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MSDN has an article on using .NET to connect to blogs, either to read or to post articles. The example shows how to create an Outlook add-in to read RSS feeds. This is for the next version of .NET, so it requires Visual Studio 2005.

My.Blogs is a collection of sample code that will show you how you can easily provide programmatic access to weblogs in the applications you build. Full source code is provided along with Windows Forms, ASP.NET 2.0 and a Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Outlook Add-In.

Read the getting started article for more ideas on using My.Blogs.

I got a chance to attend the SQL Server 2005 Roadshow when it visited Cincinnati this week. They had 9 presentations, 3 each for administration, programming, and business intelligence. In case you missed it, the presentation slides are available for download.

SQLServerBible.com has links to SQL Server 2005 webcasts, presentations, and What’s New in T-SQL.

Microsoft has free (for now) E-Learning for SQL Server 2005.

What is Tasktime?  It is software that will allow you to track time spent on a given task.  It sits idlely in the taskbar.  The data is stored in XML format so you can import it into any data source or use the existing XSLT file to get a basic report on it.

I updated Tasktime because I was working on a project in .NET that required XML processing (I was experimenting with different solutions) and because it was long over due. Yes this is a very simple app, in fact I made it even simplier. One thing I didn’t like about Tasktime 2.0 is that it stored data in the registry. Tasktime 3.0 uses only it’s own XML document. Another thing I did with 3.0 is embed all the resource files into the Tasktime.exe. So now Tasktime is USB key safe.

Tasktime 3.0 was part of my experiment with working with XML files in a Dataset. Now I prefer to use the XML data objects built into .NET that I used in my next project. Which I will post later.

Tastime 3.0 also makes use of resource files. If you want to see examples of embedding XML, XSLT or Icon files check out the source code.

#Region ” Resource File Functions ”

Public Shared Function GetEmbeddedIcon(ByVal strName As String) As Icon
‘The following is one line, broken down for formating reasons.
Return New Icon( _
System.Reflection.Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream( _
strName))
End Function

Public Shared Function GetEmbeddedXSL(ByVal strName As String) As Xml.XmlTextReader
‘The following is one line, broken down for formating reasons.
Return New Xml.XmlTextReader( _
System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly._
GetManifestResourceStream( _
strName))
End Function

#End Region

Potential Updates:
• Write back to a database, possibly through a web service.
• Included report is plain, would like to allow users to use their own XSLT file.

You can download Tasktime 3.0 at sourceforge.net or get the files here.

Tasktime Binaries
Tasktime Source

After working with Microsoft .NET technologies for the past 4+ years I finally decided to get certified. I passed my first exam, of many, for my MCSD. I plan on getting both my MCSD and my MCDBA by early next year.

I passed the 70-305 - Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. Along with working with the technology everyday I also used Self Test Software as a study aid. I like this company since you don’t have to install software, it’s all web-based, so you can use it at home and work. It also helped me pass the exam with a 943 out of 1000.

My next exam, 70-320 - Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual C# and the Microsoft .NET Framework, is scheduled for early next month.

Ever have trouble getting your Internet Explorer-specific Web applications to work with Mozilla? This article covers common issues associated with migrating applications to the open source Mozilla-based browser.

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Ajax, is not necessarily new technology, in fact it’s not a single technology, but a group of technologies. Which allow you to build interactive web applications. The recently released Ajax.NET, a free and Open Source library for the .NET framework, will allow you easily include Ajax functionality in ASP.NET. You can read more about it on the Ajax.NET blog.

This is to remind myself to try out the Script.aculo.us library. It’s suppose to be a organized collection of scripts that will make building Ajax at least somewhat easier.

Ajax seems to be a big part of the whole Web 2.0 trend which even MS is getting into. Despite a recent article listed on ASP.NET bashing Ajax (and it’s Firefox brethren), there are rumors of a MS implementation of Ajax, called Atlas.

Script.aculo.us is a library of easy-to-use, compatible and, ultimately, totally cool JavaScript to make your web sites and web applications fly, Web 2.0 style. There’s visual effects, drag and drop, instant search results using AJAX and so on - super cool stuff!

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Microsoft has released an updated version of the Enterprise Library for download. For those that don’t know, “[the Enterprise Library] is a library of application blocks designed to assist [.NET] developers with common enterprise development challenges.”

The June 2005 release of Enterprise Library is a minor update of the original January 2005 release. This release contains the same seven Microsoft patterns & practices application blocks, and it incorporates the patches and extensions previously released to the Enterprise Library Community site. In addition, it includes several minor fixes and improvements.

If you are using the January 2005 release of Enterprise Library, and you are worried about the impact of upgrading to this new version, you should not consider this a mandatory upgrade provided you have installed Patch 1475. All of the changes in the June version should help improve the experience of using Enterprise Library, but since most of the fixes only apply to a small number of usage scenarios, you may find that the benefits of the new version do not outweigh the impact of upgrading to the new release. However, for new development, you should use the June 2005 release.

Read more in the Change Log.

It also seems that it will be a while before we see EL for .NET 2.0.

I recently attended a free first looks seminar for Visual Studio.NET 2005 here in Cincinnati. And while there are a number of improvements, nothing compares the Enterprise Library. This collection is worth it just for the data access and logging improvements. Greatly speeds up development time when building data-driven applications.

There are seven total application blocks, including the data access. The Enterprise Library replaces the individual application blocks that Microsoft was distributing. And it is much easier to implement into your solution.

The application blocks that comprise the Enterprise Library are the following:

• Caching Application Block. This application block allows developers to incorporate a local cache in their applications.
• Configuration Application Block. This application block allows applications to read and write configuration information.
• Data Access Application Block. This application block allows developers to incorporate standard database functionality in their applications.
• Cryptography Application Block. This application block allows developers to include encryption and hashing functionality in their applications.
• Exception Handling Application Block. This application block allows developers and policy makers to create a consistent strategy for processing exceptions that occur throughout the architectural layers of enterprise applications.
• Logging and Instrumentation Application Block. This application block allows developers to incorporate standard logging and instrumentation functionality in their applications.
• Security Application Block. This application block allows developers to incorporate security functionality in their applications. Applications can use the application block in a variety of situations, such as authenticating and authorizing users against a database, retrieving role and profile information, and caching user profile information.

Microsoft has been good at giving away some really good books lately. This latest is trying to prepare developers for Whidbey, namely Visual Basic 2005. Introducing Visual Basic 2005 for Developers is not an overly technical book by any means, but seeks to prepare VB 6 and VB.NET developers for VB 2005. I think Microsoft has hit a wall trying to get VB 6 developers to move to .NET.

But anyone who thinks they will be moving to Visual Studio 2005 might want to check out this free download. My only complaint is that each chapter is a separate PDF file, instead of being one PDF file.

From the site:

Get a focused, first look at the features and capabilities in Microsoft Visual Basic 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and .NET Framework 2.0. If you currently work with Visual Basic 6, these authors fully understand the adoption and code migration issues you’ll encounter. They’ll step you through a quick primer on .NET Framework programming, offering guidance for a productive transition. If you already work with .NET, you’ll jump directly into what’s new, learning how to extend your existing skills. From the innovations in rapid application development, debugging, and deployment, to new data access, desktop, and Web programming capabilities, you get the prerelease insights and code walkthroughs you need to get productive right away.

Chapter List:

• Chapter 1 - Microsoft .NET Framework Primer for the Visual Basic Developer
• Chapter 2 - Language Enhancements for Visual Basic 2005
• Chapter 3 - Visual Studio 2005 Integrated Development Environment
• Chapter 4 - Building Datacentric Applications
• Chapter 5 - Constructing User Interfaces
• Chapter 6 - Building Web Applications
• Chapter 7 - Microsoft .NET Framework Enhancements
• Chapter 8 - Deploying Applications

I don’t know what it is. But there appears to be a revival in Lotus Notes. I am not sure if it because Lotus Notes 7 beta 3 is out or because there is already talk of version 8? But my bloglines had three, yes three, links referring to Lotus Notes today.

First Microsoft has two new webcasts related to Lotus Notes:
Optimizing Sharepoint for the Lotus Notes Customer
Integrating MS Office 2003 with Lotus Notes/Domino

I also found a Lotus Notes .NET Integration Page which features a Lotus Notes .NET Integration Toolkit, a Domino web service demo, and many more examples.

That’s all for now.

UPDATE: Make that four links today for Lotus Notes.
GTD ToDo List for Lotus Notes