Don't Call Us - We'll Call You

What exactly is a trusted connection?

2010-09-29T09:41:00.000+02:00

Trusted connections are only opened by the SQL Server client software (such
as the ADO.NET, OLE DB, or ODBC provider/driver) if you request a Windows
Authentication (used to be called Integrated Security) connection. The SQL
Server client software then opens a specific kind of network connection that
can only be opened by a process that has already successfully logged on to
Windows using a valid Windows login and password. Since those types of
connections are only possible after Windows has validated the login and
password, the Database Engine software does not have to re-validate the
login and password, it can "trust" that authentication was already performed
by Windows. The security ID of the Windows account is passed as part of the
information concerning the connection.

The above just controls whether the you can open a connection to the
database engine (authentication). After you have connected, you can only
perform actions for which the proper permissions have been assigned to
either your login or any user your login has been mapped to. Part of what a
DBA has to do in Windows Authentication environments is define to the
Databae Engine which Windows accounts and groups used as logins map to
different users in each database, and which permissions are granted to each
user or login.

--
Alan Brewer [MSFT]
SQL Server Documentation Team

Source:
http://dbaspot.com/forums/ms-sqlserver/142379-what-exactly-trusted-connection.html

SOLID Object-Oriented Design - Video presentation by Sandi Metz

2010-07-07T03:15:00.000+02:00

From Gotham Ruby Conference 2009

Sandi Metz gives a very insightful walkthrough on the SOLID principles.

TED suggested websites

2010-01-11T17:25:00.000+01:00

CURIOSITY & KNOWLEDGE

http://reuters.com

http://research.philips.com

http://readme.cc

http://podtropolis.com

http://papertoys.com

http://new7wonders.com

http://lipsum.com

http://thomasedison.org

http://beelinetv.com

http://useit.com

http://submarinechannel.com/titlesequences

http://visual-literacy.org

http://cartype.com

http://captology.stanford.edu

http://bannerblog.com.au

http://ge.com

http://curiosityshoppeonline.com

http://creativecommons.org

http://lawsofsimplicity.com

http://gnu.org

http://digg.com

GRAPHICS, MUSIC & ARTS

http://yugop.com

http://vincent-vella.com

http://uva.co.uk

http://tutorialblog.org/free-vector-downloads

http://tate.org.uk

http://squidfingers.com/patterns

http://sohodolls.co.uk

http://radioblogclub.com

http://photogravure.com

http://netdiver.net/illustration

http://mine-control.com

http://matthewmahon.com

http://marcelod2.com.br

http://magwerk.com

http://kraftwerk.blocmedia.net

http://headbangers.tv

http://grupow.com/circulo

http://creaturesinmyhead.com

http://bernhardwolff.com

http://arturofuentes.com

http://alennox.net

E-COMMERCE EXPERIENCE

http://colette.fr

http://imaginemusicstore.com

http://canyon.com

http://coft1.com

http://heftyrecords.com

http://ourtype.be

http://freddyandma.com

http://nikeid.nike.com

http://feelthepower.biz

http://shopcomposition.com

http://oneill.com

http://agentprovocateur.com

SEARCHING & FINDING

http://trendwatching.com

http://thefwa.com

http://springwise.com

http://scirus.com

http://scholar.google.com

http://podcasts.yahoo.com

http://msdewey.com

http://maps.live.com

http://chacha.com

http://books.google.com

ONLINE RESOURCES

http://infopresse.com/prixboomerang

http://rjnet.com.br/2velocimetro_php

http://vixy.net

http://kuler.adobe.com

http://wikitravel.org

http://thinkingwithtype.com

http://dominiopublico.gov.br

http://madehow.com

http://icp.org

http://howstuffworks.com

http://dafont.com

http://dictionary.reference.com

http://gutenberg.org

http://nationmaster.com

http://en.proverbia.net

http://del.icio.us

http://touchgraph.com

TOP INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE CREATORS

http://2advanced.com

http://akqa.com

http://almapbbdo.com.br

http://artless.gr.jp

http://bigspaceship.com

http://d-o-e-s.com

http://domanistudios.com

http://eurorscg4d.com

http://farfar.se

http://firstbornmultimedia.com

http://group94.com

http://heiwa-alpha.co.jp

http://hi-res.net

http://lowetesch.com

http://mecano.ca

http://northkingdom.com

http://rga.com

http://soleilnoir.com

http://wefail.com

Source: http://tedtalks.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2035433:BlogPost:910

Øredev videos (2008)

2009-09-09T13:30:00.001+02:00

Java
.NET
Architecture
Cool Languages
Domain-Driven Design
Mobile 2.0

Test

PM in Practice
Aspects of Leadership
Agile Ways
ALT.NET
User Experience

Advanced ASP.NET MVC

2009-08-25T02:07:00.001+02:00

Learn how to extend the ASP.NET MVC framework with dependency injection, view engines, action filters, and more. We’ll see how to apply Test Driven Development and write unit tests with mock objects.

The WTFs of a non-relational design in a relational database

2009-08-25T01:47:00.002+02:00

Here are some facts about the Vision system:
The data model comprised a single table named DATA.
The DATA table had 240+ columns.

this application was something new, and that the way it stored data and metadata in the database would revolutionize computing

You are in a world of hurt. It takes six months to train a new maintenance person and a database consultant," waving at me, "says that the simplest of reports can only be created with the greatest difficulty using the most low-level reporting tools." He stood up, walked to the white board, picked up a pen, and wrote:
"RUN LIKE HELL!"

http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/bad-carma/

NDC 2009 Videos

2009-08-24T02:44:00.011+02:00

Mark Nijhof has created a list of presentations from the Norwegian Developers Conference 2009, that featured some of the best speakers around in the field of software development.

Here are some selected presentations. For the full list, see Mark's blog.

Tim Huckaby
Jump into Windows Presentation Foundation! ...and Become Immediately Effective

Scott Hanselman
The Haacked and Hanselman Show

Ted Neward
Why the Next Five Years Will Be About Languages

Ayende Rahien
Building Scalable Systems

Michael Feathers
Seven Blind Alleys in Software Design

Jonas Follesø
MVVM Patterns for Silverlight and WPF applications

Udi Dahan
Intentions and Interfaces - Making Patterns Complete

Phil Haack
Black Belt Ninja Tips ASP.NET MVC

Robert C. Martin
Clean Code: Functions

Jeremy D. Miller

Lessons Learned from a Long Lived Codebase

Rafal Lukawiecki
Architectual use of Business Intelligence in Application Design

Peter Provost
The Butterfly Effect

Roy Osherove
Understanding Test Driven Development

Jimmy Nilsson
Is Domain-Driven Design more than Entities and Repositories?

Kevlin Henney
Sustainable Software Architecture

Sql Antipatterns

2009-08-24T02:38:00.002+02:00

Presentation by Bill Karwin (from the MySQL Conference & Expo)

Sql Antipatterns Strike Back

View more documents from Bill Karwin.

Geotargeting With Google Webmaster Tools

2009-07-08T19:16:00.003+02:00

Use Webmaster Tools to set geotargeting if it's not given by the TLD. E.g www.europe-for-australians.com.

Writing for the Web

2009-07-06T15:27:00.001+02:00

Get rid of half the words on each page,
then get rid of half of what’s left
– Krug’s third law of usability

"Happy Talk Must Die" - Steve Krug, "Don't Let Me Think"

Some good resources for writing on the web and copywriting:

Charlie Morris http://wdvl.internet.com/Internet/Writing/
Jacob Nielsen http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/
Daniel Will-Harris http://www.efuse.com/Design/web_writing_basics.html

Copyblogger, Copywriting 101: http://www.copyblogger.com/copywriting-101/

Also see William Strunk, Jr. (Classic from 1918 http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk5.html

Content with your content - Copywriting for websites

View more documents from Anne Macindoe.

Video interviews with Uncle Bob aka Robert C. Martin

2009-06-28T18:53:00.003+02:00

Software guru Robert C. Martin has some really interesting views on being a software professional and TDD: A developer that is not testing his code is like a doctor that doesn't wash his hands before examining the patient.

http://www.programutvikling.no/podkast

10 UI Design Patterns You Should Be Paying Attention To

2009-06-24T00:09:00.004+02:00

A great article from Smashing Magazine on some of the most useful UI design patterns

Lazy Registration: Allow user to check out the site before requiring registration-
Progressive Disclosure: Show what's relevant now, hide details and reveal when requested.
Forgiving Format: Allow different input formats, like ZIP or Address in the same input field.
Clear Primary Actions: Emphasize the primary action (e.g "Save") and de-emphasize the secondary (e.g Cancel).
Breadcrumbs: Show the path to the current information (e.g Shop > Laptops > Toshiba).
Account Registration: Improve user experience by letting users register, only neccessary information.
Required Field Marker: Clearly label required fields.
Steps Left: Clearly show current steps in a registration sequence.
Subscription Plans: When a product or service is provided, give different options to the user. Highlight what you want to sell.
Hover Controls: Hide tools until objects are hovered (e.g show Edit button when an editable list is hovered).

Full article: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/23/10-ui-design-patterns-you-should-be-paying-attention-to/

Improve Your Adsense Revenue

2009-06-19T20:29:00.001+02:00

Todd Fratzel shows how he doubled his AdSense revenue using the simple concepts less is more, size matters and positioning.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/06/20/simple-changes-doubled-my-adsense-revenue/

Custom Font Size in AdSense

2009-06-18T10:10:00.003+02:00

From the Google AdSense Blog (June 17th 2009):

We're now happy to announce the launch of a [-] feature you've been asking for -- the ability to change the font size of the text in your ad units. You can now select from small, medium, and large font sizes for ad units [-] ... the actual font size will vary for each format size, font face, and user-specific settings such as browsers and operating systems.

http://adsense.blogspot.com/2009/06/font-size-matters.html

WebmasterWorld discussion: Font Size Mania

Econsultancy.com: Cool and usable

2009-06-17T23:54:00.006+02:00

I stumbled upon an article at Econsultancy.com today, and immediately enjoyed the design and usability on their site:

http://econsultancy.com/blog/081-a-10-point-checklist-for-landing-page-design

Main menu opacity looks good
Balloons.. cool header
Tweet this: Promoted social bookmark, highly visible
Not just tags - also topics and sectors (main site categories)
Related content
HTML / formatting in comments
Nice footer. Notice search and extra footer with copyright / privacy policy
"Popular" box: Tags, authors, sectors, topics
Author info with Twitter and LinkedIn links
Content: Pyramid - main point early, then details (conversion intent)
Content: List - advises divided into short points, easy to scan

YouTube: Google Webmaster Central Channel

2009-06-16T16:08:00.001+02:00

A lot of useful videos for webmasters, mostly by Matt Cutts

Why Cal Henderson Hates Django

2009-06-12T01:01:00.004+02:00

Cal Henderson, the Flickr guy, gives one of the funniest presentations I've seen, at least in the nerdy sphere. Watch, and learn :)

Funny Presentation Recipe

Be hung over and mention last night
Use funny images from Flickr, with funny text
Swear (a lot)
Be a cocky, rich dude
Use irrational logic (e.g founder has a big beard, these guys must be serious)
Show a stupid, funny graph
Get serious in the end

Adding a 'Share in Reader' link to your website or blog

2009-06-10T06:06:00.003+02:00

http://www.google.com/support/reader/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=147149

Util Classes Must Die

2009-06-09T20:52:00.005+02:00

Using a lot of static methods in utils classes will make your application procedural rather than object oriented.

Util classes cause problems with / violates:

* OO in general: Code is not object oriented

* Testability: Static is hard to test

* Inheritance: You can not extend a helper class

* Polymorphism: Helper class can not derive from an interface / base class

* Cohesion: Several responsiblilties in a class breaks the single responsibility principle

* Encapsulation: Helper methods are procedures

Anti-Patterns and Worst Practices – Utils Class

Chris Missal blogs about Anti-Patterns and Worst-Practices, and mentions the utils class as an indicator of lazyness and lack of domain knowledge:

[...] know that there’s probably a better way. Since the problem I see with Utility classes is that they’re usually just a collection of a whole bunch of stuff that doesn’t really belong together, they probably exist for common reasons.

Source: http://www.lostechies.com/blogs/chrismissal/archive/2009/06/01/anti-patterns-and-worst-practices-utils-class.aspx

Are Helper Classes Evil?

Nick Malik has written two articles about the subject, and calls the helper classes an extraordinarily bad idea that should be avoided most of the time. Malik shows how helper classes breaks completely with object orientation (encapsulation, behavior) and several OO pronciples.

[-}the notion of functional decomposition is so easy that we drop to it when we come across an algorithm that doesn't seem to "fit" into our neat little object tree, and rather than understand the needs, analyze where we can get the best use of the technology, and place the method accordingly, we just toss it into a helper class. And that, my friends, is laziness.

What about making reusable code? Here's what Nick has to say about it:

The largest reusable code base that all your developers are already using is the .Net Framework. The vast majority of the framework uses instantiated classes, not static helper classes (there are exceptions, unfortunately). So, the need for reuse is NOT a good argument for helper classes.

http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik/archive/2005/09/06/461404.aspx

Helper Classes Are Evil

Eric Lee from Microsoft Game Stuidos takes a similar stand against the helpers in his blogpost Helper Classes Are Evil:

I very much dislike them in an OOP design because inevitably they becomes a dumping ground for all kinds of things that don’t relate to each other at all in the problem domain. It’s an attractive nuisance, to use a legal term. [-] a real adherence to OOP means that you’ll have lots and lots of small, single-purpose classes.

Next time you're tempted to put code into a helper class, take a step back and think for a second. Will this code violate OO and OO principles? Probably. What does the helper methods do? Can you design this so that the code is placed in a separate class with data and behavior? Don't be lazy. Try to understand the problem domain and come up with an object oriented solution rather than a lazy, procedural one.

So, must helper classes die? Let me paraphrase Nick:

I don't believe that software practices qualify in the moral sphere, so there is no such thing as evil code.

Jeremy D. Miller: The Joys and Pains of a Long Lived Codebase (Video)

2009-06-06T17:42:00.001+02:00

In this presentation recorded at QCon SF 2008, Jeremy D. Miller shares lessons learned while developing a project over 5 years. He talks about his mistakes, what to avoid and how to design, code and test better.

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Lessons-Learned-Jeremy-Miller

...falling from application mode into framework mode

2009-06-03T04:26:00.001+02:00

A client isn't interested in software that can be used to create software (frameworks).

Jeffrey Palermo:

"I'll get to your application in a minute - First, we need to build the framework"

Clixpy

2009-05-24T15:37:00.005+02:00

Clixpy is a web usability testing tool. It’s very easy to install, just by pasting a few lines of JavaScript code in your site’s HTML. When users browse your website Clixpy traces everything they do and then plays it for you, giving you the opportunity to extract any information you may need.

http://clixpy.com/

Seth Godin:Tribes

2009-05-24T14:48:00.001+02:00

Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.

TUTORIAL: Entity Framework v2.0 - Model First using Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4.0

2009-05-22T15:32:00.002+02:00

Gary Petty takes a look at one of the most anticipated features in Entity Framework 2, Model First:

http://blog.garypretty.co.uk/index.php/2009/05/20/tutorial-entity-framework-v20-model-first-using-visual-studio-2010-and-net-40/

Bug / Feature / Task Tracking Tools

2009-05-19T16:50:00.001+02:00

Trac: http://trac.edgewall.org/

FogBugz: http://www.fogbugz.com/

JIRA: http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/

Mantis Bug Tracker: http://www.mantisbt.org/

Redmine: http://www.redmine.org/

Bugzilla: http://www.bugzilla.org/

OnTime: http://www.axosoft.com/

Fixx: http://hedgehoglab.com/products/fixx

BugTracker.NET: http://ifdefined.com/bugtrackernet.html

Team Foundation Server: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/

Assembla: http://www.assembla.com/

TeamTrack: http://www.serena.com/products/teamtrack

TestTrackPro: http://www.seapine.com/ttpro.html

Google Docs: http://docs.google.com/

EPAM PMC Suite: http://www.epam-pmc.com/

SourceForge Enterprise Edition: http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/452

Basecamp: http://basecamphq.com/

Request Tracker: http://www.bestpractical.com/rt

Video: Learning from StackOverflow.com

2009-05-04T23:38:00.006+02:00

Presented by Joel Spolsky, known for Fog Creek and his blog JoelOnSoftware.com.

YouTube Description:
Until recently, searching for help on highly technical programming problems has been a mess. A lot of what the search engines found was old discussions in forums, where you have a lot of wrong answers and out-of-date answers that you have to sift through yourself. You also found a lot of answers at sites that were hidden behind a pay wall, which uncloaked themselves for Google and then demanded membership fees to see the answers. More

The 9 issues mentioned in video:

Voting: Override by best solution
Tags: Smart tags, what you can maybe answer
Editing: Edit your own and other people's entries
Badges: No money, status
Karma: No money, status
Pre-search: Previously asked questions
Google is UI: Google search important traffic source
Performance: ASP.NET, C#, Jquery, Sql Server, Dell
Critical Mass: "Empty restaurant syndrome"

Video: Don Norman: The Design of Future Things

2009-05-04T21:36:00.001+02:00

In this talk, Don discusses his latest book, The Design of Future Things, which is about the increasing intrusion of intelligent devices in the automobile and home with both expected benefits and unexpected dangers.

Cool Presentation Template (Google Docs)

2009-05-04T18:11:00.003+02:00

Cool presentation template, embedded from Google Docs (Get started, create your own)

A Few Good Resources on "Search"

2009-05-04T02:44:00.005+02:00

Faceted search enables users to navigate a multi-dimensional information space by combining text search with a progressive narrowing of choices in each dimension.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faceted_search

Are users really ready for faceted search?

View more presentations from epek.

Search Patterns

View more presentations from Peter Morville.

Flickr: Faceted Navigation

BoxesAndArrows: Search Behavior Patterns

BoxesAndArrows: Advancing Advanced Search

Jacob Nielsen: Search And You May Find

TBray.org: On Search: The Users

Wikipedia: Progressive Disclosure

Wikipedia: Faceted Classification

Tom Reamy: Faceted Navigation (PDF)

Welie.com: Faceted Navigation

Designing Information Architecture for Search (PPT)

Bast / Weber: When You’re Lost for Words: Faceted Search with Autocompletion (PDF)

Hearst: UIs for Faceted Navigation (PDF)

Yahoo Design Pattern Library

2009-05-04T02:39:00.003+02:00

UI design patterns: What the user wants to accomplish, and when to use each pattern.

Search Pagination

NAVIGATION

Breadcrumbs

Links

Alphanumeric Filter Links

Tabs

Module Tabs

Navigation Tabs

BROWSING

Page Grids

Pagination

Item Pagination

Search Pagination

SELECTION

Auto Complete

Calendar Picker

Carousel

RICH INTERACTION

Drag and Drop

Drag and Drop Modules

Invitation

Cursor Invitation

Drop Invitation

Tool Tip Invitation

Hover Invitation

Transition

Animate

Brighten

Collapse

Cross Fade

Dim

Expand

Fade In

Fade Out

Self-Healing

Slide

Spotlight

SOCIAL

Ratings & Reviews

Architecture of a Review

Rating an Object

Vote to Promote

Writing a Review

Reputation

Competitive Spectrum

Named Levels

Numbered Levels

Identifying Labels

Points

Collectible Achievements

Ranking

Leaderboard

Top X

Sign-in Continuity

http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/

How to create tabs with jQuery UI

2009-05-03T17:56:00.000+02:00

Tabs are a space saver that are welcome on almost any site. This how-to shows you step-by-step how to quickly integrate them into your site using the jQuery UI.

Full article: http://tanguay.info/web/index.php?pg=howtos&id=21

The Future of C#

2009-05-02T23:30:00.001+02:00

Anders Hejlsberg is a Technical Fellow in the Developer Division. He is an influential creator of development tools and programming languages. He is the chief designer of the C# programming language and a key participant in the development of the Microsoft .NET framework.

http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/TL16/

Google Documents List Data API

2009-05-02T22:21:00.001+02:00

The Google Documents List Data API allows client applications to upload documents to Google Documents and list them in the form of Google Data API ("GData") feeds. Your client application can request a list of a user's documents, and query the content in an existing document.

Source: Google Code

Find Tables With Foreign Key Constraint in Database

2009-05-02T22:18:00.001+02:00

SELECT f.name AS ForeignKey,

OBJECT_NAME(f.parent_object_id) AS TableName,
COL_NAME(fc.parent_object_id,
fc.parent_column_id) AS ColumnName,
OBJECT_NAME (f.referenced_object_id) AS ReferenceTableName,
COL_NAME(fc.referenced_object_id,
fc.referenced_column_id) AS ReferenceColumnName
FROM sys.foreign_keys AS f
INNER JOIN sys.foreign_key_columns AS fc
ON f.OBJECT_ID = fc.constraint_object_id

/*** Script all Foreign Key Constraints ***/
/*** The Result Set can be used to copy constraints to your testing DB or to keep on hand in case of errors. ***/
SELECT
‘ALTER TABLE ‘+FK.TABLE_NAME+
‘ ADD CONSTRAINT ‘+C.CONSTRAINT_NAME+’ FOREIGN KEY’+
‘(’+CU.COLUMN_NAME+’) ‘+
‘REFERENCES ‘+PK.TABLE_NAME+
‘(’+PT.COLUMN_NAME+’)’ ForeignKeyScripts
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS C
INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS FK ON C.CONSTRAINT_NAME = FK.CONSTRAINT_NAME
INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS PK ON C.UNIQUE_CONSTRAINT_NAME = PK.CONSTRAINT_NAME
INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE CU ON C.CONSTRAINT_NAME = CU.CONSTRAINT_NAME
INNER JOIN (
SELECT i1.TABLE_NAME, i2.COLUMN_NAME
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS i1
INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE i2 ON i1.CONSTRAINT_NAME = i2.CONSTRAINT_NAME
WHERE i1.CONSTRAINT_TYPE = ‘PRIMARY KEY’
) PT ON PT.TABLE_NAME = PK.TABLE_NAME
–WHERE PK.TABLE_NAME IN (’Table1′, ‘Table2′)
–WHERE FK.TABLE_NAME IN (’Table1′, ‘Table2′)

Source: SqlAuthority.com

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Commonly Used Types and Namespaces

2009-05-01T15:36:00.003+02:00

This poster shows the commonly used types and namespaces in the 3.5 Framework, including WPF, Windows Forms, ASP.NET, Communications/Workflow, Data, XML, LINQ and Fundamentals.

The poster also shows what's new with the .NET Framework 3.5 and .NET Framework 3.0, what's available in the .NET Compact Framework 3.5 and what's planned for implementaiton in Silverlight 1.1.

Format is 90 x 70 cm, so it's best suited for printing and not reading on your laptop.

Download (via Microsoft.com)

Poster is created by Paul Andrew , Kit George and Brad Abram.

Source: Paul Andrew

Pitfalls for Startups Driven by Software Developers

2009-04-30T18:55:00.001+02:00

1) Putting your needs above the customer

2) Not clarifying your business idea

3) Not marketing yourself

4) Not branding yourself

5) Not managing your money

6) Not knowing who your customers are

7) Not acting in a professional manner

Source: jay @ StackOverflow.com

Some Useful T-SQL DateTime Functions

2009-04-30T10:55:00.001+02:00

Example:

----First Day of Last Month
SELECT DATEADD(mm,-1,DATEADD(mm,DATEDIFF(mm,0,GETDATE()),0))

----Last Day of Last Month
SELECT DATEADD(ms,-3,DATEADD(mm,0,DATEADD(mm,DATEDIFF(mm,0,GETDATE()),0)))

All functions (SqlAuthority.com)

WPF: Data Binding and More

2009-04-22T09:28:00.003+02:00

A couple of articles bookmarked for later reading:

MSDN; Data Binding Overview:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms752347.aspx

Guided tour of WPF (Josh Smith):
http://joshsmithonwpf.wordpress.com/a-guided-tour-of-wpf/

CSLA @ DotNetRocs TV

2009-04-22T00:37:00.003+02:00

Dot Net Rocks TV has a few videos with Rocky Lhotska talking about CSLA

Rocky Lhotka on CSLA.NET 2.0
http://www.dnrtv.com/default.aspx?showNum=12
http://www.dnrtv.com/default.aspx?showNum=13

and episodes about using CSLA.NET with a Data Access Layer, CSLA.NET in Web Services and ASP.NET
http://www.dnrtv.com/default.aspx?showNum=60
http://www.dnrtv.com/default.aspx?showNum=33
http://www.dnrtv.com/default.aspx?showNum=32

There is also an episode of the DNR podcast talking to Rocky
http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=253

Thanks to bullwinkle @ http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.586892.9

Most Interesting .NET StackOverflow Questions

2009-04-20T19:33:00.003+02:00

Yoann. B's selection of interesting .NET related questions at StackOverflow

1 - Visual Studio Optimizations

2 - Hidden .NET Base Class Library Classes

3 - Is DateTime.Now the best way to measure a function’s performance?

4 - Most wanted feature for C# 4.0 ?

5 - Hidden Features of ASP.NET

6 - Visual Studio debugger tips & tricks for .NET

7 - Most Useful Attributes in C#

8 - What is the most useful .net library you’ve found?

9 - Entity Framework vs LINQ to SQL

10 - Most Useful .NET Utility Classes Developers Tend To Reinvent Rather Than Reuse

http://blog.sb2.fr/post/2009/01/02/Most-Interesting-NET-StackOverFlow-Questions.aspx

Thanks again to Brian for link!

Similar lists in other categories, such as design patterns, layering, domain driven design etc. would be nice.

MVVM (model-view-view model) example with Silverlight

2009-04-20T16:37:00.003+02:00

Code Project:

Exploring a Model-View-ViewModel Application; WPF Password Manager, Cipher Text

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/ExploringWPFMVVM.aspx

[-] article uses the WPF Password Manager, Cipher Text application as fertile ground for exploring the WPF UI Design Pattern, Model-View-ViewModel or MVVM. The application sports many cool features and some WPF goodness.

Microsoft:

WPF Apps With The Model-View-ViewModel Design Pattern

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419663.aspx

Topics:
Patterns and WPF
MVP pattern
Why MVVM is better for WPF
Building an application with MVVM
WPF, data binding

Thanks, Brian for links!

Weekend Reading

2009-03-14T14:57:00.008+01:00

Steve McConnel: Classic mistakes:

http://www.stevemcconnell.com/rdenum.htm

Few Short Methods Per Class:

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FewShortMethodsPerClass

The Big Ball of Mud and Other Architectural Disasters:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001003.html

How to Design Exception Hierarchies:

http://blogs.msdn.com/kcwalina/archive/2007/01/30/ExceptionHierarchies.aspx

Design Principles and Design Patterns:

http://www.objectmentor.com/resources/articles/Principles_and_Patterns.pdf

What Makes a System Hard to Work With?

http://codebetter.com/blogs/jeremy.miller/archive/2009/03/12/what-makes-a-system-hard-to-work-with.aspx

Big Ball of Mud (classic)

http://www.laputan.org/mud/mud.html#BigBallOfMud

How to create a custom url protocol

2009-03-05T16:51:00.001+01:00

 HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/
   your-protocol-name/
     (Default)    "URL:your-protocol-name Protocol"
     URL Protocol ""
     shell/
       open/
         command/
           (Default) PathToExecutable

Useful links:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa767914.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa767743(VS.85).aspx

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/389204/how-do-i-create-my-own-url-protocol-e-g-so

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/IP/DataProtocol.aspx

Custom file types: How to assiciate files with apps in Windows

2009-03-04T09:51:00.002+01:00

Wouldn't it be nice to have your own file type for your enterprise application? E.g a custom xml file with metadata for your documents. This CodeProject article shows how it works:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/System_File_Association.aspx

InfoQ: AOP - Myths and truths

2009-03-04T09:48:00.001+01:00

Video showing pragmatic usage of Aspect Oriented Programming in real-life projects.

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/AOP-Myths-and-Realities

Presentation by Ramnivas Laddad

AOP: INotifyPropertyChanged

2009-03-04T09:43:00.002+01:00

Better binding with PostSharp and INotifyPropertyChanged

http://richardsbraindump.blogspot.com/2009/02/aspect-oriented-programming.html

SyntaxHighligter: Nice code formatting on your blog/site

2009-03-04T08:33:00.001+01:00

http://alexgorbatchev.com/wiki/SyntaxHighlighter

Demos: http://alexgorbatchev.com/wiki/SyntaxHighlighter:Demo

How to check if the current user is administrator

2009-03-03T22:38:00.002+01:00

bool isAdmin = new WindowsPrincipal(WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent()).IsInRole(WindowsBuiltInRole.Administrator);

Frameworks and DDD: Keeping the Model Clean

2009-03-03T17:39:00.002+01:00

How to avoid pitfalls and preserve a clean domain model while using frameworks.

Tim McCarthy is is the author of .NET Domain-Driven Design with C#: Problem-Design-Solution

View presentation at InfoQ

REGSVR32 VS REGASM

2009-03-03T17:36:00.001+01:00

REGSVR32 : This is used for registering a COM based DLL:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490985.aspx

REGASM: This is used to register a .NET Assembly for COM Interop:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/tzat5yw6(vs.71).aspx

Continuous Refactoring vs Refactor Mercilessly

2009-02-26T06:07:00.008+01:00

Good ideas need to have a name. Uncle Bob refers to the boy scouts' rule, "Leave the campground cleaner than you found it". The "Pragmatic Programmer" authours say "Fix the problem, not the blame". Fowler's advise is to refactor any time the code smells.

Google shows that there are

3 660 hits for "Refactor Mercilessly"

2 040 hits for "Continuous Refactoring"

So even if I like "Continuous Refactoring" best, I guess "Refactor Mercilessly" won.

More important, I will try to make this a part of my autopilot programming: Whenever I stumble upon something that smells like crap, I will go ahead and fix it right away. Instead of blaming, commenting or apathetically ignoring the code.

Seiri-Seiton-Seiso-Seiketsu-Shutsuke

2009-02-26T05:42:00.003+01:00

The S5 principles from japanese car industry in the 50s are interesting for software development:

Seiri: Organization; Know where things are, use proper naming

Seiton: Systematization; Put things where you expect to find them

Seiso: Cleanliness; the absense of dirt

Seiketsu: Standardization; Define rules and policies;

Shutsuke: Discipline, in the japanese way

We have a lot to learn from the car industry. A car can't have errors. Neither should our programs So let's pretent we're building cars!

The Rise and Fall of a Software Company

2009-02-26T05:23:00.010+01:00

I'm reading Robert C. Martin's "Clean Code", and this little anecdote really struck me. Many businesses go down this slope, since management and even developers do not understand the need for refactoring and redesign until it's too late.

I know of one company that, in the late 80s, wrote a killer app. It was very popular, and lots of professionals bought and used it. But then the release cycles began to stretch. Bugs were not repaired from one release to the next. Load times grew and crashes increased. I remember the day I shut the product down in frustration and never used it again. The company went out of business a short time after that.

Two decades later I met one of the early employees of that company and asked him what had happened. The answer confirmed my fears. They had rushed the product to market and had made a huge mess in the code. As they added more and more features, the code got worse and worse until they simply could not manage it any longer. It was the bad code that brought the company down.

Later in the book, Martin (aka "Uncle Bob") compares the development of software with the development of a city. You won't build a 6 lane superhighway in a little village. You don't have the resources, and noone even wants it there. When the town is growing, you will need to build a new infrastructure. You might need to tear down some houses to build a new highway that can handle the new reality.

It's a good metaphore. My lesson learned is: Know the danger of not redesigning. If you keep building on old infrastructure that should be replaced, your city might break down.

OO Design Principles

2009-02-24T18:38:00.006+01:00

S.O.L.I.D. Class Design Principles

S ingle Responsibility Principle (SRP) - Each responsibility should be a class
O pen/Closed Principle (OCP) - Inherit from abstract base classes
L iskov substitution principle (LSP) - Subtypes should be substitutable for their supertypes
I nterface Segregation Principle (ISP) - Use many small interfaces, not one big
D ependency Inversion Principle (DIP) - Let details depend upon abstractions, not the other way around

More Principles

Law of Demeter: Only interact with yourself and your neighbours
Hollywood Principle: Don't call us, we'll call you - Reduce coupling using events, IoC, DI etc
Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY): Remove duplication, not only in code but also in your model
Program to an interface, not an implementation: Decouple implementation from interfaces
You Ain’t Gonna Need It (YAGNI): Wait until you need it
Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS): Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler
Encapsulation and Information Hiding: Protect yourself, be shy, don't reveal your inner mechanisms
Separation of Concerns (SoC): Separate stuff using encapsulation, subsystems, modules, layers etc
High Cohesion:
Low/Loose coupling: Let your components be independent of each other
Command-query separation (CQS)
Design by Contract (DbC)
Dependency Injection (DI)
Inversion of Control (IoC)

Tell, Don't Ask

2009-02-23T12:40:00.002+01:00

Procedural code gets information then makes decisions. Object-oriented code tells objects to do things.
— Alec Sharp

That is, you should endeavor to tell objects what you want them to do; do not ask them questions about their state, make a decision, and then tell them what to do.

The problem is that, as the caller, you should not be making decisions based on the state of the called object that result in you then changing the state of the object. The logic you are implementing is probably the called object’s responsibility, not yours. For you to make decisions outside the object violates its encapsulation.

Source: http://www.pragprog.com/articles/tell-dont-ask

2009-02-23T06:01:00.001+01:00

Application Layer [Service Layer]: Defines the jobs the software is supposed to do and directs the expressive domain objects to work out problems. The tasks this layer is responsible for are meaningful to the business or necessary for interaction with the application layers of other systems. This layer is kept thin. It does not contain business rules or knowledge, but only coordinates tasks and delegates work to collaborations of domain objects in the next layer down. It does not have state reflecting the business situation, but it can have state that reflects the progress of a task for the user or the program.

Domain Layer (Model Layer): Responsible for representing concepts of the business, information about the business situation, and business rules. State that reflects the business situation is controlled and used here, even though the technical details of storing it are delegated to the infrastructure. This layer is the heart of business software.

From Eric Evans' Doman Driven Design, via Fowler's Anemic Domain Model

Law of Demeter: Only talk to your immediate friends

2009-02-23T05:40:00.010+01:00

dog.Body.Tail.Wag();

should really be:

dog.ExpressHappiness();

..and let the implementation of the dog decide what this means.

Source: Mock Roles, not Objects

Peter Van Rooijen posted the following description of the Law Of Demeter to Usenet:

You can play with yourself.
You can play with your own toys (but you can't take them apart),
You can play with toys that were given to you.
And you can play with toys you've made yourself.

Wikipedia:

The Law of Demeter (LoD), or Principle of Least Knowledge, is a design guideline for developing software, particularly object-oriented programs. The guideline was invented at Northeastern University towards the end of 1987, and can be succinctly summarized as “Only talk to your immediate friends.” The fundamental notion is that a given object should assume as little as possible about the structure or properties of anything else (including its subcomponents).

C2 Wiki:

The LawOfDemeter makes UnitTests easier.

Source

Miško Hevery:

Most applications tend to have some sort of Context object which is the kitchen sink and which can get you just about any other object in the system aka the service locator. [-] Writing tests for such code base sucks!

[....]

Always ask for things
-Abandon the new operator in 99% of your domain classes
-Move object creation to factories (or a DI container)

Haacked: TDD and Dependency Injection with ASP.NET MVC

2009-02-23T05:08:00.001+01:00

Great article on TDD, DI and MVC by Phil Haack:

Read article

Resharper Keyboard Shortcuts

2009-02-23T03:18:00.003+01:00

When watching the "Become a Resharper Samurai" screencast series from DimeCasts, I learned some useful Resharper shortcuts that I wasn't aware of. Using more Resharper features will make my day-to-day coding a lot more productive, so I'll really try to get to the point were I don't have to think - just use them, like using TOUCH.

General:

Alt + Enter: Show available Resharper actions if resharper icon is present on line

Ctrl + P: Show parameter information

Refactoring:

Alt + Ins: Show generate menu

Ctrl + Shift + R: Refactor menu

F2: Refactor rename

Move interface to another file: Cursor in interace line => Alt + Enter to show menu

Method parameter to auto property: Cursor on param => Alt + Enter to show menu

Extract class from paramters Cursor in signature => Alt + Enter to show menu

Navigation:

Ctrl + Shift + N: Find file

Ctrl + N: Find type

Ctrl + F12: Find member

Ctrl + B: Go to definition

Ctrl + Alt + B: Find classes implementing an interface

Alt + F7: Find usages

Ctrl + Alt + F7: Find usages but show in Resharper popup list

Alt + Up: Jump to next method

Alt + down: Jump to next method

DotNetShoutout.com - Screencasts

2009-02-22T19:09:00.002+01:00

I've already written about Kigg and DotNetShoutout.com in another blog article.

DotNetShoutout has a really nice collection of screencasts, have a look!

Kigg - DotNetShoutout.com

2009-02-22T18:50:00.003+01:00

DotNetShoutout is a Digg clone for programming topics, created by a group of developers from Bangladesh. This site is built on Kigg, an open source web application hosted by CodePlex.

Kigg is using the ASP.NET MVC Framework, and the author Kazi Manzur Rashid gives a really great walkthrough of the app in this article at DotNetSlackers.com . Learn how to use LINQ to SQL, MVC routing and unit testing

Direct link to sample code: Kigg.zip

How to find a great presentation

2009-02-21T21:42:00.003+01:00

Not all presentations are great. But if they are, people tend to tell - in comments. And fortunately, most sites allow comments -- and fortunately, a lot of people tend to use the phrase "great presentation" if they think a presentation was just great.

I realized this when I read a comment about a really great presentation from Mr Jason on MVC. So I tested some Google searches, and the SERPs were ... great. Here are some examples of queries to use:

"great presentation" mvc

"great presentation" tdd

"great presentation" ioc

"great presentation" "visual studio"

"great presentation" "sql server"

"great presentation" mocking

You get the picture. Add the keyword(s) representing what you're looking for, and hopefully you'll find stuff much better than your college programming class courses.

DimeCasts.net

2009-02-21T15:12:00.002+01:00

Huge collection of videos, covering unit testing, mocking, Linq, NHibernate and serveral other aspects of software development:

http://www.dimecasts.net/

Microsoft Patterns & Practices: "Application Architecture Guide 2.0" (Book)

2009-02-19T04:55:00.002+01:00

Download PDF version or read the book online:

http://www.codeplex.com/AppArchGuide

Sql Server Reporting Videos

2009-02-18T20:09:00.001+01:00

Sql Server Reporting Videos

StackOverflow: Unit testing videos and podcasts

2009-02-18T18:42:00.001+01:00

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/387326/unit-testing-videos-or-pod-casts

Google Clean Code Talks

2009-02-18T18:40:00.001+01:00

Unit testing etc:

YouTube playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BDAB2BA83BB6588E

Hanselman: What Great .NET Developers Ought To Know

2009-02-18T06:11:00.002+01:00

Everyone who writes code

Answers: http://sendhil.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!30862CF919BD131A!575.entry

* Describe the difference between a Thread and a Process?

* What is a Windows Service and how does its lifecycle differ from
a "standard" EXE?

* What is the maximum amount of memory any single process on Windows
can address? Is this different than the maximum virtual memory for the
system? How would this affect a system design?

* What is the difference between an EXE and a DLL?

* What is strong-typing versus weak-typing? Which is preferred? Why?

* Corillian's product is a "Component Container." Name at
least 3 component containers that ship now with the Windows Server Family.

* What is a PID? How is it useful when troubleshooting a system?

* How many processes can listen on a single TCP/IP port?

* What is the GAC? What problem does it solve?

Mid-Level .NET Developer

Answers: http://sendhil.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!30862CF919BD131A!579.entry

* Describe the difference between Interface-oriented, Object-oriented
and Aspect-oriented programming.

* Describe what an Interface is and how it's different from a Class.

* What is Reflection?

* What is the difference between XML Web Services using ASMX and .NET
Remoting using SOAP?

* Are the type system represented by XmlSchema and the CLS isomorphic?

* Conceptually, what is the difference between early-binding and late-binding?

* Is using Assembly.Load a static reference or dynamic reference?

* When would using Assembly.LoadFrom or Assembly.LoadFile be appropriate?

* What is an Asssembly Qualified Name? Is it a filename? How is it
different?

* Is this valid? Assembly.Load("foo.dll");

* How is a strongly-named assembly different from one that isn't strongly-named?

* Can DateTimes be null?

* What is the JIT? What is NGEN? What are limitations and benefits
of each?

* How does the generational garbage collector in the .NET CLR manage
object lifetime? What is non-deterministic finalization?

* What is the difference between Finalize() and Dispose()?

* How is the using() pattern useful? What is IDisposable? How does
it support deterministic finalization?

* What does this useful command line do? tasklist /m "mscor*"

* What is the difference between in-proc and out-of-proc?

* What technology enables out-of-proc communication in .NET?

* When you're running a component within ASP.NET, what process is it running within on Windows
XP? Windows 2000? Windows 2003?

Senior Developers/Architects

Answers: http://sendhil.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!30862CF919BD131A!583.entry

* What's wrong with a line like this? DateTime.Parse(myString);

* What are PDBs? Where must they be located for debugging to work?

* What is cyclomatic complexity and why is it important?

* Write a standard lock() plus "double check" to create a
critical section around a variable access.

* What is FullTrust? Do GAC'ed assemblies have FullTrust?

* What benefit does your code receive if you decorate it with attributes
demanding specific Security permissions?

* What does this do? gacutil /l | find /i "Corillian"

* What does this do? sn -t foo.dll

* What ports must be open for DCOM over a firewall? What is the purpose
of Port 135?

* Contrast OOP and SOA. What are tenets of each?

* How does the XmlSerializer work? What ACL permissions does a process
using it require?

* Why is catch(Exception) almost always a bad idea?

* What is the difference between Debug.Write and Trace.Write? When
should each be used?

* What is the difference between a Debug and Release build? Is there
a significant speed difference? Why or why not?

* Does JITting occur per-assembly or per-method? How does this affect
the working set?

* Contrast the use of an abstract base class against an interface?

* What is the difference between a.Equals(b) and a == b?

* In the context of a comparison, what is object identity versus object
equivalence?

* How would one do a deep copy in .NET?

* Explain current thinking around IClonable.

* What is boxing?

* Is string a value type or a reference type?

* What is the significance of the "PropertySpecified" pattern
used by the XmlSerializer? What problem does it attempt to solve?

* Why are out parameters a bad idea in .NET? Are they?

* Can attributes be placed on specific parameters to a method? Why
is this useful?

C# Component Developers

Answers: http://sendhil.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!30862CF919BD131A!585.entry

* Juxtapose the use of override with new. What is shadowing?

* Explain the use of virtual, sealed, override, and abstract.

* Explain the importance and use of each component of this string:
Foo.Bar, Version=2.0.205.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=593777ae2d274679d

* Explain the differences between public, protected, private and internal.

* What benefit do you get from using a Primary Interop Assembly (PIA)?

* By what mechanism does NUnit know what methods to test?

* What is the difference between: catch(Exception e){throw e;} and
catch(Exception e){throw;}

* What is the difference between typeof(foo) and myFoo.GetType()?

* Explain what's happening in the first constructor: public class c{
public c(string a) : this() {;}; public c() {;} } How is this construct
useful?

* What is this? Can this be used within a static method?

ASP.NET (UI) Developers

* Describe how a browser-based Form POST becomes a Server-Side event
like Button1_OnClick.

* What is a PostBack?

* What is ViewState? How is it encoded? Is it encrypted? Who uses ViewState?

* What is the <machinekey> element and what two ASP.NET technologies is it used for?

* What three Session State providers are available in ASP.NET 1.1? What are the pros and cons of each?

* What is Web Gardening? How would using it affect a design?

* Given one ASP.NET application, how many application objects does
it have on a single proc box? A dual? A dual with Web Gardening enabled?
How would this affect a design?

* Are threads reused in ASP.NET between reqeusts? Does every HttpRequest get
its own thread? Should you use Thread Local storage with ASP.NET?

* Is the [ThreadStatic] attribute useful in ASP.NET? Are there side effects? Good or bad?

* Give an example of how using an HttpHandler could simplify an existing
design that serves Check Images from an .aspx page.

* What kinds of events can an HttpModule subscribe to? What influence
can they have on an implementation? What can be done without recompiling
the ASP.NET Application?

* Describe ways to present an arbitrary endpoint (URL) and route requests
to that endpoint to ASP.NET.

* Explain how cookies work. Give an example of Cookie abuse.

* Explain the importance of HttpRequest.ValidateInput()?

* What kind of data is passed via HTTP Headers?

* Juxtapose the HTTP verbs GET and POST. What is HEAD?

* Name and describe at least a half dozen HTTP Status Codes and what
they express to the requesting client.

* How does if-not-modified-since work? How can it be programmatically
implemented with ASP.NET?

Explain <@OutputCache%> and the usage of VaryByParam, VaryByHeader.

* How does VaryByCustom work?

* How would one implement ASP.NET HTML output caching, caching outgoing versions
of pages generated via all values of q= except where q=5 (as in http://localhost/page.aspx?q=5)?

Source:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/WhatGreatNETDevelopersOughtToKnowMoreNETInterviewQuestions.aspx

Video: Visual Studio Tips

2009-02-15T18:39:00.001+01:00

Video versions of Sara Ford's 382 Visual Studio Tips:

http://scottcate.com/tricks/

MEF - Managed Extensibility Framework

2009-02-15T15:05:00.000+01:00

Video: http://www.dnrtv.com/default.aspx?showNum=130 (DNR TV)

Ultimate .NET development tools

2009-02-15T00:36:00.001+01:00

http://dotnet.org.za/cjlotz/archive/2006/12/15/Ultimate-.NET-development-tools.aspx

SSW: Rules and standards

2009-02-14T23:35:00.001+01:00

This is a great guide to follow when doing software (and specifically .NET) development. Very useful stuff!

Scott Guthrie

http://www.ssw.com.au/ssw/Standards/

Using AOP to Implement Functional Requirements

2009-02-14T21:47:00.001+01:00

Using AOP to Implement Functional Requirements - Closing Dirty Forms

http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/dirty.asp

Inversion of Control - Dependency Inversion Principle - Castle's Windsor/MicroKernel

2009-02-14T21:46:00.000+01:00

First, is the Dependency-Inversion Principle. Rather than the application being dependent on the blog services and the blog services dependent on the database, we have inverted the relationship. The details are no longer in control of the application. The database is dependent on the blog services and the blog services is dependent on the application, allowing us to plug-in various databases and blog services at will without touching the application.

http://codebetter.com/blogs/david.hayden/archive/2006/10/13/Inversion-of-Control-_2D00_-Dependency-Inversion-Principle-_2D00_-Castle_2700_s-Windsor_2F00_MicroKernel.aspx

Designing Data Tier Components and Passing Data Through Tiers

2009-02-14T21:22:00.001+01:00

Building Distributed Applications - Designing Data Tier Components and Passing Data Through Tiers

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms978496.aspx

CSS Dock Menu

2009-02-14T21:15:00.002+01:00

Pretty cool Mac-ish dock menu, made with JS and CSS.

http://www.ndesign-studio.com/blog/mac/css-dock-menu

SearchMe: A Visual Search Engine

2009-02-14T19:46:00.004+01:00

http://www.searchme.com

Scrum resources

2009-02-14T19:33:00.001+01:00

Nice English site:
http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/scrum

YouTube videos:
http://www.google.no/search?q=site%3Ayoutube.com+scrum

H. Kniberg Video (the swedish guy):
http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Fail-Scrum-Henrik-Kniberg

Nice Norwegian site:
http://www.coretrek.no/scrum-i-et-noetteskall/category642.html

Jeremy's First Law of Continuous Integration

2009-02-14T19:31:00.001+01:00

If you check in very often and/or first, you can make merge conflicts be someone else's problem

Source: http://codebetter.com/blogs/jeremy.miller/archive/2008/09/22/jeremy-s-first-law-of-continuous-integration.aspx

Visual Studio Tips

2009-02-14T19:16:00.003+01:00

Always code in full screen - use F11

Transpose word / character: ctrl + t

Transpose paragraph: Alt shift + t

Copy line: ctrl + c (no selection necessary)

Cut line: ctrl + x (i no selection necessary)

Intellisense: Ctrl + J

Intellisense parameter: ctrl + shitf + space

Rectangular selection: alt + drag

View code: F7

View deisgner: shift F7

Split to see different parts of same code file: Use splitter widget top right)

Drag file to code to show full path

Full screen: ctrl + shitf + enter

Class view: ctrl + shift + c

Macro for MVC solution

#error Not correct logic here <== compile error

#warning Code sucks <== compile warning

AJAX Videos

2009-02-14T18:30:00.001+01:00

Another extremely nice collection of videos from Microsoft. More than 70 video tutorials on AJAX.

http://www.asp.net/LEARN/videos/

Asp.NET Videos

2009-02-14T18:24:00.001+01:00

Extremely nice collection of videos from Microsoft. Hours of tutorials.

http://www.asp.net/LEARN/videos/

Quotes from real-life Dilbert-type managers

2009-02-12T21:59:00.001+01:00

A magazine recently ran a "Dilbert Quotes" contest. They were looking for people to submit quotes from their real-life Dilbert-type managers. These were voted the top ten quotes from the Dilbert’s we work for in corporate America , circa 2004:

"As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday, and employees will receive their cards in two weeks." (This was the winning quote from Fred Dales, Microsoft Corp. in Redmond WA)
"What I need is an exact list of specific unknown problems we might encounter." (Lykes Lines Shipping)
" E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business." (Accounting manager, Electric Boat Company)
" This project is so important we can't let things that are more important interfere with it." (Advertising/Marketing manager, United Parcel Service)
" Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule." (Plant Manager, Delco Corporation) [Perhaps that's why they're in bankruptcy.]
" No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it for months. Now go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them." (R&D supervisor, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing/3M Corp.)
Quote from the Boss: "Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say." (Marketing executive, Citrix Corporation)
My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When I told my Boss, he said she died on purpose so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we could change her burial to Friday. He said, "That would be better for me." (Shipping executive, FTD Florists)
"We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees." (Switching supervisor, AT&T Long Lines Division)
One day my Boss asked me to submit a status report to him concerning a project I was working on. I asked him if tomorrow would be soon enough. He said, "If I wanted it tomorrow, I would have waited until tomorrow to ask for it!" (Hallmark Cards Executive)

ElegantCode Codecasts

2009-02-12T08:17:00.002+01:00

http://elegantcode.com/category/codecast/

Erich Gamma on Design Patterns and more

2009-02-12T08:11:00.001+01:00

Video: Erich Gamma Discusses Jazz, Eclipse, JUnit and Design Patterns

Joshua Bloch on API Design

2009-02-12T08:01:00.003+01:00

Video: How To Design A Good API and Why it Matters

By Joshua Bloch, Principal Software Engineer @ Google

Guidelines for Test-Driven Development

2009-02-12T07:49:00.002+01:00

Benefits of Test-Driven Development

The suite of unit tests provides constant feedback that each component is still working.
The unit tests act as documentation that cannot go out-of-date, unlike separate documentation, which can and frequently does.
When the test passes and the production code is refactored to remove duplication, it is clear that the code is finished, and the developer can move on to a new test.
Test-driven development forces critical analysis and design because the developer cannot create the production code without truly understanding what the desired result should be and how to test it.
The software tends to be better designed, that is, loosely coupled and easily maintainable, because the developer is free to make design decisions and refactor at any time with confidence that the software is still working. This confidence is gained by running the tests. The need for a design pattern may emerge, and the code can be changed at that time.
The test suite acts as a regression safety net on bugs: If a bug is found, the developer should create a test to reveal the bug and then modify the production code so that the bug goes away and all other tests still pass. On each successive test run, all previous bug fixes are verified.
Reduced debugging time!

Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa730844.aspx

Dotnetslackers - Castle Windsor IoC / DI Tutorial

2009-02-12T07:10:00.002+01:00

Simple explaination of refactoring to IoC/DI, and how to use Castle Windsor Container:

Inversion of Control and Dependency Injection with Castle Windsor Container - Part I

Eric Evans - DDD Videos

2009-02-12T07:03:00.003+01:00

Eric Evans on Domain Driven Design

Presentation by Eric Evans: Making Models Work First part

Presentation by Eric Evans: Strategic Design Second part

StartupSchool 08 Videos

2009-02-12T06:59:00.001+01:00

http://www.omnisio.com/startupschool08/

Best Tech Videos

2009-02-12T04:53:00.002+01:00

http://www.bestechvideos.com

Pragmatic Programmer on DDD

2009-02-11T16:54:00.001+01:00

Program Close to the Problem Domain
Design and code in your user’s language.

Pragmatic Programmer on DRY

2009-02-11T16:51:00.000+01:00

Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system.

Steve Eichert on DDD: Factories and repositories

2009-02-11T02:32:00.002+01:00

By separating the responsibilities of data retrieval into our Repositories, and object creation into our Factories we allow our domain objects to stay focused on representing the domain. We also allow our applications to become more de-coupled which allows us to more easily test our applications.

Eric Evans on DDD

2009-02-11T02:28:00.004+01:00

Now I am focused on making sure my consulting clients get their money's worth from their software development efforts by focusing on their core domain, effectively expressing that model in their software [-]

A software project should be a voyage of discovery that a team of software experts, domain experts and business strategists all take together. A team like that can collaborate to chart a course to a very valuable destination that is not entirely known at the outset.

Billy McCafferty on DI (CodeProject)

2009-02-11T00:40:00.001+01:00

Billy McCafferty:

"Dependency Injection" (DI), also more cryptically known as "Inversion of Control" (IoC), can be used as a technique for encouraging this loose coupling. There are two primary approaches to implementing DI: constructor injection and setter injection. Obviously, at some point, something must be responsible for creating the concrete objects that will be injected into another object. The injector can be a parent object, which I'll call the "DI controller", or can be externalized and handled by a "DI container" framework. What follows is a brief overview of the various approaches for using dependency injection techniques.

Source: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/architecture/DependencyInjection.aspx

Manning.com / Dhanji R. Prasanna on DI

2009-02-11T00:38:00.003+01:00

Dhanji R. Prasanna

In a traditional object-oriented application, a primary program controls secondary pieces of code, such as classes in a module, library, or framework. Dependency Injection (DI) is a technique that inverts this control, using an external mechanism to insert—or inject—a reference to an implementation of a service into an object. This allows you to build complex OO applications in a more testable, maintainable, and business-focused manner.

Source: http://www.manning.com/prasanna/

Dhananjay Nene on DI

2009-02-11T00:37:00.000+01:00

TheServerSide.com / Dhananjay Nene:

A Beginner's guide to Dependency Injection

Wikipedia on DI

2009-02-11T00:36:00.000+01:00

Dependency Injection (DI) in computer programming refers to the process of supplying an external dependency to a software component. It is a specific form of inversion of control where the concern being inverted is the process of obtaining the needed dependency.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_injection

Griffin Caprio on DI

2009-02-11T00:34:00.002+01:00

..to inject objects into a class, rather than relying on the class to create the object itself.

Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163739.aspx