Just a quick fix. If you’re experiencing the error message, Cannot convert type ‘ASP.login_aspx’ to ‘System.Web.UI.WebControl, try renaming your page from Login.aspx to something else.

I ran across this earlier this morning when attempting to deploy an ASP.NET 2.0 WebSite project. My code worked great locally (isn’t that always the case). I haven’t had time to really dig into why this happens, but maybe someone else can provide an answer.

OK, this is ridiculous. I must be getting too old for their marketing demographic. I do, however, look remarkably similar to figure below when wearing my dobak.

Quite a few automated build articles have been cropping up this week over at CodeBetter.Com. The first, How do you build your application?, by Kyle Baley, asks Developers of the .NET community how they manage builds using the NAnt toolkit. Jeffrey Palermo responded with a helpful post including a link to his own NAnt build template. Kyle then followed-up with a few humorous links to graphics of common build scenarios.

CodeBetter.Com has provided me with an overwhelming amount of great .NET content over the years and the above articles couldn’t have arrived at a better time. My spare cycles at Primus Technologies Corporation have been few and far between, but those found have been spent configuring the companies Continous Integration system. I must admit that I was pleased that my own NAnt build script looked remarkably similar to Jeffrey Palermo’s template. :)

Of all of the work involved in developing software, build automation and Continuous Integration are my favorite. When Continuous Integration is implemented correctly it should function like an assembly line. Just like Ford Motor Company, your software will see improvements in efficiency and development time. If you’re a .NET Developer and confused by what I’ve written thus far then you should definitely familiarize yourself with these concepts. At the very least, I’d recommend researching the following tools:

• CruiseControl.NET
• NAnt
• MSBuild
• NUnit
• NDoc / Sandcastle
• FxCop

In addition, Scott Hanselman has a few podcasts that could also be helpful. Listen carefully, read diligently, and improve your software. Be better at your craft.

If you’re like me then you’re constantly thinking of new ways to tweak Mozilla Firefox. This morning I installed an addon called Vertigo. This extension stacks Firefox tabs vertically on the left-hand side of your browser. It worked well enough, but I soon grew tired of having to click twice to a close a tab.

I uninstalled Vertigo and with it went the close button on each of my tabs. To fix this I opened up Firefox’s advanced configuration by typing about:config in the address bar. I filtered by browser.tabs.closeButton and changed the integer value to 1.

The close buttons immediately reappeared. Alakazam!

For the curious:

0 - Close button on active tab only.
1 - Close button on every tab.
2 - No close buttons.
3 - Close button at the end of the tab bar (ala Firefox 1.5).