I just downloaded and installed a background picture changing application thingy from MSDN Coding4Fun. It works great and changes your background picture by checking a folder where all of your pictures are stored. Check it out here.

Now playing: Lil' Wayne - Oh Shooter (feat. Robin Thicke)

I think that every developer should watch this presentation by Billy Hollis at TechEd 2005. It isn’t your typical presentation, he tells a great story and then shows off his dirty checker extender provider in VS 2005. It is very slick, but if you don’t want to watch it you can read about it at his blog: http://www.ftponline.com/weblogger/forum.aspx?id=18&Date=01/19/2006#510

Choice quote: “codeheads are like cokeheads, there is only a one letter difference between the two”.

Now playing: U2 - Walk On (UK Single Version)

20 years ago today the first computer virus named Brain was discovered. It was spread via floppy disks and I can’t help but wonder if we will see the same kind of thing happen with removable media since today they use direct memory access.

I had a good laugh today at Don Demsak’s strategy for reducing telemarketing calls and increasing telemarketing companie’s costs.

I have tried a couple of different strategies myself. The strategy I find that works best is to tell them that by law if you ask them to take you off their phone list they have to do it and that they have to keep their own list of people that don't want to be called back. They usually end up hanging up on you right away.

I have also resorted to using SIT tones (You can get them here: http://privatecitizen.com/sit.html) before my answering machine message plays to try and counter act computer dialed telemarketers. Since I have added the SIT tones I have noticed a considerable decrease in calls by telemarketers.

This is a list of the Winter Olympic hockey teams going to Turin for 2006. I am going to try and keep this list up to date but it may be a little off. One thing to remember is that Goalies can wear the old equipment they wore at the last Olympics, they are not permitted to wear the same smaller equipment they wear in the NHL so expect the old equipment to come out of retirement.

The rink is also 13.5 feet wider than an NHL tink but they are the same length.

 Players in blue were named as a replacement for the player crossed out. If there is any incorrect information please let me know in the comments and I will correct it.

United States
 
Goaltenders
 Rick DiPietro
 Robert Esche
 John Grahame
 Ryan Miller

Defense
 Chris Chelios
 Derian Hatcher
 Jordan Leopold
 John-Michael Liles
 Aaron Miller Bret Hedican
 Brian Rafalski
 Mathieu Schneider

Forwards
 Jason Blake
 Erik Cole
 Craig Conroy
 Chris Drury
 Brian Gionta
 Scott Gomez
 Bill Guerin
 Mike Knuble
 Mike Modano
 Mark Parrish
 Brian Rolston
 Keith Tkachuk
 Doug Weight

Germany

Goaltenders
 Olaf Kölzig
 Robert Müller
 Thomas Greiss

Defense
 Sascha Goc
 Christian Ehrhoff
 Christoph Schubert
 Stefan Schauer
 Andreas Renz
 Alexander Sulzer
 Lasse Kopitz
 Dennis Seidenberg
 
Forwards
 Stefan Ustorf
 Jochen Hecht
 Marco Sturm
 Daniel Kreutzer
 Alexander Barta
 Thomas Martinec
 Eduard Lewandowski
 Klaus Kathan
 Marcel Goc
 Michael Hackert
 Petr Fical
 Jan Benda

Kazakhstan
 
Goaltenders
 Vitaliy Yeremeyev
 Vitaliy Kolesnik
 Kirill Zinovyev
 
Defense
 Oleg Kovalenko
 Artyom Argokov
 Denis Shemelin
 Alexey Koledayev
 Yevgeniy Pupkov
 Alexey Troshchinskiy
 Alexey Vassilchenko
 Vitaliy Tregubov

Forwards
 Fedor Polishchuk
 Sergey Alexandrov
 Andrey Ogorodnikov
 Andrey Troshchinskiy
 Andrey Samokhvalov
 Dmitriy Upper
 Andrey Pchelyakov
 Dmitriy Dudarev
 Alexander Koreshkov
 Yevgeniy Koreshkov
 Konstantin Shafranov
 Nikolay Antropov

Canada
 
Goaltenders
 Martin Brodeur
 Roberto Luongo
 Marty Turco
 
Defense
 Rob Blake
 Ed Jovanovski Brian McCabe
 Chris Pronger
 Wade Redden
 Robyn Regehr
 Adam Foote
 Scott Niedermayer Jay Bouwmeester
 
Forwards
 Simon Gagne
 Dany Heatley
 Jarome Iginla
 Vincent Lecavalier
 Brad Richards
 Joe Sakic
 Joe Thornton
 Todd Bertuzzi
 Shane Doan
 Kris Draper
 Rick Nash
 Martin St. Louis
 Ryan Smyth

Sweden

Goaltenders
 Stefan Liv
 Henrik Lundqvist
 Mikael Tellqvist
 
Defense
 Christian Bäckman
 Kim Johnsson
 Kenny Jönsson
 Nicklas Lidström
 Niklas Kronwall
 Mattias Norström
 Mattias Öhlund
 
Forwards
 Daniel Alfredsson
 Per-Johan Axelsson
 Peter Forsberg
 Mika Hannula
 Jörgen Jönsson
 Fredrik Modin
 Markus Näslund Tomas Holmstrom
 Samuel Pahlsson
 Mikael Samuelsson
 Daniel Sedin
 Henrik Sedin
 Mats Sundin
 Henrik Zetterberg
 

Slovakia
 
Goaltenders
 Peter Budaj
 Karol Krizan
 Jan Lasak
 
Defense
 Zdeno Chara
 Ivan Majesky
 Andrej Meszaros
 Martin Strbak
 Radoslav Suchy
 Lubomir Visnovsky
 Milan Jurcina
 
Forwards
 Lubos Bartecko
 Peter Bondra
 Pavol Demitra
 Marian Gaborik
 Michal Handzus
 Marcel Hossa
 Marian Hossa
 Richard Kapus
 Ladislav Nagy
 Miroslav Satan
 Jozef Stumpel
 Marek Svatos
 Richard Zednik
 

Czech Republic
 
Goaltenders
 Domink Hasek
 Milan Hnilicka
 Tomas Vokoun
 
Defense
 Frantisek Kaberle
 Tomas Kaberle
 Filip Kuba
 Pavel Kubina
 Marek Malik
 Jaroslav Spacek
 Marek Zidlicky

Forwards
 Jan Bulis
 Petr Cajanek
 Martin Erat
 Milan Hejduk
 Ales Hemsky
 Jaromir Jagr
 Robert Lang
 Rostislav Olesz
 Vaclav Prospal
 Petr Prucha
 Martin Rucinsky
 Martin Straka
 David Vyborny
 

Latvia
 
Goaltenders
 Arturs Irbe
 Edgars Masalskis
 Sergejs Naumovs
 
Defense
 Viktors Ignatjevs
 Rodrigo Lavins
 Sandis Ozolins
 Georgijs Pujacs
 Arvids Rekis
 Agris Saviels
 Karlis Skrastins
 Atvars Tribuncovs
 
Forwards
 Girts Ankipans
 Armands Berzins
 Aigars Cipruss
 Vladimirs Mamonovs
 Aleksanders Nizijvs
 Grigorijs Pantelejevs
 Mikelis Redlihs
 Aleks. Semjonovs
 Janis Sprukts
 Leonids Tambijevs
 Herberts Vasiljevs
 Maris Ziedins
 

Switzerland
 
Goaltenders
 David Aebischer
 Marco Bührer
 Martin Gerber
 
Defense
 Goran Bezina
 Severin Blindenbacher
 Olivier Keller
 Mathias Seger
 Martin Steinegger
 Mark Streit
 Julien Vauclair
 
Forwards
 Flavien Conne
 Patric Della Rossa
 Paul DiPietro
 Patrick Fischer
 Sandy Jeannin
 Marcel Jenni
 Romano Lemm
 Thierry Paterlini
 Martin Plüss
 Ivo Rüthemann
 Adrian Wichser
 Thomas Ziegler
 Kevin Romy
 

Finland
 
Goaltenders
 Miikka Kiprusoff
 Kari Lehtonen
 Fredrik Norrena
 
Defense
 Teppo Numminen
 Sami Salo
 Kimmo Timonen
 Joni Pitkänen
 Toni Lydman
 Aki-Petteri Berg
 Ossi Väänänen
 
Forwards
 Saku Koivu
 Olli Jokinen
 Niko Kapanen
 Mikko Koivu
 Jere Lehtinen
 Teemu Selänne
 Tuomo Ruutu Jussi Jokinen
 Ville Peltonen
 Sami Kapanen
 Antti Laaksonen
 Antti Miettinen
 Jarkko Ruutu
 Jukka Hentunen
 

Italy
 
Goaltenders
 Günther Hell
 Jason Muzzatti
 René Baur
 
Defense
 Florian Ramoser
 Michele Strazzabosco
 Armin Helfer
 Christian Borgatello
 André Signoretti
 Carter Trevisani
 Robert Nardella
 
Forwards
 Stefano Margoni
 Stefan Zisser
 Mario Chitarroni
 Joe Busillo
 Giorgio De Bettin
 Anthony Tuzzolini
 John Parco
 Jason Cirone
 Giulio Scandella
 Lucio Topatigh
 Manuel De Toni
 Luca Ansoldi
 Anthony Iob
 

Russia
 
Goaltenders
 Nikolai Khabibulin
 Evgeni Nabokov
 Ilya Bryzgalov
 
Defense
 Andrei Markov
 Alexei Zhitnik
 Darius Kasparaitis
 Fedor Tyutin
 Daniil Markov
 Anton Volchenkov
 Sergei Gonchar
 Dmitri Bykov
 
Forwards
 Ilya Kovalchuk
 Pavel Datsyuk
 Alexei Kovalev
 Alexander Ovechkin
 Alexei Yashin
 Viktor Kozlov
 Alexander Frolov
 Evgeni Malkin
 Maxim Afinogenov
 Alexander Kharitonov
 Alexei Zhamnov
 Maxim Sushinsky

Now playing: Mos Def - Hip Hop

I have decided to start studying for Exam 70-536. In my opinion one of the best ways to study for the exam iis to read MSDN and try out the code samples, so I have taken the Skills Being Measured Guide from Microsoft Learning and added the links to the MSDN documentation. This is mainly to help me study for the exam but it will probably help out someone else studying for the exam so I decided to post the links here.

If you have trouble reading the links, choose a new theme from the Pick a theme drop down at the bottom of the page. The theme essence works well.

Developing applications that use system types and collections

Manage data in a .NET Framework application by using the .NET Framework 2.0 system types. 

• Value types http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s1ax56ch.aspx
  • Nullable type http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1t3y8s4s.aspx
• Reference types http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/490f96s2.aspx
• Attributes http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z0w1kczw.aspx
• Generic types http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/512aeb7t.aspx
• Exception classes http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/csspec/html/vclrfcsharpspec_16_4.asp
• Boxing and UnBoxing http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yz2be5wk.aspx
• TypeForwardedToAttribute Class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.runtime.compilerservices.typeforwardedtoattribute.aspx

Manage a group of associated data in a .NET Framework application by using collections. 

• ArrayList class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.arraylist.aspx
• Collection interfaces
  • ICollection interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.icollection.aspx and IList interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/30ft6hw7(en-US,VS.80).aspx
  • IComparer interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/twxabsb7(en-US,VS.80).aspx , IEqualityComparer interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms132038(en-US,VS.80).aspx , and IKeyComparer interface
  • IDictionary interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9dhwsays(en-US,VS.80).aspx and IDictionaryEnumerator http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9dhwsays(en-US,VS.80).aspx interface
  • IEnumerable interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/h1x9x1b1(en-US,VS.80).aspx and IEnumerator interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1t2267t6(en-US,VS.80).aspx
  • IHashCodeProvider interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cfcwey02(en-US,VS.80).aspx
• Iterators http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dscyy5s0(en-US,VS.80).aspx
• Hashtable class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.hashtable.aspx
• CollectionBase class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/7a03ybbb(en-US,VS.80).aspx and ReadOnlyCollectionBase class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ax6khctw(en-US,VS.80).aspx
• DictionaryBase class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sa198xea(en-US,VS.80).aspx and DictionaryEntry class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9kth4sbk(en-US,VS.80).aspx
• Comparer class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/15ycttyf(en-US,VS.80).aspx
• Queue class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.queue.aspx
• SortedList class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w1xa3kh1(en-US,VS.80).aspx
• BitArray class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x3we7ff2(en-US,VS.80).aspx
• Stack class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c8hws30f(en-US,VS.80).aspx

Improve type safety and application performance in a .NET Framework application by using generic collections.

• Collection.Generic interfaces
  • Generic IComparable interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4d7sx9hd.aspx
  • Generic ICollection interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/92t2ye13.aspx and Generic IList interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/5y536ey6.aspx
  • Generic IComparer interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8ehhxeaf.aspx and Generic IEqualityComparer interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms132151.aspx
  • Generic IDictionary interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s4ys34ea.aspx
  • Generic IEnumerable interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9eekhta0.aspx and Generic IEnumerator interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/78dfe2yb.aspx
  • IHashCodeProvider interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cfcwey02(en-US,VS.80).aspx
• Generic Dictionary
  • Generic Dictionary class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xfhwa508.aspx and Generic Dictionary.Enumerator structure http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/k3z2hhax.aspx
  • Generic Dictionary.KeyCollection class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3fcwy8h6.aspx and Dictionary.KeyCollection.Enumerator structure http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8a7wk24w.aspx
  • Generic Dictionary.ValueCollection class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x8bctb9c.aspx and Dictionary.ValueCollection.Enumerator structure http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ax9d1dzh.aspx
• Generic Comparer class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cfttsh47.aspx and Generic EqualityComparer class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms132123.aspx
• Generic KeyValuePair structure http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/5tbh8a42.aspx
• Generic List class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6sh2ey19.aspx , Generic List.Enumerator structure http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x854yt9s.aspx , and Generic SortedList class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms132319.aspx
• Generic Queue class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/7977ey2c.aspx and Generic Queue.Enumerator structure http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1ttzy8a4.aspx
• Generic SortedDictionary class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f7fta44c.aspx
• Generic LinkedList
  • Generic LinkedList class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/he2s3bh7(en-US,VS.80).aspx
  • Generic LinkedList.Enumerator structure http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2s4xk11f(en-US,VS.80).aspx
  • Generic LinkedListNode class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ahf4c754(en-US,VS.80).aspx
• Generic Stack class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3278tedw.aspx and Generic Stack.Enumerator structure http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x2bb46cs(en-US,VS.80).aspx

Manage data in a .NET Framework application by using specialized collections. (Refer System.Collections.Specialized namespace)

• Specialized String classes
  • StringCollection class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d1w61sc5(en-US,VS.80).aspx
  • StringDictionary class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9916ffs7(en-US,VS.80).aspx
  • StringEnumerator class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/39k34y8h(en-US,VS.80).aspx
• Specialized Dictionary
  • HybridDictionary class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/he1ex4wh(en-US,VS.80).aspx
  • IOrderedDictionary interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/138k8kea(en-US,VS.80).aspx and OrderedDictionary class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.specialized.ordereddictionary.aspx
  • ListDictionary class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.specialized.listdictionary.aspx
• Named collections
  • NameObjectCollectionBase class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.specialized.nameobjectcollectionbase.aspx
  • NameObjectCollectionBase.KeysCollection class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.specialized.nameobjectcollectionbase.keyscollection.aspx
  • NameValueCollection class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.specialized.namevaluecollection.aspx
• CollectionsUtil http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9bzc67y9(en-US,VS.80).aspx
• BitVector32 structure http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/eeb3ez18(en-US,VS.80).aspx and BitVector32.Section structure http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ycsx9fyz(en-US,VS.80).aspx

Implement .NET Framework interfaces to cause components to comply with standard contracts.

• IComparable interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.icomparable.aspx
• IDisposable interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.idisposable.aspx
• IConvertible interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.iconvertible.aspx
• ICloneable interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hdf3zaf2.aspx
• INullableValue interface
• IEquatable interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms131187.aspx
• IFormattable interface http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.iformattable.aspx

Control interactions between .NET Framework application components by using events and delegates.

• Delegate class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.delegate.aspx
• EventArgs class http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.eventargs.aspx
• EventHandler delegates http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xhb70ccc(en-US,VS.80).aspx

This looks awesome! I think I am going to make the drive down to Calgary in March because the 6th rule of code camp is "code camp must never occur during work hours".

The site isn't ready yet but if you are interested in going add the RSS feed to your favorite RSS reader and you will be notified of changes.

Even though this has been posted on The Server Side, I am reposting it here and dubbing it the official developer drinking song.

After a short hiatus, my blog is back. I was an idiot (or just too drunk) and forgot to renew my domain name over the holidays. Luckily I was able to renew it for a very very very long time and by the time it expires the web will be at version 3.1.0.2 anyway so it won't matter anymore.

I would like to point out that London Drugs has their annual computer book sale on right now. I was able to pick up Essential XML by Don Box, Aaron Skonnard, and John Lam, Enterprise Integration Solutions by Devin Speckman and Mark Speaker and Oracle9i PL/SQL: A Developer's Guide by Bulusu Laksman all for under $15.

So I encourage you to go check it out at the very least you will end up with a monitor stand for $5.

I love this presentation by Jesper Johansson. I saw it at the ICE Conference here in Edmonton last year. The ironic part was that a teacher of mine was sitting right beside me and had taught me to use the exact same bad code as Jesper used to bring down the whole system in his demo.

J. Ambrose Little has posted a great article over on CoDe Magazine's website about why using Dataset and data driven designs are a bad idea.

To expand on his article a little bit try this exercise. Go to any one of your customers and ask them to describe any business process that they currently use, now take note of how your customer describes the process. They will describe behaviours, responsibilities, and even the actual objects themselves to you.

If the customer sounds something like this then the solution that you design and model for them may be a great candidate for data driven design:

"We take all of our documents that need to be shipped to headquarters, and staple the related documents together (because we need to maintain the relationships between them), next we put them into a generic box and write "documents" on it with a marker (because the box needs a name silly). 

After they are in the box we send them using ground mail (because air mail is too fast and expensive) to corporate headquarters. Someone at corporate headquarters then takes the documents and does something with them, we hope that they make it to the right department and that they are used correctly."

Wow, I missed this over the holidays but Nikhil announced that a new CTP of Atlas has been released. From what I hear Atlas is going to have a GoLive license from Microsoft in 2006 but it won't be fully released until .NET 3.0.

Some of the changes look really good. The new and improved Atlas scriptmanager control renders out the Atlas script references so you no longer need a bunch of <Atlas:Script> tags on your page.

Also there is going to be better debugging help in this CTP (with even more debugging help coming in the future). Apparently, the script manager is going to detect whether or not debug is set to true in the web.config and run Atlas in release or debug mode based on that configuration setting.

There is a lot more cool stuff but Nikhil does a better job at explaining it than me. In the 2 months since I have looked at it, Microsoft has come a long way in developing Atlas into a better product so check it out and play around with it.

I forgot to mention that Wilco Bauwer has a handy Atlas class browser which is already updated to show the new CTP.

I was distracted from making some screencasts this evening by this article.

What an odd pair.