Rhonda Tipton's WebLog

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

Application Development/Design

• Iterate, damn you! – “Just say “no” to mutable value types. They do weird things.”
• 6 Must Have Portable Applications For Web Developers – Great list of tools!
• 6 Cool #VS2010 Quick Tips you should know when working with VS 2010 – Visual Studio 2010 is super cool. Here are few features I love most in VS 2010.
• Videos: Webcast of my 101 VS tips in 55 mins via O’Reilly is now available

Database Development 

• August 2010 Tips – Recap – Lots of tips in August.
• Deleting sequential duplicates with TSQL – “I was recently given a du-duping task which was much more difficult than I anticipated and taxed my SQL brain to its limits.”
• Comma-delimited Column with SQL 2005 – “I seem to always find myself needing a script that will create a comma-delimited column.”

Community/Technology Events & Training

• Houston Area User Group Meetings – This is my monthly listing of Houston area user group meetings.

Photography: Tips and Software

• Moments in White – Interesting photos.
• Use These 5 Elements to Compose Great Photographs – “Composing a great photograph can be done in so many different ways that it seems more logical to talk about “guides” to composition rather than “rules” of composition.”
• Five Projects to Jumpstart Your Photography & Fight Photo Boredom – “It happens to everyone. If you have photographed for a long time you find yourself in the occasional rut.”
• Processing Black & Whites – “This is going to be a short tutorial on how I process some of my B&W’s and hopefully it will give you a little inspiration to try your own.”

Self-Improvement, Productivity and Career

• How to Create the Ultimate Exercise Playlist – “Studies show that the rhythmic speed of your music influences your athletic performance. Here’s how to use that information to create the ultimate playlist for your workout.”
• 8 Simple Steps To Overcome Shyness – “Shyness is simply a feeling of nervousness or awkwardness when around other people.”
• Use OneNote to Make Memorizing Information Easier – “Whether you’re just getting started in the new school year or have been out of college for years, most of us have to regularly remember new information and often teach it to others. Here’s a neat way you can use OneNote to help you memorize information with digital flashcards.”

Sports, Entertainment and Everything Else 

• Dilbert comics I Found Funny: 08/31 | 09/01 | 09/05
• Movie Trailers: Resident Evil: Afterlife | Let Me In

GFI Software, the makers of GFI Backup, is looking for tech bloggers to review their new GFI WebMonitor Software. They have a competition going that has some pretty appealing prizes.

Details for the competition => Software Reviewers Wanted

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Happy blogging!

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

Application Development/Design 

• Debugging Tips with Visual Studio 2010 – “Today’s blog post covers some useful debugging tips that you can use with Visual Studio.”
• Linq – Sum – “In this blog post I will demonstrate basic usage cases for the Linq Sum function.”
• Null and blank values – “What’s the best way of writing robust code so that a variable can be checked for null and blank?”
• Using C#-style Events In Ruby – “I thought it would be fun to write something that allows me to define and use events in Ruby in a way that is very similar to how it works in C#. It actually is pretty easy to do this and i think it shows some of the power and flexibility of the Ruby language.”
• Howto Install and Run the Android Emulator – “I thought I would give a quick and easy guide for folks to follow, that might be interested in getting started with Android Development and running the Android Emulator.”
• Search and Navigation Tips/Tricks with Visual Studio – “Today’s blog post continues on from the Debugging Tips post I did last week, and covers some useful searching and navigation tips/tricks you can take advantage of within Visual Studio.”
• Divide a List into Equal Parts – “A recent post in the forums asked how to divide a generic list of items into separate lists of equal length.”

Database Development 

• Interesting T-SQL problems – “With this blog post I am hoping to start a new series of blogs devoted to the interesting T-SQL problems I encounter in forums during the week.”

Community/Technology Events & Training

• Houston Area User Group Meetings – This is my monthly listing of Houston area user group meetings.
• Material from SHDNUG talk – Claudio Lassala shares his presentation materials. Good thing since I have class on Wed and Thu nights this semester.

Photography: Tips and Software 

• Use These Simple Techniques to Change the Composition of Your Photographs – “A lot of the time, people miss a well composed shot simply because they didn’t take the time to seek out a slightly better alternative.”
• Greenland – Beautiful photos. My favorite is the one with the brightly colored houses.
• Getting Your Work Online With a Photography Portfolio – “An internet-based photography portfolio if designed well can really bring a touch of class to your work and allow people to view it at their leisure.”
• Nikon D7000 to be the D90′s spiritual (and actual) successor? – “With the Nikon D3100 now official and out in the open, it’s time to tilt the rumor mills back towards a successor to the company’s much-loved D90.”
• 15 Must Have Photography Accessories Under $25* – “Photography can be an expensive hobby. Cameras cost a bundle and lenses for DSLRs often cost a lot more than the camera body.”

Internet, Software, Technology & Science 

• New Fireball on Jupiter Spotted By Skywatchers – “Amateur skywatchers have spotted what appeared to be a new fireball from yet another apparent impact on Jupiter – the third in 13 months for the gas giant.”
• Evernote: A Surprising Center for Collaboration – “…the web-based notebook tool’s evolution has made it far more useful as a base for collaboration…”
• Google Earth for Android Lets You Deep Sea Dive – “Google Earth for Android update with pinch to zoom, rotate, 3D topography, and a fancy new way to canvas the ocean floor.”
• 5 Intriguing Earth-Sized Planets – “The announcement today of a newfound group of alien planets orbiting a distant star has added another candidate for the growing list of potential Earth-sized worlds beyond our own solar system.”
• Watch Netflix On Your iPhone or iPhone Touch Without a Jailbreak or Hack – “To watch streaming Netflix content on your iPhone in the past you needed to jailbreak and hack it, but no longer. Today we look at the new official Netflix app that will now stream content to your iPhone or iPod Touch.”

Self-Improvement, Productivity and Career 

• Five Thoughts about Making College Great – “…you end up finding your own path in life and it’s not a path dictated by your college major.”
• Speed-reading – “Here are some things that might help you read and learn faster.”
• Finding, Losing, and Reigniting Your Passion – Great post!
• Evernote As Your Resume Database – “The beauty here is that Evernote is not your resume, it is a personal, resume database.”

Social Networking and Blogging

• Social Bookmarking – The land time forgot – “In an online world filled with likes & retweets the lowly bookmark is in a state of severe neglect.”

Sports, Entertainment and Everything Else 

• Dilbert comics I Found Funny: 08-24 | 08-26

WebMatrix is a lightweight web development tool that also integrates the below technologies:

• IIS Developer Express: A lightweight web-server
• SQL Server Compact Edition: A lightweight file-based database
• ASP.NET Razor: A new view-engine option for ASP.NET that enables a code-focused templating syntax optimized around HTML generation.

I have started playing around with some of the templates and it does seem lightweight and easy to use. Below, I have listed some of the great resources I have run across.

• Introducing WebMatrix – Scott Guthrie
• Official WebMatrix site – ASP.NET
• Download WebMatrix – Microsoft
• Thoughts on WebMatrix – Nikhil Kothari
• Microsoft WebMatrix in Context and Deploying Your First Site – Scott Hanselman 
• WebMatrix Category from Rachel Appel

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Have fun!
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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

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

Application Development/Design

• Microsecond and Millisecond .NET Timer – A microsecond and millisecond timer in C# that is used in a similar way to the .NET System.Timers.Timer.
• Enum.TryParse – “If you work with Enum values, you may often need to convert between the Enum, an integer representation of the Enum.”
• Enums in C# – Mapping enum constants with user friendly names.
• Programming Languages Should be Simple – “I am disappointed with many of the newer languages which I earlier thought showed great promise of making programming easier, quicker, and more robust. And it boils down to one thing. Simplicity in learning.”
• Taking steps in the right direction: WebMatrix/Razor learning path – “Whether you’re new to web development or moving from another platform or language, such as PHP or classic ASP, you’ll want to know as few key languages/technologies before getting started and diving into a new web development stack.”
• Visual Studio Tips: Search in Class View

Database Development 

• A deadlock was detected while trying to lock variables in SSIS – “I’ll try and explain a few key concepts about variable locking.”
• The Power of Reporting Services Subscriptions – Processing Options and Parameters – “You’ve decided to harness the power of SQL Server Reporting Services subscriptions – congratulations!”
• Writing IF-ELSE code in TSQL – “The following are the examples on how to use the IF..ELSE clause effectively for various purposes.”

Community/Technology Events & Training

• Houston Area User Group Meetings – This is my monthly listing of Houston area user group meetings.

Photography: Tips and Software 

• 10 Quick, Easy and Intuitive Tips to Improve your Photography – Great article!
• Embrace the Weather with Your Photography – “Unlike other hobbies, photographers can go out in all weathers and make the best of a bad situation.”
• Shutter Speed Numbers – “Shutter speed can be a bit difficult for many digital photographers to wrap their heads around.”
• Scott Bourne’s Fast Photo Tips – Week 11 – “Here’s the 11th installment of my fast photo tips.”
• Photographing the Perfect Landscape – “Rolling hills and vales, enchanting areas of woodland, rugged shorelines and a dappled spring meadow can all become the most obvious of subjects for the landscape shooter, often yielding strongly emotive and awe-inspiring results.”

Internet, Software, Technology & Science 

• Export Your Evernote Notes in HTML or MHT Format – “Here’s how you can export everything stored in Evernote in HTML or MHT format.”

Self-Improvement, Productivity and Career 

• How to Build Self Esteem – “One of the first things to go, when our self-esteem is low, is our perception of our strengths.”
• 12 Tips for Getting Regular Exercise – “Exercise is a KEY to happiness. Research shows that people who exercise are healthier, more energetic, think more clearly, sleep better, and have delayed onset of dementia.”
• Tips for Handling Information Overload: Too Much Content – “The biggest problem with information overload for most people is that it is cumulative and it comes in from a variety of sources.”
• Top 10 Ways Your Brain Is Sabotaging You (and How to Beat It) – “Here’s a helpful list of the mind’s weird ways.”

Sports, Entertainment and Everything Else 

• Dilbert comics I Found Funny: 08-12
• Movie Trailers: Tron-Legacy | Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

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

Application Development/Design

• Android Development Environment – Instructions on setting up an environment for Android programming.
• Microsecond and Millisecond .NET Timer – A microsecond and millisecond timer in C# that is used in a similar way to the .NET System.Timers.Timer.
• Developing an Android Application – “After setting up your Android development environment, it’s time you implement your first (simple) Android application.”
• DateTime.Now Causes Boxing – “Perhaps you weren’t aware of it, but every time you access DateTime.Now, you cause to a dynamic memory allocation through the boxing of an Int32 variable.”
• The Weekly Source Code 55 – “NotABlog: A Local XML-RPC MetaWebLog Endpoint That Lies To Windows Live Writer”
• Free C# and VB.NET Training Videos – Good list of free tutorials.
• WebMatrix: What is it, Why use it, and Who’s it for? – “WebMatrix is a free, lightweight Web development stack that makes it easy to build web sites that can grow with you, from installation to product deployment & maintenance.”

Community/Technology Events & Training

• Houston Area User Group Meetings – This is my monthly listing of Houston area user group meetings.

Photography: Tips and Software 

• Hitting the Mother Road – Very cool podcast interview with a couple (both photographers) who took a month long road trip of the entire Route 66.
• The Three Types of Photographic Criticism and How to Handle Them – “Part of taking photographs is the enjoyment you get with sharing them.”
• How to Make Your DIY Water Droplet Studio – “This tutorial will focus on how to create a homemade Water Droplet Studio to get those great macro shots of a water drop splashing against still water, creating an explosion of colors.”
• Scott Bourne’s Fast Photo Tips – Week 10 – Here’s the tenth installment of my fast photo tips. 

Internet, Software, Technology & Science 

• 7 IT career rules worth breaking -  “It may feel especially risky to break the rules in today’s down job market, but blindly adhering to the status quo can actually hinder your career.”
• Jailbreak Your iPhone or iPod Touch with iOS 4 the Easy Way – “In case you haven’t heard the news over the past couple of days, there is now an incredibly easy way to jailbreak your iPod Touch or iPhone running iOS 4.”

Self-Improvement, Productivity and Career 

• 10 Keys To Becoming a Better Communicator – “It’s easy for us to accuse others of being poor communicators, poor listeners or poor speakers, but the thing about communication is that it’s not one-sided – it’s 2-way.”
• 7 Simple Ways To Say “No”  – “Rather than avoid it altogether, it’s all about learning the right way to say no.” 

Sports, Entertainment and Everything Else 

• Dilbert comics I Found Funny:  08-03 | 08-04 | 08-05 | 08-07
• Movie Trailers:  The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 

I attended my first photography meet up Thursday night. I have to say, the League City Photography Meet up Group is a very welcoming and mentoring group with a passion for taking photos. I learned a lot and hope to participate in more events in the future with this group.

The Third-Annual Worldwide PhotoWalk took place on July 24th.

World-wide Photo Walk – Main site

World-wide Photo Walk – Kemah site

Below is the photo submitted to the next level from the Kemah PhotoWalk

 Photo by John Bielick

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David Paulissen demonstrated a nice tip on using Powerpoint 2007 to create a PDF slideshow of your photos. This makes for an easy way to email photo galleries to friends and family.

Start Powerpoint and Select Insert > Photo Album > New Photo Album

Find the folder on your hard-drive containing the photos you want to share and click [Create]

Select a color scheme and add any necessary text to the slides

Select Save As > PDF or XPS

Name your PDF and click [Publish]

The end result is a nicely formatted PDF that anyone can open and enjoy your photos.

Great tip David!

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Software Suggestions

DeNoise – by Topaz Labs

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Links recommended by the group

• League City Photography Group Page
• PhotoSig
• Texas Photo Forum
• DP Review
• DTownTV
• Brazos Bend Facebook page
• SmugMug
• David Paulissen’s Site
• Flickr
• PhotoFocus
• White House Custom Color (WHCC)

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Happy shooting!

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Learn something new everyday. The Run To Cursor debugging feature in Visual Studio allows you to set a temporary breakpoint. This serves as a helpful tool in debugging.

Just position the cursor, right-click and select Run To Cursor. The program will run up to the position of your cursor and pause to allow you to step through the code from there.

This feature has been around since Visual Studio 2008 and maybe even earlier…

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Photo by Kunal Rohilla

The biggest meteor shower of the year is growing closer. The peak for the Perseid Meteor Shower is the night of Thursday, August 12th and it looks like there will be a pretty dark sky that night. So, if you are in a dark area with clear skies, it is possible to see 45+ meteors per hour…and that would be an awesome site to see.

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Additional Information

• EarthSky’s Meteor Shower Guide for 2010
• How to See the Best Meteor Showers of 2010: Tools, Tips and ‘Save the Dates’
• Get Ready for the Perseid Meteor Shower In August
• 2010 Perseid Meteor Shower
• 2010 Meteor Showers
• Astronomy Calendar of Celestial Events

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Happy stargazing!

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