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.
Friday, Jan 14, 2005, 5:15 PM in .NET
Request for Proposal: ClickOnce Application Series
Do you have a series of simple yet compelling ClickOnce applications in you that you can build and deliver to show off the benefits of Windows Forms 2.0 smart clients? Do you have a track record of delivering top-quality code on time and on budget?
If so, send me a proposal, listing a series of ClickOnce applications, your schedule and your price. You don't have to be a 3Leaf, a PluralSight, a Relevance LLC, a Wintellect or a DevelopMentor (although I'd be happy to hear from those guys, too!). You just have to have a song in your heart, a snap in your step and a story to tell.
Friday, Jan 14, 2005, 8:51 AM in .NET
Nov. '04 Avalon CTP Available for Public Download
By popular demand, the Avalon team has provided the November 2004 Avalon Community Technology Preview for the general public. In addition, the team has provided a batch file to enable the Avalon project item templates for use in the beta of Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition, which is also freely available to the general public.
This combination enables folks without an MSDN Subscription to try out Avalon with Visual Studio 2005 without an MSDN Subscription.
Don't be shy about giving feedback on these bits now that you've got 'em. The Avalon team is standing by in the Avalon newsgroup to answer your questions and take your suggestions.
Thursday, Jan 13, 2005, 10:41 AM in .NET
A New WinFX Community Enters the Fray
Deepak Kapoor has launched a new WinFX community: deepwinfx.com. It's pretty bare right now, but hopefully it'll flesh out nicely. I'll be keeping an eye on it. Good luck, Deepak!
Thursday, Jan 13, 2005, 10:36 AM in .NET
ClickOnce Love
S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft, posts about his understandable love of ClickOnce. He'll be giving the keynote at VSLive and lists three ClickOnce blog entries at which you should take a gander.
Thursday, Jan 13, 2005, 9:21 AM in .NET
Microsoft Plans Information Bridge Update
Here. "Microsoft is working on an update to its Information Bridge Framework (IBF) for this spring, a company spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday. What had been referred to as IBF 1.5 by partner sources will actually be a service pack for the integration software. The update, to be delivered via MSDN, will add support for two new host applications, InfoPath and Internet Explorer. The current IBF supports Word 2003, Excel 2003, and Outlook 2003."
Thursday, Jan 6, 2005, 9:57 PM in Fun
Welcome to SolFx
If you've got .NET 2.0 and the Nov. '04 Avalon CTP, click here to play my scaling, vector-based, WinFX version of Solitaire. Features include lovely scaling of the cards as the window resizes, real-time drag 'n' drop of the cards, sol-like card stacking, ClickOnce deployment and the source. The performance in this version is much improved because I'm re-using DrawingBrushes and a simplified card back. Enjoy!
Thursday, Jan 6, 2005, 9:57 PM in .NET
Avalon Nov. '04 CTP Sample: SolFx
If you've got .NET 2.0 and the Nov. '04 Avalon CTP, click here to play my scaling, vector-based, WinFX version of Solitaire. Features include lovely scaling of the cards as the window resizes, real-time drag 'n' drop of the cards, sol-like card stacking, ClickOnce deployment and the source. The performance isn't yet what I'd like it to be because I'm loading the card back resource 52 times, but it'll get there. Enjoy!
Wednesday, Jan 5, 2005, 11:17 PM in Tools
Thinstall sounds cool
Jim Hubbard gives Thinstall a ringing endorsement:
"This solution will take your executable (.Net, VB or C++) and all of its dependencies and wrap them all into a single executable. The neat thing is that it even includes the portions of the .Net framework needed to run your executable inside the executable it creates. So, there's no need to distribute the whole .Net framework."
Has anyone else tried it?
Monday, Jan 3, 2005, 10:10 AM in .NET
Seeing Stars in Avalon
Savas Parastatidis has posted his early work using Avalon 3D to visualize stars in the galaxy. I don't believe that I've ever seen the stars line up like that, but the screen shots are cool anyway. : )
Monday, Jan 3, 2005, 12:42 AM in .NET
Paint.NET 2.0
And while we're on the topic of real-world .NET Smart Client applications, you can't not take a look at the Washington State University course work resulting in Paint.NET, an all-.NET implementation of a painting program that was initially aimed at merely replacing MS Paint Brush, but has long ago far surpassed it with painting features found only in commercial painting applications.
And, like SharpDevelop, if you like what you see and want to know how a feature was implemented, you have only to download the Paint.NET source code.
Also, don't forget to check back in mid to late January for Paint.NET 2.1!
Monday, Jan 3, 2005, 12:28 AM in .NET
Dissecting a C# Application: Inside SharpDevelop
APress has made Dissecting a C# Application: Inside SharpDevelop, the book that describes the history and design of SharpDevelop, freely available for download and I'm enjoying it immensely.
I've only read the 1st 2 chapters, but the authors have already provided me a nice overview of the major features in SharpDevelop and how they came to be over the history of the project. I'm also very much looking forward to the implementation details later in the book, particularly the add-in model, internationalization, implementing the Windows Forms Designer and, of course, code generation.
For anyone building a real client-side .NET application, this book is bound to give you clues on how to do it better. Recommended.
And as if that weren't enough, because SharpDevelop is an open source project, if any of the features tickle your fancy, you can download the SourceDevelop code to see how they were implemented.
Sunday, Jan 2, 2005, 9:50 AM in The Spout
Death As A Possible Consequence
Here. The one where I describe my recent run-ins with the Oregon traffic police and my availability as the "Bad Boy" in your boy band.
Saturday, Jan 1, 2005, 12:00 AM in The Spout
Death As A Possible Consequence
When something legal comes up, I like to dig into it. For example, I did my own consulting contracts for years, I've testified against an Oregon state bill mandating Open Source Software (a bill that was never passed), I wanted to serve on a jury and I've recently become very familiar with the Oregon state eviction and small claims procedures for a rental unit I own. I find laws and procedures to be fascinating and, like most things, showing up is 80%.
However, I don't like the law so much when I'm the defendant, as was recently the case when the state of Oregon was hell bent on suspending my driver's license. It seems that if you get 4 tickets in 2 years that they like you to stay home for 30 days or at least take the bus more. I've had speeding tickets on and off for most of my life, but before this 2-year period which included a total of 6 tickets (thank goodness that the state of Oregon doesn't count tickets in Washington), I hadn't had a ticket for about 5 years. Incidentally, if I could manage to spread them out in a Bell Curve instead of in a Mandelbrot Set, I wouldn't even have to be in this predicament, but natural has it's laws and who am I to consider myself above them?
Anyway, the tickets should hardly count. One was 'cuz I didn't slow down fast enough in one of those coastal towns where half of the tourist revenue comes from their 100 feet of road along the highway that drops from 55 to 25 with a sign posted behind a tree. Another was on the way to Burning Man. Sure, I was going a little fast, but I spent the next week driving the dusty BM roads on my bike -- can't we do some averaging here?!? Another was an actual speeding ticket around town and that one I'll admit to, but the forth one was when I passed into a turning lane through a solid yellow line in rush hour traffic 'cuz I wanted to turn left and the line of traffic was way shorted than the line of traffic going straight, so I cheated over a few feet early. I mean, come on, that's just an efficient distribution of traffic! I was avoiding gridlock! It was practically my patriotic duty to move over into the left lane early!
However, the truck that was waiting patiently to move over into the left turn lane until he had passed the solid yellow line just ahead of me didn't see it that way. Nor did the police car that had just turned the corner coming towards me as I scooted around the truck, neatly avoiding the oncoming traffic, all executed flawlessly while my wife dug her nails into my leg.
So, I did what I do with all my tickets: I signed the back and I paid the money. I mean, it's not like my hairy cleavage is going to change any cop's mind, so what else could I do?
When the letter from the state came that said they'd like me to turn in my driver's license for a month is when I started exploring options real quick.
So, I called my tax/business/family attorney, who gave me the names of three traffic attorneys. Unfortunately, each of them specialized in Driving while Under-the-Influence and I began to think that I'd have been better off if I'd have been drunk. Each of them advised me that there was nothing anyone could do for me. I signed the ticket and I was going to have to give up my license. I also felt a very "and why are you wasting my time, you sober slug, I've got important drunk people to talk to" vibe, but that could've just been me...
Luckily, once it was clear I was going to hang up the phone without giving the 3rd lawyer money, he mentioned another attorney that specialized in sober traffic offenses. This new attorney was one smooth operator. After about 5 minutes of questions over the phone, he'd figured out the "conviction" (when you sign the back of the ticket, you've agreed to be "convicted" of a crime) most likely to be turned back to trial (the passing violation, of all things). How did he determine the likelihood of getting a trial? He knew the prosecutor responsible for that part of the state! He was going to call the guy up, ask him for a solid, they run it by the judge as a formality and bang! I've got a new trial and my suspension was suspended pending the outcome of the trial.
And what did I have to do? Show up in court and plea my case? ("You want the truth! You can't handle the truth! You want me crossing that line! You need me crossing that line!") Nope.
Bring three character witnesses? (I have pictured Rory on the stand trying to provide a credible character assessment. : ) Nix.
Lie under oath? ("Yes? Mr. Sells? This is Nancy Reagan. I'd like that Eagle Scout Award that my husband signed back, please. Seems you lied to get out of a traffic ticket...") Nine.
All I had to do was send in a $750 check and do it quickly, please. As soon as it cleared the bank, I'd have my new trial (although it's illegal for him to give me "odds" on my ability to get a new trial, my attorney was clear that it wouldn't be a problem).
Plus, I didn't even have to go to the trial. In fact, in a very carefully worded letter from my attorney, he let me know that I should only come to court if I could say that I didn't do it with feeling and confidence. If I couldn't do that, I should just go about my business. Note that he never actually asked me if I did it or not. I find that a particularly fascinating and scary part of our legal system.
Anyway, at the trial, my "conviction" (I have to put it in quotes or you might think I was a criminal [I mean, just 'cuz I committed a crime, doesn't make me a criminal, does it?]) was over-turned in exchange for 8 hours of "driving school." This time, I'm using the quotes because there ain't no actual driving schooling going on. Instead, this is a replay of those driver's education movies where they show you "Faces of Death 3" in an effort to scare you onto the straight an narrow in a very Old Testament, fire and brimstone sorta way. Here's the descriptive paragraph from the letter I got in the mail yesterday:
"You have been given the opportunity to participate in the High Risk Driving Course... The course is designed to educate drivers to the potential and very real consequences of 'high-risk' driving behaviors. You will spend eight hours [in the course]. During this time you will hear several presentations on the consequences of high-risk driving, have contact with victims of traumatic injuries and their families, and discuss death as possible consequences of high risk driving choices. Participation in the course will include group discussions and testing, including essay questions and an evaluation of the course. We anticipate that facing the reality and potential consequences of high-risk driving behavior will positively affect the attitudes and behaviors that contribute to choices which place [you] and others at risk of serious injury and death... I understand that what I see and hear in this program is meant to have an emotional impact on me. I may experience psychological discomfort..."
I believe that participation in this program should qualify me as a "bad boy" and thereby make me the recipient of all of the benefits thereof, e.g. the alleged "good girls" that can't stay away from "bad boys" should now feel free to throw their undergarments onto the stage and to mob my limonene (it's a white '98 Volkswagen Cabrio Convertible "limo" [note the quotes] in case you're confused). The fact that my financial portfolio is fully diversified using CFA-certified asset allocation techniques, that I was a Boy Scout, that I'm married to my first real girlfriend, that I was a member of the marching band, that I was going 20 miles/hour when I committed my most recent traffic "crime" and that I wouldn't actually drive with a suspended license, thereby causing all kinds of havoc in my life, should not detract from my obvious reckless, dangerous, "high-risk" persona. Anyone need a bad boy for their boy band? I'm available...
Friday, Dec 31, 2004, 9:03 AM in The Spout
Earthquake Disaster Relief Information
I can't begin to imagine what the earthquake survivors are feeling after so much death and tragedy. If you can help, please do so.
For more information, you can visit the International SOS organization's Tsunami Update page and the ReliefWeb site.
Thursday, Dec 30, 2004, 9:57 PM in .NET
"How Do I" Makes Me Smile
I liked the new "How Do I...?" section of the references pages in the WinFX SDK before, but when I ran into the "How do I make an element spin in place?" section of the System.Windows.Shapes.Rectangle (I mean, I need to make elements spin in place all the time!), I fell in love. : )