February 2006 - Mike Taulty's Blog

DevWeek 2006

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Last week was DevWeek 2006 and I attended and gave a couple of sessions. I had a really good time and enjoyed all the sessions that I attended although I spent as much time hanging around the conference as I did in sessions...

Published Mon, Feb 27 2006 9:33 AM by mtaulty

The Mysterious CryptUIDlgSelectCertificate API

My MSDN Library (January 2006) talks about the function CryptUIDlgSelectCertificate being available on Windows XP, Server 2003 and “Longhorn” OSes (client and server). However, I can’t find it in any header file anywhere. It’s not in...

Published Mon, Feb 20 2006 7:56 AM by mtaulty

Testing out BlogJet

I’m trying out BlogJet for posting to this blog versus the InfoPath form that I’ve been using previously. So far, so good. The primary feature I want is automatic FTP of pictures that I drop into posts as it’s a pain having to take pictures...

Published Mon, Feb 20 2006 4:00 AM by mtaulty

VS 2005 Debugging: Make Object ID

I'd never seen this one before so I thought I'd share it here. Dan Crevier has a posting on a neat little VS 2005 debugging feature . I'd not be able to count the number of times when I've hacked a class to include some kind of "object id" so that I can track...

Published Mon, Feb 20 2006 3:21 AM by mtaulty

MediaCenter.Rebuild()

Ok, so I lied in this posting over here about my Media Center and adding a new TV card to it. Initially, it seemed like everything was going well but I found after a few hours of use that the TV was stuttering and that recorded TV was doing the same and Standby...

Published Sun, Feb 19 2006 2:47 AM by mtaulty

MSDN Article on WPF Command Routing

I spent a few years writing MFC code towards the end of the 1990's. One of my favourite things about the MFC was that it had a framework built into it for dealing with commands that the user executed. That framework dealt with whether the command was currently...

Published Fri, Feb 17 2006 1:28 AM by mtaulty

IE 7 and OPML importing

I went and installed the IE 7 Beta 2 Preview on my XP OS as I had been using it on Vista and was enjoying it more than IE 6. I then realised that I'd like to get my RSS feeds into it which again caused me to look for an OPML import - maybe it's there but I...

Published Wed, Feb 15 2006 8:27 AM by mtaulty

RSS API's Again

It's interesting to see the amount of feedback that this post about the RSS API's with IE 7 is getting. The majority of the follow up posts that I can see are asking "How come it's a COM API and where's the .NET Wrapper for it". I think this is a really valid...

Published Wed, Feb 15 2006 5:42 AM by mtaulty

Doing Workflow? Doing WPF? Those properties are not just .NET properties any more!

I think the whole subject of "attached properties" in the context of WPF and WF is one that's yet to bite most people and so this post is really important. I realised I'd lost the plot when I saw that my property value in my Workflow was changing in the debugger...

Published Wed, Feb 15 2006 5:33 AM by mtaulty

Some WPF Name Changes Coming - Heading Towards "Ship Mode"?

Just passing on this post that I noticed - with the Feb CTP of the WPF (which must be coming "real soon now") the namespaces are changing which will break all the XAML samples that are out there. Follow the link for the details.

Published Wed, Feb 15 2006 5:25 AM by mtaulty

Fusion HDTV Dual Tuner DVB-T Card for MCE 2005

I upgraded my tuners in my media center last night. I'd been running with dual analogue tuners from Hauppauge - the PVR MCE 500 and I'd been getting pretty good picture quality from it but I wanted to switch to digital and I also wanted to get the extra channels...

Published Wed, Feb 15 2006 4:13 AM by mtaulty

Microsoft Security Event: Thames Valley Park, Reading 8th March

There's an evening event happening at the Microsoft Campus on the 8th March around security with ASP.NET 2.0 for both web forms and web services and that then branches off for a discussion around Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 3.0 security as well. The registration...

Published Tue, Feb 14 2006 7:18 AM by mtaulty

UK IT contracting market on the rise?

I saw a small article in yesterday's Independent newspaper here in the UK that the UK IT Contracting market had got back to the point where contractors in the City can expect to achieve £50 an hour for the first time since 2001. Long term, I guess I can work...

Published Tue, Feb 14 2006 3:57 AM by mtaulty

Dynamic UI with WPF

I've been playing around a little bit with having "dynamic" UI in the WPF. When I say "dynamc" UI what I really mean is the possibility of a UI which the user of an application can potentially change on the fly in order to add some new bits of functionality...

Published Sun, Feb 12 2006 4:18 PM by mtaulty

UK Developer Day 3 Web Site Up and Running (Saturday 3rd June, 2006)

The website is up and running for the 3rd UK Developer Day at the Microsoft Campus on the 3rd June . This is a Community event organised by developers in the UK for developers in the UK and sessions are all put together and delivered by community speakers....

Published Sun, Feb 12 2006 11:22 AM by mtaulty