I've recently been digging into writing Sidebar Gadgets for Windows Vista.  As a client developer mainly, writing a gadget has brought me back to my Javascript / HTML / DHTML / CSS roots.  Over the next several weeks I'll be writing some entries on my experience writing gadgets but before I get into the gory details let's talk about debugging.  For those of you that are starting out writing gadgets the first thing you are going to run into is how to debug them.  Overriding Alert Once you get your initial gadget setup (which I'll cover in a later...

Several days ago I announced I had moved to Google Apps for email mainly because of IMAP support.  One of the problems I had was reading mail on my Blackjack II phone.  The problem was wide spread because of the way Gmail handled IMAP with Windows Mobile phones.  When an email was read via IMAP on the phone, the email would be blank.  It appeared to only affect HTML formatted email which meant Gmail was doing something weird with the email instead of just leaving it alone.  When I first discovered this I thought I didn't download the email or...

I can't remember the exact day but a few weeks ago around the start of the new year I changed out the site's search to use Google's search engine for AdSense.  Not thinking when I pasted the code I broke the comments and my contact form on the site for all Internet Explorer users.  The sad thing is I didn't notice this until the other day when I started getting emails their was a problem.  For everyone that tried submitting comments and it not work I apologize. The problem was when I pasted the Google AdSense Search code into my...

Doug Turnure, Chad Brooks and me are doing a half-day technical overview covering the new features surrounding Visual Studio 2008 in Jackson, MS from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM on February 4th, 2008.  Then later that night we are having a Geek Dinner with special guest Sara Ford in Hattiesburg, MS.  Here are the details and how to register for the seminar (yes you HAVE to register for the seminar).  You do not have to register for the Geek Dinner but please RSVP as described. Seminar Agenda 9:00 – 10:00: Visual Studio 2008 Overview for Architects (Chad) If your job...

The Huntsville Alabama Code Camp date has been announced as February 23rd, 2008 from 7:30 AM - 5PM.  The location is Virginia College in Huntsville.  I submitted several topics so I'll post more information when I know which ones were excepted, if any.  In the meantime, if you are have a topic you would like to submit the call for speakers is still open.  More information can be found on the Alabama Code Camp web site which by the way is done in Silverlight.

After installing Outlook I have found the default installation does not automatically add holidays to the calendar.  When scheduling appointments and tasks it is important to know the holidays.  For example, a husband can find himself in a lot of trouble if he schedules a dinner with a client on Valentine's Day.  I have also found instances where users entered the holidays by hand into their calendars.  In either case holidays can be added to Outlook with just a few clicks of the mouse.  Here are the steps you need to take to enable holidays in your Outlook calendar. Step...

Monday February 4th, 2008, we will be having a geek dinner in Hattiesburg, Ms with special guest Sara Ford from Microsoft.  Sara is the Program Manager for Codeplex.Com which serves as a hosting ground for open source projects.  Sara is originally from Mississippi so we are glad to have her back in the area and taking time out of her traveling schedule to join us.   Living in Seattle she doesn't get to come back home often so this is a very special occasion to have her be able to join us.  Sara has already blogged about the dinner (she...

Several months ago Hanselman wrote an article about moving his family over to Google Apps.  Even before that one of my fellow team members had moved his email to Google Apps.  Keeping all of this in the back of my mind I started to think about doing the same.  A few weeks ago I decided to give it a try and today I just moved my wife's domain over as well.  I'm sure you are wondering why so let's explore that among other things. Why? IMAP, How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count The WaysI have to be honest...

No this is not an April fools joke because it isn't April, it is January 19th, 2008.  This morning around 7:30 AM a buddy of mine called me and asked if we were in Michigan.  Still being groggy from waking up I said "What?".  He then explained it was snowing outside.   I expressed my concern that he was probably still drinking from the night before but sure enough I walked to the bay windows in my home office and low and behold SNOW! I immediately grabbed my camera and took a few pictures.  The last time it snowed in Hattiesburg,...

Like this article? Subscribe to my news feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/keithelder A few weeks ago I acquired a Samsung Blackjack II cell phone.  I have been using the phone for several weeks straight and it is time to tell the story of the Blackjack II.  The Blackjack II replaces an aging 8525 Pocket PC phone as well as an aging Cingular 2125 Smart Phone.  Unlike a lot of other reviews from magazines that spit out feature after feature I hope to provide you with a different perspective as a technologist / geek who has used the phone for several weeks.  Let's...

Windows Communication Foundation (henceforth abbreviated as WCF) supports multiple bindings that allows developers to expose their services in a variety of ways.  What this means is a developer can create a service once and then expose it to support net.tcp:// or http:// and various versions of http:// (Soap1.1, Soap1.2, WS*, JSON, etc).  This can be useful if a service crosses boundaries between intranet and extranet applications for example.  This article walks through the steps to configure a service to support multiple bindings with Visual Studio 2008 and the .Net 3.5 framework.  For those that want to jump directly to the...

Chris Woodruff caught me at Codemash and we did a podcast together.  It was a very free flowing conversation.  We covered a lot of topics including my open source background, how I got started in .Net, Smart Clients vs Web Applications, WPF, music, the value of learning multiple languages and why Codemash is so unique. You can grab the podcast here: http://codemash.podbean.com/2008/01/15/codemash-2008-interview-with-keith-elder/ And you can also try playing the podcast below. Powered by Podbean.com By the way there are other podcasts from Dustin Campbell, Sara Ford and Michael Rozlog as well on the Codemash web...

I have a love hate relationship with Windows Communication Foundation.  I love it because the concepts of building a service are so simple.  I love the fact that I can expose the same service three different ways supporting different interoperability points within the business.  I also hate it because a there are so many ways to configure the service it can get daunting at times.  Configuration isn't as bad as the built-in lack of ability to view messages.  WCF doesn't provide a sample message page describing the SOAP messages for a request and response like the old ASMX services.  While...

Today was my four year anniversary at Quicken Loans.  Anniversary day at Quicken is always fun because typically what happens is your team leader writes up an email about your accomplishments and emails it to all of Information Technology or various teams.  It is used as a time to say thank you for all of the hard work you have done at the company.  The rest of the day you are flooded with congratulations and funny responses to fill your day.  It is one of those nice things that makes us different and it is always nice to get propped...

  Intro This year for Codemash I thought I'd do something a little different.  Last year I did a "Who's Who's at Codemash" that went over really well and I had several people asking me about it this year.  Since I spent most of my time looking through a camera last year and I had a lot more responsibilities (discussion panel moderation, two expert zones and two talks) I decided I would keep a mental note in my head and do a timeline instead.  I didn't write anything down as I progressed through the conference because I wanted to just be free...

Jeff and I were talking about how we'd like to have a Twitter T-shirt on the way back from Codemash in the car.  I decided to find one tonight and quickly landed at http://www.reactee.com.  A few minutes later and I had my shirt on order. Making one isn't hard.  There are five options to select and several colors.  While I chose black as my color I thought about the light blue since that is closer to Twitter's brand but ultimately decided the light blue was a little more feminine than I was willing to wear in public.  For those...

Broken Dishes I've broken two dishes in the past several days. What is going on. Ebay here i come.

The University of Southern Mississippi (USM Golden Eagles) located in Hattiesburg, Ms recently hired a new coach, Larry Fedora.  It seems Fedora is moving things forward by getting five new assistants hired as reported by the Hattiesburg American.  This is great news.  I'm glad to see Fedora is on the ball and moving the pile forward.  To Fedora and the new assistants I say get out there guys and recruit some of this awesome Mississippi talent that other big name schools are going after like Ohio, Michigan, Alabama, LSU, etc.  Don't back down, stick to your guns and reel them...

College bowl games are coming to an end.  Friends and family are headed back home.  All the food has been eaten and there are no more gifts to open.  It is sad the Holidays are over.  This holiday season I tried to spend as little time on the computer as possible.  I did a pretty good job I think.  I only checked my email in the morning and at night and then sometimes not at all depending if my mobile phone received any.  It felt great to not even think about coding, programming, or work and just play with the...