Notes From My Basement

I recently came across Microsoft StyleCop, that analyzes the code, within the IDE for style.  This includes things like naming conventions, formatting and other matters of visual appeal.  It differs from FxCop in that it doesn’t check for use patterns, it simply checks style. 

I’ve been looking at this tool in order to implement it at work, where we have a pretty consistent and adhered to coding standard, who’s style enforcement could be done by a tool and save some people some time.

In any case, I am sure most of you are familiar with it but I deemed it worth noting, writing about and referencing.

The team’s blog is a great resource for help, release announcements, and general information about the tool.

The tool itself is available here in its latest 4.3 release. 

Tags: c#, visual studio, .net, coding, free

Quick note to link to the training kit released with the advent of .NET 3.5 SP1.

Complete kit with presentation & events materials, hands on labs and demos on:

• ASP.NET MVC
• ASP.NET Dynamic Data
• ASP.NET AJAX History
• ASP.NET Routing
• ADO.NET Data Services
• ADO.NET Entity Framework
• WCF 3.5 SP1
• .NET Framework Client Profile

Tags: .net, training, asp.net, links, tools, free

One feature in Visual Studio 2008 I found myself using frequently is this:

Right Click on the project in your project explorer, and the next to last option in the context menu is...

When building systems made up of many components that need to be "shuffled" around, from and to many solutions, across different locations for different reasons, it becomes a handy tool.

Tags: visual studio, .net

Mainly just as a quick reminder to self of the tools I've found to be worth the time to install and learn.

The Tools listed here are mainly utilitarian, and not at all focused on anything in particular. All of them, as stated in the title of the post, are free. I love free software, oddly enough given I make my living writing software.

.NET/Development

• Lurz Roeder's Reflector, I am not the first (by a loooong mile), nor the last one to list this MUST HAVE. Just go get it if you don't have it and don't ask, just use it. Period. 'nuf said.
• Krypton Toolkit. If you do any Windows Forms development in this WPF new world, you HAVE to get these Free Components, use them and love them. Great looking, practical, easy to use. Check out the tutorial screencasts on their website.
• Fiddler. Look at your stuff... look at everyone else's stuff... the stuff that is really coming down, ya' know!
  
• Sysinternals Suite. With tools like DebugView as a given, and many others that add incredible value to any developer's arsenal, this is a no brainer must have.
  

Firefox Extensions

• ScribeFire, I am writing this post using it. Nice, simple, integrated, powerful.
• foxmarks, Keeps my bookmarks synchronized between my home PC(s) and my work PC. Priceless. Literally.
• TwitterFox, The easiest and least intrusive way to keep up with an addiction. It is not the most powerful or feature rich Twitter client... by a mile... but it works!
• SiteAdvisor, Free browser extension from McAfee. I'll make this disclosure: it works for me. In an unsafe world I use common sense first and foremost, but many get past my gut feeling, data backs this service up which is better than nothing.

Editors

• NotePad2, I use the installer Brennan created that adds an "Open with.." to the right click context menu.
• LINQPad, great way to learn and teach. At this point it is not a tool of daily use, but its awesome, so I list it.
• Windows Live Writer. Hands down the best blog post editing tool. Although ScribeFire is convenient and very good, Windows Live Writer is great for offline editing and also has tons of plugins available.
  
• Cayra. Mind Mapping tool. Cool to use, ideal if you can actually make it an "everyday" thing. Handy to have right now for me though.
  

Other Tools

• Pidgin. All your IM accounts in one client. Lightweight, simple, so bells and whistles.
  
• Picasa. Simple photo organization and editing. Love the feel of it. Direct upload to Picasa's online web albums (free up to 1GB of storage), and also to photo printing services (my main reason for using it), like KodakGallery, SnapFish, WinkFlash, Shutterfly, Walgreens, Walmart and many others.
  
• 7Zip File Manager. Awesome compression, great compatibility.
  
• CCleaner. The first "C" is for CRAP. Yep, that's right, it cleans crap out of your PC.
  
• SyncToy.I tend to want to keep some folders in sync. In the end each one is its own world, but this has been the tool I've resorted in my attempts to keep them the same.
  
• FeedDemon. From NewsGator, my favorite desktop RSS reader. Although it does "synchronize" with an online OPML, it only works between a given instance of the reader (say the one you have a home) and the online version they provide. It does not keep two desktop instances and as such it has proven inadequate by itself.
  
• Virtual Clone Drive. Great ISO management tool. It works as a driver to mount .iso files as a local drive. Awesome and indispensable.
  
• AusLogics Disk Defrag. Better than the built in defrag, great performance.
  

Tags: tools, lists, free

Woohoooo!

I won the raffle for 2 great software products, that Max Pool @ {codesqueeze} put out in honor of the blog's 1 year anniversary.

As entries to the contest one could twitter, blog or post videos... I twitted a couple of times and wrote a blog post here.  That was enough to make me a winner.

So freakin' cool... I can't wait to start using Bamboo CI.

Tags: software, ci, tools

All my data are belong to them.

I can't help but realize now how much of my data, my valuable and precious data, that I think means nothing to anyone but me, keeps finding itself somewhere where I have truly no control over it <*sigh*> oh well, it is what it is. 

The reason why I do it, why we all do it is primarily because it appears convenient, in a way that is accessible for us and other that may be interested... or not, and even then I'll just put it up there... right on your face!  Here are my books (the first 100 or so I've entered so far in any case).

Very cool, albeit overly graphic in my opinion and according to my preferences, but usable, Web 2.0 ish, with friends and whatnot.  Still haven't played with it as one may probably want to in order to fully utilize it.  Don't entirely know yet what can and can't be shared amongst friends.

The widget currently displaying on this blog was provided by them... tweaks will be forthcoming.

I will accept pretty much any and all friend invites, as if it is not evident to you by now, books are one of my passions.

 

Tags: books, web 2.0

Anyone not like free?  Those of you who raised your hands… GET THE HECK OUT OF MY BLOG.. :)  In all seriousness, this is your chance to enter a drawing for some cool swag! generously hosted by Max Pool at his blog {Codesqueeze}.

He was able to get vendors to pony up some nice (and pricey) software that would make an excellent addition to any developer’s toolbox.

Me myself I am hoping, going for Bamboo 2.0 CI Server.  No I will not resell it on eBay, I have actual plans for it.  Coincidentally I am in the middle of (call it, what you will) a project to setup a CI solution using CruiseControl.net & SVN at home.  The SlickEdit tools would be a nice to have, and believe me, there is nothing like a good editor to make you productive above and beyond the powers of Notepad.

On Deck: Guillermo, get you ass in gear and evaluate "the Bamboo"!

 

Tags: software, tools, free, ci

Yesterday I set up a tumblr account.  You can find me here. 

Don't ask me why I did it, specifically, because I still haven't figured that one entirely myself.  As it is, "keeping up" with one forum, if you will, is something I am still trying to sort out and manage.  I guess initially I feel like I can more easily and with less scrutiny (self that is), post to and leverage the tumblr canvas, letting me try out a larger number of ideas and approach without the need to think too much about structure or content.  Lets see how this goes.

My first take is that this community is like a beginner's blog tool meets del.icio.us meets twitter (grant me some slack for the analogy) meets facebook...???  In other words, you can easily create your "typical" post but then post links and videos and audio files, etc, all from within the provided interface.  It is very nice and clean and practical.

Let me know if you join so that I can "follow" you (see, there's your twitter reach).

 

Tags: social networking, links

A simple note and mention for Tadalists.   My very well deserved kudos to 37signals for making easy, simple software that works.  All of their offerings are no nonsense, no bloat web applications that are very straight forward without sacrificing a much appreciated elegance and that now so familiar web 2.0 feeling and functionality which makes its way into their tools without shouting it in your face.

I've been using Tadalists for the better part of a month now, and keep one list and separate account for work and a different one for home.  In hindsight, in redo mode, I'd get just one account and manage separate lists, but I was eager and jumped the gun on my vision of how I wanted to leverage the tool.

Worth mentioning is that this is a free service, so you can't go wrong for just trying it.  I like the process better than keeping [to-do] lists using outlook, email reminders (as I used to do) or even whatever more archaic approach to keeping lists you can think of.  For the mobile personality, they have targeted support for the iPhone.

As I mentioned above, the interface is clean and simple and the functionality straight forward.  To begin with, you will create a list (as many as you'd like and I don't really know if there is a limit), and then when in your list you can edit it by:

• adding an item
• "checking" off an item as done
• sorting/rearranging the items by drag 'n dropping the items to their new place within the list.

You can also share the lists and make them "public", as in accessible by whomever you wish to notify.  You can configure access to shared lists as read-only or edit.

One very cool feature is that your list will be a "sub domain" (at least the URL) in the *.tadalists.com domain, and so it is very easy to remember "where" to go to access your list.

Your particular list would be available at http://<yourAccountOrUserName>.tadalists.com

I personally think that is a pretty neat touch!

Tags: tools, resources, web 2.0, free