UPDATE: I just pushed Subtext v1.9.4.75 out to this blog. It includes several bug fixes as well as a couple of new features - including a SiteMap implementation. You can see my SiteMap here. Simo is also dog fooding a recent Subtext build on his blog. I just finished upgrading my production Subtext installation to the latest bits from the 1.9 branch - hot off the build server! That means that both this site (stevenharman.net) and my other blog (Steve's Life) are both running on the v1.9.4.72 code set. As of right now the 1.9.4 release will include 14 bug fixes, 3...

So, you need to setup a VPN connection to your work/client/buddy's remote network. No problem, just use the Windows VPN client, fill in the remote VPN server IP address, your username and password... click Connect. And a few seconds later you're connected to the remote network and you can now access resources (servers, fileshares, etc...) on your work/client/buddy's network - and all traffic between your PC and the remote network is encrypted. Awesome! However, if you've ever dug into the Microsoft VPN client settings you might have noticed a little check box that says "Use default gateway on the remote network."...

I just hit the century mark with my 100th blog post and didn't even realize it. Well, I realized it right after I posted it, but I had planned to make a special post just for the occasion - but this post will have to do. Just my style - a day late and dollar short. I realize that my C-note worth of posts seems pretty minuscule when stacked next to Phil's 1000 Haacks (he's now well over 1200, btw)... but it's a pretty big milestone for me. Anyhow, Go Me!

OK, so you've spent the last (fill in some obscenely long time period) trying to get SQL Server Reporting Services to use your Custom Assembly for retrieving data from your application. But no matter what you try, you keep seeing #Error rather than your data when you run the report on the server. By this point you've read countless white papers, tutorials, blog posts, etc... that outlining how the scenario should work*. That's right, you've added the necessary <codegroup> to your .config files. You've added references to your assembly from your report, and you've even made some example code (from the previously...

Tonight while working on some blog posts about CodeMash I decided to make use of a new Windows Live Writer plug-in, Insert XFN Link. In my post about becoming a more productive programmer I tagged a link to Jon Galloway's site with the XFN markup. I quickly realized that I didn't like the icon that Subtext's XFN Highlighter uses. So naturally I set to the web to find some alternatives. I came across some great icons for the XFN Microformat, and I just had to have them. Since they are licensed under the Creative Commons ShareAlike 1.0 license I pulled them down...

This past week at CodeMash I sat in on Neal Ford's The Productive Programmer session, and am I ever glad I did! This session shows you how to become a more productive programmer every day by using tools that you didn't know you already had. I would describe the session as a fast paced cookbook-style run down of tips and tricks to help recapture minutes (or even hours) a day that you would normally spend doing a lot of really mundane tasks. One of the best points Neal made was that our computers have some how turned the tables...

Today at CodeMash I had the opportunity to sit on Joe O'Brien's What makes Rails possible, an introduction to the Ruby language session. Let me just say... despite all of the hype, I'm really starting to get excited about the power (and other cool stuff) that dynamic languages like Ruby have to offer.  Joe did a really great job of giving us noobs a quick intro to not only the Ruby language, but also to why dynamic languages are so powerful, and how useful they can be. Naturally some of the attendees started to raise questions about Ruby's lack of static type checking...

Ok, I'm on my way out the door, headed for CodeMash. I feel like I'm forgetting to bring something... oh well, hopefully it's nothing important. If I find some time (and bandwidth) I might try to post some updates from the event. If not, I'll be back soon! Oh yeah... any of you Subtext-ers that are going to be there, drop me a line (err... comment) and let me know so we can meet up. -Steve, OUT!

Recently I've been playing around with the new ASP.NET 2.0 CSS Friendly Control Adapters as I loath the bloated and overly complex table based markup that so many WebControls render by default. After building a test website using the Web Site template that is included with the adapter's v1.0 download I decided to incorporate them into a project I'm currently work on. There is a good white paper that walks you thru integrating the adapters into your existing web site that I followed step-by-step... almost. First off, my site was using the Web Application Project model, not the Web Site Project...

I recently tasked myself with upgrading a (work) project from the Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.1 to the much improved 2.0 version. One of the biggest (and best) side effects of  upgrading to the 2.0 framework is getting to develop the project in the Visual Studio 2005 IDE - which is a huge improvement over the 2003 edition.  The project I was upgrading was known as a Web Project (in VS 2003 terms) and I wanted to upgrade it to a VS 2005 Web Application Project. Prior to VS 2005 SP1 the default web project model was the Web Site Project and using a...

Just a quick post to announce that I will be attending CodeMash 2007! What is CodeMash? I knew you were going to ask that... so let me give you the lowdown. CodeMash is a techie conference/event aimed at software development types. Nothing to unusual about that - there are tons of software related conferences held each year. However, what is different about CodeMash is that it doesn't just target a specific platform, vendor, paradigm, language, etc... There are still sessions that cover each of those topics (and way more), but the sessions are organized into tracks. Each track has...

I was wondering how long it would take before some one pulled me into the latest meme making it's way across the blogosphere... and Phil finally tagged me, so I guess now it's my turn. 1. I almost died at birth. I know this is supposed to be a fun trip down memory lane and not some morbid tale from the crypt... but you'll notice I said almost. According to my mom, there were some complications with my birth and I was deprived of oxygen in the last few minutes before I... um... came out. She says that I was so...

As riveting as my posts about topics like the latest version of Subtext and custom output caching in ASP.NET might be... I've come the realization that the majority of my (non-techie) friends and family just don't care. I know... WTF, right? Taking a page from Phil's book, I decided I was going to start a new blog that was much less focused on technical topics and more centered around the other aspects and happening in my life. I even asked you to help me come up with a URL for the new blog. Many thanks to all whom offered suggestions - be they sincere...

Not much to say, just had to get that out there. I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve celebration... I know I did. And to prove it, I'll share a few pictures of the night's events with all of you. Enjoy!