Bing Maps SDK Pushpin options not getting updated

You would expect that by setting the height of a pushpin programmatically -using the pushpin options-, then calling the get height method it would give you the new height. But it doesn't. I did a lot of investigation and setting the height was not modifiying its value. As it turns out, you need to set the width as well. It's just one of those undocumented features from Microsoft...

How to get started with Team Explorer Everywhere command line

A project may have code in so many different platforms (.NET for website, Objective C for iPhone apps, Java for Android...), so how do you manage your source code? Don't worry, Team Explorer Everywhere can help you. I had a need to use it to add an iPhone application to our TFS source control, and it's really straight forward. You get a 90 day evaluation period, and you won't regret using this software. There's even no learning curve, after 1 hour of reading documentation you can get started using it (or you can just google how to use it and you get the instructions right away). Anyway, this is what you need to be able to checkout (yeah I've used Subversion as well) code and commit code:

// Accept the EULA
tf eula

// Use the evaluation license
tf productkey -trial

// Create the output directory
IF NOT EXIST C:\TFSGet
MD C:\TFSGet

// Create a workspace
tf workspace /new /s:http://server.sieena.com iphoneworkspace /noprompt /login:rodolfo.ortiz@sieena,mypassword

// Map the folders
tf workfold /s:http://server.sieena.com /iphoneworkspace /map $/MyProject/Release/iPhoneApp C:\TFSGet

// Go to the created directory
pushd C:\TFSGet

// Get the latest version of the code
tf get /recursive /noprompt

// Check out the code for editing
tf checkout * /recursive

// Make changes and check them in!
tf checkin -recursive -comment:"This is a fake checkin"

Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 1.0... sucks

I've used Rally and JIRA to manage Scrum projects. This last time I decided to give the Visual Studio Scrum template a try and... it's just not what I expected. One of its major drawbacks is the inability to do time tracking. Some people might say that doing time tracking in Scrum is not beneficial and even useless. This might be true for internal projects, but with external clients you need a way to know how much work you've spent on a project (and if you're running out of the initial allocated hours).

Anyway, I'm going to test the MSF for Agile Software Development Process Template. Hope it offers more than the Visual Studio Scrum template.

JavaScript MVC + ASP.NET MVC

I've been always interested in how to mix ASP.NET MVC and Object Oriented JavaScript. My approach has been to use ASP.NET MVC to expose services and build the client (views/UI) with 100% OO JS code, but I wonder if there's a way to build most of the application (including views) on the server side and still keep using OO JavaScript.

Here's an interesting article that explains a double MVC architecture. You'll need a little background on JavaScript MVC to understand it http://blog.javascriptmvc.com/?p=68

Catching authorization errors with JQuery when using Forms Authentication in ASP.NET MVC 3

When there's an authentication error (timeout or invalid credentials) in ASP.NET MVC 3, the framework returns the login pages as a result of this. What if you want to catch the error in JQuery and handle it client side. Well, you can't. Unless, of course, you read this article.

Kudos to http://trycatchfail.com

Breakpoints don't work when debugging a dll in ArcMap

Has this ever happened to you? It's really annoying, because one moment is working, the next one it's not. After doing some searching, it turns out there's an ArcMap configuration file -ArcMap.exe.config- that you need to modify. Just change the version from 2.0 to 4.0 and voila!

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/vsdebug/thread/22d4c3d3-bf77-40ed-8b1b-64223019f3f1

Improving performance on ASP.NET websites

I came across this interesting article with a checklist to improve the performance of ASP.NET websites. The ideas presented in the article are nothing new, but they are provided in such a way that you can check if your website passes or not.

But remember, don't worry about performance until it becomes an issue.