Generation of designer file filed: Unknown server tag

I was nearly pulling my hair out after struggling with this error in Visual Studio 2008 for about 3 hours. I did a search for this error message and found a couple of suggested solutions to this error, but none of them could actually solve my problem. Part of the problem is that I'm working in a slight different scenario than most of the solutions posted, so that might explain why those solutions couldn't solve my problem (I'm working in a multi-project solution in Visual Studio 2008).

So, basically this is what happened:

Spent the last couple of days building a set of classes that handles most of the database linking, error engine and session management for any ASP.Net application. Everything worked great and I'm very pleased with how well it binds together and the performance is top notch. I'm calling this my very own Framework, constructed over the .Net Framework. But as Alanis Morissette would say in a song, life has a funny way of sneaking up on you when everything's alright... As soon as I was ready to add a new project into my solution and use my Framework inside the same solution as a reference in the new project and take full advantage of my work on that, I get this nasty error:

Generation of designer failed: Unknown server tag 'ajax:xxxx' (The name of the control in question is irrelevant)

So, a couple of hours later and tried at least three different solutions nothing worked. Moving the assembly and namespace declaration from the web.config to the top of the aspx page didn't work and viceversa. Restarted several times the Visual Studio and it didn't work either. Checked the bin folder 5 times to make sure that the AjaxControlToolkit.dll was there, and effectively, it was there. For a minute considered rewriting most of my pages to avoid using Ajax controls, but that would have been a pain in the ass, so I ruled that possibility out, there must be a solution to this, right?

Another hour goes by and I decided to do a sanity check. I right-clicked the root of the project that was giving me the error (remember that this is a multi-project solution), and selected Add reference. A huge list of .NET assemblies are loaded into the list, but couldn't find the AjaxControlToolkit reference there, so I moved to the Browse tab and navigate to the bin folder of the project. The dll is there, but I decide to add it even if it's already in the bin folder... And guess what? It worked! I went back to the project and opened the page that was giving me the error and this time the error was gone. Problem solved.

I wish I knew this sooner, I wasted 3 hours looking for a solution to this and after reading bizarre and vague recommendations I decided to look for a solution on my own. I was lucky this worked for me, hope this helps someone else too.

-reno812

BOOTMGR is missing - Part 1

I'm not the biggest Windows Vista fan, but I gotta tell you, this is at least the second time that I get the infamous BOOTMGR is missing, press Ctrl+Alt+Delelte message from a faulty Vista installation. What is worst, I can't seem to be able to repair it, because the damn thing got freezed in the middle of Vista install, so the OS isn't actually installed into the hard drive, so using the Repair system isn't working because there system isn't really installed at all.

Looking through plenty of articles all over the net it seems that the solution is in the Vista DVD, but I can't get to make it work. I'll update when I find the solution.

-reno812

Why bother?

One day I saw a job ad in one of the corridors of my college. They were looking for a programmer/analyst, and I sent my resume. They called me back that same afternoon and the next day I was having a job interview. Two days later was my first day at work. That's the story of my first job, pretty straightforward isn't it?

Of course, at the time I had no idea what it was like to be a programmer in real life. Sure, I had many projects during my years in college, but that does not even give you a glimpse of what a programmer does out in the wild, where the real programming is done. I had to learn it the hard way, and I'm glad I took that job. It was basically web development, and had plenty of time to get used to the programming language and get adapted to life after you get a job. No, this is not an easy career path. There's just too much to learn and so little time. Also, what you learn today is deprecated within months. But it's very rewarding, and I'm not talking just on the monetary side.

The thing is, I've been working on many projects by now, and at first, it was always like starting from scratch and build everything new, which isn't a problem when we're doing a small project/application, but when things are massive, you've got a problem if you are boxed with that strategy. After that, I started to write my own code classes and reusing them in new projects, which was a great step forward, saved me a lot of time. But then I got to the point when I just can't be linking several classes and reading my code to see if something is applicable or not in any new project... Something's gotta be done here.

It was then that I realized that I had reached a point where I could use my acknowledge to create something that would not only help me solve this problem, but also many more people in the same situation (even if they don't know that they have the same problem). It was then that this question invaded my mind... Why bother?, probably it will take most of my free time for a year or so, and in the end I don't even know if I will be able to finish it, or worse, find out in the middle of the process that I don't really need it, or it was the wrong solution for my problem.

I already started working on the architecture, but the question is in the air.

- reno812

Life begins at twenty

I'm more than twenty years old of course, but probably you felt this way once you reach a point in your life when things start to get settled. Having a job, being in a stable relationship, those are the milestones people tend to cherish the most. But what happens when past this age, and all of the pieces are starting to get together, and you still feel that there's some serious breakthroughs that need to be done? That's the answer I'm looking for.

Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you the story of my life, actually I'm not going to reveal major details about my private life for obvious reasons, but I'm willing to tell you about some interesting projects I have going on right now, some of them are still on my mind, and a particular one is already in progress. Also I'm a devote music fan, so expect a lot of my post to be about music and whatnot.

- reno812