Weekly Link Post 158

Here is the latest installment of links that I have found interesting in the past week.

Application Development/Design

•  .NET X12 Parser – A .NET C# implementation of an X12 Parser.
• Getting Started with PowerConsole – An extension called PowerConsole that is basically a PowerShell console window that lives inside of the Visual Studio. – interesting.
• Learning Scala – Great introduction to Scala.
• 13 books for a .NET Summer reading list – Interesting list of books.
• C# reference types are passed by value! – “There are two types of objects, the value types (structs) where the variable is the object and the reference types which only points to the object.”
• Videos: PowerShell in C#Application

Database Development

• Be wary of using UNC paths in SSIS packages – Good warning.
• Convert VarChar to Currency in SQL Server – “To convert a varchar to currency, the recommended practice is to do the formatting in the front end.”
• SQL Joins – “This article is written to describe all the different types of Sql Joins.”
• Snippets:  Count the number of occurrence of characters in the string | Function to Retrieve First Word of Sentence

Community/Technology Events & Training

• Houston Area User Group Meetings – This is my monthly listing of Houston area user group meetings.
• BarCamp Dallas Review – “I went to my first Barcamp today, held at Improving Enterprises in Dallas.”

Photography: Tips and Software 

• Landscape Photography For the Serious Amateur – “some tips which I hope others who are just starting out in the world of landscape photography will find useful.”
• Five Great Photography Magazines You Should be Reading – “The Internet is an amazing thing, and we take pride in providing you with content to help you with your passion for photography…”
• Is Using ‘Auto’ Mode Cheating? – “Sure, the camera get’s to decide on some of the fun stuff, but in the end, it doesn’t matter what the camera did, it matters what the photographer did.”
• Nikon D3100 Announcement – “Nikon announced the D3100 and four new lenses. The D3100 is a game changer for those who shoot video and here’s why.”
• Scott Bourne’s Fast Photo Tips – Week 12 – “Here’s the 12th and for now, final installment of my fast photo tips.”

Self-Improvement, Productivity and Career 

• What’s Stopping You? – “Sometimes simply being aware of something can change the way you approach it.”
• The Shy Connector – Great presentation!

Sports, Entertainment and Everything Else 

• Cool pictures I run across: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05
• Dilbert comics I Found Funny: 08-17 | 08-18
• Movie Trailers: Monsters | Skyline | Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark