tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-307599302024-03-05T12:21:02.949-05:00DeveloperBuzzsomething to type that isn't always code...briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-40590208700242751102011-11-30T23:16:00.001-05:002011-12-01T00:07:41.124-05:00Free Wufoo vs Free JotForm - Quick CompareI've been using Wufoo since mid 2009 about when it started. So long that I still have the original Ad Hoc price of $9.95 per month instead of the current price of $14.95.<br />
<br />
It's still a great and reliable service if you need to handle forms. However recently I found out about JotForm after someone on twitter posted about their new user feedback service <a href="http://www.jotform.com/wishbox">http://www.jotform.com/wishbox</a> it's pretty neat. So I took a look at their core product JotForm.<br />
<br />
In short JotForm.com offer's more features and better pricing than Wufoo. Isn't competition awesome! :-)<br />
<br />
<ul>
<a href="http://wufoo.com/signup/">WuFoo.com Free Plan</a><br /><i>- 3 Forms<br />- 10 Fields per Form<br />- 3 Reports<br />- No Storage Space (unless you upgrade to $14.95mo plan)<br />- No SSL (unless you upgrade to $29.95mo plan)<br />- 100 entries / month<br />- No Payments Accepted (unless you upgrade to $29.95mo plan)</i></ul>
<ul><i><br /></i></ul>
<ul>
<a href="http://www.jotform.com/pricing/">JotForm.com Free Plan</a><br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">+ Unlimited Forms<br />+ Unlimited Fields per Form<br />+ Unlimited Reports<br />+ 100mb Storage Space (for uploads from forms)<br />+ 10 SSL Secure Submission per month</span></b><br />= 100 non-secure submissions per month<br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">+ 10 Payments per month</span></b></ul>
<pre></pre>
<pre>Legend
= same
<i>- offers less than competitor</i>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">+ offers more than competitor</span></b>
</pre>
<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/Jotform.com">Jotform.com</a>'s $9.95 plan offers even more and is between WuFoo's $14.95mo and $29.95mo plan.<br />
<br />briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-6563507225957364082009-02-28T22:57:00.004-05:002009-02-28T23:16:32.641-05:00Allow your customers to make their own Data Grid with the new DevExpress Filter ControlI was exploring the <a href="http://www.devexpress.com">DevExpress</a> tools and found something that will really help reduce the time I spend making simple but needed data grids. With the <a href="http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/Controls/ASP/Filter/">DevExpress Filter Control</a> and Grid Control you can allow end users to create custom data grids without the bother or fear of validating input controls.<br /><br />There are two versions of the filter control. One that is built into the ASPxGridView and one that is standalone that acts like a datasource control with a frontend editor. You can take a look at the control here and watch demos of the built in filter control or the standalone.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Live Demo and Video</span><br />ASPxGridView with builtin Filter Control <a href="http://demos.devexpress.com/ASPxGridViewDemos/Filtering/FilterBuilder.aspx">Live Demo</a> <a href="http://tv.devexpress.com/AGVFilterControl.movie">Video Demo</a><br />ASPxGridView paired to the standalone Filter Control <a href="http://demos.devexpress.com/ASPxGridViewDemos/Editors/FilterBuilder.aspx">Live Demo</a> <a href="http://tv.devexpress.com/ASPNET_Filter_Control.movie">Video Demo</a><br /><br />The DevExpress Filter Control is available in their DXperience 2008 vol 3 control suite.briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-87114919359343689632009-02-23T20:17:00.005-05:002009-02-23T20:56:45.755-05:00Dual Internet Connection Load Balancing on a BudgetRecently my internet connection from Comcast has been down. To their credit and my utter disbelief they bent over backwards to come out and fix things. I've had three technicians since I scheduled the first call. The first tech replaced a few connectors and scheduled two additional techs. One to replace an old thinner cable and another one to fix something on the utility pole across the street. My connection now is fantastic and the problems I experienced with HD and my internet have disappeared. Thanks Comcast! (seriously thanks)<br /><br />So before all of that was fixed I had about 10 days of intermittent internet connectivity which REALLY sucks if you rely on having access to your remote servers, a vpn, stackoverflow ;-), and the internet in general. It was getting very frustrating. Luckily it worked for most of the day and only went down at night, the cause was never fully diagnosed.<br /><br />So now I have TWO internet connections; one from Comcast (Cable) and one from Bellsouth (DSL). I did a speed test and the cable connection is absolutely faster than dsl. Download speeds for cable were from 4-12mb with uploads up to 2.5mb. DSL was 2-6mb download and maxed out at 400kb for uploads. You can test your own internet connection by visiting <a href="http://www.speedtest.net/">www.SpeedTest.net</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.syswan.com/files/sw24vpn_3-4_400.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 78px;" src="http://www.syswan.com/files/sw24vpn_3-4_400.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I originally planned to just switch from Cable to DSL. However after the Comcast guys came out and fixed things. I decided to try and keep them both. Lucky for me there is a low cost and EXCELLENT solution for home or small businesses who need to have two internet connections. <a href="http://www.syswan.com/SW24VPN_Overview.htm">The Syswan SW24 VPN</a> I purchased mine from <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833373001">NewEgg.com</a>.<br /><br /><br />Setting up the SW24 VPN was very easy and I had no issues with it on either the cable or dsl connections. Currently it is setup to just load balance between the two connections but it can be setup to use one or the other as a backup. It also has a ton of administrative functions to help control who goes where and in general to manage all of your LAN connections. All in all it's been the best $189 I've spent on network hardware. I've also had very quick and helpful emails from Sysway support.briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-48415285719914322182009-02-06T21:09:00.002-05:002009-02-06T21:16:14.358-05:00Importance of handling Domain Typo'sA few years ago I discovered I had a bad habit when typing in a website address. I usually type the www. I know it is usually optional but not always. If you are like me sometimes you forget one of the w's and just type <a href="http://ww.microsoft.com">ww.microsoft.com</a>, go ahead give that link a try. As of today's post neither w.microsoft.com nor ww.microsoft.com default to the main site.<br /><br />If you maintain your own DNS just go in and add a few A or CNAME entries for w, ww, and I even go one more wwww and default them all to <a href="http://www.eyespike.com">www.eyespike.com</a>.briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-52142668554545807542008-12-19T09:56:00.008-05:002009-02-09T20:04:31.954-05:00NorthFloridaDotNet.org - .NET User GroupI recently started a .Net user group, NFDotNet.org, and we are coming up on our third meeting next month. With the 3rd official meeting we will achieve iNeta approval and access to iNeta speakers. Which is really exciting. Our group is small but thanks to Bill at our last meeting we've already seen a growth of 34% going from 3 to 4! :-)<br /><br />Also big thanks to my business partners Phillip Flint who created a logo for us and Mike Heston who created the website design.<br /><br />Here is the logo:<br /><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 221px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxXo6-TVMNI4RfvsDJnSwMCLsJ2-IxdHeoUfDyU0Hd2zjcp6jtFr3sxlNJRL2ylAUZJ9B0o_dR3JWetBGxUqYtBWmHbYVcXopH3b5TdXmc5Q0AjP7vu7WFGNp2YmXkeH2ZGTbF/s400/NFDNUG_Small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281516383635914114" border="0" /><br />And even better I have STICKERS!!! if you would like one send a SASE to:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">NFDotNet User Group</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Po Box 3546</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Lake City, Fl 32056<br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Also feel free to join our user group at CodeZone.com the sign up procedure is on the main page of <a href="http://www.nfdotnet.org/">NFDotNet.org</a><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><br /></span>briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-51948408623813205892008-11-04T19:24:00.000-05:002008-11-04T19:28:15.910-05:00ORM Hell! Take Two!I will update this post in a few weeks. But this past weekend I purchased a <a href="http://EntitySpaces.com">EntitySpaces.com</a> Developer license and so far I'm very happy with it. There was a bit of a learning curve using the MyGeneration templating engine but wasn't too bad on this my second trial. I especially like that I can finally use VistaDB for small websites instead of using Access. SQLExpress is OK but when hosting on some ISP like GoDaddy they make it especially hard to use SQLExpress by requiring that you script up or manually create the database instead of just dropping it into the App_Data folder. VistaDB along with EntitySpaces is a great solution for me.briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-69981425432297387282008-10-18T20:00:00.019-04:002008-10-20T09:17:36.798-04:00ASP.NET Pivot Table made easy with DevExpress PivotGridHave you ever taken results directly from the database admin and dropped it into an Excel spreadsheet just to do a pivot table? I have many times and it's a painful process to keep it updated for every meeting.<br /><br />Recently I found a great solution to this problem using an ASP.NET <a href="http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/Controls/ASP/Pivot_Grid/">PivotTable</a> from <a href="http://www.devexpress.com/">DevExpress</a>.<br /><br />Before you run off and completely ignore the rest of my post let me give you a few suggestion.<br /><ul><li>Look at the <a href="http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/Controls/ASP/Pivot_Grid/Features.xml">features pages</a> for the control and especially the <a href="http://demos.devexpress.com/ASPxPivotGridDemos/">Demo</a>.</li><li>There is an excellent 10 minute video on getting started at <a href="http://tv.devexpress.com/ASPxPivotGrid101intro.movie">tv.devexpress.com/ASPxPivotGrid101intro.movie</a><br /></li></ul>My first use of the <a href="http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/Controls/ASP/Pivot_Grid/index.xml">DevExpress PivotGrid</a> control was to convert an existing Excel spreadsheet I updated frequently for one of my clients. It simply shows the number of registered users for their website by State and grouped by month/year since 2006.<br /><br />I'm going to reduce the data to just a few years and only a few months for this example. As you will see showing the full dataset is as easy as updating the SQL statement, the PivotGrid will remain the same.<br /><br />Database Schema for example<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">User</span><br />-UserID<br />-Created<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">UserLocation</span><br />-UserID<br />-State<br /><br />SQL Statement in my case it's MySQL but the PivotGrid doesn't care.<br /><textarea name="code" class="xml:nogutter"><br />SELECT<br />count(User.UserID) As Users<br />,UserLocation.State As State<br />,date(User.Created) As 'Date'<br />FROM User INNER JOIN UserLocation ON User.UserID = UserLocation.UserID<br />WHERE year(User.Created) IN (2006,2007,2008) AND UserLocation.State IN ('WY','NM','NV')<br />AND month(User.Created) BETWEEN 1 AND 3<br />GROUP BY date(User.Created),UserLocation.State<br /></textarea><br /><br />Here is the PivotGrid markup (<a href="http://developerbuzz.com/example/devexpress/pivotgrid/simple/pivotgridmarkup.html?keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=300&width=1280" class="thickbox">zoom code view</a>):<br /><textarea name="code" class="html:nogutter"><br /><dxwpg:aspxpivotgrid id="ASPxPivotGrid" runat="server" cssclass="" datasourceid="MySqlDataSource_Users" enablecallbacks="false" rowsperpage="100"><br /> <fields><br /> <dxwpg:pivotgridfield fieldname="Users" id="fieldUsers" area="DataArea" sortorder="Descending" areaindex="0" caption="Users"><br /> </dxwpg:PivotGridField><br /> <dxwpg:pivotgridfield fieldname="State" id="fieldState" area="RowArea" areaindex="0" caption="State"> <br /> </dxwpg:PivotGridField><br /> <dxwpg:pivotgridfield fieldname="Date" id="fieldYear" area="ColumnArea" areaindex="0" groupinterval="DateYear" caption="Year"><br /> </dxwpg:PivotGridField><br /> <dxwpg:pivotgridfield fieldname="Date" id="fieldMonth" area="ColumnArea" areaindex="0" groupinterval="DateMonth" caption="Month"><br /> </dxwpg:PivotGridField><br /> </fields><br /></dxwpg:ASPxPivotGrid><br /></textarea><br /><br />And this is what the actual PivotGrid looks like (<a href="http://developerbuzz.com/Images/public_images/DevExpress.PivotGrid.Example.Large.png" class="thickbox">view full size image</a>):<br /><a href="http://developerbuzz.com/Images/public_images/DevExpress.PivotGrid.Example.Large.png" class="thickbox"><img style="cursor: pointer" src="http://developerbuzz.com/Images/public_images/DevExpress.PivotGrid.Example.Large.png" border="0"></a><br /><br />The column and row fields in the PivotGrid are draggable and will change the visualization of your data immediately, no change to SQL statement required. The component actually does all the work once it has the dataset. Take a look at this <a target="_blank" href="http://demos.devexpress.com/ASPxPivotGridDemos/Features/ChartsIntegration.aspx">example</a>.<br /><br />As you can see it is very easy to visualize your data using this PivotGrid component and this is a very simple example. If you want to learn more and see all the possibilities go to <a href="http://DevExpress.com">DevExpress.com</a> website and take a look at the PivotGrid feature and Live Demo pages.<br /><br />If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post a comment to this post. I will have a more advanced post on the PivotGrid next month after I have a little more experience with it.<br /><br />Finally here is a standard <a href="http://developerbuzz.com/example/devexpress/pivotgrid/simple/rawgrid.html?keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=400&width=300" class="thickbox">GridView</a> of the same dataset.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dotnetkicks.com/kick/?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.developerbuzz.com%2f2008%2f10%2faspnet-pivot-tables-made-easy-with.html"><img src="http://www.dotnetkicks.com/Services/Images/KickItImageGenerator.ashx?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.developerbuzz.com%2f2008%2f10%2faspnet-pivot-tables-made-easy-with.html&bgcolor=009900" border="0" alt="kick it on DotNetKicks.com" /></a>briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-72485933597576823602008-10-18T13:54:00.017-04:002008-10-20T10:05:24.721-04:00Use jQuery to Show and Hide part of a TableRecently I found the need to be able to hide and show part of an HTML table. After a few minutes with jQuery and getting stuck. I posted a <a title="Feel free to up vote my question ;-)" target="_blank" href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/215219/how-do-i-hide-the-middle-of-a-table-using-jquery">Question</a> on <a target="_blank" href="http://stackoverflow.com/">StackOverflow.com</a>. And in just under 10 minutes I had several answers. One from <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/users/13055/parand">Parand</a> which I tested and then refactored to create this <a class="thickbox" href="http://developerbuzz.com/example/jquery/custom/showhidepartialtable/showhidepartialtableusingjquery.htm?keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=300&width=200">working example</a>.<br /><br />What I like most about this example is that it will degrade nicely if Javascript is disabled by showing the full table.<br /><br /><table border="0" cellspacing="4"><tr><td valign="absbottom"><iframe border="0" height="260" width="200" scrolling="no" src="http://developerbuzz.com/example/jquery/custom/showhidepartialtable/showhidepartialtableusingjquery.htm"></iframe></td><td valign="absbottom"><img src="http://developerbuzz.com/example/jquery/custom/showhidepartialtable/HideShowTable_wJS.png" border="0"></td><td valign="absbottom"><img src="http://developerbuzz.com/example/jquery/custom/showhidepartialtable/HideShowTable_NoJS.png" border="0"></td></tr></table><br /><br /><textarea name="code" class="html:firstline[1]"><br /><script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br /> $(document).ready(function() {<br /> $("#HiddenRowsNotice").html("<tr><td colspan="'2'"> <a href="'#'">>> some rows hidden <<</a></td></tr>");<br /> $("#ShowHide").html("<tr><td colspan="'2'"><a href="'#'">show/hide middle rows</a></td></tr>");<br /> $("#HiddenRows").hide();<br /> <br /> $('#ShowHide,#HiddenRowsNotice').click( function() {<br /> $('#HiddenRows').toggle(); <br /> $('#HiddenRowsNotice').toggle();<br /> });<br /> });<br /></script><br /><table border="1"><br /> <tbody id="ShowHide"></tbody><br /> <tr><th>Month Name</th><th>Month</th></tr><br /> <tbody><br /> <tr><td>Jan</td><td>1</td></tr> <br /> </tbody><br /> <tbody id="HiddenRowsNotice"></tbody><br /> <tbody id="HiddenRows"><br /> <tr><td>Feb</td><td>2</td></tr><br /> <tr><td>Mar</td><td>3</td></tr><br /> <tr><td>Apr</td><td>4</td></tr> <br /> </tbody><br /> <tbody><br /> <tr><td>May</td><td>5</td></tr> <br /> </tbody><br /></table><br /></textarea><br /><br /><a href="http://www.dotnetkicks.com/kick/?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.developerbuzz.com%2f2008%2f10%2fuse-jquery-to-show-and-hide-part-of.html"><img src="http://www.dotnetkicks.com/Services/Images/KickItImageGenerator.ashx?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.developerbuzz.com%2f2008%2f10%2fuse-jquery-to-show-and-hide-part-of.html" border="0" alt="kick it on DotNetKicks.com" /></a>briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-14555294649220053842008-10-14T15:08:00.006-04:002008-10-14T15:34:51.108-04:00Apple's New MacBook's - Beautiful but missing that one more thing... a price cut<a href="http://gizmodo.com/5063274/the-bottom-line-on-apples-laptops-still-too-damned-expensive">Adam <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Frucci</span> at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Gizmodo</span> </a>pretty much echo's my feeling exactly regarding the price difference between an entry level Dell laptop and the New $1,299 Apple <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">MacBook</span>. <blockquote>And it's not like Apple is offering anything great for my $550. You have a <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5063227/carving-the-new-macbooks-with-lasers">fancy new manufacturing process</a>, awesome. Your <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5063232/new-macbooks-get-glass-trackpad-with-new-multitouch-gestures-no-buttons"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">trackpads</span> are glass</a>. OK. I'd rather have $550 and a plastic <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">trackpad</span>, thanks. I'm not sold on no physical buttons anyways.</blockquote><br />The new Apple <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">MacBook</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">MacBook</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Pro's</span> are stunning and basically works of Art. But the price and the missing mouse buttons are just disappointing. I've been waiting for this event for months and I'm ready for a new laptop from Apple.<br /><br />My hope for today was an announcement of a 15" <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">MacBook</span> at around $999. I will probably still get the 13" at $1,299 because I'm a nut, just like Steve Job's and his mission to remove all buttons.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.apple.com/macbook/">Apple's New <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">MacBook</span></a>briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-1620537185793187322008-10-05T21:56:00.003-04:002008-10-06T00:42:40.441-04:00Stackoverflow - The answer to your Programming QuestionDo you use Experts-Exchange to get your programming questions answered?<br /><br />Well I do and it works sometimes but more and more lately the are no answers at all to my programming questions. I think this is because you are now able to just purchase unlimited "points" and never have to give back and try to help others by answering their questions.<br /><br />Welcome <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/">StackOverflow.com</a> a creation of <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/">Jeff Atwood</a>, <a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/">Joel Spolsky</a>, and their team of developers. You can read their SO (stackoverflow) blog at <a href="http://blog.stackoverflow.com/">http://blog.stackoverflow.com</a> and download the podcast <a href="http://blog.stackoverflow.com/index.php?feed=podcast">here</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://stackoverflow.com/">Stackoverflow.com</a> is a Programming Question and Answer site with a social twist that seems to be working well. I was lucky and snagged an invite for the very brief private beta test. The private beta only lasted about 8 weeks or so and just went public around 9.17.2008. Stackoverflow.com and is now open to anyone.<br /><br />Part of the charm, advantage, and possibly biggest problem is that there is no login required to post questions or answers. However if you use your <a href="http://openid.net/">OpenID</a> to login and setup your profile you can earn reputation points. As you gain rep you earn more privileges within the system like editing someone else's question or even closing it altogether like a forum moderator. You earn points by posting a question or answer and having it voted up. You can also vote down a Q or A but it will cost you as well as the person you target with your down voting wrath. ;-) To encourage favored behavior on stackoverflow you can also earn bronze, silver, and gold <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/badges">badges </a>for your profile.<br /><br />I've had problems with down voting from my first day. I really don't think questions should be voted down below zero. But the reality, is that people like me vote up marginally off topic questions and it seems to be enough to offset the off topic police. In this case ON topic is asking only Programming related questions. Not questions a programmer has, which for me sometimes lean towards IT. But specifically Programming questions.<br /><br />You can get away with marginal IT questions especially if you can phrase the question in a programming context. For instance instead of asking "How can I find my IP address?" you should ask "How can I find my IP address Programmatically?". The first will get your question immediately down voted to virtual extinction, the second will probably be left alone and answered fairly swiftly.<br /><br />You are probably wondering about the bottom line "Will my question be answered, and how quickly?". The answer is "almost absolutely" and "almost immediately" depending on how specifically difficult your question happens to be.<br /><br />The best part of all is that it is completely free to ask, answer, and view anything thanks to minimally invasive ad support.<br /><br />I've actually cross posted a few programming questions on the paid experts-exchange website as well as <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/">StackOverflow.com</a> and stackoverflow won each time in both speed and answer value.briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-7076871167061547042008-09-28T19:15:00.000-04:002008-09-28T19:27:53.816-04:00jQuery and Microsoft - Better than a fresh Banana Moonpie!I've been playing around with jQuery and it is simply awesome.<br /><br />I just noticed on <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/09/28/jquery-and-microsoft.aspx">Scott Guthrie's blog</a> that Microsoft is going to support jQuery.<br /><p></p><p></p><blockquote style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><p>I'm excited today to announce that Microsoft will be shipping jQuery with Visual Studio going forward. We will distribute the jQuery JavaScript library as-is, and will not be forking or changing the source from the main jQuery branch. The files will continue to use and ship under the existing jQuery MIT license.</p> <p>We will also distribute intellisense-annotated versions that provide great Visual Studio intellisense and help-integration at design-time.</p></blockquote>I think this is a great decision and I can't wait to see how it will affect the Microsoft AJAX Framework. And in particular how component partners like Telerik and <a href="http://www.DevExpress.com">DevExpress</a> will change their code to use jQuery instead of the standard Microsoft AJAX framework.<br /><br />Pretty exciting for a late Sunday afternoon ;-)briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-70891409674108714092008-09-19T15:29:00.000-04:002008-09-19T15:32:36.539-04:00RC Hack$5 Wired Toy RC + WRT54G Router + Wireless Camera + Brain = True Hacker!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.jbprojects.net/projects/wifirobot">http://www.jbprojects.net/projects/wifirobot</a><br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/V5_NO43TD4U&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/V5_NO43TD4U&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-53437822144487258312008-09-03T10:00:00.001-04:002008-09-03T10:40:34.271-04:00Google Chrome - Awesome!<a href="http://www.google.com/chrome/">Download Google Chrome</a><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://tools.google.com/chrome/intl/en-US/features.html#">Google Chrome Features</a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://tools.google.com/chrome/intl/en-US/webmasters-faq.html#tools">Developer Tools in Chrome</a></div><div><br /></div><div>There are a lot of cool things about Google's browser. The first for me is the ability to drag a tag out of the browser to create a new window. It has "incognito" mode for private browsing and according to the feature page each tab is it's own thread so crashes are isolated.</div><div><br /></div><div>Google's browser reminds me of everything I liked about FireFox 1.0. Simple, clean, and with a single purpose. Google even takes this single purpose to another level by removing the typical FILE toolbar, there isn't one. The top is the tab and you can optionally turn on the bookmark toolbar in the options panel.</div><div><br /></div><div>So far all of the websites I worry about look as expected. And it is fast, much faster than IE7 or FF2/3 from what I can tell.</div>briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-49159830512235390972008-08-16T00:02:00.006-04:002008-10-05T23:26:36.610-04:00Free Tools from DevExpress.com and Telerik<a href="http://www.devexpress.com/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwKbr1kAHmRNAE9C0eVG4dQqwqgpiTBJu4X06ZboT9rmHWXDOoSIXZklQKHgFuKRonY6_7D1YoCn6Oqh8zr1SCL80ls8N1-d-PZbDny03knaRdDgKyhsdPcnj4H7TydFpQzKB5/s200/dxLogo.gif" alt="" id="DevExpress.com Logo" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Just came across this link on DotNetKicks for 60 free components tools from <a href="http://www.devexpress.com/">DevExpress.com</a>.<br /><a href="http://www.devexpress.com/Products/Free/WebRegistration60">http://www.devexpress.com/Products/Free/WebRegistration60</a><br /><br />One of the comments on DotNetKicks asked "what's the catch?". I don't think there is a catch. DevExpress has a TON of other tools in their full Windows and ASP.NET Suite. Not to mention <a href="http://www.devexpress.com/Products/Visual_Studio_Add-in/Coding_Assistance/">CodeRush/Refactor Pro</a>, which I own and keep updated.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.telerik.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDny7E11M6rDnMC-Js91I7DKqftsTzrLJr0shoIBdMRBw76IaQZ5YX__-imtHhXh-l4aCf_gP0sStM5vW87L0BziVDxQIPl2Jv8cKmD90qGQCrKDXn3kttXznTfGhRMA_MUPJC/s200/telerikLogo.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234971467520246018" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />I should also mention Telerik Tools. I've been a subscriber for the past 3 years of their Telerik Tools Suite, which now includes WinForms, ASP.NET, and Reporting tools. I wouldn't build a website without my Telerik tools now. You can play around with their components from their <a href="http://www.telerik.com/support/product-demos.aspx">demo page</a><br /><br />They offer a free version of their CMS called <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/">SiteFinity</a> which uses a few of their asp.net components like the RAD Editor and RAD Tree.<br /><br />We just launched our first <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/">SiteFinity</a> site for one of our clients at <a href="http://www.eyespike.com/">Eyespike Design</a><br />and it really made a difference in helping us deliver a very robust website within a constrained budget.<br /><br />So hook your self up with some time saving and awesome free components.briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-181631882899364822008-07-27T15:08:00.002-04:002008-08-16T00:22:36.330-04:00Logic Gate by Dominos and Cheat SheetsLogic Gates via Domino via <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SudixyugiX4&eurl=http://www.developerbuzz.com/">YouTube</a><br /><br />HTML/CSS/Javascript, ect... Cheat Sheets<br /><a href="http://sixrevisions.com/resources/cheat_sheets_web_developer" target="_blank">http://sixrevisions.com/resources/cheat_sheets_web_developer</a>briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-51881643364830718912008-07-21T20:43:00.006-04:002008-11-18T17:33:08.566-05:00Shopper is my most Useful iPhone App So Far<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.midcenturysoftware.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; " src="http://web.mac.com/markkrenek/MidCentury_Software/MidCentury_Software_files/droppedImage_3.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Shopper </span>is my new favorite iPhone app. It is $4.99 but worth it. I was using the built in ToDo list to make my shopping list but that is a pain. I tried the ZenBe To Do, which is cool and better than the built in one but not made for shopping list either. ZenBe To Do is free.<br /><br />I entered my entire shopping list in about 3 minutes and only a few keystrokes per entry as it auto completes from a built in list. As a bonus you can press the "Group" button and it will group all of your shopping cart items to make finding them a little easier. And if you are like me you add things as you need to and not as you will find them in the store.<br /><br />For items it does not already have a listing for like <span style="font-style: italic;">Hot Dogs</span> you can add it quickly then change the category, which defaults to <span style="font-style: italic;">Uncategorized</span> to <span style="font-style: italic;">Meats</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Milk</span> to the <span style="font-style: italic;">Dairy</span> category. Yes I do find it odd they don't have Hot Dogs and Milk already in their database.<br /><br />Their website <a href="http://www.midcenturysoftware.com/">http://www.midcenturysoftware.com</a> has a few video's demonstrating the app as well.briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-41815988792894569872008-07-21T19:04:00.001-04:002008-07-21T21:03:45.315-04:00Why is codeplex so slow?Is it just me or is <a href="http://www.codeplex.com/">CodePlex.com </a>VERY VERY slow and frustrating?briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-63144360445272885022008-07-19T13:25:00.000-04:002008-07-19T13:27:10.312-04:00Inspiration to be better today not tomorrow<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA">Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech</a>briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-68162442612442615342008-06-21T16:28:00.000-04:002008-07-12T21:26:57.073-04:00Unbelievably Cool! - Comcast’s Immense 10 million pixel video wall<a href="http://deputy-dog.com/2008/06/17/comcasts-immense-10-million-pixel-video-wall">http://deputy-dog.com/2008/06/17/comcasts-immense-10-million-pixel-video-wall</a><br /><br /><h2 class="post_name" id="post-325"><br /></h2>briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-49577820141941877732008-06-15T01:53:00.001-04:002008-07-26T12:15:43.787-04:00ORM Hell!ok so I have LLBLGen Pro v2.6 which is very nice for MySQL, awesome for SQL, but doesn't have the "promised" support for VistaDB. So I've been looking at other ORM's to see if I can find something easy to use and free or not too expensive. My choices seem to be EntitySpaces (via MyGeneration or Codesmith), Wilson ORMapper, or OPF3.<br /><br />My experience so far is:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">EntitySpaces & MyGeneration or CodeSmith: $150 + (MyGeneration is free but $99-$399 to use CodeSmith)</span><br /><br />ES needs to <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> require another piece of software, free or not. They do have better docs and tutorials than SubSonic but it's not nearly as much as the LLBLGen manual.<br /><br />Likes<br />- got the demo setup fine using SQL Server 2005 and Northwind with code - neat!<br />Dislikes<br />- design time support for the datasource control - no smarttag support and I had some trouble with the demo not wanting to sort. this is probably my issue.<br />- i thought the docs and tutorials would be better since this is a commercial product but they are not.<br />- I HATE having to download and use another piece of software to generate the classes. I thought ES2008 was going to have it's own GUI. Now they seem to be in CodeSmith's pocket and are pushing that everywhere.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wilson ORMapper:<br /></span>Likes<br />- can be obtained free at http://code.google.com/p/wilsonormapper<br />- from what I've read this is a very stable and evolved OR/M<br /><br />Dislikes<br />- home page mentioned it going open source soon on 9/7/2007 with a "news" post. it went open source shortly after that and unless I missed it there is NO mention of the google code so there is still people paying $50 for register and download software that is essentially free. I verified there are no links to the google code by running this <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Aormapper.com+http%3A%2F%2Fcode.google.com%2Fp%2Fwilsonormapper&btnG=Search">LINK</a>. I looked around his website hoping to find some mention of getting video's or documentation about using the programs but there isn't any. this project is essentially abandoned and the guy still has the $50 subscription up on the site. It is his code and his website so he can do as he pleases but I don't think it's right to have the code open source and not mention that fact on the website while still asking for $50. The $50 is NOT the problem that's dirt cheap. Just feels a little slimy to me.<br />- couldn't get it to connect to MySQL at all<br />- couldn't find a getting started doc, at least EntitySpaces had that and it was well done.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">OPF3:<span style="font-weight: bold;"> - Trying it now. $150-$200</span><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br />I don't understand why these places can't put more effort into documentation and tutorials. OPF3 seems to do this better than anyone so far. I think they expect people to just dig in and figure it all out. ALL I want is to have it create a good DAL that can be used with my Telerik tools and in code when needed. So far SubSonic and ES2008 can do this on some level or another. WilsonOR is just a pain and I don't have time to learn it.<br /><br />i'll update this post when I have more on OPF3 and VistaDB.<br /><br />You may be asking why use VistaDB?<br />for simple websites, like one that I'm about to do for a church, it's nice to be able to XCopy the entire thing. With Access or VistaDB you can do that and not worry about making sure they find a host with SQL Express.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">LLGLGen<br /></span>Awesome software with a very extensive manual and actual staff support in their forums. I have had LLBLGen for a while and use it on a e-commerce website that uses MySQL.<br /><br />By far LLBLGen is the best OR/M software available. And since it offers two different methods SelfService and Adapter mode you can go with a simple and short learning curve (SelfService) or the full on do anything you want using the Adapter mode. And both methods offer partial extendable classes. If you are going to pick one and stick with it for all of your projects I would go with LLBLGen. If you are interested first download the LLBLGen manual and go through the concepts portions. Then download the trial and give it a try.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">SubSonic<br /></span>I should have included this as well. Especially since I made a website <a href="http://www.learnsubsonic.com/">LearnSubsonic.com</a><br /><br />Subsonic doesn't need another program to use because it uses a command line interface. The CLI can be made a little easier by integrating into VS. I used to be in with SubSonic and even purchased the domain LearnSubsonic.com so I could try and keep a list of tutorials. And it is in my few the best of the free or lower prices OR/M's and if you can find enough tutorials and video's to get you started it is also pretty easy to use. I think the major feature lacking for Subsonic is good documentation with lots of examples. Rob and Eric post a lot of this on their blog but you'll have to dig around. I stop updating LearnSubsonic.com but it has links to the beginner video's which is a good place to start.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Microsoft's Entity Framework<br /></span>I haven't had a chance to look at this yet. But the momentum is building and Carl Franklin from DotNetRocks has released a DNRtv episode about it <a href="http://www.dnrtv.com/default.aspx?showNum=117">http://www.dnrtv.com/default.aspx?showNum=117</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conclusion<br /></span>In my experience LLBLGen is the best of the best and this is backed up by their constant updates, tutorials, and documentation. And more importantly the forum <a href="http://www.llblgen.com/tinyforum/" target="_blank">http://www.llblgen.com/<wbr>tinyforum/</a> where you will find that Fran's himself replies to a lot. The support from LLBLGen is excellent. My suggestion is to watch the tutorials for Subsonic and LLBLGen and decide for yourself which to use for your project.<br /><br />BTW I didn't bother with OPF and VistaDB. I just don't have the time to learn another OR/M. When VistaDB releases the version with LINQ support I will use it for smaller sites. But my recent experience with GoDaddy hosting is that support for SQL Express DB's is very good and not nearly as much of a pain as I expected. So I'm using SQL Express for smaller sites for the foreseeable future. Also I started playing around and using <a href="http://www.herocoder.com/">HeroCoder</a><br />which only uses SQL Server db's but removes a lot of the burden of managing the authentication for a website.briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-27801276045882091262008-05-31T14:23:00.000-04:002008-05-31T14:33:14.495-04:00Tools ListI read <a href="http://www.Hanselman.com">hanselman.com</a> everyday. Scott keeps a list of his tools at hanselman.com/tools of which I use a few.<br /><br />Most recently I have found a few good tools to handle Defragging and System Imaging.<br /><br />Ultimate Defragger Free Edition (PLEASE read the PDF they include it is excellent): <a href="http://www.disktrix.com/UDFree.htm">http://www.disktrix.com/UDFree.htm</a><br /><br />Drive Imaging. Normally I use Acronis for my workstation but there "server" product is $900 PER SERVER and is not different than the desktop version. How do I know this.... well because up through v6 Acronis worked on our hosting server to make backups. Since v7 it gives you a nasty alert and says to use their server product. So I've been looking for a good alternative every since. I finally found one from Drive-Image.com called <a href="http://www.drive-image.com">R-Drive Image</a> which works very nicely on a new Windows 2003 Server I setup and restored recently. From what I've seen it uses better compression as well AND their license is only $49 regardless of the machine you will be using it on. The only problem I am having is restoring a 15gb image back to the full 250gb drive seems to be causing a problem in that I can't convert the Basic Drive to a Dynamic Drive to do a windows software mirror. Oh Acronis Home does NOT do dynamic drives either even on Windows XP. So my workstation which is using dynamic disks to mirror my OS and data drive sets does not work. R-Drive Image DOES and supports Shadow Copy as well. It's very nice and reasonable price.<a href="http://www.Drive-Image.com"></a>briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-75537705597686877402008-05-31T13:43:00.000-04:002008-05-31T14:22:01.530-04:00Quad Core and CoolingSo I built a new workstation a while back after reading about it on CodingHorror.com and Hanselman.com. I'm a little disappointed in the performance but I think an upgrade form the 7,200 drives to 10,000 drives may resolve it. That will have to wait though for those drives to come down a bit more.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/35-101-011-02.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 138px; height: 103px;" src="http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/35-101-011-02.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>One thing I did fix was to replace the stock Intel cooling fan with a new <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835101011">ASUS V-60 92mm Vapo Bearing CPU Cooler</a>. The stock fan lately was always winding up to full speed and staying there with the case closed. That was reduced when I opened on side of the case but that was not a permanent fix. After reading a lot of reviews on cooling fans I picked the ASUS. It looks nice, not that you can see it but I mostly the design seemed to make the most sense to me. Also I picked up a tube of <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007">ArticSilver</a> which was suggested by many reviewers and after seeing it and applying it I agree it was worth the extra $6. Before using it I had to remove the previous waxy grease that was on the CPU heat spreader and the new fan. I used a paper towel and some isopropyl alcohol to remove the bulk then a link free cloth to finish it up. If you use the ArticSilver make sure and download their PDF that is specific to your processor and follow the instructions. It actually makes a difference how you place the bead of grease onto the CPU heatspreader.<br /><br />So you may be interested in some stats, I love stats!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/11-129-017-10.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 95px; height: 71px;" src="http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/11-129-017-10.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>My Workstation Setup (partial list)<br /><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129017">Antec P180B Case (3 120mm fans: top, back,hd)</a><br /><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153038">Thermaltake 750w Power Supply</a><br /><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017">Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600</a><br /><br />Stock fan and case open:<br />CPU Temp 56c / 134f<br />Case Temp 33c / 91f<br /><br />New Fan and case open (first boot after upgrade):<br />CPU Temp 27c / 80f<br />Case Temp 26c / 80f<br /><br />New Fan and case open (after running a performance test a few times)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CPU Temp 30c / 86f</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Case Temp 34c / 93f</span><br /><br />New Fan and case closed (running for a few hours under normal workload)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CPU Temp 33c / 91f</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Case Temp 30c / 86f</span><br /><br />I'd say that's a pretty good result for $35.<br /><br />Hardest part of this upgrade was deconstructing the machine to attach screw plate that has to go on the underside of the motherboard. Even with that and reading the ArticSilver instructions I was done in 30minutes.briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-78129363162696388862008-03-01T21:34:00.000-05:002008-03-01T21:47:48.463-05:00Switching from Outlook for GmailI'm switching from Outlook for Gmail.<br /><br />Why?<br /><br />- Outlook 2007 sucks! Half the time my emails were not being displayed in the inbox. I had to create the Unread Message search folder just to confirm they were being downloaded.<br />- I already use Gmail<br />- my iPod touch has a great interface with GMail<br />- gmail has MUCH better search using tags which will be a better match for me than folders.<br />- SPAM: I hardly get any spam in my inbox and hardly any false positives.<br /><br />Concerns:<br />- Allowing Google to have permanent copies of my email<br />- Relying on Google to maintain my account and restore it if something happens.<br /><br />I'll post more as I go through this process.briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-33610185989111858162008-01-25T02:05:00.000-05:002008-05-13T12:18:27.803-04:00VBScript Syntax Highlighting in VS2008Unbelievable! Microsoft has "depreciated" VBScript syntax highlighting in Visual Studio 2008. <br /><br /><a href="https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=290845">https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=290845</a><br /><br />Their solution is to use Visual Studio 2005! How lame, why not just tell us to use InterDev?<br /><br />I'm a Microsoft kinda guy but lately it seems that Microsoft is putting a lot of distance between some of their business decisions and common sense.<br /><br />I left a post on DevExpress.com forum hoping to use CodeRush to restore this functionality but I wish Microsoft would just turn it back on.<br /><br />If you know a work around please leave a comments here.<br /><br />SP1 fixes this finally!<br /><br /><a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/05/12/visual-studio-2008-and-net-framework-3-5-service-pack-1-beta.aspx">http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/05/12/visual-studio-2008-and-net-framework-3-5-service-pack-1-beta.aspx</a>briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759930.post-63769452002983714082007-10-31T18:36:00.000-04:002007-10-31T18:39:59.218-04:00Why Vista Sucks Final Chapter!ok as of yesterday my graphic design copart and myself gave up on Vista. I finished migrating his core OS and apps back to XP Pro SP2. And I'm just about to format and do the same on my machine. <br /><br />Most of his fonts and font management programs did not work at all. And a lot of my development tools, including Visual Studio 2005, did not work or work as expected in Vista. One of my major issues was the color management and the fact that nVidia has yet to release their monitor management feature. I was used to popping windows around my three screens by using a shortcut of CTRL-1 2 or 3 depending on the monitor. This one item is a major pain, now that it is gone.briankbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09423021829391350908noreply@blogger.com0