List<ExpandoObject> to Excel Export

I’m writing this to share a quick solution I implemented to solve a need on a small project. It works, but feels dirty. If you have a cleaner reco, PLEASE let me know. Handler: (My apologies for screenshots. Git Gists were not keeping the formatting when I selected c#)   Extension Method: HEADS UP This […]

What’s Bothering Me About This Birthday

Skip to post-birthday update As the eve of this major birthday approaches, I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching lately I’ve been having a hard time pinpointing what is bothering me so much about it. Yes, everyone knows how disturbing it is in our society for a woman to turn 40. Fortunately I was never […]

Entity Framework Circular References

One of the first issues I encountered returning serialized, nested (“deep”) entities using EF5 with the (MVC4) ASP.NET Web Api was the “Self Referencing loop” exception* For any property you don’t want exposed, make the Getter: Internal & Setter: Public. Doing this on the navigation properties that reference the parent that reference it will prevent […]

ASP.NET Web API: Always Set Content-Type

I lost a few hours on my project one night last week because of this. Backstory I have been really enjoying my latest project using Asp.NET Web API & EF5. Although I’ve had a bit of a (mostly EF) learning curve, it’s gone swimmingly, and I’ve been blown away at the parsing magic performed by […]

Git as an Environment Discovery Tool

I love discovering existing tools that can be used in new ways. This way to use git in a way I had not heard of is so badass (and by badass, I mean it’s going to save me an insane amount of time) that I have to shout it from the rooftops. Background I work for a marketing firm with many clients. […]

ThatConference 2012

Developer Parent As a working parent of two young children, it is not easy for me to attend conferences. Thankfully, I have an unbelievably supportive spouse, without which (as you know if you have kids & have voluntarily attended an OOT dev conf), the thought of attending a conference would not even be on the […]

Technology in Elementary School

From 6:30 to 8pm this evening, my daughters’ elementary school held their 1st annual Technology Night: Experience how we use technology in the classrooms. This is a hands on activity for the parents and students. Please come and visit classrooms at each grade level where you can see various methods of technology use. This thing […]

Programming & Barriers to Entry: More Thoughts

I’ve never seen a turnout at Dallas Hack Club like this past Tuesday night. What an awesome & diverse group of developers. Pairing languages included Ruby & C#, and even an F# & a (first time at Hack club) SmallTalk pairing. As fascinating as Hack Club Meetings always are, the different languages made the demos […]

My Daughter’s First User Group Meeting

When I received this email yesterday from Todd Stone, who runs the Dallas .NET Micro User Group, I called my husband to ask for his support picking up our 5yo so I could take Katelyn, our 8yo, to this meeting: Agenda: Shawn Weisfeld will demo a robot he built with Robotics Studio and a Kinect […]

Meeting Influencers AKA the Starstuck Syndrome

If you’ve read some of my previous posts (like this one or this one or this one), you already know I exemplify, “You can’t spell Geek without ‘ee’.” Although I never understood worshipping “celebrities” (like the Hollywood kind), meeting someone in person whose work, efforts or brilliance have made a difference in my life or […]