You've reached the internet home of Chris Sells, who has a long history as a contributing member of the Windows developer community. He enjoys long walks on the beach and various computer technologies.
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2005, 8:54 AM in Tools
Duncan Shows How To Host MSDN Content On Your Site
Are you unhappy with how MSDN arranges content on our site? Would you like to host the content you've written on your own site in your own chrome? You can't do it with everything, but for the content with which it works, Duncan Mackenzie has posted code that pulls content out of MSDN's current content management system* and hosts in in your own chrome. For those of you that don't like how MSDN arranges its content, you now have the technical means to arrange it to suit your own tastes.
* DISCLAIMER: Microsoft's copyright still applies. The internal details of our content management system are going to change without notice. Use at your risk. No warranties extended. Void where prohibited. Some assembly required. blah, blah, blah...
Monday, Mar 21, 2005, 3:10 PM in .NET
Chris Anderson's AvPad for the March CTP
Chris Anderson has updated XamlPad for the March 2005 CTP of Avalon and renamed it AvPad. As a tool for learning and experimenting with XAML/Avalon, it can't be beat. Enjoy!
Monday, Mar 21, 2005, 11:53 AM in The Spout
A Coder in Courierland
I always love reading about people that love their jobs. In this case, a Toronto coder gave up half his salary to get out of cubeland and onto the back of a bike as a courier. His descriptions, especially the diary entries at the end, make me pine for the part of my childhood when I'd spend hours on the back of the bike simply because it was the most fun thing I could think of to do. Recommended.
Friday, Mar 18, 2005, 9:17 AM in Fun
Who knew the Brits were so randy?
Between "dogging" and "toothing" (who comes up with these names?) it's a wonder the Brits have found the time to push the Euro up against the dollar...
Wednesday, Mar 16, 2005, 4:16 PM in Fun
Laugh Out Loud Funny: TechEd Video #2
OK, the first TechEd video from Scott & Rory ("A love story") was chuckle funny, but the #2 video ("Revenge of the Sith") was laugh out loud funny all the way through. Recommended.
Wednesday, Mar 16, 2005, 9:01 AM in The Spout
I want XBOX Live virtual presence for my PC!
Robert points out a hilarious video of what happens in an XBOX Live session of Halo 2 when the other players find out you've fallen asleep. But, even more interesting than that is the ability for that kind of real-world fidelity to make it into a virtual world so that guys from across the country can all haze the guy in his sleep. I want that for my PC!
Tuesday, Mar 15, 2005, 11:39 AM in .NET
Smart Client Offline Application Block Demo
Scott Swigart has a nice video demo of putting the Smart Client Offline Application Block to use. Enjoy!
Tuesday, Mar 15, 2005, 10:55 AM in .NET
Updater Application Block v2.0 Released
TheServerSide.NET has a nice summary of what's new in the Updater Application Block 2.0 from the new Enterprise Library on GDN. If you're not using ClickOnce from Windows Forms 2.0 yet (maybe because we haven't shipped it yet...), the Updater AppBlock is your next best bet.
Tuesday, Mar 15, 2005, 7:44 AM in Fun
Lego Star Wars Video Game: Hilarious Fun
Here. 
The PC demo is available and I'll pre-order the XBOX version as soon as that feature is enabled on the site. This game is hilarious, has great visuals and is fun to play; what else is there?
Sunday, Mar 13, 2005, 9:42 AM in Tools
When the student is ready, the teacher will come
I've been digging into .NET application extensibility lately, discovering the various pieces discussed here. And then, just when I'd despaired of finding a resource that covered the issues in depth, a copy of "Customizing the Microsoft .NET Framework Common Language Runtime," by Steven Pratscher, showed up at my door (that happens sometimes, but I've never quite figured out how...).
Steven's a PM on the CLR team and his book has wonderful chapter titles like:
- Loading Assemblies in Extensible Applications
- Extending the CLR Security System to Protect Your Extensible Application
- Enforcing Application-Specific Programming Model Constraints
And if you're thinking, "Big deal, .NET 2.0 is coming out soon and will makes this info obsolete," au contraire, mon frere! This book is based on the .NET 2.0 beta, so the concepts (and hopefully most of the details) are the latest and greatest (and you can download the source that goes along with the book here). I plan on having quite a bit of fun with this book! Thank you book-mailing-to-my-house-god, wherever you are...
Saturday, Mar 12, 2005, 7:46 AM
Our New PND Dinner Bell Has Rung
It's time to have another Nerd Dinner!
What: Portland Nerd Dinner
Where: Washington Square Mall food court
When: Thursday, March 24, starting around 6:30 PM
Friday, Mar 11, 2005, 4:59 PM in .NET
Need More Chris Anderson? Don't We All?
If you're not getting enough Chris Anderson in your diet (and who is?!?), check out these two new interviews:
- ServerSide.NET TechTalk: Chris Anderson on Avalon video
- .NET Rocks: Chris Anderson and the Longhorn Evangelism Team
Enjoy!
Friday, Mar 11, 2005, 12:38 AM in The Spout
Some Of My Favorite Books
Here.
I was just putting together a list of some of my favorite books as recommendations for a gift certificate I sent to a friend as a birthday present. If case you're wondering (I know you're all dying to know : ), here's what I sent.
Friday, Mar 11, 2005, 12:00 AM in The Spout
Some Of My Favorite Books
I was just putting together a list of some of my favorite books as recommendations for a gift certificate I sent to a friend as a birthday present. If case you're wondering (I know you're all dying to know : ), here's what I sent:
Thriller/Mystery
- "Angels and Demons," by Dan Brown, is the prequel to the famous Da Vinci Code and much better, imo.
- John Sandford's long series about a millionaire cop in Minneapolis starts with "Rules of Prey." If I were to write my own series of novels, these are the ones I'd emulate.
- "A Time to Kill," by John Grisham, is his first and by far his best book. The movie's really good, too.
- "The Bone Collector," by Jeff Deaver, is the first (and my favorite) in a series about a bitter, suicidal forensics genius that loses his career when an accident turns him a quadriplegic and he has to solve crimes from his bed. Avoid the movie.
- "Tough Guys Don't Dance," by Norman Mailer, is my favorite book by this Pulitzer Prize winner. The first chapter starts with a loser waking up from an alcoholic black-out, going out to look for his drug stash, finding his wife's head instead and spending the rest of the book wondering if he killed her or not. Run, don't walk, from the movie. If you have to be run over by a bus in the process, consider yourself lucky.
Fantasy
- "War for the Oaks," by Emma Bull, is about a punk band leader that falls in love with an elf from the St. Paul, MN parks. No matter how many times I read it, but the end I'm always crying (and yes, I'm just that kind of sap).
- "The Silent Tower," by Barbara Hambly, is the first of a three-part series about a modern day female geek that falls in love with a real wizard from another dimension. The relationship that builds between them is as good as any romance novel I've ever read (which is admittedly a small number...)
- Of course, "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, by J. R. R. Tolkien has to be on anyone's list. If you loved the movies, you'll love the books. I believe that "The Hobbit" is a better book over all; it's tighter and happier and I'm very much looking forward to the movie, especially if Peter Jackson does it. However, my favorite part of the four books is the "coming home" part at the back half of "The Return of the King," which is given a 3-minute scene in the movie (although I admit it's a nicely done scene).
Sci-Fi
- "On Basilisk Station," by David Weber, is the first in a long series about a driven, capable woman rising through the ranks of the space navy in spite of the extreme assholes working double-time against her. The main character is so compelling that I cry at the end of 3 of the first 4 books in this series (did I mention what a sap I was?).
- "Ender's Game," by Orson Scott Card, is about a boy genius coddled by his sister, tortured by his brother and abandoned by his parents to military school where he saves the world from bug-eyed aliens before he's old enough for his voice to change. This book is widely regarded as one of the best pieces of modern science fiction that there is. The sequels in the original series are also excellent, but you can skip the other related series w/o missing much.
- "Snow Crash," by Neal Stephenson, is a classic tale of a pizza delivery man/samurai named "Hiro Protagonist" and his virtual reality gear. It's also one of the seminal works in the "cyberpunk" genre.
- "The Running Man," by Steven King, is about a man that can't tolerate his place in the society of the future, so rams a commercial airliner into the top floor of an evil television network responsible for man's downfall (you can see the ending coming a mile away, but it's still very satisfying). Much, much better than the movie.
Misc.
- "Shipping News," by Annie Proulx, is an actual Pulitzer Price winner and as such, is different from your average "reading" book. However, I love its quirkiness and the movie ain't bad, either.
- "One L," by Scott Turow. This is Turow's first book chronicling his first year in law school. I read this one once every few years or so and it always makes me want to go to law school.
Thursday, Mar 10, 2005, 6:50 AM in .NET
New Community Web Site: XAML.net
A new XAML web site enters the fray: XAML.net. How did we miss the boat acquiring this domain name? : )