Fabrice's weblog

My new article is available online in French: Choosing an object-relational mapping tool.
There is no English version yet, but maybe I'll take the time to translate it. If someone feels like helping...
Update: this article is now available in English as well.

PastePal is an excellent idea, and a much needed tool!
How many times did I see Word documents containg just an image because people don't know what to do with images in the clipboard...
Luckily, we don't need image editing software (such as the marvelous Paint) any longer to copy-and-save an image.

PastePal is a quick'n'dirty utility that saves images from the clipboard to a pre-arranged location in JPEG format, with a randomly generated filename (or one you specify), and can run a utility/script against the saved image afterwards.

For the first time, I removed products from the SharpToolbox. These tools are not exactly deleted, but flagged as discontinued so that they don't disappear completely, in case someone wonders what happened to them or needs the source code or something..
I just started, so only eight products switched status from available to discontinued. Most of them are in the Object-Relational Mapping category. I have still more sweeping work to do... In case you know of other products that are now discontinued, please let me know.

I think that after seeing an impressive wealth of products appear, natural selection is at work. So take care about the tools you choose!

Sometimes your really wonder what people are doing...
Here is a search query I found in my logs: convert java code to Vb code

At last a release date for Visual Studio 2005... They said "end of summer 2005", they chose the very last days:
September 13-16: Microsoft Professional Developers Conference

They still have to change the logo though. It says "PDC 03"...

Update: this seems to be confirmed.
Update:the official release date is "the week of November 7".

Frans Bouma gives a clear presentation of three different ways to see data from an application developer's  perspective. It helps to know where you are, and what the alternatives are.
The three approaches are:

1. table approach
2. entity (Chen/Yourdon) approach
3. domain model (Fowler/Evans) approach

I have a challenge for your memory : when was the last time you saw GotDotNet working?

At least a clear explaination of the difference between "throw;" and "throw ex;". Thanks Oleg.