WCF and REST, An approach to using the Content-Type and Accept HTTP Headers for Object Serialization

With the recent release of the WCF REST Starter Kit , Microsoft made implementing REST services via WCF much more approachable. The Visual Studio templates provided are great and the accompanying videos on channel9 via endpoint.tv are well put together ( Ron Jacobs has a good overview of these items ). One of the questions I had when I first started implementing REST services with WCF was how to add support for using the Content-Type and Accept HTTP headers to determine how objects are serialized...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Software, ASP.net

On the Redesign of Windows Live Hotmail

[An open letter to the Windows Live Hotmail team about my experience with the latest redesign.] Hi Windows Live Hotmail Team, Just want to share some feedback on the new redesign. For me the redesign has been refreshing and frustrating all at once.  I think the design of the main mail area is much better and I really like the rework of the typography.  Overall I think it has made the application more usable. However, there are several things that are very frustrating.  Multi-Select...  ... Read the full post or  the 3 comments. Filed under: Software, Random

The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life.

I recently read The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp . It was an easy read and entertaining. I was intrigued by many of the ideas and questions that Tharp presents throughout the book. "What is your pencil? What is the one tool that feeds your creativity and is so essential that without it you feel naked and unprepared?" Questions like these are presented early in the book and could seem overwhelming if not balanced with the personal stories that Tharp shares...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Software, Business

Subversion Best Practices for Web Applications

A few months back I had some dialogue with Nick Parker from uship.com.  He was wrestling with getting version control setup in a way that would meet the needs of his team and wanted to brainstorm a bit.  Here is a portion of our discussion that speaks directly to a couple of the problems Nick was trying to solve: “I’m trying to figure out the best way to set up our subversion repository to do a couple things: Facilitate peer code review. Always have an "uploadable" version of...  ... Read the full post or  the 3 comments. Filed under: Software, ASP.net

Notes from Years Past

I was cleaning out some files a while ago and came across notes from a leadership class I took several years back. The notes read: * do the following once a day to reflect on the current status of a project * DO - What have you done/observed so far? STUDY/REFLECT - What did you learn from that event/observation? CONNECT/SYNTHESIZE - How does this connect with what you already know? PLAN - What will you do differently now? Common sense really. And probably the natural way most of us approach continuous...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Software, Business

Twitter Clients Galore

If you are looking for a stand-alone Twitter client for your Windows box, you've come to the right place. Sort of. I have a recommendation. Check out Tel e twitter . A group of us at Telligent teamed up with others in the community , led by Jason , and decided to crank out a Windows Twitter Client. We came up with something that is definitely worth a spin . If that doesn't suit your fancy, Google will keep you busy for a while . Finally, the point But really, the purpose of this post is to...  ... Read the full post or  the 6 comments. Filed under: Telligent, Community Server, Software

Community Server Blog Twitter Client

Syndicating content on the web has never been easier. I would venture to guess that the Blog, in a general sense, has become the most popular way that users push content to the web. And most Blog software supports at least two methods of syndication: RSS and E-mail. Even if the Blog software doesn't there are sites like FeedBurner and FeedBlitz which enable these syndication options to be added or enhanced. So, that's pretty cool. A person can type some text, push a button and boom! It is...  ... Read the full post or  the 6 comments. Filed under: Community Server, Software, Media

Community Server Intellisense

A few months ago I was working on a project that required the creation of full schemas for the configuration files used by Community Server. The end goal of the project was to make it gut-splittingly easy to edit any of the settings in these configuration files. Paying special attention to the difficulty of this in hosted scenarios. Now, I guess you could say that the project is ongoing, but in reality I haven't touched it for at least two months. If I sensed that there was a big demand for such...  ... Read the full post or  the 6 comments. Filed under: Community Server, Software, ASP.net

Plentyoffish Performance Stats

Interesting stats from Markus on his Plentyoffish site. Plentyoffish is run off of one web server, at peak the site gets over 2 million pageviews per hour and has close to 50,000 active sessions. Great use case for ASP.net and IIS.  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Software, Random, ASP.net

Web 2.0? In five minutes your paradigm will have shifted.

A must see video for anyone in the web industry. Produced by Kansas State University assistant professor of cultural antrhopology Michael Wesch as a response to Web 2.0 . The Video via http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Software, Random

[AJAX Login] Secure Without SSL

[ Update: January 15, 2007 ] For information about the live AJAX Login demo which implements the attributes described in this post see the third post in the series - Unique URLs and Live Demo . In Simplifying the Sign In Experience with AJAX , I brainstormed about how an AJAX Login control could improve a user's web application sign in experience. The second item on the list of desired attributes for such a control was Secure Without SSL . This post dives into the details of that attribute and...  ... Read the full post or  the 2 comments. Filed under: Software, AJAX, ASP.net

VS Refactoring Tip

If you are looking for a better way to manage your clipboard in Visual Studio 2005, check out the Clipboard Manager from csharper.net. I needed to do some extensive refactoring where there were at least four different strings that I wanted easy access to throughout the process. This tool made it a breeze... thanks Bobby .  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Software, ASP.net

Life on the web made easier by Bluedot

Scott Watermasysk's post on Bluedot was the first I had heard of the service. And, as with most services that show potential, I quickly signed up to give it a try. However, unlike other services I've signed up for, a week later I am still actively using Bluedot. What has made me such a happy customer? Well, I've found that Bluedot is a service that actually saves time and simplifies my web experience. RSS feeds are great but I often find them to be information overload. With Bluedot, you can see...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Software, Media

[AJAX Login] Very, Very Intuitive User Interface

[ Update: January 15, 2007 ] For information about the live AJAX Login demo which implements the attributes described in this post see the third post in the series - Unique URLs and Live Demo . In Simplifying the Sign In Experience with AJAX , I brainstormed about how an AJAX Login control that could improve a user's web application sign in experience. The first item on the list of desired attributes for such a control was Very, Very Intuitive User Interface . This post dives into the details...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Software, AJAX, ASP.net

Simplifying the Sign In Experience with AJAX

[ Update: March 20, 2007 ] Before putting the finishing touches on this AJAX Login System / Control, I've decided to see just how secure it is by issuing a challenge . See if you can crack it... [ Update: February 26, 2007 ] For source code and an updated demo of the AJAX Login System described here, see - Compatibility with ASP.NET . Let’s be honest, the sign in / login process that most web applications use is not extremely complex. Yet, most people would agree that it is more complex than...  ... Read the full post or  the 5 comments. Filed under: Software, AJAX, ASP.net

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