Completely unrelated and unlike the portion of a movie I may have seen part of, I just made a tiny app to help me remember if my car is in the driveway or the street. The town I live in is a bit crazy about writing tickets right at 2am if your car is on the street, and I always forget, so this might save me some money. Hopefully…
http://code.google.com/p/dudewheresmycar/
Created it with C# and WPF, source code available on the Google code site.
That’s right, Dot Net Dawson is now Dot Net Dawson, MCTS. Boo ya!
My preparation was a bit dubious… I bought the Measure Up practice exams, but there weren’t many questions and they were all easy. I “memorized” them in about an hour of studying (the questions are about what I do everyday, so I knew 90% of the answers already) then promptly signed up for the test.
I was really surprised. I breezed through the test, a fifth of which was jQuery related questions, and half of which were practically straight off the Measure Up practice exams. Almost all of the questions tested good, relevant practices that I use in my every day programming life. I didn’t have to know random junk that someone back in the 90′s used and probably won’t use again unless they’re working on a legacy system.
Moral of the story? The Measure Up exam is well worth it.
Here’s some links for ya:
Microsoft 70-515 – http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-515
Measure Up – http://www.measureup.com/catalog/product.aspx?vid=5&cid=All%20MS%20Practice%20Tests&tid=94&pid=2462
I also read through Niall Merrigan’s summary posts of MSDN and various articles pertaining to the exam:
Post 1 of 6: http://www.certsandprogs.com/2010/03/mcts-web-applications-net-4-70-515.html#axzz0itb23Kze
Post 2 of 6: http://www.certsandprogs.com/2010/03/mcts-web-applications-net-4-70-515_22.html#axzz0itbEIovG
Post 3 of 6: http://www.certsandprogs.com/2010/03/mcts-web-applications-net-4-70-515_5119.html#axzz0oCbfdXaw
Post 4 of 6: http://www.certsandprogs.com/2010/03/mcts-web-applications-net-4-70-515_7210.html#axzz0oCbhIwtI
Post 5 of 6: http://www.certsandprogs.com/2010/03/mcts-web-applications-net-4-70-515_23.html#axzz0oCbkS7R4
Post 6 of 6: http://www.certsandprogs.com/2010/03/mcts-web-applications-net-4-70-515_1117.html#axzz0oCblHj8M
Best of luck!
Categories: Uncategorized
I’ve got a build server set up for us running CruiseControl.NET. It pulls our latest code from a Kiln (HG) repository, builds, publishes, and will soon run some unit and integration tests.
Today I created our first branch in one of our projects, and CC.NET immediately broke.
I solved this by specifying the branch our CC.NET should use. Open your config file and add the following to your source control block:
<branch>default</branch>
I wanted it building the default branch, so I put in “default”. Replace it with whatever branch you use.
I was working with Kiln today (as I do every day), and I got this exception . . .
push creates new remote branches
. . . when I was trying to push some changes I had made. Yes, I had created a new branch. Yet it wouldn’t let me push my changes.
Why? Probably because it hates me (if you have a better answer, please comment–I am genuinely interested in knowing).
I got past this by forcing it to push.
Assuming you’re using TortoiseHg, open up your Repository Explorer. In the “Synchronize” menu, check “Force Push” at the bottom. Now when you try to push, it should go through without complaining. After you push, I’d recommend un-checking “Force Push” because it is good for it to warn you about situations you get yourself in to (not having latest, unknowingly creating branches, etc).
Just signed up for my next Microsoft exam on Friday: TS: Web Apps Development with MS .NET Framework 4. I’m actually excited about this one–it leverages a lot of what I use in my every day work flow, so it shouldn’t be as much of a challenge as my last exam. If I don’t post about how it went, it’s most likely because I failed it and feel ashamed. 
Here’s to hoping I post!
I had the distinct and bewildering pleasure to crash my Google Chrome browser a number of times while developing for a client.
Of course, it was entirely my own fault… boo hoo, read on.
My code looked something like this:
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function () {
var newDiv = { timestamp: 2, text: };
var newDivHTML = + newDiv.timestamp + + newDiv.text + ;
var wasInserted = false;
$().each(function () {
var timestamp = $(this).attr();
if (timestamp >= newDiv.Timestamp) {
$(this).before(newDivHTML);
wasInserted = true;
return;
}
});
if (!wasInserted) {
$().append(newDivHTML);
}
});
</script>
<div id="#results">
<div class="result" timestamp="1">Foo</div>
<div class="result" timestamp="3">Baz</div>
</div>
It looks through the list of results to figure out where to put the new div. This example is simplified; I was doing this as part of dynamically loading in a lot of information. It’s not the best sorting algorithm, but it should work fine, right?
Wrong. Every time my code ran, it would crash Google Chrome with that unfriendly, unhelpful error page that is a big unhappy dead folder.
Turns out it was because I forgot the “false” on my return statement:
return false;
That fixed it. Apparently Chrome has trouble (rightly so, in my mind) with adding stuff to the collection you are iterating over.
Makes sense, and now I can move on.
Categories: Uncategorized
Getting the first day of the previous month is cake in JavaScript:
// get today’s date
var ourDate = new Date();
//roll it back to the last day of last month
ourDate.setDate(-1);
//now that we’re in the proper month, let’s go back to the first day…
ourDate.setDate(0);
// and now we have it
alert(ourDate);
Easy.
