Master of science

Oh yeah,
Since today (18th of June 2008) you call officially call me "Master of Science in Software Engineering" :)

I should go to a deserved vacation ;)

cheers,
Anton

Data Mining by Rafal Lukawiecki

Microsoft has recently published a series of video sessions on Data Mining by Rafal Lukawiecki on their TechNet Spotlight.

This is, in my opinion, a vast and interesting subject which was partially covered by Rafal when he came to Sofia on 25th of January this year. As he promised a series of video sessions are already on the TechNet Spotlight, so anyone who hadn't chance to be here and listen to Rafal live, can go and watch the videos online. Once more - really, really amazing subject and incredible speaker!

Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle Database Server ?

It's the question that drives discussions for decades. Recently I ended up with very interesting article. It's called "The real difference between SQL Server and Oracle".

The Intro:

For years now there's been a constant war between Microsoft supporters and Oracle supporters. Oracle has these features, SQL Server has these features, etc. But that's not really where the real importance lies. Sure, functionality is a part of it because your database should be able to do what you need it to do. However, do you want to know what the real difference between the two companies is and why Microsoft has made such a strong impact in the industry?

You can read the full story here. I hope you also find it interesting :)

Vista SP 1 LIVE at last!

I'm glad to see that it is indeed a fact.

You can download the long awaited update here. Microsoft has published also a stand alone package installer (and the x64 version) as well as it will be published to the regular Windows Update.

I am eager to see the difference :)

cheers,
Anton

VS2008 bug crashes the IDE

Hello again.
I was playing with WPF last couple of days and I discovered a strange bug in the VS 2008 IDE. It crashes the whole IDE (devenv.exe) with just single line of XAML !

So, here is the bug report: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=333036

And this is short description how to reproduce:

1. Create a simple "WPF Windows Application" project.
2. Open the Window1.xaml
3. In the XAML view, put TextBlock control
4. After adding the TextBlock control, the XAML should be like this:
   <Window x:Class="WpfApp.Window1" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
   xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
   Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
   <Grid>
   <TextBlock Text="DummyTextBlock">
   <!-- put ToolTip here -->
   </TextBlock>
   </Grid>
   </Window>
5. Now replace the "<!-- put ToolTip here -->" with this:
   <ToolTip>
   And let VS IDE to auto-complete the closing tag.
   1. Caution! Indeed we should have:
      <TextBlock Text="DummyTextBlock">
      <ToolTip></ToolTip>
      </TextBlock>
      
   2. But not (which is the correct syntax):
      <TextBlock Text="DummyTextBlock">
      <TextBlock.ToolTip>
      <ToolTip></ToolTip>
      </TextBlock.ToolTip>
      </TextBlock>

Now, by the moment the VS auto completes your ToolTip tag and underscores it, the IDE will crash.

Please, if you can confirm the bug, go to https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=333036 and click "Validate".

Cheers,
Anton