Visual Studio Tutorial

If you are looking for Video Tutorials on how to develop applications on the .Net framework for either Windows Forms, ASP.Net, WPF etc. then I highly recommend Learn Visual Studio.Net.

I have been a member at LearnVisualStudio.net for almost 4 years after I signed up to their lifetime subscription (which to be fair is as cheap as chips)! They are constantly adding new visual studio tutorials in line with the current technology and they have just recently started doing their videos for iPhone also (guess who just got a new iPhone as well! :D ) . Its brilliant stuff and the return Ive had on my tiny investment is fantastic.

I am just currently working through their new videos on Visual Studio 2010, The MVC Framework and Windows Presentation Foundarion. Lots to learn! They have some free starter videos to let you get a feel of the quality they have to offer.

If you looking for a tutorial on the Visual Studio IDE then Keith Elder - a Microsoft MVP, has put together a great video that takes you through the basics of Visual Studio.

The video takes you through what Visual Studio versions are available, its key components, customising its behaviour and also how to change the look and feel using themes.

All in all its a great Visual Studio Tutorial. It looks to be a multi part series so you can subscribe to his videos or visit his blog at keithelder.net to check get further installments.

[DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (Connect()).]SQL Server does not exist or access denied Error

Had a totally weird thing ahppen to a sql server today.

I have 2 linked servers and for some unknown reason all queries to the linked server were being met with that error. I removed the linked server, re-added, tested i could connect to the port with telnet - all good.

Check remote connections enabled, checked tcpip enabled. Evrything seemed fine.

One of our machines rebooted with some critical update from Microsoft so wondered if something MS had pushed out may have caused the issue.

Anyhow, we finally fixed the issue but i am still 100% sure exactly what is the problem so maybe someone may be able to shed some light on things.

The way got around it was to remove the liked server and re-add it - but instead of adding it as a SQL Server, it was added using and OLEDB sql data source. After doing that it all sprung back into life.

Now to me that sounds like an issue with SQL Native Client on either the client or server. I wonder if microsoft has done something to some drivers somewhere along the line and pushed it out in a critical update???

Another strange this is i could not add a system datasource to point to the other server either - unless i specified the default port 1433! Totally whacky. The server i was trying to link was a named instance of sql2005. No idea why specifying the port it should have been using anyway worked - but it did!

Hope this sorts you out if you are having this problem. Had me stumped for about 3 hours.

Id be interested to hear your comments if you have an ideas of input. Its gonna bug me until i found out exactly whats happened as it was working fine the night before.

Travis Rice That's It That's All

I am into snowboarding big time - just love it. Unfortuantely im miles from the mountains and get very little snow here (and no lifts!!). I get to go boarding once a year (twice im im lucky) and therefore in the meantime I hit the indoor slope at Xscape and watch boaridng videos.

I've just watched Travis Rice That's It That's All - Travis Rice's latest video, and all i can say is its amazing! What a video. Ive seen a lot of boarding films in my time but this one is truly awesome. After reading up about it, it has taken Travis 2 years to put it together and i can see why.

Everything from the scenery, the boarding and the music is outstanding. It is so well produced. It just makes you want to pack up and head for the mountains! :o)

He is obviously one talented individual who is constantly pushing the boundaries when it comes to snowboarding. With that however, comes priveledges like having a helicopter drop you in the most amazing virgin powder fields you can find.

He is one lucky talented son of a bitch! Very envious. Wish i could do half the things he pulls of in this vid.

Anyhow, if you love boarding then i strongly recommend you check this film out - you will not regret it. Ive just finished watching it and im already wanting to watch it over again! :o) Its that good. Travis Rice That's It That's All gets 10/10 from me - loved every minute of it.

If your in the US/Canada use this link to get to it:



If you are in the UK this is the amazon uk link:



Awesome!