September 2006 - Posts - More Wally - Wallace B. McClure
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More Wally - Wallace B. McClure

This blog will have all kinds of posts about Wally McClure. In it, there will be tons of .NET and computer programming posts as well as Wally's views on life in general. As you might guess, this site and blog help you get More Wally in your life. What more could anyone want? iPhone, Android, MonoTouch, MonoDroid, Mobile, HTML5, .NET, ADO.NET, ASP.NET, AJAX, jQuery, jQuery Mobile, ASP.NET AJAX, and Windows Azure............follow me on twitter at Wally

September 2006 - Posts

  • Georgia Tech over Virginia Tech 38-27

    That was sweet.  The Georgia Tech defense shut down VaTech for most of the game, Calvin Johnson played pretty well except for 1 mistake, and Reggie Ball managed the game well.  The result, a 38-27 victory by Georgia Tech. 
  • Windows Vista won't support Visual Studio .NET 2003

    Ok, so now we know that Windows Vista won't support VisualStudio .NET 2003.  Its interesting that when asked the question about Windows Vista running Visual Studio .NET 2003, a number of people from Microsoft answered the question by saying ".NET 1.1 is supported on Vista. "  This gave developers a false sense of security that Visual Studio .NET 2003 would run on Vista just fine.  It was only this past Tuesday that we learned differently.  I have since learned that there is a problem in some debugging scenarios and therefore, Microsoft chose not to certify Visual Studion 2003 as supported under Windows Vista.  If they had come out and said "Yes it works in most scenarios, but here are the few that it doesn't work in and why" I would have felt much better about the whole thing.  Instead, I felt like I was run through the political gauntlet of the 24*7 news groups and talk radio with people promoting their particular view and political agenda.  To make it worse, the announcement did not come until Vista is almost ready for shipment.  Next time folks, please tell me what is going on before hand.  I can understand upfront and honest mistakes,  I just feel a little bit used on this one. 
  • Digipede / John Powers

    I just ran across this blog.  Its by John Powers, the CEO of Digipede.  They make a grid computing product that runs on top of Windows.  One of the more recent posts is about a talk at the San Francisco .NET User Group.  I wish that we could get a talk like this in our area.  I would love to see what a grid application running on .NET could do and hear how to develop with their stuff.  Maybe they can speak at one of John Kellar's devLink conferences sometime.
  • VirtualPC 2007 - Beta Nomination Opens on October 11, 2006

    Are you frustrated by the development scenario of Vista?  Yeah, you can run .NET 1.1 apps, but Visual Studio 2003 won't be fully supported (Debugging will likely not work).  Do you want to develop all from one system and under Vista?  I do.  I just found out that VirtualPC 2007 Beta Nominations will open on http://connect.microsoft.com on October 11, 2006.  Make sure you mark a calendar event for that date.  Hopefully, this will solve some of the development pain that we all feel.
    Posted Sep 28 2006, 08:30 AM by wallym with 1 comment(s)
    Filed under:
  • One of the Dangers of software development: Easy to Say != Easy to Do

    One of the dangers of software development is that people tend to believe that because something is easy to say means that it is easy to do.  For example, all Windows does is provide a user interface to load programs and handle devices.  This sounds rather easy.  Unfortuantely, it is over simplistic.  Let's look at some of the issues that must be overcome:
    • Handle the differences in video.  There are many video cards on the market.  How do you handle the differences between them? 
    • What should a user interface look like?
    • What kinds of devices should be supported?  Hard drives, USB, Firewire, Printers, etc.
    • Who is responsible for handling these devices?
    • How do you handle networks?
    • On and on.....................
    Just because something is easy to say, doesn't mean that it is easy to do.
  • AJAX interaction with a Screen Reader for Section 508 users

    It surely would be nice if there was some type of event or notification mechanism that an AJAX library could raise / fire / set that would cause a screen reader to notify a user that an update has occurred to part of the screen.  Perhaps this could be accomplished through some type of DOM  "event" or something similar.  Ideally, the user would like to know specifically what was updated.  I hope that everyone could get together on this and solve the problem for the screen reader / Section 508 users.
  • Does your browser support the UpdatePanel? Test it programmatically

    I wrote the following simple code to test to see if a browser supports the UpdatePanel, which is a control on the server, that provides Ajax support and is a part of the ASP.NET 2.0 Extensions for AJAX.  This code doesn't test for Javascript, ActiveX, or other features, it just tests the browser version.  Basically, the test is for Internet Explorer 6 or later, Firefox 1.5 or later, and Safari.  Enjoy

        public static bool IsValidForUpdatePanel()

        {

            bool IsValid = false;

            try

            {

                IsValid = IsIE6OrLater() || IsFF15OrLater() || IsSafari();

            }

            catch

            {

                IsValid = false;

            }

            finally

            {

             }

            return (IsValid);

        }

        private static bool IsIE6OrLater()

        {

            return ((HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.IsBrowser("IE")) &&

                (HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.MajorVersion >= 6 ));

        }

        private static bool IsFF15OrLater()

        {

            return ((HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.IsBrowser("Firefox")) &&

                ((HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.MajorVersion == 1) &&

                (HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.MinorVersion == .5) ||

                (HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.MajorVersion >= 2)));

        }

        private static bool IsSafari() // <-- The  Safari is currently not supported in the latest CTP.

        {

            return (HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.IsBrowser("Safari"));

        }


  • Javascript enhancements chapter shipped

    I have shipped otu the first draft of my Javascript Enhancements for our "Beginning Atlas" book.  That puts me at the half way point for my content.  My next chapter is the UpdatePanel.  I must confess that I have cheated and spent Saturday working some UpdatePanel issues which I will use for my UpdatePanel chapter.
  • Ryder Cup 2006 - its over now

    Once again, the Americans have been beaten in the Ryder Cup.  While there are still players on the course at this moment, the Europeans have one decisively again.. What is the problem with the American golfers?  Its not an issue of getting barely beaten, the US has been beaten decisively in the last 2 cups.  The Europeans have won 5 of the last 6 cups.  The issue is how to get the Americans to show up at these events.  They are getting pummelled in all fo the matches.  Rarely have the matches gone to the 18th hole.  Maybe paying the American players would put some fire into them.
  • College Football - September 23, 2006

    Ohio State won in the mud at home over Penn State.  The 28-6 final score was misleading.  The game was 14-6 with just a few minute to go.  OSU returned two interceptions for touchdowns late in the game.
    Auburn beat up on the girls school of Buffalo 38-7.  Auburn was playing without several stars that were held out due to injuries.  This game could have been really ugly if they had played.
    University of Southern California beat Arizona on the road 20-3.  USC has had great offenses over the past couple of years.  It looks like the offense is not very good right now, but the defense looks pretty good.  I still am not convinced that they are as good as advertised.
    West Virgiina beat East Carolina.  So what.  Are they as good as advertised?  I tend not to think so.  I think that they are too 1-dimensional and rely to much on the run.  While they are typically pretty good at it, Its hard for 1 dimensional teams to win all their games.
    Florida took Kentucky to the woodshed 26-7.
    Screwup of the weekend.  WTF happened to Michigan State?  They had Notre Dame beat all day and fooled around and lost.  Argg, have I mentioned that I hate Notre Dame.
  • Ryder Cup 2006 - Saturday Evening Score: 10-6

    You are kidding me. 10-6?  What's the deal with this team?  Ultimately, I think the problem is that the event is not important to the American players.  Its only imporant to the fans.  I just wish they would do better than roll over and play dead, because, once again, that's what they are, dead.  This team just has no life in it.  How do youput some life in it?  Well, I would take the Bob Knight approach and raise hell with my players.
  • You've gotta love emotion, pride, and skills when they come together. Why Microsoft is better than Linux

    Its interesting.  I live in an area which doesn't reward traits like emotion, pride, and ability/skills.  When I see these traits, I love them and respect them.  Taking pride in your work and promoting it is important.  I made some comments about Windows Vista and Office 2007 recently.  I was contacted yesterday by one of the Group Product Managers at Microsoft about this.  He asked a bunch of questions and I was impressed that he cared enough to ask.  While I am an MVP, ASPInsider, and author, in the grand scheme of things, I am a nobody.  Hmm, when I complain about Linux and how to do things, I get a response back  alogn the lines of "Well, you just don't know/understand what you are doing.  Its your fault.  You are stupid."  I think I'll keep giving Microsoft the benefit of the doubt.
  • Georgia Tech over Virginia 24-7 on Thursday night

    Wow, was that game on Thursday night not the Calvin Johnson show.  He had two long touchdowns.  Te defense gave up a meaningless touchdown in the fourth quarter.  Its interesting, with Georgia Tech's game plan, they won't blow people out, but they will have a lot of close games.  As a result, a 17 point win is a good size win.  Obviously, Virginia doesn't have the horses this year, but these games have typically been fairly close over the years
  • Ryder Cup 2006 - disaster in the making?

    Right now, between the Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon matches, the score is Europe 7.5 and USA 4.5.  It looks like this is another disaster in the making.  While the Americans tend to do better in the singles matches on Sunday, they can't dig themselves such a deep hole and hope to win.  Unless there is a dramatic turnaround on Saturday afternoon and Sunday, the Europeans will retain the Ryder Cup.
  • Enter to win a copy of our "Beginning AJAX with ASP.NET" book

    http://www.istartedsomething.com/winajaxasp/
    -- or --
    http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060920/win-ajax-aspnet/

    Long Zheng, of Australia, is running a contest to giveaway a copy of our "Beginning AJAX with ASP.NET" book.  Thanks Long.

    Wally


    Posted Sep 21 2006, 06:51 AM by wallym with no comments
    Filed under: ,
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