I dig SSMS 2010 (SQL Server Management Studio) and I use it religiously. But one thing that has always bugged me about the Solution Explorer is that it sorts items in the Queries folder by the order in which they are added (i.e. the most recently added item is always first in the list).

So to remedy this shortcoming, I present to you SsmsSort.

It's a simple Console application that you can run as an external tool in SSMS. Configure the tool as follows:

The Command field should point to the executable, SsmsSort.exe. In the screen capture above, I set the directory to the bin/Release folder of the SsmsSort .NET project.

After you add the External Tool, you'll have a new entry in the Tools menu called SsmsSort. Select that menu item to run the application against your project file.

SsmsSort outputs messages to the SSMS Output window (note that "Use Output window" is selected in the External tools dialog). Refer to the Output window for any errors.

I included the entire project so you can modify it however you wish.

If you're using Azure to host your project and using Team Foundation Server to control the Azure deployment project's source, you might run into an issue where you get a build error saying that ServiceDefinition.csdef and ServiceDefinition.build.csdef cannot be written to because of a lack of permissions to access those files.

The problem is that once it's checked in to TFS, a read-only attribute gets placed on those files. The build process wants to write to those files during the build and cannot because of the -R attribute.

If you run into this, place a pre- and post-build event to handle the attribute:

These events will remove the read-only attribute, build the project, then add the read-only attribute. Problem solved!

Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

I use L337 from time-to-time for my passwords. Whereas it makes for a strong password, it's sometimes a real pain in the butt to type in L337. So to make things a little easier, I created a Windows Sidebar Gadget to convert plain text to L337 for use in passwords.

You can download the project here.

To make a Gadget package, simply zip the project files (minus the Properties, bin, & obj folders and the *.csproj* files) and rename the extension to ".gadget". I included a Gadget installation package in the solution folder.

Enjoy!

The temperature has definitely dropped around here this week. So I guess summer is gone and we won't get to see scenes like this for another 8 or 9 months. Dammit!!!

I'm finally getting around to posting these. The show was the best I've ever seen from anyone!

This just makes ya feel good.