Kukutz's reg][ster

ASP.NET has a great feature which allows the developerto perform data access based in an abstraction layer, called a Data Access Layer without having to write a stitch ofcode. Basically it allows data to be further manipulated and protects you from having to work against the databaseitself. I love this feature because it really makes a lot of things easy when writing web pages, and gives me theflexibility to get the data I want easily. I like the visual representation of the xsd file where I can change andconfigure much of the data source and it's options. This is just one of the many data-friendly features in VisualStudio 2005 using ASP.NET 2.0. This data abstraction layer makes it easy to use the new GridView and DetailsViewcontrols from ASP.NET 2.0. Check out the videos here on learnvisualstudio.net for some excellent explanations of how touse this unique feature.

I have recently been devoting every wakinghour not doing something else like working to learning as much as I can about ASP.NET 2.0. I have not traditionallybeen impressed with Microsoft's feeble attempts at creating a web development platform. ASP.NET 2.0 is not part of thatgroup obviously. Microsoft went from having the horrible FrontPage as their best option for web site development thiskiller ASP.NET 2.0 development platform that is actually viable. Many people I have talked to love ASP.NET. Now I knowwhy, it is worthy of any praise. It has its issues to be sure, but it is one of the best development ideologies I haveseen in ages.

Many programmers out there still hold to PHP like the world is ending (me included), and thinkASP.NET is bunk. I am a huge PHP fan and still use it primarily for many projects, but I must confess that ASP.NET hasreally made me think hard about adding it to my usual arsenal of web development skills. If you still haven't checkedit out, you should, and trust me, I was a skeptic until I started using it. My personal favorite is using ASP.NET 2.0in Visual Studio 2005. You can also download the Visual Web Developer Express Edition which will letyou build ASP.NET applications without sacrificing many essential features.

I don't know if you have seen Microsoft's Virtual Labs or not, but they are top notch. I just got done takingthe Virtual Lab on ASP.NET 2.0 and it really gives you a simple to follow crash course on using ASP.NET 2.0. Theparticular section I focused on was devoted to setting up data sources, using the DropdownList, DataGrid andDetailsView controls. While this wasn't quite new information for me, it did give me some new hints as to how I shouldbe dealing with data sources in some of my upcoming projects using ASP.NET 2.0.

Microsoft Virtual Labs arean excellent way to learn and do interactively, especially for those like me who learn more visually than anything. Honestly I would rather have to hand-write the code than watch some instructor do it or have it pre-written. Iguess you could label me a hands-dirty developer. I don't mind. No, really, go for it, I don't mind.

RSS is a mainstay, by now everyone knowsthat. Despite RSS, its versatility, and the myriad of available feeds and news about it everywhere, I still have toexplain it to many of those who are decidedly uninitiated daily. While I don't mind (it does get old) I hope thatVista's built-in, nearly unavoidable RSS functionality will usher in the consumer age of RSS for even the non-savvyuser. RSS is a great feature to build into an operating system, especially in the last few years. Almost every site yougo to has it, yet much of the public still need their huge list of favorites to visit all their favorite site. I havepicked through so many RSS news aggregators that I can't believe more people haven't heard about them. If the publicknew that you could bookmark RSS feeds in an aggregator, especially if it is built into Windows, everyone would use it.Let's hope it is as good as it seems to sound right now.

With Apple's release of Boot Camp, which will allow you to easily load Windows XP onto your Intel-powered Mac, some have postulated that this could indicate the beginning of a new era for Mac OS X, where the operating system vies for top spot on the screens of commodity PCs everywhere.

C.K. over at our sister site TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) notes in an afterthought to his post Apple to PC Manufacturers and Windows: It's on! that although it's very cool that we can now use Windows on Apple hardware, what would really be great would be if Apple were to open up Mac OS X to allow users to install it on PC hardware. In a later post at TUAW, David says C.K.'s lost it, and that running OS X on PCs a bad idea. Although I disagree with David, he makes some very solid points.

Popular blogger and Microsoft employee Rory Blythe (you thought I was going to say Scoble, didn'tyou?) has a very thought-provoking post over at Neopoleon (his site) entitled Ten Minutes of Sincerity - Enthusiasthma. Rory is doing somekind of self-help thing where he's trying to force himself to be sincere for ten minutes per day. Fortunately forus, he decided a few days ago to do his sincerity publicly, and described a problem he has noticed whileworking at Microsoft. I bet you may have seen this problem at your workplace as well.

Dubbed Enthusiasthma, Rory describes the breathless state in which someone describes their next big idea, with somuch effort to appear passionate that it appears as if they might pass out. Passion is thebig buzz-word at Microsoft it seems, and if you're doing anything you'd better well be doing it withpassion. Unfortunately, as Rory describes, passion for passion's sake is at best silly, and at worstdangerous.

Give Rory's post a read, and see if you recognize some of the situations he describes at your own workplace. Notone to simply complain about a problem - okay, just work with me here - Rory has also included a way to fixthis problem. He advocates honesty when you believe someone is on the wrong track, politeness be damned. It'sdefinitely worth considering.

Oh, it's worth mentioning that there may be the odd mildly offensive word in Rory's post. Just thought I'd let youknow.

If you have a modern Windows Mobile 5.0 device, live in the United States, and are interested inbeta testing Windows Live on your mobile device, head on over to Microsoft'sConnect site. There you can sign up to become a beta tester for Windows Live for Mobile by clicking on AvailablePrograms, then logging in to your Passport account.

Windows Live for Mobile appears set to replace MSN Mobile, which currently only features support for Hotmail, MSNMessenger, and viewing MSN alerts. BetaNews has furtherdetails.

Scoblepoints out this Fortune articleabout how Sir Gates manages his workload. Well actually Scoble's intention for linking to the article was to showus that a Channel9 guy was on Bill's desk. It looks like 10% ofGates' reading is still done on paper. He has the now compulsory tri-monitor setup and Tablet PC, yetsurprisingly has an analogue whiteboard -- maybe next year Bill. The article goes on to explain how Bill focuses hisattention and how he tries to prioritize his time.

Microsoft has taken the wraps off their new pricing scheme for Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition, andthe new price is a surprise coming out of Redmond: Free! The Standard Editionof the same product has been terminated, and moving forward there will only be the Enterprise Edition.

This moveis being done due to pressure from Novell and Red Hat flavors of Linux which are both shipping with virtualizationbuilt in to the operating system. The Longhorn server class operating systems will ship with Windows hypervisortechnology, which is a similar form of virtualization that will be based on the same virtual hard disk file formatthat Virtual Server uses, giving users an upgrade path.