Hello, I'm   Jason

Wow! Microsoft is releasing an express version of the XNA Game Studio. For those of you not familiar with XNA, it’s the gaming studio that Microsoft Studios uses to build games for Windows and the XBox. Previously, developers would have to pay a fee …

Back in July, Sam Judson released a pretty good article on the Coding4Fun web site. Check it out at http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/webcoder/flickr/default.aspx.

Well, I figured it was time for a bit of a change so I switched Community Server themes on my weblogs.asp.net blog. I’ve been quite busy lately dealing with various projects at my house and at work. We finally have 95% of our landscaping done. The only portion not completed is our pond in our back yard (and the grass that can’t grow because our weather is either 100 degrees F with 100% humidity or downpours of 2 inches an hour). We put in landscape lighting, spread more dirt and mulch, and put the pond in. I’ll get some updated pics up soon on the yard. At work, we received a new Dell 42 unit rack, new Dell IP, 16 port KVM switch and flat panel monitor tray, new web server, 5 new PCs, 1 new laptop, a broken 1910 AC unit in our server room (seriously?), and will soon have a new server room floor. That’s all besides the new product we are pushing out, a few articles I’m writing, and our user group. Phew! So where has the time gone lately? :-)

We have been working with SBA 2006 since its beta last year. Our company has 7 licenses where our 5 accountants connect a central SQL Server 2000 database that is shared. Knowing this isn’t the way SBA 2006 is supposed to work, we have been able to successfully accomplish this task. That’s where Microsoft made their first mistake. SBA’s big appeal to us was the fact that data wasn’t stored in a proprietary format. However, not being able to install it on a database server made it frustrating.

Since ASP.NET 1.0, one of the most popular books (if not the most popular book) has been Stephen Walther’s ASP.NET Unleashed. Recently, Sams Publishing has released ASP.NET 2.0 Unleashed, again written by Stephen. This review will discuss the good and the bad of the book.

During Julie Lerman’s recent visit to Pennsylvania, I was able to snag a 20 minute interview. We talked about where she had come from, how she has time to enjoy Vermont, and what she’d rather be doing. Be sure to check out this podcast! You can see the show notes by visiting http://aspnetpodcast.com/CS11/blogs/asp.net_podcast/archive/2006/07/28/362.aspx.

I’m not happy with the July CTP of Vista. There are a bunch of reasons why I’m not satisfied. First, Microsoft does not appear to be working with many of the media companies. Vista’s big “thing” is multimedia and unless someone found some hacks, neither Nero or LightScribe can install on Vista. Most home PCs that have been purchased over the last 2 years tend to have LightScribe drives as many home PCs are HP and Compaq purchased from retailers such as Best Buy, Staples, Circuit City, and Home Depot. I’d consider myself to be a fairly advanced PC user. I had an ISO file that I was going to burn to a DVD. Not using Vista much to burn things, I clicked on the ISO and a Burn button lit up on the toolbar. I clicked it thinking it was going to burn the contents of the ISO to the DVD. About 1/2 through the burn I said to myself, “I bet this is just another confusing Microsoft Beta mistake.” Sure enough, it burned the ISO file and not the contents to the DVD. I tried to then install NERO so I can burn the ISO directly and NERO is not compatible. I then tried to access the Windows DVD Burning software and I couldn’t because I was using a built-in 64MB Intel video card. I’m not seeing why my video card should prevent me from burning a DVD. I then decided to check out some of the other media options and noticed that Media Player changed names to M3b1a 91ay3r or something Greek (“no pun intended”). So, I then tried to access some of the cool features like Windows Flip and Aero and of course it doesn’t work. What Vista failed to tell me is what the Windows Experience Level meant. To this point I’m assuming 1.0 means you aren’t really using Vista’s capabilities. I’d expect that the first time I use the Windows Key + Tab that Windows would say “Hey, if you get your *** to the store to pick up a 128 MB or greater COMPATIBLE video card, I might actually work.” Argh! The pains of Vista and I’ve only skimmed the top layer

My review of the Visual Basic 2005 for Programmers book has been published to the ASPAlliance.com website. To read the review, please visit http://aspalliance.com/931

Many developers have asked how to create the SQLExpress database from an *.aspx page. Without creating or updating anything, a simple call to Membership.GetAllUsers.Count will do the trick. Your SQLExpress database will be generated in no time.

I received a message earlier today while attempting to run a compiled Crystal Report from version 8.5. If you attempt to run any compiled Crystal Report, this may solve your issue. Find the machine where it’s running just fine. Copy all of the DLLs from C:\Windows\Crystal (or C:\WINNT\Crystal) to the same folder on the destination PC. DO NOT REPLACE any DLLs in that folder. No DLL registration is necessary. The report should then work fine.