Sasha Sydoruk

I have been a proud user of .NET framework for 6 years now and I still think it is a really awesome product and Microsoft did a wonderful job developing it.

WinForms is the best way to develop Windows application (with occasional jump into Interop for extra APIs); ASP.NET is enjoyable way to develop web applications and WCF is just pure honey. If all this makes me sound like Micro$oft fanboy, that’s because I am. .NET is really awesome and Visual Studio is the best way to do any kind of development. Especially with Resharper installed. I don’t know how JetBrains did it, but somehow they sold their souls to Satan and in return they can unleash the dark magic of Ctrl+Alt+Space.

But what puzzles me is that not too many people use ASP.NET to create cool products. Sure there are Community Server, MySpace, DotNetKicks and DasBlog; there are all very fine products, but compare them to LAMP, Rails and Java lineup: Digg, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Flickr, Backpack and the Company, Delicious, all the Google Apps, Mint, Meebo, Twitter, Zillow and of course Infinite Cat Project. If you checkout the new startups on TechCrunch, it seems like every new startup is something Linux based and is not ASP.NET.

And I really want to know why. If you are a new startup, you have only one shot at it, so you really want to use the best tools available. And it seems like everybody picks anything but ASP.NET, unless you are doing corporate development.

Why are there so few startups that use ASP.NET? Is it the cost of tools? Hosting cost? Restrictive licensing? Or maybe ASP.NET became “the van” of web development. Safe, bulky and definitely not sexy.

I am sure that I have missed some really awesome ASP.NET projects, so please post the links in comments. Any thoughtful feedback is welcome. All flaming and FUD will be moderated.

If you have a bunch of AutoComplete extenders that are wrapped inside of ModalPopup and you try to run it in Safari, chances are, you will not like what you see. The autocomplete div will be shown under the modalpopup. Works fine in Firefox and IE, but Safari is screwed up. What gives?

Well, if you look into source code of AutoComplete extender, you will notice that they have a special handling for Safari (also known as a one-button mouse of the browsers Just kidding!). Because of this special handling, the correct z-index is not being set on the autocomplete div.

But how can I fix it? Well, all you need to do is to add a div somewhere near the extender with id of “AutoCompleteDiv” and in your extender set the property of CompletionListElementID to “AutoCompleteDiv”.

Here is how I found this info:

• http://logbook.trioro.com/2006/12/ajaxnet-autocompleteextender.html
• http://tim.mackey.ie/ProblemsWithTheAJAXAutoCompleteExtenderArrgh.aspx

Also, there is a custom autocomplete extender based on prototype and script.ac.ulous. I have not tried but it looks really interesting. I would like to take a look the source when I have a bit more time. Here is the link.

I just started using ASP.NET AJAX extensively in my work and I am not sure what to make of it. The whole asp.net ajax is pretty complicated once you get away from basic UpdatePanel scenarios. But finally there is a book about it. As always, my hero Dino Esposito came through and wrote a book, so the rest of us can learn how to use it. Book’s name - Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX.

I got mine from Amazon because bookstores in the hood didn’t have it and I just could not wait anymore. I have been waiting for APRESS’s Foundations of ASP.NET AJAX but it has been delayed so many times that I gave up on that book.

I am 2/3 through the book and so far I like it. It cleared up a lot of misconceptions that I had about asp.net ajax and actually explained in full detail the magic behind UpdatePanel.

I have a pretty good understanding of how different parts of asp.net ajax work, but I still want to see how it all ties up together. Could someone get me the source of PageFlakes? The last 1/3 of the Dino’s book mentions something about writing ajax enabled applications, but I have not gotten to that part yet..

My Book Rating to Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX - Good Times!

A month ago I started my new job at Blizzard. And so far it has been really great. It is amazing how nice it feels to work with people who are extremely talented.

The work environment is really different from my previous ”business casual” jobs, so I am still getting used to that part, but otherwise I am really happy with my new job.

PS. And yes, I have started playing WoW. I tried to stay away from it before and have been quite successful but now I am full blown addict. Oh yeah, and I am Undead Rogue Cammius lvl 16 on Lethon. So, if you have some good loot that you don’t need anymore, just send it my way!

I passed this exam a month ago, just didn’t have time to write about it. This is my second exam in the .NET certification route and that means that I am officially MCTS now. Fear my power!

I was pleasantly surprised by the study guide and the exam itself. I have been doing asp.net for 5 years now and I still learned some new stuff.

Which proves that everybody should get certified and not for the official MS welcome kit, which is really lame, but to make sure that one has good understanding what .net and asp.net have to offer and not to reinvent the wheel.

Well, a couple of months back I passed 70-510. It took me around 20 days to prepare for it.

The exam is pretty difficult with a lot of focus on command line tools. By the way, talking about command line tools in TFS - Did MS really intend to make command line arguments different from one tool to another? What a mess, impossible to remember… I hope the vNext will resolve this absurdity and we all will move on with our lives. TFS team needs to hire a command line tool syntax usability expert.

To sum it up - I am really glad I took the exam. TFS is an awesome tool and studying for the exam really helped me understand how great TFS is. Too bad I don’t use it at my new place.

What a great article. I have been thinking about this for a while myself but I was never able to break it down like the author of “Why great coders get paid far too little“.

Vertigo Software has a really good post on how to do this - Adding the Build Number to your Team Build binaries.

Yay, Jonathan Coulton’s “Code Monkey Like Fritos” with interpretive dance. Also “Naruto Code Monkey” and “Code Monkey Unplugged“.

Oh yeah, don’t forget “Speed Code Monkey“.

PS. It seems like I am the last one to the “Code Monkey” bandwagon, but it is still awesome. I’d better go get some fritos right now.

Hey everybody, here is another great Team System Blog from Vertigo Software - Visual Studio Team System: tips, tricks and techniques.