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.
Wednesday, May 5, 2004, 9:39 AM in .NET
Transcript of BillG's WinHEC Keynote
BillG's keynote @ WinHEC this year was entitled "Seamless Computing: Hardware Advances for a New Generation of Software," and is available in transcript form for your enjoyment.
Wednesday, May 5, 2004, 9:07 AM in Tools
FileDisassembler Add-In for Reflector 4.0
It turns out that the add-in model for Reflector 4.0 is so powerful that it enabled Denis Bauer to build an add-in that leverages the built-in R4 disassembler to disassembly an entire assembly into source code files. Very handy for curling up on a sunny afternoon with a chunk of source from your favorite assembly, a cigar and a single malt Scotch.
Wednesday, May 5, 2004, 8:58 AM in .NET
Longhorn M7.2 Bits Coming to MSDN Subscribers
Here.
In case you've heard the rumors about a new drop of Longhorn coming to WinHEC attendees, you've heard right. The Milestone 7.2 (M7.2) drop of Longhorn will be given to WinHEC attendees this week and will be available to MSDN Subscribers for download RSN*. The plan is to provide regular LH Milestone drops to the community as we have them, regardless of whether they really provide more functionality/stability or not. That way, we keep you guys in synch with what we're doing and you can give us more relevant feedback.
In M7.2, the big deal is the addition of 3D support in Avalon, including declarative support in XAML. There are better things coming in 3D (as there are in the whole of Longhorn), but this is the initial set of functionality and we'd love to know what you think.
To set your expectations properly, WinHEC attendees and MSDN Subscribers will have access to the M7.2 OS and SDK bits, but will not have access to any matching Visual Studio bits. Neither the PDC Visual Studio installation nor the latest Visual Studio 2005 community drop nor even the upcoming Visual Studio 2005 beta will install or run properly on M7.2 Longhorn. We're hoping for future LH Milestone drops to include the matching Visual Studio bits, but this one doesn't. Luckily, MSBuild is included along with the compilers, so you can still build LH code under M7.2 like the pioneers did when they were blazing the Oregon Trail. It'll put hair on your chest and build strong bones and teeth.
* RSN == Real Soon Now
Monday, May 3, 2004, 11:34 PM in Fun
"Just think Chris Sells on my TV set!"
I think David meant this as a good thing, but it sounded scary to me... : )
Monday, May 3, 2004, 11:19 PM in .NET
*Sweet* Windows Forms 2.0 Features Screen Shots
The Windows Forms team has posted some sweet screenshots and overviews of the major new features in Windows Forms 2.0, including two I hadn't heard about before:
- Client Configuration using type-safe per-user serialization of application settings
- Document Outline to show how controls are nested in a container
This is in additional to all of the other cool stuff, like a .NET WebBrowser wrapper, the new DataGridView, the strip controls, even more flexible layout, ClickOnce deployment (my personal favorite) and more.
Sunday, May 2, 2004, 6:03 PM in Tools
More Free WIndows Forms Controls:xpCommon Controls
And the hits, they keep on coming...
Sunday, May 2, 2004, 5:18 PM in .NET
Lutz Releases Reflector 4.0 (Finally!)
It has been hell keeping this to myself as Lutz has been sending me beta drops for the last coupla months for the completely reworked Reflector 4.0. Two very cool things about this release of Reflector:
- It supports any version of the .NET Framework, so it works great on Longhorn and Whidbey
- It has a replacement for the Class Viewer tools in the .NET SDK (wincv.exe) that I came to depend on in my writing and that hasn't been updated for WinFX, so Reflector 4.0 is even more important to me than it would normally be
If you're a .NET developer, you must use Reflector and if you use Reflector, you must use Reflector 4.0. Thanks, Lutz! We love you, man!
BTW, Lutz has set up a workspace for the Reflector 4.0 add-ins.
UPDATE: Denis Bauer has provided his own Reflector 4.0 Add-In to disassemble an entire assembly to a set of files. This is handy if, like me, you like to curl up with a good chuck of source code, put your feet up and enjoy a good cigar.
Saturday, May 1, 2004, 12:14 PM in Tools
NetXP: More Free Windows Forms Controls
Roy points out some Windows Forms controls that Mike pointed out to him and now I'm pointing out to you: NetXP, which includes all kinds of fun controls and components for use for free for personal and freeware use. It's amazing the number of high-quality free .NET controls exist. Wahoo!
Saturday, May 1, 2004, 11:13 AM in Money
Talking To Kids About Money
Here.
I found a new site focusing on a topic near and dear to my heart -- educating kids about money -- so I thought I'd log it for future reference (although you're free to read my thoughts about it, too : ).
Saturday, May 1, 2004, 12:00 AM in Money
Talking To Kids About Money
I'm a huge fan of talking to kids about money (actually, I'll talk an adult's ears off about money, too, if given half a chance -- I once lectured Matt Pietrek and his girlfriend on the topic for an hour over pancakes [sorry, guys...]). When I was growing up, the training I got in school about money management has how to write a check, i.e. how to be a good little consumer. I also learned the basics of compound interest, but not as related to anything real, e.g. buying a house or saving for retirement. Most of what I didn't learn in school, I also didn't learn from my parents because one of them (who managed to buy high and sell low during the recent market correction) isn't any good at money management and the other was very private about such things (although has been opening up on this topic recently).
Me, I go the other way. While they know not to talk about it outside of our immediate family, my kids know how much my wife and I make, how much we spend month to month, how we're saving for their college education, how we're saving for retirement, the investment property I've purchased with my money-savvy brother-in-law (whose parents also refused to talk money with him), etc. The Sells brothers have their own allowance that goes up annually on their hire date aka their birthday. I act as their bank, keeping track of their income and expenses in an Excel spreadsheet as they deposit and withdraw money, limiting them to a single week's "advance" on their allowance (giving them the choice of spending what they've got now vs. saving for what they want in the future). In the future, I plan on letting them maintain their own balance sheet (subject to random audit), like my Mom let me maintain mine on a paper check register (I guess I did learn a little something from my parents -- come to think of it, the way I award allowance is just like my Mom, too -- way to go, Mom! : ).
Anyway, as open as I am about our money and as much as I bring it up with them in an attempt to stamp the consumer culture out of my children before it takes hold, there are still more things to be done, as I learned this morning on "the mint," a web site dedicated to what kids should know about money and how teachers and parents can help. Check it out.
BTW, I've recently come to the conclusion that a parent paying for their child's college education is a sucker's game, as it drains much needed funds out of the parent's own investments when it should be enjoying the magic of compound interest. Instead, grandparents should pay for college, letting each generation have another 20-30 years of compound interest before skimming off the top for college. The problem with this, of course, is that it requires one generation to pay for both their kids and their grandkids to shift into this new thinking (assuming, of course, that the parents can pay for their kid's college at all, which isn't a given with our current consumer-oriented society). I plan on being that bridge in my family, i.e. I plan to pay for my kids' and my grandkids' college education. I also plan to have myself cryogenically frozen, putting half of my money into a trust for myself when I'm rejuvenated, leaving the other half for my wife. Neither of these has anything to do with this subject, but I thought I'd stick them on the end here anyway. : )
Friday, Apr 30, 2004, 8:17 AM
Google Files for IPO @ e Billion Dollars
Unlike some lame "e" prefix that the kids like to put on things these days, Google's IPO valued at e billion dollars ($2,718,281,828) is the mathematical value e (multiplied by 1 billion, of course). Luckily, they didn't have to spell this famous mathematical number. : )
Thursday, Apr 29, 2004, 10:09 PM in The Spout
"The Great Windows 95 Trade-In Program"
Oh man, Richard Childress nailed it.
We should let people walk into their nearest Comp-U-Buy with their copy of any flavor of Win9x and give them a copy of Windows XP SP2 for free. And, if they happen to need a beefier computer to run XP, and they trade in a copy of Win9x at the time, we should take the cost of the OS off the price of the computer.
Not only do we get rid of a significant portion of Win9x in the world, reducing our support costs, but we get XPSP2 into more hands, stimulate PC purchasing and reduce the number of versions of Windows that ISVs have to support. Of course, we eat it on the price of XP itself, but I bet the savings in support would make up for it.
Who else thinks that Richard Childress is absolutely right?!? Let's hear it!
Thursday, Apr 29, 2004, 4:20 PM in The Spout
Safe, Even Simpler Multithreading in Windows Forms
Mike Weinhardt adds a 4th installment to my series on threading in Windows Forms by illustrating the BackgroundWorker component from Windows Forms 2.0. I have to admit that after I saw this component, I felt very silly for not wrapping my own code up in this form. Thank goodness for .the Windows Forms 2.0 team. : )
Thursday, Apr 29, 2004, 4:11 PM in The Spout
You Clever IM People Are Driving Me Nuts!
What is the deal with people like Iristyle, josefiend, Mongo, Moribund the Burgermeister and the cheers component? These are the IM names of my "friends" that are currently online in IM. I mean, come on! How the hell am I supposed to find Ethan, Joesephine, Scott, Shawn and Betsy if they hide behind these names?!?
At least Iristyle and josefiend stay the same so that I can learn them, but Mongo, Moribund and cheers are merely temporary based on the quickly changing whims of the people on the other end of the line. I mean, I'm as much in favor of personal expression as the next guy, but not if it stops me from the chief component of the app they're using, e.g. finding them and actually talking to them!
And what's with the guy that has nothing but characters that don't even show up but render as the dreaded square! Can everyone please at least start their cleverness with their first names so that I can find you on the list? That's what Brian Randell [Working at home], Carl Frankline [.NET Rocks!], Fritz [easp.net@torrance], Jeff - [Redmond] and even, LJ, just ducky, thanks, do and they seem like happy, fulfilled people. Thank you!
Plus, while we're on the subject, what is it with MSN Messenger's invitation dialog? How the hell do I know who keith at pluralsight.com is? I know tons of Keiths and I've never heard of www.PluralSight.com (and even now that I know what it is, I haven't a clue what www.PluralSite.com *means*). Can't MSN Messenger give me a name along with the email? I get lots of request to be added to folks IM friend list and I'd like to be able to figure out who I'd like tracking my online life and who I'd prefer to hear from only via email.
Thus endith today's rant. : )
Thursday, Apr 29, 2004, 10:16 AM in Fun
Rory Sells His Ex's Wedding Dress
Here. At least, if this isn't Rory, it sure reads like Rory... : )