Failed to add reference to 'System.Transactions'. Please make sure that it is in the Global Assembly Cache.

This would happen intermittently with various libraries (especially System.Core and System.Transactions).

Having recently read this post by Scott Hanselman, I checked that the libraries were indeed in the GAC using this command

gacutil /l | find /i "system.core"

which I ran from an elevated Visual Studio Command Prompt and, indeed, System.Core was there.

Some extensive Googling revealed nothing until I tried to add a reference to another project in the same solution, and received this error message:

which lead me to this NuGet issue related to a particular version of Resharper.

I upgraded Resharper to 8.2.1 (from 8.2.0) and everything worked perfectly!

Just in case it saves anyone some time.

This official plugin, which adds some nice syntax highlighting and autocompletion, was a start but I was hoping for something that would layout my controller code for me in a nice way so I wouldn't have to keep typing 'use strict' at the top of every file.

Inspired by the Sidewaffle templates, I decided to create some Resharper templates that I could add to their quick insert menu (Alt+Insert). I've put these up on github so other people can benefit.

To install, just go to Resharper > Templates Explorer inside Visual Studio. Select the File Templates tab and then Import the templates you want to use. You can add them to the quicklist by selecting a project Scope in the left pane of this window and dragging the appropriate template onto the quicklist.

If you have any questions, give me a shout @DaveMiscampbell.

The course uses a custom Python regex matcher (called regetron) and builds you up through a series of lessons, teaching you to translate regular expressions into regular English and back. I found his setup instructions quite unhelpful though so I thought I would include my own here in case anyone else struggled!

Note that I'm using Windows 8.1 on my laptop and haven't tested this anywhere else so your experience may differ!

1. Install Python

   Header over to http://www.python.org/getit/ and download the appropriate installer. Make sure to change the default settings to add Python to your PATH variable.

2. Install Pip

   According to what I could find online, Python ships without a package manager so we now need to install one - PIP. I found the instructions here to be the most helpful I could find. Download these 2 python files (ez_setup.py and get-pip.py) and then run python ez_setup.py and python get-pip.py from a command prompt in the directory you saved the files into.

   At this point, I found it helpful to add the Python scripts directory to my PATH too, meaning I can run pip from a command prompt anywhere. Go to This Computer, right click and choose Advanced System Settings, then Environment Variables. Find the one called PATH and add whatever your Python Directory is \Scripts (for me this was C:\Python33\Scripts).

3. Install Regetron

   Now we should be able to install the custom python program we need. Run pip install regetron in a command window and it should install! To run the program, you can then type regetron and you should be all set up to follow lesson 1!

4. Python 3

   If, like me, you knew very little to nothing before installing Python, you probably installed the latest version (at the time of writing 3.3), thinking that was the sensible thing to do. Apparently, there were a large number of breaking changes between Python 2.7 and Python 3 and so some older scripts need to be upgraded. Unfortunately, this includes regetron. If this is your situation, you have two choices:

   • Uninstall Python 3 and follow the steps above again with Python 2.7 (this is not what I chose to do)
   • Edit the regetron code and get it working with Python 3.

   I used the guide here to figure out some of the errors. I also ended up removing some sections which didn't seem to be needed or work on Windows. You can download what I came up with here. Once again, I'd like to stress that this works on my PC for me and may not work for you.

   To install, you'll need to replace the regetron file in your python Scripts folder (for me this was C:\Python33\Scripts) with mine, and also replace the regetron engine.py file which should be in your python lib folder (for me this was C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\regetron\engine.py) with mine.

Having got all of that working I was then able to start following the lessons! So far, I've definitely found his way of writing the regular expression out in plain English and breaking it down symbol by symbol really helps.

Hopefully I'll now be able to at least understand some of the regexes I copy and paste regularly (for example, those to match US zip codes) and I might even trust myself to write my own.

So far, so good.

When I tried to use the Google Cast Chrome extension on my laptop, however, I was disappointed. It was unable to find the Chromecast. Following the "No devices found?" link, Google informed me that (for laptops running Windows 8.1) Software that installs a virtual NIC - VMware, Win8 Hyper-V, but also some NAS drivers - may cause discovery issues between a laptop/desktop and the Chromecast..

I wasn't aware I had any of these things installed but it turns out, the default installation for the network card on my laptop was being virtualised through Hyper-V. I tried disabling the Hyper-V adapters but then found I couldn't get on the Internet.

So far, so bad.

Fortunately, there is a way to uninstall Hyper-V (which is software used to run virtual machines under Windows and therefore, not necessary for most users). Going to Control Panel, then Programs and Features and then clicking "Turn Windows features on or off" at the side, led me to a window where I could uncheck and uninstall Hyper-V. A quick restart and I was then able to find the Chromecast and share my tabs from my laptop.

Now to find something meaningful to share.

• The Simpsons and their Mathemtical Secrets (Simon Singh) - This looks to be quite interesting, although it hasn't held too many surprises so far. I'm hoping that it will turn up some interesting facts I can drop into conversation when I'm next watching The Simpsons. Also, it has given me an idea for an app (more on that another time).
• Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Gamma, Helm, Johnson, Vlissides) So not exactly light reading but when I've been taking a look at other books on software development, definitely one that I've found quoted very often. Haven't made too much progress with this so far but looks like it will hold quite a wealth of information. I will report back when I've read a little more.
• Grey Granite (Lewis Grassic Gibbon) This is the third part of "A Scot's Quair", the first part of which is Sunset Song which less fortunate readers may have been subjected to as part of an English Literature course at some stage. I read Sunset Song a few years ago and was really impressed with both the story and the telling of the story. Hopefully, Mr Gibbon will keep me entertained in this 3rd installment.

That's it - I think having more than 3 books at a time could be a stretch. Especially when I'm also following some courses on Pluralsight. And writing a blog. But maybe there's something excellent I'm missing which you could recommend.