Inheriting code (that smells)

Josh: I am excited to be furthering the development of your tremendously popular website.  How may I gain access to the source control repository?
Customer: Give me a second... *You've got mail! - sourcecode.zip*

Wow, this isn't my ideal way of getting my hands dirty in a project.  But, this will be easy to fix.

Opening this .NET 1.1 ASP.NET app, I find three projects and no solution file.  Confused, I open the projects individually and realize there is a huge circular reference issue that was circumvented by compiling the projects seperately and then referencing their output assemblies. Yuck. There are also heaps of bugs in the code causing all sorts of unneeded memory usage that's causing the application to freeze and recycle several times a day.  Finally, I'm told that all of the latest features created for the site have been causing problems everywhere else.  I think it's time for a change.

After several weeks of unit tests, refactoring, SVN, and CC.NET configuration.

  • The site no longer crashes.
  • Features can be implemented faster and more effectively.
  • Source control provides a source history with much safer storage.
  • A new version of the site can be deployed with the click of a button.
 There is still a lot of work to be done.  But, I think this goes to show the power and reason for being agile. 
Posted by dotjosh | 1 comment(s)
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Windows Live and Windows Media Center are becoming friends.

It appears that the new Windows Live services portal that Microsoft has been pushing has finally caught my eye.  A new service that will allow me to communicate with Windows Media Center over the Internet. The interactions allow users to remotely record television shows, find programming information, and discover viewing preferences from buddies in their MSN Messenger social network.

Now they aren't saying yet if this service will allow for remote viewing, but lets hope we hear more about that soon. Kris Barton at Microsoft provided this screenshot of this sexy service in action.
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Web Authoring Statistics from Google

Google has posted a very interesting analysis of the code/authoring techniques of over one billion documents here
It seems much of the data they collected was pretty obvious (ex: the abundance of  the "a" and "img" element).   But, it's still an interesting read.
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New Vista Website

I'm liking the new vista website design.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx

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iPod Nano Picture

Wow this thing really is small.  But, where is the headphone jack?

Posted by dotjosh | 1 comment(s)

10 Free PC Games for download

CNet has a list of 10 PC Games available for free download.
  • America's Army: Special Forces
  • Battlecruiser 3000 A.D.
  • Grand Theft Auto & Grand Theft Auto 2
  • Hidden & Dangerous Deluxe
  • The Marathon Trilogy
  • Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
  • Starsiege: Tribes
  • Wild Metal Country
  • The Zork Trilogy

Posted by dotjosh | 3 comment(s)
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Insane Ukulele skills...

http://www.ukuleledisco.com/jakeconcert

Here's another one: http://movies.collegehumor.com/items/2005/06/collegehumor.159572.mov

I've never heard anyone play a ukulele like this... his name is Jake Shimabukuro jakeshimabukuro.com

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Free GMail - First come first serve

I've got 5 invites left on my GMail account.  The first 5 people to send me a request message (please include your email address) will get one.

 

**UPDATE! I'm all out of Gmail Invites now sorry!  When I get more invites, I'll make them available again!**

Posted by dotjosh | 10 comment(s)
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