Hello, I'm   Jason

As mentioned in an article written by Rick Westmoreland of AntiSource.com, Microsoft has decided to add a more robust security application to their library. I originally mentioned that Microsoft purchased Sybari awhile ago. Windows OneCare, the new application, will span system performance, PC maintenance, data protection and security in an “easy-to-manage” service (accdg to the Microsoft.com announcement). For more information specifically about this, visit http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/may05/05-13WindowsOneCarePR.asp.

Last night on MTV, XBox 360 was revealed to the world. I don’t want to take away from the new XBox, the technology, and the games, but I don’t think the show was really worth it. I think that MTV did a horrible job presenting the new system. Everything they showed (with the exception of the games) can be found at www.xbox360.com. The rest was simply fluff. For those of you who did see it, I’m sure you’d agree that all of the games looked fantastic. Kudos to Microsoft for taking the next step in the gaming world.

I have added my “AntiSource” articles to my website. You can check them out at http://www.jasongaylord.com/articles/?articletype=AntiSource. The articles I write on AntiSource.com include security issues and virus warnings. Some of the other authors have written reviews on hardware and software that pertains to viruses, security, logging, etc. If you’ve never visited the site, be sure to check it out!

ASP.NET 2.0 introduces a new section to the web.config file called ConnectionStrings. Some previous projects in ASP.NET 1.1 created this section so you may be familiar with it. This section allows users to add connection strings in their web.config for different data sources. An example of one using SqlExpress 2005 is shown below:

I had an issue this week binding a custom IList to a DataList. I struggled with this one because a was able to bind directly to a DataGrid. I knew that DataGrids bind differently than DataLists, but forgot what the difference was. They both look for an IEnumerable, however, DataGrids are more particular. Ambrose Little pointed out in an email that the DataGrid builds its own enumerator of type PagedDataSource.EnumeratorOnIList whereas the DataList is relying on a custom GetEnumerator function. I sent Teemu Keiski a copy of my code so he can act as a second pair of eyes (always a good thing). Luckily, he spotted that for some strange reason, I missed the Return keyword in my GetEnumerator function. I placed that in and everything works now. Thanks to everyone that helped me out. Hopefully if someone else runs into this foolish issue, this helps! ;)

I just finished reading a fairly decent article about maintaining your Windows Server 2003 boxes. You can find the article here: http://www.ftponline.com/channels/security/wss/2004_12/magazine/features/kgardinier/. There is a free registration to read the entire article.

The .NET team has released a snippet editor for Visual Basic 2005. You can download the editor by visiting http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/downloads/2005/tools/snippeteditor/.

I finally got around to posting the pictures from the Greater PA MSDN Code Camp 2005 event in Philadelphia. They are posted on the .NET Valley User Group website at http://www.dotnetvalley.com/Photo+Gallery/default.aspx. Hopefully next time I can make it to both days!

If you plan on keeping your SQL Express data when you deploy an ASP.NET 2.0 application that you add the applicationName attribute to each of your providers under each special ASP.NET configuration section (ie: Membership). If you do not, ASP.NET 2.0 will look to see if the app was run under a different application or not. If it was, it will create a new application entry in the database and none of your users and profiles will be associated.

You can add personalization to your ASP.NET 2.0 website by adding a Profile section to your web.config file. After you setup your properties, you can begin to add, edit, retrieve, and remove these properties from a profile. Most users like to set personalized properties when they first establish account. By default, the CreateUser control does not include a step to ask for these profile properties. So, you must create your own step. When you get finished adding in your fields, modify the step’s next button click event. In the subroutine, add the information to the profile. This can be accomplished by using something similar to this: