Jimmy Li's article Understanding the TFS Cube gives great insight into the warehouse for Team Foundation Server. Well worth your time if you want to dive into analyzing your projects.

A default install of Windows Server 2003 ships with a locked-down Internet Explorer, in a so-called enhanced security configuration. Getting rid of it was done via configuring the Windows components. Not so on Windows Server 2008. At first of course I looked in all the wrong places (after all who reads a text they "know"?), until I found it in Server Manager:

You can turn it on / off separately for administrator or users:

Why did I turn it off? Because when it is on, you cannot view IIS7 FREB log files - the XSL has code in it that won't run in any browser but IE. At least at Beta 3 of Longhorn, that is.

The recently released version of CruiseControl.NET has a small issue with MSBuild Output in the Web dashboard: Unable to load transform: c:\ccnet\webdashboard\xsl\msbuild.xsl. A fix can be found in this thread in the fourth post. The reason to upgrade to 1.3? CC.NET now runs on .NET 2.0 (it has been ported), and it has a feature I want to try: integration queues.

On May 10^th, we recorded the interview on SharpDevelop that is now live on .NET Rocks. The interview starts around minute ten in this show. I tried to give some background on project history (if you really, really want all the details: look here), some of its features, where we stand today in comparison to VS Express, what's up next (hint: version 2.2 end of this month), and what the near future holds for SharpDevelop.

After the interview I realized that I mentioned most devs only by their first name, which happens if you are part of the team for nearly seven years! Therefore, I'd like to formally apologize for any confusion this might create and point to the development team page on our Wiki. There, you will find Daniel Grunwald (current technical lead), Mike Krüger (project founder now working for Novell on MonoDevelop, read an interview with Mike), Matt Ward, David Srbecky and the many others who make and made SharpDevelop the #1 open source IDE for .NET. Thanks guys!

A couple of links in closing: Download Wiki Forum

Tuesday June 19th I will be doing two sessions on IIS7 - administration and programmability.

Microsoft released a UAC demo. It is just basic process elevation (read: save the time by not downloading it), which I described in more detail (with more reuseability) in UAC Elevation in Managed Code: Starting Elevated Processes.

I have been patiently waiting for this one, quote from the download page: “Acropolis” builds on the rich capabilities of Microsoft Windows and the .NET Framework, including Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), by providing tools and pre-built components that help developers quickly assemble applications from loosely-coupled parts and services.

Download

Today marks the offical day of me switching from Eudora to Outlook 2007. I have been a long-time fan of Eudora, and it served me well over the years (oh glory days when my mail program plus mailboxes did fit on a single diskette).

With Eudora being end of life, I had to make a decision which mail client I will be using in the future - and I have to say that every single one had its moments (ever enjoyed the fun of querying multiple mailboxes on the same mail server in Thunderbird?).

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

A couple of notes to self:

• Creating a CSR (the short version)
• How do I generate a certificate request? (more detailed if you want to change RSA key lengths which I would recommend)
• Contents of .pem file for Stunnel

The latter is especially important if one fails to grasp how to turn the private key plus the certificate into the .pem for Stunnel. By the way, I was using CAcert. That works just fine for internal email servers.

I have one drawer of CD / DVDs that I haven't GCed in years - and possibly won't ever. That stuff is really a trip down memory lane. For example:

In addition to the agenda for Web TechEd 1998 (the only one ever) I also still have the post conference CDs plus it's accompanying system requirements correction letter: 486 or higher and 8mb of RAM.

Speaking of hardware requirements, here is another goldie:

Chicago SDK Kit, May 1994.

There's a lot more old stuff in this drawer, and I am not going to clean it out!