I am really hooked on a new thing from Microsoft called ASP.NET MVC - which could be understood as “a project template for ASP.NET to easily build applications with the ModelViewControl (MVC)-pattern”

I can now safely confess that I have actually never liked or fully understood the ASP.NET programming model with Web Forms and User Controls. It just to complicated to digest - a lot of events firing, on some you can see the controls of the page and on other you don’t. I don’t like it! At all!

But that is all in the passed from now (for me and a lot of other as it seems), because now the ASP.NET MVC exists as a wonderful alternative. There are already a CTP (preview) to download and also some really good introductions to the concept.

Here is my short-lists of must-reads and sees:

• Scott Guthrie “book” on his...

Found a site that promise to be a great introduction to web design, css and stuff that I don’t know much about: http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/

A friend of mine sent me this link http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html Very funny but also very true stuff. I almost became sad when I read some passages (see for example the story about the programmer and the project manager in Book 5, http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html#book5)

We have all been involved in these things, and often still are. Why? “These are great mysteries. “

Found this cool online (!) tool for converting C# code into VB.NET-dito and back again:

http://labs.developerfusion.co.uk/convert/csharp-to-vb.aspx

I am trying it out now and it seems to work like a charm.

OK - i’ve now (20 minutes later) converted about 10 files of various size. Most stuff went well but it must be pointed out that this size only converts code, not complete projects. This is done very well indeed.

But sometimes I presume that you will need to convert a complete project, settings and all and then this tool migh be too cumbersome to use. But it worked very well for me.

This weekend has been a weekend of reclamations; i’ve been around the several stores demanding different stuff to be replaced. It’s been beds (IKEA), whisk (Åhléns), shoes (Wedins, they lasted about two months…) and finally phones (yes, again) - i’ll get back to the phone-part.

So first of all this makes me wonder; is the quality level of things that we buy going down (this sounds like the start of a Sex-and-the-city-episode). I have actually never before been to a store to demand things back - not until last year. And now I have been back with about 5-6 things and four of them last weekend…

My thinking is that this has to do with the urge to make fast money. You cut a few corners, put things faster on the market and hope that no-one will notice or at least don’t have the strength or will to complain.

There are so many new things in the making right now….

Here are the .NET 3.5 Extenstions on there way - some nice stuff in there: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/12/09/asp-net-3-5-extensions-ctp-preview-released.aspx

Note the videos on the bottom.

Found this which looks very nice: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/05/19/using-linq-to-sql-part-1.aspx

Seems to cover a lot of the different aspects that you’ll need to understand about LINQ to SQL.

And here are some videos on the concept: http://mtaulty.com/CommunityServer/blogs/mike_taultys_blog/archive/2007/05/10/9322.aspx

I am trying the LinqDataSource out and ran into the error message: “The data source ‘’ only supports a single view named ‘DefaultView’”, when I had configured my datasource and tried to use it from a DropDownBox.

After some frustration and hair pulling (as always) I found the reason; i had set the DataMember on the datasource. This was not needed since my datasource specified only one “table”. And now - as I am writing this i understand that that’s what the error message is trying to tell me.

So - to get around the “The data source ‘’ only supports a single view named ‘DefaultView’” - error message simply remove the DataMember value where you are using the datasource.

I have been playing around a little bit with LINQ. I think they are onto something here. I really like it - especially the way that LINQ stays the same regardless of the things you are handling (SQL, XML or objects so far…).

Here are some really good introduction videos to LINQ over SQL: http://www.asp.net/learn/linq-videos/

My only concern is how this will work in a fully fledge architecture… That is when the code is not sitting on the database directly. Fascinating how Microsoft always starts out in that corner, when most architectures are more complex than that. Why not putting together an example of an architecture using LINQ.

Finally - after testdriving Visual Studio 2008 the review can be only one: Microsoft has improved on the already best development environment. I love it!

So - here we are at the beginning of a new year. Prepare your fingers of writing 08, 2008 and so on, I know that it will take me a month or so to get use to it.

Here are a of the things I look forward to in 2008:

• Of course - becoming a father. No - nothing yet. But soon!
• Recording a CD with my band, the Vasa Band. The band has been working so hard for a long time now. It will be great to record it for real. Also I will be playing a solo on the CD which is a first for me. I will be playing my favorite solo in the Salvation Army literature “Journey into peace” by William Himes. That will also be great
• Becoming a Sergent Major at the Vasa Corps. For the first time i really feel that a role...