Fixed 7z MIME type issues blocking downloads
My thanks to Corey Castillo for pointing out that my download links were broken for the files that I uploaded for my presentations for the Southern FL Code Camp. I about 2 years back switched to using 7-Zip for file archives naturally if I wish to allow people to download files with an extension of .7z I need to add that MIME Type to my server which for the record the MIME Type for *.7z is "application/x-7z-compressed". I know that know because I just finished adding it to my IIS for this server.
My Appearance at the 7th Annual South Florida Code Camp
So this weekend I had the pleasure of presenting two sessions at the South Florida Code Camp. My first session was entitled Strong Typed RIA Services and was about a design pattern that I proposed that heavily relied on generics and RIA Services to produce a pretty useful control design pattern. I am attaching the solution that demonstrates that code here. It is called RiaServicesViewModel.7z.
My next presentation was call "Dependency Properties can do what?" It was aimed at a more advanced audience that wanted to see some of the more interesting things that you could do with dependency properties. I also showed several code snippets and a project item template. I am attaching them all here.
RiaServicesViewModel
Infragistics.XamlTricks
Infragistics.AttachedBusinessLogic
the following file has 4 code snippets that are very useful for control and ViewModel development. To use them extract them to:
%HOMEPATH%\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Code Snippets\Visual C#\My Code Snippets\
MVVM Snippets
And the generic command template extracts to:
%HOMEPATH%\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Templates\ItemTemplates\Visual C#\
Generic Command
The box we think in
I have been wanting to talk about the means that I notice that many people go about solving programming problems. It seems that given that most of use have at our disposal we should inevitably arrive at very similar solutions to most problems.
I have only considered myself a programmer by profession for the last 3.5 years but I have been programming for over 10 now. I have always had nack for programming and even mo importantly I enjoy doing it. But I never thought that I would end up doing it for a living. The reason for this is that for the most part professional software development just isn't fun. I challenge anyone that is reading this to speak of the joys of regression testing or long term legacy system maintenance.
It is sad but true that most programmers by trade never get to know the joy of nurturing a concept from thought baby to it's graduation day as a real work application. Never get to take part in the first steps that the idea will take in a POC or be there to see it for the first time interact with the domain problem that it will hopefully grow up to solve. Or the pride that you take as your application or framework begins being consumed by those that were just waiting for something like it to come along to change their quality of life. ( ok I'm laying it on thick here)
I work with so many programmers that are very smart and have been building real world very well written applications as long as I have been alive. The more skilled (enterprise) programmers that i have run into that have survived large scale projects seem to always go to the same approach to solving a problem. Do what i have seen or read worked in the past. There is a natural reason for this people like a sure thing something that is known.
It is funny given how much and how often that software, tools, and frameworks change how terrified the average programmer I meet is of change even on the small scale.
I am going to be finishing this up eventually 
Heading to fladotnet code camp
I am really excited to be heading down to the fladotnet code camp, apart from the fact that it is a great camp by reputation it is also the furthest that I have gone to speak so far. I am currently sitting in Philly international about to board my plane. I will be presenting two session one for the first time (and first slot of the day at that). I think (and hope) that some of what I will be showing in my strong typed RIA Services talk will get people to try to use RIA Services in a manner other than just right out of box blindly. I will be putting up this API that I put together on codeplex when I get home from this event. If you are reading this and were at the event please give me some feedback.
My second talk is also aimed at getting people to consider different solutions that they could make work with the XAML platform. I have a few pretty interesting concepts that I will be demonstrating with attached dependency properties.
For anyone that knows me you know that I am a big silverlight guy so if your down at this event this Saturday please track me down and we can talk.
Heading to the New Jersey Microsoft Developer’s Group tonight.
I'll be up at the New Jersey Microsoft office tonight in Iselin, NJ for the user group meeting tonight. I can't stay long but if you know silverlight and want to talk stop by and say hi. website
Long Time No See
It sure has been a while since I have posted anything new on my blog but I am going to start up posing again pretty regularly. I am currently on the books for 3 events coming up and will be posting details on them shortly and a nice recap article of what I have been up to shortly.
Phone7ActionPack Sample 3 – Let there Bing Maps
So location controls are nice but I am sure that you would rather be able to show your users a map rather than just say here is a your Latitude & Longitude. This sample also talks about some of the other stuff that will be included with the release that isn't visual.
Phone 7 Action Pack Sample 2
If your gonna share this via twitter could you do me a favor and tag it with #wp7ap? Thanks!
So here is the second sample for the Phone 7 Action Pack. It centers around 2 different implementations of controls that help with location service interaction. Please let me know what you think.
The HD version of this is up on CodePlex
Let me know what you guys think I should add to the Phone7ActionPack
The Story Behind My Pseudo Arrest
OK, so the story behind getting arrested was that I had a ticket for letting my cars registration expire that I got right before my chemo started. Well the day before I got arrested I got a notice in the mail saying that there is a warrant for my arrest and to clear it up go to the local police station. So naturally I head right over and clear it up, the police woman that helped me said to make sure that I held onto the paperwork for a week. As she pointed out and I would soon learn it can take a while for a warrant to clear the system.
So when I was driving home from work with my carpool yesterday a police officer randomly ran my plate like they often do when they pull up behind you and BAM he sees the warrant and stops me. I got cuffed and put in the back of the car before I had time to even realize what was happening. While I was sitting in the car I was able to explain things to the police officer (who was for the record a really nice guy about the whole thing) about what had happened and directed him to the paperwork that the stated I had cleared up the warrant. At that point the tone of the whole thing changed and the two officers and I started joking around about the whole thing.
Grand total time arrested was about 5 minutes before the police officer jokingly said "OK Matt, I am officially unarresting you now".
Phone7ActionPack Preview Sample 1
So I have finally gotten around to putting together a sample of some of the work I am doing for Windows Phone 7. Today I want to introduce you to the Phone7ActionPack’s PhoneFileDataSourceControl and what you can do with it in your application. First off let’s understand that when you build an Application for Windows Phone 7 using Silverlight you will be reading and writing files with Isolated Storage if you choose to use the file system. Those of you that have used Isolated Storage with Silverlight will feel right at home here.
The PhoneFileDataSourceControl is designed to be a designer friendly control that will allow you to implement file access. It has a few key features including:
- Creating & deleting both files and directories with the aid of an Action.
- Returning a observable collection of all the files and directories in a given path
- Selectively control whether or not to show files and or directories in the given path
- Filter files returned in its collection by using a search pattern
- Each file/directory in the collection is wrapped with additional information such as the full path to the item, the name of the item, and if it is file or a directory. (More info will be provided down the line. Perhaps simple mime type info or file size)
All of the above functionality can be taken advantage of without writing any additional code.
The First video is the walk through showing what the finished product can do for you.
Phone7ActionPack Sample 1 Part 1 from Matt Van Horn on Vimeo.
Part one of the first sample for the Phone7ActionPack for Windows Phone 7
The Second Video is a walk through on how to create the sample application.
Phone7ActionPack Sample 1 Part 2 from Matt Van Horn on Vimeo.
Part two of the first sample for the Phone7ActionPack for Windows Phone 7
There is a 3rd Part of this video that I will post shortly.
Blogroll
- A Truly Primo Blog
- Chewru – The Restaurant Guru
- Cool Stuff With .Net
- craftlockian
- Speedline Solutions
Companies of note
Professional Groups
Twitter: phpn00b
- It just isn't the same being at Philly code camp without @rj_dudley
- @mvanhorn is the Matt Van Horn from http://t.co/usNdkCj1 I am not a Brogrammer and am working to bring more women into programming
- Just posted http://t.co/0V6ye8T3 first part in a series about getting top talent and keeping them happy
- @jasonfreedman wanted to share http://t.co/0V6ye8T3 with you as your recent letter was the tipping point in writing it.
- Dear god I miss living in the city if for no other reason than the fresh fruit every morning