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 Sergeant Major at the Vasa Corps. For the first time i really feel that a role...

So - the end of 2007 is closing in and it is time to do some retrospectives. I always find it fun to look back and see what have happened during the last year. Here are some highlights (or important stuff) that happened in my life during 2007.

• We are going to have a baby! And it’s soon - January 2008
• Moved to a bigger apartment
• Became a certified SCRUM-master and got to run several SCRUM-projects
• I was involved in building my best application to date - with a great bunch of people
• The Vasa corps Band of the Salvation army has really come to a renaissance. We have a wonderful fellowship, we are doing thing for the right reason and the band plays quite good also
• I was in the group the made the “Vasakåren’s Jul”-concert at Nybrokajen 11 - and it was...

From time to time I hear myself saying; “That’s a good way to get problems in the project/in the application/in the maintenance phase”.

So I thought I’ll start a list so that I can prove (for me) that I have “said it already, a long, long time ago”. Of course this is mostly for fun but I have seen these items in many projects and many times.

So here you are; How to get problems:

• Integrate with Office - I have done this is a lot of applications. Eventually it will work and it can be nice - but it is always problems. A lot of them and hard to find.
• Mix technologies in the same application - that is let .NET-applications call COM-components. If you mix old an new then the total “goodness” of the application will not be better than the old technology - if that even.
...

Yes I know that this is old and cheesy but I can’t help myself. It’s Christmas time and she is doing a very good performance, in her style. This is before she started to wailing every song to death.

Extra kudos to the very good gospel choir in the background. They really look like they are enjoying themselves.

Here you go, O holy night, with Maria Carey.

This is one of those “how can this be hard stuff”, and after checking the Net I couldn’t find anything much about how to do it.

The case is as follow; say that you have some XML that you want to display to the user. What better way than to use the nice format used by Internet Explorer itself. So you use the WebBrowser control in Visual Studio 2005 and simply pour the XML into the DocumentText-property… But hey - where are my tags? Where is the formatting?

So how do you display XML in the WebBrowser then? Well the simplest way is to save the XML-file to disk and simply start it with Process.Start. This might also be quite enough for some solutions.

But if you need to do this over and over you want to work with the XML-file in memory. In order to get the nice formatting...

The last couple of days I have been home sick. The first time in at least five years.

It is so boring - every time i get to much on my hands I always fall into thinking that it would be so nice to be home a couple of days. But when you are you’re not feeling well and nothing is fun to get started with. So you end up with boredom.

Well - I am back now - still not feeling well but it was just to boring to bare it… I’ve seen all the series and watch all my DVD’s that was appealing. I was missing my code ;)

The second part of the weekend - Saturday and Sunday, I spent with the Windcorp Brass Band. It can without any doubt say that they are the best band in Sweden right now. Oh goodness - the play well.

And they are all very nice people also. I felt right at home. Thank you guys!

With the risk of being self-admiring now (brrr - hope not) I also love the feeling of going in to present a very good concert (and band) to a full hall. I didn’t feel at all nervous although the hall was filled with 600 persons waiting to be entertained. But then again I always have my little trick - I bring God with me on the stage. Otherwise I would be very, very nervous. Try a prayer the next time you have to do something scary - he has never let me down.

How...

What a weekend!

Phew - a most hectic period is to an end but it all went very well - soon I will stop to worry about this. I fall into the same trap each time…

Well - this Friday we finally did the Vasakåren’s Jul - concert at Nybrokajen 11 in Stockholm. What a hit it was - about 260 persons came (which is circa 100 more than last year) and the reception from the audience was great. Also the Vasa Gospel, Vasa’s Granater and the Vasa Band outperformed themselves. With Karl-Magnus Fredriksson as a highlight of the evening.

I am so proud of my corps - we really have nice atmosphere in the corps and can still maintain high standards. I really like being a part of the Vasa corps.

4BarsRest has just reviewed the last CD from Gothenburg Brass Band - In Perfect Peace. You can read it here

It’s a more warm and appreciating tone and language the suites the spirit of the band and Bengt.

And my notes goes unmentioned which I only can takes as it was not too bad. Phew!

On the more serious side - this is a very good recording from a very good band. Go get it! Now!