There is an extremely nasty bug in WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) that I have discovered as of late.  I know it is a bug because after several weeks with an open support call into Microsoft it was confirmed as a bug.  It was so perplexing because it was hard to replicate.  It even took the .Net Framework developers a week or more to track it down.  Here’s a full blown error message: An unhandled exception occurred and the process was terminated. Application ID: /LM/W3SVC/2/ROOT Process ID: 4428 ...

I just spent two hours trying to figure out why I couldn’t deploy a Windows Communications Service to my local IIS setup.  I kept getting the famous error: 503 – Service Unavailable This error is about as helpful as a toothpick in a snow storm. It turned out my problem was simple to solve, I just wasn’t paying attention.  I had an application pool setup with my domain credentials so the service could run under my username and access the resources it needed to.  The problem was it had been so...

 Listen To This Episode  http://deepfriedbytes.com/podcast/episode-20-windows-azure-the-overlord-in-the-cloud/   It isn’t everyday you get to talk to an Overlord but in this episode we did!  In this episode we talked to the Overlord of Windows Azure, Steve Marx.  Steve gives us the scoop on Windows Azure which we renamed to the Overlord in the Cloud.  We found it much more fitting.  In this episode we break down Azure and discuss what it is, why you might want to use it, cost, availability and much more. Enjoy. How To Listen To The Show 1. Directly From The Web Site (or click the link above) When you visit the...

The new Xbox Experience launched yesterday.  I got up early in the morning to update the system and play before walking to work.  Overall I like the new experience, it definitely has a more social appeal to it and things are more discoverable.    Last night, Ellen and I sat down to make our avatars.  This turned out to be tougher than expected because, honestly, there weren’t enough basic options.  For example, there was only one page of noses and only a few mouths.  Ellen and I went through every option on the menus and this is the...

AT&T recently announced they were going to support tethering for the iPhone.  I am sure a lot of users are happy about this move, I know I am as that has been the one thing that has stopped me from not getting an iPhone and to this day is why I continue to use my Blackjack II.  This announcement, coupled with a reader commenting on a previous article about whether I would recommend tethering the Blackjack II if someone traveled 70% of the time, got my curiosity up.  Thus I started to dig in.  To answer the comment...

 Listen To This Episode  http://deepfriedbytes.com/podcast/episode-19-looking-into-the-c-crystal-ball-with-charlie-calvert-and-bill-wagner/   This show continues our PDC 2008 run and includes two interviews.  One with Jason McConnell, the Product Marketing Manager for Surface, and the second interview with Charlie Calvert and Bill Wagner about C# 4.0.  Enjoy. There are several ways to listen to Deep Fried Bytes. 1. Directly From The Web Site (or click the link above) When you visit the site look for this: Clicking the triangle will launch the Yahoo! media player and automatically...

 Listen To This Episode  http://deepfriedbytes.com/podcast/episode-18-pdc-2008-podcaster-roundtable-with-stackoverflow-and-herding-code/   PDC 2008 was a blast and as previous noted Deep Fried Bytes was there onsite recording live!  We talked about meeting up with fellow podcasters before PDC and finally on Thursday we were able to put together a podcaster round table session together to recap all the events from PDC.  Joining us on this show is Jeff Atwood of Stackoverflow and Jon Gallow, Scott Koon and Kevin Dente of Herding Code.  We are doing something a little different with this episode.  To...

 Listen To This Episode  http://deepfriedbytes.com/podcast/episode-17-discussions-about-gnome-linux-and-software-development-with-luis-villa-part-2/   This is part two of a conversation we had with Luis Villa.  In the second part of this conversation we talk to Luis about all sorts of things including open source licenses, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Office and more.  We even have a war stories segment in this episode.  This is a continuation of part one, but honestly, we think it is the best part.  Enjoy. Ways To Listen To The Show There are several ways to listen to Deep Fried Bytes. ...

After I got up this morning and checked email I headed over to the voting station for my area.  The place where we vote is a community center in oddly enough a community called “Dixie”.  I’ll let you insert your own jokes for that one. I got there a little after 7:30 AM.  The people there voting were working people: nurses, professors, construction workers, police, Wal-mart cashiers, and of course a lonely software engineer.  Here’s the line when I first arrived. After about 15 minutes or so of waiting I finally got inside. ...

After living only 1.5 hours away from New Orleans for about 3 years, I am finally making a trip down to speak at the .Net User Group in Metairie, LA.  If you look at the map I’ve graciously included for you, you’ll notice that I am really not that far at all.  I’ve been to Mobile to speak several times so this will be a nice trip to go the other way and meet some new people. I would say what I will be speaking on but I don’t know yet, it is still being...

A reader of this blog sent me an email asking the following question: “I have an XSD that I am required to use to export my company's data. How can I use that XSD and return data to them in a web method? I should be able to return a data set with the information formatted the way the XSD defines but I have no idea how to do that. Any ideas would save me a ton of time and grief!” Turns out this is a really good question, and I think one a...

Just getting back from PDC 2008 I have to say the coolest non-developer thing your grandmother or mom can use that got an upgrade was Live Mesh.  I really like Live Mesh for a lot of reasons.  First and foremost it solves a real problem by syncing data, accessing devices and connecting devices together.  We are only starting to see the beginning that is the vision of the Live platform, trust me, there is a lot more to come.  Live Mesh in particular opens the door for a brand new world of cross platform peer to peer data syncing...