Jenn Majewski

Installing Silverlight with Visual Studio 2008

Jenn Majewski — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:31:07 GMT

Installing Silverlight to work with Visual Studio 2008 was quite a task, but I managed to finally get a project loaded after dealing with several errors including, “The project type is not supported by this installation.”

After reading through several blogs and forums, here are the steps I had to take to finally get a Silverlight project to open:

I hope this information helps anyone attempting to make this install.

Redesigning LowDowns

Jenn Majewski — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 22:03:35 GMT

So, six years ago, I quickly put together a website for a singing group called LowDowns. The technology then was limited to .NET 1.1 and my experience was seriously lacking. Most of the site used HTML. The only .NET was written by my husband, which was used to create something a lot like 2.0's masterpages. The finished site was simplistic, had a limited area to work with, and wasn't much to look at.

So, the time had come. The site desperately needed an overhall. I was having troubles figuring out a decent layout, and then I found a neat tutorial to create buttons in Paint.NET. After going through this tutorial, I decided to base my design around these buttons.

The site looks much better now and has the ability to create more functionality in the future, unlike the previous version. Although the buttons could fall under the category of "mystery meat navigation" they add some personality to the site. The site utilizes .NET much more than the old site and the code is much easier to maintain.

Go Broncos! 2007 NFL Season Begins

Jenn Majewski — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 21:52:53 GMT

It's that time again. The NFL pre-season starts for the Denver Broncos this coming Monday. The play the 49ers in San Francisco and I can hardly wait for pre-season to be over so the regular season can starts.

The Broncos look promising this year. They have a lot of great talent, including Jay Cutler. As long as they have few injuries, they should be able to easily win the division (I don't rank the San Diego Chargers as high as some national rankings have because they have a new coach). As for the Super Bowl, I wait to see how they do before I get my hopes too high.

Go Broncos!

Redesign Done!

Jenn Majewski — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 05:02:54 GMT

Yay! I've actually finished and released a new version of Conolia.com. I'm excited about this version because it's the first version of Conolia that doesn't require a recompile in order to update (other than the first version that was strictly HTML). I've come a long way in experience since that first version was done.

I'm hoping that this particular version will grow into a great learning experience for me. I'm planning on trying out some AJAX when I go to add more functionality to the site. We'll see how it grows.

Redesigning Conolia

Jenn Majewski — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 19:41:32 GMT

Conolia.com is my personal site that I tend to test new knowledge on. It's been a great learning tool for me. However, lately, I haven't had a lot of time to work on my personal sites (as you can probably see with the lack of postings on this site).

Unfortunately, Conolia has fallen into an obsolete tool. The site is using VB.NET when I have been developing my skills in C#. The framework is 1.1 when 2.0 can do so much more. Most of the site is hard-coded instead of data driven. There's not an administrative back-end. I could keep listing all the improvements the site needs, but instead I'll just leave it at that.

I am now working on completely redesigning Conolia. In my discussions with others, I've also been able to make a list of new ideas for the site. The new site will be in 2.0, will be data driven, have a much more efficient design, have an administrative back-end, and just overall be much easier to update.

Although I've only just started, I'm looking forward to releasing the new version!

The Curse Continues: Seattle Seahawks vs. Denver Broncos

Jenn Majewski — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:02:13 GMT

It's a curse on me, not the Broncos. And it has nothing to do with win or lose. It's all about the weather. You see, Colorado has just gone through a cold snap and it's time for my first (and only) Bronco game of the year. This Sunday, the Broncos host my second favorite team, the Seahawks.

Prior to 2003, I can't remember which games I went to. But here's the run down of the last three years:

November 23, 2003 - Chicago Bears. The Broncos lost this game 19-10. It was a huge disappointment after sitting in the freezing temperatures. When I say freezing, I mean it literally. The tempurature was in the single digits.

November 28, 2004 - Oakland Raiders. The Broncos lost 25-24 to their rivals. This is the first ever Raiders game I attended and it was a Sunday night game. It was bitterly cold after a snow storm had hit earlier that day. Infact, a friend of mine was sitting just a few rows down from me and we never saw each other because we were so bundled up. Tempuratures for that game were in the teens.

October 9, 2005 - Washington Redskins. The Broncos beat the Redskins 21-19. One of the reasons I picked this game was because it was early in the year. However, it was probably the worst game weather wise I have ever been to. The day started out beatifully with a high of 75 degrees, but when a cold front came through the rain wouldn't stop. Tempurtures during the game hovered just above freezing. With tempuratures that low and the constant rain, it made for a miserable day to be outside. Give me just plain cold or even cold and snow over cold and rain any day!

Now it's time to start getting ready for this Sunday's game. It was originally scheduled to start around 2:00, but with the NFL's flex schedule this year, it has been moved to 6:15, making the game that much colder after the sun sets. It is a curse I bring with me. So, if you're ever planning on going to a game, check with me first to see if I'm going. Those will be the games you'll want to avoid.

Hey, at least it will be fun watching Jay Cutler play for the first time.

New Toys: Part II - Alienware Area-51 m5750

Jenn Majewski — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:24:55 GMT

Not long after the purchase of my new car, my new laptop arrived: an Alienware Area-51 m5750. This baby an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor and has a 17" widescreen monitor that gets up to a 1920x1200 resolution. That gives me plenty of room for code when I open up Visual Studio. I bought it with minimal RAM (512 MB) and added more myself when it arrived (it's now 2 GB).

Once it arrived, I installed the new memory along with Windows Vista. It runs beautifully. With the exception of the DVD-ROM not wanting to read EA games, the machine works fantastically.

I'm very excited about this new toy of mine. It's a high performance media machine that doesn't only work well, but looks pretty cool, too.

New Toys: Part I - Subaru Legacy Sedan

Jenn Majewski — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:07:55 GMT

In the last couple of weeks I've gotten two major toys. This post will be about my first toy; a Subaru Legacy Sedan.

My last car was a VW New Beetle. It was a bright yellow car that stood out in the parking lot and matched my personality. I loved the way the small car handled and, with a turbo engine, it was fast. It had a lot of problems, however. It's appearance made it a target for vandalism and it had a problem with parts not working. The list of problems I had is too long, so I won't list them here.

I took my car in for an oil change one afternoon but was told that the plug was stuck and I would have to take it in for maintenance. That was the last straw. It was time for a new car. As mentioned before, I loved the small size of the Beetle and wanted to stick with something fairly small. But, as a resident of Colorado, I also wanted something that would handle the snow better.

The all-wheel-drive Subaru Legacy Sedan was a perfect fit for me. I had rented one of these cars a couple of years back and loved the way it handled. So, it was off to a Subaru dealership.

Overall, I am very impressed with my new (used - 2006) car. I have yet to drive it in the snow, but I'm sure it will do fine. It's definitely larger than the Beetle, but it's no large SUV or truck, either.

Vista: The Sound of Silence

Jenn Majewski — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:45:45 GMT

I've installed the new operating system from Microsoft, Vista, onto my desktop at home and all sees to be running fairly well with one exception, my computer is now silent. Apparantly, there are no drivers for the Creative SB Live! Sound card. My machine is as silent as a mouse.

With Office 2007 running, iTunes installed (after some issues with permissions on another user account), and the realization that Vista has a Mahjong game (one of my all time favorite games!) I figured no sound was a small price to pay for a machine that runs much better now than it did before. But iTunes is pretty worthless without sound. Sure, I can sync up my iPod, but that's about where the fun ends. And I miss the alert sounds to let me know when I have new mail or an instant message.

I hope it won't be too long before a fix is available. The interface on Vista is very different from XP and will take some getting used to, but overall, I'm liking it so far. It will be that much better once I can hear again.

It Starts - Microsoft Certifications

Jenn Majewski — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 21:27:33 GMT

When I started my new job back in January as a Solutions Developer, I decided to hold out on getting MCSD certified since the new Framework had been out and the release of the new certifications was right around the corner. The MCPD exams have been out for a few months now and Microsoft Press even has a few books to help study. So, I figure, it’s time to bite the bullet.

Next week (and yes, I’m aware of the holiday), I will be hunkering down to do some serious studying. My short-term goal is to have passed the 70-536 (Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Application Development Foundation) exam by the end of this month. I’ve never taken a MS Certification exam before, so this should be interesting . . .