Jon Gallant

azd Hooks in Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

azd hooks are no longer limited to Bash and PowerShell. Write hooks in Python, JS, or TypeScript with auto dependency management.

Custom Parameters in azd up

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Three ways to add custom prompts to your azd up flow - from @allowed pick lists to free-text input to full hook scripts.

azd update - Stop Juggling Package Managers

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Azure Developer CLI now has a built-in update command. One command, any platform, done.

Announcing grüt - A Terminal File Explorer with Git, GitHub, and AI Integration

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I built a terminal-based file explorer with deep Git, GitHub, and AI integration. Here's why and how you can try it.

My C: Drive Hit 70 MB Free. Here's What I Did About It.

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I used GitHub Copilot CLI to set up a Windows Dev Drive, move all my package caches off C:, and get noticeably faster builds. Took about 2 minutes.

Dispatch - A GitHub Copilot CLI Session Explorer for Your Terminal

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Announcing dispatch, a terminal UI to search, browse, and relaunch your GitHub Copilot CLI sessions. Find any past session instantly and get back to work.

Azure Developer CLI - Origin Story

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

How I built the Azure Developer CLI from a personal pain point into a platform used by thousands.

Building the Azure MCP Server: From Prototype to Platform

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The story of how a quick prototype to help GitHub Copilot connect to Azure evolved into the Azure MCP Server and the foundation for Microsoft's MCP platform.

Solution to 'TypeError: Failed to fetch' with ReactJS and Azure Functions

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT

I got this error while calling an Azure Function from a ReactJS app. Here's how I fixed the CORS issue causing the TypeError.

Solution: GitHub Actions Failing with Unexpected value 'branches'

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Fix for GitHub Actions error: Unexpected value 'branches' in workflow_dispatch. Learn why workflow_dispatch doesn't support branches filter.

We're Hiring Developers for Microsoft Azure Developer Experience Team!

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Let me cut right to the chase and let the below job description speak for itself. The Azure Developer Experience Team in the Developer Division at Microsoft,...

Moon Palace Cancun: The Ultimate All-Inclusive Resort Guide

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Everything you need to know about Moon Palace Cancun - from booking strategies and the best restaurants to hidden gems and insider tips for an unforgettable ...

How to delete a GitHub Codespace when you've reached the max of 20

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT

You are on a repo that you love and you see that you have maxed out your allowed 20 Codespaces!!! You’ll see this: But there’s no link to delete a Codespace....

Azure Identity 301 - ChainedTokenCredential

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Azure Identity is an Azure SDK library that abstracts all the authentication complexities so you can get back to building your Azure solutions. In Azure Iden...

Solution to SignalR error 'Unexpected token in JSON' when parsing event data

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been writing some UI automation tests with Playwright and was trying to parse a SignalR event. Like so: const imageEvent = JSON.parse(event.payload.toSt...

Azure Identity 202 - Environment Variables

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Azure Identity is a library that abstracts away all of the Azure authentication complexities so you can focus on building your solutions. In Azure Identity 1...

How to run Playwright codegen in a devcontainer - Solution to 'Unable to open X display'

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I started playing with Playwright (the browser test automation tool) yesterday and discovered that the codegen feature doesn’t work in a devcontainer out of...

Azure Identity 201 - DefaultAzureCredential Options

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Azure Identity is a fundamental building block of the new Azure SDKs. We wanted to make it brain-dead simple for you to authenticate your apps with Azure. Au...

Solution to Visual Studio 'Re-enter Credentials' and multiple authentication prompts

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I’m using Visual Studio 2021 Preview 2.1 and I was constantly getting prompted to re-enter my credentials multiple times. I would have to 2FA 3-4 times ever...

Azure SDK for Python - Introducing the new CloudEvent.from_json method to convert messages from Service Bus, Event Hubs, and Storage Queues to CloudEvent

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

We recently added native CloudEvent support to our Event Grid libraries. I created an app for my Intro to the new Azure SDK Python video and discovered that...

Create a Golang CLI in Minutes with Cobra

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I’m new to Golang and yesterday I attempted to create a Golang CLI. Here’s what I learned while getting it up and running on WSL. This took me a while. Hopef...

Azure Identity 101 - DefaultAzureCredential

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Azure Identity is a library that simplifies how applications authenticate with Azure services. The following code news up a KeyVault SecretClient and passes...

Power BI - Solution to 'This dataset includes a dynamic data source ... this dataset won't be refreshed.'

Sat, 07 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I’m pulling data from GitHub Codeowners into a Power BI report. All was dandy locally, but refresh failed on the PBI service with this: This dataset includes...

How to Update GitHub Topic Icon and Description

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

GitHub has Topics. For example, when you search for “Azure” on GitHub it displays the Azure topic: And when you click on “See topic” you can view the details...

Microsoft Teams - Invite All Team Members to Meeting

Sun, 18 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

You’ve created your Microsoft Teams Team and you want to send an invite to all of the Team members. You create an invite and see the following, but you aren’...

GitHub - Open in Visual Studio Code Insiders

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

VS Code just released an update that lets you embed an “Open in Visual Studio Code” button in your GitHub readme. It uses the Remote Repositories VS Code ext...

Microsoft Teams - How to Get a Link to a Private Channel

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I just created a Microsoft Teams private channel and noticed that it doesn’t have “Get link to channel” option like other channels. Here, you can see it does...

A Barebones Azure Event Grid to Azure Relay Listener

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Let’s say that you are developing with Azure Event Grid and you simply want to see the messages that it is generating to observe the schema or debug it. To d...

Adobe Lightroom Import - How to change dash in folder name to underscore

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I just organized all my old photos into this folder format YYYY/YYYY_MM/YYYY_MM_DD - see this blog for more info: How to Organize Photos by EXIF Date Taken w...

Using GitHub CLI and Git in GitHub Codespaces

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Update - New GitHub CLI Extension GitHub CLI 2.0 introduced CLI Extensions. I took a few minutes and threw all of the fixes below into a new extension called...

Solution: CS1061: 'AsyncPageable' does not contain a definition for 'GetAwaiter'

Mon, 17 May 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been coding in .NET for a very-long-time, but this tripped me up. Run the following code: var resources = await client.Resources.ListByResourceGroupAsyn...

Azure REST APIs in VS Code with Thunder Client

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Thunder Client is a new REST client VS Code extension. It’s like Postman, but integrated into VS Code. I’d consider it an early preview and far from the feat...

How to Disable VS Code / GitLens Current Line Blame - 'You, seconds ago - Uncommitted Changes'

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT

You’re using VS Code with the GitLens extension and you see this: Or maybe you noticed that sometimes that text is inserted into the middle of what you are t...

This is Not A Toy - Mandalorian + Grogu Puzzle Added to Puzzle Wall

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 10:09:29 GMT

A tech, career, & life blog from a developer focused on Azure developer experience at Microsoft.

This is Not A Toy - Mandalorian + Grogu Puzzle Added to Puzzle Wall

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT

We are a puzzle family and a few years ago started hanging them up around the house. We are also a Star Wars family and started doing Star Wars themed puzzle...

Solution: The subscription does not have QuotaId/Feature required by SKU 'S0'.

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Fix subscription does not have QuotaId feature error in Azure. Solution for Azure SKU quota limitations.

Azure REST APIs with Postman's OAuth 2.0 Provider

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been blogging and vlogging about Azure REST APIs with Postman for a while now and often get asked why I don’t use Postman’s built in OAuth 2.0 provider....

McDonald's No Salt

Sat, 27 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I don’t eat at McDonald’s often, but when I do it’s sodium overload because me and my kid are use to a very low-sodium diet. While on a recent roadtrip we wa...

The Case of the Last T: A behind the scenes look at how we decided to capitalize the T in Azure.IoT

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

This is a story of how much effort and care we put into Azure SDK naming guidelines and consistency - even for the casing of a single letter…the last T in Io...

Solution to Could not locate the included file jekyll-theme-primer

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Solution to Jekyll theme primer file not found error. Fix missing include file issues in Jekyll.

How to Organize Photos by EXIF Date Taken with PowerShell

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I recently decided to organize all of my photos from the last 20 years. Photos from various phones and cameras - all with many different formats, JPEG, RAW,...

Azure REST APIs with Insomnia

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s how to call the Azure REST APIs with Insomnia - a modern lightweight REST API client. Azure SDKs Before we go too far into this Azure REST APIs for In...

Solution to Azure Kubernetes Service version not supported exception - Version x.x.x is not supported in this region.

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Fix for AgentPoolK8sVersionNotSupported error when deploying Azure Kubernetes Service. Learn how to find supported Kubernetes versions in your region using A...

AirportParkingReservations.com Review

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I recently and successfully used AirportParkingReservations.com to park my car at Master Park at SeaTac - so I thought I would write a quick note to let my r...

Zion National Park Tips - Where to stay, park, drive, & hike.

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I just returned from a trip to Zion National Park in February 2021. Here are some tips that will help if you are considering a trip to Zion in the winter. Ho...

Azure REST APIs with Postman (2021)

Wed, 10 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Every year or so I do an Azure REST APIs with Postman blog and video. It’s 2021 and Postman has changed quite a bit since my last update, so here’s the lates...

Solution to PNG files not rendering on GitHub

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I do most of my dev in WSL and occasionally I screw up line endings between Windows and WSL. I wanted to solve the line ending changes so I added a .gitattri...

Solution: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime when calling DateTime.ParseExact on results of GetDetailsOf call

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

This was time suck for me, hopefully not for you after reading this. I’m working on a PowerShell script to organize my photo library. I want to get Date Take...

Solution to GitHub CLI 'GraphQL error: Resource protected by organization SAML enforcement. You must grant your OAuth token access to this organization.'

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Ran a gh clone today and got this: GraphQL error: Resource protected by organization SAML enforcement. You must grant your OAuth token access to this organiz...

Solution to VS Codespaces The workspace can not be opened in a container

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I’m working on setting up Codespaces for my project and tried to open my workspace and got this error: The workspace can not be opened in a container. Folder...

Solution to VS Code Codespaces Container is not running or /tmp Permission Denied error.

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

I tried to open a VS Code Codespace devcontainer and got these errors: Start: Run: docker ps -q -a --filter label=vsch.local.folder=d:\OneDriveMS\code\Git...

azuresdk/azure-cli-python docker image has been retired. Here's the new location.

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT

This Azure CLI docker image has been retired and is no longer available on Docker hub. https://hub.docker.com/r/azuresdk/azure-cli-python Apologies if this b...

Solution for Error validating token IDX10223

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Got this error today when trying to set a secret with terraform. Error checking for presence of existing Secret keyvault.BaseClient#GetSecret: Failure respon...

Solution to 'This value does not have any attributes.` with kubelet_identity.object_id

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Fix kubelet identity object ID attributes error in Azure Kubernetes Service. Solution for AKS identity issues.

WSL: Disable 'ls' folder highlighting

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT

In WSL, when I ran ls I was getting this: The folders were highlighted, not matter what theme I changed Terminal to. I did a bunch of searching and found thi...

Power BI: How to Clear All Filters on a Power BI Report

Sun, 17 May 2020 00:00:00 GMT

It quite common to lose track of what filters you currently have applied to a Power BI report. Also, there’s no out of the box way to clear them all. So, her...

Updated: How to use .env files with the Azure SDK for Java

Wed, 13 May 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Exactly, one month ago, to the day, I wrote a post about how to use .env files with Java and Azure SDKs. The gist of the problem was that the package we use...

Solution to Autodesk Translation Services failed to translate the current document to stl file

Fri, 08 May 2020 00:00:00 GMT

If you see this error: Autodesk Translation Services failed to translate the current document to stl file - in Fusion 360, then try the solutions here: https...

How to find all the Azure Built-In Roles for Azure RBAC with Azure CLI, PowerShell, Docs, or AzAdvertizer

Thu, 07 May 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Here are a bunch of ways you can find which roles are built into Azure. This will come in super handy when you need to assign a role to a service principal o...

How to Delete Multiple Azure Resource Groups with Tags, Bash via Azure Cloud Shell, and the Azure CLI

Sat, 02 May 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Azure doesn’t currently provide a way to delete multiple resource groups at the same time. Here’s a method that works for me. Open Azure Portal https://porta...

Local Azure Storage Development with Azurite, Azure SDKs, and Azure Storage Explorer

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Azurite, the local cross-platform Azure Storage emulator, just released support for HTTPS and OAuth, making our local Azure Storage development story complet...

Solution: Visual Studio: We could not refresh the credentials for the account MSAL V3 Deserialization failed to parse the cache contents.

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMT

I ran into this error yesterday, not sure how I got Visual Studio into this state, but I thought I would post a quick fix - just in case you run into the sam...

How to use .env files with the Azure SDK for Java

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMT

UPDATE 5/13/2020 - This is now outdated as of version 5.2.0 of java-dotnet package. A systemProperties method was added to make all of this easier. You can f...

How to play Ticket To Ride online with Steam

Sun, 12 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Ticket to Ride is the “go to” board game for me and my family. We’ve been playing for years and like it a lot because it is easy to learn, has a good amount...

How to use Azure.Identity with Azure Government Cloud, Azure German Cloud, and Azure China Cloud

Sat, 29 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Azure has many cloud instances like: Azure Public, Azure Government, Azure German, and Azure China. You can see the full cloud list and associated endpoints...

Solution to: "Unbound classpath container: JRE System Library [JavaSE-11] in project" in VSCode

Sat, 29 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Fix unbound classpath container error in VS Code Java extension. Solution for Java project configuration issues.

How to Find the Amazon Prime Annual Membership Signup Option

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Not sure how, but Amazon charged my Prime membership to the wrong card. I contacted them via chat to credit that card and charge my primary card. They had to...

Use HTTPS and DefaultAzureCredential with Azurite for Local Azure Storage Emulation

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT

UPDATE 04/23/2020 - Azurite now officially supports HTTPS and OAuth. Please see my new blog here for all the details. You won’t need to create a reverse-prox...

How to Upload Blobs to Azure Storage from an Azure Function with Azure Managed Identities (Part 2)

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT

In this 3 part series we are going to learn a few methods for developing an Azure Function that uploads blobs to Azure Storage using the new Azure Blob Stora...

How to Upload Blobs to Azure Storage from an Azure Function with Azure Managed Identities (Part 3)

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT

In this 3 part series we are going to learn a few methods for developing an Azure Function that uploads blobs to Azure Storage using the new Azure Blob Stora...

How to Upload Blobs to Azure Storage from an Azure Function with Azure Managed Identities (Part 1)

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT

In this 3 part series we are going to learn a few methods for developing an Azure Function that uploads blobs to Azure Storage using the new Azure Blob Stora...

How to loop over a Python range that has a single item - zero length range

Sat, 18 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT

I’m working on an app that accepts user input of a start year and end year, loops through those years, and outputs the year. For example, given the start yea...

How to use the Azure Data Explorer (kusto) REST API with Httpie

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT

I’m working on project that pulls gharchive data into Azure Data Explorer (kusto) and I decided to try to do all of my setup with the Azure CLI. I could easi...

How to rename or remove spaces from OneDrive folder name

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT

I have two OneDrive accounts, one for personal, one for work. When you have two accounts on the same machine, OneDrive automatically creates a folder for the...

Solution to Power BI Desktop Missing Data Tab

Sun, 29 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMT

When using Power BI Desktop you will see the “Data” tab on the left. When you create a new DirectQuery connection, the “Data” tab disappears. It wasn’t obvio...

Introducing the New Azure SDKs

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 13:30:33 GMT

A tech, career, & life blog from a developer focused on Azure developer experience at Microsoft.

Introducing the New Azure SDKs

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMT

As of 11/4/2019, a few of the New Azure SDKs have hit General Availability! Read more here: Azure SDK Releases Azure has had a tremendous amount of growth in...

Solution to Azure CLI won't upgrade to latest version or it still works after uninstall

Tue, 16 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMT

On Windows using the Windows Installer and Azure CLI wouldn’t update to the latest version - it was stuck on 2.0.44, but the latest is 2.0.66. I uninstalled...

I'm Hiring Devs

Mon, 20 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT

This is my 20th year as a software engineer and 15th year at Microsoft. I started in 1999 and worked in startups for 5 years. I then spent the next 12 years...

Azure REST APIs with Postman (2019)

Sat, 06 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMT

This content is outdated Please see the most up-to-date Azure REST APIs with Postman video and blog here: Latest Azure REST APIs with Postman Video: https://...

Solution to Postman Collection Created as Read only

Fri, 29 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT

I just tried to create a Postman Collection and I wasn’t able to add any requests to it because it was created as read only. I did a bunch of Googling and Gi...

Solution to Vue.js Error - Unknown custom element - did you register the component correctly? For recursive components, make sure to provide the name option.

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT

I’m building a recursive Vue.js component and ran into this error: Unknown custom element: - did you register the component correctly? For recur...

How I Saved 31% on Insurance...and Other Insurance Tips

Thu, 21 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve had auto and home insurance with Pemco since 2003, but just switched to Safeco for 31% less. I wasn’t unhappy with Pemco - as they were responsive to cl...

Solution to Vue.js TypeError: Cannot set property 'render' of undefined

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Developing a Vue.js app and I was getting this: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property 'render' of undefined at normalizeComponent (componentNormalizer.js:2...

Solution to Experimental support for decorators is a feature that is subject to change in a future release. Set the 'experimentalDecorators' option to remove this warning.

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT

With this code: @Component export default class CategoryRating extends Vue { @Prop({default: {}}) category: any; I kept getting this VS Code error: Exp

How I Resolved Vue.js, VSCode, Vetur, Prettyhtml, and Prettier Formatting and ES Lint Issues

Mon, 04 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT

I spent way too much time this weekend debugging Vue.js - Vetur - Prettyhtml - Prettier - Beautify - Eslint issues. Here’s what I discovered: By default, Vet...

Solution to Avoid mutating a prop directly since the value will be overwritten whenever the parent component re-renders. Instead, use a data or computed property based on the prop's value.

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Working on a Vue.js and TypeScript project. I had this: @Prop() enabled!: boolean = false; And got this error: Avoid mutating a prop directly since the value...

Solution to Vue.js Not Binding Complex View Model Objects

Fri, 25 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT

I’m new to Vue.js and didn’t realize that you have to fully define the structure of your view model object or bindings will not work. For example, with this...

How to Create a Microsoft To-Do Task from a Tweet using the iOS Share Menu and IFTTT

Thu, 24 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT

One way to keep track of tweets that you want to follow up on is to “like” them to review at a later time. I posted my method for that here: How to Create a...

How to Create a Microsoft To-Do Task from a Liked Tweet using IFTTT

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT

I only “like” tweets that I want to follow up on. For example, when someone tweets a new podcast I’ll “like” it as a reminder to listen to it later. Before t...

Solution to 'The level of the video being input to the display is not correct and the calibration is unable to continue. The video signal appears to be configured for an HDTV and not for a display monitor. Please check the video adapter settings and make sure that they are not configured for an HDTV.'

Sun, 20 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT

I have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 graphics card, which has one DisplayPort and one HDMI port. My NEC PA322UHD is connected via DisplayPort and my NEC EA275UHD...

My New Snowboard Gear for 2019: Everything I Learned While Searching for a New Snowboard and Bindings

Sun, 13 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been snowboarding off-and-on for over 25 years but have never owned a decent snowboard. I recently decided to get a good snowboard and bindings and, lik...

How to Update Firmware on Dremel Idea Builder 3D Printer (3D20)

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Go to Firmware Page https://digilab.dremel.com/3D-Support Download Firmware Zip file and unzip it. Run dremel_firmware.exe as Admin. Plug printer into comput...

Proactive Mentorship

Thu, 18 Oct 2018 22:06:56 GMT

A tech, career, & life blog from a developer focused on Azure developer experience at Microsoft.

Proactive Mentorship

Thu, 18 Oct 2018 22:06:56 GMT

A tech, career, & life blog from a developer focused on Azure developer experience at Microsoft.

How to Remove Yourself from an Azure Subscription or Azure Active Directory Tenant

Fri, 28 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Remove Yourself from an Azure Subscription It is not possible to remove yourself from a Subscription. You have to contact the Subscription owner to remove yo...

Solution - Value cannot be null. Parameter name paths at System.IO.Path.Combine(String[] paths) at Microsoft.TemplateEngine.Utils.EngineEnvironmentSettings.DefaultPathInfo.get_BaseDir()

Tue, 25 Sep 2018 15:48:30 GMT

A tech, career, & life blog from a developer focused on Azure developer experience at Microsoft.

Solution - The user's home directory could not be determined. Set the 'DOTNET_CLI_HOME' environment variable to specify the directory to use.

Tue, 25 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

In Azure DevOps, got this: The user's home directory could not be determined. Set the 'DOTNET_CLI_HOME' environment variable to specify the directory to use....

Solution - Value cannot be null. Parameter name paths at System.IO.Path.Combine(String[] paths) at Microsoft.TemplateEngine.Utils.EngineEnvironmentSettings.DefaultPathInfo.get_BaseDir()

Tue, 25 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

In Azure DevOps, got this error: 2018-09-25T21:24:45.2778646Z ERROR: Error: Value cannot be null. 2018-09-25T21:24:45.2791049Z Parameter name: paths 2018-09-...

How to Fix NEC Monitor with NVIDIA Graphics Card that Won't Expand to Full Resolution

Fri, 17 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT

My main monitor is a NEC PA322UHD and my secondary is a NEC EA275UHD. I set them both up on a new computer with a NVIDIA GeForce 745, the PA322 on DisplayPor...

How To View Number of PyPI Package Downloads by Python Version

Mon, 30 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Building Python packages that support both Python 2 and 3 is time consuming and at some point you are going to ask the question “Can I just build this thing...

Where to Find Your SpectraView II Serial Number

Fri, 27 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT

When you launch SpectraView II for the first time it will ask you for a serial number: “Enter the serial number you received with software” I could not find...

Azure CLI: How to Supress Command Output

Mon, 26 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Update As of Azure CLI version 2.0.55 that was released on 01/15/2019, the --output param now supports none. So you can just use: az [command] --output none...

Azure IoT Edge on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Wed, 10 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT

If you try to run the Azure IoT Edge Runtime or the Azure IoT Edge Dev Tool on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), then you will run into the following errors...

Azure Functions v2 Now Uses ASP.NET Core Configuration and No Longer Supports ConfigurationManager

Sat, 06 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT

You may have noticed that ConfigurationManager is not available in Azure Functions v2 .NET Standard projects. It’s no longer supported. AF v2 now uses ASPNET...

Python Lessons Learned. Read This Before You Start Building a Distributable Python Package

Thu, 04 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT

I just published my first official distributable Python package to PyPI, which makes it available to install via pip install. It’s called Azure IoT Edge Dev...

Solution to 'Value cannot be null. Parameter name: path1' with dotnet and tox

Fri, 22 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT

When running Python unit tests with tox, you might see the following errors: C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\2.0.0\NuGet.targets(466,5): error : Value canno...

Workaround: Azure IoT Python SDK Error: curl_easy_perform() failed: Out of memory

Tue, 19 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMT

A bunch of people have reported the following issue with the Azure IoT Python SDK: azure-iot-sdk-python/c/c-utility/adapters/httpapi_curl.c Func:HTTPAPI_Exec...

Azure REST APIs with Postman (Dec 2017)

Wed, 29 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This content is outdated Please see the most up-to-date Azure REST APIs with Postman video and blog here: Latest Azure REST APIs with Postman Video: https://...

Azure IoT Edge: How to Set Force No Passwords in Config

Tue, 28 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

When setting up Azure IoT Edge, you will most likely want to use an external config file. If you run iotedgectl setup with the --config-file option and don’t...

Azure IoT Edge with Azure Container Registry

Tue, 21 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

You will likely want to run the Azure IoT Edge Runtime from your own Azure Container Registry (ACR). While this will be officially supported eventually, righ...

Solution to Slow iPhone 6 with iOS 11

Fri, 17 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

My iPhone 6 Plus was so slow it was unusable. Each tap would take 2-3 seconds and everything was sluggish. I deleted all apps I wasn’t using and turned off ...

Solution to Outlook Hanging (Not Responding) When Opening an Appointment

Fri, 17 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Outlook has been hanging on me for the last couple of days. Turns out it is related to the Skype Add-in. I disabled the add-in and it’s fine now…but I won’t...

Azure IoT Edge on Raspberry Pi

Thu, 16 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Azure IoT Edge Public Preview was just announced at Microsoft Connect. Here’s how to get it running on Raspberry Pi with Raspbian Stretch or Stretch Lite. Ra...

How to Change Raspberry Pi Keyboard Layout

Thu, 16 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

How to change keyboard layout on Raspberry Pi. Configure keyboard settings in Raspbian.

How to Increase Disk Space Allocation on Raspberry Pi

Thu, 16 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

By default Raspberry Pi does not allocate enough of your SD card for it to be usable. Out of the box, if you run sudo apt upgrade, you’ll get a message sayi...

How to Install Raspbian on Raspberry Pi

Thu, 16 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

The very first thing you are going to want to do when you get your Raspberry Pi is install an OS. You have a few options, including Raspbian, a Debian based...

How to Delete Docker Container Log Files (Windows or Linux)

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s how to delete your Docker container log files. Get Docker File Location 1. Run docker inspect to find your Docker log file location 2. Find the “Docke...

How to SSH into the Docker VM (MobyLinuxVM) on Windows

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

On Windows, Docker runs in a VM called MobyLinuxVM, but you cannot login to that VM via Hyper-V Manager. We aren’t technically going to SSH into the VM, we’l...

How to Change Raspberry Pi (Raspbian) Hostname

Sun, 12 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

One of the first things you’ll want to do on a Raspberry Pi is change the hostname to something unique on your network. The default name is raspberrypi. You...

.NET Core SDK Not Supported on ARM

Wed, 08 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

The .NET Core SDK is not supported on ARM based devices such as the Raspberry Pi and the .NET Core team is not currently working on supporting it. As mention...

Why I Switched from Tile to Trackr

Wed, 08 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Update: 1/8/18: TrackR will now replace your first battery for FREE! I’ve been using TrackR for a couple of months now without issue. But I am surprised that...

Microsoft is Hiring High-Scale Data Services Developers

Wed, 01 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

My team is hiring developers in the high-scale data space that have experience building data and analytics pipelines. The ideal candidate is someone with a d...

Solution to "unknown shorthand flag a in -a" When Trying to Remove Docker Containers

Sun, 17 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This docker command will remove all stopped containers. docker rm $(docker ps -a -q) This docker command will remove all containers, even if they are running...

How to Create a .NET Core CLI Console App as an EXE Instead of a DLL

Fri, 15 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

You may have just discovered that when you create a console app using the .NET Core CLI tools it only produces a DLL by default. If you execute this: dotnet...

How to Run Docker on Raspberry Pi

Thu, 14 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

It is very easy to get Docker running on a Raspberry Pi. Here’s a barebones post to get you started. You can execute the following commands over SSH or Remot...

How to Change Your Raspberry Pi Password

Thu, 14 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

You’ll want to make sure you don’t leave the default ‘pi’ user’s password to the default ‘raspberry’ setting. Here’s how to change it. Login to Pi Login to y...

How to Access Raspberry Pi Files via a Samba File Share

Thu, 14 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

As part of your normal Raspberry Pi dev workflow you’re going to want to access the files of the Raspberry Pi from your host dev machine. Here’s how to creat...

How to SSH into a Raspberry Pi

Thu, 14 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

You will often want to execute commands over SSH instead of having to Remote Desktop or access your Pi via a monitor and keyboard. Here’s how to get SSH setu...

How to Remote Desktop into Raspberry Pi with RealVNC

Tue, 12 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve cleared out this post because the Raspberry Pi documentation site now has docs updated for Stretch. You can find the Raspberry Pi Remote Desktop setup ...

Solution to Unreachable Azure IoT Hub Endpoint

Wed, 17 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Azure IoT allows you to define “Endpoints” and send messages to them via “Routes”. Learn more about Endpoints and Routes here. I setup a Service Bus Queue En...

How to use Apache Avro Compression with Azure IoT, Azure Stream Analytics, and Node.js

Wed, 03 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I was recently working with a customer that uses Apache Avro compression and discovered that there isn’t a great example out there that shows you how to send...

How to Execute Postman Collections in your Continuous Integration Pipeline with Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) and newman

Wed, 26 Apr 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been doing a lot with Postman lately and have been blogging everything I’ve uncovered along the way. Postman is more than just an ad-hoc REST tester - I...

How to Host Jenkins on Azure

Wed, 05 Apr 2017 00:00:00 GMT

6/29/17 Update: There’s a new Azure Solution Template for Jenkins here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-the-solution-template-for-jenkins-o...

I'm moving to Starbucks to be the new Chief Coffee Officer!

Sat, 01 Apr 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Many of you know that I’m fanatical about high quality coffee. Like many people, I used to think Starbucks was good coffee. That was until I experienced fres...

How to Poll Long Running Async Requests in Postman

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Some HTTP requests are long running and instead of asking users to wait for the long running operation to complete, they will return a “request status URI” t...

How to Use and Execute the Azure IoT Resource Provider REST APIs with Postman

Sun, 19 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I was recently working with a partner that was having some difficulty integrating with the Azure IoT REST APIs. You can read about that experience here: How...

How to Generate Azure Storage Shared Access Signature (SAS) Tokens in Postman's Pre-request Script Sandbox

Sun, 12 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I’m working on a project that should make it much easier for developers to consume REST APIs that use SAS Tokens with Swagger and Postman. If you don’t alrea...

Azure REST APIs with Postman (March 2017)

Fri, 10 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This content is outdated Please see the most up-to-date Azure REST APIs with Postman video and blog here: Latest Azure REST APIs with Postman Video: https://...

Solution to Azure Function Message: Read only - because you have started editing with source control, this view is read only. You can edit these settings in function.json

Thu, 09 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMT

If you see the following while trying to edit an Azure Function via browser… “Read only - because you have started editing with source control, this view is...

How to Create a Power BI Slicer with the Power BI Custom Visual SDK

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Starting with version 1.5 of the Power BI Custom Visuals SDK, we now have the ability to create “slicer” visuals, which are visuals that can filter data in o...

How to Securely Share Secrets with Azure Key Vault and Azure Key Vault Explorer

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMT

We often need to share database connection strings, system account passwords and whatnot with our team members. People typically put the secret in a DRM’d em...

How to Use the Azure IoT Hub Device Twins REST APIs with Postman and Newman

Wed, 08 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This post describes how to use Postman and Newman to demonstrate your APIs to your users. Of course, you are going to want to use Apiary to officially descri...

How to Create a New Power BI Tenant and Add Users with Azure Active Directory and Office 365

Mon, 06 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMT

As you can imagine, we have many Power BI internal test environments and all Microsofties get redirected to an internal pre-release version of Power BI so we...

VS Code Integrated Terminal Now Defaults to PowerShell. Here's How to Change It Back to cmd.exe

Mon, 06 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMT

You may notice that the latest version of VS Code uses PowerShell as its default Integrated Terminal. I’m not quite ready to use PowerShell for everything, s...

Windows 10: New Bluetooth Settings Dialog with a Connect Button!

Sun, 05 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMT

As of January 12th, 2017, Windows now has a brand new Bluetooth Settings dialog with a Connect button! Not having this button in the initial version of this...

How to Pair and Connect a Bluetooth Audio Device on Windows 10

Tue, 31 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Windows does not currently have a good way to re-connect to a previously paired Bluetooth audio device. I’ve blogged about this before, but I’ve simplified m...

How to use the Azure IoT Hub File Upload API with Python

Thu, 26 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I’m hacking with a customer today who is using Python and needs to upload images to Azure IoT Hub using the File Upload API. It took us a while to figure it...

How to Install git-ftp on Windows

Sat, 21 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I use git-ftp to deploy my hexo blog from a git repo to an FTP site. Getting it setup on Windows was non-trivial. Here’s how I got it working. 1. Install C...

How to Reference a CSS File in a Power BI Custom Visual Project

Fri, 20 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I’m working on a new visual that uses an open source JavaScript control that includes a CSS file. I was hoping I could just reference it in pbiviz.json, but...

How to Reference Three.js in a Power BI Custom Visual Project

Fri, 20 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s how to reference three.js in your Power BI Custom Visual project. I have not tested to see if three.js actually works on powerbi.com, but this is how...

How to Create a Custom Outlook Ribbon Button to Cc Yourself Before Sending an Email

Thu, 19 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

A big part of my Zero Inbox routine is to Cc myself when I want to be reminded to follow up on the mail. This is useful when you want to make sure you don’t...

How to Find Azure Regions with Lowest Latency

Wed, 11 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I recently gave a few presentations at Ignite New Zealand and used a couple of applications to help me find the lowest latency Azure Region from Auckland. Yo...

How to Create a Power BI Embedded Workspace Collection with the Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) 1.0

Tue, 10 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

While digging into the new Azure CLI 2.0 to create a Power BI Workspace Collection, I discovered that while you can create the Power BI Workspace Collection...

How to Create a Power BI Embedded Workspace Collection with the new Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) 2.0

Mon, 09 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This post will show you how to create a Power BI Embedded Workspace Collection via the new Azure CLI 2.0. People typically create Workspace Collections via t...

'Solution to "EMFILE: too many open files" in Windows'

Thu, 05 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I just moved my blog to hexo and ran into the “EMFILE: too many open files issue”. The hexo issue page recommends you run ulimit, but that doesn’t work on Wi...

Getting Started with Azure API Management (APIM)

Thu, 05 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I pinged a friend over on the Azure API Management team for good “getting started with APIM” material and he sent over this list. I’ll post more as I dig in....

Hiring: Senior Dev - Developer Experience Team - Come Work With Me!

Wed, 04 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been at Microsoft since 2003. I started as a Dev in Windows, then Dev Lead for the Learning Platform, then Dev Lead in MSDN, then Dev Lead in Bing, then...

How to Embed and Filter a Power BI Report with the new Power BI Embedded JavaScript API

Tue, 03 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

I was recently asked to help build a “Range Slider” Power BI Custom Visual that simply filters a report based on the slider value. Unfortunately “filtering”...

Beta Testers Needed for Particle to Azure IoT Integration

Mon, 19 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Over the past couple of months, the Particle team and the Azure IoT team have been developing a integration between the two cloud services. Particle is an Io...

Introducing Azure Iot Hub Routes - A New Feature That Allows You to Route Messages to Alternate Endpoints

Wed, 14 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMT

The Azure IoT team just announced Custom Endpoints and Routes feature - which allows you to route IoT Hub messages to your own Event Hub, Service Bus Queues...

Power BI Custom Visual Tip: How to Render an SVG or PNG

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s how to render either an SVG or a PNG from within a Power BI Custom Visual. For this post, I’m going to use the IoT Hub icon that can be found in the M...

How to Deploy a GitHub Pages Site to an Azure Web App

Tue, 29 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s a quick and easy way to get your GitHub Page repo deployed to an Azure Web App. Let me know if you run into any issues. Create GitHub Pages Repo Skip...

Linux/UNIX 'touch' Equivalent on Windows aka How to Create a File Without a Name on Windows

Tue, 29 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Windows Explorer doesn’t allow you to create files that start with . because it interprets that as not having a file name. On Linux/UNIX you would simply use...

How to Add d3@v3.5.5 Reference to a Power BI Custom Visual (SDK v1.2)

Thu, 17 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMT

The Power BI team just released v1.2 of the Custom Visuals SDK. With this version you now need to reference d3 v3.5.5 yourself. d3 v4 does not work yet. I’m...

How to Create a Power BI Custom Visual Based on an Existing d3 Visual - Part 3 - Custom Format Properties

Tue, 11 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMT

UPDATE: The Liquid Fill Gauge visual is now available to download from the Power BI Custom Visual Gallery! – In this series, we are creating a Power BI Custo...

Solution: Power BI - "Can't contact visual server. Please make sure the visual server is running and configured correctly."

Thu, 29 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMT

You might see this error message when trying to load the Power BI Custom Visual “Development Visual” “Can’t contact visual server. Please make sure the visua...

How to Create a Power BI Custom Visual Based on an Existing d3 Visual - Part 2 - Capabilities, dataRoles and dataViewMappings

Thu, 29 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMT

UPDATE: The Liquid Fill Gauge visual is now available to download from the Power BI Custom Visual Gallery! – This is a continuation of my attempt at creating...

How to Create a Power BI Custom Visual Based on an Existing d3 Visual - Part 1 - Dev Env Setup, Reference and Testing

Sun, 25 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMT

The purpose of this post is to show you how to take an existing open source d3 visual and create a Power BI Custom Visual from it. I’ve been digging into the...

Power BI Custom Visual Dev Environment Setup Quickstart

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I have removed the content of this post because the Power BI team created the following dev environment setup page: Power BI Documentation: Use developer too...

Explore the Azure IoT Certified Devices with Power BI

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMT

What do you do when you find a static table online that you want to quickly slice and dice? Enter Power BI. Here’s the resulting Power BI report…details on h...

How to Create a Raspberry Pi (Raspbian) Base Image for Node.js Development

Sun, 11 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Here are some short and sweet instructions for setting up your Raspberry Pi for Node.js dev and creating a base image that can be used over and over again. M...

How to Install Node.js on Raspberry Pi 3 (Raspbian)

Mon, 29 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s how to install Node.js on Raspberry Pi (originally posted as a SoF answer for Ubuntu here) Install curl sudo apt-get install curl -y Install node v4 c...

How to Control a Sphero SPRK+ with a Raspberry Pi 3 and Node.js

Mon, 29 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I’m working on a demo that involves streaming Sphero data through the Azure IoT stack. I got my Sphero SPRK+ last week and quickly discovered that it only ha...

Solution to "No Bluetooth adapter found" on RaspberryPi 3

Thu, 25 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

If you see this: It probably means your Bluetooth service is stopped: Try this: sudo service bluetooth start then sudo service bluetooth status If that do...

How to Directly Connect to Azure IoT Hub's Underlying Event Hub

Wed, 17 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s how to directly connect to the Event Hub that backs an IoT Hub. New Way As of 5/30/2017, you can now get the underlying Event Hub connection string by...

HIRING: Senior PM Evangelist - Internet of Things (IoT) - Microsoft, Redmond, WA

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I joined the Developer Experience team not too long ago and am focused on helping partners develop IoT products on the Azure IoT stack. I just found out that...

How to Run the Azure IoT Field Gateway on a Raspberry Pi 3

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

The Azure IoT Field Gateway SDK is a set of libraries that allow you to build a device that acts as a proxy between an individual IoT device and Azure IoT Hu...

Solution to: Microsoft Lync 2013 not found. Go here to download and install: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=248583

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

If you get the following error when trying to install the Lync 2013 SDK…. Microsoft Lync 2013 not found. Go here to download and install: http://go.microsoft...

Linux on Windows for Everyone! - how to Enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux (Beta) on Windows 10 Anniversary Update

Tue, 02 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

The most anticipated Windows 10 Anniversary Update developer feature is now available for everyone…not just Windows Insiders. Step 0: Install Windows 10 Anni...

Power BI Offering Index - A Complete List of all Power BI Products, Services and Developer Resources

Fri, 29 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT

[Here’s a Power BI offering index with short and sweet descriptions. I’ll keep evolving this list as the service develops. For Consumers Desktop – Create Re...

How to Automatically Email Yourself When You Like a Tweet with IFTTT.com

Thu, 28 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I just published this IFTTT (If This Than That) Recipe that will send me an email when I like a tweet. I then have an Outlook rule that flags the email so I...

Fiddler Extension Development Tips

Wed, 27 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I recently created a custom Fiddler extension called PowerBIFiddler. Here are a few tricks that I learned along the way. Re-use Default Fiddler Inspectors Fo...

How to Install Previous Versions of the Azure Service Fabric SDK

Sat, 09 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I rebuilt my dev machine recently and reinstalled the Service Fabric 2.1 SDKs from here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/service-fab...

How to use Visual Micro (Arduino VS Extension) as your Adafruit HUZZAH ESP8266 IDE

Fri, 08 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been using the Adafruit Feather HUZZAH ESP8266 board and Visual Micro quite a bit lately. The Huzzah is a board that includes the ESP8266 WiFi module an...

How to Monitor Azure IoT Hub Traffic

Sun, 12 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT

You have a couple different options to monitor your incoming and outgoing Azure IoT Hub traffic. Azure CLI IoT Extension See this ref for more info: https://...

Fix for Azure Stream Analytics–Duplicate property names are not allowed

Thu, 09 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Fix for duplicate property error in ASP.NET applications. Solution to resolve property conflicts in web applications.

How to Read All Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Barometer and Compass Data from the GY801, GY80 aka 9-Axis Inertial Navigation Module for Arduino aka IMU 10DOF L3G4200D+ADXL345+HMC5883L+BMP180

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I’m hacking on project that requires an accelerometer. I picked up this 9-Axis Inertial Navigation Module for Arduino from my local Vetco. That board is actu...

How to Build a Real-Time IoT Dashboard with Azure IoT Hub, Azure Stream Analytics and Power BI

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Azure provides a set of services that allow you to visualize IoT device data in real-time. The data pipeline is: IoT Device –> Azure IoT Hub –> Azure Stream...

How to Get Started with Azure IoT Hub and a UWP App

Fri, 27 May 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s a quick post on how to get setup with Azure IoT Hub with a UWP App. These steps and code taken from Olivier Bloch’s Build Talk: 1. Create a new Azure...

"Use port 80 and 443 for additional incoming connections." - The Skype setting that every developer should disable. Solution to "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process" when running a Service Fabric hosted WebApp.

Mon, 25 Apr 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I just flattened my machine and ran into this issue when running a Service Fabric hosted WebAPI project. This line of code: this.serverHandle = WebApp.Start(...

How to Create a Local Copy of an Azure SQL Database

Sat, 23 Apr 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s what you do when you want to get a local copy of an Azure SQL Database. Export Azure Database 1. Select your database in the Azure Portal https://port...

Solution: Internal Error. The database platform service with type Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.Sql.SqlAzureV12DatabaseSchemaProvider is not valid. You must make sure the service is loaded, or you must provide the full type name of a valid database platform service. (Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.Sql)

Sat, 23 Apr 2016 00:00:00 GMT

If you get the following error, then you need to install BOTH x86 and x64 versions of the DAC Framework. I have only verified that this works with SQL Expres...

Brother Printer Troubleshooting Tips

Thu, 14 Apr 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I have a Brother MFC-7840W printer and usually have issues with it. Here’s what has helped: Drivers 1. Install the full driver package from here: https://sup...

How to Convert a Stateless Azure Service Fabric Service to a Stateful Service

Sun, 10 Apr 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I built a stateless Azure Service Fabric service and later realized I would need a stateful service. Rather than try to comb through docs to see what the con...

A Quick Intro: Azure Durable Task Framework for Long Running Code-Based Workflows Using async/await and Azure Service Bus

Sat, 19 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

The Durable Task Framework (DTF) is a workflow execution framework that is based on async/await and backed by Azure Service Bus. I was recently in need of a...

3D Printing Lesson Learned: Nozzles are Fragile. Have a Spare On Hand.

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 13:05:00 GMT

A tech, career, & life blog from a developer focused on Azure developer experience at Microsoft.

3D Printing Lesson Learned: Nozzles are Fragile. Have a Spare On Hand.

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I found out the hard way this weekend that when it comes to getting spare parts for your 3D printer, your only option is to order them online. My heater bloc...

How to Setup a Visual Studio Online (VSO) Git Repo in SourceTree

Sat, 12 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s what you have to do to get a VSO git repo setup in SourceTree Go to VSO Personal Access Tokens: https://{vso-account-name}.visualstudio.com/_details/s...

Solution to "Port '443' is in use" When Starting a Web App from Visual Studio

Sun, 28 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT

If you see this error when trying to run a web app in Visual Studio – that means something is currently running on that port. To find out what app is using t...

How to Setup a Namecheap.com CNAME for an Azure Web App Custom Domain

Fri, 19 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s how to setup a Namecheap.com CNAME for Azure Web App Custom Domain. 1. Go to namecheap.com, login and click Domain List 2. Click “Advanced DNS”. If yo...

How to Embed a Power BI Report Into Any Website

Mon, 08 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Power BI just enabled the ability to embed a report into any website without requiring the viewer to authenticate – it’s called “Publish to Web”. It’s really...

Dremel Idea Builder 3D Priting Tips

Sun, 07 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Here are some tips for using the Dremel Idea Builder 3D Printer. I will keep this post updated with new tips as I learn more about the machine. A lot of thes...

How to Trim Off the Bottom of a 3D Print with Simplify3D

Sun, 07 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I’m printing out part I found on Thingiverse and the bottom of it has some inset text. I would rather the entire bottom of the piece be flush with the print...

How to Setup Application Insights in an Azure WebJob

Sat, 06 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I just spent way too much time getting AppInsights working in an Azure WebJob. Here are a couple of tips: 1. Make sure you are using the right Instrumentatio...

Solution to Simplify3d error "The chosen layer height and extrusion width settings have resulted in a primary width/height ratio below 1.2. This is typically not recommended and may cause poor layer adhesion."

Tue, 02 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I got this Simplify3D error while setting up a multi-process print. “The chosen layer height and extrusion width settings have resulted in a primary width/he...

How to Quickly Install Fusion 360

Sun, 31 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been installing Fusion 360 on a bunch of machines lately and am posting the direct link here so I can save some clicks. Here’s the direct link to instal...

How to Convert an Azure On-Demand WebJob to a Scheduled WebJob

Fri, 29 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I had an On-Demand Azure WebJob and wanted to convert it to a scheduled WebJob. It took me a while to figure out how, so I thought I’d share to save you some...

Workaround for "Not Enough Storage. This iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough iCloud storage available. You can manage your storage in Settings."

Mon, 25 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT

I have 5GB of available iCloud storage, but I am still getting the “Not Enough Storage. This iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough iCloud st...

Autodesk Print Studio Download Link

Fri, 08 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT

[Autodesk has a 3D printing prep product called Print Studio: A showcase of the Spark Print Preparation API’s power and utility. Print Studio quickly heals,...

How to Create the Microsoft Glass Wave Logo with Fusion 360

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Around this time last year I did a deep dive into 8 different 3D modeling software options in my “3D Modeling” blog series. I landed on Fusion 360 because it...

Two Things to Consider when Integrating via Zapier

Tue, 15 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT

I’m working on a project that involves aggregating data from many sources (Twitter, Blogs, Yammer, etc) so my team can get visibility and respond to question...

Announcing Open Live Writer

Wed, 09 Dec 2015 08:11:00 GMT

A tech, career, & life blog from a developer focused on Azure developer experience at Microsoft.

Announcing Open Live Writer

Wed, 09 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT

[We were all disappointed when Windows Live Writer went into sustainment mode in 2012ish. Shortly after that, Scott and I talked about options. One option w...

Solution to "No nearby Photons detected." while running particle setup

Sun, 06 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT

I was just setting up a new Particle Photon and got this error message when using the particle-cli setup command No nearby Photons detected. Try the particle...

How to Parse Twitter's Date Time Format with C#

Tue, 01 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT

The Twitter API has its own custom date time format. Tue Dec 01 22:35:28 +0000 2015 DateTime.Parse will barf if you try to parse it. I searched around a bit...

Solution to "search query is too long or complex" when creating a Twitter IFTTT Recipe

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT

I was just setting up a new IFTTT.com recipe and got this error: “search query is too long or complex”. I did a bunch of poking around and discovered that my...

ASP.NET WebHooks Preview Nuget Package Install Script

Mon, 02 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Truth be told – I haven’t done a lot of ASP.NET dev over the last couple of years, but since I do a good amount of maker projects that involve webhooks, I ha...

How to Update a Linked Table Schema in Access

Wed, 28 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Scenario: You have a SQL Server database and you edit that data using Access. You make a schema change to the SQL Server table and you want that change to be...

How to Setup a Particle Photon and a 16x2 LCD Screen

Sun, 25 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Hooking up a 16x2 LCD screen to a Particle Photon is pretty easy one you get it all wired up correctly and find the right library to use. I spent a bunch of...

HueyPro by Pantone Doesn't Have a Windows 10 Driver

Sat, 24 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMT

I got some new monitors and went to go run my monitor color calibrator – HueyPro by Pantone – and saw that they didn’t have a Windows 10 driver. I pinged the...

Solution to "Can't find Python executable "python", you can set the PYTHON env variable."

Sat, 24 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Fix cannot find Python executable error in Node.js. Solution for Python path issues with node-gyp.

Solution to "Built-in function 'has_dbaccess' is not supported in this version of SQL Server." when connecting to an Azure SQL Database from Access

Wed, 14 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMT

If you get this exception when connecting to an Azure SQL Database from Access: “Built-in function ‘has_dbaccess’ is not supported in this version of SQL Ser...

REST API SDK Generators

Sun, 27 Sep 2015 00:00:00 GMT

I’m investigating automatic REST API SDK generation options and I’d like your help narrowing things down. We, at Power BI, have a REST/JSON API and our docum...

How to Enable the Power Pivot Add-in in Excel 2016

Sun, 20 Sep 2015 00:00:00 GMT

It took me a few minutes to figure out how to get the Power Pivot Excel Add-in installed, so I figured I’d do a post to save you some time. Instead of a down...

Devs Needed for Power BI - Microsoft's new Business Intelligence Cloud Service

Mon, 14 Sep 2015 00:00:00 GMT

[TLDR; I just joined Power BI and I’m hiring developers. Click here to jump to the job description and apply. Here are some of my previous blog posts to give...

How to Convert a Bing Maps Directions URL to a Bing Maps Routing API URL

Sun, 23 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT

I’m working on project that uses the Bing Maps Routing API and couldn’t find a way to easily convert a Directions URL that you would get from Bing.com/maps t...

How to Change an Amazon.com Wish List Name

Sat, 22 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT

I found a usability bug in Amazon’s Wish List functionality…there’s no obvious way to change a Wish List name. After some searching I discovered that the “Ed...

Elenco, maker of Snap Circuits, offers free replacement parts. A great example of what it means to put customers first.

Thu, 13 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT

](https://www.snapcircuits.net/) I recently bought my 5 year old kid a Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100 kit and the black wire broken almost immediately. It went on...

How to Setup a Particle Photon with Node.js

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s a quick post to show you how to get your Particle Photon setup with Node.js. I also have instructions for doing so with PuTTY here. Put Photon in List...

How to Quickly Create a Skype for Business Status Light with a Particle Photon

Tue, 11 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT

beakn is my Skype for Business (aka Lync) Status Light project that I have been building since late last year. Very simply, it’s a hardware device that will...

How to Flash the Latest Firmware to Particle Photon using Windows

Tue, 11 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT

1. Plug Photon into laptop via USB 1a. Go ahead and install the Particle Photon driver now: https://particle.io 2. Put Photon into DFU mode. a) Hold down bot...

How to get a Particle Photon MAC Address before connecting it to a WiFi network

Tue, 11 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s how to get your Particle Photon’s MAC address before you connect it to a WiFi network. 1. Connect your Photon to your computer’s USB port 2. Download...

How to Setup a Particle Photon with Windows and PuTTY

Tue, 11 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT

This post is all about just getting your Photon connected to WiFi with Windows. Particle has some slick iOS and Android apps to help you connect your Photons...

Solution to "can't be invoked from Azure WebJobs SDK. Is it missing Azure WebJobs SDK attributes?" when creating an Azure WebJob

Sat, 01 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT

I spent spent way too much time with this one. Hope this post saves you from doing the same. Here’s the exception we are dealing with: can’t be invoked from...

How to create a StackOverflow driven Power BI Dashboard with the StackOverflow API, Azure WebJob, Azure SQL and Node.js

Tue, 28 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Power BI is Microsoft’s new data visualization platform. It allows you to easily pull data from datasources like Salesforce, GitHub and QuickBooks. As I was...

beakn v0.4.2 - Lync Status Light - Now with easy to edit config settings and reset light on start support.

Sun, 15 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMT

beakn is a Lync status light that I’ve been building for last couple of months. I tweeted a quick drawing of beakn v0.5, which will include a rechargeable ba...

How to Build a Lync Status Light in Minutes with a Spark Core or Photon

Tue, 10 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been building a battery-powered wifi-enabled Lync Status light for the last couple of months. Lots of people have been building the beakn and I did a ha...

Windows 10 Coming to Raspberry Pi 2!!

Mon, 02 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMT

[I joined the Windows IoT team back in October and was thrilled to hear that we were working on getting Windows 10 on Raspberry Pi 2 – now I’m excited to sha...

My Quest for the Perfect 3D Modeling Software for Makers - Part 7 - Autodesk Fusion 360

Fri, 23 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

This will likely be my last post in this series on 3D modeling software. I started 3D printing back in November of last year and started with SketchUp which...

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Fri, 23 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

I was getting this error when trying to install the UPWare software for my UP Plus 2 printer. “The setup files are corrupted. Please obtain a new copy of the...

My Quest for the Perfect 3D Modeling Software for Makers - Part 6 - 3dtin

Thu, 22 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

This is post 6 in my 3d modeling software series that outlines my experience as I search for the perfect 3d modeling software for makers. I’m looking for som...

My Quest for the Perfect 3D Modeling Software for Makers - Part 5 - DesignSpark Mechanical

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

This is the 5th post in my 3D modeling software experience series. As I went about searching for the perfect 3D modeling software I figured I would blog abou...

beakn v0.4.1 - DIY Lync Status Light with a Spark Core, Onboard LED, Ping Pong Ball and a Cardboard Box

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s a quick update to beakn – my Lync status light maker project – this version uses the Spark Core onboard RGB led. Joe Shirey tweeted his version of bea...

My Quest for the Perfect 3D Modeling Software for Makers - Part 3 - Blender

Sun, 18 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

This is part 3 of my 3D modeling software series where I detail my experience while searching for a 3D modeling software that is in-expensive, user-friendly,...

My Quest for the Perfect 3D Modeling Software for Makers - Part 4 - FreeCad

Sun, 18 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

In this series I bring you through my experience as I search for the perfect 3D modeling software. I’m looking for something that is in-expensive, user-frien...

My Quest for the Perfect 3D Modeling Software for Makers - Part 2 - Tinkercad

Fri, 16 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

The goal of this quest is to find 3D modeling software that is inexpensive, user friendly, precise and inspiring. In part 1 of this series I looked at Sketch...

5 Star Amazon Review Scams: Why you should always read the 1-4 star reviews first

Fri, 16 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

It’s super easy to get a slew of 5-star Amazon reviews. All you have to do is throw away your integrity and tempt your customers to succumb to bribery. A few...

My Quest for the Perfect 3D Modeling Software for Makers - Part 1 - SketchUp & 123D Design

Thu, 15 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

I’m just getting into 3D modeling and I’m searching for the perfect software. I do relatively small maker type enclosures and product designs. My requirement...

Solution to "Why can't I change my billing address country when buying something from MicrosoftStore.com"

Sun, 11 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

A Microsoft customer from Uruguay was trying to purchase Office 2013 Spanish Language Pack, but wasn’t able to because on the Billing Address page the countr...

How to build a simple blinking led circuit with a capacitor, transistor and two resistors

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s how you blink an led with just an led, capacitor, transistor and two resistors. This post is a complement to Dick Cappel’s “Simplest LED Flasher Circu...

Solution to: Unable to download data from https://rubygems.org/ - SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed

Sat, 27 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

It took me a good hour to resolve this issue. I’m hoping that the search engines pick this up for you and save you some time. I’m thinking about switching fr...

beakn v0.4 - DIY Lync Status Light with Spark Core, WiFi, Batteries, SMD LEDs, On/Off Switch, Ping pong ball and a Cardboard Box

Tue, 23 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on a Lync Status light called “beakn”. I joined the Windows IoT Maker team not too long ago and have been imm...

beakn v0.3 : DIY Lync Status Light with a RaspberryPi, .NET, Mono and MQTT

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

I’m continuing to build out “beakn” my DIY Lync Status light. This is what I’m calling a “maker experience” project. I want to know what a maker goes through...

How to run .NET on RaspberryPi with Mono

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve spent a good part of the last 15 years doing .NET development. When I joined IoT and started getting ramped up, I quickly discovered that it is largely ...

What you should know about power-over-ethernet (PoE) when considering it for your maker project.

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

As I am building out my “maker experience” product “beakn” I’m constantly thinking about ways to improve it with the goal of getting it to be completely wire...

beakn v0.2 : DIY Lync Status Light with an Arduino or Netduino, Ping Pong Ball and a Cardboard Box - Now Cloud Driven with MQTT

Wed, 10 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

I’m working on a “maker experience” project called beakn. It’s a Lync status light that lights up red, yellow or green based on your Lync status. beakn v0.1...

How to trade in your old Canon camera for a discounted refurbished one with the Canon Loyalty Program

Wed, 10 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Canon has a program called the “Customer Loyalty Program” that allows you to send in your broken Canon camera and get a refurbished camera at a discount. The...

How Upgrade Arduino WiFi Shield Firmware on Windows

Tue, 02 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

It took me a few mins to get the exact steps figured out to upgrade the firmware of the Arduino Wifi Shield. Hope this saves you some time. Here are the orig...

How to automatically launch a Windows app when a user logs into their computer

Tue, 02 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

It took me a while to figure out the best way to automatically start a windows app when a user logs into their computer. There were a bunch of suggestions on...

beakn v0.1 : DIY Lync Status Light with an Arduino, Ping Pong Ball and a Cardboard Box

Mon, 01 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Part of my new job is to fully understand the process a maker goes through when developing their ideas into products. There’s no better way to do that than t...

Solution to "Unable to communicate with device USB:Netduino"

Mon, 24 Nov 2014 00:00:00 GMT

I was getting this error when deploying to Netduino Plus 2 from VS2013. Unable to communicate with device USB:Netduino It turns out that that particular Netd...

Solution to Windows Explorer hanging when installing the Intel Edison Drivers

Mon, 17 Nov 2014 00:00:00 GMT

This Intel page tells you to download the FTDI drivers and run as Admin. I appears that you first need to install the “Windows Driver setup 1.0.0” from this...

How to get setup with Netduino and Visual Studio 2013

Sun, 16 Nov 2014 00:00:00 GMT

It took me a few mins to get all the right firmware and sdks going for Netduino Plus 2 and Visual Studio 2013. Hope this post saves you some time. .NET Micro...

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Fri, 14 Nov 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Fix System.Security.SecurityException in .NET applications. Solution for security permission errors.

Devs needed for the Internet of Things team at Microsoft

Tue, 11 Nov 2014 00:00:00 GMT

My career is progressing in what appears to be five year cycles. Back in 2004, five years into my software dev career, I made the move from independent contr...

How to Connect a PN532 NFC Shield to a RaspberryPi via libnfc

Tue, 11 Nov 2014 00:00:00 GMT

I’m working on an NFC project and to test things out I got a PN532 NFC shield working with a RaspberryPi via libnfc. Adafruit has a good step-by-step tutoria...

Node.js on Azure via Visual Studio and Git

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 00:00:00 GMT

I was just messing around with Node.js Tools for Visual Studio and Azure and ran into a few gotchas while getting everything setup. Hopefully this helps you...

Where can I download older versions of Photoshop?

Fri, 20 Jun 2014 00:00:00 GMT

I’m still on Photoshop CS5 but haven’t had a DVD drive for many years, so I needed to find the online download version of it. I searched for a while and fina...

On Developer Productivity

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 22:31:00 GMT

A tech, career, & life blog from a developer focused on Azure developer experience at Microsoft.

On Developer Productivity

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 00:00:00 GMT

The best developers optimize every aspect of their lives. Optimization is built into their DNA. We are always looking for ways to not repeat ourselves and st...

Goodbye Microsoft, Hello Starbucks

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 00:00:00 GMT

I have a ton of interests and not enough time to give them all enough attention to be an expert at anything. All of my interests have one thing in common - t...

I need Microsoft stack dev contractors for the next 3 months. C#, Azure, AngularJS, MVC, JavaScript.

Thu, 20 Mar 2014 00:00:00 GMT

I need Microsoft stack and JavaScript dev contractors for a 3 month contract. Must be able to start immediately. Send me your resume and I’ll be in tou...

Solution to "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item" c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\ink\tabtip.exe when trying to edit a PDF file.

Sat, 08 Mar 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Solution to “Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item” c:\program files\c...

Solution to "We are sorry, but we could not complete that operation" when trying to enable a preview feature in the Azure Management Portal'

Mon, 03 Mar 2014 00:00:00 GMT

UPDATE 3/5/2014. I reported this issue to the Azure team shortly after I posted this blog. The issue has now been resolved. Go Azure! If you click on the “tr...

Solution to sluggish Lenovo X1 Carbon running Windows 8.1 while connected to Targus ACP71USZ Docking Station

Tue, 04 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMT

I recently switched from a ASUS ZenBook Touch to a Lenovo X1 Carbon. All was well until a few days ago when I let the battery completely drain while watching...

How I Manage a Zero Inbox at Microsoft

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Many years ago, I resolved to get a handle on managing the plethora of email that is part of the Microsoft culture. Email is a very important communication m...

Apple just made my day. Why it pays to be cool to your Genius

Tue, 24 Dec 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Yes, I work for Microsoft, but I always like to tell people about great customer service…this time from Apple. I bought an Apple Airport Extreme 5th Gen Rout...

Fitbit Flex vs Jawbone UP24 vs Argus: Battle of the Fitness Bands ... and an app.

Tue, 17 Dec 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I need motivation to keep physically active. If unchecked I would sit, eat and code all day. Even a little motivation does wonders for my psyche. I use a bun...

My team at Microsoft needs a Senior Front End Dev. AngularJS. JavaScript. HTML5. CSS3. C#. NOSQL.

Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I run the Creative Entry Points dev team within Microsoft Advertising. We build the UI and APIs that allows partners to get Ad Assets (images, videos, text) ...

AngularJS CRUD Grid v7: Now with Lookup Tables, AngularJS 1.2 RC3 and a nicer UI

Tue, 29 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I just committed a big change to the AngularJS CRUD Grid – Lookup Tables! CODE: https://github.com/jongio/AngularJS-WebApi-EF Here’s what’s included: Lookup...

AngularJS CRUD Grid v6: Now with Filtering and Async Controllers

Wed, 23 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I just added filtering to the AngularJS CRUD Grid. AngularJS makes filtering VERY easy. All I had to do was add a text box with ng-model and then use the “fi...

AngularJS CRUD Grid v5: Now with Dynamic Columns

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I just added support for dynamic columns. Before you were limited to Id and Name, now you can specific the columns as a Json object in the directive.

Solution to: Attach database failed for Server. Unable to open the physical file. Operating system error 5: "5(Access is denied.)". (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 5120)

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Easy one, just run SQL Server Management Studio as Administrator.

AngularJS CRUD Grid v4: Sorting, AngularJS 1.2.0 & Bootstrap 3

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I just added sorting and upgraded to AngularJS 1.2.0 and Bootstrap 3. CODE: https://github.com/jongio/AngularJS-WebApi-EF I’ll eventually put the into direct...

Warning: Don't install Windows 8.1 on your Asus UX31A while plugged into your Targus Docking Station ACP71

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I just upgraded my Asus UX31A to Win8.1 RTM and broke my Targus Docking Station (ACP71USZ). The USB ports work, but the monitors do not. I get the USB device...

HermanMiller Aeron Chair 12 Year Warranty is NOT Transferrable

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been looking at my options for purchasing an Aeron Chair by Herman Miller I could buy new for $879 or get used on Craigslist for $400-500. I confirmed w...

Two reasons why Xbox Music isn't ready to compete with Spotify and Google Music

Sat, 14 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT

XBOX CLOUD DOESN’T SUPPORT MUSIC NOT IN XBOX MARKETPLACE I can’t upload music I purchased from Amazon, iTunes, etc to the Xbox cloud that isn’t in the Xbox m...

Solution to: Inheritance security rules violated by type: 'System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory'. Derived types must either match the security accessibility of the base type or be less accessible.

Fri, 13 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Inheritance security rules violated by type: ‘System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory’. Derived types must either match the security accessibility of the base...

Solution to: [A]System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection cannot be cast to [B]System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection. Type A originates from 'System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' in the context 'Default' at location 'C:\windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.WebPages.Razor\v4.0_2.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.Web.WebPages.Razor.dll'. Type B originates from 'System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' in the context 'Default' at location 'C:\Users\jong\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET Files\root\6f8c444d\f737f6f4\assembly\dl3\dde55404\3dbcbf4e_cab0ce01\System.Web.WebPages.Razor.dll'.

Fri, 13 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT

[A]System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection cannot be cast to [B]System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection. Type A originates from ‘Syst...

Solution to Error: [$sce:insecurl] Blocked loading resource from url not allowed by $sceDelegate policy.

Thu, 05 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Error: [$sce:insecurl] Blocked loading resource from url not allowed by $sceDelegate policy. UPDATE: This error was also appearing in IE11 because of a bug i...

How to make cross-domain/cross-origin calls with AngularJS, WebApi and CORS

Mon, 19 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMT

CORS support is very easy to setup in WebApi, but the docs are outdated. They removed the parameterless constructor and didn’t update the docs. For testing p...

How to Integrate a Bootswatch Theme into an ASP.NET Mvc App

Fri, 16 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Bootswatch is nice. Free themes for Bootstrap. Integrating into an MVC app turned out to be a little more involved than I thought it would be. Here’s what yo...

How to get a free ASUS ZENBOOK UX31A power tip for Targus ACP71USZ Docking Station

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The Targus ACP71USZ docking station doesn’t come with an ASUS UX31A power tip. Targus will send you one for free. Just go to the Targus support chat page and...

AngularJS CRUD Grid v3: Now a Directive and Multiple Grids per page

Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Today I took my V2 Crud Grid and moved it into an AngularJS directive. That allows me to reuse the crud grid functionality and have many of them on the same...

AngularJS CRUD Grid v2: Now using $resource instead of $http

Tue, 30 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMT

In V1 of my AngularJS, WebApi grid I used $http to call my WebApi endpoints. I’ve been using $resource a lot lately, so I thought I’d go back and update it t...

Solution to: "The conversion of a datetime2 data type to a datetime data type resulted in an out-of-range value" with Entity Framework when calling SaveChanges

Tue, 30 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Go into your EDMX file, select the field that is causing the error and set StoreGeneratedPattern to Computed. Add the DatabaseGenerated attribute if you are...

Solution to: "Origin is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin." with AngularJS and ngResource ($resource)

Mon, 29 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I just spent way to much time trying to figure out why I kept getting this error: Origin is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin. Here’s the code snipp...

How to Lock Shapes in Visio 2013. You can lock shapes, but don't. Use layers instead.

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I almost gave up, but I finally found where Microsoft hid the ability to lock shapes in Visio 2013. You actually don’t want lock shapes, you want to create l...

Why I plan on switching from Spotify to Google Play Music

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Google announced that they are going to be shipping a Google Music iOS app that includes subscription music. I’m a big Spotify fan, but one thing that has al...

Use OWA when Outlook 2013 doesn't let you delete folders from Deleted Items. "Cannot delete this folder. Right-click the folder, and then click Properties to check your permissions for this folder. See the folder owner or your administrator to change your permissions." & "Outlook is synchronizing local changes made to items in this folder. You cannot remove this folder until the synchronization with the server is complete."

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I just tried to clean up my Deleted Items folder in Outlook 2013 and got the two following errors: Cannot delete this folder. Right-click the folder, and the...

AngularJS CRUD Grid v1: How to build a CRUD Grid with AngularJS, WebAPI, Bootstrap, Font Awesome and Toastr

Sun, 26 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

UPDATE 7/30/2013: I modified the code to use $resource instead of $http. Go to my new post “V2 of my AngularJS, WebAPI CRUD Grid - Now using $resource instea...

Restangular–A complete sample to get you up and running

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Working Angular JS and Restangular sample code. Learn how to set up Restangular with Angular for RESTful API calls.

How to turn up PluralSight video playback speed to 11!

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

PluralSight is great, but because I don’t have 3 hours every time I want to learn something, I always watch them at double speed – and that’s as fast as Plur...

My Thoughts on the Microsoft Career Model

Wed, 08 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

A tech, career, & life blog from a developer focused on Azure developer experience at Microsoft.

I need 2 QA/Test engineers pronto. Remember that super-secret project I was telling you about? Well now we need to test the thing

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I recently joined a new team to work on a brand new super-secret Windows 8 Modern app. You may have seen my “Moving on to Microsoft Advertising to work on a...

KendoUI + WebApi + Jsonp - how to get KendoUI working with WebApi and Jsonp

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Most people know that the KendoUI controls are awesome and free. The thing that is missing from there demo site is how to create a Jsonp WebApi service that...

My Thoughts on the Microsoft Career Model

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Do I have to get into management to be successful at Microsoft? That, along with the review model and work:life balance, is a very common question I get from...

My Thoughts on Work:Life Balance at Microsoft

Thu, 02 May 2013 04:37:00 GMT

A tech, career, & life blog from a developer focused on Azure developer experience at Microsoft.

My Thoughts on Work:Life Balance at Microsoft

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

“What does work:life balance look like at Microsoft?” That is the second most asked question I get after “What do you think of the Microsoft Employee Review...

KakaoTalk - A free alternative to WhatsApp

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

WhatsApp is all the rage. KakaoTalk is a great alternative for the frugal world. I’ve been using it for years without a problem. It’s on iPhone & Android

How to get started with MySQL and ASP.NET MVC with Entity Framework

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve always been a SQL Server guy, but I wanted to give MySQL a try for a project that I’m working on. I could find a really quick MySQL/MVC example so I thr...

My Thoughts on the Microsoft Employee Review Model

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:11:00 GMT

A tech, career, & life blog from a developer focused on Azure developer experience at Microsoft.

How to implement Guid.Comb on SQL Server with Entity Framework Code First

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Read this if you don’t know the “why” behind Guid.Comb. In a nutshell. We want to uniquely identify records and don’t want PK collisions across database inst...

My Thoughts on the Microsoft Employee Review Model

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

An interview candidate recently asked me what I thought of the Microsoft employee review model. I don’t hate it and I don’t love it. I personally tend to not...

Solution to "Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Users\AppData\Local\Temp\TestResults\Out\'." when running Unit Tests via ReSharper in Visual Studio 2012

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Took me a bit to find the solution to this one, but I eventually found it here. 1. Upgrade to Resharper 7.1.2 2. In VS go to Resharper –> Options –> Unit Tes...

Solution to: "The imported project "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\TypeScript\Microsoft.VisualStudio.WJProject.targets" was not found. Confirm that the path in the declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk."

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Just a quick post to let you know that if you get the error below it means that you don’t have the TypeScript plugin installed: The imported project “C:\Pro...

Google Reader Alternatives - A deep look into all alternatives from an avid Google Reader user

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I am an avid Google Reader user. I use it to scan over 400 tech blogs and often share to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and email. It’s easy to miss stuff on Fa...

Windows 8 File History is great for version history, but make sure you have an alternate "latest version restore" plan.

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Configure Windows 8 File History to backup only latest versions. Manage backup storage efficiently.

How to Install Neo4j on Windows and a Solution to "Unable to access jarfile windows-service-wrapper-*.jar"

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Installing Neo4j on Windows is pretty straightforward, but the Neo4j installation instructions for Windows are lacking….this is all they have. It’s a little...

Moving on to Microsoft Advertising to work on a super secret Win8 app. Come join me.

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I joined MSN three years ago to help them turn around the Tools team and that work is done. The team is in a really good place now, so it’s time to move on....

Solution to "TypeError: m[5] is undefined", "TypeError: Cannot read property length of undefined" and How to Override JavaScript in ASP.NET WebResource.axd files

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

You’ll sometimes get this error in Firefox and Chrome, but not IE. “TypeError: m[5] is undefined” “TypeError: Cannot read property ‘length’ of undefined” The...

YouTube is Advertising 480p Movies as HD

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I purchased Argo (“HD”)from YouTube.com last night. I was expecting at least 720p since it was advertised as HD, but the highest resolution available was 480...

Solution to "'Page_ClientValidate' is null or undefined not a function object" and other ominous JavaScript errors in IE10

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I just spent several hours trying to figure out why I was getting JavaScript errors when using IE10. I owe Hanselman on this one. My error wasn’t exactly the...

Building Cross-Platform Apps with HTML5 and DXTREME

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

What is the best way to develop an application to support multiple platforms (Apple, Android, Microsoft)? Like so many devs out there, I was recently faced w...

Solution to "GnuTLF error -53: Error in the push function."

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I got this error today and after a few minutes of messing around with FileZilla settings I discovered a way around it. This might not work for everyone, but...

Solution to Visual Studio 2008 hanging every couple of minutes when in HTML Source view

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I know, I know, it’s 2013, but I occasionally have to work with VS2008. Unfortunately, when I was using it recently it would hang every other minute or so. I...

How to get around Spotify's one device at a time limitation that results in this error message: "Spotify has been paused because your account is being used somewhere else."

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

You will see this error when you try to play Spotify music from more than one device at the same time: [“Spotify has been paused because your account is bei...

Blendtec Wildside Blender vs Oster 16 Speed Blender - Is the Blendtec worth $300-400 more than the Oster?

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been making smoothies every morning now for the last couple of months with my old $40 Oster blender that I’ve had for 8 years or so. Being frugal doesn’...

Solution to "An error occurred while creating the media file. The system is low on memory. You may be able to reduce memory usage by closing other applications" when trying to render a video file in Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I got this error today in Sony Movie Studio Platinum Suite when I tried to render a video file. _An error occurred while creating the media file …. The syste...

Solution: The Sony QuickTime plug-in was not able to initialize the QuickTime components on your system. It appears that QuickTime for Windows is not properly installed. QuickTime files cannot be read or written without a full installation of the QuickTime version 7.1.6 or greater components, including the authoring components.

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I got this error today when I tried to drag a video file that was created with my iPhone 5 to Sony Movie Studio (Vegas) The Sony QuickTime plug-in was not ab...

Solution: A row insert at ... could not be propagated to ... This failure can be caused by a constraint violation. Cannot insert explicit value for identity column in table ... when IDENTITY_INSERT is set to OFF.

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I just got this error when doing Merge Replication on a SQL Server 2005 environment: A row insert at ... could not be propagated to ... This failure can be c...

How and Where I Bought Fully Functional iPhone 5 Lightning Cables for Less Than $4 Each

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I’m known for being frugal. The jury is still out on that, but there is no way I’m going to pay I’m known for being frugal. The jury is still out on that, bu...

How to make authenticated calls to the LinkedIn API using the Spring.net Social Extension for LinkedIn

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I just spent way too much time trying to figure out how to call the LinkedIn People Search API. I needed to simply use the LinkedIn API to find people in my...

Netflix vs Redbox Instant - Netflix Wins

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been an avid Netflix user for the last few months. I use it watch TV shows like White Collar and Lie to Me and my kid watches Thomas & Friends, Curious...

How to Delete Your Fitocracy Account

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I spent about 5 mins trying to find a “Delete My Account” link on Fitocracy, but came up short. I ended up sending an email to requests@fitocracy.com and got...

Solution to "iTunes was unable to load provider data from Sync Services. Reconnect or try again later"

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

There are a bunch of solutions out there on the web, but all I had to do to fix this was repair iTunes. Here’s how… Close iTunes Go to “Add / Remove Programs...

Yes, Google Maps is better than Apple Maps…But I Can't Add Businesses to My Contacts!

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I use Maps to add businesses to my Contacts all the time. That way I don’t need to search for them again when I need to get a hold of them. Unfortunately tod...

The Unwritten Requirements for Implementing an Email Notification Unsubscribe Feature

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There have been many times over the past couple of months where I have seen many violations to the basic rules that companies should follow when implementing...

Does an Ultrabook Make a Good Dev Machine? My Final Thoughts on the Intel IvyBridge Ultrabook.

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Intel asked me to use their prototype IvyBridge Ultrabook for a few months and let them know what I thought about it as a dev machine. You can read about my...

How to Quickly Connect and Reconnect a Bluetooth Device to a Windows 8 Machine

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I connect and disconnect my RocketFish Bluetooth Headset (RF-MAB2) from my phone and laptop all day long. Connecting and disconnecting Bluetooth devices to o...

How to disable the Windows 8 app switcher popup that appears when you move your mouse to the upper left hand corner of your screen

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I often double click the upper left hand corner of an app to close it. I know I could Alt+F4 it, but that’s just what I do. Windows 8 introduced this feature...

Solution to "Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file." when trying to apply the 2.5.0.1 Windows Media Player Security Upgrade for OverDrive Media Console on Windows 8

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I just tried to transfer an audiobook on Windows 8 and got this exception from OverDrive Media Console: Unable to acquire a license to play the selected titl...

How to Backup a Website using NetDrive and CrashPlan

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Yes, my hosting provider provides backups of my site for free, but I like the reassurance of having my own copy. I do so with NetDrive and CrashPlan. NetDriv...

AzureConf 2012 Speaker Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ & LinkedIn Accounts

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here are the AzureConf 2012 speaker blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ accounts. Enjoy! BLOG FEED FILE You can subscribe to the AzureConf 2012 sp...

My Backup Strategy: Local, External and Cloud backups with Windows 8 File History and CrashPlan

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been fine tuning my backup strategy for years, so I thought I’d share to help any one out there who is just getting serious about it. I take backups ser...

How to sync a Windows 8 Phone with a Windows 7 Desktop

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Scenario: You have a Windows 8 Phone and you want to sync media with a Windows 7 Desktop. It took me a bit to dig this up, but there is a Microsoft developed...

Who has the best priced latte? Starbucks, Tully's, Seattle's Best or Café Ladro?

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I drink a lot of coffee. I’ll grab a latte every once and a while and don’t have loyalty to any particular company. I like most coffee brands and could easy...

Build 2012 Speaker Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ & LinkedIn Accounts

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here are the Build 2012 speaker blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ accounts. Enjoy! BLOG FEED FILE You can subscribe to the Build 2012 speaker bl...

A High-Level Look into Clickatell's New SMS Small Business API

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

This is the first post in a two part series on integrating SMS functionality into an application. In this post, I focus on the analysis I did into Clickatell...

How to integrate Clickatell's SMS Small Business API into a .NET application

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

This is the second post in a two part series on integrating SMS functionality into an application. In the first post, “A high-level look into Clickatell’s ne...

Web Unleashed 2012 Speaker Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ & LinkedIn Accounts

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here are the Web Unleashed 2012 speaker blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ accounts. Enjoy! BLOG FEED FILE You can subscribe to the Web Unleashed...

Solution to Windows+S Screen Clipping Shortcut not working in Office 2013

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I use Windows+S ALL THE TIME. Wasn’t working this morning. I clicked around for 5 minutes trying all the different options. The only thing that re-enabled it...

Ladies Who Code 2012 Speaker Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ & LinkedIn Accounts

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here are the Ladies Who Code 2012 speaker blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ accounts. Enjoy! BLOG FEED FILE You can subscribe to the Ladies Who...

How to quickly change your default browser

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I just found this utility called BrowserTraySwitch. I’ve never heard of the site, but it looked legit enough for me to give BrowserTraySwitch a try. BrowserT...

How to setup Outlook.com email in Outlook 2013

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It took me way too long to figure out how to setup my outlook.com email address in Outlook 2013. It’s simple, but I couldn’t figure out what Mail Server to u...

Kris Orlowski just released a new EP called Pieces We Are

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I used to put on open mics at back in 2006. We saw a lot of great talent come through, but one of the more memorable performances was from Kris Orlowski. Kri...

jQuery ComboBox – Telerik's Kendo UI ComboBox is the way to go

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I spent about two hours the other day trying to find a good jQuery ComboBox, so I thought I’d do a quick post to see if I can help you narrow down your choic...

A deeper look at the Intel IvyBridge Ultrabook

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve spend a lot of time with Intel’s IvyBridge Ultrabook since I wrote my “First look at the Intel IvyBridge Ultrabook” post a couple of weeks ago. Intel wa...

Do I always have to call Dispose() on my DbContext objects? Nope

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Like I mentioned in my post “Microsoftie Perk #9 – Access to product team devs”, it is awesome to be able to ping the people who build the tools we use every...

IAB MIXX 2012 Speaker Blogs, Twitter & LinkedIn Accounts

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here are the IAB MIXX 2012 speaker blogs, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Enjoy! BLOG FEED FILE You can subscribe to the IAB MIXX 2012 speaker blogs by import...

MADExpo 2012 Speaker Blogs and Twitter Accounts

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here are the MADExpo 2012 speaker blogs and Twitter accounts. Enjoy! BLOG FEED FILE You can subscribe to the MADExpo 2012 speaker blogs by importing this [OP...

Where is the Mac App Store on Leopard (10.5) or Snow Leopard (10.6)?

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Apple didn’t introduce the App Store into Mac OS X until Snow Leopard 10.6.6. Here’s what you need to do to get the App Store. You can find out what OS X ver...

How to upgrade to Lion (10.7) from Leopard (10.5) or Snow Leopard (10.6)

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

As you may have noticed Lion (10.7) is no longer available in the App Store. Apple intentionally pulled it from the App Store so people would go right to Mou...

How to upgrade Mac OS X from Leopard (10.5), Snow Leopard (10.6), Lion (10.7) to Mountain Lion (10.8)

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Apple made is real easy to upgrade your Mac OS X with the introduction of the App Store in the Snow Leopard (10.6.6) update. If you go to the “Upgrade your M...

How to upgrade to Mountain Lion (10.8) from Leopard (10.5), Snow Leopard (10.6) or Lion (10.7)

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

You can find out what OS X version you are on by clicking on the Apple icon, then select the “About This Mac” menu item. The number under the Apple logo is t...

Don't fall for the "lol wat r you doing n this video" or the "heh u didnt see them tapping u" phishing scam on Twitter

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I recently received two Twitter direct messages from new followers. They were obviously phishing attacks that happened as a result of the followers account b...

First look at the Intel IvyBridge Ultrabook

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Intel just sent me an IvyBridge Ultrabook to try out and review as a development machine. It’s not a final machine and won’t ever be sold by Intel. The main...

How to upgrade from Leopard (10.5) to Snow Leopard (10.6)

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The first thing you need to do is get the Snow Leopard install DVD from Apple. Apple didn’t introduce downloadable OS upgrades until Snow Leopard 10.6.6, so...

How to Quickly Connect a Bluetooth Device to a Windows 7 Machine

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I often switch my Bluetooth headset between my laptop and my phone. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to do this in Windows so here’s a quick post t...

DevReach 2012 Speaker Blogs and Twitter Accounts

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here are the DevReach 2012 speaker blogs and Twitter accounts. Enjoy! BLOG FEED FILE You can subscribe to the DevReach 2012 speaker blogs by importing this [...

That Conference One Day 2012 : Harper College Speaker Blogs and Twitter Accounts

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here are the That Conference One Day 2012 : Harper College speaker blogs and Twitter accounts. Enjoy! BLOG FEED FILE You can subscribe to the That Conference...

Where to buy the Snow Leopard (10.6.3) install DVD

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

People give me a hard time because I work at Microsoft and use Apple products. The truth is that I dev iPhone apps and you can only do that on a Mac. I still...

Philly DotNet Code Camp 2012.1 Speaker Blogs and Twitter Accounts

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here are the Philly DotNet Code Camp 2012.1 speaker blogs and Twitter accounts. Enjoy! BLOG FEED FILE You can subscribe to the Philly DotNet Code Camp 2012.1...

Code Camp NYC 2012 Speaker Blogs and Twitter Accounts

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here are the Code Camp NYC 2012 speaker blogs and twitter accounts. You can subscribe to all speaker blogs using the OPML file and follow all the speakers on...

ThatConference Speaker Blogs and Twitter Accounts

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here are the ThatConference speakers and twitter accounts. You can subscribe to all speaker blogs using the OPML file and follow all the speakers on Twitter...

Microsoftie Perk #10 – Free Hardware

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The is a post in a new blog series I’m writing called Microsoftie Perks Yes it is true. Earlier this week at the company meeting Ballmer gave all Microsoftie...

Minnesota Developers Conference 2012 (MDC) Speaker Blogs and Twitter Accounts

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here are all the Minnesota Developers Conference 2012 (MDC12) speaker blogs and twitter accounts. Enjoy! BLOG FEED (OPML) FILE You can subscribe to the MDC12...

Heartland Developers Conference (HDC12) Speaker Blogs and Twitter Accounts

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been working on an app in my spare time called “Conf Speakers” to help us subscribe to and follow devs who speak at conferences. Most conference sites d...

Microsoftie Perk #9 – Product Team Dev Access

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Microsoft employee benefit: Direct access to product team developers for technical support.

How to insert the trademark symbol (™) into your Google Chrome Extension name

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I just pushed my first Google Chrome extension to the web store the other day. The name of my extension includes “Google Reader” and, according to the offici...

Unstar All Google Reader™ Starred Items with my new Chrome™ Extension

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I’m an avid Google Reader user. I star and unstar items a lot and sometimes my starred items pile up. I wrote a few lines of JavaScript to unstar all items i...

Vote for my CodePlex work item if you also find it annoying that NuGet clears the search string every time you select a different tab (Online, Updates, Installed, etc)

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

NuGet is amazing, but I often find myself typing in the same search string over and over again. This usually happens when I don’t realize what tab I currentl...

Jon Gallant

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Problem Microsoft ASP.NET Web API (RTM) references Newtonsoft.Json (>= 4.5.6) (AKA Json.net) Twitterizer 2 references Newtonsoft.Json (=4.5.5) You can’t have...

Microsoftie Perk #8 - Free Gym Membership Clubs

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Microsoft employee benefit: Free gym membership and fitness facilities on campus.

Solution to MVC app listing contents of directory instead of executing routes

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I just deployed a new MVC web app and instead of executing the routes it just listed the contents of the directory like so: There could be many reasons for t...

How to OutputCache an object based on the current date with VaryByCustom and GetVaryByCustomString

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I have a long running script that needs to run once a day and I’d like to store the results of that script in cache for the rest of the day so only one user...

Les Schwab: Free no obligation car brake inspections

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

A “brake” from my normal tech posts to tell you about my new favorite brake place: Les Schwab. This isn’t a sponsored post, I just like how they function as...

How to manually update your Entity Framework model classes when they get out of sync with your database

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The ADO.NET Entity Framework is an awesome way to quickly pull data into an app. I’ve been building apps for a really long time and have used all the framewo...

Microsoftie Perk #7 - Internal Library

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Microsoft employee benefit: Access to extensive technical library and learning resources.

Solution to "This file is in use. Enter a new name or close the file that's open in another program" when trying to add new MDF connection in Visual Studio

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I needed to refresh the code generated by the EDMX model, but it wasn’t working for some reason. So I deleted the EDMX file and deleted the connection string...

Microsoftie Perk #6 - Free Drinks

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Free drinks is the one perk that most people will already know about, but since it is one of my favorites I couldn’t not include it in my Microsoftie perk li...

Solution to the exception: "Updating 'Newtonsoft.Json 4.5.8' to 'Newtonsoft.Json 4.5.5' failed. Unable to find a version of 'Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.Client' that is compatible with 'Newtonsoft.Json 4.5.5'." when trying to install the twitterizer NuGet package in Visual Studio 2012

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I have the RTM of Visual Studio installed, but the WebApi NuGet RTM build isn’t available yet. WebApi depends on Newtonsoft.Json and so does Twitterizer, but...

How to create a foreign key constraint with the Visual Studio 2012 database tools

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The new SQL tools in Visual Studio 2012 are amazing, but still lack a database diagrams features that SQL Server Management Studio has. I use database diagra...

Solution to "Entry point was not found." in Visual Studio

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I got this “System.EntryPointNotFoundException” exception today: “Entry point was not found.” There could be many reasons for this exception. In my case it w...

Microsoftie Perk #4 - Charitable Gift Match

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Microsoft employee benefit: Charitable gift matching program. Double your donations to qualified charities.

Microsoftie Perk #3 - Free MSDN, TechNet and Azure Subscriptions

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Microsoft employee benefit: Free MSDN, TechNet, and Azure subscriptions for professional development.

Microsoftie Perk #2 - Exec Access

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Microsoft employee benefit: Direct communication with executives. Regular updates from leadership teams.

Microsoftie Perk #1 - Dogfood

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Microsoft employee benefit: Dogfooding products before public release. Get early access to Microsoft products and services.

Microsoftie Perks

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

This is the index post for my “Microsoftie Perks” posts. I will continue to update this post as I discover new perks. You can subscribe to my blog via RSS he...

How not to change your URLs: A look into the 9 mistakes KentwoodFloors.com made with their recent URL change

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

My wife and I have been searching for the perfect type of hardwood flooring since April and have been exclusively using KentwoodFloors.com. We’ve been sendin...

Solution to FeedBurner being out of sync with feed, FeedBurner Ping Service

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

By default FeedBurner refreshes your feed about every 30 minutes, so if you change anything about your posts (title, content, etc) FeedBurner won’t immediate...

[object Object]

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Could not find an implementation of the query pattern for source type ‘[type]’. ‘Where’ not found. Consider explicitly specifying the type of the range varia...

After 2 months of training I can now run a 5K! A review of C25K, MapMyRun and a few audiobook recommendations.

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

As I mentioned back in June, I’m training to run a 5K (3.1 miles) using C25K and MapMyRun. It’s great that C25K supports Pink and I found the app very useful...

How to set HtmlAgilityPack Timeout

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

HtmlAgilityPack is a great HTML parser library that I often use for scraping. It does web requests on your behalf via the HtmlWeb().Load methods, but doesn’t...

How to load a webpage that uses Windows Authentication with HtmlAgilityPack, WebProxy and UseDefaultCredentials

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It wasn’t obvious to me how to load an Html doc that requires Windows Authentication. Here’s a quick code snippet that hopefully saves you some time. The tri...

How to create an MVC Razor view for a generic List property

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

You have a model that has a property of type List. You write a view and your first inclination is to create a cshtml file called List.cshtml, but that doesn’...

How to get a UIHint attribute value from an MVC Razor view

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The UIHint Attribute is a great way to pass metadata from a model to a view. I was looking around for a simple way to get the value of the attribute from my...

The Visual Studio 2012 Add Reference Dialog is beautiful!

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I cringe every time I have to add a reference in 2010. The dialog is slow, it’s hard to find reference, it’s hard to sort. I absolutely hate it…and I don’t h...

Solution to "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Web\MVC 4\CodeTemplates\AddView\CSHTML\Empty.tt(-1,-1): error: There was a problem getting an AppDomain to run the transformation from the host. The process cannot continue." Exception in Visual Studio 2012

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

This is an easy one. Just restart Visual Studio. Not sure what happened, but I’ll follow up with the Visual Studio team to see if I can find out.

Solution to Intellisense not working in Visual Studio 2012

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Not sure why, but Intellisense wasn’t working by default when I first installed Visual Studio 2012. You need to reset your IDE settings. 1. Tools –> Import a...

Solution to "Unable to cast object of type '[type1]' to type '[type2]'." when trying to cast a List to List

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Okay, it’s not really a “solution” per se, but more of a workaround to a limitation with generic List objects that has to do with covariance and contravarian...

How to quickly close all documents with one click in Visual Studio by adding a custom toolbar button and custom keyboard shortcut

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

UPDATE: 2/3/2013 In VS 2012 we now have a “Close All Documents” context menu item on the file header. It’s one more click (right click then left click), but...

Solution to Queries not appearing in Visual Studio 2012 Team Explorer

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I’m a big fan of the new Visual Studio interface, but I got a little lost today in Team Explorer. I registered my server, picked my project, but couldn’t see...

Solution to "This offer is not available" when trying to activate Azure account for MSDN Subscriber...renew your MSDN Subscription.

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It is very cool that Azure is offering MSDN subscribersup to ,700 of Azure Benefits (Cloud, SQL, CDN, etc), but the error message you get when your MSDN Su...

Solution to "TF212018: Work item tracking schema validation error: TF26085: Unknown constant with id 3675334." when importing a WIT into TFS

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

If you get this exception: “TF212018: Work item tracking schema validation error: TF26085: Unknown constant with id 3675334.” when calling witadmin importwit...

[object Object]

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There are many reasons why this error will appear. One of the less obvious reasons has to do with the “Target framework” project level setting. In my referen...

Solution to "Sign-out isn't complete…" when signing out of Windows Live

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

This is one of the worst authentication workflows out there. The only way to solve this is to close all your browser windows and go back to the site you were...

aspConf 2012 Speaker Blogs and Twitter accounts: An OPML file for bulk blog feed subscription and a Twitter list for easy Following

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There are a lot of great devs speaking at aspConf 2012 and most of them have great blogs and twitter feeds. I want the dev community (including myself) to fo...

How to call the new Azure Marketplace Bing Search API using C#

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It took me more than 2 minutes (too long!) to figure out how to call the new Bing search API. The Bing API to Azure Marketplace migration doc is a great reso...

MSN is hiring MVC, Razor, C#, jQuery, HTML, CSS web devs

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I lead the Tools dev team for Bedrock, the CMS system that runs MSN.com. We are rebuilding the entire app one piece at a time in jQuery and MVC4 and need you...

Solution to the exception: "Read-only application cannot POST" from the Twitter API

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

1. Make sure your Application Type is set to Read and Write in the Settings tab. 2. After you do step 1 you need to recreate your access token by clicking t...

Why do some audiobooks appear under Playlists and some under Songs in iTunes and iPhone?

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

When you import an MP3 audiobook it appears in iTunes (and your iPhone) under music because iTunes assumes anything MP3 must be music. Here’s how to move it...

How to get a job at Microsoft

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I’m a Principal Development Lead on MSN’s content management system called Bedrock. I’ve been at Microsoft for 9 years, 1 year as a contractor and 8 years as...

How to get from Seattle to Victoria and back. All your ferry options and a few of my favorite places to stop along the way

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Victoria, BC is a great place to visit if you like history, museums, gardens, golf and the coast. I’ve been out a few times, but I usually enjoy the trip out...

Solution to unresponsive Visual Studio Extension Manager Update button when trying to update NuGet Package Manager

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

For some reason the “Update” button in my Visual Studio Extension Manager isn’t responding to clicks. I clicked it about 10 times to no avail. I messed aroun...

How Unstar All Google Reader Starred Items

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

UPDATE (08/27/2012): I created a custom Google Chrome extension that allows you to unstar all items without having to run any JavaScript! Read more about it...

AT&T might be double billing you for data

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

AT&T might be doubling billing you for data. I was getting close to my 2GB limit this month, so turned off my 3G and Cellular Data. [![photo (1) (yes, my SSI...

How to modify read only TFS fields with WorkItemServer.Update

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Sometimes you want to update a read only system field in TFS, such as System.CreatedDate or System.ResolvedDate. There is no way to do that with TFS 2010 by...

Solution to "TF26061: [Reference Name] is not a supported reference field name."

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

TF26061: ‘[Reference Name]’ is not a supported reference field name. I just got this error after copying and pasting a reference name from an email to the TF...

[object Object]

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I was migrating one field to another today and I got this exception when trying to delete the old field from the Fields tab: “Cannot delete this field becaus...

How to borrow audiobooks from the library and listen to them on an iPhone

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

1. Download the OverDrive Media Console – This is the desktop application that you will use to transfer the audiobook from your computer to your phone. 2. Go...

New Gmail Feature - Copy and paste images from your clipboard directly into the body of a Gmail message

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

You can now copy and paste images that are on your clipboard right into the body of a Gmail message!! I just accidentally discovered this new Gmail feature....

Solution to "TF237055: You cannot destroy a work item type that is being used. Verify that the work item type is not being used in any categories. Operation failed."

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

You’ll often see TF237055 when you try to call destroywitd on a type that is currently assigned to a category. Here’s how to get around that. TF237055: You c...

Solution to Chrome not selecting about:blank by default

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Every browser (except Chrome) has about:blank selected when you open a new instance. So you can just start typing, hit enter and you are off to searching. In...

Is it more secure to not allow passwords with special characters? Hyatt.com thinks so.

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

My Gmail account got hacked last year which led me to develop a complex password system that includes special characters. They aren’t the only site that I’ve...

Solution to Logitech v470 Bluetooth mouse lost pairing issue

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I love my new Logitech V470 mouse. This being my first bluetooth mouse, I didn’t realize that the driver and service turn off the bluetooth signal when idle....

Blogger: How to create SEO friendly URLs

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

If you aren’t careful Blogger will automatically create SEO UNfriendly urls based on the post title. Read on to learn how to overcome this and create SEO fri...

How to pair Rocketfish RF-MAB2 Bluetooth Headphones with iPhone

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

[If you are reading this post you are like me. You don’t read manuals. Because I don’t read manuals it took me a while to figure out how to pair my Rocketfi...

Solution to "Microsoft.Silverlight.Csharp.Targets" was not found error in Visual Studio

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Fix Silverlight C# targets not found error in Visual Studio. Solution for missing Silverlight build targets.

Couch to 5k for free with voice prompts, music and GPS tracking on iPhone

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I’m not athletic, but like everyone else I need to exercise. I tried the gym for a year, but got really bored with the treadmill, elliptical, weights, etc. T...

Solution to Windows Live Writer's automatic and incorrect image resizing when pasted from the clipboard

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Images appear blurry (or distorted) when you copy them into Windows Live Writer from the clipboard. See this screen capture (using Win+S) of my new mouse. No...

How to borrow Kindle Books from your public library for free

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There are a ton of free books to be borrowed from your public library. It’s really easy to do with a Kindle because Amazon.com uses whispernet to wirelessly...

Kindle vs Nook

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The is a post for anyone who is trying to decide between the Kindle Touch and the Nook Simple Touch eInk eReaders. I bought them both with my own money and s...

How to load a remote assembly using Assembly.Load

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

If you try to load a remote assembly using it’s path you’ll likely get a permission or operation exception. When using LoadFrom: Assembly a1 = Assembly.LoadF...

Solution to hard to check CheckBox when using a DataGridCheckBoxColumn without a Label in WPF

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

When you have a DataGridCheckBoxColumn without an associate label it is very difficult to check and uncheck the CheckBox. I know this solution makes no sense...

Solution to WPF DataGrid not showing any items after setting the DataSource

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It was simple fix for me. Go into the Xaml file and add the ItemsSource attribute to the Grid node.

The best Kindle light is the eBook Lite from Pathway Lights

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve tried a ton of different reading lights with my Kindle and my favorite is called the eBook Lite (aka eReader Lite) from Pathway Lights. I like it better...

How to easily add an attachment to a TFS work item

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The TFS Work Item Attachments tab supports the Windows Clipboard and Drag and Drop. For all of these tips make sure you click in the attachments grid, not ju...

How to Programmatically Bulk Update TFS Query Columns and Sort Order to Match Another Query Using the TFS SDK

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I just created 10 queries with all the same columns and sort order. I then realized I missed a column and wanted to add another sort column to all those quer...

Solution to TF80012: The document cannot be opened because there is a problem with the installation of the Microsoft Visual Studio v10.0 Team Foundation Office integration components.

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

This could be happening for a number of reasons. I’ve had to try a few solutions below to get it to work. Try one, see if it works and if not try the next on...

How to quickly open a TFS New Query form

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It’s pretty cumbersome to create a New Query in TFS. You have to open Team Explorer, Expand your Server node, Right click on Works Items and select New Query...

How to use NETWORK SERVICE account with SyncBack scheduled tasks

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

SyncBack is a great backup and sync utility, but by default it creates Windows XP scheduled tasks which do not support running under a NETWORK SERVICE accoun...

How to open file diff from changeset details with double click in TFS

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

By default TFS opens all files in the Changeset details window with Notepad. But what I want to do most of the time is diff the file, not open it. You could...

How to programmatically generate C# files from a DLL or EXE

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

I’m working on a project that involves researching and comparing many versions of the same DLL. I don’t have the source for every version of this DLL so I ne...

Solution to the exception: Can not load 7-zip library or internal COM error! Message: failed to load library.

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

You need to change the target platform to x64. Double click properties. Click on Build Tab Change Platform target to x64 Can not load 7-zip library or intern...

Solution to the exception: Can not load 7-zip library or internal COM error! Message: DLL file does not exist.

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s how to solve the exception: “Can not load 7-zip library or internal COM error! Message: DLL file does not exist.” Step 1: SetLibraryPath Add a call to...

How to VERY EASILY decompress XSN files using C#

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

XSN files are just cab files, but .NET doesn’t ship with APIs to easily decompress them. After a little bit of poking around I found SevenZipSharp to be the...

How to force TFS Work Item layout groups to consume the minimal amount of screen real estate.

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

I wanted to simplify my TFS work item display so I removed a bunch of columns and and groups. It turns out you need those groups or you get something like th...

Solution to the error "An error occured during the transfer. Please check your Wi-Fi connection." with PhotoSync

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

So far I really like the PhotoSync app for syncing photos and videos from my iPhone to my PC. I was getting this error when I tried to sync: “An error occurr...

How to bulk update work items in TFS with Work Item Templates

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

TFS allows you to update work items in bulk by applying a template to them. Here’s how: Install the TFS Power Tools Right click on Work Item Templates in Tea...

Solution: TFS always shows ChangedBy as the current user

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

By default TFS always displays the System.ChangedBy field as the current user. I am Jon Gallant and Wallace Breza is a dev on my team. As you can see he was...

Solution to missing "Add photos" button in Facebook Photo Album

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

It just means that you maxed out the number of photos allowed per album. Right now it looks like that number is 200. The solution is to create a new album.

How to Validate Area & Iteration Paths in TFS

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Run a TFS query to find the AreaId and IterationId that you don’t want to allow. In my case it was 489 for both Area and Iteration 0.1) Create a new query: 0...

How to Programmatically Modify a TFS Query with C#

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

I had to change TFS Iterations and didn’t want to break all existing queries. I also didn’t want to update them all manually. Thanks to Tarun Arora for a goo...

Solution to "An internal error has occurred: There is something wrong in CryptUnprotectData." in Lightroom 3

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

You just need to delete a few things from your Lightroom preferences file: (The following from this thread, I’m reposting so it’s easier to find) 1) Close Li...

Solution to Visio 2010 crash on Windows 7

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Don’t know why but the Bluetooth plugin that is installed by default is causing Visio to crash all the time. I disabled the plugin and haven’t had a crash si...

Solution to the Dell Monitor Buzz

Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Not sure this will work for everyone, but it worked on my Dell P2411H I was getting this really loud buzzing sound from my monitor today…and only when I was...

How to turn off a Sony IC Recorder

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

It took me forever to figure out how to turn off my Sony IC Recorder (ICD-SX46) 1. Slide the Hold slider to the hold position. 2. Hold down the “Stop” button...

How to do a search and replace in Visual Studio with Regular Expressions

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

I just removed the word “test” from all of our test method names. Here’s how I did it: Find what: public void {.*}test Replace with: public void \1

How to use Windows Explorer to view RAW files in Windows 7 x64

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Canon’s RAW codec does not support Windows Explorer thumbnail integration on x64 machines. 1. Install Windows Live Photo Gallery http://explore.live.com/wind...

How to fix IE9 Fuzzy Font Issue

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

For Win7 Click on the Start Button Type “clear” Click “Clear ClearType text” Go through the Wizard. Helped me tremendously. Jon

TFS 2010: "Branch by Label" is back in the UI

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

TFS 2010 was released without “Branch by Label” in the UI (you had to do using TF.exe /branch /version:Lxxx). A hotfix was released on Aug 3 that fixes that ...

GEMPLUS GPR400 Driver

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Had a tough time finding the right driver for my old GEMPLUS GPR400 Smart Card reader. This is what I found. It is for Windows 2000 and for the GemPC400, but...

Silverlight 4: How to programmatically position a control within a Grid

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMT

How to position controls in Silverlight Grid. Learn grid layout techniques in Silverlight applications.

Solution for "Exception from HRESULT: 0x81030110" with Windows Phone

Wed, 12 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Fix for Windows Phone deployment exception 0x81030110: open WMAppManifest.xml under Properties and remove child nodes from the Capabilities section.

How to Navigate to a Page in Windows Phone 7

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

It’s really simple to Navigate to another page in Windows Phone 7, but it took me a few to figure it out. Where Page1.xaml is in the root of the app: Navigat...

How to Un "Ignore" a thread in Outlook 2010

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Sometimes you click “Ignore” by mistake. “Ignore” is just a rule that auto sends the thread to Deleted Items. So, just find the item in deleted items, select...

Manage SkyDrive from Windows Explorer

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Gladient has a Free Starter Edition of their product that allows you to do things like bulk move files and other things we take for granted in Windows Explor...

Solution to "Error" in Windows Mobile Device Center when trying to dock a Windows Mobile Phone

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

This is an awesome error message: I have found that manually killing wmdc.exe in Task Manager and then restarting helps.

Solution to the exception: "The data to complete this operation is not yet available"

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I’m not sure what the deal is with this one, but rebooting my phone resolved it.

[object Object]

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Solution for MDF file requires SQL Express error. Learn how to work with SQL Server database files.

[object Object]

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

[This exception: “This server version is not supported. Only servers up to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 are supported” Probably means that you have SQL Server...

Solution to an Unresponsive Zune Pad

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The Zune Pad on my 80GB Zune was unresponsive for a day or so and a normal reset or restore didn’t work because they require the Zune pad to be working. This...

Solution to the exception: "the data necessary to complete this operation is not yet available" when debugging Windows Mobile apps

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The exception “the data necessary to complete this operation is not yet available” can mean that the app you are trying to debug is already running on the de...

Solution to the Windows Task Scheduler "Start only if the following network connection is available" disabled issue

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Not sure why, but the “Start only if the following network connection is available” option is disabled for scheduled tasks if the task is configured for: “Wi...

Solution to the Exception: Connection failed. The device security configuration disallowed the connection. Ensure that you have the appropriate certificates on your device for development.

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

You will get this exception if you try to debug on a physical device from Visual Studio and haven’t install the debug certificates. “Connection failed. The d...

How to Send a Text Message from ATT.com

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I spent about 20 mins with ATT technical support today trying to figure out how to send a Text from their website. Apparently they did some website updates a...

How to Create a Windows 7 Custom Key Command

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Sometimes you want a key command (keycommand) that works across all of your Windows Desktop. For example, let’s say that you write a lot of email and you wan...

Zoom H4n Review

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I picked up the Zoom H4n not too long ago for my concert and rehearsal recordings. While I’m really happy with the quality of the recordings there are some s...

How to Export RSS Feeds to an OPML File in Outlook 2010

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

For some reason this feature is hidden in Outlook 2010. Click the Office Button in the upper left hand corner. [Click “Open” and then “Import” [ Import and...

How to Highlight Rows Based on a Cell Value in Excel

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s how to highlight rows based on a cell value in Excel 2007 and Excel 2010. Reference this page for previous versions of Excel Select the table you want...

Microsoft will Donate 8 Meals to Feeding America for Every IE8 Download

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Microsoft will donate 8 meals to Feeding America for every IE8 download. Very creative way to get people fed.

Dimecasts.net – A great Video Based Learning Resource for Developers

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I love short and sweet learning. That is exactly what Dimecasts.net provides. Videos that are 10 minutes or less (hence the “dime” in the name) and cover man...

How to Create a New Category in Outlook

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Creating a new category in Outlook isn’t very intuitive. Right click on the item you want to categorize Select “Categorize” Select “All Categories” Click the...

Solution to the "Format of the initialization string does not conform to specification starting at index 0." Exception

Sat, 02 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

You are probably using the wrong DbConnection class. If you are using Access then make sure you use OleDbConnection, not SqlConnection…and vice versa. Altern...

Solution to the "You tried to assign the Null value to a variable that is not a Variant data type." Exception

Sat, 02 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

By default the DataSource wizard passes parameters for AutoNumber primary keys. If you are getting this error: You tried to assign the Null value to a variab...

Solution to "Operation must use an updateable query" Exception when writing to an Access Database from ASP.NET

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Could be a couple of things: The file is marked as read-only. Right click on file, uncheck “read only”.2. The application pool identity doesn’t have write pe...

Mobile Browser Detection in ASP.NET

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Before last week the only two viable Mobile Browser Detection options were: WURFL – Great for non-.NET solutions. .NET APIs lack support2. DeviceAtlas – Grea...

Mobile Web Design Book References

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I just finished Cameron Moll’s “Mobile Web Design” book. Not only is it a great book…short, sweet and comprehensive, but it has a lot of great references. I...

Solution to "To install the software, you must log on as a member of the Administrators group." error when installing a Canon Printer

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I had to install my Canon MP980 software on to my new Windows 7 laptop and even though my domain account is in the Administrators group I was getting this er...

Access Database Membership, Profile, Role and Personalization Providers for ASP.NET

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

ASP.NET doesn’t ship with Membership, Profile, Role or Personalization providers out of the box. Imar Spaanjaars has a great article on how to setup a site u...

How to copy tables from one Access database to another

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

It’s simple. Use the import function. Open the destination database. Right click in the table pane. Select Import. Choose the origination database. Choose th...

Solution to the cmsscciabstractionlayer.cpp Line number: 5892 error

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I often get this error when trying to bind a project or solution to a VSS provider in Visual Studio through File->Source Control->Change Source Control. Micr...

Windows Live Sign-In Assistant Conflicts with Outlook IRM

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

If you are trying to read a protected mail using Outlook and are getting prompted to enter a Windows Live Id instead of your network credentials it is becaus...

Hidden Facebook Status Codes

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I installed win7 today and had to post about it… Facebook converts <3 to a heart…how cute. What other hidden Facebook codes are out there?

Solution to Method has no implementation (no RVA) Error

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

If you get this exception _System.TypeLoadException: Could not load type ‘x’ from assembly ‘xx, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null’ becaus...

How to Reuse TreeNodeCollection in Windows Forms apps

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I’m creating an app and need the same data set for two tree views. Nodes.AddRange only works with a TreeNode[] and the TreeNodeCollection is read-only and do...

Delete All Outlook RSS Feeds

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

My Outlook RSS Feeds were in a really funky state this morning. I had to create a new profile and I had RSS Sync enabled. When that is the case Outlook re-ad...

[object Object]

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Got this error when logging into a machine that I hadn’t touched in months: “the security database on the server does not have a computer account for this wo...

Solution to the SQL Server 2008 with Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Install Exception: "SQL Server 2008 setup requires .NET Framework 3.5 to be installed"

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Fix SQL Server exceptions in Visual Studio. Solution for database connection and query errors.

PDC Wrapup - My fav sessions

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

PDC was great this year! Here’s a quick list of my favorite sessions of technologies and products that Social Bookmarking will use soon… Stuff we’ll use this...

Solution to SQL Server 2005 SP2 Upgrade Issue : KB921896 1603 29565

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Fix SQL Server 2005 SP2 upgrade permission errors. Grant explicit Full Control permissions to resolve upgrade failures.

Entering Credentials in Gmail App on BlackJack II

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

If you are using the Gmail Mobile App on Windows Mobile you may notice that it seems impossible to enter a username and password into the authentication scre...

Solution to SqlCommand "expects parameter" Exception

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I was getting this exception earlier today: Test method x threw exception: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Procedure or function ‘sp_get_x’ expects param...

Backslash key on Blackjack II

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How to type a backslash on the Blackjack II phone: hold down the sym button to access special characters and symbols.

New MSDN & TechNet Search URLs

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Along with all the other new features of our recent MSDN & TechNet search release we also created “search” sub-domains for both of the sites. The new URLs ar...

LINQ TO SQL Designer not updating Codefile Fix

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I’m not sure exactly what leads to this issue, but in 2008 SP1 the designer doesn’t always update the codefile after dragging from Server Explorer. Hit F7 fr...

ASP.NET Dynamic Data - A property with name '[table].[column]" does not exist in metadata for entity type '[type]'.

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Fix property does not exist error in ASP.NET Dynamic Data. Solution for missing dynamic data properties.

Web Unit Tests Without HttpContext

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Phil Haack created a very useful HttpSimulator to assist in unit testing code that accesses the HttpContext. I was up an running in a few minutes. Here’s a s...

New SQL Server Date DataTypes: Date, Time, DateTime2 & DateTimeOffset

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Great video on the new Date DataTypes in in Sql [T-SQL Enhancements and Date/Time](http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/1/851B0968-0BE0-417E-9DA9-B3A2...

Solution for "Download Failure" exception with Scottgu's DiggSample

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

WebClient will return a Download failure exception if you search the Digg API using an invalid search term. If you search with a valid term, say “microsoft”,...

Solution to "Configuration system failed to initialize"

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I got this error today: “Configuration system failed to initialize” while loading a config file. Looking at the web.config file it wasn’t obvious what the pr...

Windows Live SkyDrive - 5 GB of Free Online Disk Space

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I regularly use SkyDrive for sharing files with my friends and family. You get 5GB free, the UI is super easy to use and you completely control the permissio...

System.Net.Mail.MailMessage Mail Header Casing Issue Fixed in .NET 2.0 SP1 & .NET 3.5

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

With the transition of MailMessage from System.Web.Mail to System.Net.Mail there were some mail header casing changes that caused mail sent to Hotmail and Li...

LINQ: Sequence contains no elements. InvalidOperationException when calling Single

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

If you call Single to get an object from your DB and the object doesn’t exist you will get an InvalidOperationException. return this.DataContext.MemberDaos.S...

LINQ: "Add" renamed to "InsertOnSubmit"

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

If you are using LINQ to insert data with RTM bits you won’t find the Add method on the DataContext post Beta2. Use the InsertOnSubmit method instead.

LINQ and Web Application Connection Strings

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

It’s usually a good idea to seperate Biz Layer Objects and Data Access Objects into seperate assemblies, but when you do that and use LINQ to SQL (.dbml) fil...

SilverLight for Linux

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

SilverLight 1.0 was released today and Microsoft confirmed that they are working with Novell to produce a version of it for Linux. Great news!

Binding Complex Properties to GridView

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Binding simple (int/string, etc) type properties to a TemplateColumn in a GridView is easy, but when you need to bind the Grid to an object that has properti...

Visual Studio - Close All Documents toolbar command

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT

When dev’n I frequently want to close all the open documents in VS. The right click on tab command in VS doesn’t have that option, so after digging around in...

ASP.NET WebProfile Generator Released to CodePlex.com

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Tim McBride just pushed out his code that dynamically creates the profile provider classes for non-WebSite projects. http://www.codeplex.com/WebProfile/

Workaround for Blend 2 "Edit in Visual Studio" wrong Framework version issue

Fri, 25 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

If you create a project in Blend 2 May Preview and right click on the project and select “Edit in Visual Studio”. Blend 2 creates that VS project using versi...

How to play 24 bit WAV files in Windows Media Player & Media Encoder

Thu, 24 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I do a bit of recording and usually bounce my tracks to 16bit WAVs because Windows Media Player doesn’t support 24bit WAV out of the box and I couldn’t find...

Running two different versions of ASP.NET on the same server

Thu, 24 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I just installed Orcas and was getting this error when running a performance test: Event Type: Error Event Source: ASP.NET 2.0.50727.0 Event Category: None E...

ATOM 1.0 Schema

Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I just spent a while searching for the ATOM 1.0 schema definition. This looks like the most human readable form out there. http://www.atomenabled.org/develop...

How to get your local machines IP address using C#

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I’m working on this app that pulls the ip address from the request headers. When debugging the app locally the headers are always “127.0.0.1”, which doesn’t...

Web Application Projects do not support dynamic Profile class generation

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I found out the hard way that Web Application Projects do not support dynamic class generation for profile providers. For now you need to use the “WebSite” t...

Solution: WPF/e not showing up on new server deployment

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I just deployed a new wpf/e control to a new server and found that I need to register the content types for xaml, etc. You will find the configuration steps...

Reflector add-ins now on CodePlex.com

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Lutz Roeder’s Reflector add-ins are now on www.CodePlex.com http://www.codeplex.com/reflectoraddins

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack for Vista Released

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

For all those dev’n on Vista, self included :) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=90e2942d-3ad1-4873-a2ee-4acc0aace5b6&displaylang=en

Solution to "is null or not an object" error with ScriptService

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I just spent the last few hours trying to track down why I kept getting an “is null or not an object” error when setting up a service with a ScriptService at...

Hiding and showing the Office 2007 ribbon

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I accidentally hit Ctrl+F1 today and my ribbon was gone. Hit Ctrl + F1 and it’s back. Kind of a hidden command, HTH

Solution: How to get the InnerText value of a node when using XmlDataSource

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Lets say you have this xml: Blog Content And you are using an XmlDataSource to run it through a repeater. You can easily get the attributes like so: <%#Eval(...

Solution to externally referenced config file caching: restartOnExternalChanges

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

If you are referencing an external configuration file in your web application and are caching that access, then look at using the restartOnExternalChanges co...

Solution to jagged images in IE at 1600x1200

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I just got a new laptop and am running it at 1600x1200. With IE I was getting jagged images, so I pinged the internal IE discussions group and got this respo...

How to convert XmlDocument to XmlReader for SqlXml data type.

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The SqlXml datatype constructor only accepts a Stream or XmlReader, if you have an XmlDocument in memory (go with stream if you have it) then you can easily...

Page Cannot Be Displayed error in IIS

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The “page cannot be displayed” issue in IE could be many things. First turn off the Show Friendly Error Message option in IE. Then check event viewer. And if...

AJAX Control Extender Project Template Install

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

If you are wondering where the “Atlas Control Project” template disappeared to with the latest beta, you can find install instructions for the template here:...

Commerce Server/IIS: File or assembly name Microsoft.CatalogServer, or one of its dependencies, was not found.

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

This typically means that you need to configure your site to use v2.0 of the .NET framework. aspnet_regiis -i is one way, another is to manually switch to 2....

Commerce Server: Failed to get the connection string of the product catalog resource for the specified site.

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

If you get this exception when loading a CSAdmin web service it is likely that the AppPool’s identity does not have access to the MSCS_Admin database. Give t...

PhotoSynth TechPreview is now available

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

http://labs.live.com/photosynth

Slow Jerky Cursor on Virtual Machine?

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

If you have a slow jerky cursor (mouse) on a Virtual Machine it probably means that you need to install Virtual Machine Additions. How to install Virtual Mac...

JavaScript Lint

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

My team uses many static analysis tools to check for common coding mistakes and coding standards. I recently stubbled upon JavaScriptLint which we’ll start u...

What is your dream dev portal?

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

What features would your dream dev portal have? Blogs, technologies, products, reviews, articles? Does the customizable experience at Live.com give you what...

What's your homepage?

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

I’m a dev lead in a group that is part of MSDN and TechNet. I’m curious what you (the IT Pro/Dev community) think of the MSDN/TechNet homepages and how we co...

ASP.NET Videos

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Lots of great ASP.NET videos up on www.ASP.net https://www.asp.net/learn/videos/default.aspx?tabid=63

Learning Platform v3 is live!

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The project I’ve been working on since I joined IDEO last October has finally shipped! Learning Platform v3 can be found at http://learning.microsoft.com/ Th...

Blinq - Database editor webapp autogeneration

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Blinq is going to at least make all the dreary admin site creation work super easy for you. I was up and running with a full admin site in about 5 mins.

Solution to the ambiguous "Configuration Error" - An error occurred loading a configuration file: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMT

If you see this error message it means that you have not selected a .NET framework version to use for the website or virtual directory. To resolve, go to IIS...

Cons of Response.Redirect(url, false)

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The second parameter overload of Response.Redirect is nice because it doesn’t call Response.End, which is responsible for throwing the ThreadAbortException....

Convert.ChangeType for Nullable types

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Convert.ChangeType doesn’t support nullable types. Peter Johnson has a post which shows how to test and cast from object to Nullable types. The can obviously...

Type conversion (From object to Nullable, Enum, Custom TypeConverter)

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

While building our Commerce Server 2007 solution it made sense to wrap the LineItem class to easily access the weakly typed indexer accessible properties (wh...

How to properly unregister a Commerce Server pipeline component

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

My team is implementing a custom Commerce Server 2007 (which just RTM’d last week btw) and I had to remove a custom pipeline from the stack. I removed all re...

VSTS Performance Tools

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Check out Ian Huff’s intro video about VSTS Performance Tools. It’s a great overview and covers just about everything you need to know about them.

Amazon's Mechanical Turk

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Let’s say an algorithm does what we need it to do really well 90% of the time. We have a choice to build the app to handle the other 10% which could come at...

Mix Day 2 - Office, Media Center, Gadgets, Atlas

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Very cool talk with Joe Belfiore this morning. I came a little late, but caught the cool work ms is doing with ease of integration with Office Addins. VSTO m...

Mix Day 1 - Part 1

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

My day started off by having a quick bite with Doug Seven of DotNetJunkies and SqlJunkies fame. Amazingly enough we work in the same building @ ms, but have...

Mix Day 1 Part 2

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

**Overview of Expression - Brad Becker **Splitview and XamlPad are included in the WinFx SDK. You can use them to create the Xaml by hand, but I would stay a...

Office 12 - What do you think?

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Just installed Office12 yesterday…I know a bit late, but I’ve been working like crazy lately and just starting to get caught back up on what else is happenin...

Mix it up!

Wed, 15 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Just found out that I’ll be hanging in LV for a few days next week at Mix06. For those of you that can’t go - what sessions would you like me to attend on yo...

WirDirStat - Disk Usage Utility

Wed, 07 Sep 2005 00:00:00 GMT

I ran out of disk space today and did a quick search for disk usage analysis tools. With WirDirStat I was able to find out quickly that my tempdb ldf file wa...

Be careful what you have on your clipboard while surfing

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 00:00:00 GMT

See how a malicious site could retrieve your clipboard data with a few lines of code… Copy any text with Ctrl+C and then click on the link below. You’ll see...

VSS File Paths

Mon, 25 Oct 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s how to get the full path to a file in VSS. Right click on file and select Properties from context menu.2. Click Report Button3. Click Preview Button4....

Outlook 2003 Add-in for XP Events

Tue, 19 Oct 2004 00:00:00 GMT

In the process of building a COM Add-in for Outlook I ran into the issue of events not being fired with XP. I needed to capture the ItemAdd, ItemSend and Sel...

VSS Cloaking

Fri, 08 Oct 2004 00:00:00 GMT

I finally learned what the cloaking feature of VSS does and wanted to share. If you cloak a folder, you are marking it as a folder that you do not want to in...

Name That Control

Mon, 04 Oct 2004 00:00:00 GMT

What do naming convention do you prefer when naming controls and why? Hungarian: lblUsername Pascal: UsernameLabel or Username Camel: username Other?

Beyond Compare

Sun, 03 Oct 2004 00:00:00 GMT

I am amazed at how many developers are still using windiff or VSS diff tool. Beyond Compare is great tool that I use almost daily. It allows you to diff file...