From Michael Lehman: "Mike Lehman’s BugTracker.net" is an open-source Windows Forms, XML, ADO.net bug tracking application written in C#.

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 only happen after impossible highs. In recent conversations, I hear terms like “burned out,” “bitter” and “jaded” coming up again and again in our conversations. Since I got into this industry just as it was idling before take off, I have no frame of reference, but I’m guessing that things will level off at a bit better cash flow than right now, but much better morale.

The question is, how long will it take for the energy and excitement to come back? I know that I’m still healing from a three-year stint on my last big project, and even though I have an itch to try something else, I fantasize about trying my hand at another industry. I always figured that the shake-out would make the bottom feeders leave for something else, but now that we seemed to have settled on good, although not great, salaries and benefits and shaky processes at best, how many of the top folks will just bail from something else? I haven’t actually seen anyone I respect leave for greener pastures, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that things will turn around.

by Shawn Van Ness and Chris Sells "Java programmers have long enjoyed the benefits of reflection and full-fidelity type information, and .NET (finally) delivers that bit of nirvana to the Windows platform. But the classes in the Reflection.Emit namespace raise the bar even further, allowing us to generate new types and emit new code, dynamically."

From Stanford Powers: Getting value from stuff you don't own is a compelling idea. Just think, someone else has created something that has value, and has made it available to you. You can now leverage its value in ways that makes all parties richer. That's the promise of web services. Architag Press, a division of Architag International Corporation, announces the publication of Web Services Implementation Guide, Volume 1: Getting Started, by Brian E. Travis and Mae Ozkan.

What’s new in FxCop 1.072: "1) UI updated (i.e. exclude tracking info, bold `new' violations, application settings +more) 2) nearly every rule has been touched, most improved 3) addition of 40+ new rules 4) cmd-line version of tool greatly stabilized and improved 5) new, complete set of documentation" [Maciek Sarnowicz via Off Topic]

"Mastering Visual Studio .NET, by Jon Flanders and Chris Sells "Most developers can perform the basics inside Visual Studio .NET, like creating a project, typing some code, compiling and debugging. Although Mastering Visual Studio .NET covers these topics, it does so very quickly. This book enables intermediate and advanced programmers the kind of depth that's really needed, such as advanced window functionality, macros, advanced debugging, and add-ins, etc. With this book, developers will learn the VS.NET development environment from top to bottom."

"I did a rough experiment the other day with strange results. I created two console apps one is C# and the other if Visual C++ 7. The apps do calculations for Generation of the Mandelbrot Set and time how long it takes. The strange thing is that the Visual C# App is much faster than the C++ App. (1.5 secs per set for the C# App and 1.9 secs per set for the C++ App). This seems totally bizarre to me as I would have thought it would be the opposite. It puts me in the strange situation of thinking about rewritting my C++ fractal generator in C# to get more speed !!" [Windows Technology Off Topic Mailing List]

My good friend, Tim Ewald, finally gets a home page, and I have to hear about it on the streets! : ) [pocketsoap.com/weblog]