I haven't used VSS since 2007, but good to see an "end of life" plan being developed to finally get developers off it.  The problem I've seen before is that TFS just plain costs too much.  This drives people to other solutions like Subversion and Git

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/infoworld/20090930/tc_infoworld/93983_1

I've just found a solution to a problem I was having.  Using SL2 when adding a service reference to my WCF service, my project compiles fine, but does not run.  I get the error:

"Unrecognized element '' in service reference configuration. Note that only a subset of the Windows Communication Foundation configuration functionality is available in Silverlight."

It turns out this is only a problem on Windows 7 rc. In your client side service reference file, something like MyServiceReference.ClientConfig, you'll have:

The fix is to remove the <security> element above that is circled.  Apparently this is not valid and only happens on Windows 7 RC.

I have a nice low-end Dell PowerEdge SC1430 server that I run out of my house to host some testing and development sites.  It's running Windows Server 2008 with SQL Server 2008 and is set up as a web server.  This has happen a few times now but I forget how to fix it every time, so I'm blogging about it.  I just reinstalled SQL 2008 because I botched it up somehow and it's sometimes easier to just start over.  After reininstalling and installing the server packs, I restored my databases and was back in action -- at least locally.  My IIS sites were running great.  So today I try to connect to my SQL Server 2008 instance through my laptop and SSMS and I'm shut out - connection failed.  I figure it's a firewall issue.  Nope, I already have port 1433 opened on both machines.  Some googling led to me a "allow remote connections" checkbox in the server instance properties.  Nope, already checked.  After an hour of racking my brain, I remembered one last thing -  enable the TCP/IP protocol on the SQL Server!

And bingo.  It works.

So, the next time I install a new SQL Server and need to allow remote TCP/IP access to it (through SSMS or a tool like SQL Compare), I'll take the following steps:

1.  Allow access to TCP port 1433 access on both the client and server machines through Windows Firewall (or whatever firewall that is used)

2.  In the properties of the server instance, under Connections, check the "Allow remote connections to this server":

3.  Enable TCP/IP access in the SQL Server Configuration Manager.

Hope this helps someone who was stuck like me.

Scott

 

 

VS2010 beta 1 and .net fx 4 ships!  I just downloaded it from MSDN.  Going to open up a project and see how it goes.

Here is a link for a first look of Visual Studio 2010

I just downloaded TweetDeck and signed in.   There is a problem that I just figured out how to solve.  The TweetDeck icon appears in the taskbar, but TweekDeck is nowhere to be found.  I am running a dual monitor setup and maybe that has something to do with it, but if you hover over the icon in the taskbar, and then right-click on the preview window that pops up, you gain access to the context menu that allows you to move.  Click move, then press shift-Up arrow and then grab your mouse while still holding the shift key down.  There it is!  Apparently it opens up way off the screen.  I hope they fix this soon.   This is the only Adobe Air app I have ever used...I wonder if they're all like that?   I need to find a good WPF/Silverlight client - I used Witty in the past, but as cool as it is/was, it did crash occasionally.

 

I'd been running Windows 7 beta 1 on our "home" pc since it came out.  I didn't want to touch my dev machine until Win 7 was more complete and ready to roll.  Now that Windows 7 RC is out, I thought I'd give it a shot on my main development machine.  After making a backup using Acronis 2009 Home, I booted from my newly downloaded Windows 7 RC DVD, the 64 bit version, formatted the drive, and installed the Ultimate edition.  Vista had a nice install, but this one is even better, and faster too.  One of my favorite things is that it recognizes you have a wireless connection and asks you to connect *during* the installation.  Not after!  So it was able to download the latest bits and apply then right away.

It only took a few minutes and then was there was a lot of praying to make sure all my critical apps would 1) a version that works with Win 7 x64, 2) install and 3) actually work.  The main thing I was concerned about was my SonicWall VPN client.  After a little searching, I found a 64 bit beta client that installed and worked flawlessly.  Joy!  Next, my dev stack -  VS2008/SQL2008/Blend 2/Resharper 4.5/VisualSVN.  I knew from attending DevConnections and seeing Scott Guthrie and some of the other Microsofties that VS2008/SQL2008 would run fine on Win 7.  After a lengthy install, including service packs, those were up and running.  Next was Subversion/TortoiseSVN.  Flawless!  Joy again.  

Now, I occasionally need to maintain a .NET 1.1 web site, so I have been using Sun's excellent VirtualBox to run a Windows XP virtual machine from which I use VS2003.  Flawless install on Windows 7 RC and it runs great.

All my bread and butter apps were working just fine but them I remembered Microsoft Office.  I had no fear there, why would Office 2007 not work...well I've seen strange things before, but luckily that was a flawless install.  So now I have my email working.  Good to go.  Antivirus - how could I forget.  I downloaded Eset Nod32, the 64 bit version, and that went off without a hitch.

Lastly, I need to make money, so Quickbooks was on tap.  I have the latest 2009 version, and that was uneventful. 

So, now after a day of downtime, I am back in action.  I must say that my experience so far is very pleasant.  Windows 7 is a much improved, less intrusive, gorgeous OS.  Dual monitor support is better, the taskbar is nicer and less cluttered, and I just love the "shake" where you grab and window, shake it quickly, and it minimizes all others.   And drag a window to the left, right, and top of the screen.  Docking!  Love it.  More to report as I start using it more and more.  If there are any problems, I'll post here.

Here is a list of Subversion and TortoiseSVN tips that I found and want to keep for future reference

• Think hard if you need ASP.NET hack. If anyone in your company uses NET1.1 ASP.NET project, you do need it.
• Instead of a checkout you can copy _svn/.svn folder to another folder and do an "update".
  • create a secondary work folder by copying the root _svn/.svn folder and do an "update".
• You can "disconnect" from Subversion folder by deleting all _svn/.svn folders in several ways:
  • using Windows Search to find all folders and deleting them in result list
  • using DOS "for" loop or PowerShell
  • by using Jon Galloway's Remove SVN Folders Shell Command
  • or by doing "export" which will give you similar results
• Don't rename/move files in Windows Explorer (or in Visual Studio or any other IDE), use TortoiseSVN's "rename" command or drag file/folder with right mouse button to get move/rename commands.
  • If you move a folder you move _svn/.svn folder with it. Doing that you are messing with working folder structure and are definitely going to get in trouble!
  • Another way of moving/renaming items is directly in Repository Browser. Use with care, though, since you are working without a safety net!
  • Intelligent IDE add-ins like VisualSVN also know how to rename/move.
• There is no "destroy" command in SVN. Once in repository, always in repository.
• If you want to undo a commit, you are probably looking for "Revert changes from this revision" or "Update item to this revision" command for more commits. Be sure to learn more before use.
• If you really mess things up with your commit but you have correct code in unknown svn state, you should:
  • backup your working copy,
  • get another fresh, unchanged working copy,
  • delete _svn/.svn folder from your working copy,
  • copy all files over clean working copy.
  • Result is a working base with latest revision number but correct/old code. You can do "diff" or "commit", depends of what did you mess up in the first place.
• "Clean Up" command is safe and  will not delete your changes. When TortoiseSVN says you should do a cleanup, do it.
• You can create and apply patch files. Very useful for working copies that are far away.
• You can issue a commit on any folder, not just root.
• By default, you cannot change a commit comment. But your Subversion admin can. Don't turn this on, instead assign minimum comment length property (tsvn:logminsize) on every project root.
• You can show some Subversion info about files in Windows Explorer in Detail View. I recommend turning on status and revision number columns. Unfortunately, this is broken in Vista.
  • you can sort files by status or revision number (or any other property/column) by clicking on oh header. Supper useful in folder with lots of files
• Learn how to use svn.exe command line client. Sometimes it's easier/faster to do "svn update" than clicking.
  • "svn.exe" is in /bin folder of your subversion server install. Copy whole folder to development machine and put it in path.
  • svn status is also very handy and fast. It will show you add/modified/deleted/missing files and folders.
  • svn commit is not very handy, but it's incredibly geeky. You specify commit message using -m parameter or you need to set SVN_EDITOR environment variable that specify notepad or other editor that 
  • svn update is usually faster than right clicking if you are already in command prompt executing build scripts, for example.
    

source: http://vidmar.net/weblog/archive/2007/12/11/subversion-and-tortoisesvn-tips-and-tricks.aspx

 

I saw the light and switched from SourceSafe in 2006 to Subversion.  Since it's so cheap and to benefit for off-site storage, I have paid for SVN hosting.  I recently changed hosts to ProjectLocker and couldn't believe how smooth the transition was.  At my prior host, in addition to hosting my subversion repository, I had a trac project.  Trac is really cool!  I downloaded dumps of my svn and trac databases and uploaded them to my new host.  Bingo-bango I'm online at a new URL but everything is the same!  ProjectLocker appears to be pretty solid and so far support has been good.   I've used Team Foundation Server for about a year and wasn't happy with that.  I'm thrilled with subversion and look forward to filling up my repo with some great code.

Some tools I recommend are VisualSVN if you like integration with visual studio.  It's cheap and gives you VSS/TFS like support.  I also use TortoiseSVN to manage my repository.  If you're interested in using Subversion, check out this link or this link.

I haven't done anything with this blog really yet.  Now that I'm a full time e-commerce developer, I need to be more active.  Like any programmer knows, google is your best friend.  Anytime you need a trick or a hint, dial him up and get the goods.  So I intend on giving back and sharing my experiences as I develop a brand new e-commerce site from scratch.