Category: programming

I’ve been doing some client-side stuff at work recently, and I’m realizing that I don’t know nearly enough about some of this stuff. So, I picked up a book on jQuery, “jQuery: Novice to Ninja”, and another one on CSS, “CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions”. The jQuery book is pretty good, and a pretty easy read. I haven’t started the CSS book yet. I’m somewhat chagrined to admit that I’ve kind of been “faking it” with CSS for the last few years. I’ve never actually sat down and read a book on CSS or taken a class, or anything like that. I know enough to get by, usually, but I definitely need to learn more.

Meanwhile, I’ve put off my attempt to get through any more ASP.NET exams for now. I’m just letting work needs dictate my independent study time. At some point, hopefully, I’ll be up to speed on enough of the stuff at work that I can get back to the certification exams.

Oh, and as an example of how little I know about CSS, I really don’t know how to style a div so these two Amazon link boxes will line up horizontally instead of vertically. If I messed around with it for an hour, I’d probably figure it out. But I should probably know how to do something like that off the top of my head.

I spent some time today watching a couple of dnrTV episodes on Entity Framework. (Episodes 117 and 118.) I may be using Entity Framework in the near future.

Meanwhile, my progress through the book for 70-562 has stalled at chapter 6. I got through chapters 1-5 in about a week, but then last week, I got distracted from this due to a sudden burst of job interviews (three in a row). I also just wanted to take my time getting through the ASP.NET AJAX material, since I found it to be very interesting, and I wasn’t that familiar with it.

I bought a cheap used copy of Dino Esposito’s “Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX” book from Amazon, to supplement the overview in the 70-562 book. It looks like this will be a good place to start. I’m not sure now when I’ll be getting back to studying for 70-562, though, due to these side trips. I’d still like to take the test next month, but we’ll see if I have the time to do that or not.

Here’s a good blog entry, explaining the .Net 4 client profile stuff. To some extent, I think this all just makes things even more complicated then they already were. On the other hand, there are certainly times when being able to distribute a smaller framework to the client is desirable.

This blog post pulls together some useful links to VS2010 post-launch resources.

I do now have a copy of VS2010, but I haven’t installed it yet. I want to concentrate on getting through the book on 70-562 for now. If I keep up my current pace (about one chapter per weekday), I should get through it by the end of the month. Then, I can take the test in early May. After that, I can figure out if I want to start messing with VS2010 or try to go a little further with VS2008 exams.

WPF Text Blog : Blind Comparison VS2008 vs. VS2010
Speaking as a guy with relatively poor vision, I appreciate any efforts to make text more readable on computer screens. This blog entry is making the point that WPF now renders text as well as GDI, so the code editor in VS2010 should be as easy on the eyes as the one in VS2008. I downloaded VS2010 on Monday, but I haven’t actually installed it yet, so I can’t say how it looks on my own machine. Oh, and this blog entry also has links to a few interesting color schemes for Visual Studio. I need to try a couple of these.

Looks like I could spend most of the day tomorrow watching VS 2010 stuff on Channel 9. Not sure if that would be the best use of my time, but I think I’ll at least watch the keynote.

I had mostly made up my mind yesterday to take the ASP.NET 2.0 test, 70-528, next. I have the book for that one, and the one after that, 70-547, both bought used (and cheap) from Amazon.
However, I just got exam vouchers for 50% off (and a free second take) that are only good for the tests on the VS 2008 / ASP.NET 3.5 track: 70-562 and 70-564. So, I’ve decided that the VS 2008 path is the better way to go. (And as added incentive, the vouchers expire on June 30, so I need to stick with a pretty good pace and get through them by then.) I went out to Borders this morning and bought the 70-562 book, so I can get started with it in earnest on Monday.
The 70-564 exam is going to present a challenge though. If you look at the “preparation materials” tab on the web page for this exam, you see the following:

Classroom Training
There is no classroom training currently available.
Microsoft E-Learning
There is no Microsoft E-Learning training currently available.
Microsoft Press Books
There are no Microsoft Press books currently available.

Hmm, this could be a problem. I do have the book for the VS 2005 equivalent to this exam, so I could start with that, and supplement it with various stuff off MSDN and from other ASP.NET 3.5 books, but it won’t be as straightforward as having an official exam study guide.

I passed 70-536 today! This was my first Microsoft exam, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.
The questions on the exam weren’t much different from the questions on the practice exam included with the book. I was somewhat worried that the actual test would bear little resemblance to the practice tests, and/or be much harder than the practice tests.
Getting through the preliminaries at the test site was pretty smooth, all things considered. I don’t know why, but I was expecting the test center bureaucracy to be a bit worse than it was. They were actually pretty friendly and professional.
So, all in all, not a bad experience.
I still haven’t completely decided if I should take the ASP.NET 2.0 or the ASP.NET 3.5 test next. I have the book for the 2.0 test, and I’m going to be more familiar with that, so that’s the easy way to go. On the other hand, the 3.5 certification would look a little better on my resume.