After you finally manage to get Table Storage working (see nice tutorial here) you’ll try to deploy it to your staging environment. That means you need to change the configuration. There are three settings to use: AccountName, AccountSharedKey and TableStorageEndpoint. Unfortunately, the values you need for them aren’t what you would naturally expect. AccountName: This [...]

I started to learn how to use the Azure Cloud Service from Microsoft this week. Currently it’s still in Tech Preview stage. Unfortunately you can tell that from the SDK documentation. Here’s some useful links to get you going: Screencasts: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/dd439432.aspx These are quite basic, but trust me, you need them to be basic to [...]

I’ve been very quiet recently. (I’m trying to not be so loud, Scott. ) You see, I’ve been writing a lot of ASP.Net code for a site I’m working on. And, to be honest, I’ve been having a lot of trouble. The source code for .Net has been very helpful, and I’ve learnt a lot [...]

.Net 3.5 had some nice tricks in it. LINQ-to-XML was one of them. With the new "X"-types, you can make working with XML really easy. VB.Net 9 takes it one step further, and lets you write XML in your code without strings. "Hey Rich, that’s old news," I hear you say. "And who’s interested in [...]

Have you wondered if and when you should use the new LINQ features in .Net 3.5? Like, where should I put a new extension method? Should I use Func<T> or a custom delegate? How do I best implement a mix-in (extension methods on an interface)? Well, Mircea Trofin has just published a new draft of [...]

While surfing around tonight, I came across ExtensionMethod.net, a database of useful Extension Methods for C# 3.0 and VB 9. I thought it might be useful, so I added a few of my own extension methods. IComparable<T>.LessThan int.Times int.To There aren’t many there yet, but there are one or two on there from Scott Guthrie. [...]

Visual Studio 2008 has lots of goodies in it, like LINQ syntax, CSS editing, and testing tools. There’s a lesser-known feature which I really appreciate though – the “Remove and Sort Usings” command in the C# editor. You activate the command by placing your cursor over the using statements and clicking on the right mouse-button.

I was recently reading Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers’ Guide, Second Edition, and came across this piece of example Ruby code: [1,3,5,7].inject(0) {|sum, element| sum+element} -> 16 [1,3,5,7].inject(1) {|product, element| product*element} -> 105 Inject is a method which acts on an array by aggregating or accumulating the values within that array. It loops through the [...]

One of my favorite bloggers is Matt Berseth. Nearly once a week he comes up with a post where he does something amazing with the standard ASP.Net controls. I usually read his posts in awe. He’s really good. But he’s not only is a good developer, he’s a great writer. Even though his posts are [...]

Yesterday I thought I’d learn about the LinqDataSource in ASP.Net 3.5, and got an interesting surprise. The new LinqDataSource can also be used with a LINQ-to-SQL model to perform updates. You simply add the DataSource to your page, set the table name, and set EnableUpdate to true. Then, using a standard DataControl, you can make [...]