indicated by its motto, training you just can’t get any other way. But now there is another reason: Beer! I’m blown away, but during the afternoon break they set out beer. And none of the 3% stuff either, this is 5%. So it should be an interesting afternoon of se... [read more]

I find that people really want to tell me what's wrong with Entity Framework. This is a good thing. It's how I learn. It's sometimes a little overwhelming, but since I feel like I'm just the messenger, I don't take any of it personally. So go ahead. Tell me why you don't like Entity Framework. Why you think people should stay away from it (I heard this advice was being given in a SQL Connections talk). Why you want to hit someone. Why it frightens you. Why you think it is a dba's nightmare.... [read more]

Read all about it here... [A New DevLife Post]

Status update for the announcements module project

In 3 weeks time, on december 14th, it's SDE time again in the Netherlands. SDE means Software Developer Event which is a one-day conference by SDN (Software Developer Network, who were also hosting OpenForce Europe 2007 at their anualy two-day event SDC (Software Developer Conference. We're talking about 30 sessions and a keynote here, with a dedicated DotNetNuke track and plenty of sessions in English. Information pages are not available, but you can see the sessions here. It would be cool to m... [read more]

Last Friday, the German Tongued User Group had its first meeting: 32 participants from Germany, Austria and Switzerland came together to get informed and discuss about DotNetNuke in general and in our region...

This uses this post from Benjamin Hermann as an example. First, Install ASP.NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Use Visual Studio 2008 to open DotNetNuke: You will get a message like this: Click Yes. This will add  the needed changes to the web.config to allow LINQ to SQL to run. Create a module (see this tutorial for instructions on creating a simple DotNetNuke module). Right-click on the module folder under App_Code and select Add New Item... Select the LINQ to SQL Classes template, give the .d... [read more]

Thanks to Declan Ward, here is the photo, which was taken of all Core Team Members and Team Leads being present after the closing session at OpenForce '07 Conference in Las Vegas:

I bet the majority of you thought this project was dead along with myself, or maybe wished for the latter half of that...

The Data Programmability team has an extensive post about current issues with connecting to SQL Server 2008 at design time and runtime via .NET 2.0. If you are using the beta of SQL Server 2008, I recommend checking the blog post!

UPDATE: I'm a putz, and did my math wrong. This is a crappy result. Turns out I was using Cat5 Patch Cables on a Cat 6 network, and what I'm seeing here is a probably a maxed out Cat5 cable. I'll redo this with decent cables using all 4 pair and update soon. When designing the new house and home office I really wanted gigabit Ethernet through the house. I run a lot of VMs, music, HD Video, and generally don't like to wait when movi... [read more]

Since I've been working at Microsoft, I've had a chance to make some new friends. Perhaps you know them? Come to a VS2008 InstallFest - ask your local MSFT Wonk where yours is - and get a free copy of VS2008Pro. If you've got Beta 2 installed, remove it first. From TimH: "We're providing a location, install dvd's (these will be evals because the finals aren't pressed yet), and food/drinks.  this will be a good time to get some... [read more]

 I'm planning to attend MIX 2008, in its third year and being held at the Venetian in Las Vegas once more.  The site has started a weekly podcast called The Signal that you can subscribe to and learn about behind-the-scenes preparations for MIX08.  The show includes interviews with speakers, staff, attendees, and other notables and is a mix of technologies and topics.Tech·Ed 2008 is going to be split up into two shows this year, just as it has been in Europe lately... [read more]

All code and no play makes me a dull boy I'm told (mainly by my wife) so I've been getting back into song writing and recording a little over the past few months as time permits.  I recently finished up a new song called Story of Your Life that was recorded in my home studio (equipment and software used is listed below for anyone interested).  My good friend Spike Xavier wrote the lyrics.  I've been writing and recording music since my teenage years, but the more I do it the more... [read more]

Been off the radar these last few weeks, lots of reasons why but getting back to speed slowly.   Ben gave his MbUnit session at DDD6 over the weekend.    The turn out for his talk was well attended and both Ben and fellow MbUnit crew member Dan Maharry have got some great MbUnit feedback from the folks. Ben has has some great feedback on his talk, check out these posts from Richard Fennell and Paul Lockwood. I echo Pauls statement.  watch this gu... [read more]

Recently, a lot of interest has been shown in SOA (Service Oriented Architectures). In these systems, there are multiple services each with its own code and data, and ability to operate independently of its partners. In particular, atomic transactions with two-phase commit do not occur across multiple services because this necessitates holding locks while another service decides the outcome of the transaction. This talk proposes there are a number of seminal differ... [read more]

Over on CIO.com where CIOs go to get help with technology direction decisions for their companies, Esther Schindler takes a look at the Programming Language Popularity (non scientific) study which analyzed search terms for Yahoo and craigslist, book titles on Amazon.com, languages used in Freshmeat projects and more. Language choice is a much different decision for CIOs than it is for developers, Esther says. While she finds the results "interesting—well, okay, they're fascinating if you... [read more]

*Update* It turns out that I completely misunderstood Zlatko Michailov's email reply to me when I was having trouble with this. I seem to have freaked out the team by writing this errant blog post. Sorry guys. When using ObjectQuery, I was doing this: Dim myAWEntities=New AdventureWorksEntities dim myObjQuery=myAWEntities.CreateQuery(Of Customer)("SELECT VALUE cust from myAWEntities.Customer as cust ") I was thinking in LINQ, using the variable of the instance I had created. But if I ... [read more]

This might seem a strange follow-up to our good news, but we have a lot going on, and sometimes I just need to get it out. Mo said recently that she wouldn't recommend what we've done in the last six months to anyone. In the course of half a year I quit my job, we bought and built a house, and we had a baby. We didn't plan it to go down this way, it just did. Certainly it wasn't ideally timed. We moved in on a Saturday and the baby was born the following Monday after day of intense unpac... [read more]

I sometimes feel like Gretel picking up tidbits on my way to the Gingerbread house when it comes to getting clues about what's coming in Beta3 of Entity Framework. The next two I have found are: From Alex James blog, Entity Framework is getting compiled queries similar to what's in LINQ to SQL. You can pre-compile query expressions, save them and even pass them around. One thing that Alex mentions is that they are not tied to the ObjectContext (which is how you can pass them around) and t... [read more]

Blog Herald has an interesting post, "Have Trackbacks Become Too Spammy To Be Worthwhile?" You may have also discovered a surge in trackback spam recently as autoblogging software is being used by more and more spammers to reach out and cull RSS feeds.  This phenomenon has led to many disabling trackbacks, or raising the “blacklist” level so high that you might never see some trackbacks again. I am personally on the fence on this one. Trackbacks have a ton of potential to connect content, ... [read more]

At SQL Server Magazine Connections at DevConnections in Las Vegas last week, I had the opportunity to geek out on SQL Server security for a full day at the end of the conference. Attendance was great and I hope that everyone left with a solid foundation of understanding of SQL Server security. One question that came up was about the Surface Area Configuration utility that ships with SQL Server 2005. The question was whether SAC is cluster-aware. At the time I was showing the command-line version... [read more]