Section: Blogs

Update to the How-To for the Updater Application Block

Jan 14, 2004 1 min.

I posted a walkthrough of using the Updater Application Block onto my blog back in the summer but Zac Hamilton has made some changes/improvements…. I took the Duncan Mackenzie Blog located at: http://weblogs.asp.net/duncanma/story/10221.aspx, reworked it and added some things I was having a problems with (some of which I was able to find through this message board.) http://www.ballzac.com/updaterblock/Updater%20Application%20Block%20HOW-TO%20generic.htm http://www.ballzac.com/updaterblock/Updater%20Application%20Block%20HOW-TO%20generic.doc Enjoy! Zac Hamilton

Get a Free Xbox with Every Deep Training Class

Jan 14, 2004 1 min.

I just saw this in a recent MSDN flash and thought it was worth mentioning… Get a Free Xbox with Every Deep Training Class ASP.NET w/ Visual Basic, January 19 – 23, Seattle, WA Visual Basic .NET, January 26 – 31, Seattle, WA Deep Training offers intensive, expert-taught, 5-day, hands-on classes in .NET in both public and on-site settings. Sign up for a Deep Training class by the end of the year and get a free Xbox when you attend class.

BITS chat going on now….

Jan 14, 2004 1 min.

Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) API This chat will provide participants the opportunity to ask questions about the BITS API. We will also discuss new features that are planned for upcoming releases. Participants can discuss scenarios in which they use BITS and identify features that would help them.

Another interesting product from Roku

Jan 14, 2004 1 min.

I was pretty impressed with the first Roku offering, a HDTV focused media player that included “art packs” to use your HDTV flat panel as artwork… not that I have one of those flat LCD or Plasma displays… but the idea was appealing. Now they’ve come out with the Soundbridge (a networked audio device) and I’m impressed again. Disclaimer: I haven’t actually seen either of these products, just the specs on the site, but the feature set and design are interesting.

Animated Gifs in .NET

Jan 12, 2004 1 min.

I hadn’t noticed that the graphic classes in .NET had built-in support for animated gifs, but a recent GDN post shows how you can grab the individual frames out of a GIF and display them one at a time… I think you would have to find out the intended delay between frames to produce the author’s desired result, but I’m not positive as it has been awhile since I made an animated gif 🙂

Back in Redmond

Jan 7, 2004 2 min.

I’m back in town, but I was a little surprised to see snow all over the place… that is what I just left in Winnipeg, MB… I thought I was heading back somewhere green 🙂 Well, it certainly is a lot warmer (just a bit below freezing tonight and up around 44F/7C tomorrow), but there was a lot of ice all over the road and my truck from the freezing rain that had been falling for the last few days.

Digital Media and Media Center Topics

Jan 3, 2004 1 min.

I’m getting back into my column writing, and I’m looking for topic suggestions… I actually have a long list of ideas already, but I’m always interested in hearing what you folks want to read about! So… suggest away! Feel free to include topics related to the Media Center edition of Windows XP as I’m planning to spend some time with the developer side of that product over the next few months.

Bandwidth Drought

Dec 24, 2003 2 min.

I’m off in Winnipeg, visiting relatives for Christmas, and I’ve been experiencing severe bandwidth issues. I brought my laptop along to do some work on my next book, check email and to play movies for my son, but I’ve barely even had it on. Dial-up isn’t usually a problem for me, even though I have broadband, I use it in hotels all the time and it works fine for email, etc….