Mark DiGiovanni

What’s wrong with Yahoo? #3

I’ve been contacted by Yahoo.  Although I would like to leap for joy, it is another form letter.  The good news is that it’s from Margaret, not Fred this time.

Previous post:
What’s wrong with Yahoo? #2

Days since my initial contact with Yahoo’s customer service: 44

--Mark

posted Thursday, July 29, 2004 6:20 AM by MarkDiGiovanni

Web Development with SharpDevelop, Web Matrix, and DBGCLR

posted Thursday, June 17, 2004 1:20 PM by MarkDiGiovanni

Reviewed: Verizon Wireless Broadband Access with the AirPrime PC 5220 card

This page has been moved to CodeBetter.Com. Please update your links accordingly. The new post URL is: http://codebetter.com/blogs/mark.digiovanni/archive/2004/04/29/12383.aspx

posted Thursday, April 29, 2004 11:51 AM by MarkDiGiovanni

Keeping a Journal / iDailyDiary Review

I like to keep a journal of daily work experiences, primarily things that are directly related to the project that I am working on.  When I run into something that is significant, I click on the icon in the taskbar, press F5(inserts date), and enter the details.  Journaling does not take very long.  It helps me put together a weekly status report and gives me the ability to account for my daily activities if I ever have to justify them.

The application that I am using is called iDailyDiary.  This application is very easy to use.  The free version actually has features that makes this program usable.

Free, Trial/full version download page

The three four things that I like the most:

• Stays resident in the taskbar for easy access.
• Clear workspace... no extra junk to get in the way
• Sticky tabs that are not related to any specific journal entry
• I can take a screen shot and include it with the journal entry

Features listed from the iDailyDiary website:
Key Features

Data files encrypted and password protected
Richtext Editor
Fully Searchable
Insert Pictures, URL's and Hypertext
Multiple "pages" for each day
Export to HTML format to create web pages

iDailyDiary Professional

The Professional version contains all the great features of the free version plus more:

Spell Checker and Thesaurus
Sticky Tabs, non-dated entries
Templates
Print Multiple Pages or entire Diary
Print Headers and Footers (and other Print settings)
Support for Tables
Insert Smileys
Insert/Store Files of any kind (including Audio and Video)
Manual Backup and Restore diary data files
Tree-View style Browser for diary entries, sticky tabs and templates
All for just $30 (US)

There is also a forum available.

--Mark

posted Monday, March 29, 2004 11:24 AM by MarkDiGiovanni

Great Free Tree View Control - squishyTREE

Today I was looking for a tree view control for sub navigation in an image gallery.

Situation:
Budget for controls: $0
Time to develop a custom control: 0
Time to test expensive third party controls: 0
Finding the perfect control in under 30 minutes: priceless.

I believe it is good to give credit when credit is due, especially since most people will only comment when they have something negative to say. 

I did a Google search for free tree view controls.  I eventually made it here: http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Details.aspx?SampleGuid=a096c052-520e-4fdd-9e64-9ff0875e59a6

This control, squishyTREE, was developed by Adam Sills.  This control meets my needs 100 percent!  Full source code with nine samples are provided.  squishyTREE is very easy to use.  It can be wired up to a DataSet, XML file, etc.  I had no problem hooking up my existing CssClass.  If you need a tree view control, check this one out FIRST.  It is far better than many tree view controls that I would be willing to pay for.

Great job Adam!

posted Monday, March 01, 2004 2:05 PM by MarkDiGiovanni

CodeSmith Presented at WeProgram.NET's November user group meeting

Mark Bonafe presented CodeSmith, Eric J. Smith's code gen tool to the WeProgram.NET users group.  Mark has been working with CodeSmith for some time now and delivered an outstanding presentation on this tool's capabilities.  This is a must have tool.  Mark's samples will be available here as soon as they become available.

posted Tuesday, November 04, 2003 6:39 PM by MarkDiGiovanni