I’ve spent the past year slowly making the transition from classic Active Server Pages (ASP) programming to ASP.NET. Yes, yes I know this is not Django or any of the other "hot" frameworks out there right now. But we are a Microsoft shop and I have no support for non-Microsoft products; and more importantly, no time or energy to tackle it myself. Learning a new tool is hard enough. So I thought I’d write a bit about my experience so far. I’ll start by saying all of my programming skills are self-taught — mostly through the bang-your-head-against-a-brick-wall ... Read more ...

The 2008 Republican National Convention, which was held four blocks from our office in downtown St. Paul, was the biggest event this newspaper has covered in a good number of years. We knew that organization would be a key to making sure everything went smoothly. We ended up harnessing some CAR power to make that a bit easier. To be sure, there are probably dozens of other things we could have done if given the time and resources. Not having covered an event like this before, most of those involved weren’t quite sure what to expect or what we ... Read more ...