January 2004 - Posts

• Take a peek inside the new FxCop

  I'm about a week behind on this link, but if you've missed it up to now (and use FxCop), check out some of the new goodies that are coming...  If you don't use it, you should.  FxCop is the best free-ware code analysis tools available.  We've tested integrating it with our build process and it works really well.  It's pretty cool actually, you can have the nightly build preform an automatic code review, publish the results as html, and have it posted online for review the next morning... A bit like big brother, but in the end your team will produce better code... [Listening to: Voodoo Glow Skulls - Firme]   Posted Jan 27 2004, 08:52 AM by dbrowning with 1 comment(s)

• Part VII of Anders Interview with Artima is up...

  Thanks Eric for the link.  I love this series of articles.  In this one, Anders talks about generics in the runtime and how it differs from what you see in Java.  He also compares them to C++ templates (which should help to dispell the rumors that generics are just like templates). [Listening to: Voodoo Glow Skulls - Firme]   Posted Jan 27 2004, 08:42 AM by dbrowning with no comments

• I think I've officially gone insane

  My wife and I just signed up to do the Walt Disney Marathon next year on January 9th.  This is a goal we've both had for a while now, but were a bit afraid to pull the trigger (actually, she wasn't; I was).  At least this way there's no backing out.  I've got a little less than a year to get in enough shape to run 26 miles.  I'm sweating just thinking about it!   Posted Jan 24 2004, 05:51 PM by dbrowning with 3 comment(s)

• Scriber fixes

  Kevin found a nasty bug that allows you to register the same application more than once.  This causes the web service to puke when it initializes.  Will fix this weekend. Update:  Oops... this was supposed to be posted to my internal blog.  Guess I didn't pay attention to which blog I was using... Anyway, as you can see I've got a few bugs to fix tomorrow... ;)   Posted Jan 23 2004, 04:31 PM by dbrowning with no comments

• This has got to be the coolest thing on the web

  Thanks to Gus Perez for pointing out the Internet Archive's Way Back Machine.  Type in a URL and you can find any archived web site back to 1996.  I found reference to a web site I created in 1996, but when I attempted to navigate to it I went somewhere completely different.  Oh well, it works for other sites! Update: For kicks, check out MSDN.  You can read about Advanced ADO for VB programmers! [Listening to: Punjab MC - Beware]   Posted Jan 23 2004, 03:32 PM by dbrowning with 2 comment(s)

• How the cool kids pronounce "WSE"

  Julia talks about the cool way to say “Web Service Enhancements” is whizzy.  Since a couple of conversations with Doug at the PDC, I'm constantly calling web services “asm-ex” now.  The only problem is that no one else around here calls them that, so everyone thinks I'm a freak...  Oh well, now I have another new vocabulary word! ;) [Listening t Porno for Pyros - Packin']   Posted Jan 20 2004, 03:39 PM by dbrowning with no comments

• Developers and tablet PC's

  I picked up a tablet pc from MD last week and I'll be putting it through it's paces for the next month or so.  I'm trying to figure out if these would be of use to developers, other than as hand-writing enabled laptops.  Is anyone out there using a tablet pc to gather requirements, do design, prototyping, mind-mapping, etc?  If so, drop me a comment so I can get a head-start on this one! [Listening to: Crystal Method - Legion of Boom]   Posted Jan 20 2004, 10:29 AM by dbrowning with 7 comment(s)

• So much for the watch...

  Well, I spent my watch money.  I've been wanting to pick up a mp3 jukebox for a while now.  As it just so happens, Paul had one for sale.  I'm now the proud owner of a Creative Nomad Zen. Guess the watch will have to wait a bit. [Listening to: Lo Presher - Lizard Man]   Posted Jan 15 2004, 03:39 PM by dbrowning with no comments

• MSN Direct Watch

  Ok, it's official: I've got to get one of these!  I'm not a big gadget guy.  I don't have a portable mp3 player, or a PDA (though I couldn't live without my Blackberry), but these watches have me drooling.  By the time I got done reading Scott's review of his, I was hunting for my credit card to go order one! Actually, can you buy these in the stores?  I would love to just go pick one up...   Posted Jan 13 2004, 10:06 AM by dbrowning with 2 comment(s)

• What is the status of development hardware in your organization?

  In a recent post I made about installing Whidbey on the machine that “pays the bills”, Julia and Doug got into a discussion about development environments.  If anyone out there reads Joel on Software, then you know the great case Joel makes for giving developers the best, fastest machines available.  Unfortunately, this is not reality in most shops.  I've heard many stories about developer’s working day in and day out on 15 inch monitors, or machines with 128 Megs of RAM.  In my opinion, there is absolutely no reason for this!  Giving a developer a crappy computer is like giving a carpenter a Fisher Price hammer, it’ll drive the nail in the wall but it will also drive the carpenter nuts and take way more time than it should.   So what is an acceptable hardware setup for writing code?  Well, I don’t think there’s any hard and fast rules.  Here at Turner, we do a pretty good job.  Most developers have adequate/rockin’ hardware, depending on where they are at in the rotation (this is a subject for another post).  Below is a list of the machines/environments I have, and I think this is the bare minimum for any developer in any organization:   Primary Development Machine – my daily driver.  This is the box I work on most of the day, every day… This machine must be fast (<2.4 ghz) have mucho RAM (< 1 gig), and it absolutely must have 2 monitors! Development Server – If you’re writing code that spans tiers, you should really have a dev server.  No monitor necessary due to remote desktop… Beta Playground – If you are testing any beta software, you should have a machine dedicated to that (Longhorn box). Laptop – Developers should always have laptops.  Here, most people’s primary development machine (see above), is a laptop.  This is ok, so long as the laptop is a “desktop replacement” (in other words, no 1ghz laptops if that’s your primary machine)   So what’s the point of this long-winded post?  I’d like to know the state of development hardware in other organizations.  Is it better or worse than I described above?  I hope its better, but I’m afraid it’s not! Posted Jan 12 2004, 09:49 PM by dbrowning with 7 comment(s)