Wahoo! Another Microsoft exam nailed to the wall. On Friday I passed the Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio.NET (70-305) exam.

I now have only one exam to pass in order to get my MCSD with .NET, the Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures (70-300).

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcsd/default.asp

[Note: “Why do you say your an MCSD if you don't have your MCSD yet?“, you may ask. Well to clarify that, I have MCSD with VS6 and I am currently working on upgrading it to the MCSD with the .NET Framework]

I'm starting a new job on next Monday, the 28th. I'm pretty psyched about it. I have needs and well my current job just isn't cutting it. I don't want to go to far into detail at this moment. (Must play the whole politics thing.)

Well, anyway, I'll be working at The Enterprise; it's a division of Homestore (has since been renamed to Move Inc.). They are a more well established company than where I currently work, and I feel there will be plenty of opportunity for me there. The overall work environment will be better. (Can't forget to mention an increase in pay.)

Visual Studio “Whidbey“ 2005 will ship by the end of 2005 and SQL Server “Yukon“ 2005 will ship simultaneously.

Source: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1777752,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

Web Services Enhancements 2.0 Service Pack 3 Released

http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/building/wse/

On March 8th, The Visual Studio .NET 2002 Service Pack 1 was released.

List of fixes in the Service Pack:

Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

• 306905 Visual IDE does not open when started or application cannot start error message
• 319997 FIX: Visual Studio .NET breaks Visual SourceSafe integration behavior
• 323302 Inert virus found in Korean language version of Visual Studio .NET
• 326714 Access violation in Msenv file notification when you build from the command prompt
• 814483 FIX: A memory leak occurs in the VisualBasic.VsaEngine when creating multiple assemblies
• 816498 FIX: The Visual Studio .NET 2002 Macro IDE crashes after you apply certain ASP.NET fixes
• 821309 FIX: You receive the "Duplicate declaration of member 'location'" error message in Visual Studio .NET 2002
• 831210 FIX: Cannot create Web projects on Windows Server 2003

• 820769 FIX: Code in the InitializeComponent function is deleted when you change the EnableViewState property value of a page
• 833552 FIX: The Copy Project feature in Visual Studio .NET 2002 fails when you copy to a share when the trailing virtual root path does not match the virtual root alias
• 836454 FIX: You cannot check for updates in Visual Studio .NET

• 319976 Visual Basic .NET compiler error when you use a response file that references many assemblies
• 319997 FIX: Visual Studio .NET breaks Visual SourceSafe integration behavior
• 324199 FIX: Data loss when you switch view in Web Form designer
• 325790 FIX: Providers fail when Visual Studio Database Designer Wizard puts brackets around the table name
• 326972 FIX: Dependent assemblies of referenced assemblies are copied when CopyLocal=False
• 332180 FIX: You receive a "can't analyze" error message when you generate objects if a field name contains Japanese double-byte symbol characters in Visual Studio .NET 2002
• 812808 FIX: When you examine the CanOverride property of a sub procedure, the property returns an incorrect value in Visual Studio .NET
• 841698 BUG: You may receive a "Microsoft Development Environment has encountered a problem and needs to close" error message when you try to exit Visual Studio .NET 2002
• 814753 FIX: A build solution that has a large solution may cause the build process to stop responding
• 820666 FIX: The Visual Basic .NET Upgrade Wizard stops responding when you try to upgrade Visual Basic 6.0 projects
• 823699 You receive a "Buffer overrun" error message, and ASP.NET programs stop responding when you try to browse an ASP.NET Web page
• 829803 FIX: Visual Studio .NET quits unexpectedly when you build a large Visual Basic .NET solution that includes many classes

• 321435 FIX: Access violation at end of compile when using devenv /build to build a C# project
• 326098 FIX: Windows Forms application does not start when you debug
• 331684 FIX: Debugger performance problem using unresolved break points
• 810851 FIX: Incorrect members of a class appear in the IntelliSense window in Visual Studio .NET 2002
• 812471 FIX: The IDE stops responding when you type comment delimiters in C# code in Visual Studio .NET 2002
• 816065 FIX: IntelliSense may not list members with complex signatures
• 824415 FIX: Active script host crashes in Pdm.dll when multiple threads execute the same scripts
• 824650 FIX: Active script host quits unexpectedly in Pdm.dll
• 834907 FIX: The Visual Studio .NET 2002 IDE crashes when a double array property of a user control is set to a very small value or to a very large value

• 306083 FIX: Visual C++ compiler optimizer may remove loops
• 316429 FIX: Visual C++ .NET may fail when it loads a .dsp file
• 318139 Incorrect global value initialization if you use precompiled header
• 319660 COleVariant constructor does not correctly initialize its members
• 319945 Visual Studio .NET IDE hangs or disappears when you view C/C++ project
• 321274 Visual C++ 6.0 to Visual C++ .NET conversion problems
• 322194 FIX: Visual C++ Designer does not call IPerpropertyBrowsing::GetPredefinedStrings to update Properties window
• 322621 CArchiveException when you deserialize classes in an MFC application
• 322909 FIX: DLL that uses ATL CImage class may cause a deadlock in a process
• 323465 "Fatal error C1001" error message in Msc1.cpp line 2844 when you use explicit specialization
• 323494 Access violation when you type mnemonic on property page with ActiveX control
• 323918 C2385 error message when you use C++ compiler
• 324011 E_FAIL when you try to use CSoapWininetClient or CSoapMSXMLInetClient to call Web services
• 324153 Error PRJ0016 when you build a Visual C++ .NET project
• 324487 "Directory does not have write permissions" error message when you add files to the remote root
• 325014 Visual Studio .NET MFC applications may not run on Windows NT 4.0
• 325047 FIX: Resources are not released after you delete an ActiveX control from a Visual C++ .NET MFC form in Visual Studio .NET 2002
• 325773 Project configurations are copied incorrectly with VCConfiguration.CopyTo method
• 325809 FIX: The code in a FOR loop under a destructor does not run correctly in a Visual C++ .NET application that was created in Visual Studio .NET 2002
• 326459 COleDateTime comparison asserts or returns incorrect value
• 326813 Unexpected LNK2020 unresolved token error during build
• 328951 FIX: MFC automation method truncates 64-bit return types
• 329066 FIX: IsKindOf fails when you compare CDaoException classes
• 329076 FIX: Changes in the Properties window of an ActiveX control are not persisted
• 329193 FIX: /Og causes code to be created that throws an exception error
• 329593 FIX: "Fatal error LNK1105" error message when you incrementally link large projects
• 330208 FIX: Applications that are statically linked to MFC do not run on Windows NT 4.0 SP5 and earlier
• 330422 FIX: Cannot unregister an unregistered attributed ATL component
• 331014 FIX: The Standard C++ Library function wcsxfrm returns an incorrect value if you develop the application in Visual Studio .NET 2002
• 331992 FIX: Manual edit of Resource.h file causes redefinition errors on Help IDs
• 810141 FIX: Document does not appear correctly in Print Preview view
• 810448 FIX: CString functions Right, Left, and Mid may cause access violation
• 810449 FIX: TCHAR size is not handled correctly in MFC Dbcore.cpp
• 811515 FIX: Visual C++ .NET menu editor changes IDs to numeric values
• 811659 FIX: Events do not appear in the Properties window of Visual Studio .NET 2002
• 813488 FIX: The bool type does not marshal correctly from unmanaged code to managed code
• 813647 FIX: COleDateTime::SetDate no longer returns an "Invalid" status on an incorrect date in Visual C++ .NET
• 813957 FIX: Visual C++ class destructors are not called in reverse order of construction
• 814034 FIX: Nmake /k returns success in a failure condition when you have targets in multiple description blocks in Visual Studio .NET 2002
• 816046 FIX: Debugger stops responding or quits unexpectedly when you step into functions
• 817286 When you rebuild a project that contains libraries that depend on other libraries, you experience performance problems in Visual Studio .NET 2002
• 822677 FIX: Turning on optimization generates incorrect code
• 826326 FIX: LNK1000 error message when you use the incremental linking feature of Link.exe
• 830647 FIX: The UP ARROW key does not work correctly when you use an ActiveX control together with grouped radio buttons in an MFC form view
• 834740 FIX: You may receive an access violation error message when you use ios-derived types

More Information about the service pack:

• http://support.microsoft.com/?id=895309
• http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;837234

Download VS.NET 2002 SP1 here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c41d8159-b42f-4d06-a797-e510494976ee&displaylang=en

Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 is due out March 31st April with a “Go Live” license. The “Go Live” license means that Microsoft is saying that applications developed with Beta 2 will be able to go live with the final release of Visual Studio 2005 with only minor or no modifications to the source code.

And the Final release of Visual Studio 2005 is slated for late summer 2005 to be at the PDC in September 2005.

For more information on Visual Studio 2005:

• http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/productinfo/roadmap.aspx#2005

[Updated: I updated this post after being pointed to a newer article (http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/03/10/HNvisualstudiodelayed_1.html) about the release dates. Thanks.]

The next WI-INETA meeting is on April 12th. Jacob Cynamon will be speaking on the topic of Need for Speed: .NET Performance Tuning. Jabob will show us tips and techniques to fine-tune the performance your WinForms applications. The key areas of focus for this session will be data processing, memory management, and startup time.

For more information: http://wi-ineta.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=23

Jacob Cynamon's Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/jacobcy/

I was talking to one of my friends and he mentioned a conversation he had with someone about AutoUpdating Firmware/BIOS in the background while you are using your computer. The person my friend was talking about seems to think that his WinXP system at home currently does this. He must be thinking that Windows Update does a little more than update Windows. Even though this isn't something that is or can be done now; it got me thinking.

Automatically updating your BIOS or other Firmware would be a pretty neet thing, but also a very risky thing. What happens when I want to turn my computer off but its in the middle of a BIOS update? Or how about a power outage in the middle?

After thinking about it; I wouldn't want my computer automatically updating the BIOS for me when ever theres an update available. I've had my laptop for a year and my desktop for two years; I've never updated the BIOS on them and I don't believe I ever will.

With current computer hardware, It's definitely a feature that I wouldn't turn on if given an option. Maybe someday BIOS/Firmware AutoUpdate will be a reality, but not today.

Ok, I got it working by changing the web.config file (forcing a full restart of the ASP.NET Application). I guess I'll juat have to do that each time it errors. :(

I'm either going to make my own pblog or use the new Community Server : Blog; I'm undecided...

This is quite humorous. Two geeks and the topics of TechEd, conferences, architecture, technology, Don Box, underwear, whiteboarding, love, life and Exchange installs. I can't really explain anymore. Just go check it out!!