I just started working on my Castellano two weeks ago. Luckily, Or is fluent, and provided for me the must-know, real-world, survival-enabling phrase list. And I just had to share some gems with you: “no tepreocupes, conozco un rabino reformo” (don’t worry, I know a reformic Rabbi) “cuales son mis derechos?” (what are my rights?) “a mi me gusta Maradona, vos te gusta maradona, porque pelear” (I love Maradona, you love Maradona, why fight?…

You now, Flickr has become really fantastic. They managed to create a sense of community over there, and they have tons of ways to stumble upon stuff you weren’t looking for in the first place. I usually just start by searching some photo of Rio de Janeiro or something, but then I somehow follow a link to “Don Carlito’s stream”, from there to some (intentionally) blurry picture of a Moscow Subway, then immediately I find myself in the “Scary Huge Cities in the Nighttime pool”, and from there the path to some naked old guy Photoshop’ed to look kind’a like a bottle of Heinz Ketchup is very very short.…

start.com is pretty cool. Also, it’s a bit similar to one idea I’ve been thinking about. (There are one or two similar sites I’ve seen are also cool, I don’t remember the addresses now) Of course, it’s very beautifully executed(as most things Microsoft are). But currently it’s not very usable. As an RSS reader - it’s nice, but there are other online readers that are a little better. (like Google’s)…

Okay boys and girls, read my post about the little kinky control I’m doing here first. Today I decided to have a go at fixing problem #2, which looked like it could lead to solving #1 and #3. One may say it’s a problem-solving problem-solution. Right. So. As you remember, I didn’t like having a regular ASP.NET page acting as my HTTP handler. That’s because it’s not (1)deployable, (2)general, probably not (3)too-well-performing, and well (4) smells.…

Troubling Thought #1 - “AJAX-enabled”, is that a word?? On we go. At work, we have us a nice Web Control. Currently I’m adding to it some functionality that will get data from the server without posting-back the whole page. So I started with implementing this stuff in the most straightforward and naive way possible, because I wanted to see it work. Here’s how: 1. I added some custom javascript to the control’s behavior file.…

Setup: 1. You have a page with a data-bound DataGrid. 2. The page makes multiple post-backs (for example, the DataGrid is editable). 3. There are template-columns in the DataGrid. Here’s the tip: Make the ID of the DataGrid and the ID of the controls inside the template controls shorter. See, the DataGrid control renders all the HTML elements it needs to display your data, and assigns them id’s based on the ID of the grid itself and the ID of the controls they represent.…

I know, Microsoft Outlook is the number one productivity-enhancement tool in the world. I honestly don’t understand how anybody got anything done before they had that stuff. But that’s not what this post is about. See, Outlook can also be a productivity destroyer. Here’s how: I’m a software development team lead. My job consists of doing a ton of little things, many of which require being concentrated (Well, some of them.…

Yo dogs! Check this out: Oren Ellenbogen is up in the air. This dude can do stuff with Visual Studio that’ll make your hair stand up, form elaborate geometrical shapes and sometimes - do the Rumba. So anyway, pay him a visit.…

Turns out I was born in the Year of the Rooster(1981). Here’s what the chinese calendar site has to say: “The sign of the Rooster indicates a person who is hard-working and definite about their decisions. Roosters are not afraid to speak their minds and can therefore sometimes come across as boastful. They make good restaurant owners and world travellers.” I definitely agree with “definite about their decisions” and “sometimes come across as boastful”.…

Well folks, let me lend you a free piece of advice about this one travel magazine you should never be reading. It’s called “טיול עולמי” (World Travel) and it’s available at selected bookstores near you(If you happen to live in Israel that is, my dear, devoted, non-existing, English-speaking readers). In fact, I bet you real money it’s available right now. Go on, check it. Know why? Because nobody is stupid enough to actually buy one.…