You're bound to be unhappy if you optimize everything. --Donald Knuth
Welcome to my blog about software development and the Microsoft stack.

I've been a full time .NET developer for ten years, but I didn't start my professional life as a programmer ... more
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The Programmer's Code - 27 Rules to Code By

By steve on March 18, 2012.  |  Updated on March 26, 2012.  |  238 views, 6 today.  |  1 page.
The following 27 rules are the distilled wisdom of decades of software development in a huge variety of software environments. From CERN to Microsoft, from mission critical to puttering for the desktop. Follow even a fraction of these rules and you'll be in constant demand.

Photo Expedition in the Missouri River Bottoms with my Canon Rebel T3i

By steve on March 11, 2012.  |  Updated on March 12, 2012.  |  364 views, 4 today.  |  1 page.
 Blog  Midwestern Life  Photography 
Yesterday I headed out to meet my brother in Lexington, Missouri and took my camera along to capture some shots. I stopped in Missouri City and at the Cooley Lake Conservation area along the Missouri River. The Canon T3i and Lightroom are two of the greatest tools I have for creating great shots.

Easily Build An Atom or RSS Feed With C# and the Syndication Namespace

By steve on January 13, 2012.  |  Updated on January 25, 2012.  |  794 views, 12 today.  |  1 page.
 ATOM  C#  How To  RSS  Web 
Learn how easy it can be to wireup a syndication feed for your site. The .NET framework allows you to build the feed content once and publish it using either the RSS or Atom protocol.

Page Goes Gold With One Million Views

By steve on December 12, 2011.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  1,016 views, 10 today.  |  1 page.
 Announcement  News  Web 
Our first article goes gold after receiving more than one million views.

URL Rewriter for .NET - Examples

By steve on November 09, 2011.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  1,001 views, 7 today.  |  1 page.
 ASP.NET  How To  Overview  Software Reviews  Web 
Many places document how to use URL Rewriter. Here we provide some practical examples of usage.

Convert String to Int in C#

By steve on November 05, 2011.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  990 views, 11 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  C#  Conversions  Data Types  Snippet  Text and Strings 
Three different ways to convert a string to an integer in C# and the pros and cons of each.

And as for Writer's Block, I Don't Believe it Exists!

By steve on November 03, 2011.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  495 views, 2 today.  |  1 page.
 Blog  How To  Personal Growth  The Lighter Side 
Four tricks you won't hear about anywhere else for dealing with writer's block. And yes, software developers can get writer's block, too. Didn't know that did you.

About Cambia Research

By steve on October 30, 2011.  |  Updated on March 18, 2012.  |  3,331 views, 6 today.  |  1 page.
 Blog  Overview  Web 
How did Cambia Research start and who is its creator?

Online Random Number Tool

By steve on October 23, 2011.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  574 views, 2 today.  |  1 page.
 Data  Math and Statistics  Tool 
Generate lists of random numbers online. Choose from different types: boolean, int, decimal, date, time and more.

What is my User Agent?

By steve on October 23, 2011.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  1,079 views, 3 today.  |  1 page.
 Tool  Web  Web Browsers 
Use this online tool to determine the user agent of your browser.

What is my IP Address?

By steve on October 23, 2011.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  469 views, 2 today.  |  1 page.
 Internet  Networking  Tool 
Use this online tool to see what your current IP address is.

Delegate Syntax and Usage in C#

By steve on September 01, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  18,096 views, 15 today.  |  1 page.
 C#  Delegates  Events  How To  Overview 
How to create a delegate in C#.

Windows Explorer Opens Search Window When Clicking a Folder

By steve on September 01, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  12,415 views, 6 today.  |  1 page.
 Blog  Has Images  How To  Windows 
Learn how to fix the problem where windows explorer opens a search window when you click a folder instead of the file listing. This was a thorny issue I ran into one day--thought I'd save you the trouble.

Partial Classes in .NET

By steve on May 26, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  33,082 views, 15 today.  |  1 page.
 ASP.NET  C#  Has Downloads  Has Images  Overview  Visual Studio 
Discover what partial classes are in .NET and what they're good for.

Where can I view the partial class with designer code in my ASP.NET project?

By steve on May 26, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  10,402 views, 6 today.  |  1 page.
 ASP.NET  Brief  Overview  Visual Studio 
Ever wonder what happened to the designer file for your ASP.NET web page after you moved to .NET 2.0? Learn more here.

How to scrape or download a webpage using C#

By ktb on March 05, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  34,489 views, 21 today.  |  1 page.
 ASP.NET  C#  Snippet  Web 
A quick and dirty snippet for the basic approach to scraping the HTML content from a webpage programmatically.

Physics Funnies

By steve on February 28, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  6,608 views, 3 today.  |  1 page.
 Blog  Education  Has Images  Humor  Physics 
A little levity to brighten your day. These physics test takers didn't know the answers, but they came up with some pretty clever answers of their own.

Change the Default Browser in Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Web Developer

By steve on February 19, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  28,559 views, 10 today.  |  1 page.
 ASP.NET  Has Images  How To  Visual Studio  Web Browsers 
How to change the default browser in Visual Studio. That's right, you aren't stuck with just Internet Explorer.

How Do I Read a File As an Array of Bytes in C#

By steve on February 16, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  31,109 views, 67 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  C#  IO  Snippet 
Learn how to use a stream to read the byte content of a file. You can also use the new ReadAllBytes method on the File class.

How to Deliver a File From ASP.NET and Specify Its MIME Type

By steve on February 15, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  8,678 views, 5 today.  |  2 pages.
 ASP.NET  Policy and Standards  Reference  Snippet  Web 
Learn how to use ASP.NET to dynamically return a file to the user and the importance of MIME types in this process.

Online Random Number Generator

By steve on February 14, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  10,663 views, 5 today.  |  1 page.
 C#  Data Types  Has Downloads  Has Images  Math and Statistics  Snippet 
Need random numbers? Learn more about our online generator of random numbers.

Visual Studio 2007 Preview!

By steve on February 13, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  18,803 views, 5 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  Blog  News  Visual Studio 
Visual Studio 2007 Preview

PathHelper - Convert File and Folder Paths and URLs in an ASP.NET Application

By steve on February 13, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  22,507 views, 16 today.  |  2 pages.
 ASP.NET  C#  Has Downloads  Has Images  Snippet 
Managing all the various types of paths in ASP.NET can be a chore. You have URLs, virtual paths, absolute paths, relative paths and application paths. This article helps you make sense of all of these while managing conversions and getting the type of path you need when you need it.

How do I get the application path in an ASP.NET application?

By steve on February 13, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  96,353 views, 74 today.  |  1 page.
 ASP.NET  Conversions  Snippet 
A simple snippet to show you how to get the virtual application path which is relative to the root of the website.

Extract Keywords from a Search String in C#

By steve on January 27, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  29,731 views, 9 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  C#  Has Downloads  Has Images  Regular Expressions  Snippet  Text and Strings 
A better way than String.Split to extract words from a string.

Microsoft Releases AJAX Tool

By steve on January 27, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  5,718 views, 3 today.  |  1 page.
 News  Visual Studio 
This article marks the official release of Microsoft's new support for AJAX, formerly codenamed ATLAS.

Microsoft Reports Record Revenue

By steve on January 27, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  5,099 views, 4 today.  |  1 page.
Microsoft Reports Record Revenue

Cambia Research Launches Developer Education Website

By steve on January 12, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  5,346 views, 3 today.  |  1 page.
 Announcement  Education  News  Web 
Cambia Research has changed the focus of its website as of January 1, 2007. We are now devoted to developer eduction for Microsoft .NET developers.

Javascript Char Codes (Key Codes)

By steve on January 11, 2007.  |  Updated on January 26, 2012.  |  1,201,826 views, 878 today.  |  1 page.
An interactive javascript key code reference for javascript developers. Includes an interative text box where you can type a key and see it's code along with a complete lookup table.

How Can I Use Javascript to Allow Only Numbers to Be Entered in a TextBox?

By steve on January 11, 2007.  |  Updated on February 08, 2012.  |  297,248 views, 214 today.  |  1 page.
 Client side  HTML  Javascript  Snippet  Web Browsers 
An easy javascript code snippet to allow only digits to be typed in a text box. Includes interactive demonstration.

How Do I Suppress a Keystroke in a Browser Input Box Using Javascript?

By steve on January 11, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  29,031 views, 10 today.  |  1 page.
 Client side  Javascript  Snippet  Web Browsers 
Learn how to use javascript to suppress a keystroke in a browser input box.

How Do I Keep My Website From Being Viewed In a Frame?

By steve on January 11, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  7,053 views, 5 today.  |  1 page.
 Client side  Javascript  Snippet  Web Browsers 
Learn how to keep your website from being viewed in a frame. This is not necessarily good practice, but it's needed in some instances.

Apple Computer Changes Name to Apple Inc

By steve on January 10, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  7,878 views, 4 today.  |  1 page.
 Blog  Business  Current Events  News 
Apple Computer changes its name to just Apple. Name changes often mark a transition in an industry or technology. Just think of horseless carriages and wireless phones. Eventually they became just cars and phones.

How Can I Easily Manage an XML Configuration File in .NET?

By steve on January 10, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  42,904 views, 19 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  C#  Data  IO  Snippet  XML 
.NET makes reading and writing XML as easy as pie. Use a class template and you never have to deal with XML at all.

How Do I Get Paths and URL fragments from the HttpRequest object?

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  89,191 views, 49 today.  |  1 page.
 ASP.NET  C#  Snippet  Web 
A reference for extracting URL and path information from the HttpRequest object in ASP.NET.

What is Request.AcceptTypes in ASP.NET

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  5,628 views, 6 today.  |  1 page.
 ASP.NET  C#  Overview  Web Browsers  Web Design 
What the heck is Request.AcceptTypes in ASP.NET?

Using the HttpContext object

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  52,013 views, 19 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  ASP.NET  C#  Server side  Snippet  Web 
Learn how you can get access to the HttpContext object when you're not in the code-behind of an ASPX page?

Extract Hex Digits From a String

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  10,266 views, 3 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  C#  Conversions  Regular Expressions  Snippet  Text and Strings 
Learn how to extract hex digits from a string using C#. Useful for cases where you have dirty hex information or extra characters.

Parsing Email Addresses with Regular Expressions

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  85,766 views, 18 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  C#  Email  Policy and Standards  Regular Expressions  Snippet 
Use C# to parse and validation email address. I present both a strict and lenient regular expression and discuss what constitutes a valid email address.

Parsing URLs with Regular Expressions and the Regex Object

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  50,014 views, 12 today.  |  2 pages.
 .NET  C#  Overview  Policy and Standards  Regular Expressions  Snippet  Text and Strings  Web 
Go in depth in understanding the structure of a URL or URI and see a single regular expression that can be used to extract the various pieces in one fell swoop.

Convert Integer To Enum Instance in C#

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 01, 2012.  |  231,003 views, 66 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  C#  Conversions  Enums  Snippet 
Sample C# code showing how to convert an integer to an instance of an enumeration.

Convert String to Enum Instance

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 15, 2012.  |  200,281 views, 127 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  C#  Conversions  Enums  Snippet  Text and Strings 
C# code sample showing how to convert a string to an instance of an enumeration.

Convert Hex String to .NET Color

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  101,364 views, 50 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  C#  Conversions  CSS  HTML  Snippet 
Learn an easy way and a hard way to convert a hex string to a .NET color using C#.

Convert .NET Color to Hex String

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  44,576 views, 21 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  C#  Conversions  CSS  HTML  Snippet 
Learn how to convert a hex string to a .NET color using C#.

Set Initial Focus on an ASP.NET Page

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  18,591 views, 6 today.  |  1 page.
 C#  Client side  Javascript  Snippet  Web  Web Browsers 
Here's a C# snippet to set the initial focus when a page loads. It takes into account some of the quirks with different types of controls and HTML elements.

C# StyleHelper Class

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  13,350 views, 8 today.  |  1 page.
 C#  CSS  Snippet  Web  Web Design 
While CSS is the preferred way to manage webpage styles these days, sometimes it's helpful to manage those styles programmatically.

C# RandomProvider Class

By steve on January 09, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  18,645 views, 2 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  C#  Math and Statistics  Snippet 
I provide a class, RandomProvider, which provides random numbers for several of the .NET data types and based on statistical distributions.

C# StopWatch Class

By steve on January 07, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  46,403 views, 10 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET  C#  Performance  Snippet 
A high precision stop watch class for timing in your C# or .NET programs

Hexadecimal (Hex) to Decimal Lookup Table

By steve on January 07, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  149,217 views, 131 today.  |  2 pages.
 .NET  C#  Reference  Snippet  Web Design 
Convert hex to decimal. Convert dec to hexadecimal. This handy lookup table is a lot easier than punching it into your calculator.

What are the ASP.NET/CSS Fonts?

By steve on January 07, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  14,197 views, 6 today.  |  1 page.
 ASP.NET  CSS  Reference  User Interface  Web Browsers  Web Design 
A reference for the built in ASP.NET fonts in a convenient list.

What are the ASP.NET Named Colors

By steve on January 07, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  16,246 views, 10 today.  |  1 page.
 ASP.NET  CSS  Reference  User Interface  Web Browsers  Web Design 
View the ASP.NET named colors by name, swatch and hexadecimal value

Custom HyperLink Column for DataGrid

By steve on January 07, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  44,161 views, 10 today.  |  1 page.
 .NET Controls  C#  Data  Snippet  SQL Server 
Detailed example with code showing how to add a custom link column to a datagrid.

Adding Columns to DataGrid Programmatically

By steve on January 01, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  86,253 views, 33 today.  |  2 pages.
 .NET Controls  ASP.NET  C#  Data  Snippet  SQL Server 
Demonstration and code for programmatically adding a custom column to a DataGrid.

SFI: Simple, Flexible, Informative

By steve on January 01, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  3,049 views, 2 today.  |  1 page.
My software philosophy breaks down to three things: simplicity, flexibility and information. I call it SFI.

What is an IP Address?

By steve on January 01, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  3,671 views, 2 today.  |  1 page.
 Internet  Overview  Web  Web Browsers 
Are there enough IP addresses for the whole world? This article defines an IP address at the beginner level, what it is, what it does and what IPv4 is compared to IPv6.

What is a User Agent?

By steve on January 01, 2007.  |  Updated on January 22, 2012.  |  5,490 views, 3 today.  |  1 page.
 Brief  Overview  Web  Web Browsers 
What is a user agent?