Thanks to Scott Hanselman for this post on programming tips from Microsoft for the beginning programmer.  Go ahead take a look.  You might like programming.   You should also download one of the Visual Studio Express Editions and get started writing your own “Hello World” app.  If your a programmer and want to get your kids interested there are other alternatives like Phrogram.  Are there others?  Add your comment with ones that you know of.

Let’s excite the next generation of programmers!

Enjoy!

As I posted earlier, I’ve just received a new laptop an HP EliteBook 8530w Mobile Workstation.  My next effort is to begin preparing it install the Windows 7 Enterprise (64 bit) operating system.  First I’ll start with getting new system component software and drivers.  Soon, after getting any new PC I always check the manufactures support site for any BIOS or driver updates.  A lot of times a PC is built and the “images” used during the build could are several months out of date, or quite possibly your “new” PC has been spending several months in a box somewhere out there.  As a result the system software is most likely out of date. 

Well, with some help from my co-worker Scott Rudy who has some great notes to help me along, here’s what I’ve done so far.

Step 1 – Check the bios level.  The PC was reporting version F.09 from 3/10/2009.  According to HP’s support site there is a newer one (version F.0E).  Time to download and update the newer one.  

Step 2 – Download other system hardware drivers.  While I’m there I’ll also make sure I know what hardware is on my laptop and get the latest drivers and place them on a cd or flash drive for use during OS install.

Step 2 – Partition the drive and install Windows 7.  I’m using two partitions to allow one to be encrypted and the other to hold unencrypted VPC images that I can boot from.  This partitioning can be done right in the “install” screens by selecting the Restore option when prompted to “Install Now”.

Step 3 – Immediately perform a Windows Update check.  This will add any hardware drivers and software not found during the initial setup.  It also downloads any missing patches that you might need.

Step 4 – Install required software for VPN connectivity.  Since I’m connecting to a corporate network I need to get my pc to be a member of a domain.  To join the domain I need to be connected to the corporate network first and the VPN gets me there since I work remotely.

Step 5 – Transfer all my stuff.  (Today’s task)

Enjoy!

It’s arrived!  I’ve been waiting for a week or so (and expecting it to take longer) for it to get here.  I was very surprised when the Fed Ex truck pulled in today.   HP-EDS is moving away from the Dell Laptop’s we had and issuing new HP Laptops.  I was fortunate enough to get one of the high end models, an HP EliteBook 8530w Mobile Workstation with 4GB of ram and 250GB hard drive.  It has the T9400 processor running at 2.53 GHz.  It comes in a sleek brushed aluminum case with black keyboard and accents.  It’s also built fairly tough with a stronger case and keyboard and more durable hard drive.  I’m impressed with the overall design and like the “touch” bar that allows control of the volume, WiFi, presentation switch. 

It comes with Vista pre-installed, but I’m about to change that.  It’s definitely time to load Windows 7 (64-bit).  Oh yea, today is going to be busy.  The only question now is, do I perform an in-place upgrade or do a clean install?  Hmm, something to ponder for a bit. Right now I’ve just booted it up and it’s going through a ton of patch installations.  I would’ve thought that the COE department would update their Vista image more often so this initial setup wouldn’t take so long.  Oh well, for now it’s back to work, but I’ll be updating you soon on my experiences with this new laptop.

This is the life……

How I’d wish I’d known this before.  Thanks for sharing the tip Srinath!  Visual Studio stores up to 20 items in the clipboard and you can cycle through them using CTRL-Shift-V, then paste the one you want with CRTL-V.  There are so many of these little tricks that it’s hard to remember them all.   I guess I need to get Sara Ford's book to keep close by when I’m coding.

Enjoy!

Several years ago I switched our home network over to OpenDNS.  I think that was one of the best decisions I’ve made.  They offer a great free product and one that I can customize and use to protect my whole network with a simple change to my router.    Don’t take my word for it take a look at the awards they’ve received and no I don’t receive any kickback for saying all this.  I’m just a very satisfied customer.

So click on over to OpenDNS and make the change. They’ve made it extremely easy and even give you instructions for how to do it regardless of how your network is configured.  I just went through the steps again (so I could blog about it) and it took me 45 seconds to set it up.  Yea… That’s how easy it is!  No matter what your level of computer knowledge is you can do it..  They’ve taken the time to research most major router manufactures and have instructions that will make it that easy for you setup their service.   Some router manufactures are even partnering with OpenDNS to make the ‘Net much safer. The biggest reason I have found to use this product is that it protects my network and family from a lot of different attacks that can come from the internet.  It’s not the only protection I use but it’s an important one. 

Now, the links I provided above will allow you to do two things.  The first is to just change the “DNS” settings on your router.  If you just want the basics then that’s it, change them and move on to surfing safely.  But if you want to move up a notch and begin to monitor and manage your network more like the pro’s then you have to Create the Free Open DNS Account and start using their Dashboard.  Something important to note if your network uses a Dynamic IP address (the majority of the home networks do) then I would also suggest you download and install one of the many Dynamic DNS Clients so you can keep their your account in sync with your ever changing IP address.  With that all setup you can really manage your network.

That’s it for now.  I’ll revisit this topic in the future to give you some more pointers on using this great service.

Enjoy!

Thanks to Joe Stagner (The Misfit Geek) for this information.  Looks like Microsoft is seeing the benefit of helping the open source community.

Here’s the article from Joe

http://misfitgeek.com/blog/introducing-the-windows-cache-extension-for-php/

or jump directly to the download

Windows Cache Extension 1.0 for PHP 5.2 - Beta

Windows Cache Extension 1.0 for PHP 5.3 – Beta

Enjoy!

Makes you feel a little warm and fuzzy with announcements like this…Microsoft Contributes Linux Drivers to Linux Community.

Hat tip to Keith Combs and Steve Clayton

Just saw this post by Steve Clayton about how engaged companies are with their customers.  I work for HP so I’m always interested in how our company compares with the rest.  It’s good to see we’re on the list and not that far down.  We need some improvement I think.  Especially since blogging is still not openly encouraged within HP and the blogs are hidden under the “Newsroom” section of our website.  Kind of obscure.  Although there is another HP communities site that my expose it more.

Enjoy!

So my first step in understanding .Net coding standards is to understand what’s out there. So time to use the handiest tool available, Web Search (Google and Bing). WOW! Maybe it’s just the way I chose my words, ok so it always has to do with that, but searching on “.Net Coding Standards” returned over 30 million hits on Bingand 417,000 on Google.

Ugh, where’s my coffee? Ok time to narrow it down because I’m not crazy. Let’s just focus on the to some of the top ones. I like ones that are formatted for HTML or in a downloaded document. I’m also looking for more complete ones, not ones that just focus on one topic of the standards. Remember, I’m not here to invent the wheel, just to find the best ideas for designing and constructing a wheel. Then to understand each aspect of the wheel to determine why it’s important to have that standard. Here we go…

We probably need to start with the big one. The one from Microsoft. Design Guidelines for Class Libraries.

Clint Edmonson has a post on NotsoTrivial.net containing free VB & C# coding standards. I like his quote…

"It doesn't matter what the standards are, as long as you have them and everyone agrees to adhere to them!"

Lance's Hunts Whiteboard has a C# specific download.

For those of you that have spare cash and don’t want to pollute the air with the ash from burning it, you can buy one from CafePress.com I think I’ll stick to the free ones, especially after reading this.

Michael Flanakin has one that is pretty decent set of standards on his blog, but I just wish there was an index so I could jump between the sections.

A quick scan shows this one by Paul Yao and David Durant, shows great detail in the use of Hungarian format. That will come in handy I’m sure when we get to that section.

And finally some insight on internal coding standards from Brad Abrams at Microsoft

Ok that gives us a pretty good list. I’ll use/refer to the above as well as some of my internal corporate documents as we work my way through this arduous task. Let’s dig in, and ask a lot of questions.

Happy Moon Landing!

I’m on a project where the coding quality has been in question and there has been a lot of scrutiny on the coding style and format of our code.  Our customer has a set of general set of coding standards that they require all suppliers to follow.  We as a .Net team also have our own set of standards.  Probably every where you go you’ll find similar coding standards documents.  Some people have even adopted personal coding standards. Do you have any?  Do you hold your code to a set of standards? Are they documented?

How many of us really know our coding standards?  How many of us follow them or work to improve them?  Are your standards documents just some bytes taking up disk space on your network or SharePoint site?  Frankly, this exercise with our customer has made me ask myself, how much do I really follow the standards? 

Today I’m beginning a challenge for myself.  A challenge to re-read our coding standards, research other industry coding standards and to understand the reasons behind them and to determine which of them make sense and which don’t and to understand why.  I will try to include some of my knowledge here on my site, for my reference and possibly yours, my friend.  Let’s do this together, if anyone’s out there.  Let’s understand why we have standards and fix the ones that are just wrong.

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