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• TDD vs. Productivity

  - by Nairou

  In my current project (a game, in C++), I decided that I would use Test Driven Development 100% during development. In terms of code quality, this has been great. My code has never been so well designed or so bug-free. I don't cringe when viewing code I wrote a year ago at the start of the project, and I have gained a much better sense for how to structure things, not only to be more easily testable, but to be simpler to implement and use. However... it has been a year since I started the project. Granted, I can only work on it in my spare time, but TDD is still slowing me down considerably compared to what I'm used to. I read that the slower development speed gets better over time, and I definitely do think up tests a lot more easily than I used to, but I've been at it for a year now and I'm still working at a snail's pace. Each time I think about the next step that needs work, I have to stop every time and think about how I would write a test for it, to allow me to write the actual code. I'll sometimes get stuck for hours, knowing exactly what code I want to write, but not knowing how to break it down finely enough to fully cover it with tests. Other times, I'll quickly think up a dozen tests, and spend an hour writing tests to cover a tiny piece of real code that would have otherwise taken a few minutes to write. Or, after finishing the 50th test to cover a particular entity in the game and all aspects of it's creation and usage, I look at my to-do list and see the next entity to be coded, and cringe in horror at the thought of writing another 50 similar tests to get it implemented. It's gotten to the point that, looking over the progress of the last year, I'm considering abandoning TDD for the sake of "getting the damn project finished". However, giving up the code quality that came with it is not something I'm looking forward to. I'm afraid that if I stop writing tests, then I'll slip out of the habit of making the code so modular and testable. Am I perhaps doing something wrong to still be so slow at this? Are there alternatives that speed up productivity without completely losing the benefits? TAD? Less test coverage? How do other people survive TDD without killing all productivity and motivation?

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• TDD vs. Productivity

  - by Nairou

  In my current project (a game, in C++), I decided that I would use Test Driven Development 100% during development. In terms of code quality, this has been great. My code has never been so well designed or so bug-free. I don't cringe when viewing code I wrote a year ago at the start of the project, and I have gained a much better sense for how to structure things, not only to be more easily testable, but to be simpler to implement and use. However... it has been a year since I started the project. Granted, I can only work on it in my spare time, but TDD is still slowing me down considerably compared to what I'm used to. I read that the slower development speed gets better over time, and I definitely do think up tests a lot more easily than I used to, but I've been at it for a year now and I'm still working at a snail's pace. Each time I think about the next step that needs work, I have to stop every time and think about how I would write a test for it, to allow me to write the actual code. I'll sometimes get stuck for hours, knowing exactly what code I want to write, but not knowing how to break it down finely enough to fully cover it with tests. Other times, I'll quickly think up a dozen tests, and spend an hour writing tests to cover a tiny piece of real code that would have otherwise taken a few minutes to write. Or, after finishing the 50th test to cover a particular entity in the game and all aspects of it's creation and usage, I look at my to-do list and see the next entity to be coded, and cringe in horror at the thought of writing another 50 similar tests to get it implemented. It's gotten to the point that, looking over the progress of the last year, I'm considering abandoning TDD for the sake of "getting the damn project finished". However, giving up the code quality that came with it is not something I'm looking forward to. I'm afraid that if I stop writing tests, then I'll slip out of the habit of making the code so modular and testable. Am I perhaps doing something wrong to still be so slow at this? Are there alternatives that speed up productivity without completely losing the benefits? TAD? Less test coverage? How do other people survive TDD without killing all productivity and motivation?

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• Installing MOSS 2007 on Windows 2008 R2

  - by Manesh Karunakaran

  When you try to install MOSS 2007 on Windows 2008 R2, if you are using an installation media that is older than SP2, you would get the following error, saying that “This program is blocked due to compatibility issues”    All is not lost though, all you need to do is to slip stream the SP2 updates to the MOSS 2007 Setup. Here’s a nice how to on how to do that. http://blogs.technet.com/seanearp/archive/2009/05/20/slipstreaming-sp2-into-sharepoint-server-2007.aspx Once you slipstream the SP2 updates, you would be able to continue with the installation with out the above error. HTH.   You may already read from blogs about April Cumulative Update for separate components in SharePoint. Now, the server-packages (also known as “Uber” packages) of April Cumulative Update for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 are ready for download. Download Information Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 April cumulative update package http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=968850 Office SharePoint Server 2007 April cumulative update package http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=968851 Detail Description Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 April cumulative update package http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968850 Description of the Office SharePoint Server 2007 April cumulative update package http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968851 Installation Recommendation for a fresh SharePoint Server To keep all files in a SharePoint installation up-to-date, the following sequence is recommended. Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007 April Cumulative Update package for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 April Cumulative Update package for Office SharePoint Server 2007 Please note: Start from April Cumulative Update, the packages will no longer install on a farm without a service pack installed. You must have installed either Service Pack 1 (SP1) or SP2 prior to the installation of the cumulative updates. After applying the preceding updates, run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard or “psconfig –cmd upgrade –inplace b2b -wait” in command line. This needs to be done on every server in the farm with SharePoint installed.  The version of content databases should be 12.0.6504.5000 after successfully applying these updates. For more in-depth guidance for the update process, we recommend that customers refer to the following articles. These articles provide a correct way to deploy updates, identify known issues (and resolutions), and provide information about creating slipstream builds. Deploy software updates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288269.aspx Deploy software updates for Office SharePoint Server 2007 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263467.aspx Create an installation source that includes software updates (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc287882.aspx Create an installation source that includes software updates (Office SharePoint Server 2007) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261890.aspx

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• Should we persist with an employee still writing bad code after many years?

  - by user94986

  I've been assigned the task of managing developers for a well-established company. They have a single developer who specialises in all their C++ coding (since forever), but the quality of the work is abysmal. Code reviews and testing have revealed many problems, one of the worst being memory leaks. The developer has never tested his code for leaks, and I discovered that the applications could leak many MBs with only a minute of use. User's were reporting huge slowdowns, and his take was, "it's nothing to do with me - if they quit and restart, it's all good again." I've given him tools to detect and trace the leaks, and sat down with him for many hours to demonstrate how the tools are used, where the problems occur, and what to do to fix them. We're 6 months down the track, and I assigned him to write a new module. I reviewed it before it was integrated into our larger code base, and was dismayed to discover the same bad coding as before. The part that I find incomprehensible is that some of the coding is worse than amateurish. For example, he wanted a class (Foo) that could populate an object of another class (Bar). He decided that Foo would hold a reference to Bar, e.g.: class Foo { public: Foo(Bar& bar) : m_bar(bar) {} private: Bar& m_bar; }; But (for other reasons) he also needed a default constructor for Foo and, rather than question his initial design, he wrote this gem: Foo::Foo() : m_bar(*(new Bar)) {} So every time the default constructor is called, a Bar is leaked. To make matters worse, Foo allocates memory from the heap for 2 other objects, but he didn't write a destructor or copy constructor. So every allocation of Foo actually leaks 3 different objects, and you can imagine what happened when a Foo was copied. And - it only gets better - he repeated the same pattern on three other classes, so it isn't a one-off slip. The whole concept is wrong on so many levels. I would feel more understanding if this came from a total novice. But this guy has been doing this for many years and has had very focussed training and advice over the past few months. I realise he has been working without mentoring or peer reviews most of that time, but I'm beginning to feel he can't change. So my question is, would you persist with someone who is writing such obviously bad code?

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• How can I calculate power consumption of my PC in Watt?

  - by Jitendra vyas

  How can I calculate power consumption of my PC in Watt, to prove my House owner ( I live on rent) , my PC doesn't consume much power? He blames me for Huge power bills even he too use Fridge, A.C. etc and his son watch the TV all the time. We both share one Power meter so for bill we pay 50%-50% but He is saying I use PC all the time even night i keep on for downloading. I just want to calculate power consumption of my PC then will calculate monthly expense of unit as per my City's per unit price for power. I've Windows: Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Memory (RAM): 960 MB CPU Info: AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2500+ CPU Speed: 1399.0 MHz Sound card: Vinyl AC'97 Audio (WAVE) Display Adapters: VIA/S3G UniChrome Pro IGP | NetMeeting driver | RDPDD Chained DD Monitors: 1 - 17inch LCD - LG Screen Resolution: 1280 X 768 - 32 bit Network: Network Present Network Adapters: Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network) #2 | WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface CD / DVD Drives: I: ELBY CLONEDRIVE COM Ports: COM1 | COM2 | COM7 | COM8 | COM9 | COM10 LPT Ports: LPT1 Mouse: 3 Button Wheel Mouse Present Hard Disks: C: 29.3GB | D: 29.3GB | E: 97.7GB | F: 97.7GB | G: 211.9GB USB Controllers: 5 host controllers. Firewire (1394): 1 host controllers. Manufacturer: Phoenix Technologies, LTD Product Make: MS-7142 AC Power Status: OnLine BIOS Info: AT/AT COMPATIBLE | 01/18/06 | VIAK8M - 42302e31 Motherboard: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-7142 Modem: ZTE USB Modem FFFE CDMA #2

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• Redaction in AutoVue

  - by [email protected]

  As the trend to digitize all paper assets continues, so does the push to digitize all the processes around these assets. One such process is redaction - removing sensitive or classified information from documents. While for some this may conjure up thoughts of old CIA documents filled with nothing but blacked out pages, there are actually many uses for redaction today beyond military and government. Many companies have a need to remove names, phone numbers, social security numbers, credit card numbers, etc. from documents that are being scanned in and/or released to the public or less privileged users - insurance companies, banks and legal firms are a few examples. The process of digital redaction actually isn't that far from the old paper method: Step 1. Find a folder with a big red stamp on it labeled "TOP SECRET" Step 2. Make a copy of that document, since some folks still need to access the original contents Step 3. Black out the text or pages you want to hide Step 4. Release or distribute this new 'redacted' copy So where does a solution like AutoVue come in? Well, we've really been doing all of these things for years! 1. With AutoVue's VueLink integration and iSDK, we can integrate to virtually any content management system and view documents of almost any format with a single click. Finding the document and opening it in AutoVue: CHECK! 2. With AutoVue's markup capabilities, adding filled boxes (or other shapes) around certain text is a no-brainer. You can even leverage AutoVue's powerful APIs to automate the addition of markups over certain text or pre-defined regions using our APIs. Black out the text you want to hide: CHECK! 3. With AutoVue's conversion capabilities, you can 'burn-in' the comments into a new file, either as a TIFF, JPEG or PDF document. Burning-in the redactions avoids slip-ups like the recent (well-publicized) TSA one. Through our tight integrations, the newly created copies can be directly checked into the content management system with no manual intervention. Make a copy of that document: CHECK! 4. Again, leveraging AutoVue's integrations, we can now define rules in the system based on a user's privileges. An 'authorized' user wishing to view the document from the repository will get exactly that - no redactions. An 'unauthorized' user, when requesting to view that same document, can get redirected to open the redacted copy of the same document. Release or distribute the new 'redacted' copy: CHECK! See this movie (WMV format, 2mins, 20secs, no audio) for a quick illustration of AutoVue's redaction capabilities. It shows how redactions can be added based on text searches, manual input or pre-defined templates/regions. Let us know what you think in the comments. And remember - this is all in our flagship AutoVue product - no additional software required!

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• EXCEL VBA STUDENTS DATABASE [on hold]

  - by BENTET

  I AM DEVELOPING AN EXCEL DATABASE TO RECORD STUDENTS DETAILS. THE HEADINGS OF THE TABLE ARE DATE,YEAR, PAYMENT SLIP NO.,STUDENT NUMBER,NAME,FEES,AMOUNT PAID, BALANCE AND PREVIOUS BALANCE. I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PUT UP SOME CODE WHICH IS WORKING, BUT THERE ARE SOME SETBACKS THAT I WANT TO BE ADDRESSED.I ACTUALLY DEVELOPED A USERFORM FOR EACH PROGRAMME OF THE INSTITUTION AND ASSIGNED EACH TO A SPECIFIC SHEET BUT WHENEVER I ADD A RECORD, IT DOES NOT GO TO THE ASSIGNED SHEET BUT GOES TO THE ACTIVE SHEET.ALSO I WANT TO HIDE ALL SHEETS AND BE WORKING ONLY ON THE USERFORMS WHEN THE WORKBOOK IS OPENED.ONE PROBLEM AM ALSO FACING IS THE UPDATE CODE.WHENEVER I UPDATE A RECORD ON A SPECIFIC ROW, IT RATHER EDIT THE RECORD ON THE FIRST ROW NOT THE RECORD EDITED.THIS IS THE CODE I HAVE BUILT SO FAR.I AM VIRTUALLY A NOVICE IN PROGRAMMING. Private Sub cmdAdd_Click() Dim lastrow As Long lastrow = Sheets("Sheet4").Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row Cells(lastrow + 1, "A").Value = txtDate.Text Cells(lastrow + 1, "B").Value = ComBox1.Text Cells(lastrow + 1, "C").Value = txtSlipNo.Text Cells(lastrow + 1, "D").Value = txtStudentNum.Text Cells(lastrow + 1, "E").Value = txtName.Text Cells(lastrow + 1, "F").Value = txtFees.Text Cells(lastrow + 1, "G").Value = txtAmountPaid.Text txtDate.Text = "" ComBox1.Text = "" txtSlipNo.Text = "" txtStudentNum.Text = "" txtName.Text = "" txtFees.Text = "" txtAmountPaid.Text = "" End Sub Private Sub cmdClear_Click() txtDate.Text = "" ComBox1.Text = "" txtSlipNo.Text = "" txtStudentNum.Text = "" txtName.Text = "" txtFees.Text = "" txtAmountPaid.Text = "" txtBalance.Text = "" End Sub Private Sub cmdClearD_Click() txtDate.Text = "" ComBox1.Text = "" txtSlipNo.Text = "" txtStudentNum.Text = "" txtName.Text = "" txtFees.Text = "" txtAmountPaid.Text = "" txtBalance.Text = "" End Sub Private Sub cmdClose_Click() Unload Me End Sub Private Sub cmdDelete_Click() 'declare the variables Dim findvalue As Range Dim cDelete As VbMsgBoxResult 'check for values If txtStudentNum.Value = "" Or txtName.Value = "" Or txtDate.Text = "" Or ComBox1.Text = "" Or txtSlipNo.Text = "" Or txtFees.Text = "" Or txtAmountPaid.Text = "" Or txtBalance.Text = "" Then MsgBox "There is not data to delete" Exit Sub End If 'give the user a chance to change their mind cDelete = MsgBox("Are you sure that you want to delete this student", vbYesNo + vbDefaultButton2, "Are you sure????") If cDelete = vbYes Then 'delete the row Set findvalue = Sheet4.Range("D:D").Find(What:=txtStudentNum, LookIn:=xlValues) findvalue.EntireRow.Delete End If 'clear the controls txtDate.Text = "" ComBox1.Text = "" txtSlipNo.Text = "" txtStudentNum.Text = "" txtName.Text = "" 'txtFees.Text = "" txtAmountPaid.Text = "" txtBalance.Text = "" End Sub Private Sub cmdSearch_Click() Dim lastrow As Long Dim currentrow As Long Dim studentnum As String lastrow = Sheets("Sheet4").Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row studentnum = txtStudentNum.Text For currentrow = 2 To lastrow If Cells(currentrow, 4).Text = studentnum Then txtDate.Text = Cells(currentrow, 1) ComBox1.Text = Cells(currentrow, 2) txtSlipNo.Text = Cells(currentrow, 3) txtStudentNum.Text = Cells(currentrow, 4).Text txtName.Text = Cells(currentrow, 5) txtFees.Text = Cells(currentrow, 6) txtAmountPaid.Text = Cells(currentrow, 7) txtBalance.Text = Cells(currentrow, 8) End If Next currentrow txtStudentNum.SetFocus End Sub Private Sub cmdSearchName_Click() Dim lastrow As Long Dim currentrow As Long Dim studentname As String lastrow = Sheets("Sheet4").Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row studentname = txtName.Text For currentrow = 2 To lastrow If Cells(currentrow, 5).Text = studentname Then txtDate.Text = Cells(currentrow, 1) ComBox1.Text = Cells(currentrow, 2) txtSlipNo.Text = Cells(currentrow, 3) txtStudentNum.Text = Cells(currentrow, 4) txtName.Text = Cells(currentrow, 5).Text txtFees.Text = Cells(currentrow, 6) txtAmountPaid.Text = Cells(currentrow, 7) txtBalance.Text = Cells(currentrow, 8) End If Next currentrow txtName.SetFocus End Sub Private Sub cmdUpdate_Click() Dim tdate As String Dim tlevel As String Dim tslipno As String Dim tstudentnum As String Dim tname As String Dim tfees As String Dim tamountpaid As String Dim currentrow As Long Dim lastrow As Long 'If Cells(currentrow, 5).Text = studentname Then 'txtDate.Text = Cells(currentrow, 1) lastrow = Sheets("Sheet4").Range("A" & Columns.Count).End(xlUp).Offset(0, 1).Column For currentrow = 2 To lastrow tdate = txtDate.Text Cells(currentrow, 1).Value = tdate txtDate.Text = Cells(currentrow, 1) tlevel = ComBox1.Text Cells(currentrow, 2).Value = tlevel ComBox1.Text = Cells(currentrow, 2) tslipno = txtSlipNo.Text Cells(currentrow, 3).Value = tslipno txtSlipNo = Cells(currentrow, 3) tstudentnum = txtStudentNum.Text Cells(currentrow, 4).Value = tstudentnum txtStudentNum.Text = Cells(currentrow, 4) tname = txtName.Text Cells(currentrow, 5).Value = tname txtName.Text = Cells(currentrow, 5) tfees = txtFees.Text Cells(currentrow, 6).Value = tfees txtFees.Text = Cells(currentrow, 6) tamountpaid = txtAmountPaid.Text Cells(currentrow, 7).Value = tamountpaid txtAmountPaid.Text = Cells(currentrow, 7) Next currentrow txtDate.SetFocus ComBox1.SetFocus txtSlipNo.SetFocus txtStudentNum.SetFocus txtName.SetFocus txtFees.SetFocus txtAmountPaid.SetFocus txtBalance.SetFocus End Sub PLEASE I WAS THINKING IF I CAN DEVELOP SOMETHING THAT WILL USE ONLY ONE USERFORM TO SEND DATA TO DIFFERENT SHEETS IN THE WORKBOOK.

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• Strange Happenings

  - by MOSSLover

  There are weeks we go about our life thinking nothing is going to change nothing will happen.  Then there are other weeks a billion things happen at once.  Friday started off very weird for me.  I flew into Atlanta and I met some cool people for another SharePoint event.  I had some good conversations.  Saturday then hit me and my virtual machine bombed in my presentation after the auto updater ran.  I was writing code on the board and describing everything in notepad.  I would say as presentations go it was the best and the worst presentation all wrapped into one.  The next day I was in Baltimore and I hung out with my aunt which was relatively uneventful and great.  Then Monday hit and half my presentations failed or succeeded and my screen freezes so I start describing the code.  I was on top of my game until Monday night.  On top of the world.  I'm exhausted I get into Raleigh and one of the craziest stories of my life happens.  So my boss has been renting cars through Priceline this week I got a different company than the other weeks. The company gives me a Ford Focus and I plug in the coordinates on my IPhone where I want go.  I head out and then I get to the destination hotel (or I thought I did). I go inside it's the wrong hotel the other one is a few miles away.  I walk outside hop into the car and it sounds like a gunshot.  Nothing is starting...Am I doing something wrong?  No I'm not the car is completely dead in the water.  I call the rental car facility and they tell me to call roadside they are closing for the night.  Roadside says they can't give me a new car but they can get me a jump then I have to take it up with the facility.  They send me a tow truck to give me a jump the guy can't jump the car.  He tells me this vehicle was towed about an hour ago.  He shows me a copy of a slip from when he towed it.  We also notice the rental car company left one of there price scanning guns in the vehicle.  I call up roadside and now they are interested in getting me a car because I need to be onsite tomorrow.  They get the manager of the facility on the phone he apologizes profusely and he says he'll be there in 10 minutes.  About 30 minutes pass and him plus another dude show up with a Ford Escape leather interior.  At this point I hand him the gun tell him someone left it in the vehicle and that I'm not so happy with them.  I ask them to comp my rental they can't due to Priceline, however if I call him again this week he can get me a voucher.  It's about 2 am and I'm ready to get to the hotel I don't make it in the next morning until 10 am.  I would say this was a crazy week all forms of technology are trying to tell me something.  What I have no idea, but we'll see the outcome soon.  I feel so weird tons of change is about to happen.  I don't know if it's good or bad.  I think this week is some form of omen.

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• Are Chief Digital Officers the Result of CMO/CIO Refusal to Change?

  - by Mike Stiles

  Apparently CDO no longer just stands for “Collateralized Debt Obligations.”  It stands for Chief Digital Officer. And they’re the ones who are supposed to answer the bat signal CEO’s are throwing into the sky, swoop in and POW! drive the transition of the enterprise to integrated digital systems. So imagine being a CMO or a CIO at such an enterprise and realizing it’s been determined that you are not the answer that’s needed. In fact, IntelligentHQ author Ashley Friedlein points out the very rise of the CDO is an admission of C-Suite failure to become savvy enough, quickly enough in modern technology. Is that fair? Despite the repeated drumbeat that CMO’s and CIO’s must enter a new era of cooperation and collaboration to enact the social-enabled enterprise, the verdict seems to be that if it’s happening at all, it’s not happening fast enough. Therefore, someone else is needed with the authority to make things happen. So who is this relatively new beast? Gartner VP David Willis says, “The Chief Digital Officer plays in the place where the enterprise meets the customer, where the revenue is generated, and the mission accomplished.” In other words, where the rubber meets the road. They aren’t just another “C” heading up a unit. They’re the CEO’s personal SWAT team, able to call the shots necessary across all units to affect what has become job one…customer experience. And what are the CMO’s and CIO’s doing while this is going on? Playing corporate games. Accenture reports 38% of CMOs say IT deliberately keeps them out of the loop, with 35% saying marketing’s needs aren’t a very high priority. 31% of CIOs say marketers don’t understand tech and regularly go around them for solutions. Fun! Meanwhile the CEO feels the need to bring in a parental figure to pull it all together. Gartner thinks 25% of all orgs will have a CDO by 2015 as CMO’s and particularly CIO’s (Peter Hinssen points out many CDO’s are coming “from anywhere but IT”) let the opportunity to be the agent of change their company needs slip away. Perhaps most interestingly, these CDO’s seem to be entering the picture already on the fast track. One consultancy counted 7 instances of a CDO moving into the CEO role, which, as this Wired article points out, is pretty astounding since nobody ever heard of the job a few years ago. And vendors are quickly figuring out that this is the person they need to be talking to inside the brand. The position isn’t without its critics. Forrester’s Martin Gill says the reaction from executives at some traditional companies to someone being brought in to be in charge of digital might be to wash their own hands of responsibility for all things digital – a risky maneuver given the pervasiveness of digital in business. They might not even be called Chief Digital Officers. They might be the Chief Customer Officer, Chief Experience Officer, etc. You can call them Twinkletoes if you want to, but essentially anyone who has the mandate direct from the CEO to enact modern technology changes not currently being championed by the CMO or CIO can be regarded as “boss.” @mikestiles @oraclesocialPhoto: freedigitalphotos.net

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• Testing fault tolerant code

  - by Robert

  I’m currently working on a server application were we have agreed to try and maintain a certain level of service. The level of service we want to guaranty is: if a request is accepted by the server and the server sends on an acknowledgement to the client we want to guaranty that the request will happen, even if the server crashes. As requests can be long running and the acknowledgement time needs be short we implement this by persisting the request, then sending an acknowledgement to the client, then carrying out the various actions to fulfill the request. As actions are carried out they too are persisted, so the server knows the state of a request on start up, and there’s also various reconciliation mechanisms with external systems to check the accuracy of our logs. This all seems to work fairly well, but we have difficult saying this with any conviction as we find it very difficult to test our fault tolerant code. So far we’ve come up with two strategies but neither is entirely satisfactory: Have an external process watch the server code and then try and kill it off at what the external process thinks is an appropriate point in the test Add code the application that will cause it to crash a certain know critical points My problem with the first strategy is the external process cannot know the exact state of the application, so we cannot be sure we’re hitting the most problematic points in the code. My problem with the second strategy, although it gives more control over were the fault takes, is I do not like have code to inject faults within my application, even with optional compilation etc. I fear it would be too easy to over look a fault injection point and have it slip into a production environment.

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• Configuring mod_rewrite and mod_jk for Apache 2.2 and JBoss 4.2.3

  - by The Pretender

  Hello! My problem is as follows: I have JBoss 4.2.3 application server with AJP 1.3 connector running on one host under Windows (192.168.1.2 for my test environment) and Apache 2.2.14 running on another FreeBSD box (192.168.1.10). Apache acts as a "front gate" for all requests and sends them to JBoss via mod_jk. Everything was working fine until I had to do some SEO optimizations. These optimizations include SEF urls, so i decided to use mod_rewrite for Apache to alter requests before they are sent to JBoss. Basically, I nedd to implement 2 rules: Redirect old rules like "http://hostname/directory/" to "http://hostname/" with permanent redirect Forward urls like "http://hostname/wtf/123/" to "http://hostname/wtf/view.htm?id=123" so that end user doesn't see the "ugly" URL (the actual rewrite). Here is my Apache config for test virtual host: <VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin [email protected] DocumentRoot "/usr/local/www/dummy" ServerName 192.168.1.10 <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteRule /directory/(.*) /$1 [R=permanent,L] RewriteRule ^/([^/]+)/([0-9]+)/?$ /$1/view.htm?id=$2 </IfModule> JkMount /* jsp-hostname ErrorLog "/var/log/dummy-host.example.com-error_log" CustomLog "/var/log/dummy-host.example.com-access_log" common </VirtualHost> The problem is that second rewrite rule doesn't work. Requests slip through to JBoss unchanged, so I get Tomcat 404 error. But if I add redirect flag to the second rule like RewriteRule ^/([^/]+)/([0-9]+)/?$ /$1/view.htm?id=$2 [R,L] it works like a charm. But redirect is not what I need here :) . I suspect that the problem is that requests are forwarded to the another host (192.168.1.2), but I really don't have any idea on how to make it work. Any help would be appreciated :)

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• rails validation of presence not failing on nil

  - by holden

  I want to make sure an attibute exists, but it seems to still slip thru and I'm not sure how better to check for it. This should work, but doesn't. It's a attr_accessor and not a real attribute if that makes a difference. validates_presence_of :confirmed, :rooms {"commit"=>"Make Booking", "place_id"=>"the-kosmonaut", "authenticity_token"=>"Tkd9bfGqYFfYUv0n/Kqp6psXHjLU7CmX+D4UnCWMiMk=", "utf8"=>"✓", "booking"=>{"place_id"=>"6933", "bookdate"=>"2010-11-22", "rooms"=>[{}], "no_days"=>"2"}} Not sure why my form_for returns a blank hash in an array... <% form_for :booking, :url => place_bookings_path(@place) do |f| %> <%= f.hidden_field :bookdate, { :value => user_cart.getDate } %> <%= f.hidden_field :no_days, { :value => user_cart.getDays } %> <% for room in pricing_table(@place.rooms,@valid_dates) %> <%= select_tag("booking[rooms][][#{room.id}]", available_beds(room)) %> <% end %> <% end %>

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• How to cope with null results in SQL Tasks that return single rows in SSIS 2005?

  - by JSacksteder

  In a dataflow task, I can slip a rowcount into the processing flow and place the count into a variable. I can later use that variable to conditionally perform some other work if the rowcount was 0. This works well for me, but I have no corresponding strategy for sql tasks expected to return a single row. In that event, I'm returning those values into variables. If the lookup produces no rows, the sql task fails when assigning values into those variables. I can branch on that component failing, but there's a side effect of that - if I'm running the job as a SQL server agent job step, the step returns DTSER_FAILURE, causing the step to fail. I can tell the sql agent to disregard the step failure, but then I won't know if I have a legitimate error in that step. This seems harder than it should be. The only strategy I can think of is to run the same query with a count(*) aggregate and test if that returns a number 0 and if so running the query again without the count. That's ugly because I have the same query in two places that I need to keep in sync. Is there a better way?

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• Why is short project lifetime and other situation-specific reasons used to excuse crappy code? [clos

  - by sharptooth

  Every now and then (including on SO) people say things implying that "if the project is short lived you can leave obvious defects there" or "that memory leak only accounts for 100 bytes per whole program lifetime and could be left". Now in my practice I always reuse company-owned code to the greatest extent I can. Like if I need something and I can find it in the company codebase I take it from there and reuse or adapt. This means that any crappy code will be reused as well and I might notice or not notice defects therein. So the defect in some "test we only need for a month" can slip into a proram we ship to customers. And a leak that "only accounted for 100 bytes per lifetime" now could account for 100 bytes 10 times per second in a server application intended to run for months. That's why I don't understand why excuses like that are offered. Is our compamy the only one having a source control? Or are we the only company that requires writing human-readable code? Could anyone shed a light on why people seriously offer such excuses?

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• Inexplicably slow query in MySQL

  - by Brandon M.

  Given this result-set: mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT c.cust_name, SUM(l.line_subtotal) FROM customer c -> JOIN slip s ON s.cust_id = c.cust_id -> JOIN line l ON l.slip_id = s.slip_id -> JOIN vendor v ON v.vend_id = l.vend_id WHERE v.vend_name = 'blahblah' -> GROUP BY c.cust_name -> HAVING SUM(l.line_subtotal) > 49999 -> ORDER BY c.cust_name; +----+-------------+-------+--------+---------------------------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+------+----------------------------------------------+ | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra | +----+-------------+-------+--------+---------------------------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+------+----------------------------------------------+ | 1 | SIMPLE | v | ref | PRIMARY,idx_vend_name | idx_vend_name | 12 | const | 1 | Using where; Using temporary; Using filesort | | 1 | SIMPLE | l | ref | idx_vend_id | idx_vend_id | 4 | csv_import.v.vend_id | 446 | | | 1 | SIMPLE | s | eq_ref | PRIMARY,idx_cust_id,idx_slip_id | PRIMARY | 4 | csv_import.l.slip_id | 1 | | | 1 | SIMPLE | c | eq_ref | PRIMARY,cIndex | PRIMARY | 4 | csv_import.s.cust_id | 1 | | +----+-------------+-------+--------+---------------------------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+------+----------------------------------------------+ 4 rows in set (0.04 sec) I'm a bit baffled as to why the query referenced by this EXPLAIN statement is still taking about a minute to execute. Isn't it true that this query only has to search through 449 rows? Anyone have any idea as to what could be slowing it down so much?

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• What are the first steps in C#/.NET development?

  - by paxdiablo

  Okay, I'm biting the bullet and deciding to get into the whole Microsoft/C#/.NET culture and I'm going to do this by putting together a simple (hah!) application. It will basically be an application in which I want to store images and associate with them other optional things. It must be able to import images from the filesystem (and hopefully camera/scanner) then allow the user to add text, audio and other information. I plan to store the images and auxillary information into a database. What the application will do with said data isn't important (yet). Keep in mind I know absolutely nothing about C# or .NET although, as an old codger, I know a great deal about many other things and will regale you with stories and anecdotes until you quietly slip away :-) What are the first steps to take in developing such an application? I've already set out UI layouts and likely process flows although it may be that the development environment dictates changes. Development environment is currently XP SP3 + VS2008 (though I can upgrade if absolutely necessary). What should I be looking at as the first step? Are there any gotchas I should be looking out for?

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• How to strongly type properties in JavaScript that map to models in C# ?

  - by Roberto Sebestyen

  I'm not even sure if I worded the question right, but I'll try and explain as clearly as possible with an example: In the following example scenario: 1) Take a class such as this: public class foo { public string firstName {get;set;} public string lastName {get;set} } 2) Serialize that into JSON, pass it over the wire to the Browser. 3) Browser de-serializes this and turns the JSON into a JavaScript object so that you can then access the properties like this: var foo = deSerialize("*******the JSON from above**************"); alert(foo.firstName); alert(foo.lastName); What if now a new developer comes along working on this project decides that firstName is no longer a suitable property name. Lets say they use ReSharper to rename this property, since ReSharper does a pretty good job at finding (almost) all the references to the property and renaming them appropriately. However ReSharper will not be able to rename the references within the JavaScript code (#3) since it has no way of knowing that these also really mean the same thing. Which means the programmer is left with the responsibility of manually finding these references and renaming those too. The risk is that if this is forgotten, no one will know about this error until someone tests that part of the code, or worse, slip through to the customer. Back to the actual question: I have been trying to think of a solution to this to some how strongly type these property names when used in javascript, so that a tool like ReSharper can successfully rename ALL usages of the property? Here is what I have been thinking for example (This would obviously not work unless i make some kind of static properties) var foo = deSerialize("*******the JSON from above**************"); alert(foo.<%=foo.firstName.GetPropertyName()%>) alert(foo.<%=foo.lastName.GetPropertyName()%>) But that is obviously not practical. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks, and kudos to all of the talented people answering questions on this site.

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• Change Default Winform Icon Across Entire App

  - by Kyle Gagnet

  Can I change the default icon used on a Winform? Most of my forms have their icon property set to a custom icon. For the few forms that slip through the cracks, I don't want the generic "hey look, he made this in visual studio" icon. One solution is to tediously check every one of my forms to make sure they either have a custom icon set or have ShowIcon set to False. Another solution is to have every one of my forms inherit from a base class that sets a custom icon in the constructor. Aside from those solutions, what other options do I have? EDIT: I was hoping there would be a way to replace the source of the stock icon with my own. Is it in a resource file somewhere? Or is it embedded in a .NET dll that I can't (or really, really shouldn't) modify? BOUNTY EDIT: Is there a way to accomplish this without editing or writing a single line of code? I don't care how impractical, complicated, waste-of-time the solution is... I just want to know if it's possible. I need to satisfy my curiosity.

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• Routing a PPTP client and VMware Server instance running on the same box

  - by servermanfail

  I have a Windows 2003 SBS box. It has 2 physical NIC's: WAN and LAN. The WAN is a public IP. The LAN is a simple 192.168.2.x subnet with Microsoft DHCP Server. Microsoft Routing and Remote Access Service is used to provide NAT to LAN. The box also runs VMware Server with a virtual machine running Windows XP. I want people to be able to VPN into the box, and connect to these virtual machines on the MSRDP port. I can VPN (PPTP) into the 2003 SBS box fine, as well as ping other machines on the LAN. I can ping the VM from a physical workstation on the LAN and vice-versa. I can ping the VPN client from the a physical workstation on the LAN and vice-versa. I can ping the VPN client from the Server console and vice-versa. I can ping the VM client from the Server console and vice-versa. But I cannot ping the VPN client from the VM and vice-versa. I was hoping to set up 2 or 3 Windows XP virtual machines on our only server, so that a couple of people can remote in to work without having to leave a physical machine on in the office. You could this attempted set up a "poor mans terminal server". On the 2003 SBS Server:- C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>route print IPv4 Route Table =========================================================================== Interface List 0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface 0x2 ...00 50 56 c0 00 08 ...... VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet8 0x3 ...00 50 56 c0 00 01 ...... VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet1 0x10004 ...00 53 45 00 00 00 ...... WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface 0x10005 ...00 11 43 d4 69 13 ...... Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet 0x10006 ...00 11 43 d4 69 14 ...... Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet #2 =========================================================================== =========================================================================== Active Routes: Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 81.123.144.22 81.123.144.21 1 81.123.144.20 255.255.255.252 81.123.144.21 81.123.144.21 1 81.123.144.21 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1 81.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 81.123.144.21 81.123.144.21 1 86.135.78.235 255.255.255.255 81.123.144.22 81.123.144.21 1 109.152.62.236 255.255.255.255 81.123.144.22 81.123.144.21 1 127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1 192.168.2.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.3 192.168.2.3 1 192.168.2.3 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1 192.168.2.26 255.255.255.255 192.168.2.32 192.168.2.32 1 192.168.2.28 255.255.255.255 192.168.2.32 192.168.2.32 1 192.168.2.32 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 50 192.168.2.50 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1 192.168.2.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.2.3 192.168.2.3 1 192.168.10.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.10.1 192.168.10.1 20 192.168.10.1 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20 192.168.10.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.10.1 192.168.10.1 20 192.168.96.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.96.1 192.168.96.1 20 192.168.96.1 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20 192.168.96.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.96.1 192.168.96.1 20 224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 81.123.144.21 81.123.144.21 1 224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.2.3 192.168.2.3 1 224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.10.1 192.168.10.1 20 224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.96.1 192.168.96.1 20 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 81.123.144.21 81.123.144.21 1 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.2.3 192.168.2.3 1 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.10.1 192.168.10.1 1 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.96.1 192.168.96.1 1 Default Gateway: 81.123.144.22 =========================================================================== Persistent Routes: None C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ipconfig /all Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2003server Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : mycompany.local Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : mycompany.local gateway.2wire.net Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet8: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet 8 Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-08 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.10.1 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet1: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet 1 Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-01 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.96.1 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : PPP adapter RAS Server (Dial In) Interface: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.32 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled Ethernet adapter LAN: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-43-D4-69-13 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.50 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.3 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.3 Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.3 Ethernet adapter WAN: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : gateway.2wire.net Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet #2 Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-43-D4-69-14 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 81.123.144.21 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.252 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 81.123.144.22 DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.1 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.1 Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.3 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 25 February 2011 22:56:59 Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 25 February 2011 23:06:59 C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ping 192.168.2.11 Pinging 192.168.2.11 with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 192.168.2.11: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128 Reply from 192.168.2.11: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128 Reply from 192.168.2.11: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128 Reply from 192.168.2.11: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

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• Low FPS in some games, but hardware not fully used

  - by Mario De Schaepmeester

  I just did a little funny experiment in the game/sim "Train Simulator 2013". I normally have good FPS in it (around 30) at full settings. What I did was make a really, really long train so that the calculations the sim needed to make were enormous (the sim is quite realistic, it takes all things into account like speed/acceleration, G-forces, comfort levels, possible wheel slip and many more, and most of those things on each carriage seperately). This resulted in only 14FPS as reported by the game, but it felt more like 8FPS or so. I have a Logitech G15 keyboard which has an LCD, and it allows me to monitor CPU/RAM and video card load on it. The strange thing is, all CPU cores were busy, but the total load was only about 60% maximum at all times. The video card was only on 30% load (possibly an important note, the memory was full, which is however not unusual for the game in question). The RAM had plenty of room and there weren't many operations as it didn't grow or shrink much. I just have the feeling that the game would run smoother if it used more of my hardware power. Why is it not doing so? I had the same in another game, The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind when using more than 100 mods (that all use scripting) and a few high res texture mods, + a full-on graphics improvement program. The engine is very old (2003), and so I thought this might be the cause (not being optimised for multithreading). I had thought of possible causes, like: The operating system doesn't let the games use all the resources. It doesn't make use of multi-threading appropriately. To eliminate the former, I tried a CPU stress tool and that got 100% CPU juice as I let it run, so the OS is not the problem. I gave its thread the "higher" priority though. My actual question In both games, I did things the engine was not really built to do or support. Can those games' framerate be limited cause of their own engine not being able to cope? What is the real reason and more importantly, can I help it? And in any case, could something actually be wrong with my hardware? It's all reasonably new, a couple of months, and I (almost) never experience any other trouble. Modern and much more demanding games work absolutely fine. Specs CPU: AMD Phenom II 965 X4 @ 3.4gHz RAM: 8GB of DDR3 RAM Video: MSI GTX560 (nVidia chip) with 1GB of GDDR5 memory OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Nothing overclocked.

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• Top 4 Lame Tech Blogging Posts

  - by jkauffman

  From a consumption point of view, tech blogging is a great resource for one-off articles on niche subjects. If you spend any time reading tech blogs, you may find yourself running into several common, useless types of posts tech bloggers slip into. Some of these lame posts may just be natural due to common nerd psychology, and some others are probably due to lame, lemming-like laziness. I’m sure I’ll do my fair share of fitting the mold, but I quickly get bored when I happen upon posts that hit these patterns without any real purpose or personal touches. 1. The Content Regurgitation Posts This is a common pattern fueled by the starving pan-handlers in the web traffic economy. These are posts that are terse opinions or addendums to an existing post. I commonly see these involve huge block quotes from the linked article which almost always produces over 50% of the post itself. I’ve accidentally gone to these posts when I’m knowingly only interested in the source material. Web links can degrade as well, so if the source link is broken, then, well, I’m pretty steamed. I see this occur with simple opinions on technologies, Stack Overflow solutions, or various tech news like posts from Microsoft. It’s not uncommon to go to the linked article and see the author announce that he “added a blog post” as a response or summary of the topic. This is just rude, but those who do it are probably aware of this. It’s a matter of winning that sweet, juicy web traffic. I doubt this leeching is fooling anybody these days. I would like to rally human dignity and urge people to avoid these types of posts, and just leave a comment on the source material. 2. The “Sorry I Haven’t Posted In A While” Posts This one is far too common. You’ll most likely see this quote somewhere in the body of the offending post: I have been really busy. If the poster is especially guilt-ridden, you’ll see a few volleys of excuses. Here are some common reasons I’ve seen, which I’ll list from least to most painfully awkward. Out of town Vague allusions to personal health problems (these typically includes phrases like “sick”, “treatment'”, and “all better now!”) “Personal issues” (which I usually read as "divorce”) Graphic or specific personal health problems (maximum awkwardness potential is achieved if you see links to charity fund websites) I can’t help but to try over-analyzing why this occurs. Personally, I see this an an amalgamation of three plain factors: Life happens Us nerds are duty-driven, and driven to guilt at personal inefficiencies Tech blogs can become personal journals I don’t think we can do much about the first two, but on the third I think we could certainly contain our urges. I’m a pretty boring guy and, whether or I like it or not, I have an unspoken duty to protect the world from hearing about my unremarkable existence. Nobody cares what kind of sandwich I’m eating. Similarly, if I disappear for a while, it’s unlikely that anybody who happens upon my blog would care why. Rest assured, if I stop posting for a while due to a vasectomy, you will be the first to know. 3. The “At A Conference”, or “Conference Review” Posts I don’t know if I’m like everyone else on this one, but I have never been successfully interested in these posts. It even sounds like a good idea: if I can’t make it to a particular conference (like the KCDC this year), wouldn’t I be interested in a concentrated summary of events? Apparently, no! Within this realm, I’ve never read a post by a blogger that held my interest. What really baffles is is that, for whatever reason, I am genuinely engaged and interested when talking to someone in person regarding the same topic. I have noticed the same phenomenon when hearing about others’ vacations. If someone sends me an email about their vacation, I gloss over it and forget about it quickly. In contrast, if I’m speaking to that individual in person about their vacation, I’m actually interested. I’m unsure why the written medium eradicates the intrigue. I was raised by a roaming pack of friendly wild video games, so that may be a factor. 4. The “Top X Number of Y’s That Z” Posts I’ve seen this one crop up a lot more in the past few of years. Here are some fabricated examples: 5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Code Top 7 Good Habits Programmers Learn From Experience The 8 Things to Consider When Giving Estimates Top 4 Lame Tech Blogging Posts These are attention-grabbing headlines, and I’d assume they rack up hits. In fact, I enjoy a good number of these. But, I’ve been drawn to articles like this just to find an endless list of identically formatted posts on the blog’s archive sidebar. Often times these posts have overlapping topics, too. These types of posts give the impression that the author has given thought to prioritize and organize the points as a result of a comprehensive consideration of a particular topic. Did the author really weigh all the possibilities when identifying the “Top 4 Lame Tech Blogging Patterns”? Unfortunately, probably not. What a tool. To reiterate, I still enjoy the format, but I feel it is abused. Nowadays, I’m pretty skeptical when approaching posts in this format. If these trends continue, my brain will filter these blog posts out just as effectively as it ignores the encroaching “do xxx with this one trick” advertisements. Conclusion To active blog readers, I hope my guide has served you precious time in being able to identify lame blog posts at a glance. Save time and energy by skipping over the chaff of the internet! And if you author a blog, perhaps my insight will help you to avoid the occasional urge to produce these needless filler posts.

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• Happy 3rd Birthday SilverlightCream!

  - by Dave Campbell

  Happy 3rd Birthday!     Yesterday (May 16) was the 'Birthday' of SilverlightCream, which started just after MIX in 2007 with a post "Interesting Silverlight posts today: Silverlight Control & Silverlight Pad". Too many good posts flying around led me to want to archive them, particularly since I was being aggregated at a new site Silverlight.net, and I could give some of that 'reach' to the community. Saturday's post was number 862, and as of that post, there were 5697 blog posts archived in the database all tagged up and searchable at SilverlightCream.com using the search page. The search needs to be better, and that's another discussion, but it does work. The blog didn't begin life as the SilverlightCream blog, as is obvious from the name, but once I realized people were following it closely, I've tried to keep the signal-to-noise ratio very high. I even secured another blog for when I just want to rant about something to keep that stuff out of this one :) If you've been around since MIX07 days you've heard all this, but after talking to some people at MIX10 I realized not everyone knows all the ways the information is presented, so I figured doing a post like this once a year probably isn't a bad idea :) I scrounge through an ever-growing list of blogs (right now sitting at 505) looking for good stuff. I try to spin through the list every day, but with the list growing that large, it's getting tough. I usually use it as a background task while working or watching TV. If I just sit and go through the blogs it takes about an hour. The list is long enough now that from time to time, I'll only get partway through it and have 10 to 13 entries, so I'll just stop there and go on the next day... I don't like to have more than 15 in any single post. It's all pattern recognition as in "seen that", "seen that", "that's new", etc... so if you're a blogger, look at a heading below for some comments about blogging from my perspective. When I see something new, I make sure you're not pulling a 'Mike Taulty' on me and dumping 6 or 8 new posts in one day :), and I tag the ones I want to review. If there's not a lot going on, I may just push the posts as I come across them. Some days there may be 60 posts in that 'to review' list! Some are non-Silverlight, some are essentially duplicates of others, some are demos, ads, new releases of something, session materials, etc. I push lots of material into a database at WynApse.com, and the "Tagged Posts" menu on the left sidebar there takes you to a tag cloud of (at this very moment) "9224 articles tagged 13915 different ways using 459 unique tags". There are links in there on Gibson guitars, Jazz Guitar instructional stuff, Ford F-250 links, and tons of technical and non-technical stuff I've been aggregating for about 5 years now. So when I decide to blog (or shoutout) something, I first push it into the database at WynApse.com. Then I tag it all up and push it into the database at SilverlightCream.com. Then it gets pushed to @SilverlightNews. For a little over a year now, we're tracking unique IP hits on posts launched from either the blog post or from one of the SilverlightCream.com pages, and the posts with top hits from unique IP addresses in the last 7 days are displayed in a 'Skim' page at SilverlightCream... and that page needs work as well. The Skim page and tracking was the brainchild of my buddy Michael Washington. What I blog/shoutout After some time doing posts, I decided there were things that probably have no need to be searchable, but are good information, so I post those as 'Shoutouts'. Eventually I also decided the Shoutouts should get posted to @SilverlightNews, and that's now taking place. Notes to bloggers Remember I said spinning throught the Big List-o-BlogsTM is pattern recognition... that means I don't spend a lot of time on any individual blog deciding if it has new content. If you're familiar with the term 'Above the Fold', then you're probably ok. If I have to scroll the page to see if there's something new, or wade through some maze of menus, I'm probably going to miss new stuff. Likewise if you only show the latest on the front page and make it a puzzle to find the rest of them, or if you make the titles and initial graphics almost identical to the previous article, I'll miss it. Another thing is name/brand-recognition. Far be it for me (WynApse) to comment on someone blogging with a pseudonym, but if you want to get get some recognition, you are going to want your name to be available somewhere. I can think right off the top of my head of a couple good blogs that I have no idea of the individuals' real names. I can pull that off a bit because I've been around so long almost everyone knows who I am, but if you're new to the blog-o-sphere, being able to be name-recognized is as important as getting your brand out there. Kick my tires Finally, stuff happens... I may hit the wrong key and delete your blog, or a post might slip past me and I not realize it's new because of the naming, and never blog it. If you think I missed something, send me an email or use the submit page at SilverlightCream.com. Some bloggers have figured out that if they submit (one way or another) to me, their posts will go out next. I try to honor anyone that takes the time to submit with a quicker 'Cream posting. Thanks! Finally, thanks to everyone that contributes to the community as a whole... the blogs, the videos, and the presentations. A special thanks to everyone that reads SilverlightCream, or follows @WynApse or @SilverlightNews. Keep it all coming, and... Stay in the 'Light

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• career advice for PhD scientist seeking to program?

  - by C SD

  I'm largely a self-taught programmer. In fact, I first started programming about half way through biophysics grad school, and even though I think I've done some pretty nice work, I've never worked as part of a 'serious' development team that had more than one or two other developers (and I wouldn't hesitate to call them equally inexperienced in software development as a profession). After finishing my PhD I applied to Google, on a lark, since I had some confidence in my abilities, if not necessarily my experience, and I was hoping to maybe slip in and absorb all the experience and talent I'd be surrounded with and become productive enough, quickly enough, that they wouldn't immediately regret their decision. I was excited to actually get invited to interview up at Mountain View (this was ~ mid 2008). Overall, my memory of the interview was very positive, but after close to a three month wait (is that normal?) they ended up turning me down. I wasn't too surprised or disappointed (aside from the uncomfortably long wait) given my unusual background and admitted lack of experience. I decided to continue as a postdoc, but focus on improving my skills rather than doing research. I've done about three years of that, and my honest assessment is that I've learned a ton more, but I really need more of a peer group to maintain or accelerate my growth. Google invited me to interview again about eight months ago, and the interview process went even better than the first time around (I thought), though they again declined to give me an offer. I have to admit this second rejection was much more discouraging. They had insisted I interview even after I mentioned to them that a move on my part was unlikely given that I had bought a house, gotten married, etc. since the first interview. I guess I was hoping they'd at least give me an offer that I could parlay into a more conventional, but still interesting, programming position close to home. So here I am, going on my third year out of grad school, a glorified postdoc and I'm starting to get pretty discouraged. Even though I could technically get 'back-on-track' for a career in science, I have been focusing the vast majority of this time on gaining programming experience rather than on research and publications. The problem is, whenever I look, most job listings have requirements that seem impossibly grandiose and I hesitate to apply. That, or the job/project seems incredibly dull. Ironically, applying to Google struck me as less intimidating. I suspect that either most people are just a lot less realistic than I am when it comes to assessing how long it will take for them to get up to speed, or they don't care; my fear is that I'm just woefully unqualified for any interesting, well paying work. IE: I'm confident I could switch fully back into C++ mode with a couple weeks work (I mostly use C,Python,C# daily) but I don't list myself as being 'proficient' in C++ on my CV, or applying for jobs that 'require' such knowledge. The few applications for which I did feel I was a legitimately good match have not elicited a response. I suspect the following things are potential problems with my application/CV and I would like feedback on: I don't have a CS degree. My BS was in biochemistry and molecular biology, my PhD in biophysics. I took a undergrad and grad level CS course at UCSD and completely killed them, but I don't know how to translate that to my CV effectively. I have a PhD, but it's not in CS... I've been debating if I should remove it from my CV, and wether or not it would then be misleading to list at least some of those years as some kind of 'programming' job (in many respects it was). I think there are sometimes strong stigmas associated with 'self-taught' programmers. I am certainly one of those. I even recognize that some of those stigmas hold a hint of truth, but I really do want to be an asset to a team. How do I communicate that even though I have been largely self-directing for ~8 years I can still take marching orders when needed? Do I just say so outright? Should I just become a lot less scrupulous about the whole process? anecdote: I have a friend who applied for positions where he completely fudged his qualifications to get past the first culling. He was much more honest and forthcoming about his actual qualifications when contacted and he still managed to get invited to a couple of interviews and even got some offers. His balls are larger than mine though.

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• Computer science undergraduate project ideas

  - by Mehrdad Afshari

  Hopefully, I'm going to finish my undergraduate studies next semester and I'm thinking about the topic of my final project. And yes, I've read the questions with duplicate title. I'm asking this from a bit different viewpoint, so it's not an exact dupe. I've spent at least half of my life coding stuff in different languages and frameworks so I'm not looking at this project as a way to learn much about coding and preparing for real world apps or such. I've done lots of those already. But since I have to do it to complete my degree, I felt I should spend my time doing something useful instead of throwing the whole thing out. I'm planning to make it an open source project or a hosted Web app (depending on the type) if I can make a high quality thing out of it, so I decided to ask StackOverflow what could make a useful project. Situation I've plenty of freedom about the topic. They also require 30-40 pages of text describing the project. I have the following points in mind (the more satisfied, the better): Something useful for software development Something that benefits the community Having academic value is great Shouldn't take more than a month of development (I know I'm lazy). Shouldn't be related to advanced theoretical stuff (soft computing, fuzzy logic, neural networks, ...). I've been a business-oriented software developer. It should be software oriented. While I love hacking microcontrollers and other fun embedded electronic things, I'm not really good at soldering and things like that. I'm leaning toward a Web application (think StackOverflow, PasteBin, NerdDinner, things like those). Technology It's probably going to be done in .NET (C#, F#) and Windows platform. If I really like the project (cool low level hacking), I might actually slip to C/C++. But really, C# is what I'm efficient at. Ideas Programming language, parsing and compiler related stuff: Designing a domain specific programming language and compiler Templating language compiled to C# or IL Database tools and related code generation stuff Web related technologies: ASP.NET MVC View engine doing something cool (don't know what exactly...) Specific-purpose, small, fast ASP.NET-based Web framework Applications: Visual Studio plugin to integrate with Bazaar (it's too much work, I think). ASP.NET based, jQuery-powered issue tracker (and possibly, project lifecycle management as a whole - poor man's TFS) Others: Something related to GPGPU Looking forward for great ideas! Unfortunately, I can't help on a currently existing project. I need to start my own to prevent further problems (as it's an undergrad project, nevertheless).

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• How to Practice Unix Programming in C?

  - by danben

  After five years of professional Java (and to a lesser extent, Python) programming and slowly feeling my CS education slip away, I decided I wanted to broaden my horizons / general usefulness to the world and do something that feels more (to me) like I really have an influence over the machine. I chose to learn C and Unix programming since I feel like that is where many of the most interesting problems are. My end goal is to be able to do this professionally, if for no other reason than the fact that I have to spend 40-50 hours per week on work that pays the bills, so it may as well also be the type of coding I want to get better at. Of course, you don't get hired to do things you haven't dont before, so for now I am ramping up on my own. To this end, I started with K&R, which was a great resource in part due to the exercises spread throughout each chapter. After that I moved on to Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective, followed by ten chapters of Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment. When I am done with this book, I will read Unix Network Programming. What I'm missing in the Stevens books is the lack of programming problems; they mainly document functionality and provide examples, with a few end-of-chapter questions following. I feel that I would benefit much more from being challenged to use the knowledge in each chapter ala K&R. I could write some test program for each function, but this is a less desirable method as (1) I would probably be less motivated than if I were rising to some external challenge, and (2) I will naturally only think to use the function in the ways that have already occurred to me. So, I'd like to get some recommendations on how to practice. Obviously, my first choice would be to find some resource that has Unix programming challenges. I have also considered finding and attempting to contribute to some open source C project, but this is a bit daunting as there would be some overhead in learning to use the software, then learning the codebase. The only open-source C project I can think of that I use regularly is Python, and I'm not sure how easy that would be to get started on. That said, I'm open to all kinds of suggestions as there are likely things I haven't even thought of.

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