SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW In April 2008 about 1700 Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVPs) descended upon Seattle, WA.  On Sunday, April 13th around 11:00 PM a group of MVPs gathered in the lobby of the Westin Hotel (an MVP Summit ritual) and started talking shop.  Deep Fried Bytes was there to capture the action.  We broke out the recording devices and decided to tape a show entitled "Interview War Stories".  If you are looking for a job, this show will shed some light on what the experts like to ask when interviewing.  You'll also hear stories about what not...

After several months of hard work, planning, testing, designs, tons of discussions, multiple dry runs, finding non-copyrighted music and much more, today we are launching our Deep Fried Bytes Technology Podcast show! About The Show Deep Fried Bytes is an audio talk show with a Southern flavor hosted by technologists and developers Keith Elder and Chris Woodruff. The show discusses a wide range of topics including application development, operating systems and technology in general. Anything is fair game if it plugs into the wall or takes a battery. Episode 1 In this episode Woody and I sit down to...

Dave Donaldson posted an article asking if developers should be paid royalties.  He gives an example of a developer who builds a system for a call center that increases sales.  Should the developer get a percentage of the sales as a royalty?  Here's my words of wisdom on this subject. As a Developer It is easy to say, "Yes, pay me a royalty for my work".  That would be great as a developer but it also wouldn't be fair since the employer or business if you are consulting has already paid you to perform that service.  The ONLY case where...

I can't remember the last time I went camping, especially with my family.  I've been on some one night excursions but I haven't been on an all out full blown camping with my family since I was little.  We used to camp all the time back in the summer.  Camping With The Elders My Dad's brother's, Jerry and Lavaughn, along with our cousin Bobby are at the point in life where they are really having fun.  Together they've combined forces and have amassed a rather large collection of man toys.  Tractors, bull dozers, backhoes, a fleet of 18 wheelers,...

Consider this a public service announcement and reminder for those of you going to TechEd 2008 Developers Conference.  If you are attending TechEd this year you need to: Add my Birds of a Feather session on .Net War Stories to your calendar. Stop by and visit me on the floor of TechEd.  I'll be wondering around some of the TLC booths talking about something. Register for Party with Palermo Register for the GeekFest 2008 Edition party the next night, there is some talk about ducks :)

At some point in life you have to know your boundaries.  I like to think I know mine pretty well.  Being one of the board members for the DevLink conference this year has reminded me of my strengths and weaknesses.   Yesterday John asked us for some help on making an ad that is going to run in a magazine.  I read the email, and even though I really wanted to help, I knew that I'd better leave that one it alone.  Paint.Net is about as fancy as I get on graphics.  For fun I did however submit an...

When writing unit tests there are a couple of ways to test a bunch of scenarios.  One way is to write a test for each and every case.  That can take forever and as developers we always like to work smarter instead of harder right?  Another way is to create a data file with known expected results and then run a test on the data file.  For example, let's say you write a regular expression, something a little complex like a regular expression to validate URLs.  How many unit tests would you have to write to cover all the possible...

A new version of Witty Twitter has been published via ClickOnce (0.1.8.5).  You can install Witty Twitter by clicking the link below or if you already have it installed, simply launch it from your start menu. http://keithelder.net/software/witty/witty.application Witty Twitter Now With Skins Witty Twitter now supports skins via ClickOnce updates.  Alan checked in the changes this morning around 6:33 AM CST and I picked them up, tested them, fixed some settings / app.config files and then made a new ClickOnce deployment.  Thank you Alan! Right now there are only three skins:  Aero, AeroCompact and CoolBlue.  The majority of users will...

A few weeks ago I got an email from Jeff McWherter who runs the Greater Lansing .Net User Group they were going to have a Day of .Net event in June.  The email contained the normal type stuff you'd expect in an announcement for call to speakers.  Dates, times, location, etc.  but Jeff threw in a twist.  At the bottom of the email he listed drive times from the various locations to Lansing, MI.  At the bottom of it was Hattiesburg, MS.  Pretty funny! If you don't recall, Jeff and I rode with each other to CodeMash in...

Hattiesburg, MS, locally referred to as the Hub City, is officially forming a .Net User Group called the Hub City Nug for short.  Hattiesburg, voted as one of the top cities to live in in years past, is strategically located near the pan handle in South Mississippi only one hour from the Gulf of Mexico.  Aubrey Cote of http://forteonline.com and myself are forming the group.  Other surrounding states have multiple .Net groups and it is exciting to see such an interest in technology in the Hattiesburg area.  We expect to coordinate some larger events in the up and coming year...

I just published a new version of Witty Twitter via ClickOnce.  Things have been a little slow lately but some progress has been made.  Everyone has been really busy.  Alan had a baby (congrats!), well Alan didn't have the baby but he's a daddy now.  Jon and Scott are still recovering from the MVP Summit in April and Brian just switched jobs and is moving.  As for me I've been working on a little something something that I'll officially announce in a week or two.  Stay tuned! Here's a screen shot from the log that covers what's been done. As you...

I have no idea where this post is going to go but I have several things that have come up in discussion lately with developers that I need to get out.  The conversations I've been having are around building applications and using the CSLA.Net business object framework.  This article doesn't focus on CSLA.Net so even if you aren't using it, these principals still apply.  This post stems from conversations with developers that are spending a lot of time creating beautiful object models.  I've seen developers spend a lot of time on perfecting the object model of an application based on...