.NET

Using Aspire to go from a simple ILogger to a team friendly cloud ready solution, for free

When you listen to senior developers, speakers, and other subject matter experts (SMEs) talk about logging in .NET applications, it all sounds so easy. An ILogger here, an ILogger there; a package here, a config there; and voilà, you're done. And although Microsoft.Extensions.Logging and packages like

.NET

Save your reputation, build better Value Objects in .NET

Yes, I'm serious. Well written Value Objects are one of the most valuable skills you can learn as a software developer. There's a reason why Primitive Obsession is so popular. Value Objects is one of the most powerful concepts that should be at the core of

Azure

Stop using the default Azure template for GitHub Actions in your .NET projects

If you've ever deployed your .NET project using Azure's ClickOps portal, chances are it created a GitHub Action that's less than great.

Editorial

The tale of the dropdown and the checkbox

Over the course of my career, I've often written large software systems which are eventually taken over by other developers. Sometimes those systems end up having a very long lifespan. Sometimes those lifespans are long enough that those systems come back to me. And sometimes a lot of

.NET

The sunken ship that is the JsonStringEnumConverter

Back in 2018, a discussion started asking for .NET runtime provided JSON serializing and deserializing support. Around that same time, the original author of Newtonsoft.Json, James Newton-King, joined Microsoft and became one of the principal developers of what later became System.Text.Json. It did not take long for

.NET

The Operation Result Pattern will save your .NET application from death by a thousand exceptions

The hidden cost of throwing exceptions has been heavily debated for years. Although the effect on an application’s performance will vary greatly based on where and how often exceptions are thrown, the evidence is undeniable that there is a significant impact. Often exceptions can be avoided entirely by choosing

Editorial

What’s more important? Having certifications or being able to think analytically?

Managers responsible for hiring staff in technology-based roles such as developers or IT technicians are often focused on a candidate’s formal post-secondary education and certifications. Unfortunately, those who do well in such contexts aren’t necessarily the best candidates to fill technology-based roles. Some of the most innovative people

Editorial

NETGEAR: The teenage soccer mom who abandoned her kids

You’re probably a bit confused as to how I’m able to compare a technology company to a teenage soccer mom. It’s actually quite simple. You see, like a teenager who’s trying to figure out who she’s supposed to be and a soccer mom who’s

Windows

Clearing All Event Viewer Logs

With the advent of Windows Vista and Server 2008, the Event Viewer became the central location for all things related to logging for pretty much everything Windows related. Sometimes, especially when bringing a new system online, you need a bit of clarity. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to clear

Windows Server

Using Gene6 FTP Server (v3.10.0.15e) with Windows Server 2012 and later

[UPDATED 2019-03-11: OpenSSL has been updated to version 1.0.2r which is no longer vulnerable to the hearbleed bug.] If you’re still using Gene6 FTP Server then you’re already aware that the developer has gone MIA. Nonetheless, as it stands, it still reigns as the best of

XHTML

Fixing Dreamweaver CS5's Mixed Case JavaScript Events for XHTML

I was hoping that the Adobe development team would have fixed this by now but it seems that they do not use their own products. At least, certainly not for standards compliant work. In a revisit to my original article on fixing the issue with CS4, here is an updated

.NET Framework

Trusting Network Shares with Visual Studio 2010 / .NET Framework v4.0

If you are like me and you store all your code on a server, you will have likely learned about trusting a network share using CasPol.exe. However, when moving from Visual Studio 2008 (.NET Framework 2.0/3.0/3.5) over to Visual Studio 2010 (.NET Framework 4.

.NET Framework

Communicating multi-byte integers across platforms

Developing applications that communicate between different platforms can quickly hit ground if multi-byte integers are sent without taking the proper byte order into account. We often forgotten to watch for this as most of us stick to a single platform during development. Thankfully, the .NET Framework has taken all the

Linux

Installing FreePBX 2.8 with Asterisk 1.8 on CentOS 5.5

FreePBX has become quite popular over the last few years. Unfortunately, the documentation has not quite caught up to the popularity. At the time of this writing, most of the documentation available was for older versions of CentOS, FreePBX and/or Asterix. Below I have outlined the steps required to

Windows Server

Installing CentOS 5.5 with Linux Integration Services 2.1 on Hyper-V R2

Hyper-V R2 brings some powerful virtualization to the table for those of us who do not have either the skills or the desire to work with virtual machineware. Most fans of Hyper-V are also likely to be well versed in Windows and may often lack the knowledge to rummage through

Web

The majority of internet users still use archaic resolutions

It has become the unsaid consensus over the years that NETMARKETSHARE is an accurate source for up to date data regarding the real world happenings of the internet. For me, the most important information they track is screen resolution. With the flood of new internet connected mobile devices, the revolution

Windows

Windows Updates Downloader 2.50 Build 1000 Released

Another build of the Windows Updates Downloader, version 2.50 Build 1000, has been published. An issue with incorrectly saved proxy port information has been corrected.

Visual Studio

Office 2010 kills Visual Studio 2008

My movie induced optimism for Office 2010 was quickly shattered this week after trying out the beta on my box. Having followed the best practice of uninstalling Office 2007 and rebooting before installing the beta, I was not prepared for the days of frustration that would ensue. After several hang

Windows

Windows 7 is now in stores

Back in July, general availability for Windows 7 was announced to be forthcoming on October 22nd. The great Windows team led by Steven Sinofsky have delivered on that promise. Windows 7 is now in stores. All editions are now available for purchase from any and all reputable vendors. Be sure

VBScript

Improved ASP JSON utility updated

Back in July of this year, I released an improved version of Tuğrul Topuz’s aspjson utility. Based on some feedback of my release, I decided to revisit the slowly growing list of unfixed issues in the original version. I have addressed all of them and included them with my

Windows Server

Fixing the Volume Shadow Copy service

After installing DHCP on Windows Server 2008 R2, you may start to see the following error message in the event logs : Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine RegOpenKeyExW(-2147483646,SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VSS\Diag,…). hr = 0x80070005, Access is denied. Inspection of the detailed tab of the event

Windows Server

Fixing the DFS Namespace service

After you install Active Directory on Windows Server 2008 R2, you may start seeing the following error message after the server boots : The DFS Namespace service could not initialize cross forest trust information on this domain controller, but it will periodically retry the operation. The return code is in the

SQL Server

Storing IPv4 Addresses for Performance

When designing tables, it is important to take into consideration the impact that your choice of columns and its data types will have on performance. The list of data types available has also been growing, making design choices even more difficult. Often real world data is not optimized for performance

ASP.NET Web Forms

Determining the Order of ASP.NET MasterPage and Page Events

Anyone who is a regular ASP.NET developer is likely familiar with the ASP.NET Page LifeCycle diagram that Kris van der Mast posted on his blog more then 3 years ago. It is indisputably the best reference when trying to determine where to insert your code in the life

ASP.NET Web Forms

Disown your ASP.NET children

If you’re building a site that contains nested applications, you may find yourself confused at what appears to be IIS completely disregarding your virtual directories. The behavior is by design. Although the applications will get isolated, the web.config settings from parent applications propagate to children applications. An easy