Cast Your .NET

First impressions of ASP.NET's MVC framework

Find out why you may want to use Microsoft's Model View Controller (MVC) framework instead of Web Forms.

Microsoft unveils the F# programming language

This article kicks the tyres on the September 2008 Community Technology Preview of F#. Read this brief overview of the programming language's features and environment.

Send email alerts when errors are written to the event log

It is common for applications to write to the Windows Event Log when errors occur or a warning is issued, and with the advent of the .NET Framework, Microsoft has provided developers with built-in functionality to read and write data to or from the event log.

How do I ... publish a custom application performance counter in C#?

Since performance counters are a standard system function they are an ideal method for tracking the performance your applications. Luckily, Microsoft has provided several classes within the .NET Framework to publish custom performance counters.

How do I ... convert images to greyscale and sepia tone using C#?

The Microsoft .NET Framework provides developers with many different libraries that enable them to create and modify images. This article demonstrates two methods for converting an image to grayscale and sepia-tone using built-in .NET Framework functionality from C#.

Implementing the Soundex function in C#

For years Microsoft SQL Server has provided developers with a method called Soundex that is used to retrieve an encoded string. Words that sound alike have similar encodings, so you can use this functionality to provide some flexibility in searches. This article shows how to implement Soundex completely in C# without having to use the SQL function.

Secure ASP.NET 2.0 sites with Membership API

Beginning with ASP.NET 2.0, the Membership API was added to simplify adding security to a Web application. This article explains how to use the Membership API with a SQL Server back-end.

How do I ... make C# or .NET Framework applications accessible in the system tray?

A great way to insure that your program is easily accessible to the user is by putting an icon for your application in the system tray. This article shows you how to use the system tray with C# and the .NET Framework.

Employ refactoring via Visual Studio to write better code

Refactoring is the practice of making your code cleaner and clearer without affecting the functionality. Find out what's included in Visual Studio's Refactor menu, and discover a couple of Visual Studio add-ins that bring refactoring to the Visual Basic community.

Technology saturation affects developers and organisations

Juval Lowy, a member of Microsoft's internal design review team for .NET, has said that there is no doubt that the average developer and average organisation are completely saturated by an avalanche of technologies.

Splitting a class across files in VB.NET

With the complexity of today's applications, developers often deal with classes that are very long. One way to make the classes more manageable is to split them across multiple files.

Visual Studio 2008 simplifies JavaScript debugging

One of the more cumbersome development tasks is debugging client-side JavaScript code. Tools such as Firebug are helpful, but in the case of Firebug, you're forced to use Firefox. Thankfully, Visual Studio 2008 provides a robust and developer-friendly environment for debugging JavaScript.

Download files over the Web with .NET's WebClient class

The System.Net namespace includes the WebClient class for uploading and downloading files via HTTP. You can copy or read files with only a few lines of code.

A .NET primer on reference types and value types

This article explains some .NET basics -- the difference between reference types and value types.

Remote debugging with Visual Studio 2008

If you often have to track down bugs in an application installed on another machine, you should check out Microsoft's remote debugger tool with Visual Studio 2008. This article takes a look at its set-up and usage.

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From ASP.NET to C# and beyond -- every Thursday Cast your .NET covers the plethora of .NET technologies and keeps you ahead of the curve.

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  • Staff XP stays on life support for longer

    This week's Roundup looks at Microsoft's decision to extend the life of Windows XP, the release of Microsoft Surface SDK, Firefox's new Geode plug-in, Yahoo's new tool -- Smush It and more. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

  • Chris Duckett The good and truly awful celluloid depictions of computers

    Ever wonder why your lawyer uncle leaves the room whenever you turn over to Boston Legal? Or why your forensic science cousin can't stand crime drama? You know the answer: it’s the horrid trivialisation and dumbing down of an occupation to make it appear entertaining. Sometimes it is so unbelievable that it actually hurts and yelling at the screen is the only outlet. Read more »

    -- posted by Chris Duckett

  • Brendon Chase Apple's iPhone engineers to tour Sydney, Melbourne

    Aussie developers will be able to get up close and personal with some of the iPhone engineers in November to learn how to build applications for the platform. Read more »

    -- posted by Brendon Chase

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