MySoftwareStartup

RegEx tools for Visual Studio & the Social Web

Randy Walker — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:50:43 GMT

You might want to skip this first paragraph if you are just looking for the RegEx Tools portion.

I still find it amazing how the web can create an online social inner-networking that bobs and weaves an amazing web of connections (confused? me too). Here's what led me to find these wonderful RegEx tools. So the Microsoft Partner Program has an initiative that gave me a bunch of certifications vouchers. I am using at least 1, possibly 2, in my giveaway. I send out an email to the VB Insider's List (an invite only listserv for Visual Basic users). This leads Chris Love to leave a comment on my blog. I then visit his blog and come across a posting for a bunch of RegEx tools. This posting leads me to Ray Osherove's blog, whom I've heard of but never had a chance to look into. Ray has created a bunch of tools, particularly 3 RegEx tools that look outstanding.

In the software that I sell to a niche market, I use RegEx to parse through long streams of text. Some of the RegEx strings I use are in excess of over 600 characters. So when I find a RegEx tool, I'm super excited about it. Ray Osherove has created several different tools to help in this area. I hope you find these as useful as I will.

RegEx Visualizer - Allows creating "Debug Visualizers" for all types in .NET framework as well as custom types. You can find such visualizers for Datasets, strings and XML, now there's one for RegEx
http://tools.osherove.com/CoolTools/RegexVisualizerKit/tabid/187/Default.aspx

The Regulator - Allows you to build and verify a regular expression against any text input, file or web, and displays matching, splitting or replacement results within an easy to understand, hierarchical tree.
http://tools.osherove.com/CoolTools/TheRegulator/tabid/185/Default.aspx

Regulazy - Visual Regex Creation tool for beginners. It contains an easy "point and click" user interface, and allows creating regular expressions for simple searches almost instantly without requiring Regex syntax knowledge from the end user!
http://tools.osherove.com/CoolTools/Regulazy/tabid/182/Default.aspx

Technorati Tags: RegEx,Visual Studio 2008

Microsoft Certification Exam Voucher Giveaway

Randy Walker — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:28:29 GMT

I've recently come into several Certification Exam Vouchers and have decided to host a giveaway. Just post a comment to the blog, and I'll randomly select a winner. All entries must be in by June 30th, 2008.

You can also post a comment to my cross posting site on GeeksWithBlogs to gain an additional entry.

Growing your software business, stuck in a rut

Randy Walker — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:50:36 GMT

The following is a response to the forum question posted here.

I had the opportunity to meet Scott while at the Little Rock .Net User Group, and we talked briefly about my thoughts on how to take advantage of the programs available to software startups. In particular Scott owns a consulting business and he's having growing pains.

Scott's problems is very typical of thousands of small business consultant shops. He's busy being the business owner, full time consultant/programmer, bookkeeper, marketing, sales guy, etc. So how do you start growing this small shop?

When doing consulting my first rule is to set the customer's expectations. Since you are my customer, here's the good and the bad of growing your business. You will have to relinquish power. You will have to accept things that isn't "your way". You will think quality isn't as good as what you can do, but that is typically because they aren't doing it "your way". When in actuality, your customers will be fine with the work being done, and they will continue to give you business. You have to spend money to make money.

So here are my few tips on growing. Your first hire should be a sales person. A part time salesman works just fine and will keep you out of the hole, if you're worried about finding the funds to pay him. At a minimum, you will need to guarantee him one month's salary. Past that, you need to figure out the salary plus/or commission. A salesman is only as good as his commission. Most salesmen work off of a draw against future sales. For more information on how to setup a commission schedule, talk to a car salesman.

When the salesman has customer calls / visit, you will want to be available. Let him do all the talking, except when you need to talk tech. After the customer visit, you should write up the time estimates and as much documentation as you feel is necessary. Let the salesman handle the quote from there on.

The other tip is to hire a part time bookkeeper / secretary. I know there are a lot of groans here, but that 10 hours you pay that employee $15 an hour, you could be making $80 an hour. Time is money, and since you're the owner and consultant, your time is even more valuable.

Once the salesman finds jobs, then you fill it with insourcing or outsourcing. But remember to never sign agreements that give your code away to the customer and always have the work done offsite.

Lastly, this has more to do with Microsoft. The certifications are worthless to a Partner. Partner level isn't very important, except for the benefits they give you. Your customers are rarely going to care about your certs or partner level. Customer availability, responding to their needs, and exceeding expectations are far more important.

I'll try and go over some of the Certification and Partner actual benefits in another blog post.

Congratulations & Thanks to Jay Smith & Michael Paladino

Randy Walker — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:29:46 GMT

A big heartfelt thank you and congratulations to two of the developer community builders in the Northwest Arkansas area, Jay Smith and Michael Paladino with special mention to Zach Young. As a Microsoft MVP, one of our benefits this year, is the ability to award people with a special prize. This prize is an MSDN Premium account with Visual Studio Team Suite, which includes nearly all of Microsoft's business software, free of charge.

Jay Smith works for Tyson Foods, Inc. where he is a PMO Architect and Evangelist, and is the President for the Northwest Arkansas .Net User’s Group. Jay currently serves on the INETA Speakers Committee and works diligently with others on test bed projects to learn new concepts and designs. You can read more about Jay on his blog http://www.jaysmith.us or follow his tweets at http://twitter.com/jaysmith.

Michael Paladino is a software developer for EagleOne in Fort Smith, AR, and is the Fort Smith .Net User Group President. Michael is passionate about building the .NET community in the area and is one of the co-founders of the Fort Smith .NET User Group. You can contact Michael through his blog at http://www.mpaladino.com or via email at paladinomichael@gmail.com. You can follow his tweets at http://twitter.com/mpaladino.

Go visit the Visual Basic Product Team at TechEd!

Randy Walker — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 06:07:48 GMT

It was this time last year at TechEd that Cory Smith introduced me to the Visual Basic product team. He first introduced me to Ed Hickey, who is the VB MVP Lead at Microsoft. The funny story about Ed is, less than a week after Ed awarded me the MVP status, he transfers out. I knew I was hard to work with, but didn't realize I was .... that .... difficult.

Also last year at TechEd 2007, Cory let me hang out with him at Universal Studios where I rubbed elbows with the Visual Basic product team! He's really been a great mentor to me, and I'm very grateful.

All this is to say, go visit the Visual Basic Product Team website and meet some of the product team. They are all very accessible and have always been very friendly. If you're at TechEd 2008 this year, stop by the Visual Basic booth. Amanda Silver is one of the most visible team members (and very easy on the eyes), so go strike up a conversation.

MVP Summit, Being Busy, plus Presenting @ the Little Rock .Net User Group

Randy Walker — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:53:07 GMT

I suppose I was naive in thinking that once I received my Microsoft MVP award, I could breathe a bit. But we've had sooo much Developer Community activity, I haven't had a chance to breathe, much less blog. I still haven't had an opportunity to blog about the MVP Summit! Needless to say, the MVP Summit was a blast (other than having a digestive track illness, where I missed the last day's keynotes). The best thing about the Summit was the ability to meet and talk directly with the product teams.

You really get the sense of the ability to impact .Net by being an MVP!

On June 12, 2008 I'll be at the Little Rock .Net User Group, and I hope you can join me. I'll be speaking on SQL Server Reporting Services. Unfortunately, due to the late notice, I'll be speaking on the same subject that I presented at the Tech Expo (had hoped to prep some other topics by now). But, I'll have more time to answer questions and hopefully get a bit more detailed on the subject.

Congrats to the new officers there at Little Rock.

Here's a quick synopsis of the content:

One of the hardest parts of learning a technology that is new to you, is getting started. Join us as you learn the tips, tricks, and fundamentals of Microsoft's SQL Server Reporting Services. Avoid those common mistakes and get up and running with SSRS in this presentation from Randy Walker, a 12 year veteran of report design.

Technorati Tags: Little Rock,Programming,SQL Server

Writing to .Net Config Files

Randy Walker — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:25:34 GMT

I've been working with config files for quite some time. I was recently reminded that I needed to finish my original article and share my final findings on my personal best practices for working with config files.

One of the coolest and most useful features in config files is the file attribute as displayed below (see my other article for a more detailed explaination, preferred-method-for-read-only-config-files).

<configuration>
<configSections>
<section name="MyCustomSection" type="System.Configuration.NameValueFileSectionHandler, System, Version=1.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
</configSections>
<MyCustomSection file="MyCustomConfigFile.config"></MyCustomSection>
</configuration>

If you take a look at the other article, it's a terrific way to setup a read only config file, but what about writing back to it at runtime? Well, the best way is to use the ConfigurationManager object and then open the raw xml into an XmlDocument object. (yes yes, I might be a Visual Basic MVP, but I can write the occasional C#)

Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(FileName);
ConfigurationSection section = config.GetSection(SectionName);

XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
xml.LoadXml(section.SectionInformation.GetRawXml());

But the problem is, if you have used the file attribute (file="MyCustomConfigFile.config"), it's not smart enough to grab the contents of the file (I'm hoping to contact the product team soon to see if they can address the issue). Fortunately, there is a way to get the filename from the file attribute. And by adding in a little recursion, we're able to create an easy method to write back to the proper config file, without having to know the actual filename at runtime.

private const string SETTING_KEY_NAME = "key";
private const string SETTING_VALUE_NAME = "value";

public static void SetConfigValue(string SectionName, string KeyName, string Value)
        {
            SetConfigValue(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location , SectionName, KeyName, Value);
        }

        public static void SetConfigValue(string FileName, string SectionName, string KeyName, string Value)
        {
            Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(FileName);
            ConfigurationSection section = config.GetSection(SectionName);

            XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
            xml.LoadXml(section.SectionInformation.GetRawXml());

            if (xml.DocumentElement.Attributes["file"] == null)
                {
                    foreach (XmlElement element in xml.ChildNodes[0])
                    {
                        if (element.Attributes[SETTING_KEY_NAME].Value == KeyName) element.Attributes[SETTING_VALUE_NAME].Value = Value;
                    };

                    section.SectionInformation.SetRawXml(xml.OuterXml);
                    config.Save();
                }
            else
                {
                    SetConfigValue(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location.Remove
                        (
                        System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location.LastIndexOf("\\")) + "\\" + xml.DocumentElement.Attributes["file"].Value.Remove
                            (
                            xml.DocumentElement.Attributes["file"].Value.LastIndexOf(".config")
                            ),
                        SectionName,
                        KeyName,
                        Value);
                }
        }

This creates a new problem though. You can no longer use the same format of the underlying file, specified in the file attribute.

Old format of the MyCustomConfigFile.config specified in my other article preferred-method-for-read-only-config-files:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<SectionName>
<add key="myKey" value ="" />
</SectionName>

New required format for writing to config files with the file attribute:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<configuration>
<MyCustomSection>
    <setting key="MySetting1" value="True" />
    <setting key="MySetting2" value="File;Email;EventLog"/>
    <setting key="MySetting3" value="File"/>
</MyCustomSection>
</configuration>

You'll notice that I had a comment in the file specified in the file attritube. () I honestly can't recall why this is required (I'm posting this article months after I did the work), but it has to do with reading the config file, and the filenames it is looking for.

This new referred config file format creates a new problem. You can no longer use the reading method I used in the other article. I've fixed it in the code below as well as provided the full class.

Below is the full class that I wrote. All I ask is that you add a comment telling me how you used it.

using System.Configuration;
using System.Xml;

namespace HarvestIT.Common
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Application settings manager.
    /// </summary>
    public class ConfigManager
    {
        // Configuration file node names.
        private const string SETTING_KEY_NAME = "key";
        private const string SETTING_VALUE_NAME = "value";

        public static string GetConfigValue(string SectionName, string KeyName)
        {
            return GetConfigValue(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location, SectionName, KeyName);
        }

        public static string GetConfigValue(string FileName, string SectionName, string KeyName)
        {
            Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(FileName);
            ConfigurationSection section = config.GetSection(SectionName);

            XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
            xml.LoadXml(section.SectionInformation.GetRawXml());

            if (xml.DocumentElement.Attributes["file"] == null)
            {
                foreach (XmlElement element in xml.ChildNodes[0])
                {
                    if (element.Attributes[SETTING_KEY_NAME].Value == KeyName) return element.Attributes[SETTING_VALUE_NAME].Value;
                };
            }
            else
            {
                return GetConfigValue(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location.Remove
                    (
                    System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location.LastIndexOf("\\")) + "\\" + xml.DocumentElement.Attributes["file"].Value.Remove
                        (
                        xml.DocumentElement.Attributes["file"].Value.LastIndexOf(".config")
                        ),
                    SectionName,
                    KeyName);
            }
            return null;
        }

        public static void SetConfigValue(string SectionName, string KeyName, string Value)
        {
            SetConfigValue(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location , SectionName, KeyName, Value);
        }

        public static void SetConfigValue(string FileName, string SectionName, string KeyName, string Value)
        {
            Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(FileName);
            ConfigurationSection section = config.GetSection(SectionName);

            XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
            xml.LoadXml(section.SectionInformation.GetRawXml());

            if (xml.DocumentElement.Attributes["file"] == null)
                {
                    foreach (XmlElement element in xml.ChildNodes[0])
                    {
                        if (element.Attributes[SETTING_KEY_NAME].Value == KeyName) element.Attributes[SETTING_VALUE_NAME].Value = Value;
                    };

                    section.SectionInformation.SetRawXml(xml.OuterXml);
                    config.Save();
                }
            else
                {
                    SetConfigValue(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location.Remove
                        (
                        System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location.LastIndexOf("\\")) + "\\" + xml.DocumentElement.Attributes["file"].Value.Remove
                            (
                            xml.DocumentElement.Attributes["file"].Value.LastIndexOf(".config")
                            ),
                        SectionName,
                        KeyName,
                        Value);
                }
        }
    }
}

Tell Internet Explorer 8 Beta to show your site properly using IE7

Randy Walker — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:30:23 GMT

For those that want your website to render correctly on IE8, the recent newsletter gave a great example for enforcing IE7 compatibility via a Meta tag. (You can see the new IE logo above)

Per Site Basis:

Site owners and administrators can include the following custom HTTP header to display all pages in Internet Explorer 7 Strict mode for the site:

X-UA-Compatible: IE=EmulateIE7

Per-page basis:

Site owners and administrators can include the following special HTML tag after the <Head> tag on the page:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7"/>

20 Business Tips from Intuit QuickBooks

Randy Walker — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:18:48 GMT

Sadly I had meant to post this back in February.

20 Tips Every Business Should Know

Their #1 tip is serving a niche market. While not a requirement for starting a business, you need to separate yourselves from your competition. Whether it be in price, service or value.

#3 is something I can vouch for, outsourcing. I commonly talk about the misconception of the word "outsourcing". This doesn't necessarily mean an Indian in Bangalore is doing your work. It does mean simple tasks such as bookkeeping or advertising can be performed by local resources around your town.

As you read through the rest of the tips, remember to not take them literally, but find alternatives to the solutions they suggest.

Technorati Tags: Business Help

Microsoft adCenter needs a workshop?

Randy Walker — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:07:12 GMT

While I love Microsoft's developer products, adCenter (Microsoft's search advertising / pay per click) makes me want to hide in shame. See the email I received below.

I completely understand the desire of AdCenter to educate the masses, but do you really need a Workshop to get your customers to understand your product? Much less, require them to PAY to attend? Sure you might be giving a 50% credit towards advertising, but why would I pay to attend? That's not the way to get customers to move from Google to AdCenter.

Why not give FREE online advertising and search engine seminars all across the U.S., not just 3 select cities. Use the same principles that built up the developer community like the MSDN Events.

Dear Randy:

Are your pay per click Microsoft® adCenter campaigns performing as well as they should be? We know that it can be challenging to manage your campaigns and maximize your return on investments (ROIs). Not to worry, we have just the workshop you need to learn all the secrets successful search advertisers already know.

At the adCenter Competitive Advantage workshop, you can learn how to optimize your adCenter search campaigns for better results. In just a few hours, we can help you get your search marketing campaign on the road to a higher ROI.

The workshop will be led by premier search marketing innovator Mary O'Brien. She's an independent search marketing expert who literally wrote the book on the subject. She'll cover it all—from choosing targeted keywords to creating ads that sell to tracking the results.

Register now and receive a credit of up to $100 toward your adCenter account by attending the workshops!*
Be sure to enter offer code ROAD00.

Three workshop locations to choose from:

New York
June 17, 2008
Doubletree Metropolitan

Los Angeles
June 19, 2008
Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles

Chicago
July 1, 2008
Hyatt Lodge at McDonald's Campus

Two sessions offered: Choose one or attend both!

Morning Session: Pay Per Click Essentials for Beginners

•	Microsoft adCenter Essentials: Discover the best way to organize your campaigns. Learn common search marketing terms
•	Keywords Strategies: Develop strategies that maximize your advertising budget
•	Creating Effective Ad Copy: Master the art of crafting messages that turns clickers into customers
•	Account Navigation: Take a tour of the full adCenter toolkit, and learn how to maximize the pulling power of the assets in your account

Afternoon Session: Pay Per Click Power Strategies for Advanced Users

•	Tracking Results: Identify ads and keywords that really work, and learn to improve those that don't
•	Advanced Targeting: Find out how precision consumer targeting from adCenter can focus your campaigns on your most valuable customer segments
•	Advanced Bidding Options: Become the master of better bidding, including CPM bidding, optimizing budgets, and positioning preference tools
•	New Tools Outlook: Find out about our new Microsoft adCenter Desktop ^Beta and our Add-In tool for Microsoft Office Excel® 2007

Limited-time offer.

Beginner Morning Session – $99. Register now and receive $50 credit toward your adCenter account.*

Advanced Afternoon Session – $99. Register now and receive $50 in credit toward your adCenter account.*

Best Value: Full-Day Session – $149. Register now and receive $100 in free credit toward your adCenter account clicks.*

Space is limited, so don't wait to register. Simply go to our registration page and enter your Customer ID 68883 and the offer code ROAD00 to receive your adCenter account credit.

Questions about the workshop or accommodations?
Please call (800) 507-2958, ext. 702.

Make pay per click pay off for you. Register for the workshop today!

Sincerely,

The Microsoft adCenter Team

Receive a credit of up to $100 toward your adCenter account by attending the workshops!* Be sure to enter offer code ROAD00. Register now.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,AdCenter

Northwest Arkansas SQL Server User Group 1st Meeting

Randy Walker — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:28:53 GMT

I have vastly been neglecting my blogging. So as not to be outdone by Chris Koenig ....

I was able to meetup with the organizers of the event, Jason Pluenneke, Curt Wolfe, Boyd Evert, & Dennis Berk several weeks ago. I am personally very excited about this new user group starting up. Partly because of my small part in helping them (one of my roles as the INETA Membership Mentor), but mostly because of my passion for databases. I'm really looking forward to what will be coming out of the group.

I will be donating several swag items, if you haven't already been enticed into attending. There will be a free copy of the Heroes Happen Here bundle which includes licensed copies of SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Server 2008. I'm also bringing a copy of PC-Cillin Anti Virus, an MSDN t-shirt, and a Visual Studio t-shirt. Chris Koenig is also sending some swag to be given away.

The first meeting of
The Northwest Arkansas SQL Users Group
will be held on Wednesday, May 14th!

Meeting Details
When:
Wednesday, May 14th, 11:30am - 1:00pm
Host:
Connolly Consulting
Address:
2703 SE Otis Corley Drive MAP
City:
Bentonville, AR 72712
Agenda: This initial meeting will celebrate the launch of the group including pizza, presentations, ideas, networking opportunities, and hopefully some terriffic SWAG! An overview presentation of SQL Server 2008 will be included!

For more information about this group, please email the organization at
info@nwasql.org

Technorati Tags: Northwest Arkansas,SQL Server

My Mariah Carey Geek Rant

Randy Walker — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:16:00 GMT

So if Mariah Carey is going to feature us Geeks on her videos, the least she could do is get her geekspeak right! I mean sheezh, who uses 802.11a anyway? (mentioned at the end of the video) The geek in the video needs to upgrade her firmware to 802.11n! Oh wait, I think her doctor already upgraded her "firmware".

Well, we (us geeks) should all be happy at least. We finally got the jocks off the music videos. So does this finally lend legitimacy to the new Geek Era, or just make fun of us? In either case, my Guitar Hero is going in the trash (as soon as I find a Mariah Carey expansion pack).

View Video
Format: swf?id=v57641798&eID=1301797&enableFullScreen=0
Duration: --:--

Received Microsoft MVP award

Randy Walker — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 07:51:04 GMT

Ok, so my announcement is 6 days late.

I'm proud to announce that I received the coveted Microsoft MVP award for Visual Basic (currently the only MVP in Arkansas). I'd first like to thank the Academy ... oh wait wrong speech again. Actually I would like to thank the following people for their help and encouragement. My apologies in advance if I neglected to mention you.

Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group - a great bunch that has been an exciting group to get to know and share with
Travis Doyle - for getting me interested and involved in starting the NWA DNUG
Caleb Jenkins - for being encouraging during his tenure of Tulsa DNUG President and Microsoft Developer Evangelist
Jay Smith - for bringing that spirit of friendly competition and taking over the building of the NWA DNUG and doing an awesome job
Jeremy Sharp - for being a terrific guy to hang out with
Chris Koenig - probably the number one person responsible in helping me get the MVP award
INETA - for being dumb enough to let me "mentor" other user group leaders
Zain Naboulsi - for being the crazy role playing geek
Phil Wheat - for hanging with me during some of my presentations
Omar Villareal - for letting me crash at his house
Dave McKinstry & Tim Rayburn - for always being willing to speak to our UG on their own dime
Peter DeBetta - for being the crazy SQL guy he is
.Net Rocks! - for allowing me to meet my hero from Carl & Gary's VB website
Josh Holmes - my golf partner
Cory Smith - for being my fellow VB'er and introducing me to the Microsoft VB team
Steve Walker - for being that totally awesome guy that we all know and love even if he disappears off the face of the earth every few months
Mark Leon Watson - for putting up with me on the We Are Microsoft Event
all my Twitterettes - for listening to me blather on about my boring life
all my Facebook friends - for accepting my friend invites
and lastly .... Ed Hickey for allowing me to be an MVP!

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,MVP,Randy Walker,Northwest Arkansas

Relationships

Randy Walker — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 05:21:01 GMT

One of the most difficult things that many tech people have, are problems with relationships and communication. I was recently forwarded a document that outlines two types of relationships. I found it very appropriate to every type of relationship I have had. Parent - child, significant other, boss - employee, employer - employee, co-workers, friends. I hope you'll read over it and evaluate yourself and the relationships you have. If you find that your boss or employer is selfish, perhaps it's time you move on to that job that cares more about you.

Selfless	Selfish
Room to grow, expand; Desire for other to grow.	Dependent, based on security and Comfort; use of intensity of need and infatuation as proof of love, which is hiding from fear, insecurity, loneliness.
Balance of Separate interests, Involved with other friends.	Total involvement, limited social life, Neglect of old friends and interests, Other meaningful relationships.
Encouraging each other's growth, Secure in own worth.	Preoccupation with other's behavior; Dependent on other's approval for Own identity and self-worth.
Grown mutual trust and openness	Jealousy, possessiveness, fears, competition, "protects supply"
Mutual integrity preserved, Tolerance for differences, forgiveness for mistakes	One partner's needs suspended or sacrificed to take care of the other's. All or nothing, black/white thinking. Unforgiveness / Intolerance
Willingness to risk and be real.	Search for perfect invulnerability, eliminates possible risks or fears.
Room for exploration of thoughts, feelings, wants, in and about the relationship	Reassurance through repeated ritualized feelings, and needs
Ability to enjoy being alone	Intolerance of being alone - unable to endure separations (even in conflict); Hang on even tighter. Undergoes withdrawal - loss of appetite, restless, lethargic, disoriented, agony.

Technorati Tags: Relationships

Preferred method for read only Config files

Randy Walker — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:37:17 GMT

I had come across an article where you can use the following line to read custom section settings from your config file (where SectionName is the name of your section) in .Net.

NameValueCollection myData = (NameValueCollection)System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.GetSection(SectionName);

The advantage of this is your setting doesn't have to be in the app.config file (web.config). You can have a file named mywackyweirdfilename.config, and you use the exact same line. The beauty of it is in the app.config (web.config) file where you point it to reference the mywackyweirdfilename.config. e.g.

<configSections>
<section name="SectionName" type="System.Configuration.NameValueFileSectionHandler, System, Version=1.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
</configSections>
<SectionName file="mywackyweirdfilename.config" />

Why is this such a beautiful way to handle your config file? Because if you distribute your application, the system administrator can decide where to put the mywackyweirdfilename.config file. It could, in fact, reside on a public share (although not recommended in case of the network being unavailable) or thumb drive.

So what's the problem? You can't write to the config file easily. I'll do a later post on my solution for writing to the config file, in which the format of the mywackyweirdfilename.config does not match below .

The format of mywackyweirdfilename.config for the examples above:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<SectionName>
<add key="myKey" value ="" />
</SectionName>

Technorati Tags: .Net,Programming,config files

To bug the Microsoft MSDN Evangelist, or not to bug

Randy Walker — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:47:53 GMT

Excellent times ...

SQL Server Reporting Services Licensing Info

Randy Walker — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:48:57 GMT

After presenting at the Tulsa SQL Server SIG I received the following question:

According to all the blogs if you install SSRS on a web server it still burns up another SQL server license even if you don’t install SQL. Our production SQL server costs like $30,000 for the enterprise version because it’s on an 8 core box. The SharePoint server where I am trying to install SSRS also has 8 cores. For SharePoint you have to install SSRS on the web server or it will not work. Is there a cheap version of SSRS that won’t cost 30k?

Below was my response:

Attached is a document I found detailed your licensing options. Initially I thought you would not be able to get around buying an Enterprise license because it is the only version supporting 8 processors (http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/features/compare-features.mspx). However, it says “Processor licenses are available in Enterprise, Standard, and Workgroup Editions and offer more simplicity for certain scenarios.” So, you should only have to purchase a workgroup license for 8 processors.
However, there are specific features of SSRS that are specific to the version licensed. Such as the Enterprise version only supports Data Driven Subscriptions (you can have data trigger the running of a report), plus others. I believe e-mail subscriptions are a Standard version feature, which is a must have IMHO.
The real question is going to be if you can talk to the person responsible for purchasing/licensing to figure out how to buy the standard workgroup or standard license, plus the additional licensing for the additional processors. Don’t forget, I’m betting there isn’t 8 processors, because of the newer multi core processors. So make sure you verify the number of hard processors.

Getting more out of SQL Server Reporting Services Charts

Randy Walker — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:40:07 GMT

Summary: This white paper presents general information, best practices, and tips for designing charts within Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services reports. It provides an overview of some Reporting Services features, answers common chart design and feature questions, and includes advanced examples of how to design better charts. (32 printed pages)

Click here to download the associated sample code, GetMoreChartsSamples.exe.

Click here to download the Word version of the article, MoreSSRSCharts.doc.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa964128.aspx

SQL Injection article

Randy Walker — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:37:06 GMT

It's hard to believe that SQL injection is still an issue. My friend Zain Naboulsi gave us a great overview of basic security hacks and how to defend against them at our last MSDN Express event. I recall learning about SQL Injection issues over 12 years ago in my first job.

Here's a fairly decent article about some of the details of SQL Injection, in case you're not familiar with it's problems.

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Security/updatedsqlinjection/2065/

Join the Microsoft Game Studios Beta Program

Randy Walker — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:30:10 GMT

If you're interested in joining Microsoft's beta program for games, you'll be interested in the following email I received.

We are gearing up for a year of great betas. To prepare for these upcoming betas we have a new survey on the beta website. Please follow this link to access the new survey: (link removed). We will be using this new survey to select participants for our betas. If you do not complete this new survey, you will not be able to participate! But don't worry, the survey is quick and painless.
Remember, we are always looking for all types of game players. Whether you play once a year or every day, whether you pre-order the latest consoles or wouldn't think of paying for a game - we want feedback from you! If you know of someone who would be interested in participating in the Microsoft Game Studios Beta program, please feel free to forward this mail or direct them to: http://connect.microsoft.com/mgsbetas.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Gaming

Pictures of the 1st Fort Smith .Net User Group Meeting

Randy Walker — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:14:18 GMT

A bit thank you goes out to Anthony Potts for sharing these pictures.

State Government kudos

Randy Walker — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:43:37 GMT

This is not a tech related blog posting.

I started out the day regretting all the phone calls I had to make. Two collection calls and then a call to the state government about a mixup I made. For some reason when it comes to paying my state withholding tax, I always seem to mess it up. They have this little form that you are supposed to send in, with the month and year filled in for you. (Why they don't have a way to file and pay online, is another story for another blog posting)

I seem to always neglect putting the form in or putting the wrong form in. Needless to say back in November I royally screwed things up. Being the typical slow government, they didn't notify me until months later.

All this is to say a big thank you to Patty in collections at the Arkansas State Government. She stuck it out and helped me contact various people so that everything was fixed. When I asked to talk to her boss so I could give her a little thank you, she responded with "no need, it's my job." How true, I only wish everyone thought that such good customer service is their job. What a nicer world it would be if it was.

Free DevExpress .net controls

Randy Walker — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:46:16 GMT

I ran across an ad today that linked me to where DevExpress is giving away over 40 controls for free. I'm a big fan of two of their products (which unfortunately aren't free), CodeRush and their Excel like grid control. Their grid control is a huge hit amongst the Excel heavy business users I typically deal with.

The free sets of controls you get are:

You can register here for it: http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/WebRegistration/index.xml

Technorati Tags: .Net

SQL Server Management Pack

Randy Walker — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:26:12 GMT

I found this nugget of a tool today. I haven't tried it out yet, but it sounds like one terrific tool.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8C0F970E-C653-4C15-9E51-6A6CADFCA363&displaylang=en

The SQL Server Management Pack monitors the availability and performance of SQL Server 2000 and 2005 and can issue alerts for configuration problems. Availability and performance monitoring is done using synthetic transactions. In addition, the Management Pack collects Event Log alerts and provides associated knowledge articles with additional user details, possible causes, and suggested resolutions. The Management Pack discovers Database Engines, Database Instances, and Databases and can optionally discover Database File and Database File Group objects.

Feature Summary:

• Active Directory Helper Service
• SQL Server Agent
• Backup
• Databases and Tables
• DBCC
• Full Text Search
• Log Shipping
• Clustering
• DB availability
• Replication monitoring
• Agent jobs
• Backup Query Engine
• Replication
• Web Assistant
• SQL XML

Technorati Tags: SQL Server,SQL Server Utilities

First Fort Smith .Net User Group Meeting

Randy Walker — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:38:26 GMT

Last night was the first meeting for the Fort Smith .Net User Group. It was a great turnout of 38 people and featured Raymond Lewellan talking about Behavior Driven Development.

You can read more about the event from the following blogs:

Michael Paladino

David Mohundro

Technorati Tags: Fort Smith,.Net,Northwest Arkansas