August 2004 Blog Posts
I've been digging into CSS menus for a while, and when I received the first previews of ASP.NET 2.0 I wrote a really simple CSS menu. Since I'm doing a talk at ASP Connections on Navigation in ASP.NET 2.0. I'm building a Database SiteMap Provider and a new Menu control that's lightweight - small to render and no viewstate. I decided to modify my menu control to sit properly on top of the site map architecture; it's take a few days to get my head around what I really need to do. It's now working and in trying to pretty...
Just got back from a week in Redmond for a training event. Well, Bellevue actually - the Hyatt, but you get the drift. I'd written some content for this event and was expecting to speak, but because of changing schedules I wasn't needed. This left me free to attend sessions, which mostly consisted of the ASP.NET track run by Jeff Prosise. I have to say Jeff is probably the best all-round presenter I've ever seen; he's very accomplished: smooth, easy to follow, occasionally funny, but most of all enjoyable to watch. There are presenters such as Don Box who have...
Spooky. Bob is talking about UDTs in SQL Server Management Console (SSMS - I've hijacked his acronym). I've had the very same problem, and couldn't work out why the SSMS couldn't see the UDT, but that using ToString() explicitly worked. I had to mail the PM for UDTs to get it answered. It hit me doubly as I also have a User Defined Aggregate for explicit aggregation of the UDT, and that didn't work in SSMS either. Same problem. During this early testing phase when we're doing lots of build/deploy/test (call it iterative development, it sounds better) this is a...
I'm gradually getting used to the new help system, still have my preferences which aren't catered for, but I'll get over them. But one thing I simply cannot get over is again with the search. You enter a search and watch the results display. You click on a returned result and view the document. Meanwhile the search continues in the background - a nice feature, keeping the UI responsive. Except when the search finishes and the search page aggressively takes focus. It's driving me crazy. You're quite happily reading a document and suddenly it automatically switches to another window. How...
Back to two handed typing, which is a relief. It's still awkward and I have to sit at a strange angle so the shoulder doesn't hurt, but at least I can use both hands. Hoorah. Now all I have to do is catch up on the two weeks where I've been lamely struggling along. Oh, and is it sad that I was excited to see the new ASP.NET 2.0 book mentioned on The Register? Ah, how easily the simple minded are pleased.
Two books worth mentioning. A First Look at SQL Server 2005 for Developers is damn fine. A ton of excellent material on the new version of SQL Server (codename "Yukon"). I saw this in early draft and found it invaluable for some of the stuff I'm doing. ASP.NET v. 2.0 - The Beta Version is an update to the First Look book, for beta 1 of ASP.NET 2.0. If you're thinking about getting into .NET 2.0, do not buy the old version as that was for the technical preview and there have been many changes. The new version has more...
Not having an active right arm has led me to notice something. When typing left-handed nearly all of the spelling / typing mistakes are because of letters that the right hand would type. I'm a pretty good typist so the left hand is used to typing, but only on the left side of the keyboard. Move it across to the right and, although I know where the keys are, I still often hit the wrong ones. Is my brain sub-consciously expecting the right-hand to be there?