WELCOME TO CLARITY BLOGS

I use Json all the time, but I feel like it’s super annoying in .NET.  Typically I’d call some web service that returns Json. In .NET it seems like the best thing to is to define a data contract and use the DataContractSerializer: [DataContract]...

I volunteer for INETA as the user group mentor for the Midwest Region (IL, IN, and WI). One of the things I'm planning to do differently this year is to better help spread the word on my blog about events happening in the region, whether they're...

I feel like an idiot for not realizing this sooner, but if you have the Surface touchpack for Win7, you can reference those Microsoft.Surface.Touchpack dlls in your Surface app, remove the regular Surface references and change the namespaces and voila...

Here are things I’ve been thinking about lately in regards to mobile advertising. Mobile advertising seems really underdeveloped. Maybe in part because it’s difficult to tailor ads to various devices and it’s easy to push the standard banner ad inventory...

I’m thinking I’ll just start blogging the random ideas I have. Maybe they are good and i will eventually do it or maybe someone else will and I reap the benefits or maybe they suck and nothing happens. Either way, I get a +1 on my blogging stats. I love...

It’s been awhile since I’ve used Azure. The new storage libraries are a welcome addition. As a better diagnostic framework and inter-role communication. In a previous Azure project, I wanted to use ASP.NET caching on the web role, but that breaks down...

Truly paying attention can be one of the hardest things to do. Even when you are doing something you want to do, say solving an interesting problem, your mind flits about. In a five minute interval you might answer an IM, check your email, check twitter...

In many K2 projects I've worked on, we end up having to tie existing business data into the various workflow processes.  While k2 provides a means to do this via process/activity data fields, they tend to be difficult to query against and can...

In a previous post, I mentioned working on a time keeping component. We used this component as the basis of a task scheduling application. Our tasks were represented by classes that implemented a common task interface: public interface ICustomTask { CustomTaskResult...

I recently had a unique challenge with SSRS which was the utilization of a Custom Font on an SSRS Report. Normally, I do not think about fonts other than what get installed as system fonts in Windows so this was a fairly new experience. I know a few people...

As I continue to explore agile techniques at work, I had the opportunity to do some Test Driven Development, specifically Test First Development. The problem at hand was that our system is composed of several applications, all of which have various actions...

Dependency injection (DI) is a powerful technique to make your code more testable and your application more adaptable to future changes. Working with an application that uses DI in Visual Studio can be painful. You want to be able to make changes to your...

Ever wondered what it would be like to work for a fast-paced, award-winning consulting firm in Chicago? You’re in luck! We’re looking for a few exceptional people. We’re generally less concerned with specific tool/language experience and more interested...

As a consultant, I am pulled in two seemingly opposing directions in regards to new technology. To be a good consultant, particularly at my company Clarity, you have to be engaged with technology. Reading, talking about, working with new technology is...

I'll be speaking at the Central Illinois SharePoint User Group in Springfield, IL at 9:00AM on Thursday, January 21st 2010. The topic will be Building Communications Enabled Applications with OCS and Exchange : Office Communications Server 2007 R2...