I'm in Vegas a few days early (before DevConnections) to attend DevExpress's TechSummit2007, where they've invited a bunch of MVPs, authors, speakers, etc. to come and learn more about their controls and tools.  Yesterday we saw some of what they're working toward in the WPF space, with some charts and grids that are not quite ...

Frans announced yesterday that LLBLGen 2.0 has been released!  I’ve been using LLBLGen happily for several years now.  It is a very solid ORM tool and I’m looking forward to using the new version going forward.  You can read a list of new features and enhancements here.  If you haven’t used LLBLGen before, I ...

I've recently been learning more about code snippets in VS 2005, and I've found some nice resources online.  Basically, if you haven't done anything with Code Snippets, they are a simple, extensible way for you to perform a relatively complex task within the IDE with just a few keystrokes.  For example, let's say you want to write a ...

Those of you who subscribe to the ASPAlliance Times weekly newsletter already know that Cache Manager 1.0 was released earlier this week.  You can download it from ASPAlliance.com here: ASP.NET Cache Manager This plug-in allows for the viewing and removal of any Cache API entries or output cached ASP.NET pages within an ASP.NET ...

The next DevConnections conference will be held April 2-5, 2006 in Orlando, Florida at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort (where it has been a couple of times in recent years -- very nice hotel).  I will be hosting three sessions, and for the first time I'll have two sessions in the Visual Studio Fundamentals Track (normally I'm strictly ...

Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0 is now available.  It includes the Caching Application Block, Cryptography Application Block, Data Access Appliation Block, Exception Handling Application Block, Logging Application Block and Security Application Block.  Definitely worth checking out. From the website: The patterns & ...

I was lucky enough to attend a few Birds of a Feather sessions at PDC05, including one hosted by Julia Lerman on Going Solo.  At many of these, the time goes by very quickly and many of the attendees have additional questions for the host or for one another that must go unanswered.  Further communication is usually limited to a few ...

Soma announces Visual Studio 2005 RC1 and Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server (TFS) Beta 3 will be released in September.  The Beta 3 will feature a Go Live license, so organizations can immediately begin using the Team System features.  Release of TFS is slated for the first quarter of 2006, and all data in the Beta 3 edition will ...