My contact at O'Reilly sent me this.  It's a bit last minute, but if you have time, please help them.  Maybe you'll win a free book!  Unfortunately it needs to be complete before Oct 17th.

O'Reilly Media is conducting research about in-person, live workshops on
software and business topics, and we'd really like your opinion.  If you
live in the United States and work in the tech industry, please consider
taking our 19 question survey to help us understand what you look for in
a live training course what motivates you, what you expect to get out
of a workshop, what topics you'd like to see, and so forth.  

To participate, please go to:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3bFGXzVnXige7WrPdJ0wAQ_3d_3d

To show our appreciation, we'll select 10 people at random to receive a
free book of your choice.  The drawing will happen on Friday, October
17, so you'll need to complete the survey by that date to enter.  The
last question on the survey will ask for your e-mail we'll use that
only to contact the randomly selected winners and your responses will
remain anonymous.

Philly.Net Code Camp was great.  We had over 400 people attend and the feedback is very good.

I had a great time with my presentation "Make the Switch to LINQ - Working with data will never be the same".  Thanks to everyone who joined me.  It was pretty crowded.  Thanks to those of you who stood up or sat on the floor.  I know that I covered a lot of information in my session.  I hope I didn't go to fast.  I promised that I'd have my Code Camp presentation up on my blog by today.  I'm running a little behind schedule.  Update:  here it is!  On schedule, even if it is 10:30 at night!

I've included a db create script, all of my source code, and the slides.  I have tried to add more comments to the code so it makes sense.  At the end I was pretty rushed and didn't explain all of the samples but I hope they speak for themselves.

If you have any questions, just ask... you can contact through the link on my blog.  I've also included my address in a ReadMe.txt doc in the zip file.

LINQ Demo.zip (900.4 KB)

Now, make the switch to LINQ!

If you haven't checked out the CLR Profiler, it is a pretty cool tool.  It's free from Microsoft and it allows you to do some profiling of applications - apps, services, or asp.net sites.  It may not compete with the high end fancy profilers that are available for purchase, but you get some decent functionality for free.

I'm no expert on this product, in fact, I have only used it a few times to do a few specific things.  Last night I needed to use it on my laptop (never had it on that machine before) and I found myself struggling to get it up and running.  The weird part is that it felt strangely familiar, like I had the same problem when I used it a few months prior.  So I'm writing this post for 2 reasons.  Hopefully it will help you if you have the same problem.  And also, hopefully in a few months when I start it again, if I hit the same problem, I'll search the Internet and find this post that I am leaving for myself!

First, make sure you have the correct version of CLR Profiler.  There are two versions available.  .Net Framework 1.1 and .Net Framework 2.0.  There is no version for the .Net Framework 3.5 but don't worry, the 2.0 version will do that trick.  The two versions look the same and surprisingly, if you search for CLR Profiler, most of the links that come up are for the 1.1 version.  So here are two links:

• CLR Profiler for .Net 1.1
• CLR Profiler for .Net 2.0  (Note:  A reader notified me that this link was incorrect.  It is fixed now, thanks!)
  

Now here is the part that got me this time...

I kept getting this message:  "Waiting for application to start common language runtime".

At the time, I was using Remote Desktop to my laptop.  That may have had something to do with my issue, but I'm not sure.  I re-installed CLR Profiler to make sure I hadn't installed the wrong version.  Same problem happens! 

But then I had a flash of genius (ok, maybe not genius) and my problem was solved:  I right clicked the CLRProfiler.exe and used "Run as administrator".  Everything works great.  Interestingly, it works for me today without using "Run as admin".  So was it my Remote Desktop interfering?  Could be.  But the bottom line is, "Run as administrator" solved the problem.  I hope this helps you too.

Here's a brief description of MVC from the invitation to the event:

When it comes to design patterns, the MVC is the granddaddy of them all.  First described in the late 70s, the MVC pattern remains very popular in the world of web applications today. ASP.NET MVC provides a framework that enables you to easily implement the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern for Web applications. This pattern lets you separate applications into loosely coupled, pluggable components for application design, processing logic, and display.

The event takes place at the Microsoft Malver Office.  Click here for more details.  It is sure to be a great learning experience.

NoDeNUG, The Northern Delaware .Net Users Group has been going strong for a year now!  Wow time flies.  The success of this group is due to the hard work of John Baird for running the group.  They've also had a great partner in Diamond Technologies for sponsoring all (or at least most) of their meetings for an entire year.

For a few years people in the area wanted to start a .Net User Group in Northern DE.  A year ago, John, Mitch Ruebush, Doug White and myself finally got it going.  Dani Diaz helped of course.  Plus Nate Sharp (Diamond Tech) supported the group from the start, and since he and I worked for Diamond, owners Chuck Burns and Greg Ballance offered to host the first few meetings and sponsor one of them.  I think we were all pleasantly surprised that the first meeting had about 15 people, if my memory serves me correctly.  The second meeting had more, and it grew each month.  Diamond offered to host and sponsor the meetings for the year.

After the first few meetings, I was unable to help out anymore since I got a new job and wasn't working in DE anymore.  It's an hour from my home and I'm pretty busy with Philly.Net anyway.  But John has really done a great job with the group and it's been growing and growing.  They moved out of Diamond's office due to size constraints and now host meetings at Delaware Technology Park but Diamond continues to sponsor the meetings.  I hope to make it to some meetings soon, but it sure is a long drive down there for me.  I'm a bit out of touch and don't know if Mitch or Doug are involved anymore.  As far as I know, John is running the show by himself (apologies if I am wrong).  Microsoft recently honored John for his efforts with NoDeNUG, among other things, by naming him a Microsoft MVP!

If you are in the area, you really should check out NoDeNUG.  Congrats to John Baird for making the groups successful.

The big news this week is that Code Camp (Oct 11, 2008) registration is now open!  In the past we have filled up fast so if you plan to come, register now.  This year's session list is even more diverse than ever since we now have tracks for IT and Infrastructure, in addition to our usual ASP.net, SQL Server, Sharepoint, Alt.Net and more.

We've got great partners lined up too.  Thanks as always to them for their support.

Platinum:  DeVry University, Microsoft

Gold: Cigna, HostMySite, IDP, RJB, Software Logic

Silver: Infragistics

Plus, as usual we'll have a bunch of prizes from lots of other vendors!

Lastly, don't forget to join our LinkedIn Group:  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=137867

See you at Code Camp!

It's hard to believe that summer is almost over but Benny has really enjoyed it.  He's had some great accomplishments recently.  A few weeks ago Ben started to gain his balance and was sitting up quite well, as long as someone was on hand to spot him.  But now he's pretty good at it.  And this week he figured out how to go from laying down into a sitting position all by himself.  He also really likes to be up on his hands and knees.  He rocks back and forth and looks like he is trying to figure out how to crawl!  I think he'll be doing it in no time at all.  Ben got his first tooth last week too.  It's not fully here, but you can see it so that counts, right?  Also, Ben started at Daycare last week since it is time for his mommy to go back to work.  He seems to like it but he's also decided to show his stubborn side (where do you think he gets that????).  So he's gone a little "Hunger Strike" as I like to call it.  All of a sudden he decided he wouldn't take a bottle from anyone at all!  I think it is his way of saying he loves his mommy!  He only wants the "real thing".  Luckily, while he's at daycare during the day he is happy to eat baby food.  So I guess it isn't a true hunger strike, really it is a bottle strike.  But he surprised us again by taking a few ounces from the bottle today at daycare so maybe he is getting more comfortable.  We'll see.  OK, here are some pictures from the past few weeks:

I'll start with the one that may be our favorite picture of Ben ever!  The look on his face is too funny. I guess he doesn't like tomatoes!  I hope he forgives me for putting the second one up on the Internet. 

I'll try to keep the news about Code Camp coming on a regular basis.  Here are some things that may be of interest:

We are planning 10 Tracks with two new topics:  IT Infrastructure and Enterprise Management.  Yes, we have expanded to include IT topics now!

Here is the list of tracks, of course subject to change:

• Alt.NET
• SharePoint
• Architecture
• SQL
• Business Intelligence
• Toolbox
• Framework
• IT Infrastructure
• MIX (Web)
• Enterprise Management

We've got a few Partners lined up already.  I can't urge our members enough to check out these companies.  Without them Code Camp would not be possible.  Here's the breakdown so far:

Platinum:  DeVry and Microsoft

Gold: Software Logic and RGB Technical Consulting

Silver: Infragistics 

In addition some great companies have stepped up to send us prizes.  I'll write about that soon!

If you are interested in helping out with Code Camp, please let me know.  We always need volunteers, in advance and on the big day.  If you've been there before you know how much work goes into an event like this.

Time flies, so here comes another Philly.Net Code Camp.  Back at our favorite venue - DeVry U in Fort Washington, PA.

Once again we'll have about 50 sessions.  In addition to the Developer and SQL stuff, this time we are including sessions for the IT guys (sorry... and gals) too with an Infrastructure track.  Bill will be announcing a call for speakers soon so get your topics ready if you want to present.

As usual, I'm heading up the quest for Partners.  If you are interested in contributing towards Code Camp, please let me know.  It's a great way to reach the best Developers, DBAs and IT Pros in the Philadelphia area. 

Stay tuned for more information...