How many times in a .NET classes have you written public properties like this?

class Testing
{
    private string m_subject;
    private string m_message;

    public string Subject
    {
        get { return m_subject; }
        set { m_subject = value; }
    }

    public string Message
    {
        get { return m_message; }
        set { m_message = value; }
    }
}

.NET has the ability to make that section of code a lot cleaner and easier to read through the use of Auto-Properties.

class Testing
{
    public string Subject { get; set; }
    public string Message { get; set; }
}

You can read a little more over at Michael Sync’s blog.

What happens when a database team is moving databases and the development team puts up a maintenance page to the company while the move occurs…

That’s right… they put me under the bus!

Just a little Friday humor… BTW… This really happened yesterday.

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Topic: Open Spaces – Bring your questions and ideas!

Tonight is our next meeting of the Pee Dee Area .NET User Group. 

Open Spaces is the chance for you to discuss topics with your peers.  Any developer topic is fair game and welcome!  This is your chance to gain valuable insight from your peers, so come equipped with your ideas or problems!  This meeting is a general open conversation and there will be no presenters.  See you there!

Here is the tentative schedule:
6:00 PM – 6:20 PM Socializing / Free Dinner
6:20 PM – 6:30 PM Introduction, Sponsor Time, and News.
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM Open Spaces

Page Brooks “Mr. Silverlight” has just kicked it up a notch…

Imagine the Silverlight developer community in a friendly competition to created to see who can write the best Silverlight control.

That’s what has begun at GoSilverlight.org, brain child of Page.

From the site:

Welcome to the Silverlight Control Builder Contest! With this contest, we hope to incite the development of many open and free Silverlight Controls that all developers can use in their applications…

… and win some pretty cool prizes…

Prizes? Oh yeah… Here they are:

1st Place:

• 1-Year MSDN Premium Subscription (Not for Resale)
• Your choice of one book from the entire O’Reilly catalog

2nd Place

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition
• Your choice of one book from the entire O’Reilly catalog

3rd Place

• Essential Silverlight 2 Up-to-Date from O’Reilly
• Your choice of one book from the entire O’Reilly catalog

To read the specific rules and submit your entries visit http://gosilverlight.org/

My good friend Chris Craft started a 30 days of mobile development series last weekend. If you are into mobile development or would like to learn more about it… Check it out. He explains the app, explains the technology, provides screen shots, and provides code in C#. For you VB.NET people… visit Lou Vega’s blog for the VB.NET code.

From Chris’ site:

Over the years, I have given many presentations on developing Windows Mobile applications. One thing that I have heard time and time again is that people have a hard time writing their first mobile application. I think sometimes people have a hard time taking those first steps. It is easy to think that it will take too much time, and that it will be too hard. But that is simply not the case.

But instead of telling people, I’m going to show them how easy it really is. The key here is simple: “Taking baby steps is better than taking no steps at all!”

I plan on writing 30 mobile applications in the next 30 days. I will publish both the executable and the source code for each application.

My goal is for each of these applications to be useful, interesting, and straight-forward. Someone considering writing their first Windows Mobile application should be able to look at these applications and “get it”.

One of the great things about his series…

He is looking for more ideas for his applications.

I encourage you to go to his site and leave him a comment… you never know, he may choose yours to write as part of his 30 day challenge.

We moved the event to April 29th for this month… Please help us by registering for the event.

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Chris Reeder, Chris Craft, and Page Brooks
Topic: SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008 (Respectively)

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008, is the next meeting of the Pee Dee Area .NET User Group.

Chris Reeder, Chris Craft, and Page Brooks will be presenting on the latest exciting new products from Microsoft.  First, Chris Reeder will give us a run down on a few cool features in SQL Server 2008.  Next, Chris Craft will take us on a tour of some excellent new features in Internet Information Services 7 (IIS7).  Page Brooks will finish off the presentation with a few cool tips and tricks in Visual Studio 2008.

Please click the link below to register.  We use this information to determine how much food to buy!

Here is the tentative schedule:
6:00 PM – 6:20 PM Socializing / Free Dinner
6:20 PM – 6:30 PM Introduction, Sponsor Time, and News.
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM Presentations

I almost made this post into one long April Fool’s joke about me becoming a Microsoft MVP…

but…..

• I could not think of anything I am even close to being competent enough to receive an MVP nomination… much less an actual MVP…
• With a site like StupidProgrammer.com, who would believe me about being an MVP…
• Does Microsoft have a MVP for great blogs… hum… that wouldn’t even get me a nomination…
• So, instead…

How about I send a shout out to Chris Craft for receiving his MVP in Device Application Development! That is not an April Fool’s joke!

Way to go Chris! You truly do show a deep commitment to the .NET community and have a GREAT willingness to help me others!>

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Bill Ryan

Topic: ADO.NET 3.5 (LINQ) and Windows Home Server!

Tuesday, February 12^th, 2008, is the next meeting of the Pee Dee Area .NET User Group.

Bill is a typical .NET Nerd, and a Microsoft MVP.  Currently, he works as a Principal Consultant and Technology Evangelist for Magenic Technologies in Atlanta, GA. He is quite active in the development community speaking frequently at users groups, code camps and web casts. In addition, Bill has authored several books and worked extensively with Microsoft and partners to develop training content for the MCTS and MCPD certification exams.  In addition to spending most of his time playing with ADO.NET and the .NET Compact Framework, he helps run http://www.knowdotnet.com/ and http://www.devbuzz.com/.

Part I: ADO.NET 3.5 (LINQ)