Choose HTML for UI Development
On Sept. 10, 2015, Winston Kodogo writes: Hey Chris, if you’re feeling happy enough to blog, how about a post giving us your current thoughts on UI...
Handling Orientation Changes in Xamarin.Forms Apps
By default, Xamarin.Forms handles orientation changes for you automatically, e.g. Xamarin.Forms handles orientation changes automatically In this...
Launching the Native Map App from Xamarin.Forms
My goal was to take the name and address of a place and show it on the native map app regardless of what mobile platform on which my app was...
App and User Settings in Xamarin.Forms Apps
Settings allow you to separate the parameters that configure the behavior of your app separate from the code, which allows you to change that...
Microsoft Fan Boy Goes To Google
In 1992, I was a Unix programmer in Minneapolis. I’d graduated with a BS in Computer Science from the University of MN a year earlier and had...
Future Proof Your Technical Interviewing Process: The Phone Screen
In 30 years, I’ve done a lot of interviewing from both sides of the table. Because of my chosen profession, my interviewing has been for technical...
Moving My ASP.NET Web Site to Disqus
I’m surprised how well that my commentRss proposal has been accepted in the world. As often as not, if I’m digging through an RSS feed for a site...
Moving My Site to Azure: DNS & SSL
This part 3 of a multi-part series on taking a real-world web site (mine) written to be hosted on an ISP (securewebs.com) and moving it to the cloud...
Moving My Site to Azure: ASP.NET MVC 2
In our last episode, I talked about the joy and wonder that is moving my site’s ISP-hosted SQL Server instance to SQL Azure. Once I had the data...
Moving My Site to Azure: The Database
In a world where the cloud is not longer the wave of the future, but the reality of the present, it seems pretty clear that it’s time to move...
Bringing The Popular Tech Meetups to Portland
I’ve been watching the Portland startup scene for years. However, in the last 12 months, it’s really started to take off, so when I had an...
GUI REPL for Roslyn
If you recall from REPL for the Rosyln CTP 10/2011, I’ve been playing around building a little C# REPL app using Roslyn. That version was built as a...
Moving to the Cloud Part 2: Mostly Sunny
In part 1 of this now multi-part series (who knew?), I discussed my initial attempts at moving my digital life into the cloud, including files,...
Sells Manor: Running 64-bit Win8 on My MacBook Air
With the exception of //build/, I haven’t really been a public part of the Microsoft developer community for about a year. So, to make up for some...
Moving My Data To The Cloud: Stormy Weather
For years, I’ve maintained a single “main” computer. It was the computer that was the central authority of all of the personal data I’d accumulated...
Goodbye Microsoft, Hello Telerik!
I have gotten to do a ton of really great things at Microsoft: I got to write a column on WPF and turn that column into not one, but two...
Enabling the Tip Calculator in Your Brain
I can’t imagine anyone reading this blog needs to read this, but I can’t help myself. When I was just a wee lad, probably the most valuable thing I...
A Function That Forces
At Microsoft, there’s this passive-aggressive cultural thing called a “forcing function,” which, to put it crudely, is an engineering way for us to...
Why can’t it all just be messages?
My mobile device is driving me crazy. I have an iPhone 4.0. Normally when it’s driving me crazy, it’s standard stuff like the battery life sucks or...
College info for my sophomore
I went to a college planning sessions at my sons’ high school not because I’m hung up on getting my Sophomore into a top school, but because I...
you may experience some technical difficulties
I’ve been futzing with the site and I’ve got more to do, so unexpected things may happen. Last weekend I screwed with the RSS generator and that...
On Building a Data-Driven E-Commerce Site
The following is a preprint of an article for the NDC Magazine to be published in Apri. It had been a long, hard week at work. I had my feet up...
The incomplete list of impolite WP7 dev requests
In my previous list of WP7 user requests, I piled all of my user hopes and dreams for my new WP7 phone (delivery date: who the hell knows) onto the...
Creating a Lazy Sequence of Directory Descendants in C#
My dear friend Craig Andera posted an implementation of a function that descends into a directory in a “lazy” manner, i.e. you get the first...
The incomplete list of impolite WP7 user feature requests
When I first moved from the combination of a dumb phone and a separate music player, I had modest requirements: phone calls, MP3 playback, calendar...
Please don’t run apps in the background on my WP7 phone!
When I was but a wee lad, I learned that when it came to my computer, I was often going to be waiting on something, whether it was the CPU, the IO...
We need cloud apps to use cloud drives
Reading about Windows Azure Drive reminded me of a conversation I had when I was hanging out with my Microsoft brethren last week. We started by...
Stead Defines ‘Customer’
And here’s one more from the paper file I’m putting into electronic format to reduce the pile of papers in my life: During the all-associate...
How To Handle Angry Callers in 7 Not-So-Easy Steps
When I was first in technical phone support for the software I was building, I found out that I wasn’t exactly a… um… “natural” at putting customers...
Do you know someone that needs dinner this Thanksgiving?
The boys and I were driving past a church with a holiday bizarre, so we stopped by. It was a mix of silent auction, bake sale and a $1 raffle for a...
The New Microsoft Store Looks Cool
the folks in Scottsdale, AZ lined up overnight to be there when it openedWindows 7...
The Downside of Transparency
Ever since Chris Anderson built his blogging software and shared it with his colleagues, more and more Microsoft employees has been pushing hard on...
PowerBoots makes me want to use PowerShell!
I’ve picked up PowerShell half a dozen times or more. The central premise, that I can pipe streams of objects instead of streams of text between...
Dynamic Languages: A Separation of Concerns
I saw Nick Muhonen give a talk on the new language features in C# 4.0 last night at the Portland-Area .NET User Group. He did a good job in spite of...
Win7 killed a feature I love in Vista!
All my friends have updated to Windows 7. My 14-year old son is running Win7. I’m the only one I know that’s not running Windows 7. The reason?...
Twitter takes a bite out of blogs
At the last DevCon in 2003, blogging was rampant. We had about 100 posts in the lead up to the conference and during the conference itself. A this...
Why I Hate My iPhone
I’ve had an iphone for the last coupla weeks and there are some things that drive me crazy about it! The battery life is crazy short. I can’t make...
How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Twitter
Scott Hanselman performed an intervention on me in the mall the other day. I was in denial and while I can’t say I’m fully into acceptance, I’m at...
Eat Less and Exercise: Before and After
A few years ago, I looked like the “before” picture to the right. I didn’t look like that all the time, thank goodness — this was some couples’...
tvrss.net + uTorrent + FiOS + WHS + 360 = DVR Bliss
So, the other day, Windows XP SP2 destroyed my Windows Media Center Edition install that I’ve been using for years and absolutely loved. It let me...
MS + jQuery: This Is Huge!
Yesterday, the ASP.NET team announced that they were going to ship jQuery, a small, populate open source web client library. And not only is...
I don’t pretend to understand advertising
I’ve always liked the Mac vs. PC ads. They’re clever, they make me laugh and I like both actors (Accepted is very under rated, IMO). Of course, I...
Programming WPF goes into 3rd printing
Get ’em while they’re hot...
Where did my old Word command go in new Word?
a cool tool that shows me where the new version of each command is located in the new Word...
Digigirlz Rock!
I gave a talk to the Digigirlz yesterday and it was a blast. It was 25 high school girls that were on the Microsoft campus all week learning various...
George Carlin, Rest In Peace
When I was a teenager, some kids were sneaking out to get drunk or have sex. I was sneaking into my parents’ record collection to listen to George...
Losing weight the old fashioned way: tonsilectomy
Today is my last day of time off work from a tonsillectomy a week ago Thursday. I’m down to about 20mg of OxyContin/day (from 60mg) and hope to have...
The Next Generation
When I was in high school, “game programmer” meant at best BASIC or at worst 6502 assembly language, but either way, lots of text manipulation....
Why I Love My Tribe and Want You To Join It!
Recently, I went to lunch with some friends of mine from the DevelopMentor Software days (wow, *that* was a long time ago) and they accused me of...
Nobody Knows Shoes: The Book — Pure Genius!
I friend of mine dropped a book with a funny cover in my lap and said, “Hey, check this out.” I threw it on my pile and didn’t get back to it for a...
Programming WPF: “Programming Book of the Decade”
*blush*...
Programming WPF enters 2nd printing!
Wahoo! You love us, you really love us! : ) When a book goes to another printing, 100% of the time, there’s a list of “errata” (aka “mistakes”) that...
Bridging object models: the faux-object idiom
My 1997 master’s thesis came online today (he says, trying not to flinch). Here’s the abstract: Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM) is the...
Bookscan says “Programming WPF” is #3 .NET book!
Wahoo...
WPF Book Easter Egg
WPFWPF...
The Annotated Turing!
re-publishing the paper that started computer science and annotating it...
Time for some anti-social networking
OK, just after all my friends are on FaceBook, now I’m getting the requests to join Spock.com. I don’t know what Spock.com is, but after the...
“So easy to read, it should be illegal”
“ET”compliment...
WHS Continues to Rock My World
In the same way that .NET manages memory for you, Windows Home Server manages storage. All you have to do is tell it the names of shared folders you...
Christmas Delight
Not all was gloom and blackness this XMas. Among the new things in our lives, several of them rocked*: Our new HP MediaServer running Windows Home...
The Sidekick Phone Sucks
I brought my son a Sidekick Slide cell phone for XMas this year and I’ve come to the conclusion that it sucks, or at least the way T-Mobile sells it...
Posting from my OLPC PC
OSOLPCPC...
Conversing In Italian over the Interweb
Yesterday I got an email from a fellow named Corrado Cavalli to whom I sent a free copy of Programming WPF. When he received it and read through it,...
Give Them a Fish or Teach ’em To Fish?
Dvorak asks this about One Laptop Per Child: “Does anyone but me see the OLPC XO-1 as an insulting ‘let them eat cake’ sort of message to the...
MS Math Add-In for Word 2007
I mention this because this is just the thing I’ve wanted to be able to check my kid’s math homework: the Microsoft Math Add-In for Word 2007. For...
1 Setup == Innumerable Uninstalls?
OK, what’s the deal with installing 1 product (Visual Studio 2008 beta 2) and having to do 22 separate uninstalls?!? How is this a good thing...
Why aren’t Windows settings stored in %HOMEPATH%?
Normally, this is the kind of question I’d pose and then provide an answer, but this time I just don’t have one. If my Word settings were stored in...
I had to load FireFox on my machine yesterday
In general, IE7 more than meets my needs. It shows me the web pages I want and it works well. However, there is one killer feature that FireFox has...
C# 3.0 in a Nutshell, LINQPad and Pure Genius
I absolutely love what the Albahari brothers (Joe & Ben) have done with C# 3.0 in a Nutshell. Not only is their prose concise in a way that mine is...
Volunteering as Christmas Present?
When I was a kid, Christmas was my favorite holiday because my entire family (grandparents, parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles) would get...
The Future of Telecommuting
I truly believe that the future of employment will be much more individualistic and that requiring people to move will be an anachronism. Right now,...
Working Remotely for Microsoft: Misc Tips & Tricks
I used to drive up because it gave me the freedom of traveling whenever I wanted and I always had a car on the far end. Besides the speeding...
Working Remotely for Microsoft: What Are the Consequences?
When I went to work for Microsoft without moving up, I knew I was making a tradeoff. Before Microsoft, I spent a lot of time traveling, so MS meant...
Working Remotely for Microsoft: Can You Communicate Effectively From Home During Meetings?
Communicating during a meeting is an art unto itself and has its own set of considerations: Learn to love LiveMeeting: If you can’t see faces, the...
Working Remotely for Microsoft: Can You Communicate Effectively From Home?
Assuming you can focus on work and you can find someone to hire you, effective communication is the next issue you’ll run into. When I was working...
Working Remotely for Microsoft: Can I Find Someone To Let Me Work From Home?
Assuming you decide you can and want to work from home for Microsoft, now the trick is finding someone that will take you. The first time, this took...
Working Remotely for Microsoft: Can You Focus On Work At Home?
First off, I don’t recommend remote work for folks who don’t like spending the vast majority of their time away from their colleagues, sometimes...
The Whiteboard Whisperer: Working Remotely for Microsoft
I’ve been at Microsoft about 4.5 years, the whole time a “remote employee,” i.e. I work mainly from my home in a suburb of Portland, OR but the...
Fun With GridView*RowPresenter
I was searching for advanced WPF tree samples the other day and ran into the tree-list-view sample: Notice how the left-most column does the...
“Programming WPF” (finally) shipping!
John Osborn of O’Reilly and Associates had this to say in my morning email: “Congratulations, guys. The book is printed and shipping! Just got my...
How to write a book - the short honest truth
thisdigg.com...
“How you doin’?”
I wanted to figure out how to emit a new CLR type at run-time using Reflection.Emit and Google revealed the following article: Generating Code at...
Programming WPF, 2e (RTM Edition) on Amazon!
Buy your copy today! : ) P.S. I read the QC1 (Quality Check 1), all 859 pages of it, in two solid days this weekend. I found a bunch of nits, all of...
The T-Mobile Wing rocks! ’til the battery dies…
I was really loving my T-Mobile Wing with WM6, Pocket Office, external micro-SD slot, slamming keyboard, beautiful ClearType display, one-handed...
Why do we pick on journalism majors, so?
Here’s another one: For example, if we had had a background in journalism, we might have used one-based indexing instead of zero-based indexing...
Sometimes I crack myself up
I forgot until the copy edit review process that I’d dropped this gem into a footnote: On August 4th, 1997, the world’s oldest person so far,...
On becoming an empty nester…
I submitted the final manuscript for Programming WPF, 2nd edition, by Ian Griffiths and Chris Sells to O’Reilly and Associates this morning for...
Glyn Griffiths: Ian’s Dad and Damn Fine Reviewer
This was an email I sent to Glyn Griffiths, the final external reviewer on the WPF 2ed book before we submitted the final manuscript for copy edit...
My Foreword To ChrisAn’s “Essential WPF”
Now that Chris Anderson’s most excellent Essential Windows Presentation Foundation has transitioned to the physical world, I thought I’d share my...
Best WPF Resources?
I’d like to provide a list of the best WPF resources, including real-world apps, free web resources, SDK docs, samples, blogs, etc. If you’ve got...
“Student who needs to interview a programmer”
Jimmy, a very polite 14-year old student of Washington Manor Middle School in California had an assignment to interview a computer programmer. I...
The Microsoft “Sells” Department
So, I’m sitting in my office pair programming with Geoff Kizer when my phone rings. It says “Microsoft” on the display, so I figure it’s one of my...
Programming WPF: Rough Cuts
WPFread the chapters as we write them...
Using my XBox 360 for Corp. Video Conferencing
I’ve been having another adventure in social video conferencing, this time with my team in Redmond. It all started with Doug brought his 360 into...
Boogers and My Writing Process
I’m supposed to be writing today, but John (my eldest son) is also doing some writing as part of his homework. However, after watching him struggle...
Five Things You Don’t Know About Me
I’ve been tagged a coupla times, so it’s time I fessed up with Five Things You Don’t Know About Me: In college, I was in a fraternity and not just...
Xbox Video Marketplace Worked Great For Me
I tried the Xbox Video Marketplace on my 360 today. For 160 points ($2), I was able to purchase the season 2 premiere of Venture Bros (which is...
I’m Thankful for Windows Vista
Of course I have no credibility here (I’m part of the evil empire, after all), but I have to say, I’m really loving the Windows Vista Ultimate RTM....
Dammit!
There are a very few games I could call “great.” Doom (of course). Half-Life 2. Burnout Revenge. Mario Kart. And last week, I added another game:...
Costco + Busted Xbox 360 = Happiness
After a scant 6 months of service, my Xbox 360 yielded up the dreaded “to play this disc, put it in an Xbox 360 console” error (where do you think I...
Our Long National Nightmare is Over
Since at least 2001 we’ve been stuck in a quagmire of missteps, indecision, corruption and the eroding of our freedoms. Some of us feared it would...
Pay As You Go Phones For the Boys
Back in writer avoidance mode, I did some research into PAYG phones for the boys based on some recommendations from friends, colleagues and...
Isaiah Okorie Asks “How do you do what you do?”
From: Isaiah Okorie Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 08:06 AM To: csells@sellsbrothers.com; csells@microsoft.com Subject: XSellent!!! Hi Chris, I...
Horning in on Hanselminutes
I was finally able to horn in on an episode of Hanselminutes...
Amazon Unbox — what about my TV?
I don’t want to download movies via Vongo or Amazon Unbox to my PC; I want to download them to my TV and smart phone! YouTube works because the...
Congrats To Mr. Petzold on this WPF Review
In the world of Windows technical writing which has so much competition, there’s rarely any money involved, one dreams for reviews like these from...
Fixing the Internet
About 18 months ago, I asked for an intern and boy did I get one. He doesn’t want to be mentioned, but he’s done some pretty cool stuff with the...
The Internet Is a Meritocracy
It’s easy to think that if you’re already got a high page rank in google, that you’ll get more than your far share of traffic, polarizing the...
$33 On Bookpool: Windows Forms 2.0 Programming
Windows Forms 2.0 Programming: only $33...
24 and the Comic Book Archive
I’m an avid 24 watcher and one of my favorite parts of the show (offsetting the fact that Jack never so much as cracks a smile let alone giving us a...
Get ’Em While They’re Hot
Even though the 1st printing was just in May of this year, Windows Forms 2.0 Programming just entered the 2nd printing. Thanks for reading...
We Sold A Copy of ATL Internals!
You said it couldn’t be done, but ATL Internals, 2e, has a review! Thanks, W...
The Media Center PC ain’t a desktop; it’s a server
I’ve seen some flack lately about how the Windows Media Center Edition-style computers haven’t changed how folks consume content. Man, it sure has...
3 Degrees of Email Separation
Microsoft is a sea of answers if only you can find the right person to ask. In my experience, I get a lot of those incoming questions, both...
Custom Settings Provider in .NET 2.0
SDKNETEnjoy...
Laura Foy makes on10.net for me
I had my first on 10 experience today (I was following the links to the PhotoSynth stuff) and I have to say, I instantly fell in love with Laura...
An Embarrassment of WPF Riches
I just realized that Avalon is getting a book treatment unlike any other topic in my memory: “Essential WPF,” by Chris Anderson, architect on the...
DVD Wars. Huh. What is it good for?
”DVD WarsVHSDVDHDDVD...
Struggling with NUnit (2.2)
System.IO.FileNotFoundException in NUnit...
Struggling with NUnit (2.2)
I had a very unpleasant afternoon trying to get NUnit working, so I thought I’d share my troubles and my solutions (such as they are). A search...
When to ship a book is hard to know these days…
Mr. Petzold beat me to the punch on the Windows Forms 2.0 book and he’s going to do it again on the RTM Avalon book. However, such a thing is dicey,...
PM Skill #9: Team Off-site
I’ve been doing some design work with a small part of my new team for a few months now and we’ve gotten largely on the same page with each other....
T-Mobile Smartphone Fun Facts
A coupla weeks ago, the AT&T wireless cell phone reception at my house went through the floor. I called up the nice folks at Cingular and they...
Don’t want to skew Amazon reviews
While I don’t mind being called tacky by one of this generation’s best technical writers, I do mind the idea that the folks that would abuse the...
Google’s 2-day interview process
Wow. Two days of interviews for a contracting position at Google…...
Post an Amazon review and you get my royalties
Update: Whoops — didn’t think of the ways to abuse this system. I’ve updated the offer here. If you post a legitimate review on Amazon for Windows...
WinForms 2.0 book @ the printer
The one where the brothers Sells and I travel to Ann Arbor, MI to see Windows Forms 2.0 Programming being printed. It’s well worth the trip, if you...
The Sells Brothers Meet the Edwards Brothers
Years ago, Tim Ewald made an off-handed comment about how cool the real book printing process was and that I should take the boys to see it if I...
A C# Bedtime Story Updated for C# 2.0
Seeing a reference to A C# Bedtime Story as a generic definition for .NET delegates in a recent DDJ article inspired me to post the new and improved...
ATL Internals, 2e, available for pre-order
ATL Internals, 2e, this time with ATL 8, is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. For those wondering what the world needs with such a book, I...
WinForms 2.0 book just about ready
Mike and I submitted our last round of comments to the WinForms 2.0 book last night. The way it works is, after we submit the “final” manuscript,...
I just watched my son learn to fear the computer
When kids are young, they have no fear of computers or anything else. My eldest, when he was 2.5, knew how to detect what OS he was running (I dual...
My $366 Vista PC
This morning, I read about a $159 computer from a review on the PC Magazine site: I called my local Fry’s, and while they were no longer have the...
testing
...
PM Skill #9: Learn From The Masters
Of course, when you’re learning to do something, whatever it is, you should check out how a lot of different folks do it. For example, the author of...
PM Skill #8: Give Credit Freely
Engineers are people, too, and appreciate pats on the back as much as anyone. In fact, many of us are so socially needy that we’re willing to trade...
A Reviewing Trick I Learned A Long Time Ago
I learned this way of reviewing artifacts from Cal Caldwell, a friend of mine from my instructor days. The technique is for doing code reviews, but...
Scrum is very focusing
“““MS...
Multi-Touch Interaction Research
using this...
My Favorite Wiki: pinvoke.net
I guess wikipedia is cool, but the wiki that provides a vital service in my life is pinvoke.net, which provides an enormous, user-contributed list...
PM Skill #7: Use That Meeting Time!
It’s very easy, as the PM, to not want to waste team time in a meeting, letting folks go when there’s still 30 minutes left. In fact, lots of folks...
Japanese version of Avalon book
the Japanese version of our WPF booklove...
Pre-order “Windows Forms 2.0 Programming”
“Windows Forms 2.0 Programming,”...
IE7 Beta 2 worth the download
IE7it’s definitely worth the download...
Imperative vs. Declarative
Savas showed me this great example from a book he’s reading. Consider this: F = m * v Using an imperative interpretation, this is a expression that,...
Netflix for Books?
”I hate books’DVDsgames...
I want a service that “rips” books
Assuming the Sony Reader is cool, I still won’t have all the content I want and I certainly don’t want to repurchase all of my books. In the same...
I Hate Books
I hate that indexes suck and that they don’t support full text searching across my entire collection. I hate that I have to guess which ones I’ll...
PM Skill #6: Be The Team Mom
In an ideal world, a PM would be able to get together with their team, lead the discussion ’til everyone agrees what they’re going to do and while...
A Toast to WPF
Here’s a review you don’t get very often: “Your WPF book is excellent. So good that I actually chose to read it instead of watching in flight...
PM Skill #5: Unblock Others First
PMs often come from the ranks of engineers who’ve been “promoted” (aka taken away from the code to go to meetings). Many fight this trend, reverting...
PM Skill #4: Exhibiting the Behavior You Want
At our last team milestone, we had stepped up the pace in the last two weeks to make sure that we were done in time for a demo by one of our...
Survey: The Future of Publishing
Karen Gettman, my editor at Addison-Wesley, called and asked me a bunch of questions about the future of publishing yesterday. After our discussion,...
PM Skill #3: Getting Things Done
Fundamentally, a PM’s job is to get things done. If you’re going to plan and ship while keeping your team happy, you’ve got to plan, ship and keep...
A Mac that runs Windows?!?!?!?
Holy shit! I Macintosh that runs Windows!!! “After Jobs’ presentation, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller addressed the issue of running...
I’m really digging live.com
I’ve tried all the portal sites at one time or another (yahoo, google, etc), but none of them have ever stuck ’til now. Since I gave up on...
Mobile Movie Listing Sites Compared
On a recent mailing list discussion, folks posted a large number of URLs for mobile movie listing sites. Since searching for movies is one of the...
Dirty Publishing Secret: Indexes Suck
I hate to say it, but indexes are the one place where I skimp when writing a book. I go round and round on sentence structure, figures, story, flow,...
PM Skill #2: Building Consensus
I know the phrase “building consensus” is a touchy, feelie term, but it’s the best description of one of the most important skills a PM can have. As...
PM Skill #1: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
I think the title says it all: if you’re a PM, you’ve got to communicate. That includes to your team, your management, your partners and your...
PM Skill #0: Know Your Job
I’ve been a Program Manager (PM) at Microsoft now for about 2.5 years. Before that, I’ve been a managing contractor, a lead author, an engineering...
How come nobody says “impeach?”
WARNING: This is my political side bubbling over. If you only want fun stuff about my kids or technology, this post ain’t for you. Clinton engaged...
Windows Forms 2.0 Book Samples Posted
Mike did some last minute clean-up and checked in the files, so I’ve uploaded the code sample for the Windows Forms 2.0 book. Enjoy...
Windows Forms Programming 2005 in C# Submitted!
I packaged off the final chapters, figures and PDF files for submission of the WinForms 2.0 book this morning. Michael made it easy by fixing all...
A C# 2.0 anon delegate “gotcha”
I’m a huge fan of anonymous delegates, but I ran into a gotcha this morning when using anon delegates inside a for-loop: class Worker { public...
Turning off special features in DVDs and CDs?
PCSony-sponsored virus enablersrequired playersDVD...
USB HD w/ OS/Apps + FolderShare = Portable Computing?
If you could boot Windows Vista from a USB drive large enough for the OS and apps, like this version of Linux, and log into FolderShare for your...
After the writing is done
Today Michael Weinhardt and I submitted the final chapters of “Windows Forms 2.0 Programming in C#” for review. Mike has worked his butt off for the...
Have I missed anything?
I’ve noticed that various prolific bloggers feel the need to tell me that they’re going to stop blogging for more than 24 hours. That’s one of the...
What’s a group of geeks called?
Sloth of bears. Army of ants. Murder of crows. Tribe of monkeys. Embarrassment of richest. What about geeks? Conference? Shy? Intelligence? Slather?...
Testing ASP.NET 2.0 port of sb.com
...
The Most Amazing Consumer Experience
I just had the most amazing consumer experience and I just had to share it. I was looking for the local Mom & Pop computer store in my area and I...
WF Activity Context
I was playing around with a state machine workflow in WF and ran across something that I didn’t except. Apparently if you have a an activity that...
Typed WF Communications Details
If you downloaded the samples from my previous two forays into WF communications programming, you probably couldn’t get them to build. The problem...
I’m starting to speak in numbers
URL“...
Web Services and Data Binding?
...
More Workflow Communications Spelunking
Heretry wca.exe with my workflow communications problems...
More Workflow Communciation Spelunking
After complaining about the inability to bind directly to event inputs, Dennis suggested I try the Workflow Communications Activity generator...
Workflow Communication Spelunking
Herehow to communicate into, out of and between WF activities...
Workflow Communication Spelunking
I just an interesting week taking a crash course in Windows Workflow Foundation (formerly WWF, not just WF) programming. My big hang-up was, how do...
Open Office is a “real” thing
I use my family as a litmus test of when things are “real” or not. None of them have technology backgrounds or training, so if something is real to...
I’m also a huge Ian fan, as you should be
Ian Griffiths, my co-author on Programming Windows Presentation Foundation, is very well worth your attention. He was a colleague of mine at...
I’m a fan
Charles Petzold taught the first generation of real Windows programmers. Charles Petzold sold so many copies of Programming Windows 3.1 that he...
Wise Advice from Tyler Brown
someone so obviously intelligent...
How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love the Reboot
Herethe behind the scenes look at the most disasterous and most amazing talk I’ve ever given“PDC...
The Competition
Charles Petzold says he doesn’t envy me. Hell, I’m just flattered he knows my name. Like the rest of my generation, I learned how to program Windows...
How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love the Reboot
A while has passed since the 2005 PDC, so I can laugh about it now, but at the time, things were not fun at all. It started long before the PDC....
I don’t ever want to unpack my books
Instead, I want a paperback-sized tablet PC whose sole job is to run eReader loaded with all of my books. It’s...
I need Outlook’s new anti-phishing support
Forget that my family constantly asks me things like “I got an email from eBay today that said my account was closed. Should I click on the link and...
Programming WPF Samples & Change Notes Posted
Herethe b1 and Sept (PDC) CTP samples and change notes for Programming Windows Presentation FoundationPDCCTP...
My Product Group Fun: Part 2
HereI’m swamped in technical things to do and am loving it...
My Product Group Fun: 2
I am having so much fun, I can’t not tell you about it. After a few months of wallowing, I found out something about myself: I’m really good at...
Please Post Reviews of Avalon Book
our Avalon bookplease please please post a review on Amazon.com...
WPF Book Sold Out Again, More Coming on Friday
order them onlinethe gift of knowledge...
Programming WPF: Sold Out @ the PDC, More Coming
All of the initial copies of Programming the Windows Presentation Foundation have been sold out at the PDC. That’s a double edged sword, of course....
MS Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts
The following is an internal email published here with permission: From: Lisa BrummelSent: Friday, September 09, 2005 1:54 PMTo: MicrosoftSubject:...
I’m in
I feel like I’ve spent the last four days in hibernation, awaking like Rip Van Winkle to an entirely new environment. And while the new environment...
New Contractor Advice: Time Estimation
I got a time estimate from a friend who’s a brand new contractor in the area of home renovation (my wife made me promise to start renovations on our...
The List
Lord keep me off of the list of people that don’t have to go through regular security checks: “The Aug. 5 memo recommends reducing patdowns by...
Cool New IVR Feature
In a (very) past life, I used to write intergrated voice response (IVR) systems aka “voicemail hell.” It may not seem like it, but we spent a *ton*...
Chris does the Half Monty
HereThe one where I shake my booty up on stage in Reno...
The Half Monty
I spent last weekend in Reno with Joel, my fraternity brother, wife’s sister’s husband and business partner (we have an investing business). We’d...
Limiting/Monitoring my sons’ access to the ’net?
My 11-year old wants to do email and IM and he’s already surfing the web. Does anyone have any recommendations for good software to limit and...
My First MsBuild Task
I wrote my first custom msbuild task this morning. I used the the Extend the MSBuild with a New Task topic from the msbuild wiki and it worked well...
Enjoying This Moment
HereThe one where I enjoy the passing of the book writing storm, if only for a moment...
Is it creepy that I think this is valid?
this technique...
Enjoying This Moment
I’m sitting at my computer on Sunday morning with “nothing” to do (I mean, I could always work, but my team is good about taking weekends off). This...
My Worst Job
Following Rory’s example, my worst job was where I spent two weeks with a friend working for his dad where the best of our two duties was to mow the...
Theoretical Computer Science
accounting is to mathematics as engineering is to computer science. I’m an accountant sitting in a meeting run by mathematicians. Unless I can use...
My Weekend
Dear Diary, this is how I spent my Father’s Day weekend: Friday, 7:30am, dropped my family off at the airport so that they could visit relatives in...
The End of an Era
Today is Sara Williams’s last day. Sara was the first Microsoft employee that I met. In fact, she was the first MS employee that a lot of people...
Love Reviewers; Hate Reviews
I took a quick glance at some reviewer feedback for the Avalon book and already I’m trying hard not to hate the folks that send it in. Mean, hateful...
Never Give Up, Never Surrender
I was reminiscing today that I’ve been turned away from most decent places in my career: I went to a stupid high school that raised my grades a...
Career Path for Developers?
“Pete” email me the following questions: “I’m a senior software developer, age 34, specializing in C# development for Windows Forms / ASP.Net,...
More Skype Love
I was chatting with Mike in Australia today and we pulled up Skype as we usually do, ’cuz it just works, e.g. no connection problems, no...
Realistic Conference Expectations
I was chatting today with a friend that complained that he didn’t get any deep technical knowledge from a conference talk. I said that he had...
Every PC Should Have A Camera, Mic + Stylus
I’ve been doing a lot of remote collaborative communications over the last decade. Email, IM and phone calls literally enable me to be an effective...
Blogging is not marketing copy!
As soon as corps hire bloggers as part of their marketing budget, they’ve missed the point completely. Marketing and PR folks are chiefly concerned...
URLs in the Footnotes?
Here’s a question for folks. Right now, the 1st edition of the WinForms book has several footnotes like the following that include URLs: “The...
The Logic of Logic
HereI re-discover the good parts of constraint logic programming...
The Logic of Logic
My son came to me the other day and said, “Dad, I need help with a math problem.” The problem went like this: We’re going out to dinner taking 1-6...
Frequent Flier Miles Suck (Airlines Suck)
I just called to cash in my Alaska Airlines miles on it’s partner airline Northwest for a trip 5 weeks in advance and they told me that they don’t...
Story-Driven Development
I’m a big believer in the “write the story first” method of software engineering. Like “client-first development” or the increasingly popular...
Survey: Windows Forms Programming 2ed Length
There has been some publisher/author controversy around the length of the 2ed of Windows Forms Programming. WF2 has essentially doubled in size, so...
Damn I Love Skype!
Skype is the thing that seems to work best for my Australian phone calls (at least once/week if not more) and I love SkypeOut for when I’m just too...
I am not a graphic artist!
Whenever anyone hears that I program Avalon, the first thing they think is, “Oh, good, let’s get Chris to create a cool looking UI for us!” They...
I enjoyed THGTTG
It...
The Value of Scoble
There is huge value in Robert Scoble publicly criticizing his employer’s CEO. The value is this: when the GM of VSTS says “ask me anything you want”...
Status of ATL Internals 2e
More people than you’d expect have been asking, so here’s an update on ATL Internals 2e. This effort actually started in 2003, when Kirk Fertita...
Status on Windows Forms Programming 2e
Jose “heard” that I’m working on an update for the first edition of Windows Forms Programming in C# for Windows Forms 2.0 (we’re not updating the...
Now *that’s* how you want a Virtual PC to be!
I was using one of my computers this morning, surfing around, reading my email, getting started with the day, etc. After a bit of fooling about, I...
Reviewers Should Be More Like Roger
the April 10th, 2005 review of my WinForms book“VB...
My First Week on an MS Product Team: Wallowing
HereThe one where I describe the frustration and then enlightenment of my first week on a Microsoft product team...
My First Week on a Microsoft Product Team: Wallowing
Last week was my first week on my new team. A lot of interesting things happened, some of which Don has already mentioned. For me, two especially...
Geeks Rule and MBAs Drool
Eric Sink takes a long, long time to say the following (learn to let go, Chris [1]…): “The following is an example of one of the most common...
My First New Job at Microsoft
HereI stop working for MSDN...
My First New Job at Microsoft
Today’s my last day at MSDN. I will no longer be content strategizing for Longhorn/WinFX or smart clients or acting as liaison between marketing,...
Leaders and Legacy
Here“This is what I came up with...
I can feel Avalon changing me…
I’m writing a tiny little application for my writing on ClickOnce in Avalon. In fact, to demonstrate ClickOnce, the app hardly matters, so I picked...
Leaders and Legacy
For an internal thingie, I was asked to write a short bio, define what I think a “leader” is, describe my target legacy and list my biggest source...
La Vida Robot
This story of a set of illegal alien high school students from the wrong side of the tracks in Phoenix competing against MIT college students...
A Coder in Courierland
a Toronto coder gave up half his salary to get out of cubeland and onto the back of a bike as a courier...
I want XBOX Live virtual presence for my PC!
Robert points out a hilarious video of what happens in an XBOX Live session of Halo 2 when the other players find out you’ve fallen asleep. But,...
Some Of My Favorite Books
HereI was just putting together a list of some of my favorite books as recommendations for a gift certificate I sent to a friend as a birthday...
Some Of My Favorite Books
I was just putting together a list of some of my favorite books as recommendations for a gift certificate I sent to a friend as a birthday present....
IT Industry’s Own Jobs Training Program
My brother graduated from college with a BS in EE in 2000 and was, predictably, unable to find a job competing with certified, experienced engineers...
On Being Socially Re-engineered
Herethe lame “High Risk Driving” course actually changes my driving habits...
On Being Socially Re-engineered
I do not consider myself weak-minded. For example, even though I’ve tried to let it happen, I’ve never been able to be hypnotized. Also, I’m often...
I’m with Shawn — Constantine was Good
HereI agree with ShawnConstantinefabulous...
Hitchhiker’s Guide Might Not Suck
Herethe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trailer on Amazon.com...
Experimenting with Windows Alternatives
Herethumbs up to three Windows alternatives and a thumb sideways to another...
Airing The Dirty Laundry
I was sitting at Jim Blizzard’s going away party the other night when my phone rang. This was the side of the conversation that the Portland nerds...
Experimenting with Windows Alternatives
When I used to teach COM, we would brag about its cross-platform-ness, i.e. it worked across Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4, etc. So, when I’m...
i-mate SP3 Smartphone: How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways: Pocket-sized and no bigger than my old dumb phone and tons smaller than tricorder-sized PDAs Synchronized calendar, contacts...
Local Boy Does Good
Microsoft’s own Robert Scoble has broken his way into the secular press, with an article in both Fortune (Why There’s No Escaping the Blog) and The...
I Think VSLive Is *It*
It’s become apparent to me that for Microsoft-focused non-Microsoft hosted conferences, VSLive is it. I know that in the past that they’ve had...
The Reason For Code Access Security
I had a question in my inbox the other day that went something like this: “Since programming within the partial trust sandbox I get by default when...
Email Throughput
To get technical work done, I sometimes let my inbox fill up beyond what makes my comfortable. Today, that caught up with me, but I plowed into it...
Death As A Possible Consequence
Heremy recent run-ins with the Oregon traffic police“...
Death As A Possible Consequence
When something legal comes up, I like to dig into it. For example, I did my own consulting contracts for years, I’ve testified against an Oregon...
Earthquake Disaster Relief Information
I can’t begin to imagine what the earthquake survivors are feeling after so much death and tragedy. If you can help, please do so. For more...
SlashDot is Wrong: MCE05 Rocks
HereI’m a very happy user of Windows Media Center Edition 2005 and have been for some months. Not only does it allow me unfettered access to audio,...
We Need NetFlix for TV
Sometimes I miss some made-for-TV movie or series that I’d really like to see and that I didn’t know about before hand so that I could point my...
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Am I the only one actually looking forward to this movie...
Getting Out The Vote: Save Ctrl+F5 in VS05!
When I noticed the behavior that Ian describes in VS05b1 (that Ctrl+F5 no longer works to launch a console app with “Press any key to continue…” at...
Snorkeling Is Unbelievably Wonderful
I just got back from a 3-family, 6-day trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (“a pleasant fishing village paved over for tourist hotels”) and it was...
Another Reason To Hate The Dentist
Most of the worst experiences of my childhood involve the dentist. I have an active gag reflex and a general aversion to sitting still for long...
On Microsoft’s Transparency in 2004
HereSir Black Xero (?!?) has a review of Microsoft’s increasing openness in 2004, summarizing it this way: “Granted, there are plenty of Microsoft...
Hurray for IE QA!
From securityfocus.com: “It appears that the overall quality of code, and more importantly, the amount of QA, on various browsers touted as...
Microsoft Amnesty for Software Pirates
This is nice of us...
A Reason For A Home Gigabit Network
LANmine’s for my XBOXPVRTVTVUIMCELANTV Oh, and as if that weren’t enough, the XBOX Media Center Extender kit comes with a remote and remote sensor...
Art Tips for Programmers
UIadvise on how programmers can bone up for the latter...
Outsourcing to Arkansas
I love the idea of outsourcing to rural parts of the country because a) I like keeping jobs in the US if possible (although I’m not a protectionist...
ATOM is to RSS as XML is to SGML
a technical reason for ATOM to exist that I can get behindRSSATOM...
A Guy Worth Hiring
This guy deserves a flood of job offers. Make yours good...
Concrete Examples of Software Factories?!?
the Software Factories articlespart 3...
It’s The Thoughts That Count…
HereI lead you through my thought processes...
The Importance of Reputation
Herebecause he’s known as a “good kid.”...
Getting My Hopes Up On Episode 3
The trailer for Star Wars 3: The Revenge of the Sith...
The Country Has Spoken
This map of physical area that Bush won over Kerry (3.28M vs. 741K square miles) paints a pretty stark picture of just who the country wants to be...
It’s The Thoughts That Count…
On an internal mailing list the other day, there was a question asking for how to make a tray notification icon come back up on the try after...
The Importance of Reputation
My youngest son was called into the office today for pantsing a kid on the school playground. That is not at all like my son (he’s the sweetest kid...
Here’s Some Marketing I Can Get Behind
from Netflix letting me know that they’re lowering my monthly fee from $22 to $18“I love Netflix...
Consider Yourself An Artist
d.code has a lot of great stuff to say in his post, but hands down my favorite is this: “How many software developers at Microsoft consider...
Randy Jackson on Pleasing the Gods
Randy Jackson enjoyed my recent .NET Rocks appearance because of my discussion of how I like to learn things. I only remember talking about two...
A Quote To Live By
I watched the first few episodes of the award-winning HBO series “Angels in America” and hated it (but I still love NetFlix for making is so darn...
“How is anyone supposed to know that?”
The high priests that run the Internet and the IT industry have betrayed the trust of the secular community. My wife called me over to her computer...
All The Fun, Half the UK Price
the UK Amazon is having a 1/2 price sale on my Windows Forms bookUKUS...
You Too Can Be A Technical Writer!
HereThe one where I outline every technical piece I’ve ever written...
Settings, Collections and VS05b1 (oh my)
I sat down to write a new Windows Forms application in .NET 1.1 the other day, but the Visual Studio 2005 beta 1 called to me with its “menu strips”...
Every Story I’ve Ever Written
I was working with a potential author on an article he’d like to write covering some ground I left uncovered in my original No-Touch Deployment...
BankOne: Special Victims Unit
AI...
The Week Before Burning Man
Herethe activites in which I was involved the week before Burning Man...
The Week Before Burning Man
I was just listing my activities for the week before Burning Man and amazed even myself: Shopping for and celebrating my wife’s 36th birthday...
Where Are You In The Software Practitioner Triad
In his piece Software Practitioner Triad (I know it’s old, but I just got pointed to it by Phil Weber), Alan Cooper points out three different folks...
Mensa Has an Open Enrollment Day
“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” –Groucho Marx I must fit into some kind of quota (Windows programmers? Authors?...
I want remote apps, not remote desktops
Ever since WinXP, I’ve been using Terminal Server a ton. Recently, I’ve been using Virtual PC and when Virtual Server is released, I bet I’ll be...
I Can’t Imagine More Great Hackers
HereneverNT“...
What Makes A Book Successful?
Herewhat makes a book successful...
What Makes A Book Successful?
I got an email today from a friend who wanted to know what he could do to make the book he had in his head successful. I’ve thought a lot about this...
Hypothetical: What’s Best For Windows Developers?
Hypothetically, if you were a relatively well-known voice in the Windows development community (let’s call her Kris) and you were being pursued as a...
This is *so* the wrong direction…
turn bits into atoms in 3-5 minutes to hold a book in my handPC...
#1 Windows Forms Book
HereI toot my own horn much less subtly than usual...
#1 Windows Forms Book
Wednesday, June 30th, 2004 I just got word from my publisher that, according to the industry-wide metrics they use, Windows Forms Programming in...
My Experiments In Social Video
Herea couple of experiments in social video...
A Man, A Plan, A Canal, A Librarian!
Saturday, June 26th, 2004 Can’t come up with a better palindrome than “a man, a plan, a canal, Panama!”? Write a program and come up with one...
My Day With Edward Tufte
HereI enjoy a day with Edward Tufte...
My Day With Edward Tufte
Friday, June 25, 2004 I spent most of Thursday in a seminar given by Edward Tufte, the author of several seminal books in the area of data...
My Experiments in Social Video
June 25, 2004 Because I’m a rarity at Microsoft, a remote employee, I’ve been conducting experiments in social video to increase my presence from...
The Reason for ATOM
It seems to me that folks embrace ATOM mainly to get away from the guy that’s credited with inventing RSS: “I’m not running for president, I am not...
My First Presentation For A Distinguished Engineer
HereI get to present a technical topic to Anders Hejlsberg...
My First Presentation For A Distinguished Engineer
Monday, June 7, 2004 Wednesday was a good day. Not only did I get birthday wishes from all over the internet (thank you, Orkut), but I got to give...
MikeDub On Solving An Instance of Writer’s Block
It has been my pleasure to spend the last 2+ years writing with Mike Wienhardt. I remember fondly his first piece. When I give feedback, I work very...
Turning Science Into Engineering
It’s generally know that the thing we call software “engineering” is nothing like that. We just don’t have anything like the rigor that real...
You Can Actually Schedule Inch-Pebbles
I haven’t read Coder To Developer, but I love the term that secretGeek has pulled from it: “Inch-Pebbles.” When I was running DevelopMentor Software...
Great Minds…
HereI love Luke’s RSS Aggregator [1]. He loves my book. For what more could a man ask? [1] I just tried the lastest RSS Bandit — don’t get me started…...
Jury Duty
HereI spend a day at jury duty...
Jury Duty
Friday, May 28, 2004 Today was the first time that I was called to jury duty, even though I’ve been eligible for almost half of my life. I always...
This Absolutely Boggles My Mind
HereSteven Edwards is an OSS guy working with the Wine guys to build a new version of Windows from scratch called ReactOS. They’ve got 20-30 people,...
Post/Reply Alphabet Soup
Newsgroups, mailing lists, web forums and blogs (with comments) are all very similar. Fundamentally, they’ll all about posts and replies. Sometimes...
Employers Check References
ask“...
Another Killer App for Web Services
Hereintranet services being exposed as web services gets me hot...
Strengths and Weaknesses
Friday, May 21, 2004 I took a Gallup questionnaire and 3-hour seminar on the philosophy of strength-based development. The central idea is to...
Another Killer App for Web Services
Friday, May 21, 2004 At the last Applied XML Dev.Conf., I went ga-ga over Amazon’s use of web services in their business and called it the...
“No coding question unanswered for < 24 hours”
HereAfter the official question was discussed for a good long time — “What more can MSDN do for developers?” — I asked this follow-up question in 3...
3 Years of Spouting
HereThe one where I reminisce on 3 years of The Sells Spout and my blog as a whole and wonder what it is that brings so many people to the site...
3 Years of Spouting
Sunday, May 16, 2004 Yesterday was my 3rd anniversary of The Sells Spout. It’s hard to remember back that far, but this was before any wide-spread...
BBC Coupling: I Laughed ’til I Cried
The American version left me completely cold, but Melissa and I have just watched the 1st season of the original BBC series Coupling and I actually...
The Advice of Our Fathers
HereThe one where peanut butter and jelly remind me of my father. [ed: Just ’cuz Friends is over don’t mean I’m a gonna pick a new style to describe...
The Advice of Our Fathers
Being a Midwesterner, my father is a fairly stoic man and, unlike his son, doesn’t often speak just to hear the sound of his own voice. Still, I’ve...
Your Should Be Using an RSS Reader for Everything!
Ryan Farley posted today that he agreed with Josh Ledgard who said that you should use an RSS Reader for readings blogs instead of surfing to web...
“Down-to-Earth Marketing”
In a recent post, Brendan Tompkins describes one of my recent Channel9 videos as “down-to-earth marketing.” On the one hand, I find that ironic, as...
“The Great Windows 95 Trade-In Program”
Oh man, Richard Childress nailed it. We should let people walk into their nearest Comp-U-Buy with their copy of any flavor of Win9x and give them a...
Safe, Even Simpler Multithreading in Windows Forms
threading in Windows Forms by illustrating the BackgroundWorker component from Windows Forms 2.0...
You Clever IM People Are Driving Me Nuts!
What is the deal with people like Iristyle, josefiend, Mongo, Moribund the Burgermeister and the cheers component? These are the IM names of my...
Marc Clifton is a Prolific SOB
I first heard about Marc Clifton on his work with MyXaml, a declarative UI language that shares a name and some principles with the XAML declarative...
Chris Sells on Organized Chaos
The one where I express my surprise that we ever manage to ship anything at all, let alone the best stuff there is...
Post/Reply Alphabet Soup
the arbitrary differences between newsgroups, mailing lists, web forums and blogs w/ comments drive me to madness...
Freeing My Mind
Heremy private meditation lesson...
Freeing My Mind
Saturday, April 24, 2004 I’m a sucker for new experiences. It’s not that I believe that “you only go around once,” because I don’t believe that. I...
What’s New in Windows Forms 2.0
what’s new and cool in Windows Forms 2.0MSDN...
The X in XP Stands for “Wow”
Arlo BelsheeXP“XP...
More On The Quest To Kill Code
HereThe one where I find a half-way point between where we are in our development environments today and self-writing, self-maintaining, self-fixing...
More On The Quest To Kill Code
Wednesday, April 14, 2004 You’re remember the last installment in my continued quest to find the next big leap in program producing productivity...
I’m Loving the .NET Fx ARM
HereThe one where I learn a bunch of interesting stuff reading all of the annotations from The .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference...
I’m Loving the .NET Fx ARM
Saturday, April 10, 2004 I enjoyed the annotations in The .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference so much that I read them all in one...
Filling in Missing Computer Science Knowledge
Herehow to help my wayward, non-computer scientist friends up to speed on the foundation of our industry...
Filling In Missing Computer Science Knowledge
Tuesday, April 6, 2004 Sometimes I get emails from folks that don’t have a formal computer science knowledge and want the benefits of one w/o...
Welcome to 04/04/04
...
The Future Is eBay for Services
HereWith the bottom line more and more important, the era of “company loyalty” and “guaranteed employment” is long over. RentACoder.com takes this...
Let There By Light In The Darkness
Herewhat the hell...
Tune into .NET Rocks Live Tomorrow, 9am PST
tomorrow’s .NET Rocks LiveTony Baintaking callershereherePST...
Let There Be Light In The Darkness
Thursday, April 1, 2004 I wrote this at the beginning of 2002 while channeling my energies into the Windows Forms book. I never published it, but...
Buy My Comic Book Collection
HereI’ve had 2600 comic books bagged and boxed in my garage since I’ve had a garage. These are comics that I collected as a kid and had always...
Fun Meeting with a Longhorn UX Guy Last Week
HereHe said, “Do you think we should support RSS in Longhorn?” I said, “Well, there’s that RSS Tile…” He said, “Yeah, but shouldn’t we do more?” I...
Time-Shifting Radio?
Paul VickCarl Franklin“NPR“AMmy time-shifting TV applianceAMreallyMP3...
Checking Spec. Compliance at Build Time
HereWard and I turn a spec. into a SOAP endpoint implementation compliance test...
What Every Conference Room Should Be Like
MSthis oneespeciallya RingCam...
Checking Spec. Compliance at Build Time
Thursday, March 25th, 2004 Even though Ward Cunningham and I have been living only 4 miles away from each other for some years, I really didn’t...
The Next Big Leap in “Programming”
Tonights Portland Nerd Dinner was a barn-burner. Not only did we have the typical geek banter and laughter, but we spend some time on the question I...
Programming Stinks
As much as I love writing code, I realized long ago that it’s really the act of bending my computer to my will that I really love. Programming’s...
Review: Hell House
NetFlix brought “Hell House” to my house the other day and I just finished watching it (in fact, the credits are still rolling). Hell House is the...
Have Some of WinFS Today
I have absolutely fallen in love with X1...
Quick Review of 4 California Theme Parks
Just flew in from California… and boy are my arms tired! We did 4 California theme parks in 4 days and here’s what I thought: Magic Mountain:...
Avoid the GAC
Thursday, March 11th, 2004 The .NET Global Assembly Cache (GAC) is a misunderstood and misused beast. For all intents and purposes, it provides...
WinForms Programming in C# 3rd Printing Ships
HereI find it unbelievable that after umpteen books, I finally seem to have blended quality with quantity as the C# version of my WinForms book...
Study: We’re Eating Ourselves to Death
Herethat remark...
Putting the Fun Back In Programming
I just don’t get thisNETeven more fun is pulling these pieces together to build something that’s never been built before...
Living Two Lives
HereI would say that I’m really living two lives. The first is what you see and today it’s very boring as I’m sitting very still looking at a 14″...
Suggestions for WinForms Programming 2/e
HereMy co-author for the 2nd edition of Windows Forms Programming, Michael Weinhardt, doesn’t have enough to do to with the new features in Whidbey...
Same-Sex Marriages *Should* Be Allowed
Being from the Midwest (and big and dumb-looking besides), most folks assume I’m a homophobic. As it turns out, I’ve known a few homosexuals in my...
Of Mixed Career Minds
HereIMLutz Roedermakes me introspective...
Of Mixed Career Minds
Tuesday, February 24th, 2004 Don and I have an ongoing debate — whether everyone was put on this planet for one purpose or whether a person gets...
Adding Ref-Counting to Rotor
HereWell, I can’t put it off any longer. I wanted to wait ’til Chris Tavares and I were able to figure out what the problem was, but after months of...
Severe Beating Shown, CBS Shocked/FCC Investigates
Or rather, that’s the headline I wish I could post. However, instead of CBS and the FCC getting freaked out about the insane amount of severe...
On Behalf of Software Engineers, I’m Sorry
Here...
On Behalf of Software Engineers, I’m Sorry
Sunday, February 1st, 2004 I just got off the phone with my step-mother and boy are my arms tired. She way trying to do a mail merge. I told her...
What Would You Save If Your House Was On Fire?
Here...
What Would You Save If Your House Was On Fire?
Saturday, January 31, 2004 On a recent thread on my favorite mailing list ever, Jon Kale answers the question “what would you save if your house...
MS Blogging About Longhorn 14% of the Time
HereWhen In Doubt, Ignore LonghornMS...
Betting on Longhorn-Only?
Here...
Betting on Longhorn-Only?
Friday, January 30th, 2004 In response to my post yesterday (When In Doubt, Ignore Longhorn), Shaun asked whether he should be targeting...
When In Doubt, Ignore Longhorn
HereThe one where I list my favorite sources of information for development with today’s shipping .NET Framework...
When In Doubt, Ignore Longhorn
Thursday, January 29th, 2004 A guy walks into an exotic car dealer and asks the salesman the price of the fancy new Ferrari in the corner. The...
Bush: Get Your Own Dream!
HereIt bugs me that Bush would steal JFK’s dream of getting off of our planet, especially after we’ve already done it. Why not reach for getting...
Surprised by Microsoft’s Openness
Here...
Surprised by Microsoft’s Openness
Friday, January 9th, 2004 I get a lot of emails from folks surprised about how open Microsoft is being lately, mostly due to all of the blogging...
On Genghis, WinForms and How to Move Towards Avalon
Saturday, January 3rd, 2004 Inspired by my pending interview of Don Box, Paolo Severini sent along an interview for me. Paul: Being a faithful...
Lending a Helping Hand
Herelend a hand to his brother...
Lending a Helping Hand
I know this sounds like spam, but it’s not — it’s from my Uncle Mark, who’s also my godfather and the nicest man I’ve even known: Chris, I’m...
Learning to Learn, Part II
Tony R. Kuphaldt, an instructor at Bellingham Technical College in Washington recently emailed me that my Learning to Learn piece spoke to him and...
The Wonder that is XAML’s Extended Attribute Syntax
Saturday, November 29, 2003 I’ve been playing with GridPanel today and really like how elegant it is. If I say the following: I get the equivalent...
I don’t know UIs, but I know what I like…
Monday, November 24, 2003 The user in me sees Longhorn and dreams of software without limits. The engineer in me sees Longhorn and is scared of...
My First Meeting with BillGs Technical Advisor
Here...
My First Meeting with BillG’s Technical Advisor
Saturday, November 15, 2003 In my continuing quest to take advantage of unique experiences at Microsoft for those that aren’t able to, I spent an...
Time For An Exciting Career In Electronics
HereRSS...
In Search of Expertise
Here“...
Time For An Exciting Career In Electronics
Monday, November 3, 2003 Depending on how you look at it, what I’m best at in the whole world has either become completely unnecessary or...
In Search of Expertise
I had an interesting insight while watching Episode II: Attack of the Clones (I had a hankering to see Yoda kick some butt, OK?!?). The definition...
My First PDC as a Microsoftie
After all the preparation, planning and sheer work, it’s a letdown for the PDC to actually be over. It was an amazing experience for me to be “back...
MSDN Wants You
HereMSDN...
ASP Alliance reviews WinForms Programming in C#
HereASP...
Every Vain Author’s Best Friend
HereRSS...
How Does One Obtain Inside Information?
Here...
How Does One Obtain “Inside” Information?
Wednesday, October 15, 2003 I got an email today from John Reilly today asking me a question I get from time to time: I got my signed copy of...
Amazon giving 30% off WinForms Programming in C#
Here...
What Is An RSS Feed?
HereRSS...
Nice WinForms Reviews in the Blogesphere
Here“...
What Is An RSS Feed?
As a deadline nears and I spend an increasing amount of time avoiding the work I should be doing, I find a finance geek acquaintance of mine...
My 9-Year Old Has a Cell Phone
Friday, October 3, 2003 Tonight is Friday night, which means the Sells family generally has pizza and a movie at home. However, since we’ve been...
Creating Doc-Centric Apps in WinForms, part 1 of 3
HereMFCSDIMDINET...
A *royalty* check from Pearson!
HereATL...
Men Extinct Soon — Only 125K Years Left
Here...
Google is Scary Smart, or Just Scary…
Here...
Google is Scary Smart, or Just Scary…
Saturday, September 13, 2003 When I was a kid, the source of universal knowledge at home was the set of dusty encyclopedias that my Mom inherited...
“Move over Petzold, Sells is here.”
Here...
Respect for Marketing
Here...
Respect for Marketing
Even in my short time at Microsoft so far, I’ve have already learned a *ton* from marketing. Of course, I’m working with lots of marketing folks...
Let us pause on 9/11…
My 8-year old was proud to remind me that today was the two-year anniversary of 9/11. I was surprised that he knew and grateful to his school for...
“Your enquiries frustrate the hell out of me”
Friday, September 5, 2003 I would classify my style of communication as “get to conflict sooner rather than later.” A radio DJ once classified...
Holy Cow!
Here...
Windows Forms Programming in C# Sample Chapter
HereAWAW...
977!
HereNET...
Book of the Week at ASPExperts.com
Here“...
Communication Is All
Here...
Communication Is All
It’s amazing to me the number of problems that can be solved or avoided completely with communication. For example, the prevailing attitude of...
re: The real goals of marketing?
HereNET“MS’MCEPC...
Windows Forms Programming in C# on Shelves
HerePDC...
The Man Behind the Motion
Here‘“...
Novel Approach to CodeGen
Here...
Perl 6 Essentials. Chapter 1: Project Overview
HereORA...
Another Link In the Chain
HereBBC“TV...
RSS Bandit Implements wfw:commentRss
HereRSSRSSRSSRSS...
In defense of continued innovation at MS
HereMS...
The .NET Show: Managed Code
Here“...
VS.NET 2003 + Mastering VS.NET
HereNET...
Buffering .NET Console Output
Doing some ad hoc benchmarks, I found that my compute/IO intensive program was significantly slower in .NET than in native C++ (here’s a more...
The real goals of marketing?
I’ve long lamented that I have no clue what the basics of marketing are and therefore I’ve been at the mercy of actual marketing people whose skill...
I’m no hero
Tuesday, August 12, 2003 In yesterday’s post, I did not mean to imply that I was some kind of internal David against the MS Goliath. I am in the...
I speak for the trees
After a few weeks at Microsoft, when I was feeling particularly frazzled with my work and travel schedule, Peter Drayton pulled me aside to...
No huggy, no kissy, until I get an RSS feed
Here...
No huggy, no kissy, until I get an RSS feed
Before RSS took over, I had a folder named “Daily” which had links to all of the URLs that I surfed to on a daily basis. One problem was that for...
Positive Affirmation
I woke up at Don’s house one day last week utterly convinced that I was going to win the lottery that day. It was 6:30a, which is early for me,...
My First .NET Show
In many ways, my list of “My First” articles lately have been written out of duty to all of the developers that have always wanted to work at...
Windows XP Remote Assistance Rocks!
I just had a “Windows Moment.” I was on the phone with my Dad who has Windows XP and was having trouble. Since he paid for my computer science...
Using GotDotNet Workspaces For Commercial Work
Wednesday, July 23, 2003 When I visit Redmond, I share an office with Andy Oakley, the PM for GotDotNet Workspaces. Workspaces was recently...
My $5 Digital Music Experiment
I *really* want to own my digital songs, so I’ve been dying for a real site to purchase them one at a time, instead of buying entire albums I...
My First Visit to MS Studios
I went with Erica Wiechers (.NET Show heart throb) to visit MS Studios today. Ostensively we were there to preview the Applied XML Developer...
Alan Cooper’s Has A Dream
In addition to bending my head back during my flight lesson, Alan Cooper always manages to bend my brain back, too. Here’s a guy that invented...
My First Flight Lesson
Normally a title like “My First Flight Lesson” would be a metaphor for something else because I’m generally much more engaged by mental pursuits...
The Killer App for Web Services
After watching Amazon’s amazing presentation at the Dev.Conf., it hit me that Amazon.com is the killer app for web services. Not only are they...
My First Press Contact @ MS
Today I spoke with Todd Bishop, a reporter from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (“the Seattle PI”). He was interested in my spout entries about my...
Alvio — a very cool place to order computers
P4...
The Danger of Good Debate Skills
I have been in technical arguments many times where I knew I was right and used every once of my debate skills to convince the other person of...
Learning to Learn
Sun, June 22, 2003 The most important thing that I’ve every learned is how to learn. I and a few other lucky souls gained this knowledge at the...
Naming My Feed
Fri, June 20, 2003 When I built the Windows Developer News feed on my home page, it was an attempt to build a Windows equivalent of SlashDot....
End-To-End RSS + Comments
My RSS 2.0 feed exposes end-to-end support for the comments specifications I’m aware of: The RSS 2.0 element to expose a link for a...
Releasing Nested Objects in Rotor
Chris Tavares is making more progress finishing up the Ref-Counting in Rotor project: class FinalizerObj { int n; public FinalizerObj( int n )...
Exposing RSS Comments
UPDATE: Since publication, this recommendation has been incorporated into many RSS feeds. You can read the semi-official docs for the...
.NET Rocks Interview — Chris Sells (Again!)
Here“‘GAC...
Ref-Counting + Rotor Status
I just got this email from Chris Tavares (who’s doing the lion’s share of the implementation work to add ref-counting to Rotor): using...
My First API Review
Wed, June 4, 2003 Maybe you’re getting tired of my posting my “firsts” at MS, but that’s the beauty of this medium. I get to say what I feel like...
Submitting to Billg’s ThinkWeek
As has been mentioned out in the world, every once in a while Billg takes time to back away from whatever he’s working on to think big thoughts....
MSDN Article: No Touch Deployment
HereMSDN“...
My First Meeting with a Senior VP
On the anniversary of my first month at MS, I took my first meeting with a Sr. Vice President. I’m told that’s a big deal. One colleague who’d...
My First Month @ MS
Wed, May 21, 2003 Today marks the 1-month anniversary of my assimilation. For those expecting references to my “scars,” you can be as surprised as...
My First Talk As A Microsoft Employee
On Wednesday, I gave my first talk as a Microsoft employee. I was told that the talk was for a bunch of UK folks that needed to be put on the .NET...
My First Week @ MS
Friday, April 25, 2003 After my first week at Microsoft *everyone* wanted to know how it went, both internally and externally. I learned some...
“Look with favor upon a bold beginning”
A couple of weeks ago, I was having lunch with my wife at a little Chinese restaurant. My fortune was the title of this spout piece. I immediately...
XML For Humans
When I sat down to write this piece, I didn’t get why the work that Don, Gudge, KeithBa, Yasser, Tim and ChrisAn is doing is so amazing. I mean,...
Priceless
Running sellsbrothers.com for one month: $150 Round-trip ticket from OR to FL to give a 90-minute talk: $1200My son picking me for his “famous...
Oregon & Open Source
Friday, Apr 4, 2003 I had an interesting experience yesterday when I was asked by Mike Sax to come to the Oregon capitol building to testify...
Testimony
Chris Sells Sells Brothers, Inc. 8539 SW 166th Terrace Beaverton, OR 97007 http://www.sellsbrothers.com...
Microsoft & Patents
Tue, Feb 18, 2003 The buzz was all around VSLive last week about Microsoft patenting the .NET Framework API. In fact, an eWEEK reporter asked my...
Saving Your Career
Friday, Feb 7, 2003 In response to Never Send An Email In Anger, Lars Bergstrom recommended that I set up a rule that defers sending an email for...
Let The Language Wars Continue
A friend of mine pointed out to me the other day that the C in CLR stood for “Common,” that is, the CLR provides the same services to all...
OOD (The D Stands for “Dead In The Water”)
Reading a very interesting book which I’ll discuss in a future post, I came to a startling conclusion. As much as I love OO thinking and...
Sealed Sucks
I’ve come to the conclusion that the use of the “sealed” keyword in C# (and the concept in .NET) should almost never be used, at least on a class....
New Year’s Resolution
I just flew in from 2002: Wrote or co-wrote 4 books: Mastering VS.NET, Windows Forms for C# Programmers, Windows Forms for VB.NET Programmers...
Apps Are People, Too
I concerned Wahoo! patron sent in the following screen shot of the current high scores as exposed by the high scores service: As you can see,...
Keep On Cookin’
I got a very nice email today from Ross Lambert: “I’m a new fan of yours, both in terms of your technical abilities and the...
Of Eggs and Omelets
My life has been one long series of experiments. I tried to be a know-it-all jerk in high school and found that this tended to cut...
My Coding Standards
Wednesday, November 27, 2002 Sometimes it’s like I’m a war veteran in my head. I’ll be going along, minding my own business, when *bang*!...
Hierarchy Doesn’t Scale
Sun, November 11, 2002 I was just chatting with a friend of mine and he said that he really wanted to write a namespace extension so that...
A Giant Sucking Sound
Sat, October 26, 2002 While I’m in favor of NAFTA, and free trade over all, it’s certainly not helping US workers. Instead, it favors US...
Type Safety in a Loosely Coupled World
Tim Ewald gave a very rousing keynote address at the WinDev conference in Boston yesterday. During his talk, he did something I’ve...
The Fallout Begins
Two months ago, I noted a fall in morale in the IT industry amongst my friends and colleagues. I wondered whether the best people...
Never Send An Email In Anger
I learned how to write good emails at the foot of the master — Don Box. Whenever we’d decide we wanted something, he’d grab his...
Attracting and Keeping Good Folks
A friend of mine requested an essay on my thoughts of attracting and keeping good employees. I’ve had the privilege of working with some...
Spout — Development for Developers
Here“‘...
Development for Developers
I got an email today from David, who says, “So, I am looking to see what I can do to develop my skills as a designer. The trouble that...
Newsletters Are Hard!
As I write this, several thousand emails are being sent to the initial list of SellsBrothers News newsletter subscribers. My motive...
The Apple and the Tree
Yesterday my eight-year-old and I had the following conversation: John: “Dad, do you know a lot about computers?” Dad: “I know my share.”...
Industry Burn-Out
Do you feel it? I do and I know that a bunch of my friends do. The whole IT industry is in recovery from the crashing lows that can...
Where Do You Find the Time?
I had lunch with a couple of colleagues on the lecture circuit today and after they asked me what I was working on (Genghis, the...
XML & Inclusion
guest editorial by Don Box, Tue, Jun 25, 2002 Chris, I just read your “Object vs. XML” post on the spout and I’d be pleased if you would...
Object vs. XML
I was watching a group of folks present a new XML standard the other day and I realized something for the first time: to XML folk,...
Karma
While I definitely do have faith that there is a higher power in the universe (although I haven’t yet decided if the universe is a good...
Adding Ref-Counting to Rotor
Microsoft has granted Sells Brothers, Inc. a research grant to add ref-counting to Rotor and to study the performance effects. The...
The Truth Is Not Enough
Watching the final episode of the X-Files, I realized why I don’t like that show. Mulder spends all his time searching for the truth,...
Now the Fun Begins
Last night at 4:46pm, Sara Williams announced the availability of Microsoft’s 4+ years of labor: the Microsoft .NET Framework, v1.0. And...
For the Love of the Story
It’s only happened a few times in my entire life, but I want it to happen more. It’s that feeling you get when you’re telling a...
This is Not a Blog
Web Logging (blogging) is the wave of the future. Blogging is re-making the internet. Blogging is journalism where everyone is the...
HTTP is Dead?
Your friend and mine, Don Box, caused quite a stir yesterday with his keynote at European DevWeek in London....
How Did You Get Your Start?
Standing in the rain, with his head hung low, couldn’t get a ticket, it was a sold out show, heard the roar of the crowd, he could...
Please Say “Why”
As .NET demands new books and articles and the economy has given a lot of smart folk free time, the world is becoming inundated in...
A Visit with the Visual C++ Team
I spent a fun two days up at Microsoft last week at the Visual Studio .NET C++ Authors Summit, wherein the Microsoft team shows us how...
Too Many Secrets
Tue, 12/18/01 During my three years as director of a software project, I learned a lot about people. In fact, I...
Effective C# Available Today
Sat, 12/1/01 Effective C# is available now from Addison-Wesley. Of course, it’s called Effective...
Thank You, Don Box
Friday, 11/16/01 Last night, in the middle of .NET Band on the Runtime set, Don announced his retirement from...
If you knew .NET like I know .NET…
Sun, 11/11/01 Many years ago when Java was new, I dove in. My first program I wrote like a C++ programmer and I...
Be Your Own Teddy Bear
Wednesday, 10/17/01 According to legend, the TA office next to the Stanford computer science lab is guarded by a...
Flattery
September 17th, 2001 Is it imitation or nudity that’s the sincerest form of flattery? Either way, it looks...
Give Comfort
September 11th, 2001 The World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked today when hi-jacked commercial...
Q&A: .NET Cross Language Inheritance?
August 23rd, 2001 I missed the Conference.NET, but I’ve been reading through the PowerPoint...
Conference.NET: Notes from the Field
August 17th, 2001 In talking to fellow DevelopMentor instructor Craig Andera today, I realized that those of you...
What I Love Best About .NET
Monday, 8/6/01 DevelopMentor has long attracted smart folks. Really smart folks. These are the caliber of...
Hanging Out My Shingle
Friday, 8/3/01 For the last three years, I’ve been in management. Oh, it started innocently...
My Favorite Software
Friday, 8/3/01 The following software is what I install on nearly every computer I set...
My Favorite Books
Friday, 8/3/01 When I started writing books, I decided to stop reviewing other peoples’...
My Favorite Web Sites
Friday, 8/3/01 These are the sites that I visit on a regular basis and like (the sites I...
Choose Your Defaults Carefully
Saturday, 6/9/01 In the last week, I’ve been bitten twice by developers that have chosen...
Other Blogs
5/16/2001 My spout page is just one of literally thousands of web logs (“blogs”) available on the net....
Object-Orientation is Over
Tuesday, 5/15/01 Java, and Java 2.0 (aka .NET), have brought with them the end of object-orientation. Of...
Rules of Engagement
Tuesday, 5/15/01 This is a page where I can just spout off about whatever. I keep it...
From COM to .NET
Saturday, 4/21/01 Enough people have asked me what I think about the transition from COM to...