This is the first in a series of articles about protecting web applications, which is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I've decided to start this series not only because this is a key requirement placed on the work I do, but also because far too many sites neglect this critical aspect of web development. The simple fact is that no matter what kind of site you have, it can be attacked. If it is successfully attacked, you can lose data, you can lose your site, and your site can be used to launch attacks against your users and other sites on the Internet. Fortunately, by being diligent and adopting some basic standards, you can thwart off the most sophisticated attacks that get launched against you.

Read this entire post to learn why it is so critical to protect even the simplest sites, and to get started learning about the wide variety of Internet attacks and how to defend against them.

I have to say that for the past few days, I've found myself less stressed, more relaxed, and more in control of my life and my work, and this is a great feeling! 

Lately, I've been finding my general "To Do" list growing and growing.  I have a number of personal projects that I'm working on, and more that I would like to do;  I have several work projects for clients; I have a growing "Honey Do" list, and there are a number of general "Things that need to be done" that I don't want to neglect.  What I wasn't noticing was that all of this was slowing building up as stress in my life.  And what's really interesting, is how that stress silently sneaks up on you. 

This blog is about how I'm reacquainting myself with the Getting Things Done methodology for personal, stress-free productivity.  This is a must-read for busy people who want to be productive while reducing stress in their lives.

As I develop applications for the browser, I'm constantly plagued by the little "gotchas" that lie waiting for me.  Generally, it can be attributed to differences in how Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox handle things.  In this case, I simply wanted a little routine that entered text into a textbox and then sent the cursor there.  Firefox, my default browser, did this as expected.  IE, however, chose to place the cursor at the beginning of the text so that the user still had to move to the end of the input to start typing.

Here's my solution...

I recently purchased a G1 "Google" "Android" phone, and I'm in love.  This thing is incredible.  After years of just accepting hand-me-down phones while my phones died and my family upgraded, I finally have a phone I can truly be happy with.  Not only does it have a lot of fun capabilities, it also fuels my creativity.

If you're looking for a good phone, read on...

It might be an exaggeration to say that there are a million reasons that I love .Net, but not by much.  In writing this article, I've focused on only 5 reasons, but they are big, and they are core to .Net

When ASP.Net 1.0 was launched, I was drawn to it because the language supported true Object-Oriented development.  I had been attempting OO design using classic ASP, but was met with limited success due to the limitations of the environment.  When I started reading about .Net, I was truly excited.

Now I'm developing sophisticated solutions using .Net 3.5, and I realize now that I had no clue back then just how robust the .Net environment was.

This article is a high-level exploration of a number of features of ASP.Net, VB.Net, and the .Net CLR (Common Language Runtime) that make it an excellent environment for sophisticated web applications.  Over time, I will delve into more detail on some of my favorite features. Be sure to watch this Blog for those future articles.  Don't forget to subscribe for notifications of new posts so you don't miss anything.