EF Code First AddOrUpdate puts null into referenced objects

I've ran into issue in my Seed() function, where I generate stub data.
This is my design:

    public class AircraftModel
    {
        public Guid Id { get; set; }

        public string Name { get; set; }

        public Guid ManufacturerId { get; set; }
        public virtual Manufacturer Manufacturer { get; set; }
    }

Now, I tried following code to generate data:

context.AircraftModels.AddOrUpdate(m => m.Name

  , new AircraftModel { 

        Name = "Global Express XRS", 

        Manufacturer = context.Manufacturers.Single(c => c.Name == "Bombardier Inc.") 

    }

);

It should work like charm I though, but it didn't. The problem was, that the Manufacturer was set to null after running AddOrUpdate - I guess because the ManufacturerId didn't match Manufacturer object.

When I changed to code to this, it worked fine:

context.AircraftModels.AddOrUpdate(m => m.Name

  , new AircraftModel { 

        Name = "Global Express XRS", 

        ManufacturerId = context.Manufacturers.Single(c => c.Name == "Bombardier Inc.").Id 

    }

);

Ok, so there's obvious problem with syncing the Manufacturer object and the ManufacturerId.

I've decided to keep them in sync using following modification:

    public class AircraftModel
    {
        private Manufacturer _manufacturer;

        public Guid Id { get; set; }

        public string Name { get; set; }

        public Guid ManufacturerId { get; set; }
        public virtual Manufacturer Manufacturer
        {
            get { return _manufacturer; }
            set
            {
                if (value != null && value.Id != ManufacturerId)
                    ManufacturerId = value.Id;
                _manufacturer = value;
            }
        }

    }

Now this code works as expected. Not sure if it's a bug or "feature"?...

ASP.Net Telerik RadScriptManager causes Sys not defined error

I ran into issue where I was working on a website with page methods (svc) and so I was using ScriptManager to register them. All was working fine until I decided to include Telerik ASP.Net AJAX control as well. I switched from ScriptManager to RadScriptManager, added all the web.config settings, but when I loaded the page in browser, I was getting all sorts of  "Sys is not defined" errors.
One thing in particular was puzzling - when I looked in browser's dev tools at the content of the "WebResources.axd?....", I was getting HTML code instead of JavaScript.
Finally I realized where the problem was - I was using Forms authentication and did not put the WebResource.axd to the exceptions list... doh!
So make sure you have the below in your web.config:

  <location path="Telerik.Web.UI.WebResource.axd">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow users="*" />
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
  </location>

Asus G73JW and Windows 8

I've updated my Asus laptop G73JW to Windows 8 and found only three important things that needed to be installed from Asus.

1) To enable the "Fn" + ... buttons, I've had to install the "ATKACPI driver and hotkey-related utilities" found on asus support web-site under "Other". This enables the key functions (such as keyboard light, sound volume controls, etc.)

2) I had VERY annoying problem where while typing, cursor would randomly jump to a mouse-pointer location. Apparently wasn't the only one with the problem. I found the solution by installing the "Synaptics TOUCHPAD driver" found under the "Touchpad" section. In the settings, I've checked to "disable internal pointing device when external is connected" (found on last tab) - this disconnects the touchpad when I have my external mouse connected and the annoying mouse-jumping problem is solved.

3) Finally, I was able to connect WiFi with no problem, but the ethernet (Atheros AR8131) adapter would just stay disabled and not recognize LAN cable plugged in. Trying to enable would not do anything. Once again installing the driver "Atheros LAN Driver" from asus support section "LAN" fixed the issue.

Server Side Include in IIS Express

To enable SSI in IIS Express, open configuration file:

C:\Users\%user%\Documents\IISExpress\config\applicationhost.config

and within it make sure that:
1) SSI is enabled - within "globalModules" section should be a tag: <add name="ServerSideIncludeModule" image="%IIS_BIN%\iis_ssi.dll" />

2) set a default document with "shtml" - within "defaultDocument" section add e.g. <add value="index.shtml" />

One more thing to note about SSI files. I was struggling a lot with includes breaking my page layout - adding empty line in every spot where #include was used. Apparently the problem is with encoding of the file. So instead of using "Unicode (UTF-8 with signature)", save your include files with "Unicode (UTF-8 without signature)" - in visual studio you can set this in menu File -> Advanced Save Options...