I run a pretty vanilla VS IDE, largely because my computer can barely handle the stock install. But at home I have a much much better computer, so I'm looking forward to trying out a few of these goodies:

ComputerZen.com - Scott Hanselman's Weblog - Scott's List of Ultimate Visual Studio.NET AddIns

http://feedster.net/c.php?c=1&q=developmentnow&r=935016&a=142777735&i=666&l=http://www.developmentnow.com/blog/2005/01/google-and-orphaned-urls.aspx
http://feedster.com/claimfeed.php?key=23c53a0bcfeb011bfcf5b5ff49fc9cb9

Blogging some URLs so I can "claim my feed" in Feedster, an RSS aggregator site.

And btw, after Napster, how many frickin "-ster" sites are there going to be? Friendster, Feedster, hmm...I should make a list. If anyone reads this blog, add a comment or email me any -ster sites you know of & I'll compile a big list for everyone.

Sometimes you can see from Task Manager that a given process is behaving badly. Usually the Image Name column will indicate which app is the problem, or you can add the Proces ID (PID) column to see the process id. But what happens if there are, say, ten processes with the same Image Name, and only one of them is the "bad" one? Then you have to start with the PID & get more info...

For example, there was an issue with one of the application pools under IIS in our testing environment, and while I could see that W3WP.EXE was the culprit (that's how you know it's an application pool in IIS6). I didn't know which pool it was.

So the trick was to open a command line and run the command iisapp. That will list out the application pool names and PIDs of the current machine.

However, if you need to instead find out information on a COM+ Application, you'll have to open up The Component Services MMC and view the list of COM+ Applications. One of the views will show you the PID of all the COM+ Applications, which allows you to track down info for a specific one using perfmon, process viewer, or some other tool.

So, Blogger (as you may know) doesn't have an ability to do trackbacks. Automatic trackbacks are nice -- if one of my blog posts references a post from blog A, then in blog A's comments box, a URL can be placed linking to my post. So if I reference you, a trackback lets you automatically reference me.

Why can't a just add a comment to blog A's post, linking back to my blog? First, it's nice to differentiate between comments and trackbacks. Comments add information, trackbacks add context & provide related links. Second, a blogger may be monitoring & not like comments, but trackbacks are (supposed to be) honest & valid. So using trackbacks can allow you to actually get a legitimate cross-link. Lastly, some blogs keep stats between comments & trackbacks, so it's good if you can help keep the two differentiated.

There's a web page a found that will help you do trackbacks here. The only tricky part is knowing what the "trackback URL" is. Here's how: first, make your blog entry linking to someone else's blog post. Now go to that person's blog post in a browser & view source. Look for a line like

trackback:ping="http://www.peterprovost.org/services/trackbacks/3008.aspx"

It'll probably be in comments, that's ok. That URL in there is what you want to use for the trackback URL, the first field in the Wizbang form. The second field should be a direct link to your blog post (not your main blog home page). The rest of the fields are self-explanatory, although the Excerpt field can be left blank. Once you submit the form, you may see a blank page, but go to the person's blog post & you should probably see in the comments section a link going back to your blog post.

Maybe one day I'll make a trackback tool, but for now...

Loren Halvorson has a nice high-level writeup comparing log4net to Microsoft's new Enterprise Library Logging Block (EntLib) here: Microsoft Enterprise Library Logging Block compared to Log4net.

Peter Provost added a comment from the EntLib product manager.

I'm glad to see MS coming out with more fleshed out application blocks, but they need to keep leaning on them. Keep pushing it out of the "code sample" domain & into the "standard infrastructure" domain, so that the community can write articles on it, add to it, use it widely, so that when I get somebody's code with logging stuff in it, I can look at it & say "Ah, it's using the standard well-known such-and-such block, I know how to read, debug, configure, and use that. No sweat."

Korby Parnell wrote a bit up about Groove, a shared workspace application that was recently bought by Microsoft. I work for a company with two offices (Chicago & Seattle) and so any type of collaboration tool is worth looking into. But even if your coworkers are down the hall, the ability to promote synergy beyond just whiteboards has gotta be a plus.

This isn't totally development related, but more of the "tool tech stuff" line. Imagine a super duper small computer running Linux. Imagined it? Now, live it! With gumstix.

I bought a laptop the other week, a Dell 600m. I was hoping to scrounge for one of the new latitude 610s, but too much jack. Anyhow, I was able to score $600 off on the 600M from some of my regular "hot deal" haunts, so I thought I'd share the 411. And yes I seem to have a bad case of the lingos.

When I'm looking for good deals on tech stuff I visit these sites:

Fat Wallet. Kinda messy, but their Hot Deals forum usually has some good threads in the first few pages. Plus there's a lot of information, and people stay on top of the deals (which coupons to use, how to order, whether a deal is "dead" AKA no longer available).

Ben's Bargains. No, not my site. :) A different Ben. I think he lives in Australia or something. Anyhow, the deals are usually tech-oriented (although he's been spamming Dell deals a lot), and each deal has a dedicated, unmoderated, no-registration-required discussion forum where you can ask questions about the deal, vendor, product, etc. and people usually post replies quickly.

AnandTech Forums. It's a smaller community, but its Hot Deals forum is pretty good. Also, they have a nice For Sale/Trade forum where you can pick up used stuff, sometimes for a song. Why not buy from Ebay, you ask? Well, ebay is fine, but sometimes the prices are too high. And since AnandTech is a smaller community, and they use Heatware as a feedback mechanism, I find you can trust the people a bit more. Plus the transaction can be completed quickly -- a few PMs & the deal can be done.

NewEgg Refurbs. Yes, you are taking a bit of a chance with refurbs, but almost everything I've ordered from their refurb section was in great condition. You can get a great deal on computer cases, CPUs, motherboards, video cards, maybe some other stuff, too. I'd suggest skipping power supplies, or anything fragile (e.g. clear acrylic cases). Some of the refurbs are customer returns, but a lot are true manufacturer refurbished equipment & thus should be in top shape. YMMV, as always.

Amazon. I use Amazon mostly for product research. If I see a particular router on sale & want to know if it's good or if it sucks, I check it out on Amazon, read the reviews, etc. Sometimes I even buy it on Amazon.

ShopLocal. I happen to work for the company behind ShopLocal, but that's not why I'm listing it. ShopLocal is a different site in that it shows what's on sale at brick & mortar stores, i.e. physical stores like Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Office Depot, etc. Most of the items advertised in the Sunday newspaper circulars are there. So if there was a product on sale that you read about on Sunday but now it's Wednesday and you forgot what it was, or if there's a product that you'd prefer to buy in an actual store (b/c it's heavy, or you want to save on shipping, or you want to be able to return it easily, or whatever), you can get that information on ShopLocal.

So those are the main sites I frequent when I'm in the market for tech goodies on the cheap. What are some sites that you enjoy?