Finds of the Week – February 3, 2007

.NET

• MSMQ and WCF – hands-on lab now available at MSDN Code Gallery. Via John Breakwell.
• Scott Densmore shared more good stuff on the upcoming Enterprise Library 4.
• Microsoft rolled out a new code sharing site: MSDN Code Gallery. Code Gallery is kind of like CodePlex, but for the everyday developer. Via Jim Glass.
• A new version of the Source Code Outliner Power Toy is available. Via Quan To.
• Get Your Database Under Version Control. Jeff Atwood. My guess is that 75% or more of databases out there are not under version control.
• Jeff Moser wrote a detailed analysis of the various looping constructs in .NET: For Loops: Using i++, ++i, Enumerators, or None of the Above?  I totally forgot about ++i.
• A timely article for my current project: Unit Testing WCF Services. By Mark Seemann.
• James Newtonking explained why he changed his mind about extension methods.
• Buddy Lindsey, Jr’s TDD for Beginners Series is a good introduction to Test Driven Development.
• Vadym Stetsiak explained why string.ToLower() is Evil. Use string.Compare instead.
• 10 ASP.NET Performance and Scalability Secrets is an excellent article from Omar AlZabir. Many of the tips are for larger/high-trafficked sites but good to know nonetheless.
• If you are into design patterns, Jason McDonald put together a very nice quick reference poster/PDF on the most common patterns.
• Visual Studio Magazine had a very good article on WCF best practices (Connect Apps with WCF) by Brian Noyes.

Software/Tools

• Fiddler is a VERY useful HTTP debugger.

• Use BitTorrent to send files. That and more at Top 10 BitTorrent Tools and Tricks – Lifehacker.
• You can SHIFT+CLICK to multi-select in Gmail. Via Roy Osherove.

Windows Mobile – Pocket PC

• Looks like Google has fixed the problems that were plaguing Gmail IMAP on Windows Mobile devices. Read the blog entry from the official Gmail Blog here. And here’s a related article from PC World: Google fixes Gmail IMAP problem on Windows Mobile.
• Viigo is a free RSS reader for Windows Mobile. I have not really used it that much but it seems to work ok.

   

• Skyfire is another promising Windows Mobile browser currently in private beta. Via Engadget.

• If you have a Samsung Windows Mobile device, try the included PicSel browser. Here’s a review of Picsel browser, with a lot of useful how-to information included. By Tam Hanna.

And Now, For Something A Little Different

Nano