I needed to create a service with Visual Studio 2005. I had done this with 03, and apparently there’s some new stuff in 05 that’s not entirely intuitive. I had some significant head scratching and googling until I finally saw my new service show up in the Windows service control view. In my research this blog post turned out to be the most complete and helpful set of instructions on how to actually get a service installed:

http://www.grinn.net/blog/dev/2008/02/windows-services-in-c-part-2-adding.html

Comments(0) - Join the Conversation

Andrew Crowe Categories: Technology

Here’s one of those posts I hope someone finds a-googling in search of the stupid little solution that has eluded them for hours. If you’re implementing your own signout button in an ASP.NET site (as opposed to using the built-in LoginStatus control), be sure to follow this pattern:

Session.Abandon();
FormsAuthentication.SignOut();
Response.Redirect(…);

You MUST do that redirect immediately after the SignOut() call. I had some other database calls, unrelated to any ASP.NET framework web stuff, between the two and a subsequent call to Request.IsAuthenticated() in my Global.asax was returning true. Taking out those intervening calls made Request.IsAuthenticated() return false. So any other custom operations you need to happen on signout must happen before the above code.

Comments(0) - Join the Conversation

Andrew Crowe Categories: Technology

I’ve long criticized Microsoft for rolling out half-baked software and expecting their enormous embedded (and often unwillingly compliant and loyal) user base to do their beta testing for them. Common wisdom says wait for the SP2 (Service Pack 2) release of any of their major pieces of software.

But in the social media world, where new sites are popping up all over the place, the trend is to slap a “beta” label on it to reduce expectations of reliability, then push it out and encourage feedback from the people who are most interested–the early adopters.

Here is a good 101 write-up of launching a tech startup, including a break-down of alpha, beta, and general public release lingo.

Comments(0) - Join the Conversation

Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Technology, Web

Bill Gates shows us why geeks hire professional models in all industries, including computer software sales.

Comments(0) - Join the Conversation

Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Fun, Technology

The humor is late-90’s (poking a stick at Microsoft), but the high production values surprise me. It’s getting harder to tell if a “real” studio or an individual makes what we see on the Web.

Comments(0) - Join the Conversation

Andy Swindler Categories: Fun, Technology, Web

I noticed the other day that the default share icon for a Mac connecting to a networked PC looks a little like the good ole Blue Screen of Death. Accident? This is a screenshot of the Get Info box for the shared server.

Comments(0) - Join the Conversation

Andy Swindler Categories: Technology