Archive for July, 2009
Logitech Illuminated Ultrathin Keyboard with Backlighting
July 31st, 2009 | 
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I had been using the standard keyboard that came with my computer for years. It never even occurred to me that buying another keyboard might be a good idea. I mean, a keyboard is a keyboard, right?
But then my keyboard died in an accident with a cup of coffee and I needed to get a new one. I ended up with the Logitech Illuminated Backlit Keyboard and all I can say is, “I was so wrong.”
Aside from the fact that this thing has programmable keys and the one that came with my computer didn’t the one thing that most impresses me about this keyboard is how smooth it is.
The keyboards I’m used to typing on kind of “chunk.” There is no better word for it. You probably don’t notice it. But you will after using this keyboard.
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Tags: backlighting, backlit, illuminated, keyboard, logitech, ultrathin | 
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.NET Image Scaling in CSharp
One feature of .NET that I use regularly is image scaling. I typically use this on web sites that need image upload capabilities. I assume the user is going to send me an image that is significantly bigger than what I could use and then scale it down before storing it.
I also use this feature so that I only have to store one image. If I need it at a different size, I can scale it prior to sending it down to the browser. In this case, I implement .NET page caching so that I don’t have to run the scaling code every time the image is requested.
Image scaling really isn’t that hard. Here’s how it’s done.
VB.NET and CSharp Refactoring
I sent out the following tweet last week:
“Where’s the refactor menu option?! Oh, wait. This is VB.NET, they don’t have that feature.”
Almost immediately, I got responses. The most helpful was from @RoryBecker letting me know about CodeRush XPress by Devexpress.com
This tool does way more than I was immediately looking for and it is free.
Instead of just allowing me to promote a block of code to a method it will:
iTextSharp – HTML to PDF – Parsing HTML
Now that we have the HTML cleaned up, the next thing we will want to do is to parse the HTML.
In my actual code for this, I parse the HTML and create the PDF at the same time, but for the purposes of these posts, I’m going to deal primarily with parsing the HTML here and then deal with the PDF creation code later.
Don’t be such a #@%#! Lazy Programmer!
I get several questions a week via the “Click Here to Ask a Question.” I would like to say I answer all of them, but I don’t.
The number one reason I don’t answer a question is because I’ve already answered the question somewhere on this blog. Yes, I actually spend the time to make sure I did.
The second most frequent reason for ignoring a question is because it is in the form of, “Is demo available in VB?”
Both of these types of questions bother me for the same reason. So here’s my generic answer to everyone who sends me a question of these two forms.
