The Daily Grind 809

Yesterday might have been slow, but there's plenty of news today to make up for it.

Software

• DB2 Express-C - IBM has entered the ranks of companies offering a free version of their flagship database, alongside SQL Server Express and Oracle 10g Express. Available for both Linux and Windows, supports 2 CPUs and 4GB of RAM. (via CRN)
• CodeSmith 3.2 - A new build of this fine code generator is out, optimized for .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005. Trial download is here, pricing from $99.
• SmartVB6 and SmartVBA - Yes, you can still get add-in development tools for Microsoft's older development environments. Procedure Builder, Property Builder, Code Formatter, Project Explorer, and other goodies. Trial download is here, $99 to register.
• CSLA .NET 2.0 - Rocky Lhotka's business object framework for .NET applications now has a new version in public beta. (via Jason Haley)
• Cache Manager plug-in for ASP.NET - Add-in for ASP.NET servers that lets the administrator view and flush entries in the cache. (via dotnetkicks)
• CrunchyCode - ASP.NET 2.0/SQL Server application generator that churns out multiple front ends and middle tiers using various technologies including DHTML, Flash, MSMQ, AJAX, and more. Trial download is here, pricing from $99. (via TheServerSide.NET)
• DevPartner SecurityChecker 2.0 - Compuware's application for security auditing ASP.NET applications is now integrated with Visual Studio 2005 and has a batch of new analysis rules.
• Going out and in with a bang: newtellivision - Clemens Vasters announces the imminent availability of his framework and application for accessing live streaming television remotely. Get the code here.
• A World of New Opportunity - Looks like it's official, Team Foundation Server is on to ship in March.
• TestDriven.NET + Visual Studio Test Tools - TestDriven.NET now offers an alternative for executing the Visual Studio Team Suite test tools. Also, the latest versions of TestDriven.NET integrate the NCover code coverage tools as well as a new NCover Explorer interface for relating coverage information directly back to your source code.

Information

• URL Mapping in ASP.NET 2.0 - I cover the basics (and some of the alternatives) for Developer.com.
• ZCopy deployment is here - "Imagine deploying your website by just uploading a single ZIP file containing all of your website files". I'm not sure how useful this really is, but it certainly is intriguing.

Community

• Is a trip to Tuscany in your future? - SearchVB lets me rant a bit about the prospect of "Live" links in a future version of Visual Studio.
• Great Design - Table of Contents - Joel Spolsky is revising and reworking his user interface design book, and you're invited to read the drafts. I don't agree with everything in the new material (Sweet Home Alabama? You're joking, right?) but as usual it's thought-provoking.

Sponsor

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Sponsored by: Community Server, the platform for building community sites Community Server is the award winning platform for rapidly enabling online communities and includes all the integrated tools you need to create your community. These tools include discussion forums, email lists, newsgroups, weblogs, file galleries, rss subscriptions, content management, and more. With features such as the Community Server Email Gateway, you can use any email client to both send and receive emails to a Community Server system. These emails are stored within Community Server where they can be read, replied to, search, rated and so on. Community Server is built with for the Microsoft .NET platform, and is offered under a free community license (with .NET C# source) as well as commercial licenses. Learn more at www.communityserver.org

Mike Gunderloy is the lead developer for Larkware and author of numerous books and articles on programming topics.

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