Hello, I'm   Jason

Network Computing performed a survey to determine whether or not IT pros would install Vista in the Enterprise. Here it is: http://www.networkcomputing.com/showArticle.jhtml?&articleID=198000502

Microsoft has joined the OpenAjax association. You can read more here: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=228535.

With ASP.NET 2.0, you can add authentication, authorization, and profiles to your Web site without writing a single line of code. That’s quite a step forward from the way things used to be. Like most of the new features in ASP.NET 2.0, authentication, authorization, and profiles each have their own built-in providers. You can think of providers as modules that contain the methods for a particular task. These providers are quite flexible-they can be customized by specifying attributes that pass information into the provider to allow it to execute different behavior. For extreme customization, though, it may be necessary to replace a built-in version with a custom or third-party provider. The Profile feature in ASP.NET allows developers to specify per-user settings or data. All this data can be stored in an anonymous profile so that settings can be retrieved without requiring the user to log into the site. However, if the user creates an account, these settings can be migrated to the logged in profile. The anonymous profile feature can also be turned off.

I was at the Scranton launch event yesterday. To my surprise, Mike Murphy’s IT Professional talk during the morning session was “sold out” with over 600 IT pros attending. I posted some pics from the event yesterday at http://www.jasongaylord.com/photos/Photos.aspx?AlbumID=180. I finally met Lindsay Rutter as well. Lindsay is a DE for the Mid-Atlantic region.

If you use the built-in authentication in ASP.NET, its a good idea to use Hashed or Encrypted passwords. The issue with using Hashed passwords is that you cannot use the built-in password retrieval methods for retrieving the passwords. If you use Encrypted passwords, you’ll need to configure a machineKey node in the web.config (MSDN How To). The reason being, you’ll receive the following message: You must specify a non-autogenerated machine key to store passwords in the encrypted format. Either specify a different passwordFormat, or change the machineKey configuration to use a non-autogenerated decryption key. Be sure to follow the MSDN How To that I linked to above to generate your keys.

My new article was published in next month’s (March 2007) MSDN magazine. You can read it online at http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/03/ASPNET2/default.aspx or pick up the latest copy of MSDN Magazine.

I have posted some more pics provided by a coworker from the Hazleton area. You can check them out at http://www.jasongaylord.com/photos/Photos.aspx?AlbumID=179. In addition, be sure to check out www.wnep.com for live shots of the Interstate highways and for other updates.

Well, as promised, I have posted some additional photos. I haven’t received any photos from others, but I pulled a few of the “better” photos off of the WNEP website as well. You can see my additional photo library at http://www.jasongaylord.com/photos/Photos.aspx?AlbumID=178. In addition, you can visit my old posting at http://weblogs.asp.net/jgaylord/archive/2007/02/15/snow-storm-in-northeastern-pennsylvania.aspx.

At the current time Interstate 81 is closed from Wilkes-Barre to Indiantown Gap, a stretch of highway over 75 miles. Interstate 80 and Interstate 78 are still closed in spots. You can check out the latest online at www.wnep.com.

Scott Watermasysk posted a blog today in an attempt to get a great listing of ASP.NET quick tips. Check out his post at http://scottwater.com/blog/archive/quick-tips-for-asp-net-part-one/ and by all means add something in the comments section.

I’ve been trying to keep this blog strictly to .NET. However, this I just had to post about. If you haven’t hear already (I’m assuming you have), the Northeastern part of the US was hammered with a “Valentine’s Day Winter Storm.” This winter has been completely mild as didn’t have our first inch of snow until the latter part of January and coming into this snow storm only had a total of 7 inches. However, this storm dumped 15.5” of snow (including 2” of ice) in less than 24 hours.