Category Archives: Personal

Birth of Emma Watson

Posted by Ben on September 10, 2010 5 comments

Emma-20100820-27On August 6, 2010, our first baby, Emma, was brought into this world. It’s over a month since then, but as you can imagine, I’ve been busy. Smile She’s a beautiful, healthy, wonderful girl. Every day is a new adventure with her, as she learns something new, does something different, changes her patterns, and explores her world. Right now, she’s just fallen asleep with no almost no effort on our part for the first time.

Of course, I had to mark the occasion of her birth with a LEGO crib!

lego_crib-1-Edit

(more at flickr, click the image)

Popularity: 1% [?]

Interview with Me

Posted by Ben on March 19, 2010 2 comments

InformIT has just published an interview with me where they asked me a bunch of questions related to C# 4.0 How-To. We got into the multicore future, Internet versus books, why C# programmers need to know about UAC, and a lot more. Check it out!

Popularity: 4% [?]

The Book is Made Real

Posted by Ben on March 9, 2010 2 comments

_DSC6969 These arrived in the mail today. :)

Popularity: 3% [?]

C# 4.0 How-To Available Now!

Posted by Ben on March 8, 2010 2 comments

Well, it’s finally out! Amazon no longer lists the book as available for pre-sale, and it should be shipping to purchasers today or tomorrow. If you’re a B&N shopper, you can also order it there, or grab it in stores within a few days.

From the product description:

Real Solutions for C# 4.0 Programmers

Need fast, robust, efficient code solutions for Microsoft C# 4.0? This book delivers exactly what you’re looking for. You’ll find more than 200 solutions, best-practice techniques, and tested code samples for everything from classes to exceptions, networking to XML, LINQ to Silverlight. Completely up-to-date, this book fully reflects major language enhancements introduced with the new C# 4.0 and .NET 4.0. When time is of the essence, turn here first: Get answers you can trust and code you can use, right now!

Beginning with the language essentials and moving on to solving common problems using the .NET Framework, C# 4.0 How-To addresses a wide range of general programming problems and algorithms. Along the way is clear, concise coverage of a broad spectrum of C# techniques that will help developers of all levels become more proficient with C# and the most popular .NET tools.

Fast, Reliable, and Easy to Use!

  • Write more elegant, efficient, and reusable code
  • Take advantage of real-world tips and best-practices advice
  • Create more effective classes, interfaces, and types
  • Master powerful data handling techniques using collections, serialization, databases, and XML
  • Implement more effective user interfaces with both WPF and WinForms
  • Construct Web-based and media-rich applications with ASP.NET and Silverlight
  • Make the most of delegates, events, and anonymous methods
  • Leverage advanced C# features ranging from reflection to asynchronous programming
  • Harness the power of regular expressions
  • Interact effectively with Windows and underlying hardware
  • Master the best reusable patterns for designing complex programs

I’ll be doing a book giveaway at some point as well, once I get my own shipment. Stay tuned!

Get it from Amazon

Get it from Barnes and Noble

Popularity: 3% [?]

C# 4.0 How-To now available for pre-sale!

Posted by Ben on October 15, 2009 1 comments
csharp_howto_ben_watson For the last year, aside from starting a great job with Bing, I’ve also been working on a book about C# 4.0 and the upcoming .Net framework. The news: it is finally available for presale! This book is not your typical C# reference. It’s designed to be an easy guide to how to accomplish specific tasks, using a problem/solution approach. Some examples:
  • How to use P/LINQ (new in .Net 4!)
  • Override Equals and implement IEquatable<T> correctly
  • Enforce coding contracts (new in .Net 4!)
  • Convert numbers to strings in arbitrary bases
  • Various ways of rounding, including “snapping” to specific intervals.
  • Dynamic discovery of WCF services
  • Make your Silverlight 3 application run out-of-the-browser
  • Speed up array access
  • Easily split work among multiple processors
  • Localize WinForms, WPF, ASP.Net, and Silverlight apps

…and hundreds of other topics, covering everything from the basics of C# to WPF, ASP.Net, interaction with the operating system, common application patterns and more. I cover all the new stuff that’s in both the C# language and the .Net 4 framework classes, as well as existing functionality.

Each topic begins with a brief description of when/where/why you would need to use the technique, followed by a brief explanation and source code.

I often just want a reference I can quickly dive into to remind me of how something is done. This book is my attempt to put in writing what I find valuable, both when I was learning C# and now when I just need to locate a sample quickly.

Over the next few months I’ll talk more about what’s in the book, and hopefully get back into blogging more programming topics.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Some photos of Pine Lake

Posted by Ben on August 12, 2009 2 comments

Pine Lake 1 We went down to one of the many local lakes and I snapped a couple of shots of the lake during sunshot. It’s a small, beautiful lake with a tiny public beach, a dock inhabited by fishermen and a small swimming area. No motorized boats are allowed.

I’m sure there are hundreds of places within a few minutes’ drive of here that have wonderful photo opportunities. It’s just a matter of taking the time to find them.Sunset at Pine Lake I recently picked up the 18-200 VR lens for my D80 and absolutely love it. Also got the 50mm f/1.8Dthat is also wonderful.

I’ll probably be posting more pictures on this blog, just to share something.

Popularity: 7% [?]

LEGO Space Shuttle

Posted by Ben on July 19, 2009 7 comments

ben-shuttle-01 Over the last year, I’ve (very slowly) been working on a LEGO model of a NASA Space Shuttle. It’s finally finished, or as much as it will be. I need to move onto other things now.

It’s about 38” long. I have no idea how many pieces—many thousands because every surface is tiled over. The flaps and rudder move and the cargo bay opens up to reveal a detailed interior.

You can see it on BrickShelf or MOCPages.

I’ve started thinking about my next model, but haven’t done anything beyond prototyping. I’ve got other projects at the moment, so it will probably be a long time before it’s done.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Photos from the 2009 Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon and Half Marathon

Posted by Ben on June 29, 2009 1 comments

_DSC3557 On Saturday, my wife ran in the Rock and Roll Marathon in downtown Seattle. I roamed around and took pictures of Qwest and Safeco fields and snapped a few of the race itself. Bib numbers I captured (where I could read them) are: 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, 1275, 1347, 1350, 1356, 1412, 1470, 1490, 1498, 1539, 1573, 1580, 1611, 1690, 1695, 1707, 1710, 2042, 2449, 2470, 2494, 2513, 2575, 2642, 2723, 3512, 3610, 4318, 4498, 5227, 5335, 6671, 7412, 9335, 11419, 12487, 13512, 13610, 23556, 25480, 28560, 29588, 34389, 35366, F1, F2, F4, F5, F7, F8, F9, F14.

If you see yourself in any of these, I’ll e-mail you what I have for no charge. I won’t do any processing on them, other than what I already have, however.

Gallery

Popularity: 8% [?]

My universe rebalances

Posted by Ben on October 20, 2008 None comments

Do you ever get the feeling that when things are going too well, something has to give?

I think sometimes the universe decides it needs to humble you, remind you just how thin the thread is from which we all hang. Months of comparative ease and happiness demand a balance.

Yesterday, we were rebalanced. Now, I realize that our misfortunes pale in comparison the suffering that many peoples of world undergo daily, never mind the financial turmoil we’re going through at the moment.

In fact, the individual events that happened to us aren’t really all that notable—it’s the juxtaposition that is suspicious.

We were out yesterday at an event and when we tried to leave, our car did not start. The gas was low (my wife was happy to remind me that she mentioned that we should have filled up the previous night), but I didn’t really think that was it. Still, one of our newly-made friends runs home to get gas, but the nozzle is made for a lawnmower, not a car, so it doesn’t reach. Someone else goes home to get a funnel. We put 3 gallons in there—just to be certain. It still doesn’t start. First impressions are wonderful, aren’t they? (at least they don’t think I’m an idiot for running out of gas). The car eventually gets towed to a local garage (turns out it’s a bad ignition coil).

When we get home, we set up a little of the furniture we’ve gotten for our house—we decide it doesn’t look nearly so good as we thought—this is demoralizing, to say the least.

Then I foolishly put something into the dishwasher that had been covered with soap (from the move). Next time I walked into the kitchen, the floor was covered with bubbles. Fun.

To end the day, I noticed that a screw was coming out of my glasses and I take it out to try to reseat it. Oops. 90 minutes later I got it back in.

<sigh>

Today was better, though.

I’ve got some blog topics planned—it’s just been too hectic to have time to write lately. I didn’t even have a computer desk until yesterday, and it still doesn’t have a computer under it. Maybe today…

Popularity: 7% [?]

On the importance of having a good haircut

Posted by Ben on October 11, 2008 7 comments

Note to future self: Don’t get haircut the week before important events take place.

After my last day of work at GeoEye, I went to get my haircut at a nearby salon. I asked for it a little shorter. Between the time I gave this brief instruction, and the time she lifted her hands to my head, a seismic, cosmic, interrupting event took place that transformed my words into: “Kindly shave my head, I have no need of hair. Please don’t ask for confirmation.”

At least, that’s what I assume happened. Before I could say anything, an electric razor had taken quite a bit off the top. It wasn’t to the skin–thank goodness. But I was on my way to a whole new look.

It was too late to fix it, so I went with it.

The next day we flew out to Seattle to look for housing with our new realtor. I had to excuse myself for looking like a skinhead.

Of course, the next Monday I started at Microsoft and had my badge picture taken. That one will be alive for a while…

And my drivers license…

And all the pictures of my wife and I in a new location…

Popularity: 8% [?]