Visual Studio 2010 Desktop Background Images

Last night a couple people asked where I got all the neat VS2010 desktop backgrounds.  I couldn’t remember the URL off the top of my head last night, but the website is http://vs2010wallpapers.com/.  There are a lot of great backgrounds.  My favorite though is the ducky.

Act II: New Opportunities

Sometime last week I sent out an email to quite a few people:

As is the way of things in the tech industry, jobs change.  More specifically, mine.

Sometime around October 1^st this email will be turned off as I am starting a new position with ObjectSharp working with some of the brightest minds in Toronto.  If you need to get in touch with me after that date you can do it through a few channels.  My personal email is steve@syfuhs.net, which gets checked more often than it should, and my O# email will be ssyfuhs@objectsharp.com.

Cheers

Steve Syfuhs, MCP
Soon to be ex-Software Developer / Database Analyst
Woodbine Entertainment Group
416.675.3993 Ext 2592

While I really enjoyed my job here at Woodbine (even though I complained about it from time to time), it’s time for change and to move on to new opportunities. 

Barry Gervin offered me such an opportunity and I start with ObjectSharp on October 1st.  Bonus for starting on a Friday.

My role has many functions.  Some internal; some external.  Some loud; some…notsomuch.  Some cryptic.   It sounds like it will be an amazing experience!

So… I leave you with this:

Working with Certificates in Code

Just a quick little collection of useful code snippets when dealing with certificates.  Some of these don’t really need to be in their own methods but it helps for clarification.

Namespaces for Everything

using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
using System.Security;

Save Certificate to Store

// Nothing fancy here.  Just a helper method to parse strings.
private StoreName parseStoreName(string name)
{
    return (StoreName)Enum.Parse(typeof(StoreName), name);
}
	
// Same here
private StoreLocation parseStoreLocation(string location)
{
    return (StoreLocation)Enum.Parse(typeof(StoreLocation), location);
}
	
private void saveCertToStore(X509Certificate2 x509Certificate2, StoreName storeName, StoreLocation storeLocation)
{
    X509Store store = new X509Store(storeName, storeLocation);

    store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadWrite);
    store.Add(x509Certificate2);

    store.Close();
}

Create Certificate from byte[] array

private X509Certificate2 CreateCertificateFromByteArray(byte[] certFile)
{
     return new X509Certificate2(certFile); 
	// will throw exception if certificate has private key
}

The comment says that it will throw an exception if the certificate has a private key because the private key has a password associated with it. If you don't pass the password as a parameter it will throw a System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException exception.

Get Certificate from Store by Thumbprint

private bool FindCertInStore(
    string thumbprint, 
    StoreName storeName, 
    StoreLocation storeLocation, 
    out X509Certificate2 theCert)
{
    theCert = null;
    X509Store store = new X509Store(storeName, storeLocation);

    try
    {
        store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadWrite);

        string thumbprintFixed = thumbprint.Replace(" ", "").ToUpperInvariant();

        foreach (var cert in store.Certificates)
        {
            if (cert.Thumbprint.ToUpperInvariant().Equals(thumbprintFixed))
            {
                theCert = cert;

                return true;
            }
        }

        return false;
    }
    finally
    {
        store.Close();
    }
}

Have fun!

Upgrade to DasBlog

One of the downsides to using a Blog Engine one wrote while in High School is that you are using a blog engine that someone wrote while in High School. 

I got tired of writing a new feature every time I wanted to do anything different.  The logical approach was to upgrade to a bigger and better system, and DasBlog was the engine of choice.

With any luck I’ll stick with it, and won’t need to write any more code for this site in the near future.

The Known Universe

Holy crap this is cool:

A Trip to the Microsoft Store

While I was in California last week I decided to visit the new Microsoft Store in Mission Viejo.  While there, the managers graciously allowed me to take pictures of the store.  Frankly, they probably thought it was a little creepy.  But nevertheless, they said go for it, and I did.

Now, Microsoft did one hell of a job making it known that the store existed while I was at the mall.  While I was grabbing coffee in the food court, these stickers were on each table:

Following that, as you head towards the store you see two large LCD screens in the centre of the walkway.  On one side you have a Rock Band - Beatles installation running XBox 360 over HD.

On the other side was a promotional video.

Microsoft designed their store quite well.  Large floor to ceiling windows for the storefront, with an inviting light wood flooring to create a very warm atmosphere.  While there were hundreds of people in the store, it was very welcoming.

Along the three walls (because the 4th is glass) is a breathtaking video panorama.  I’m not quite sure how to really describe it.  It’s as if the entire wall was a single display, running in full HD.

In the center of the store is a collection of laptops and assorted electronics like the Zune’s.  There’s probably a logical layout, perhaps by price, or performance.  I wasn’t paying too much attention to that unfortunately.

At the center-back of the store is Microsoft’s Answers desk.  Much like the Apple Genius Bar, except not so arrogant.  Yes, I said it.  Ironically, the display for customer names looked very iPod-ish here, and in the Apple Store, the equivalent display looked like XP Media Center.  Go figure.

One of the things I couldn’t quite believe was the XBox 360 being displayed overlay the video panorama video.  The video engine for that must have been extremely powerful.  That had to be a 1080P display for the XBox.  As a developer, I was astonished (and wondered where I could get that app!)  A few of the employee’s mentioned that it was driven by Windows 7.  Pretty freakin’ sweet.

Also in the store were a couple Surfaces!  This was the first time I actually had the opportunity to play with one.  They are pretty cool.

And that in a few pictures was my trip to the Microsoft store.  There was also a couple pamphlets in store describing training sessions and schedules for quick how-to’s in Windows 7 that I walked away with.

Microsoft did well.

A Thought on Windows Mobile 7

The other day while I was sitting in the airport in Washington, D.C., I had a random thought.  When the ZuneHD first hit the shelves people were talking about how Mobile 7 might borrow the look and feel.  It’s sleek, easy to use/easy to understand, and is very simple.  So I started thinking about what such an interface might look like.  This is something I did quickly.  Nothing was provided by Microsoft.  Nobody has said anything about Mobile 7 design (at least, not at that point, but nobody cared anyway).  This is simply something I thought the interface might look like.

Some things to notice are the list-like menu’s, and the bing search at the bottom.  Blah-blah-blah anti-trust, the point is search is easily accessible, not necessarily just to Microsoft’s own search engine.  It could be Google’s search too.  Also, there is the location-specific information at the top showing the current weather.  Also mimicking the Windows 7 interface is the idea of pinning things to the home screen such as the Internet Explorer application.

There are some things that should probably change.  It feels a little cluttered at the bottom showing current messages and the appointments color is iffy.  There may not be any need for the middle separation either.

Just a thought…

Presenting at Techdays 2009!

Still working out session details, but it looks like I will be presenting in Ottawa and Montreal for Techdays 2009.  I will be loitering around at the Toronto event soaking up all the techie-goodness, so come find me at any of the three events.  We can talk shop, shoot the breeze, or just mill about having a good time.

I promise I won’t embarrass anyone.  Except maybe myself.  But that’s a warning for all occasions.

Here are the dates of the events across Canada.  Buy your tickets before the early-bird deal runs out!

The Early Bird price is $299.  The regular Price is $599.

I will post more on the sessions I will be presenting at a later date when I get the full details.

See you there!

Bing Search Provider

Seems it automatically updates itself in IE.

Resources from the SQL 2008 Spatial Data Presentation

Here is the presentation.  Click the screen shot to download a ZIP of the demo and slide deck.