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Matt Gertz - Visual Basic Blog

Phoning Home, revisited (Matt Gertz)

May 21, 2009 May 21, 2009 05/21/09
Anthony D. Green [MSFT]
In my post “M. G. Phone Home,” I discussed how to write a simple phone application for Windows Mobile, using Visual Basic, which accesses the Bluetooth service.  What I didn’t discuss was how to deploy it to the phone via CAB.  Since I purchased a new phone yesterday (a Samsung Saga, running Windows Mobile 6.1), and...

How Do We Learn to Be Good Programmers? (Matt Gertz)

May 5, 2009 May 5, 2009 05/5/09
Anthony D. Green [MSFT]
I’ve always enjoyed writing.  Putting pen to paper (or, these days, fingers to keyboard) is something that brings a lot of joy into my life, even more than music or any other hobby that I have.  I’ve been writing stories since earlier than I can remember, have faithfully kept a daily diary for many years, and have ...

Keep the Customer Satisfied (Matt Gertz)

April 13, 2009 Apr 13, 2009 04/13/09
Anthony D. Green [MSFT]
As I’ve written elsewhere, the toughest critics for any work you do can always be found in your own family.  Pleased at the immense work that I’d done in scanning in and tagging all of my photos and media (as noted in this post), and with my ego sufficiently boosted by writing a screensaver in VB that would display not only ...

An Updated Screensaver Example (Matt Gertz)

January 23, 2009 Jan 23, 2009 01/23/09
Anthony D. Green [MSFT]
I’ve just completed a task that I set out to do about five years ago, and I am pretty proud (and tired)!  I have just finished scanning in every single photo that I’ve acquired over my 40+ years of life, fixing up their dates to reflect the date when the picture was taken, not when it was scanned.  Furthermore, I have tagged ...

Sshhh… it’s a secret (Matt Gertz)

December 27, 2008 Dec 27, 2008 12/27/08
Anthony D. Green [MSFT]
Back in seventh grade, I had a pretty heavy crush on a girl named Melissa.  She was a good friend of mine, and so I had no problems talking to her.  However, being painfully shy back then, I was far too nervous to ever ask her to “go with” me.  (For those not steeped in American traditions, to “go with” a girl or boy in ...

M. G. Phone Home (Matt Gertz)

December 9, 2008 Dec 9, 2008 12/9/08
Anthony D. Green [MSFT]
M. G. Phone Home (Matt Gertz)I have a slight problem with my cell phone.  It’s a smartphone; I love it, I use it all the time, and I don’t what I’d do without it, but I’ve been pretty aggravated with its support of Bluetooth.  It will fail to pair with the Sync system in the car at random times, which drives ...

Shell Games (Matt Gertz)

October 31, 2008 Oct 31, 2008 10/31/08
Anthony D. Green [MSFT]
I was once temporarily taken off the VB team to get an unrelated project back on track, just a mere handful of weeks before it was due to ship.  I won’t go into the gory details; suffice it to say that we had reason to believe that the product would have to ship without delay, and that any major failure in the deliverable could ...

Building a Zune Playlist (Matt Gertz)

September 20, 2008 Sep 20, 2008 09/20/08
Anthony D. Green [MSFT]
Well, that was… intense. You may have noticed the lack of articles coming from my direction.  I have been so buried in work, and so far behind, that when I look forwards all I see is backwards.  I work, I drive home, I work some more, and it all seems to keep piling up.  I would like to say that this is going to change soon, ...