ASP.NET Resources

Is Nook Cannibalizing Store Sales?

As a newly–minted owner of a Barnes & Noble’s Nook, I experienced a weird feeling as I walked into a local brick and mortar B&N store the other day. I saw a particular book I wanted to buy, but just couldn’t get myself to take it to the checkout.

1/27/2010 |

Shinkansen, My New Project, Is Up On CodePlex

A couple of days ago I launched my latest project, Shinkansen, on CodePlex (overview and documentation).

1/25/2010 |

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Help Improve the Markdown Port

Almost an eternity ago, I ported John Gruber's Markdown to C#. The Markdown syntax is known quite well outside of the .NET community, so I wanted to bring it to this camp. Even though I've seen the port used here and there, I've never got to run it as a community project.

12/28/2009 |

Don't Blabber About Your Employer During Interviews

As I do phone screens and in-person interviews with candidates, it’s funny and ironic to me how much sensitive information they disclose about their employer just for the asking. The kind of inside knowledge most employers would hate to see disclosed about their operations, which is why they put draconian clauses about it in employment contracts. And yet, that knowledge walks out the door that easily.

11/19/2009 |

Book Review: In Pursuit of Elegance

While reading a fascinating discussion of inefficiency of traffic control systems—road signs, traffic lights, etc—in Matthew May’s In Pursuit of Elegance, I came across this interesting thought:

11/18/2009 |

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Comparing Strings Like It's 1995

While going through The Art of Unit Testing: with Examples in .NET this morning, I came across a string comparison notation, which always makes me cringe:

11/13/2009 |

9 comments | No TrackBacks

How to Make crossdomain.xml Work with SharePoint

Not long ago I worked on a web site which had all its content and media stored in SharePoint. At an early point in the project, Flash developers started to complain that none of their media played when served from SharePoint. The problem seemed obvious: the cross-domain policy file, crossdomain.xml, was missing. Here’s what it’s for (via Adobe):

11/3/2009 |

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Slides from the Boston Code Camp 12

A big thank you to everyone who attended my two talks at the Boston Code Camp! Below are links to slides and sample code.

10/19/2009 |

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Observations From The Field

Cashiers at a certain brand new cafeteria have touch-screen displays littered with buttons upon buttons. Which button is pressed the most? "Credit," of course. The button is so small that a cashier pokes it with the eraser end of a pencil. And she has to aim every single time. Multiply this by a couple of hundred clicks per day, and her day must be pretty exhausting.

9/14/2009 |

Paco Underhill and His Silver Bullet Technology

Having recently read Paco Underhill’s fascinating book, Why We Buy, I’d like to share a story he cites about "computer programmers". To me, the story is quite educational and funny.

9/11/2009 |

My Herding Code Podcast Is Now Available

I’d like to thank the Herding Code folks for inviting me on the show. Episode #59 is up. Here’s a rundown of the topics we discuss there:

9/9/2009 |

Zeldman Speaketh. Take Heed.

I’ve stumbled upon an interesting interview (HTML, PDF) with Jeffrey Zeldman, published in the .NET Magazine (hey, what’s with the name, really?)

9/6/2009 |

The Best Time Is Now and Never

Something I learned a long time ago as a parent is that there’s no perfect time for kids. The same is true for marriage, vacations, starting a new business… You get the idea.

9/6/2009 |

Recipe: An ASP.NET Roast

Next time you invite your buddies to a cookout, how about making something special? May I suggest a roast recipe?

7/23/2009 |

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Hire me!

After years of being a business (co)owner and a “W2 consultant,” I’ve decided to put all my expertise to good use and go the route of independent consulting. It has taken months and months of research: reading, talking to fellow-consultants, reflecting, visiting an accountant, etc—to finally incorporate and get going. Hence the somewhat slow blogging.

7/16/2009 |

Wean Yourselves off View State From the Start

Whenever I start a new project these days, I head straight to web.config and do this:

7/10/2009 |

15 comments | No TrackBacks

Weather.com Broke Something

It seems weather.com has broken the cardinal rule of never, ever, ever changing an interface exposed to the public.

7/7/2009 |

Delta, Go and See For Yourself

One of the key ingredients in Toyota’s not-so-secret Toyota Production System sauce is Genchi Genbutsu, which literally means “go and see for yourself” (not to be confused with the philosophy of “go f*** yourself” wildly popular in New York). I hereby nominate Delta’s terminal #3 for the worst terminal at the JFK Airport. That filth hole can be easily fixed… if only Delta went a saw their own mess for themselves.

7/4/2009 |

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Public Enemies: Great Story, Sucky Implementation

Having seen—and greatly enjoyed—The Road to Perdition and The Assassination of Jesse James, I was eagerly waiting for Public Enemies to open in movie theaters… only to be sorely disappointed.

7/4/2009 |