The Blog

Exploration Of Thought

Thoughts on autonomy, self direction, digital business and life.

• Ubuntu and Virtual PC 2007 Mouse Issues

  Installing Ubuntu 7.04 inside Virtual PC 2007 leaves the mouse completely unrecognized. Here are the two links that fixed it for me.

  Donn Felker – July 28, 2007

• Returning XML Data as a Record Sets through the CLR in SQL Server 2005

  How to use a SQL Server 2005 CLR stored procedure to return a row plus its embedded XML column data as proper record sets in one query.

  Donn Felker – July 27, 2007

• HOW TO: Display Required Field Validators at Page Load

  A short snippet to force ASP.NET RequiredFieldValidators to run on page load, so required-field asterisks show up before the user submits.

  Donn Felker – July 20, 2007

• ASP.NET AJAX Always Visible Control Frustrations

  ASP.NET AJAX's Always Visible Control won't target a user control directly. Here's the hacky but working fix: wrap it in a panel instead.

  Donn Felker – July 17, 2007

• ASP.NET Projects Take Forever To Load in Internet Explorer

  ASP.NET projects taking minutes to load in Internet Explorer during debugging while other sites load instantly? Resetting IE's settings fixed it.

  Donn Felker – July 9, 2007

• HTML 5 vs HTML 4

  Early notes on HTML5 vs HTML4: the new browser-native input types like date, email, and range that promised to kill custom UI widgets.

  Donn Felker – June 23, 2007

• .NET Scaffolding

  Tree Surgeon scaffolds a consistent .NET project layout, borrowing Rails' convention-over-configuration approach to keep code where you'd expect it.

  Donn Felker – June 21, 2007

• Teamprise Explorer Client vs. Visual Studio Team Explorer

  Comparing Teamprise Explorer and the Visual Studio Team Explorer plug-in for working with CodePlex's TFS-hosted source - and why the VS plug-in won out.

  Donn Felker – June 7, 2007

• Windows Surface

  A first look at Microsoft's original Surface: a 30-inch multi-touch tabletop that lets you grab data by hand, no keyboard or mouse required.

  Donn Felker – May 31, 2007

• Live Maps Send to Mobile

  Google Maps needs a Java client on your phone, Live Maps doesn't. Here's how to text driving directions to any mobile without one installed.

  Donn Felker – May 28, 2007

• Microsoft Astoria Project

  A look at Microsoft's Codename Astoria, an early REST-based data services project poised to compete with SOAP and WS-* web services.

  Donn Felker – May 28, 2007

• Blogs, Podcasts and Screencasts

  My go-to list of developer blogs, podcasts, screencasts, and magazines circa 2007, from Hanselman and Fowler to .NET Rocks and MSDN Magazine.

  Donn Felker – May 25, 2007