Dime Casts - Great Ten Minute Development Tutorials

Derik Whittaker has started a great video tutorial site called Dime Casts.  The tutorials are just the right length to fit into a busy day. 

There are videos on LINQ2SQL, Extension Methods and Visual Studio just to name a few and more are being added often.   The videos are also downloadable in two resolutions or you can just watch them online.

Dime Casts are a great way to learn new technology ten minutes at a time.

If you use Twitter, don’t forget to follow DimeCastsDotNet.

Great New Podcast

I have listened to the new podcast Deep Fried Bytes and I have to say I have found another favorite podcast.   In Episode 2, they talk about interviewing and being interviewed.  I enjoyed listening to all of the stories, but have to agree with The Coding Geekette on not really caring for the comments of making interviewees cry.

Other new podcasts that are full of information

• Alt .NET Podcast
• Technology Round Table
• Stack Overflow

My top 6 tech podcasts at the moment

• .NET Rocks
• Hanselminutes
• Deep Fried Bytes
• The Thirsty Developer
• PowerScripting Podcast
• The Mike Tech Show

Here is my full list of podcasts.  These are the ones that I listen or have listened to and like.

Evernote Review

I started playing around with Evernote a couple of weeks ago after hearing about it on the Mike Tech Show and I have to say I am very impressed.  Evernote is a note clipping software that makes your notes available locally on your PC and on the web.  It is also available via mobile devices, but I do not use that feature at this time.

How it works

• Create an Evernote account online (at the moment, you have to request a beta invite - I waited about 1 week)
• Install the client on your PC or laptop (big EXE, but worth it)
• Start taking notes

It is nice because anything you add to the web version syncs to your desktop client as soon as it is started and visa-versa.  I love this because I have always wanted an application that I could access from anywhere.  It is nice to have your notes literally at your fingertips.

Another cool feature is the search.  When you search for a word, it searches not only the text of your notes, but the pictures too.  Now that is cool.  The best scenario I can think of for picture search - your in a meeting and your boss draws out the flow of an application.  Take a picture with your camera phone, upload it to Evernote and it is instantly searchable.  One thing I have found is it only seems to work with real words, so if you are searching for ‘1234′, it does not seem to find it in a picture.

All in all, Evernote looks like a great product and I will likely keep using it.  There are many more features available that are not mentioned here.  As I encounter and use them, I will update this post.

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Related Content

• What is Evernote? - Detailed information on the beta
• Mike Tech Show #181 - Mike Smith talks about the Evernote beta
• Evernote Blog - Great way to keep up with new features
• Evernote on Twitter - Another way to keep up with new features

Great SQL Server Blogs

I am always looking for good resources to help me do my job. In this post I will list some SQL Server based blogs that have helped me a log lately.

• Joe Webb - Musings and observations about SQL Server
• Pinal Dave - SQL Server Authority
• Denis Gobo - SQL Blog
• Kalen Delaney - SQL Blog
• Simon Sabin - Blog on SQL Server stuff
• The Database Programmer - All things related to database applications
• Jeff Smith - Random Thoughts and Cartesian Products w/ MS SQL Server

The above blogs are great resources for SQL Server and I highly recommend them.

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Nice WPF Application

Josh Smith has written a great WPF podcatcher application called Podder. I have really enjoyed playing around with the application. I next intend to read Josh’s articles on Code Project where he goes over how he coded the application.

Podder is very easy to use and understand.

When you first open the application, it is set to look at the episodes that you have set as your favorites. You can select a specific podcast from the drop down list and you can also select to just cycle thru all of the episodes in the list. It is very easy to mark which episodes you have already listened to as well as your favorites.

It is also easy to add new podcasts. Simply type (or paste) the url to the feed of the podcast you want to subscribe to.

All in all, I have found this application very useful. It makes it easier to keep up with the many podcasts that I listen to.

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Related Content
Introducing Podder: the WPF podcast player
Podder v2 Beta
The WPF Podcatcher Series - Part 1 (Introducing Podder)

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PowerShell Podcasts

This week I have listened to a couple of great podcasts on PowerShell/PowerGUI.  DotNet Rocks, DNR TV and Run As Radio have all recently interviewed Kirk Munroe from Quest Software.  In the podcasts, both the administrative and development aspects of PowerShell are covered.

• Kirk Munro on Powershell and PowerGUI (.NET Rocks)
• Kirk Munro on PowerGUI (DNR TV)
• Kirk Munro on PowerShell and PowerGUI (Run as Radio)

I highly recommend giving them a listen.

Also, it looks like there is a podcast geared toward PowerShell.

• The PowerScripting Podcast

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Other Links
Kirk Munro’s Blog
MS Windows PowerShell Page
PowerGui Home Page

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Happy Learning!

Some Good Development Article Series

The Internet is flooded with resources for application development. Below are some recent article series that I have found informative.

The 4 Guys from Rolla always have great articles. One of their latest series of articles deal with Using ASP.NET 3.5’s ListView and DataPager Controls.

I have not had a chance to really sit down with it, but F# is definitely getting some exposure on the Internet. Dustin Campbell has a great F# /Functional Programming category. It contains some great information to enable someone to start learning this new language.

Another aspect of application development that I have not had a chance to work with, but am interested in is Test Driven Development. Buddy Lindsey has a great article series titled TDD For Beginners. It starts from the basics of what TDD is and how it works and gets more advanced from there.

I am always looking to better my C# skills. Since I am a beginner C# developer, I love articles and series of articles on C# in general. Joel Cochran has a great series of articles titled Upgrade Your C# Skills. Below are the articles included in the series.

• Upgrade your C# Skills part 1 - Extension Methods
• Upgrade your C# Skills part 2 - Compiler Inference, Object Initializers, and Anonymous Types
• Upgrade your C# Skills part 3 - Lambda Expressions
• Upgrade your C# Skills part 4 - LINQ to Objects

For beginners tutorials/article series, the BlackWasp web site is always providing some kind of series. The latest series is titled C# Object-Oriented Programming. It is a very good place to get started with C# or refresh your memory of the basics.

Eric Lippert has a good series on Immutability in C#. There is some great information provided in this series.

Happy learning and Happy programming!!!

"How Do I?" Videos

I was perusing around MSDN and found a ton of “How Do I” videos. I knew MSDN had webcasts, but I have never seen these little gems. They look to be an average of 7-15 minutes long and come in several video and audio formats.

• “How Do I?” Videos for Devices
• “How Do I?” Videos for ASP.NET
• “How Do I?” Videos for Visual Basic
• “How Do I?” Videos for Native Coding
• “How Do I?” Videos for Visual C#
• “How Do I?” Videos for Security
• “How Do I?” Videos for Silverlight
• “How Do I?” Videos for Visual Studio
• “How Do I?” Videos for Visual Studio Tools for Office
• “How Do I?” Videos for Team Suite
• “How Do I?” Videos for Windows Forms
• “How Do I?” Videos for ASP.NET AJAX

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Happy Learning!!!

LINQ Samples and Resources

LINQ stands for Language INtegrated Query. It is a native querying syntax that allows languages such as C# and VB.NET to filter and enumerate through collections. For example, arrays, data sets and relational databases.

Below are a couple of simple examples as well as some great resources.

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Sample #1

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

namespace LinqTest

{

    class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            string[] states = { “TX”,“LA”,“FL”,“AZ”,“TN”,“AK”};

            var stateList =

                from s in states

                select s;

            Console.WriteLine(“State List:”);

            foreach (var state in stateList)

            {

                Console.WriteLine(state);

            }

        }

    }

}

Result

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Sample #2

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

namespace LinqTest

{

    class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            string[] states = {“TX”,“LA”,“FL”,“AZ”,“TN”,“AK”};

            var stateList =

                from s in states

                where s.Substring(0,1) == “A”

                select s;

            Console.WriteLine(“State List:”);

            foreach (var state in stateList)

            {

                Console.WriteLine(state);

            }

        }

    }

}

Result

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Great Resources for LINQ

• LINQ Articles from Scott Guthrie
• Visual Studio 2008 Samples
• 101 LINQ Samples
• Understanding LINQ (C#) - via Amro Khasawneh (Code Project)

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Good Podcast Episode on IT Tools

I listen to podcasts like .NET Rocks, Hanselminutes and Run as Radio on a weekly basis.  This week I am listening to last week’s episodes.  Last week’s episode of Run as Radio was very informative to me because I love to hear about tools for developers and IT pros. 

The interview was with Doug Toombs who is very knowledgeble about his tools. They talked in depth about the following tools:

• FileZilla
• WireShark
• WinDump
• NGrep
• SIW
• TrueCrypt
• SyncBack
• TestDisk

I thouroughly enjoyed the episode and recommend giving it a listen.

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