Community developer blogs

Dave Sussman

Recent Posts

• Windows 7 Upgrade Fail

  Posted: 01 May 2009 at 10:42 by Dave Sussman

  I'm trying not to complain too much, but some times you have to. Today I decided to upgrade my main machine to Windows 7 Release Candidate, while working on the laptop. The first attempt failed due to lack of disc space - it's needs 10Gb free - but I soon solved that. Then I left the upgrade to trundle away until the final stage of transferring files, settings and programs, whien 43% of the way through (ooh, so close), I received the annoying statement that there wasn't enough disc space free an

• Upgrade your browser

  Posted: 25 Feb 2009 at 11:44 by Dave Sussman

  As someone who has struggled with cross browser issues and wasted many hours, days even, on getting things to work in IE, I’ve joined the campaign to encourage people to upgrade. Specifically, to upgrade from IE6, which really does need taking out round the back and shooting; it’s for its own good. I’ve added a subtle push to remind people to upgrade. I recently added Google Analytics to my blog and to my main site, never really having bothered with traffic information before; I don’t get that m

• WebDD is back

  Posted: 18 Feb 2009 at 15:47 by Dave Sussman

  Yes, WebDD is back, after a short break and with a slightly different format. We’re aiming to catch up on some of the news and maybe a session or two from Mix09, as well as a few community inspired sessions. You can both request a session as well as propose one, but be warned, we’re sticking to two tightly focused tracks, so there aren’t many speaking slots available. We’re going to arrange some sessions, but leave some open for you to choose. And if you’re wondering why the site looks familiar,

• ASP.NET Site Maps, Security Trimming and Roles

  Posted: 12 Jan 2009 at 12:37 by Dave Sussman

  This is one of the most frequently asked questions and seems a constant source of confusion for everyone, as it was for me when I first read about it. The ASP.NET SiteMap allows a navigational structure to be defined as a set of XML elements, which are perfect for describing a hierarchy of menu items. These XML items are a siteMapNode element, which has an attribute roles. It seems obvious that this defines the roles that can see this item, but the obvious is in fact wrong. Here is the most impo

• IIS Service Unavailable

  Posted: 07 Nov 2008 at 11:48

  My new web server is Server 2008 & IIS7 and SQL 2008 and I’ve deployed a test version of an application that had a mysterious 503 Service Unavailable error; not the main app, but all pages within a specific folder and I couldn’t see why. None of the settings were different for that folder.

• Windows Vista Done Right?

  Posted: 29 Oct 2008 at 09:39

  Watching the live stream of the PDC keynote yesterday, there were bits of Windows 7 that appealed to me. Libraries and Home Groups seems good, as does the Device Center (I notice they didn’t have a Zune connected in the demo). I like the easy switch to projects, useful for those of us who present, a

• SQL Site Map Provider in VB

  Posted: 23 Oct 2008 at 09:03

  For years I’ve been recommending Jeff’s SqlSiteMapprovider from his MSDN Magazine column, which allows you to have your site map in a database. I had a request this morning on the forums for a copy in VB, so I used the convertor at the excellent DeveloperFusion site and tweaked it a little. So now y

• The Power of the Community

  Posted: 22 Oct 2008 at 16:17

  As I blogged earlier, DDD7, the free one day Saturday geek fest, opened for registration this morning. Less than 4 hours later it was full, with plenty of people of the waiting list. I suspect it’s the power of several blogs and tweets, rather than just mine, but it does show the power of the commun

• DDD7 Registration Live

  Posted: 22 Oct 2008 at 09:41

  Go register; you know you want to.Technorati Tags: DDD

• ListBox, Styles and ViewState

  Posted: 16 Oct 2008 at 09:38

  A product I’m working on requires colours for certain items, to make them more easily identifiable and these items are often a selection in a list. This makes a great deal of sense as we are visual creatures; it’s much easier to pick out a red item from a list than having to read the text. In UI ter

• Bribery in the Search Business

  Posted: 09 Oct 2008 at 10:23 by Dave Sussman

  I’m a Google search user, have been since it was first released. I like the simplicity and the format. I have nothing against other search providers, but I’m comfortable with Google and until something more compelling comes along, I’ll stick with it. I’m a middle aged Englishman, so by nature change

• Routing with WebForms

  Posted: 08 Oct 2008 at 18:55 by Dave Sussman

  Disclaimer: I’m not a member of the Church of MVC. But there are bits I really like and there is a huge amount of confusion over, well, just about everything really; what it is, why it’s here', when it should be used, and so on. There is a trend, good or bad, towards REST based architectures and cer

• ReMix UK Videos

  Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 12:35 by Dave Sussman

  In case you hadn’t noticed, the videos for ReMix UK are now up on the agenda page. Slides are available for most sessions and you can watch the slide/audio presentation inline. You might have to turn up the volume for some of them as the audio is a little quiet. We’re planning to get the 20/20 sessi

• ReMix interview with Scott Guthrie and Bill Buxton

  Posted: 27 Sep 2008 at 17:28 by Dave Sussman

  One of the things I was hoping for at ReMix was a podcast interview with Scott Guthrie and Bill Buxton. I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask him, but otherwise had no plan and since it was while the sessions were going on, I groveled to the NxtGenUG boys to record it. So it’s now in two parts

• ReMix Summary

  Posted: 21 Sep 2008 at 13:44 by Dave Sussman

  ReMix was a blast, I had such a fun time. Phil & I arrived around 6pm on Wednesday night to a venue that was a building site. Literally. Walls were going up, stages being built, curtains draped; by the morning the transformation was amazing. People from the Brighton Centre itself were taking pic

• Let us know about cool community projects

  Posted: 17 Sep 2008 at 10:21 by Dave Sussman

  If you’re going to be at ReMix UK and have a cool project using Microsoft technologies, especially if it’s based around the digital home, gaming or robotics, or even that use multiple technologies, then please come and let us know. There will be a film crew on Friday keen to record community stories

• ReMix UK Swag

  Posted: 10 Sep 2008 at 21:45 by Dave Sussman

  So here's the list of stuff you'll get if you attend ReMix UK. Each delegate will receive a Microsoft Expression Professional Subscription worth over £650 which contains; Expression® Studio (Expression Web, Expression Design, Expression Encoder, Expression Blend, Expression Media) Visual Studio® Sta

• Read, Steady, Speak

  Posted: 02 Sep 2008 at 09:55 by Dave Sussman

  Since one of the key phrases of Mix is “a 48 hour conversation”, speaking is in the forefront of our minds. We’re always keen to encourage new speakers and to build people’s confidence in speaker to large audiences. As such, the NxtGen User Group boys are running a Speaker Idol competition, along t

• What’s Happening at ReMix UK?

  Posted: 29 Aug 2008 at 12:32 by Dave Sussman

  Want to get more of a feeling for what’s going to happen at ReMik UK? The On Show section on the home page has some video interviews with those involved. Yes, yours truly is one of them. I didn’t have time to get to Microsoft UK for the interview, so they came to me, so yes, that’s a corner of my o

• ReMix UK 08 Speaker Panel

  Posted: 27 Aug 2008 at 16:01 by Dave Sussman

  On day 2 at ReMix the community room is hosting a panel with Scott Guthrie and Travis Leithead, a Program Manager on the IE team. We’re going to be taking questions from the floor, as well as providing a way to submit questions during the conference, but if you’ve something pressing you want to ask