.NET Users Group

I went to the April meeting of the local .NET users group tonight. It was held at Centriq University. I ran into Marlin, Richard, Galen, and Ovace who are some former co-workers of mine.

Highlights from the meeting:

• There's a new .NET Book Club.


• SQL Server Reporting Services lets you design reports in Visual Studio.NET 2003 and is free if you have an SQL Server license. It uses Report Definition Language, an XML-based schema for defining reports.


• The presenters recommended that we visit the MSDN XML Developer Center because XML development is changing radically and we'll probably have to rewrite all our XML code in the near future.


• The main presentation was a demonstration of Whidbey (Visual Studio.NET 2005) by Steve Loethen, the Microsoft Developer Evangelist for the MidAmerica District. It was pretty interesting although it was fairly similar to the demo I saw at DevDays. Whidbey has some very cool features that I'm looking forward to using. The Virtual PC software he was using also looked interesting although it seemed to be having some problems with XP service pack 2.

Icons from various interfaces

GUIdebook > Components

Eagle Sighting

While I was driving to work this morning, traffic was backed up at the Nall and 145th St. intersection. As I waited, I noticed what appeared to be an eagle sitting on a post that was part of a deck on the house at that intersection. I haven't been that close to an eagle in a long time. You forget how majestic they look. Someone from the house got a much closer look, he was actually standing on the porch looking at the eagle. The eagle swooped off the porch and soared up to the top of a telephone poll. Then traffic started moving again and I had to drive on.

Using JScript.NET And Eval For Dynamic Execution From C#

Using JScript.NET And Eval For Dynamic Execution From C#

Princeton 3D Model Search Engine

Princeton 3D Model Search Engine

You do three sketches of an object viewed from 3 different directions and it searches for 3D shapes that match the object you drew.

How do you convert a string into an enum?

How do you convert a string into an enum?

object Enum.Parse(System.Type enumType, string value, bool ignoreCase);

APOD: 2004 April 1 - April Fools Day More Intense On Mars

APOD: 2004 April 1 - April Fools Day More Intense On Mars: "gravity, the force that opposes comedy throughout the universe, is only about 3/8ths as strong on Mars' surface as it is on planet Earth. Also, a martian day, called a sol, lasts nearly 40 minutes longer than an earth day. "

Checking a string for null or empty string

Checking a string for null or empty string
Convert.ToString((object)stringVar) == “”