Get Coding with Vista and .NET 3.0 (WCF, WPF, WF, and CardSpace)

Here's what you'll need:

• Visual Studio 2005 (you're on your own here!)
• Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 (XP/2003) or Visual Studio SP1 for Vista – Beta (Vista)
• Visual Studio 2005 extensions for WCF & WPF, November 2006 CTP
• Visual Studio 2005 extensions for WF, Final
• Windows SDK for Vista and .NET 3.0 – Includes:
  • XAML Pad (WPF) or use XAML Cruncher (WPF)
  • SvcConfigEditor (WCF)
  • SvcTraceViewer (WCF)
  • SvcUtil (WCF)
  • LOTS of other goodies
• Virtual PC 2007 (Free) with XP installed for VS 2003 Development on Vista

Screenshot Utility

This screenshot utility does it all:

• Beautiful drop shadows
• Auto save-to-disk
• Image rotation
• Multiple object selection
• Vista support
• Corner rounding
• Drop shadow transparency
• And more…

WinSnap is one of the first-to-install utilities on any new machines. It seems that no matter what I build the computer for, I end up needing or wanting to take screenshots.

What's more – it works seamlessly with Word 2007 for blogging: I can take great screenshots and then add slick affects to them in about 5 seconds. In this example screen shot, WinSnap did everything except the reflection.

It's also great for emailing screenshots to friends and co-workers. Since WinSnap saves images to the clipboard as PNGs (be default), image size is significantly reduced when pasting images into emails.

Just about my only complaint… when I tried to take a screenshot of WinSnap its self – it kept getting out of the way!

There's a free version available, though you shouldn't mind paying for the full version in all its glory. WinSnap is worth every cent.

When I came in to the office this Monday morning my computer was dragging pretty badly, so I did what any other Windows performance sleuth would do: I fired up Process Explorer. This is what jumped at me:

The memory usage is a "bit" on the high side…

Note to self:

Don't leave Firefox running over the weekend.

From Stephen Forte's WebBlog:

Do you believe that software can change the world? How about the opportunity to work on an application that promises to help accelerate a cure for cancer?

If you or someone you know is passionate about helping to accelerate a cure for cancer, and is in a position to take on a new job, read more about one of the coolest software projects ever. Here's a summary of the requirements:

• Well-rounded skills in software application development.
• One who has been working primarily with C# for at least the past two years, with an additional minimum three years of Microsoft .NET framework application development experience (and preferable some 2.0 and 3.0 experience).
• Familiarity with Object Oriented design methodology.
• A successful candidate will have experience with Windows client application development (.NET WinForms, preferably WPF) and web services.
• Desirable to have experience with SharePoint, preferable Office SharePoint Server 2007, Office Document XML, or other custom Office applications. You should also have experience working within a distributed development team.

Coming from a C++/C# background, one of my main frustrations with VB has been its lack of a true ternary ("?:") operator. In Paul Vick's recent post, he discusses the possible inclusion of a ternary operator in the next version of VB (9.0 - Orcas). Finally the IIF operator will behave like we C#/C++ (or javascript for that matter) folks expect it to. I'm looking forward to it… now if we could only get rid of those pesky line-continuation characters!