August 2003 - Posts
Don't know of you've heard, but i whipped up a little NewsGator plugin some time back that you can download here. Anyway, i've been using it a lot (happily so, i might add). i created a little web site locally on my computer to provide searching or filtering capability for the feeds i've archived. If you've downloaded the plugin and you'd like to have this little app to use with it, let me know and i'll send you an installer.
And if you haven't downloaded it, hop to!
I'm thinking of developing an Application Building Block to assist ASP.NET developers who have needs for flexible role-based security models. Of main concern are systems requiring multiple types of users within a given system (Admins, System Users, or Basic System Users, for instance). I'd like to implement some degree of inheritance between the user objects, and will use the IIdentity and IPrincipal interfaces to implement the most basic functionality. Before beginning on this endeavor, however, I'm interested in your own experiences, needs, and desires. This will be a developer tool, so I guess you could say I'm open to suggestions. What would you like to see from a building block of this nature?
working on this here custom css thing.... things may get a little outta control for a moment.
perhaps my point wasn't made clear in my post last night. and no, i'm not trying to begin a flame war. to be honest, it was already started for me.
on this pdc thing again. “f” those little stickers, as they create separatism between the team. it's like show-and-tell day, and we're all kids. “i'm going and you're not!” WAAA! who cares?
my point was that i can afford it, i just don't want to go because i'm so involved, so committed, and so geeked about the work and teaching i'm doing, just like Phil sounds like he is. i guess if i'm going to get “scobelized,” i feel that i need to be so in at least an appropriate manner (i'm NOT going, whereas others CAN'T go).
oh and for the record, i tried to post a comment on that particular blog, but i couldn't. i got an error message. a PHP error message in fact that read
“Warning: mysql_connect(): Too many connections in /home/haloscan/public_html/connect.php on line 9
Can't connect with the database.”
call me crazy, but this is somewhat ironic, if you think about it.
now i'm not going to try to attempt a flame war like this one. i do, on a few points, agree with Phil. Phil, i'm also an MCSD.NET and an MCT. and, well, all i do is train, just like you. granted, i'm in a slightly larger market than you (Phoenix, AZ), so we're not doing bad at all. in fact, we're totally rockin'. That's beside the point, which is, quite frankly, that I, like many others, are too busy doing something a little more, well (IMHO) important than attending a conference about what will be one day.
for me (and i guess you, too), i'm teaching people how to program with what's here right now. All the info I obtain, hear about, read on line, or whatever, goes into my considerations for future projects and architectures. Which leads me to the next point...
I also consult, do freelance work, whatever, in my own time. I love this crap so much I'll sit up late every night coding, then get up early every morning to prepare my courseware and code samples for that particular day's class. Not to mention all the courses that we're writing to satisfy some of our more eager students, for whom MOC is simply not enough. I work on large-scale applications (like this one) that run on the internet. I build applications that help other developers build applications, so that life as we know it continues to prod along in the business marketplace.
The very marketplace that, unlike certain developers, will continue to need my/your attention the week of the PDC. Sure, I'd love to be there to find out all the newest, coolest stuff before everyone else.
But hey - you guys will all be blogging about it that week, so it'll be just like being there. If I know one thing about a developer, its that none of us can keep our mouths shut about cool stuff. Especially when you're one of 2,000 who just learned about it.
So from my point of view, I'm not going to miss anything, aside from actually being there. Personally, I'd prefer to use those days to do what matters more to me (from both an evangelical perspective, out of professional courtesy, and due to the general addiction to my craft) - coding or teaching those who can't how to.
The world doesn't stop for PDC, so I guess that kinda means I can't either. I'm totally, completely cool with that.
my partner-in-crime Mike Palermo and i are currently developing some new courseware. this course, Advanced ASP.NET, will provide students a more in-depth look at the underpinnings of the ASP.NET development paradigm. one of the things we're going to cover in this class is an advanced, deep view of the event model. explicitly, we're going to carefully go over the order of priority with the application, page, and control events that automatically fire during every page load. during demo-code development, i created a series overridden functions in a simple control, a page containing that control, and the global.asax file's codebehind that lives within the web application where the form is executing.
for the sake of brevity, here's the output of the code. it shows you - with pretty much no room for confusion - the order in which all of the events fire. thought some would consider this helpful. remember - this text was generated in the order the overrides are processed on the server. to put it in a non-techy way, this is about as “straight from the horse's mouth“ as you can get:
Global_BeginRequest
Global_AuthenticateRequest
Global_AuthorizeRequest
Global_ResolveRequestCache
Global_Session_Start
Global_AcquireRequestState
Global_PreRequestHandlerExecute
Page_DeterminePostBackMode
Control_OnInit
Control_TrackViewState
Page_Init
Page_TrackViewState
Page_OnLoad
Control_OnLoad
Page_EnsureChildControls
Page_CreateChildControls
Page_OnPreRender
Control_EnsureChildControls
Control_CreateChildControls
Control_OnPreRender
Page_SaveViewState
Control_SaveViewState
Page_Render
Page_RenderChildren
Control_Render
Control_RenderChildren
Control_OnUnload
Page_OnUnload
Global_PostRequestHandlerExecute
Global_ReleaseRequestState
Global_UpdateRequestCache
Global_EndRequest
Global_PreSendRequestHeaders
Global_PreSendRequestContent
Global_PreSendRequestContent
and then there was yet another
article on something related to holograms. only this one's starting to sound a little “minority report-ish!”
i've been hearing a lot of rumors throughout the past few years about
holographic storage, and how companies such as IBM have attempted to produce such things. i'm stoked to read that this may soon become a reality. oh, the days of 4.25 floppies.
i'm reposting this from my other weblog. mainly, i think this is a topic we'd all love to hear more about. if you have any of your own theories, comment away!
so today it happened again. a conversation over email i feel i must share with the world. here's the first message in the series, from a friend and colleague, posted to a mailing list we're both on.
So I'm a programmer. What does this mean? It means I'm responsible for delivering a product based on some specs, Right. We're all pretty much in the same position.
I have found myself these last two weeks, really getting a ton of coding done. I seem to go in streaks; sometimes I feel useless, and other times I feel like the day really rocked and I got a lot done.
Here's my question?
What do you do to stay focused on coding, to be productive. There is so much other crap to interfere with this all day. E-mail, meetings, phone calls, MSDN, coding tips, those damn user groups :), girlfriends/boyfriends, lunch, snacks, internet surfing, day dreaming, planning, paying bills, reading forums, researching (which I count as productivity if it's work related).
As you are reading this (if it's during the work day) you're slacking; Right?
I'm thinking of only checking my e-mail 2 times a day. Once in the morning, before I leave for work, and once after lunch. It seems like e-mail is where most of my time gets wasted. This message is a perfect example :)
What tricks do you have to help me be more productive?
Thanks for the help
i had to contemplate this, once i (ironically) had enough time to read it. my response is listed below:
I never stop coding. That's just it. You figure out the mentality that works for you when you're coding, and you stay in that mode. Always. When you're coding, of course, but when you're showering, driving, moving to a new home, doing anything. You take a consistently analytical view of the world and spend each and every waking moment contemplating something. You never, ever allow yourself to get too far "away from the machine." Here's some more things of a virtuous nature, that when adopted will allow you to keep trucking.
Drive
Think of Einstein. He had 7 suits, all exactly the same, so that he didn't have to think about "what to wear."
Consistency
Always do something. Read something, sit down for a little while just to write a simple class. Think of a problem you had this week, write a class to fix it. You can always find a few moments to do something in your code. So when you get those moments, write some code.
Reliability
Maintain a repository. Or 4. When you're exercising previous habitual behavior, do so in your repository.
Read
Need I say more? If you're on the web, spend time reading stuff that's relevant. With rss, this process is expedited for you. Your news and that which you're interested in will find you. All you have to do is take a moment to read it.
Concentrate on Efficiency
No matter what you're doing - driving to the mall, talking to a friend, riding a bike, shopping for groceries. Make sure this is a-priority numero uno. Keep your eye on what you've got to do, prioritize according to the size of explosion that will incur if you don't meet respective deadlines, and push on.
Simplification
Make your life simple. If work is of the essence, chances are that your priorities are completely out of whack. Partners hate your code. Parents don't understand and think you're playing games. Co-workers hate that you aren't personable, because you're always sitting there, headphones blaring, coding as fast as you can. Whatever the case may be, the more into this world you are the faster you work. The faster you can work the more you can get done. Find the simplest way to code, and you'll most likely simplify your work.
Given that you're in this because you love it so much and that (if you follow these simple guidelines :) ) you can now execute much more efficiently, you'll have time for all the other stuff you like to do.
Coding. Its not just a job, its an adventure.
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