2009 Goal List

I wrote this list up a couple of weeks ago during a VERY LONG customer meeting.  I have been debating whether to post this list or not, or whether to use the complete list that I compiled (I am), hence the delay…well, here goes.  I wanted to list some high aspirations of mine and/or future goals, interpret them as you will.

1. Learn to type better (and use the mouse less) – The MUD typing skills that I attained in college are wearing off.  This is becoming more obvious as I begin to give more technical presentations
2. Blog once (or more) a week – I have a backlog of posts I need to finish, and I will try to do it!
3. Be more involved in the .NET community – I did go to the Dallas Charity Coding Challenge, and have been on most VAN calls
4. Be more involved in the NWADNUG – I was elected to the board as the groups “Secretary” for 2009
5. Start the Wal-Mart .NET User Group – Robby Gregory and I have launched it (and blogs to finish on these meetings)
6. Work on personal programming projects – I have a couple of decent ideas, tough to start/finish
7. Work on TDD, DDD, BDD – Obviously kind of a BS goal, but it is true that I want to learn them better
8. Ditch my paid TV for free (internet) TV – If I can only get HDMI audio from my Mythbuntu + Boxee machine I got it!
9. Move to Austin, TX – Good tech job market, good tech community, liberal mentality, affordable housing, warmer weather, bigger airport, city life…
10. Get promoted or apply for a new job/team – Pretty obvious
11. Something with the kids and wife? – Sad that I cannot think of a goal that I want to accomplish with my wife or kids…
12. Stay healthy – I play tennis a couple times a week, trying to eat better (no more pop!)
13. Organize time better – I really need to accomplish tasks first and relax as a reward, but old habits are hard to break.

Well, that was not super-exciting, but now I have it publicized to the world; meaning that I have to accomplish all of the listed goals within the next year, which will be nice.

Opening a VS 2008 SP1 Web Application in VS 2008 without SP1

At my employer, we have Visual Studio 2008 rolled out to the general populace. Unfortunately, we do not have VS 2008 SP1 installed with it. I know it should be coming in the next month but I want to mention a little trick that I have been using for a few months now just in case someone needs it. In this example, I am trying to open a VSLiveBlog project that Ben Scheirman has posted here.

When I first open the solution I get this message:

I hit the ‘OK’ button and am left with all the projects open except the web application:

Right-clicking in the unavailable project with give me the following menu:

Selecting the “Edit VSLiveBlog.Web.csproj” will open up the project file XML. I see the following:

<Project ToolsVersion="3.5" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
  <Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
  <Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform>
  <ProductVersion>9.0.21022</ProductVersion>
  <SchemaVersion>2.0</SchemaVersion>
  <ProjectGuid>{766F7651-6588-4B2D-A79D-CA0195A1B6DD}</ProjectGuid>
  <ProjectTypeGuids>{603c0e0b-db56-11dc-be95-000d561079b0};{349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21};{fae04ec0-301f-11d3-bf4b-00c04f79efbc}</ProjectTypeGuids>

I then switch the <ProjectTypeGuids> section to a functioning one from another project on my machine:

<ProjectTypeGuids>{349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21};{fae04ec0-301f-11d3-bf4b-00c04f79efbc}</ProjectTypeGuids>

Save and close the csproj file and right click on the unavailable project again, this time selecting “Reload Project”:

Time to get to work: