Archives
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POP Forums v9.1.1 posted, update fixes bug in previous release
There was a problem in v9.1.0 that prevented user views of a topic to be registered, meaning the "new topic" indicator would continue to glow "new" even though the user had viewed it. This has been fixed in v9.1.1.
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Microsoft uses open source? OMG, LOL and what not
Sometimes I read something in the "tech press" about Microsoft and get endlessly annoyed. I may have decided to leave the company, but quite honestly it's a lot like the feeling you get when you graduate from college. For better or worse, it'll always be a part of you and you'll always identify yourself as some part of it.
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POP Forums v9.1.0 has been posted to CodePlex!
Finally! After moving, being a dad and engaging in a great deal of home improvement, I finally managed to find time to an update out to POP Forums. I hope to not be that guy anymore, going forever between updates.
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XSLT is not the solution you're looking for
I was very relieved to see that Umbraco is ditching XSLT as a rendering mechanism in the forthcoming v5. Thank God for that. After working in this business for a very long time, I can't think of any other technology that has been inappropriately used, time after time, and without any compelling reason.
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My departure from Microsoft
Whoa, I just realized that I never really announced here that I've decided to leave Microsoft. Actually, left, is more like it, since I'm currently on vacation. Nothing really exciting or controversial about it, just a list of reasons why it makes sense for me and my family. I wrote about it on my personal blog. I also summarized my experience there.
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The business of assumptions and up front design is an inefficient way to build software
This is actually a re-post from my personal blog. I'll make the usual disclaimer here that I'm not calling out anyone specifically, whether it be at Microsoft or elsewhere. It's just a topic that I feel very strongly about.
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POP Forums v9 for ASP.NET MVC3 is done!
The release candidate is the final version of v9.0.0. See my previous post for details. Get the bits here:
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POP Forums v9 Release Candidate for ASP.NET MVC 3 posted to CodePlex!
Get the goodies here: http://popforums.codeplex.com/releases/view/63550
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This isn’t the process you’re looking for
There was a fairly awesome pissing match between “Uncle” Bob Martin and, well, everyone, on Twitter today. Twitter isn’t a great venue for this kind of thing, because it’s hard to read and hard to make a solid point, but basically Bob suggested that you should do everything possible to make sure you have 100% test coverage. He was making the argument that this was the cheaper way to go for the long-term quality and maintainability of code (or at least, that’s what I interpreted it as, in 140 characters or less).
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New job at Microsoft (and see you at Mix!)
After almost a year and a half, I'm leaving my dev position in Server and Tools Online to be a program manager in the SQL Azure BI organization. My motivation for the change probably doesn't matter much to people reading this blog, but I will say that I'll greatly miss the people I worked with in STO. As a Web code monkey, it's not often that you get to work on super-high traffic apps (like the MSDN/TechNet forums) or build totally new stuff like the recognition/reputation service that you're already seeing in the code galleries. The recognition system is all Azure based, too, which was pretty neat.
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MySpace killed MySpace. Duh.
(This is a repost from my personal blog, but I figure the audience here is also, if not more, appropriate.)
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POP Forums v9 Beta 2 for ASP.NET MVC 3 posted to CodePlex!
Get the new bits here: http://popforums.codeplex.com/releases/view/60571
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POP Forums will be at Mix!
If you've never been to Mix, you're missing out on what is arguably one of the best conferences that Microsoft does. I'm not just saying that because I work here... I felt that way before, having been to most of them. The breadth of people and disciplines make it a really exciting event that pushes it well beyond the "Redmond bubble," as I like to call it. You should go.
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Lessons from rewriting POP Forums for MVC, open source-like
It has been a ton of work, interrupted over the last two years by unemployment, moving, a baby, failing to sell houses and other life events, but it's really exciting to see POP Forums v9 coming together. I'm not even sure when I decided to really commit to it as an open source project, but working on the same team as the CodePlex folks probably had something to do with it. Moving along the roadmap I set for myself, the app is now running on a quasi-production site... we launched MouseZoom last weekend. (That's a post-beta 1 build of the forum. There's also some nifty Silverlight DeepZoom goodness on that site.)
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Installing Visual Studio 2010 SP1 or Windows Phone tools in your VM (danger!)
If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you probably know that I tend to develop stuff in a Parallels VM on a Mac. It's how I roll. I like VM's because I can trash them and do really stupid things with beta software. That said, there is a pain point that doesn't seem that well documented when it comes to installing stuff in this scenario.
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The MVC3 special sauce in POP Forums
I was chatting with a friend about why, as much as I would rather not rewrite POP Forums for the bazillionth time, it has actually been a lot of fun, and smooth sailing on MVC. If you haven't been playing along at home, POP Forums is the forum app that I've been maintaining now since the days of ASP.old, in sites like CoasterBuzz. In late 2009, I decided I'd rewrite it from the ground up as an MVC app, but it was slow going after the birth of my child. But when I did find time to write code, especially in the last few months, it went relatively quickly because MVC is so flippin' easy to use. The first beta has been posted to CodePlex.
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POP Forums v9 Beta 1 for ASP.NET MVC 3 posted to CodePlex!
As promised, I posted a beta build of my forum app for ASP.NET MVC 3. Get the new goodies here: http://popforums.codeplex.com/releases/view/58228