Application Development/Design

• Google Gadget – MD5/SHA1 – Gadget to calculate MD5 or SHA1 Hash.
• Loop through parameters passed to a Javascript function – Good overview of the Arguments object.
• Tutorial Video(s): Exploring .Net 4 Features – Named and Optional Parameters  | TFS and Visual Studio 2010 Part 1
• Article(s) from Code project:  What Happens When You Use ByVal or ByRef

SQL Server, Compliance and PowerShell

• Code that Writes Code – Buck Woody gives us a great post on setting up test environments.
• When to use SET vs SELECT when assigning values to variables – “SET and SELECT may be used to assign values to variables through T-SQL. Both fulfill the task, but in some scenarios unexpected results may be produced.”
• Comma Separated Values (CSV) from Table Column – Pinal Dave provides a script for dealing with Comma Separated Values.
• How to Get Table Sizes in SQL Server – Keith Elder shares a great tip.
• Pivoting the Dynamic Way – A great article from the November 2009 SQL Server Magazine.

Community/Technology Events & Training

• Houston Area User Group Meetings – This is my monthly listing of Houston area user group meetings. 

Internet, Software and General Technology

• Must-have iPhone and iPod Touch Apps For Newbies – Nice list of apps here.

Blogging and Social Networking

• Goodbye Twitter/FaceBook Integration, Hello Readability – Joe Webb shares his adventures in Social Media status updates.
• SQL Server Presenters on Twitter – Jeremiah Peschka provides a great list of Twitter accounts to consider following.

Self-Improvement, Productivity and Career

• What Are You Putting Off? How to Get On With It in 3 Steps – “The problem is, the more we put something off, the harder it is to get going on it. ”
• Seven Secrets of Good Presentations – Great pointers for presentations.  

Health, Fitness and Recipes

• Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious – “…both in popular imagination and in scientific circles, it has been a given that exercise enhances mood.”

Sports, Entertainment and Everything Else

• Smoke trail left by brilliant meteor – This is 8 levels of awesome!
• Saturn’s Flickering Lights Caught on Video – As on Earth, electrical fields above Saturn interact with atmospheric chemicals to produce shimmering lights above the polar regions.
• Telescope Buying Guide – A series of articles with great advice on buying a telescope.
• Sunday Conversation: The case for Pluto – Great post on the “planet” Pluto.
• Dilberts I Found Funny:  11-24 | 11-25 | 11-26
• Movie Trailers: The Lovely Bones Royal Premiere Featurette

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Great Link Blog Sources

• The Simple Dollar – Weekly Roundup
• John Clayton – Weekly Web Nuggets
• Jason Haley – Interesting Finds
• Alvin Ashcraft – Morning Dew
• Steve Pietrek – Links
• Rick Minerich – F# Discoveries This Week
• Arjan Zuidhof – LinkBlog
• Mike Gunderloy – Double-Shot
• David Vidmar – Links of the week
• Sam Gentile – New and Notable
• Craig Bailey – On Microsoft
• Chris Alcock – Morning Brew
• Greg Duncan – A Feed You Should Read

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Happy Surfing.

Polymorphism is one of the main characteristics of Object Oriented Programming (OOP). Put simply, it allows an object to behave in various ways depending on the manner in which it is used. For example, you could have a method execute differently based on the type and/or number of parameters passed to it. Method Overloading is what makes this example possible.  To accomplish Method Overloading, a developer can define two or more methods with the same name. Each method will take a different set of parameters.  The parameter combination or signature, is what the compiler uses to determine which method to use.

Good examples of Method Overloading in the .NET Framework include (but are not limited to) the Console.WriteLine() and Substring() methods.  You can pass different types to the Console.WriteLine() method and it will work because there are variations of the methods that will accept the different types.

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Example Program (click icon below)

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Result

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The main advantage of Method Overloading is code readability. Programming languages that do not allow Method Overloading require the developer to create totally separate methods for each variation of the input.  Blackwasp Consulting states the following example: in the ANSI C programming language to truncate a value you would use trunc, truncf or truncl according to the data type being rounded.  In C#, method overloading allows you to always call Math.Truncate.

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Additional Information

• C# Method Overloading – BlackWasp Consulting
• Guidelines for Method Overloading – Dave Donaldson
• Method overloading – CSharp .Net-tutorials
• Method overloading in C# .Net – Coder Source

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^..^

There are tons of great blogs out there. Each month I will shine a spotlight on blogs that I access often and find useful. Hopefully, you will find something of use too.

I pick one blog from each category. The categories include Application Development, Database Development, Science/Technology, Productivity and Health.

Application Development – Claudio Lassala | Great blog for application development information. Claudio is an excellent speaker and he always posts the materials from his presentations.

Database Development – Buck Woody | Buck is a Program Manager at Microsoft and provides some very useful SQL Server information.

Science/Technology – How-To Geek | Computer help site that provides how-to articles on everything from operating systems to software to browsers.

Productivity/LifeHacks – Lifehacker | Lots of productivity tips that help you get things done.

Health/Fitness – Web MD Health and Fitness | Good resource for everyday health.

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Until next month…

Application Development/Design

• Reading Code is Key to Writing Good Code – “I realize it’s probably obvious, but I’m going to say it anyhow – a great way to start reading other’s code is to pull down an Open Source project and dive in.”
• Announcing: Reflector Addin Toolkit on CodePlex – Looks like some useful tools.
• PDC09 Session Downloader – If you were like me and not able to attend PDC, Frank La Vigne provides a way to download session videos.
• PDC09 RSS feed file for your podcast catcher of choice – Another great way to obtain PDC content.
• Tutorial Video(s): MS Build Part 2 
• Article(s) from Code project:  A C# Combinations Iterator

SQL Server, Compliance and PowerShell

• A Puzzle to Find Index Size for Each Index on Table – Pinal Dave provides a Stored Procedure that lets us find out some basic details of any table.
• GUIDS: Not Necessarily Unique  – “So, you thought that GUIDs were supposed to be unique, eh? You aren’t alone.”

Community/Technology Events & Training

• Houston Area User Group Meetings – This is my monthly listing of Houston area user group meetings. 
• DevConnections Slides and Samples Posted – Rick Strahl posts demos from DevConnections  
• PDC09 Session Video List  – Greg Duncan has listed the PDC09 session videos. Thanks Greg!

Internet, Software and General Technology

• Your Office in the Clouds: The Best Online Virtual Desktops – I’m not sure I have a need for this, but the concept is pretty slick.
• Sumatra 1.0 is a Blazing Fast Replacement for Adobe Reader – I think both Foxit and Sumatra work pretty well as an Adobe Reader substitute.

Self-Improvement, Productivity and Career

• 10 Best Productivity Books of 2009 – “These are 10 books I read this year that made a powerful impression.”
• Seven Ways to Create More Time In Your Day – “Do you ever feel like you have way too much time on your hands, and far too little work and life to fit into it? Unless you’re a teen on summer break, I reckon it’s unlikely!”
• 5 Things You Can Start Doing Today to Change Your Life – “Perhaps the most important thing you can do to improve your life is simply to do things. To take action and learn along the way.”
• The 40/30/30 Rule – “When you prepare for anything in life, only 40% of the preparation is physical – the rest is mental. Thirty percent of preparation is technical skill and experience, and the second thirty percent is the willingness to take risks.”

Sports, Entertainment and Everything Else

• Leonid over Mono Lake  – Awesome Astronomy Picture of the Day.
• Starting February, LOST Will Air Tuesdays!! – Last season of Lost…
• Star Trek Gag Reel – Funny stuff
• Dilberts I Found Funny: 11-16 | 11-18 | 11-22
• Movie Trailers:  Daybreakers | The Lovely Bones

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Great Link Blog Sources

• The Simple Dollar – Weekly Roundup
• Jeremiah Peschka – Links for the Week
• John Clayton – Weekly Web Nuggets
• Jason Haley – Interesting Finds
• Alvin Ashcraft – Morning Dew
• Steve Pietrek – Links
• Arjan Zuidhof – LinkBlog
• Mike Gunderloy – Double-Shot
• David Vidmar – Links of the week
• Sam Gentile – New and Notable
• Craig Bailey – On Microsoft
• Chris Alcock – Morning Brew
• Greg Duncan – A Feed You Should Read

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Happy Surfing.

Application Development/Design

• Pluralsight Training Videos on .Net Reflector |  Query Editor: Writing Queries, Part 1 – More Reflector goodness from Jason Haley.
• 45+ Excellent Code Snippet Resources and Repositories – Great list of online snippet libraries.
• WorldOnWindows | .Net Developer Cheat Sheets – “A .net developer should never be left without a helpful arsenal of cheat Sheets at his/her disposal, so here’s a helpful collection to help you along, adorn the walls of your power-cubicles, and get you started on the way to world domination!”
• New tool aids .Net developers in writing Linux, Mac OS X apps – “Not all .Net developers are writing Windows apps. Some (besides Miguel de Icaza and his merry band of Mono folks) may be interested in writing Linux, Unix and Mac OS X apps, too.”
• Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code – “…the web is full of free resources that can turn you into a programmer in no time.”
• Tutorial Video(s):  Debugging in .NET | Visual Studio 2010 Videos | ASPNET 4 Videos
• Article(s) from Code project:  C# FileAssociation Class

SQL Server, Compliance and PowerShell

• Do Scalar UDFs give SQL Server a Bad Name? – “[SQL Server] continues to ignore issues such as the performance of scalar UDFs. The problem is essentially that the optimizer deals with them very inefficiently.”

 Community/Technology Events & Training

• Houston Area User Group Meetings – This is my monthly listing of Houston area user group meetings. 
• Houston Dynamic Languages User Group – Looks like a new tech user group for Houston. Very nice!
• Practical F# – Ryan Riley’s presentation from the 2009 Houston TechFest.

Internet, Software and General Technology

• Cool Command line utility of the day: clip – “This is a pretty cool Windows Vista/Win7 (and probably post Vista server OS’s too) utility that pipes into the clipboard.”
• Panda Cloud Antivirus Available for Download - “Panda Cloud, the constantly updated, cloud-run antivirus app that promises almost real-time protection from burgeoning web threats, is out of beta and available for a free download.”

Self-Improvement, Productivity and Career

• Low-tech Love: The Sketchbook – “The sketchbook is a free space for your ideas to play, unbound by lines and ruled margins.”
• The Importance of a Weekly Review – “Even though the impulse is to run as fast as you can to keep up, sometimes the best thing you can do is stop, see where you are, and adjust the course of a runaway train.”
• Eleven Myths of De-Cluttering - “Here’s a list of some myths of de-cluttering that make it harder to get rid of stuff.”

Health, Fitness and Recipes

• 7 Healthy Foods That Will Fill You Up and Prevent Overeating – “There are nutrient-filled foods that will keep you full for a long time and quite easy to find at any local grocery store. If you eat these better quality foods, you won’t need to overeat and frankly, you may not be as tempted by the glazed donuts that Marcy brought into the office.”

Sports, Entertainment and Everything Else

• ‘Significant Amount’ of Water Found on Moon – Very big news in the Space Exploration sector.
• Dilberts I Found Funny: 11-12 | 11-13
• Movie Trailers:  Clash of the Titans

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Great Link Blog Sources

• The Simple Dollar – Weekly Roundup
• John Clayton – Weekly Web Nuggets
• Jason Haley – Interesting Finds
• Alvin Ashcraft – Morning Dew
• Steve Pietrek – Links
• Arjan Zuidhof – LinkBlog
• Michael Koby – Daily Links
• Mike Gunderloy – Double-Shot
• David Vidmar – Links of the week
• Sam Gentile – New and Notable
• Craig Bailey – On Microsoft
• Chris Alcock – Morning Brew
• Darren Stokes – Visual Studio Links
• Greg Duncan – A Feed You Should Read

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Happy Surfing.

Application Development/Design

• ReSharper 5.0 and Visual Studio 2010 – .NET Developer Tools – David Hayden highly recommends using the Resharper nightly builds with VS 2010 Beta.
• Recommended books – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 – Roy Osherove goes over books he likes.
• Visual Studio 2010 Power +25 with PowerCommands 10.0 – Nice tools.
• XAML: Gradients – “Gradients are a good way to make your application more visually interesting. They turn a flat solid color into something more natural and appealing to the eye by creating an illusion of light and shadow.”
• Stack Overflow Careers: Amplifying Your Awesome – Interesting new service from Stack Overflow.
• November’s Toolbox Column Now Online – I always look forward to Scott Mitchell’s toolbox column each month.
• Tutorial Video(s): IronRuby  

SQL Server, Compliance and PowerShell

• SQL Server 2008 Diagnostic Information Queries – “…a set of pretty heavily commented queries that are very useful for detecting and diagnosing many common performance issues with SQL Server 2008.”

 Community/Technology Events & Training

• Houston Area User Group Meetings – This is my monthly listing of Houston area user group meetings. 

Internet, Software and General Technology

• Motorola DROID review – Nice long review of the new device.
• iPhone vs DROID multitouch keyboard showdown (video) – “…while Android 2.0 and the DROID’s hardware support multitouch, the device itself doesn’t do multitouch out-of-the-box, and the soft keyboard suffers mightily for it.”

Self-Improvement, Productivity and Career

• 11 Ways to Think Outside the Box – This is a great list. I need to take some of these pointers.
• 2 Tricks That Help Overcome Procrastination – Fear is my biggest reason of procrastination, so I really need to pay attention to #1.
• Eight Tips for Feeling More Energetic – “Feeling energetic is a key to feeling happy.”
• LiveMeeting Tips and Tricks – Great tips for people that use LiveMeeting.
• 7 Must Read Productivity Steps to Finally Getting Things Done – “…nothing changes until you change.”
• 12 Lists That Help You Get Things Done – “There are a lot of different kinds of lists besides your task or to-do list that can help you be more productive.”

Health, Fitness and Recipes

• Recipes:  Oatmeal-Crusted Chicken Tenders | Black Bean Burrito Bake

Sports, Entertainment and Everything Else

• Huge Galaxy Cluster Hints at Universe’s Skeleton – “A gigantic, previously unknown set of galaxies has been found in the distant universe, shedding light on the underlying skeleton of the cosmos.”
• MESSENGER Rewrites Mercury Textbooks Even Before Entering Orbit – “As MESSENGER zoomed toward Mercury for its third flyby, it was commanded to rotate in a maneuver that would help it test a surprising result from the second flyby.”
• SPACE.com — New Type of Supernova Discovered – “A new type of supernova has been discovered in which helium detonates on the surface of a white dwarf star.”
• Top Cult Shows: Firefly – I totally agree…
• Dilberts I Found Funny:  11-02
• Movie Trailers: Planet 51 | Avatar

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Great Link Blog Sources

• The Simple Dollar – Weekly Roundup
• John Clayton – Weekly Web Nuggets
• Jason Haley – Interesting Finds
• Alvin Ashcraft – Morning Dew
• Steve Pietrek – Links
• Arjan Zuidhof – LinkBlog
• Michael Koby – Daily Links
• Mike Gunderloy – Double-Shot
• David Vidmar – Links of the week
• Sam Gentile – New and Notable
• Craig Bailey – On Microsoft
• Chris Alcock – Morning Brew
• Darren Stokes – Visual Studio Links
• Greg Duncan – A Feed You Should Read

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Happy Surfing.

For people (like myself) who could not be present at SQL Pass 2009, I have listed some great recaps and live blogs below.

Michelle Ufford – Live Blog Posts

• Live Blogging: Keynote at PASS, Day 1
• Live Blogging: Keynote at PASS, Day 2
• Live Blogging: Keynote at PASS, Day 3

Pinal Dave – Recaps

• SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 1
• SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 2
• SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 3
• SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 4

Brent Ozar – Live Blog posts

• #SQLPASS Keynote Day 1 Liveblog
• #SQLPASS Keynote Day 2
• #SQLPASS Keynote Day 3 Liveblog

Jack Corbett – Daily Recaps

• My First PASS Experiences
• Let the Learning Begin
• PASS Summit Day 2 – What More Can I Learn
• PASS Summit Day 3 – Brain on Overload
• PASS Summit 2009 – Wrap-up – What’s the Value?

Denny Cherry – Recap

• #sqlpass is over. Some thought, comments, and reviews

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Until next time…

I was researching timers the other day and realized that there are three variations in the .NET Framework.

The three types of timers are explained below.

1 – System.Timers.Timer

The System.Timers.Timer class timer is considered a server-based timer that was designed and optimized for use in multithreaded environments. It can be accessed safely from multiple threads.

Source Code

 

Output

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2 – System.Threading.Timer

The System.Threading.Timer class timer uses a TimerCallBack Delegate to specify the associated methods. The methods do not execute in the thread that created the timer; they execute in a separate thread that is automatically allocated by the system.

Source Code

 

Output

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3 – Windows.Forms.Timer

The Windows.Forms.Timer class works synchronously with the Windows Form, so that it will not interrupt any operations. It initializes on the UI thread.

Source Code

 

Output

   

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There are three choices for timers in .NET.  It just depends on what you want to do.

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More Information

• Comparing the Timer Classes in the .NET Framework Class Library
• System.Timers.Timer vs System.Threading.Timer
• Working with Timer Control in VB.NET

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Until next time…

Application Development/Design

• Unit Testing: An Introduction – Great TDD overview from Deborah Kurata.
• 14 Microsoft Expression Web 3 Articles and Tips you should read – Good list of resources.
• VS 2010 Intellisense Improvements – Intellisense rocks!
• A Better Developer – "There’s a peer-pressure that comes with this (or any) industry to be noticed, but ultimately, the question we, as developers, should all be asking is ‘does this make me a better developer?’ Answer that question, and you’ll know what’s worth giving your time to."
• A Feed You Should Read #9 – 10-4 - "Today’s ‘feed you should read’ is another one of those ‘a feed you should watch’ feeds and is in honor of this past week’s release of Visual Studio 2010 and /Net 4.0 Beta 2."
• Channel 9 Learning Center – Just Launched! – Looks like a good resource.
• The Weekly Source Code 46 – Jeff Key rocks Taskbar Meters that Monitor your Windows 7 CPU and Memory and Disk in the Taskbar
• 17 Websites for Sharing Programming Knowledge – Great list!
• New Official jQuery Podcast Announced – Very cool!
• SharePoint 2007 Posts: Recap – Good Sharepoint content.
• Tutorial Video(s):  AutoMapper | SQL Injection Defense
• Article(s) from Code project: C# Language Essentials for the Beginner

SQL Server, Compliance and PowerShell

• Get database size With T-SQL and MySQL – Nice to know.
• Snippet(s): Table Row in String

 Community/Technology Events & Training

• Houston Area User Group Meetings – This is my monthly listing of Houston area user group meetings. 
• Tulsa TechFest is almost here! – Sounds like a great dev event.

Internet, Software and General Technology

• Tips and Tricks: Making the Most of Google Calendar – Good tips for GCal users.

Blogging and Social Networking

• How to Use Twitter Lists – Brent Ozar gives a great explanation of Twitter lists.

Self-Improvement, Productivity and Career

• 14 Ways a Notebook in Your Pocket Can Save You Money – "Here are fourteen ways I use that notebook to directly save money."
• 7 Must Read Productivity Steps to Finally Getting Things Done – "…implementing these steps will help you increase your output if you implement them towards the tasks that you’re passionate about."
• Ten Tricks for Staying Warm This Winter Without Huge Energy Bills – "…since I work from home, I have to utilize lots of different tricks to ensure that we’re not burning too much energy just to keep the house warm."

Health, Fitness and Recipes

• The Anti-Fast Food Diet – "This is the Anti-Fast Food Diet — a way to not only lose weight and get healthier, but to change your life to one of simplicity, moderation, and joy."
• Onion Tears No More – I need to try this next time I chop onions.

Sports, Entertainment and Everything Else

• Oldest Dog, Nearly 21, Still Jumps On Sofa – I love this story.
• Top 5 underdog shows on TV – I like 3 out of the 5.
• Dilberts I Found Funny: 10/28 | 10/31 | 11/01
• Movie Trailers:  Sherlock Holmes | 2012 

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Great Link Blog Sources

• Brent Ozar – Weekly Links Recap
• The Simple Dollar – Weekly Roundup
• Jeremiah Peschka – Links for the Week
• John Clayton – Weekly Web Nuggets
• Jason Haley – Interesting Finds
• Alvin Ashcraft – Morning Dew
• Steve Pietrek – Links
• Arjan Zuidhof – LinkBlog
• Michael Koby – Daily Links
• Mike Gunderloy – Double-Shot
• David Vidmar – Links of the week
• Sam Gentile – New and Notable
• Craig Bailey – On Microsoft
• Chris Alcock – Morning Brew
• Darren Stokes – Visual Studio Links
• Greg Duncan – A Feed You Should Read

–

Happy Surfing.

There are tons of great blogs out there. Each month I will shine a spotlight on blogs that I access often and find useful. Hopefully, you will find something of use too.

I pick one blog from each category. The categories include Application Development, Database Development, Science/Technology, Productivity and Health.

Application Development – StackOverflow | Great site for Application Developers to ask questions and get answers. This site has been a lifesaver for me more than once…

Database Development – SQLServerPedia | All things SQL Server. Copious amounts of informative articles as well as podcasts.

General Science/Technology – ChronSciGuy | I enjoy reading Eric’s posts each day. He provides overall Science content from hurricanes to space travel to what it takes to grow tomatoes fast.

Productivity/LifeHacks – Lifehack Stepcase | This is a site that produces top-notch productivity articles.

Health/Fitness – Daily Burn | Good fitness/food log that is accessible via the internet as well as an iPhone app. The iPhone barcode scanner application is pretty cool.

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Until next month…