Writing
Articles
Essays on thinking clearly, working for yourself, and doing real work while AI rewrites the rules. Two decades of them.
NUnit 2.4.7 and the RowTest Attribute with Example
NUnit 2.4.7 shipped with the RowTest add-in, letting you run one test method against multiple data rows instead of duplicating tests.
2008.04.01Read →I Can’t Read Your Screen, Mr. Presenter
A pet peeve about presenters with unreadable tiny fonts, and the fix: ZoomIt for live zooming plus a dedicated big-font account for demos.
2008.03.31Read →PhotoShop Express vs. Paint.NET
I hoped Photoshop Express would be a Photoshop Lite like Paint.NET. Instead it's a slow, upload-dependent browser app. Paint.NET still wins.
2008.03.31Read →Implicitly Typed Locals – R# V4
Why I disabled ReSharper 4's suggestion to use var everywhere -- implicit typing doesn't improve naming or your API, it just adds noise.
2008.03.28Read →Beginner Test Driven Development Habits
Five habits new TDD teams fall into, like skipping the refactor step and treating tests as a debugger, plus how to coach developers past them.
2008.03.23Read →TIP: Getting the Base Directory of where your App is Running
Need your app's running directory in .NET? Use AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, which works for both web and non-web projects.
2008.03.23Read →The Calendar and the Cloud
Google's new two-way Outlook Calendar sync lets a consultant merge client and personal calendars into one master schedule, with SMS agenda alerts.
2008.03.11Read →Knock Knock. Who’s There? Me. Too Bad. Go Away.
After a fresh Windows rebuild, Team Foundation Server locked out its own administrator -- turns out McAfee antivirus was silently blocking the connection.
2008.03.03Read →Free Conferencing Utilities
A roundup of free conference call services for consultants and freelancers who need to host calls without paying for a dial-in line.
2008.02.29Read →Creating .NET Event Sources with PowerShell
Skip writing a whole app to register a Windows Event Log source - a two-line PowerShell command checks for it and creates it if missing.
2008.02.26Read →Notepad? THE PowerShell IDE? Please, Save Me – Give Me Some IntelliSense
Writing PowerShell in Notepad is like driving when you could fly. PowerGUI gives you IntelliSense, debugging, and a watch window instead.
2008.02.22Read →A FREE Remote-Collab Tool From Microsoft? (And a list of others)
Microsoft's free SharedView beta impressed me for pair programming and screen sharing -- plus a roundup of other remote collaboration tools worth trying.
2008.02.19Read →