Sort of Moved this Blog

I've been doing a lot of work with Silverlight lately and it's totally stolen all my side project time. So all I've written about is Silverlight, and those posts are at my other blog, which is Practical Applications for Silverlight.

Someday I'll have time to pick up another side project again.

Silverlight Projects, they're coming!

If you have Silverlight plugin installed or if you don't mind installing it - I've been doing some work in Silverlight and am getting ready to talk about it. Here's something I put together for EZBurn Service Network. This is to help people see the fuel prices compared with each other.
http://www.faxt.com/silverlight/FuelCompareCalculator/EZBurnFuelCompareCalculator.html

I'm blogging about my Silverlight adventures, just to see how it goes. My Silverlight blog is here: http://www.faxt.com/blog/

Happy Happy Happy

Homemade Baby Bedding Part II

I'm sewing bedding for my grandson, the plans were posted in a previous entry.

The first stage was to cutout the bumper, sew the quilt top, and put everything together to send out for quilting. A very nice lady in Iowa who owns a machine quilter put musical notes all over these pieces with her machine and shipped it back to me for the next step. If anyone needs a machine quilter, contact me through this blog and I'll put her in contact with you. Above is a sample picture of what I got back, quilted and ready for Step 3. But if you'd like to see closeups of the quilting, here's a page: http://www.ourhomemadehouse.com/MachineQuiltedCutoutBedding/

So, Step Three is to finish cutting out these pieces and sew them together. And here are some samples of how it's progressing:

http://www.ourhomemadehouse.com/HomeMadeBabyQuilt/

So far, I'm really pleased with the way it's turning out.

Homemade Baby Bedding

Here are some working notes for the patterns I'm making for baby bedding.
Text is:

The material for the
Bumper will be cut as follows:

One side, 2 pieces:
A1* 4 - 18.5" X 10.5"
A2* 6- 15.5 X 10.5
The Ties are in black and serve as cording as well as tie.

B* There will be a piece of 1.5" for the edges. This measures 182" for each piece, to go entirely around the side of the pillow

The back of the bumper will be cut in 2 36.5" X 10.5" pieces and 2 45" X 10" pieces.

Baby Bedding Sizes(for home baked patternmaking)

in inches. width length depth
FITTED CRIB SHEET 27 51 6
FLAT CRIB SHEET: percale 51 63

CHANGING PAD COVER 27 34 1
CRIB SKIRT: box pleats 27 51 16
CRIB SKIRT 28 52 16
CRIB DUVET COVER 35 42
CRIB COMFORTER COVER 35 42
DUVET INNER 89 107 35 42 35 42
INFANT QUILT 36 45
CRIB BUMPER SYSTEM: incl. inner* 10 162 1.5
Total consists of 2 L-shaped pieces with a total of 16 sets of ties (8 top & 8 bottom).
HOODED TOWEL 30 40
HAND TOWEL 14 32
RECEIVING BLANKET 30 30
COTTON WAFFLE BLANKET 30 40

Microsoft and the Open Source Community

I am a Microsoft fan. As a Microsoft Partner, and Certified Professional, I have to be. This is a site I just found today, and I intend to explore it, it is
Port 25, Communication from the Open Source Community. I see podcasts and videos and interviews - and it looks like a lot of good information there.

Baby Musical Bedroom Theme

For the curtains, - simple, straight drapes. The quilter will sew both top border and bottom border for us - and that will be quilted in an enlarged music design.


For the bedding, The bumper front will have brown piping and the same border pattern that is on the curtains top and bottom. The back of the bumper will be the plaid that you sent.

The quilt will have large squares, quilted with the musical notes pattern. Alternating plain squares and plaid squares. The back of the quilt will be the striped material.

The skirt will be the striped material.

Happy Sunday

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

MIX '08 and Code Gallery

I was listening to DotNetRocks this morning on the way to work. Great show with Scott Guthrie revealing some tidbits on Mix concerning Silverlight and the MVC framework. I wish I could go..... But, someone has to work. :-)

Here's the URL: Scott Guthrie on Mix and Matthew Manela on the MSDN Code Gallery


At the same time, they had also the developer who had major responsibility for MSDN's new replacement for the site they took down a while back that is: the Code Gallery. Here's a Url,
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com

It has an RSS feed.

Code Generation and LINQ

The picture is a piece of one of my paintings.

But really I am posting from work so I can go back to this later. This page has some video tutorials for those who would like to get smart about LINQ and Entity Framework:
http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/linq-and-entity-framework-posts-for_22.html

This is from Public Television

I saw this show on TPT, Minneapolis public television channel. I was surprised by it's contents, it was unexpected to me that kids these days are so different than when my kids were young. In case you're interested in it, this is from the RSS feed for the TV channel:

FRONTLINE "Growing Up Online" Jan 22 @ pbs.org/frontline
Wednesday, January 09, 2008, 9:39:33 PM
FRONTLINE examines a generation of children “Growing Up Online” coming January 22, 2008 http://www.pbs.org/frontline/kidsonline/ MySpace. YouTube. Facebook. Nearly every teen in America is on the Internet every day, socializing with friends and strangers alike, "trying on" identities, and building a virtual profile of themselves--one that many kids insist is a more honest depiction of who they really are than the person they portray at home or in school. In "Growing Up Online," FRONTLINE peers inside the world of this cyber-savvy generation through the eyes of teens and their parents, who often find themselves on opposite sides of a new digital divide. From cyber bullying to instant "Internet fame," to the specter of online sexual predators, FRONTLINE producer Rachel Dretzin investigates the risks, realities and misconceptions of teenage self-expression on the World Wide Web. Watch “Growing Up Online,” coming January 22, 2008 at 9 pm on PBS (check local listings) and online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/
Pbs-FRONTLINEGrowingUpOnlineJan22Pbsorgfrontline160.mov

plain old common sense?

This site has so much good information about User Interface Design, usability testing, and plain old common sense in developing web sites:
http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/tag/podcasts/feed/

And for SEO? I have really learned a lot here:
http://sphinn.com/

I'm glad I have a long commute so I can have time to listen to all this great information.

Podcasts for you to use in running/building/promoting your eCommerce site

First, a One Off: This podcast has a lot of great information in it for Search Engine Optimization and Usability tips.
http://audio.sxsw.com/podcast/interactive/panel/2007/SXSW07.INT.20070313.SEOandUsability.mp3

But seriously, here are some great regular podcasts, I listen every week:

DotNet Rocks

Run As Radio

Boagworld

I.T. Conversations

These are good, but not as regular:

Practical eCommerce (irritating music, interesting conversations)

ARCast with Ron Jacobs

Polymorphic Podcast

Ok, there's lots more. I may add some when I have time.

What I'm working on today

Just a list, nothing more. A snapshot of what I'm working on today, Feb. 4, 2008.

• Sharepoint design for incorporating Sql Server Reporting Services reports and SSRS report modifications at my contract job.


• Ecommerce site for Giggy Development, just got the wireframes.


• EZBurn Manufacturing Store, finish part lists. http://store.ezburn.com/


• Spring Life Ministries site, finish integrating Silverlight Video upload capability, get this site ready for life. http://www.springlifeministry.org/


• Study for Certification test#315 my obligation for ILM Professional Services consultant job.


• Good Read: http://www.htmldog.com/guides/

We had a good trip this weekend up to Moorehead, MN. Icebox of the nation as far as I'm concerned. But there was great fellowship and promising business partnerships may have been formed, so freezing was just something to put up with. It was a trip for the corn boilers - http://www.ezburn.com/

AJAX Security?

Well, I thought I knew some stuff about security for Web Applications. The #1 Rule: Scrub untrusted input.

But, really, I had no idea how serious this situation is getting. I have a lot to learn. If you're interested in hearing more, there's a great website that always has something to listen to that's relevant today. Try this podcast out,

Technometria: Ajax Security
"More and more Web sites are being rewritten as Ajax applications and traditional desktop software is rapidly moving to the Web via Ajax. But, often, this transition is being made with reckless disregard for security. Ajax developers desperately need guidance on securing their applications. Billy Hoffman, co-author of Ajax Security, joins Phil and Scott to discuss the book........... more on their site"


http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3516.html

I'm going to listen to it again.

Silverlight for Business Applications

I spent some time learning Silverlight (2.0) so we can use it for our business. I want to finish this software - it's my third job so that means not much time.

We have this now, but it's browser based - a table of numbers. I want to bring the control panel people currently have on their home computer - to the browser inplace of a chart. Here's what the software does; EZBurn Manufacturing corn burning boilers go to their new owners with some monitoring electronics in place. Information on how the machine is running is able to be transmitted to the home owner's computer from the stove across a buried wire. From there, it is pushed to EZBurn across the Internet.

At EZBurn there is a support site, http://www.ezburn.net/ - where people who own their stoves can monitor the operation of the stove. Dale uses this to keep an eye on newly installed boilers so that owners can be alerted if attention is needed. ( Some adjustment period is to be expected)

The Silverlight piece will be used to simulate what the owner can see on their computer for them wherever they are. And for EZBurn personnel in their support role.

Here are some links I found while learning Silverlight (minimally, at this point, but it's coming along)

http://www.silverlight.net/

How could I forget Rob Conery - his posts were instrumental in helping me get started:
http://blog.wekeroad.com/2007/06/14/silverlight-creating-a-twitter-client-part-1/

And I just found this yesterday: http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2008/01/09/silverlight-1-0-fire-starter-video-site-live.aspx

Some more from my favorites list:
http://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/.net-framework/

http://exdream.no-ip.info/blog/2007/07/20/SilverlightErrorCodesExplained.aspx

http://www.scriptol.com/xaml/tutorial/canvas-action.php

http://www.wynapse.com/Silverlight/Silverlight_createFromXaml_Object_Creation_and_Destruction.aspx

http://silverlight.net/quickstarts/silverlight10/drawing.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/swick/archive/tags/Silverlight/default.aspx

http://www.wilcob.com/Wilco/Silverlight.aspx

Read my Alternative Fuels (CORN!) blog here:
http://www.ezburn.net

Bobbi Perreault
http://www.faxt.com/