Home computer tip #1 -- of many more I'm sure... ;-)Everyone knows that frequent backups are important, but most people don't do them. Software such as Acronis True Image Backup makes it easy to make frequent (even constant) backups, but not everyone can afford it. If you can (around $40 on Amazon.com), you should! If not, at least drag your documents folder to your CD/DVD burning program weekly or so and make some discs. It's a pain to rebuild a computer, but mostly, it's just that -- a pain. If you lose your...

I was looking through some papers that my younger son, Gabriel, brought home today from school, and one of those was his weekly news items that he writes. I particularly enjoyed this one from March (spelling errors corrected): I love the weather today. I finished the brick tower behind my shed! I use it to get on top of my shed. I showed it to my dad and he said, "Take it down now!!" So I did. Sadly! Night is falling. There was a big storm!!!! There was rain...

If you are looking for system memory (and general rule: you should be!), you can do little better than ordering through Memory-Up.com . I ordered some memory from them about a year ago and recently discovered that it had gone bad (severely affecting system stability!). I went online searching for good prices, coincidentally arrived at their site again, and saw magic words: "Lifetime Warranty." Wow! I assumed it wouldn't apply to me due to my propensity to buy cheaper memory, but I was wrong. I applied for an RMA, they send me the...

So I got this flippin' sweet new (old) PDA called the Viewsonic Viewpad 100 . 800x600 resolution (10" or so), resistive touch screen (any touch, no stylus needed), USB device support(!), CompactFlash, PC Card, infrared, and more. The device is really cool, and went for near $1000 when it came out ($100 for mine...). The problem is its software support. It only runs Windows CE 3.0. Of course no new software has come out for that in a few years. There are actually quite a few applications out there,...

The second part of my mobilty article, "You can take it with you" has just been published on MSDN Coding 4 Fun. It continues from last time (where I highlighted power management/awareness). This one focuses on network management/awareness. Good stuff (I think), great additions to the Framework (with 2.0), and ready for integration with your desktop applications today! Check it out here.

As I write my articles, there is often this struggle just to come up with a good idea. There are two things going on. First, I want some great concept to show off. In the past I've discussed data-enabling, mobility-awareness, file notifications, and various Windows forms coolness. Second, I need a vehicle to show off the concept. You don't write code in isolation. You can, of course, but it's so dry that no one wants to read it! The intent is to choose an application that is simplistic enough to fit within the time constraints of the article, integrated with...

I just finished an article on adding speech to your .NET applications using the Microsoft Speech API. It's amazingly simple and can enable some pretty cool features. This one is only posted on my web site. My next Coding 4 Fun article (Part 2 of mobile-enabling) should be up on MSDN soon as well. Until then, enjoy!Adding Speech to Your Applications

AARRGGHH!! Well after hours and hours I've finally figure out how to trace messages in the February CTP of WinFX/WCF/Indigo. The Windows Communication Foundation is great stuff with lots of power, but these breaking changes between releases have been killing me. It will be nice when it's finally gold! The bottom line is you need to declare your source name as "System.ServiceModel.MessageLogging" or nothing will log. No errors, WCF just doesn't think that anyone's listening. Awww. That sounds sad! <configuration>    <system.diagnostics>       <sources>          <source name="System.ServiceModel.MessageLogging" switchValue="Verbose">             <listeners>                <add name="messages" type="System.Diagnostics.XmlWriterTraceListener" initializeData="C:\logs\messages.e2e" />   ...

Everyone's talking about AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) these days. Sites like GMail, SpotBack.com, Start.com, and many others are investing heavily in creating the best user experience possible by providing near-instant updates with no page refresh. When I was in the Java world, I coded at least half for the web, the rest other server-side apps. Since switching to .NET a few years ago, I did one project about ASP.NET 2.0 Membership and Personalization early on, and I regularly do some work on a ASP.NET 1.1 site, but little else. Mostly I've been working with...