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.
Sunday, Jan 23, 2005, 7:58 AM in Fun
Jason Olson's Microsoft Interview Advice
Jason Olson recently interviewed for an SDE/T position (Software Development Engineer in Test) at Microsoft and although he didn't get it, he provides some words of advice for folks about to interview for the first time.
Friday, Jan 21, 2005, 8:16 PM in Interview
Jason Olson's Microsoft Interview Advice
Jason Olson recently interviewed for an SDE/T position (Software Development Engineer in Test) at Microsoft and although he didn't get it, he provides the following words of advice for folks about to interview for the first time:
- Just Do It
- Remember, no matter how much you might know your interviewer, it is important to not forget that it is still in interview
- Pseudocode! Pseudocode! Pseudocode!
- But, as long as you verbalize what you're thinking you should be in pretty good shape
- Bring an energy bar or something to snack on between breaks in order to keep your energy level up
- [B]ring a bottle of water and keep it filled up
- A lunch interview is still an interview!
- Know the position you're interviewing for [ed: unless you're interviewing for an editing position, in which case you should know the position for which you're interviewing]
- Your interview day is not only your opportunity to be interviewed, but also your opportunity to interview the team/company
You can read the full story on his web site.
Thursday, Jan 20, 2005, 8:03 PM in Money
20 is the new 30
I find the idea of kids coming home from college to live with their parents again with they start a career, save for a house and build a relationship to be interesting. I like my kids, so wouldn't mind this (although they're not teenagers yet, so who knows if I'll still like 'em? : ).
Thursday, Jan 20, 2005, 3:03 PM in .NET
Creating 2-D and 3-D Dynamic Animations in "Avalon
"Karsten shows how to build an animated version of Task Manager using the 2-D animation infrastructure provided by Avalon, then moving into the world of 3-D, showing how to create a dynamically animated 3-D mesh."
Thursday, Jan 20, 2005, 12:37 PM in .NET
JasonW on ClickOnce Permission Elevations
Jason Whittington has some thoughts about ClickOnce and user-managed permission evaluation. Basically, he thinks that the user should have to sacrifice a chicken to get a FullTrust component running on their box via ClickOnce (I'm paraphrasing : ). I definitely see his pov. Thoughts?
Wednesday, Jan 19, 2005, 5:11 PM in .NET
Telling us we're Bad and Ugly is Good!
Rod Paddock sat down to use Avalon in a real way and then kept notes.
Some of those notes said good things about Avalon
Some of them said not so good things.
While we appreciate the good things, we need to hear about the bad things. And we appreciate it. Thanks, Rod!
Keep it coming!
Wednesday, Jan 19, 2005, 12:18 PM in The Spout
The Reason For Code Access Security
I had a question in my inbox the other day that went something like this:
"Since programming within the partial trust sandbox I get by default when using ClickOnce is so hard, why wouldn't I just kick it up to FullTrust and let the user press the OK button?"
You can do that. Since ClickOnce supports user management of permission awarding for code deployed via ClickOnce (aka there's a dialog that the user has to approve if the app wants more permissions than are the default), you could ask for FullTrust.
If I were you, I wouldn't ask for FullTrust in my ClickOnce apps and not just because I don't want users to be freaked out by the dialog box I expect to see that says "Danger, Will Robinson, Danger, Danger!" Personally, I don't want the liability. If I write code the requires FullTrust, I have to write my code to take full responsibility for its actions, including if the code is hijacked by other code to do bad things.
On the other hand, if I request the minimal set of permissions that I need, I'm walking with a net. If I miss an exploit, I'm limited to doing bad things inside of the limited set of permissions that the user has awarded to me and not the whole darn thing.
Full trust isn't easier; it's much, much harder. I like partial trust because I'm lazy: I don't want to do the work to warrant the user's full trust.
Wednesday, Jan 19, 2005, 11:55 AM in .NET
Let Slip The Dogs of War!
Here.
Ford McKinstry, PM on the Microsoft Indigo team, gives us a hint as to when the next preview release of the Indigo bits will be available:
"We are planning a CTP release with Indigo soon after the VSLive event. But it will not be available simultaneously with VSLive. We're moving on it as quickly as we can and we appreciate your interest and patience. --Ford McKinstry, Indigo Program Manager"
[via Stuart Celarier]
Wednesday, Jan 19, 2005, 10:30 AM in .NET
Get Out The Vote: .NET DJ Reader's Choice Awards
It's time for the annual .NET Developer's Journal Reader's Choice awards. Even better, this year Windows Forms Programming in C# has been nominated (yea!). And while it's an honor to be nominated, it'd be an even bigger honor to actually win (my birthday's coming up : ). Voting for MSDN and Visual Studio 2003 would be cool, too. Don't be shy! Vote!
Monday, Jan 17, 2005, 7:50 PM in .NET
Formatting Web Content for Compact Devices
I just noticed these two posts from Steve Makofsky formatting web content for compact devices:
Mostly, I'd listing these links for myself, as I've a hankering for some Smart Phone programming...
Monday, Jan 17, 2005, 7:26 PM in The Spout
Email Throughput
To get technical work done, I sometimes let my inbox fill up beyond what makes my comfortable. Today, that caught up with me, but I plowed into it and handled it like a man:
- Handled 206 incoming emails (filed, deleted or dealt with in some other way):
- Started with 47 emails in my inbox
- Received 177 emails
- Ended with 18 emails in my inbox
- Sent 92 outgoing emails
I don't normally track such things, so I can't say if that's a lot or a little, but it sure seemed like a lot to me. <whew>
Monday, Jan 17, 2005, 4:14 PM in .NET
MSDN Webcast: .NET Smart Client
Here.
If you're not sure what the heck a Smart Client is, Tim Huckaby explains it like no other:
"This webcast defines the 'smart client' and explores the implications and opportunities for smart client application development. The session will focus heavily on high level demos of technologies like Windows Forms, Compact Framework, and Office System 2003 technologies. It will delve into the tips and tricks, positives and negatives when designing, developing and deploying .NET Smart Client applications. .NET Smart Client Applications can run on many different types of devices and in many different scenarios. Join this webcast to learn when it's smartest to create rich or thin client applications and about how each type handles data and connectivity."
Monday, Jan 17, 2005, 4:08 PM in .NET
MSDN Webcast: .NET Compact Framework 2.0
Here.
I just noticed this on the MSDN Webcast list. I'm hoping to attend myself!
"The upcoming 2.0 release of .NET offers many new features and enhancements for the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework and also for the standard Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft Visual Studio IDE. In this presentation, Derek Ferguson, Editor-in-Chief of the .NET Developer's Journal, will provide a complete introduction to writing device-based applications using Compact Framework 2.0. Full coding demonstrations will be presented, so you are ready to catch the next wave in mobile .NET technology! Previous experience writing managed applications is assumed, but no specific experience with the Compact Framework is required."
Sunday, Jan 16, 2005, 10:11 PM in .NET
Getting Started w/ the Public Avalon CTP for Newbies
Samuel Wan has posted an excellent explanation of the various terms involved in the public pre-release of the Nov. 2004 Avalon CTP as well as a step-by-step install overview. Nicely done, Sam!
Saturday, Jan 15, 2005, 8:33 PM in .NET
Vote for Balloon Help in .NET 2.0
I like exercising my democratic rights. : )