We’ve been talking about this for a while, and today is the magical day. EasySearchASP.net will no longer be a product sold by myKB.com, Inc. While the product still has a support life, and there are still (minute) sales, it is no longer financially prudent to keep the product on the market. We’re not investing any more dev resources into the product, and every day the product is more and more dated.

There are several competing options that are nice, and even public free options with Bing and Google that can do most of the tricks EasySearchASP.net had to offer. To be clear, we’re still supporting EasySearch – just no longer selling it.

If you already have a license, please sleep well at night knowing that bug fixes, and support are still available.

Please contact me directly, if you have questions about EasySearchASP.net.

11 May 2010
— sc

Once every couple of years I remember FreeBusinessCards.com and order business cards. They print a VistaPrint.com advertisement on the back, but that is fine with me. I’m using the service, to print business cards for http://AZGroups.org. Expect to pay around $5 for shipping, and wait 2 or 3 weeks for your order, but hey, it can’t get any cheaper than that!

Oh, and FreeBusinessCards.com is the king of trying to upsell, so expect to say “No Thank You” about a dozen times before you can finally submit your order.

Here is the card that I just ordered.

Here are my talking points for the Visual Studio Launch event today. I’m covering the “What’s New” talk. When I put this together, I didn’t want to just show a bunch of fancy new features that you may use someday. I really wanted to show Studio features that will make you more productive. Period. You should be able to leave the talk (or read this post) and start saving time instantly with your time in Visual Studio.

If you’re like me, you spend most of your time in Studio so every second counts. Each little tip/trick that you add to your bag of tricks is helpful, so in addition to just talking about some new keys/points/features of Studio 2010, I’ll also be throwing in several mini-production tips around keyboard shortcuts, debugging, and navigation.

As you know, the time on stage is limited and the key to being a good speaker is being able to roll with what’s happening with the audience. Agile Speaking 🙂 So I may or may not be able to go over all of these, and there may be additional topics that come up that aren’t listed, but … it’s my goal to stick as close as possible to this outline.

1. Multiple Monitor Support
2. Incremental Search, CTRL+i
3. Box Select, Multi Line Select, ALT+MouseSelect
4. Smart Tag from Keyboard, CTRL+.
5. New VS2010 Navigation, CTRL+,
6. Reference Highlights (Visual only)
7. Temporary Projects (Tools|Options|Projects|Save New)
8. Parallel Coding (Examples for .For and .ForEach)
9. Debugging (Conditional, Trace Points)
10. Intellitrace (Go back in time with the debugger)
11. Generate Usage (Class, Methods, Props, Fields, Types)
12. Find Usages, References, (F8)
13. Call Hierarchy
14. Sequence Diagrams
15. Assembly Dependency Diagram
16. Layer validation Diagram (Compiler v. Business Layers)

Based on time, I probably won’t get to do the last of these tips tricks, but I have them in my bag of tricks as filers. The idea here is to always make sure I have enough content prepared, but make sure the core concepts above are covered. So these additional tip/tricks may or may not make it into the 60 minutes.

1. Custom Search Results (Registry Hack, HKCU/Soft/MS/VS/10/Find )
2. Find Sibling Bracket/Parenthesis, CTRL+}
3. Navigation Forward and backward, CTRL+-
4. Clipboard Ring, CTRL+SHIFT+V
5. Find Box in Command Mode
6. Right Click or Context Menu Changes
7. Zoom The Editor from the CTRL+SHIFT+< and CTRL+SHIFT+>
8. Edit SLN and PROJ files inside Studio

Next Monday is the 7th Annual day of .net with Scott Guthrie. I’ve been doing this event for many years and this year (for the first time) I’ll be asking for a feedback / eval form to be turned in at the end of the day. In true community fashion, I would like to ask your feedback on my feedback form.

Please be constructive. I know that filling out forms seems silly on a one-by-one basis, but collectively the stats can really help, and I will personally read and evaluate each form, so it’s a great way to give each person their own voice.

I’ve put hundreds of hours into getting this event off the ground, with the venue, sponsors, give-a-ways, etc. So to make it better next year, this is the form I’ve put together.

Am I missing anything? Should I add or remove anything? Please leave comments below.

Thank You!

Thank You!

Thank You!

If you have AT&T – but use another voice mail server like Google Voice, here are some codes that are useful to know. Actually these codes are useful to know, even if you use the default voice mail, because you can do things like set the amount of time your phone rings, before your voice mail picks up.

*004* is a command that is used to set Forwarding, Busy, and No Answer, all at once. It defaults to 10 seconds. (The 10 seconds is a guesstimate – but I think it’s correct). Here is the pattern to use for *004* command. Replace the 4445551212 with the actually number you want to send your calls to.

*004*14445551212*11# (Then press Talk or Send)

SPECIAL NOTE FOR GOOGLE VOICE USERS
The destination number, will not always be your own google voice number. Log into Google Voice (Phones) and check the activation settings.

You can also, individually send commands for forwarding, busy, and no answer transfer. This is also cool, you can ask your phone to send you the status of each of these, so if you’re not sure of your current status, there are commands for that as well.

Command: Forward all calls. This might be useful if you are switching phone numbers (maybe to a new carrier??) This option forwards all calls, without even ringing your phone – just a straight up forward. I don’t have a clear answer on this – I’ve asked several agents – and it depends on who you ask – you get a different answer. The question is about billing. Do you get charged minutes against your plan, for forwarded calls? Say you have forwarding on to your home. You cell phone is off. Someone calls your cell phone, which forwards to your home. You talk for 60 minutes. Does the 60 minutes get deducted from your calling plan? My thought is … No you don’t. But … be careful, because I’m not sure, and neither are the AT&T representatives.

Turn Off all Call Forwarding: #002# (Then press Talk or Send)
Forward All Calls command prefix: *21*
Activate: *21*14445551212*11# (Then press Talk or Send)
Cancel & Retain: *21*11# (Then press Talk or Send) this option remembers the number, but disables forwarding
Re-establish: *21*11# (Then press Talk or Send) this option engages forwarding to the last number (notice this is just a toggle command
Cancel & Forget: ##21*11# (Then press Talk or Send) Disable forwarding, and forget the last number used to forward
Status: *#21*11# (Then press Talk or Send) this sends you back status of your forwarding number

If Busy:
Turn OFF If Busy Call Forwarding: #67# (Then press Talk or Send)
Activate: *67*14445551212*11#
Cancel & Retain: #67*11#
Re-establish: *67*11#
Cancel & Forget: ##67*11#
Status: *#67*11#

if no answer: Ring for 15 (see the 15 at the end of the activate command) seconds, and then forwards to destination number.
Turn OFF No Answer Call Forwarding: #61# (Then press Talk or Send)
Activate: *61*14445551212*11*15#
Cancel & Retain: #61*11#
Re-establish: *61*11#
Cancel & Forget: ##61*11#
Status: *#61*11#

If Unreachable: (When you phone is off, or out of a service area)
Turn Off Unreachable Call Forwarding: #62# (Then press Talk or Send)
Activate: *62*14445551212*11#
Cancel & Retain: #62*11#
Re-establish: *62*11#
Cancel & Forget: ##62*11#
Status: *#62*11#