Lance's Whiteboard

I went googling today looking for info on using WMI to script the configuration of Sql Server 2000 Reporting Services, and found this great post on OdeToCode.com by K. Scott Allen.

I frequently have coworkers asking where to start learning about Design Patterns.  Last year I dumped many of my links into a post, but its still easy to get lost when trying to get started. 

I  recently posted a CustomException CodeSmith template to the CodeSmith Template Forum.

Recently I was developing a Matrix layout report where the row headers repeated for a given value, but the user only wanted to see the first occurrance of each unique row heading value and leave the other row headings blank until the next new value.  In a tabular layout, I might have just added a new Group based upon the repeated value and displayed the heading above the set of related rows.  However, for a matrix report, that gets a bit too complicated due to the behavior of dynamic row headers and grouping, so I settled on dynamically changing the Visibility.Hidden propery based upon the following expression:

Today's announcement by IBM marks a shrewd reversal in its approach to patents.  Not only does it help them gain esteem in the Linux/Open source community, it empowers their equally massive consulting division to use, share, and dissiminate their knowledge more widely than before.  Worst-case scenario, IBM scales-down it's Patent-enforcement legal staff (and associated expenses), and scales-up it's consulting business (and associated profits).  Its likely that any miniscule losses in patent revenue will be greatly compensated by the up-tick in consulting hours.

Two of my favorite Microsoft blogs to read are Brad Abrams and Krzysztof Cwalina. 

Introduction

Microsoft now has a web-based version of their popular IM utility.
http://webmessenger.msn.com/

This is 100% Port-80 HTTP traffic, so you will have no problems with the corporate Firewall preventing you from doing IM!!!