dasBlog/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx">dasBlog 2.3 was released last Monday March 16, 2009. It's a minor release that fixes a few bugs in the code base. Congrats dasBlog team for this release.
Below is the list of changes for this release:
New version of dotNetOpenId
Small bug fixes
Several small JavaScript errors
Captcha now works more reliably
Better Time handling in timeline
New 32/64 bit version of the Basic DatePicker
Centralized handling of binary files to a BinaryDataService
On a side note, I've been thinking for the past few months now about updating my site theme. I think I've been using this theme for the past 2 years and it's starting to look bland. I think this new release of dasBlog will give me the chance to upgrade my site theme. I don't know how it's gonna look yet but i'm sure its going to be better than what it is today (Hopefully!). ;)
I saw this on the ASP.NET MVC download page and it seems like it was released yesterday.
I haven't seen any official announcement anywhere yet but I expect to hear something coming out of the MIX09 event regarding ASP.NET MVC 1.0 RTM. I was able to confirm with Ben Scheirman via twitter that it's RTMed. I don't know where he got the news but judging by the screenshot above it looks like its true.
In case you are interested in learning about ASP.NET MVC, Microsoft has released an application called NerdDinner.com which is a event management website that enables users to register for "geek dinners". I believe that application was built using ASP.NET MVC 1.0 RC2 but it should be compatible with the RTM version (I haven't compiled it with the latest version yet). It's a really nice sample application that shows you how to build an application using ASP.NET MVC. Whats neat about NerdDinner.com is that it part of the book that Scott, Scott, Phil & Rob are writing and they have been kind enough to let as peek at their upcoming book by giving a free chapter that details how they built the NerdDinner.com website step-by-step using ASP.NET MVC.
Wow, I'm really stoked! This is going to be a fun day! Thanks MS!
I just saw this twitter...
Sweeeeet!
Time to start polishing my ASP.NET MVC skills. I've played with ASP.NET MVC before but never had the chance to use it other than building small samples. I might be rusty but I know I'll have a great companion book in learning ASP.NET MVC 1.0 once Rob, Scott, Scott and Phil's upcoming book comes out.
Speaking of free books... Below are the list of free ebooks that I recommend reading/downloading for this month. I personally love Karl Seguin's book and giving it 5 out 5 stars is actually an understatement if you ask me. :)
Karl Seguin's Foundation Of Programming: Building Better Software rocks so much I recommended it to everyone I know. This 79 page book is pack with a hearty bowl of software development knowledge that would teach you about the principles of development that you should have known way before you started coding that nightmarish system.
Red Gate's Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plan is a must read for anyone who deals with data on a daily basis. It talks about how to optimize your querries and understand whats causing your querries to sleep on you while being executed.
InfoQ's Domain Driven Design Quickly is a quickly-readable summary and introduction to the fundamentals of DDD that tries to summarizes Eric Evans' book as well as Jimmy Nilsson's Applying Domain Driven Design and various other sources. The book gives you hints and tips about DDD as well as ideas on how to start DDD in your own projects.
Minh T. Nguyen's Visual Studio.NET Tips & Tricks is a must read for all developers who use Visual Studio. Enuff said!
So what are you waiting for? Download and read 'em now!
Microsoft Philippines is conducting an event for developers called "Defy All Challenges: The .NET Developer Roadshow" on March 26, 2008 at SM Megamall Cinema 4, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. I think this is going to be a great event! I've already talked to few developers and they are definetely excited although some raise concerns about the cost of the event (P500).
Paolo Tioseco, a Technology Specialist for Microsoft Philippines asked me to post the event details at DevPinoy.org and I've decided to create my own banner based on their original poster.
Oh! and I have a small one too!
Tech is fun!
Yup! Me and my wife are coming to the VS 2008 Kickoff event in Los Angeles today. Wohoo! This is the first time we'll see Bill Gates live in person and we are excited about it.
Wohoo!
I'll post some pictures here tommorow to show you guys what transpired at the Nokia Theatre and Los Angeles Convention Center.
See yah at the event!
Woohoo! That was a great Code Camp. Thanks to Woody and the gang for making this event happen. It was a fun and knowledge-filled event. I even got swags (a few books, a shirt, a small bag and a gym cup from Avanade)...
Me and my wife will be at the Code Camp in Fullerton tommorow and we are excited. Code Camp is a great time to get together, learn new things about technology and network with people with the same mindset about technology and that is passion for learning and enriching knowledged. We are driving tonight to Fullerton so that we can be early tommorow.
There are already a few sessions that I am eyeing to go to. One of them is the session of John Bowen regarding WPF DataBinding and WPF controls. I met John Bowen 3 years ago in the .NET Rocks roadshow bus. I think this session is going to be awesome. I've been playing with alot of WPF lately and I'm interested in seeing and learning cool things about this technology.
Another session I'd love to see is the topic "Branching and Merging Guidance for VSTS 2008 and Team Foundation Server" presented by Mickey Williams. I haven't done anything with VSTS before but I know its going to be a great primer for me because merging and branching is one of the things that happens alot when you are in a team development environment.
Oh boy! This is going to be a great Code Camp. Time to go home and get ready for this event. See you there!
Have you ever thought about doing a Celebrity Deathmatch for developers? Well CodeSqueeze has just started one and in its first edition they have put two of the most popular .NET bloggers face-to-face. Scott "The Man" Hanselman vs. Phil "You will get" Haack.
Scott Hansleman has been on the forefront of technology and blogging for many years. Before recently joining Microsoft, Scott is most famous for his blog Computer Zen, where he releases famed “Ultimate Tool” lists, and primary driving force behind the Das Blog project. His recent adventure is trying his hand at podcasting which can be found at Hanselminutes.
Phil Haack is most known for his blog Haacked. Rarely off-topic, he flexes his mature .NET development skills with in-depth examples and anecdotes. By day, he is a Sr. Program Manager at Microsoft - by night, he is the lead of Subtext an open source blog engine.
Checkout the blow by blow breakdown and see who is the winner of the first ever Celebrity Deathmatch for developers ;)
Wow, NBA.com is now joining the silverlight bandwagon.
NEW YORK — Dec. 10, 2007 — The National Basketball Association (NBA) will employ Microsoft Silverlight on NBA.com to further enhance the online video experience for NBA fans around the world. Microsoft Silverlight, a cross-browser, multiplatform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web, will also be utilized on WNBA.com and NBADevelopmentLeague.com.
NBA.com will feature a full-screen NBA photo gallery, offer video highlights and deliver additional interactive applications throughout the site using Microsoft Silverlight. Through the use of Microsoft Corp.’s new application, the NBA will be able to provide further access to its extensive digital video library, integrate the video experience seamlessly into the site, and ultimately provide fans with access to more online video features.
Read the full article here...
I'm a big NBA fan and i frequently visit the site (atleast 4 times a day). Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the world and this partnership I think would greatly boost the adoption of Silverlight in the mainstream.
One more reason why i should kick my gears up another notch with silverlight.
A few days ago in Twitterland, Tim Heuer had a contest. He said that whoever twitts him first would get a Microsoft Vista and Ofiice 2007 Ultimate... I quickly sent him a twit but sadly me efforts fell short. My friend Jon Galloway beat me by a second and he officially won... Jon feeling the pain of my defeat sent me a message saying that I can have the prize because he already have an MSDN subscription. Sweet!
Oh boy! That made my day!
Just today I got an email from Tim telling me that he already sent me the package and my eyes got big because it has some extras include in it.
"package en route: DHL Tracking #248211XXXXX Sent 12/07/07 to Keith Rull
includes: Vista Ultimate, Office Ultimate, Expression Studio and VS2008 Pro as well as some stickers."
Wooohoooh! That's what I call Microsoft Lovin'! Thanks Tim and Jon! Now my Christmas list is almost complete... hmmm.. I wonder who's going to give me a Zune and an XBOX. :)
Now, onwards to SilverLight!
*update* [20071211]: I got the package from Tim yesterday :) Awesome! Now I don't have any excuse to neglect WPF. Thanks Tim!
...and it has pure Ruby goodness tied into it! I think I'm going to wash my .NET hands today with Neatbens SOAp enhancements. Congratulations to the great folks from NetBeans! You definetely nailed it this time.
From their official press release:
The focus of NetBeans IDE 6.0 is superior developer productivity with a smarter, faster editor, and the integration of all NetBeans products into one IDE. NetBeans IDE 6.0 features Ruby/JRuby/Ruby on Rails support, enhancements for improved Swing development, a new Visual Game Designer, updated Data Binding support, integrated Profiling, and more. The new installer lets you customize your download preferences--use it to choose the features and runtimes you need.
Highlights of NetBeans IDE 6.0 are:
Java
* Swing GUI Builder
* Intelligent Editor
* Profiler
* Debugger
* Updated Platform APIs
C/C++
* C/C++ Projects and Templates
* Source Code Editor
* Multiple Configurations
* Class Hierarchy Browser
* File Navigation
Ruby
* Ruby on Rails Support
* JRuby Runtime
* Code Completion
* Debugger
* Refactoring
Mobility
* Game Builder
* Device Fragmentation
* SVG Graphics
* Web Services
* Handheld Device / Set Top Box
Web & Java EE
* Visual JSF Design
* Enhanced JavaScript
* AJAX Enabled Components
* CSS Editor
* Web Services & SOA
SOA
* XML Schema Editor, XSLT Designer
* WSDL Designer
* BPEL Designer
* Service Assembly Editor
* Deploy to JBI compliant runtime
Awesome! Really awesome! I've been using Netbeans on the side(due to my obedience with .NET) and it has been a great experience for me. I have used Java IDEs in the past(Visual Cafe 4 anyone?) and i must say that Netbeans has come along way since the days of old when Eclipse elitist call Netbeans a "a tool for non-serious java developers". I think this release has proven that NetBeans is valid alternative against the big boys(Eclipse & IntelliJ among others).
Now, onwards to a cup of Java. ;)
I was working on a report today when I opened my Excel 2007 and this is all i got:
To my surprise there was no toolbar. No menu. No spreadsheet tab. Nothing. All i got was a window with the manification option showing on top of the form. I right-clicked on the bar and this is what i got:
What in the world happened? This was working fine a few days ago! Arrrgh! :( Good thing there is Google Spreadsheet handy!
I'm still a big fan of VB.NET even if I haven't touched a single VB.NET code in a year and one the biggest VB.NET fanboy I know has just started a website all about the good things you can do with VB.NET. Chris Williams (VB.NET MVP) has just started a website called ILoveVB.NET. The idea is to build a community that would champion the cause of VB.NET(which is to make the world known that VB.NET is a first class programming language and not a code kiddies toy anymore).
Here's the official message from Chris Williams:
This is the place where we show off all the amazingly cool stuff you can do with VB.NET.
If you're passionate about VB.NET, or you have an interesting project or maybe you're providing community support to a technology that doesn't currently have language parity, then you've come to the right place. We will gladly host your project and blog(s).
If you're looking for answers, you may find them here as well. If you're tired of looking everywhere for code samples and only finding C#, keep checking back here. We're making contact with the product teams and working towards getting the samples and SDKs you want.
Once again, thank you for stopping by. If you need anything, feel free to ask.
Chris Williams
Man, I bet you Paul, Carl, Bill and the VB.NET MVPs are going to be excited about this!
I've just finished downloading Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 bits last night and I think I'm about ready to install it on my VPC (yup, I don't want to install it yet on my real machine.). I'm really excited about this new release since it looks really really promising. I've seen blogs giving it high praise and some not giving it a nod of acceptance(a few I should say) but for me it's the best Visual Studio to come out yet. I've been playing with the beta version since last year and really happy with this new release from the VS Team.
I know there are several things to consider before you install this version and I'm really glad that Jon made this list to keep as sane when installing/upgrading to Visual studio 2008. Great job Jon!
Now I'm ready to rock!
Sounds like Woody, Lynn, Jason, Tim, Anand, Rob, Mithun and JD are going to hit the road with there Microsoft Truck this 2008.
What's a Code Trip? Think of it like Cannonball Run. Only slower, and geekier. We sat around on a campfire burning copies of Microsoft Bob a while back and decided we needed to hit the streets. We want to get out to developers and hear some stories and have some fun (JD wants to blow stuff up, so we're trying to work that in). Really, it is going to be what you tell us it is. One RV, bunch of geeks, lots o' code. Join the trip!
This is going to be awesome. I go to MS conferences alot and have met a couple of MS Developer Evangelist in the past (specially those who are in the SoCal area) and I think it's a great time for me to meet the other MS Developer Evangelist who cover the west coast.
Hey Woody! Can you reserve me one of those XBOX 360 :D I think that would look great in our living room :P Just kidding.
I just saw this because Jojo Paderes had his status in GTalk pointing to this link.
According to Mercer, the Philippines is still one of the cheapest IT outsourcing destination in the world. The figures states that as of 2007 IT Managers in Manila only earn $22,280/year on an averaged ranking third compared to Switzerland, the highest paying country which has their IT managers average a whooping $140,960/year[link].
|
Figure 1* |
| IT Manager: 10 top-paying countries (various currencies) |
| |
|
Local |
USD |
EUR |
GBP |
| 1 |
Switzerland |
176,920 |
140,960 |
110,990 |
74,150 |
| 2 |
Denmark |
722,310 |
123,080 |
96,890 |
64,750 |
| 3 |
Belgium |
95,380 |
121,170 |
95,380 |
63,760 |
| 4 |
UK |
62,180 |
118,190 |
93,090 |
62,180 |
| 5 |
Ireland |
85,200 |
108,230 |
85,200 |
56,950 |
| 6 |
US |
107,500 |
107,500 |
84,650 |
56,550 |
| 7 |
Germany |
84,020 |
106,730 |
84,020 |
56,160 |
| 8 |
Canada |
106,000 |
93,860 |
73,870 |
49,370 |
| 9 |
Hong Kong (China) |
702,720 |
90,340 |
71,120 |
47,530 |
| 10 |
Australia |
115,480 |
88,850 |
69,950 |
46,740 | |
| Figure 2* |
|
| IT Manager: 10 lowest-paying countries (various currencies) |
|
|
Local |
USD |
EUR |
GBP |
| 1 |
Vietnam |
15,470 |
15,470 |
12,180 |
8,140 |
| 2 |
Bulgaria |
34,25o |
22,240 |
17,510 |
11,700 |
| 3 |
Philippines |
1,106,700 |
22,280 |
17,540 |
11,720 |
| 4 |
India |
1,120,490 |
25,000 |
19,680 |
13,150 |
| 5 |
Indonesia |
289,155,000 |
31,720 |
24,970 |
16,690 |
| 6 |
China (Shanghai) |
265,810 |
33,770 |
26,580 |
17,770 |
| 7 |
Malaysia |
129,930 |
35,260 |
28,040 |
18,740 |
| 8 |
Czech Republic |
791,430 |
35,880 |
28,250 |
18,880 |
| 9 |
China (Beijing) |
285,130 |
36,220 |
28,520 |
19,060 |
| 10 |
Argentina |
133,040 |
43,180 |
33,990 |
22,720 | |
| Figure 3* |
Figure 4* |
| IT Manager: 5 highest paying positions in Asia |
| |
|
Local |
USD |
| 1 |
Hong Kong |
1 702,723.00 |
90,344.03 |
| 2 |
Australia |
2 115,483.00 |
88,846.75 |
| 3 |
Japan |
3 10,347,000.00 |
87,638.17 |
| 4 |
South Korea |
4 69,374,000.00 |
74,022.62 |
| 5 |
Singapore |
5 104,127.00 |
66,615.70 | |
| IT Manager: 5 lowest paying positions in Asia |
| |
|
Local |
USD |
| 1 |
Vietnam |
1 15,473.00 |
15,473.00 |
| 2 |
Philippines |
2 1,106,700.00 |
22,281.05 |
| 3 |
India |
3 1,120,486.00 |
24,996.90 |
| 4 |
Indonesia |
4 289,155,000.00 |
31,721.24 |
| 5 |
China - Shanghai |
5 265,814.00 |
33,768.74 | |
*Note:
-
Average total cash compensation includes base pay and annual bonus.
-
Foreign exchange conversions were made as of November 2006.
-
Source: Mercer: 2007 IT Pay around the World. |
You can treat the numbers above in different ways... either Manila is not getting the big piece of the pie because we are undervalued (considering that we are the largest english speaking nation in Asia) or... That we can attract more companies to outsource to Manila because we are talented and cheap enough to do projects for other countries which means a larger economic growth for our country.
I think the numbers above would fluctuate specially knowing that the US Dollar is currently in a slow decline and Euro starting to dominate the markets.
The Philippines has a great talent pool when it comes to IT and most of the them work hard to hone their skills even if they don't get paid that much. That's what I call responsibility and commitment to bringing ang building a world class application from a truely world class workforce.
Hayy, I hope Manila gets a bigger piece of the pie :( Till then, Mabuhay ka Filipino Developer!
"Ayayay Caramba!" Another great app from the makers of VisualSVN.
Introducing VisualSVN Server. VisualSVN Server is a packaged that contains all you need to start(and managed) your own SVN repository. Think of it as your own mini toolbox of goodies for SVN. The package comes with SubVersion, Apache and sleak lookin' management console.
And best of all, it's 100% free.
Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy! Talk about geeky goodness! In case you miss the news, VS 2008 is ready for download for MSDN subscribers. Not an MSDN subscriber? Fear not! VS Express 2008 was also shipped today!
Want to learn whats on VS2008? Check out the video tutorials here or just read what ScottGu has to say.
Jeff also mentioned that Team Suite and TFS is also available and that the 90 day trial(in case you are not an MSDN subsriber) can be downloaded from the MSDN website.
I was explaining the benefits of outsourcing projects in Manila today to someone who has a huge project.. probably between 1 year to 2 years of development amounting to atleast $50K for the initial concept. He asked me to help him find a suitable outsourcing company preferrably in Asia. I then made a push to have him look at several company's in Manila which he agreed... what i did next was show him a website of a known development company. He read everything and browsed every page on their site to get more information about them. We were having a great conversation and I think he ha already decided that he is going to contact this one company but then he decided to look at their methodologies section... there he noticed something that he didn't like about the website...
"Some comment?" What? Nice coding standard there buddy.
I mean, come on! If you are posting a code snippet to an ad atleast make sure that the code looks good and follows your motto "Code of Discipline" because to tell you frankly it makes your company look bad when you don't QA what you push to visitors even if it's just an image.
In the end, he got turned off and asked me to show him a different outsourcing company.
Sad. Sad. Sad. A missed opportunity.
James McGovern has has posted this stat on how vast the network is inside the Big House in Redmond and i'm quite amazed in their IT infrastructure:
Microsoft internal IT:
600k connected devices
10,000 Servers
3 Datacenters 1 operations center
11% is virtualized in Microsoft Datacenters
330 of 385 servers run Windows Server 2008 (RC0) plus all 85 Microsoft.com servers
11 clustered systems
30,000 users in redmond domain (50,000 with vendors)
NAP reporting 140K clients, 90 clients deferred mode
The Redmond Active Directory domain is running in Windows Server 2008 mode since last thursday (Nov 1st)
Microsoft Email:
6 million internal emails per day
20 Million emails from Internet
97% rejected as spam
99,999 uptime
Want to read more? Go to James McGovern's website and check out this crazy stat.
Hmmm... I wonder how many geeks are running the show in such a huge network. Hmm.. Do you know?
I know, i missed alot after i didn't go to MIX07. I told Jon that i'll be coming to MIX07 but something happened with my project and i was asked to tend the wounds. This time I won't let the chance to party with Miguel, Jeff, Phil and Scott pass me by!
MIX08 here I come!
My friend Mohammad Azam (Azamsharp) of GridViewGuy.com is looking for talented developers who also have extra-ordinary writing skills. He is looking for people who can contribute well-written articles to his website and in return he'll pay you $10/per article. So if you think you are up for the challenge and you have the skills and the motivation to write then send him a message at azamsharp@gmail.com.
We are currently using Gemini here for our issue tracking and we love it eversince we had it installed in our server but this joy of Gemini has not stopped us from searching a better alternative because there are things that we don't like about it(specially that cost part of the software). That lead me to scour the web to find alternatives that we might consider in the future as a viable replacement for our long trusted Gemini. to my surprise I only found 4 open source ASP.NET bug tracking solution compared to the gargantuan list that I saw for PHP. Below are the 4 applications that I found and my comment about each project.
Sounds strange but it's true. Just ask Mark Anders and he'll tell you the complete story. ;)
Anders:
"... The original prototype was written in Java. I loved Java as a language and Scott(Guthrie) did too. So it was done in Java, and we took that around to lots of different groups. The first group that we took it to was the tools team. The VB and the InterDev teams were in a feud, and when they saw our demo they liked it. They said, 'If you build that, we will target it with our tools."
New to C#? Need to know whats on C# 3.0? Then download this 500 page book coutersy of Microsoft. It's the most complete C# reference you can find and it is primarily written by the engineers of the C# language
Go download it here!
Thank you Charlie for the link!
It's true. Everybody has their own match. Their own weakness. Their own kryptonite that would hold them to their knees and trade their philosophies and senses for a chance to break free.
And for my friend who is a recognized Linux and Java guru(he founded the largest Java User Group in the Philippines) its the skimpy pants and hanging shirts.
The photo was taken on a Linux conference in Manila back in 2005. Just look at how hard Melvin held on to Microsoft. Mercy!
*Disclaimer* According to Melvin, He still preffers Linux over Windows and that all he did that day was touch Microsoft but never had the chance to use it. :P
comments? go here! >> http://devpinoy.org/blogs/keithrull/archive/2007/08/21/even-linux-gurus-have-their-match.aspx
Hmmm... I was browsing CS today when I saw an announcement about the upcoming CSDC (Community Server Developer Conference) and man was I excited! I think its about time that Telligent gets the guys together and show them the stuff that they have been baking since the announcement for CS2008. I've been running CS in the developers community that I lead for two years now and I think going to such events would help us know great things that we can do and implement at our CS install.
Gee! I'm excited.. but.. I can't go unless somebody sponsors my plane ticket and registration :P
Anybody interested? :P Scott? Alex? Rob? Anyone?
Hey guys! Please vote the DevPinoy theme as the best looking theme for Community Server. You can vote for us here. Thanks guys!
I was browsing devpinoy today when I saw a post by one of the members about his "maintenance project" boredom. While I was reading his post I kinda had this "blast from the past" moment wherein memories of how i was back when i was starting my career as developer started vividly jumping into my head. I coudn't stop laughing for a couple of minutes because I just can't believe that some of the things that I did back when I was a little bit younger.
I used to get bored easily specially if the project that I am working on is boring, not challenging, repetitive or just something that doesn't even burn a braincell to accomplish. I would get so bored that i dread the idea of even going to work.
Yup. That was me back then.
I'ts funny how far I've reached eversince that days... I was so focused on new things, new technologies, new ideas that I forgot the reason why I was hired in the first place and that is to do work and do a good job on it. I think I was so engulfed in the idea that knowledge on every aspect of technology(even if its the most useless piece of code) would give me an edge over everybody.
It was a bad choice, a bad decision but i have learned to grow from it and now here I am, smarter than the developer I used to be. I guess I grew older and started to realize that knowledge is only important if you are using it in a positive and productive way. Any experience you learn from your daily life is a preparation for you in the future.
Through the years of working I was able to formulate a strategy on how to combat boredom... it has worked for me but believe me, it takes time to master. I can't say that I have mastered it completely but i do know that it has helped me little by little to establish myself as a better, smarter and a more patient individual. Below is the list of things i do to make work a little bit more fun than usual:
-
Try to learn as much as you could about the project. It doesnt matter if its a big task or not. Whats important to me is the idea that I might learn something new about project even if its the most boring project in the world. As I always say "You never know when you will find the next gem between the rocks."
-
See maintenance projects as a way for me to imporve the code. Whenever I'm assigned to maintenance project I see to it that I leave that project in a better shape than when I first got it. I usually pad my timeline with extra hours so that I could refactor the code. I always say to myself that any code that I touch is my property even if i didn't started it. You don't want to hear somebody saying something awful about your work(even if the code is not 99% yours) and perople usually blame the first developer or the last developer who touched a project. Always leave a mark of excellence on every work you do.
-
Take it as a challenge even if you hate the project. Don't dread the project because you wont be able to make good results. One of the things I learned in my career is that managers can easily spot if you don't like what you are doing and this can sometimes lead to bad impressions about your personality. What i usually do it code my heart out until my frustration(and burdens) are gone.
-
I'm paid to code and I should do it. Let's face it, even if you don't like a task but i's your job you need to do. It's the people who clean the drainage system.. they may not like cleaning, scrubbing and removing thrash in sewer but they need to do it because it's their job. We are not paid to like our job. We are paid to do the job and do a great job. Managers expect that from us thats why they assigned us to that task because the believe that we can accomplish it and think that we have the right skills to turn bad code into magic.
-
...and finally. Smile. No matter how hard the task, No matter how boring, No matter how repetitive. Always smile. I remember someone told me before that when you smile and feel good about yourself you always end up doing great things and you make people around you feel good. Stressing yourself about a small problem takes alot of brainpower and I would rather focus my energy on building solutions than drowning myself in the sea of problem.
I hope this helps you, I know it did wonders for me and it could do the same to you too! Practice this 5 things and reap the rewards of a happier work life.
***Want to comment?*** Comments are welcome but I suggest you post them in my DevPinoy blog. ;) Click here go there now.
I know Carl's going to be there. Dustin signed up. Shawn is too. Gee! I think this is going to be fun!
But i can't come.
I wanted to go to Jeffrey Palermo's party but I had a more important engagement that I need to attend(I'm preparing for my wedding in July). I wanted to contribute something to his event so I decided to make this badge ;)
This is weird but everytime I go to a conference and somebody speaks about Web Apps they always talk about why people should use custom errors instead of throwing the Yellow Page of Death. Just this morning I went to the ASP.NET website to check on the forums and this is what was displayed on my screen:
Huh? No custom errors? Hmmm.. seems like they are breaking their own rules.
Anyway, A friend of mine had this joke exception code that slipped to their production and one of the accountants called him and was very scared because she thought she made a huge mistake.
Yikes! It was mean. Even if its a joke it is really mean. Striking fear to your users is not a good thing at all. If they had a custom error page then this would not have happened.
This reminded me of the IKEA incident I saw from D'Arcy Lussier a few days ago.
Custom errors gives the easy feeling to the users. It doesn't scare them to death and it makes them more comfortable with your system knowing that it can recover from such a fatal crash.
Oh well, I'm just glad I got this baby showing up at devpinoy ;)
I saw this news today courtesy of Migz Paraz about a 12 year-old kid who is starting his own company and I was amaze about his idea. I think its great idea and with the right UI and advertising i'm pretty sure it will go up, way up where everybody who has a "Making IT big in IT" dream would want to go. I salute you.
I always say to people who ask me advice about how to start their own company "If you can't invent, Innovate" ;) Believe me, there are alot of opportunities out there right now... If might not a new idea.. it could something that can make an existing app better and transform it into the "killer app". Just this morning i woke up with another idea.. did my research the whole day if it already exist and found out that it is still an untap market. I don't have the resource yet to start on this new endeavor but i do see myself working on it pretty soon(i have atleast 5 startup ideas brewing and 2 of them are currently in the works).
Life is like the game of chess... its an equal playing field where anybody can be a pawn all his life tied with living from paycheck to paycheck or work hard and climb to the top until he becomes the king. I don't want to be a pawn all my life that's why i'm dreaming big and I believe each and everyone of us should do the same way.
I want this dreams to happen and I want it to happen now.
Sucessful people dont dream the dreamers dream.. they make it a reality. The cool thing about it is that all of us can dream and all of us can make it a reality. With the right mindset, the drive to succeed and faith in God i think anyone can be somebody someday but it takes patience and alot of effort to accomplish your goals so be prepared to handle it.
Thanks for the inspiration Luke and God Bless to your startup. As for me, I'll go back to my machine... think... pray.. code... then believe that someday my simple idea can bring me to my promise land.
I remember seeing this last year when i was trying to put my hands wet with WPF. It's a pretty good five day course courtesy of Karsten Januszewski which you can complete just by reading and applying the things that you can find out from his set of useful links. A pretty good primer to WPF if you ask me(although i think there are sveral new articles in the past few months that i believe should be added to the list).
Learn from Karsten Januszewski here.
I've been working with alot of Ajax lately(this includes code and laundry :P) and just realized that i've been doing some unecessary code after reading this article. I think I got hooked so much with the Ajax-hoopla that I forgot that not everything should be done via Ajax.
Below is an outline of what Jack Herrington suggested.
- Polling on a timer when you don't need to
- Not inspecting the return results in the callback
- Passing complex XML when HTML would be better
- Passing XML when you should pass JavaScript code
- Doing too much on the server
Read more about this article here.
*Update: I did some research and found out that Michael Schwarz, the creator of Ajax.NET has also a great list of things to avoid in his article Top 10 Mistakes When Using Ajax. Great read.
In part 2 of our Back To The Basics Series, Keith discusses how to pass parameters to your inline SQL Statements, read a connection string from the web.config and the use of a static class for utilities. He also refactored(a little bit) our original solution to make the code more manageable.
This is the first part our series about ADO.NET which is part of our Back To The Basic Series which is a series designed to teach beginners about the benefits of ADO.NET and to show how easy it is to use the ADO.NET in a short 10 to 15 minute video using Tagalog as the medium. Our idea is to start from small demo application and build from there by adding new functionalities and refactoring the sample application on each part of the series.
On this demo you'll learn the basics of creating a connection to SQL Server, using a Universal DataLink to automatically generate your connection string to a database server, populating a DataSet using a SqlDataAdapter and assigning a DataSet to our GridView control.
>> Click here to view the video <<
Comments and suggestions are welcome! :)
Read this guys intership adventure with Microsoft, Google and Yahoo(his current job).
He also did a chart which i think would easily spellout where to go if you are looking for a place to go between the 3 giants:
I wish I had the chance to do what he did.. but hey! I had a great time at my intership too.. building Information Systems for a University.. it's not as advance at what he did but still pretty fun it you ask me :)
Hey guys! I'm here at code camp right now in CalState Fullerton and its been amazing. Kudos to the CodeCamp organizers!
Well.. i wast late abit.. so i wasnt able to listen to Woody and Michelle do their early morning speech(heheh, this is how one of the guys i met here in the camp described it). The registration was fast and really organized. I like how they have the parking directions posted everywhere because last year was a mess specially if you dont know the area(well, one can argue that if you can read parking lot signs then you wont have a problem since the SoCal codecamp website said that the parking for the event is on parking lot F).
One thing i noticed is that there is no schedule given to attendies. Last year they gave away papers containing schedules on where and when to find a specific talk. The good thing this year is that there is internet connectivity so you can check the posted schedule on the CodeCamp website which is non-existent last year.
I'll be updating this on every session i go to(hope i did this last year so that i could have warned people about not going to $%&*^* session(name encrypted to protect that persons ego) because he just reads slides and cant even give a good answer(sample response: "Uh, try searching that on the internet.. again i am just relaying to you what i have read online").
The notes below are from my scratchpad courtesy of Notepad++. This is a work in progress so dont bug me if theres typos on it. :D
9:00 - Mark Rosenberg's talk about Stored Procedure and below is the juice of his talk
[13 tips on optimizing your stored procedures]
use stored procedures instead of heavy-duty querries
include set no count to on
call using fully qualified name
if you are returning a single integer user a return statement rather than returning one value as a record set
Output value is for errors only, return value for values you want to be returned by the procedures.
SQL dot notations in 2005 helps in grouping objects in the database.
use the sp_executesql storedprocedure instead of execute
use the sp_executesql instead if temporary stored procedures
breakdown large stored procedures into smaller stored procedures
use @Table variables instead of #Table because #Table lives in tempdb and @table is created in memory.
avoid using ddl statements in your stored procedures
add with recompile option to create procedure statement if you know the query will change each time it id run
use the sql server profiler to determine which stored procedures have been recompiled to often
avoid using having clause
<< i think there are scenarios wherein a having clause is faster than a where clause.. so if you ask me i'll tell you that this suggestion is on a case to case basis.
use union all instead of union
#temp tables
dont use them
ok, sometimes bbut not often
gettingresults from stored procedure(since you cant use recompile on them)
always create the taable then fill it(helps with tempdb locking)can index (which can help performance)
dont use select into
@table variables
fster anf more efficient
not good for large datasets that would be saved to disk anyway
less table locking, logging
unfortunately no indexes, but you can have a primary key by using unique or primary key constraint.
much better during transactions
can only be used itn functions stored procedures and batches
when used in stored procedures there is less recompiling
cant apply alter table
cant use select into
dont use cursors if you can help it(use while clause instead)
filter as early in your stored procedure as possible
never select all the columns
sometimes a transaction can actually improve performance(but not often)
quote: "use print statements on querries too count performance" - i greatly disagree on this one.. i think its easier to look at it on the profiler plus adding print statements add clutter in your procedures.
10:15 - Robert Kozak's talk about Attribute Based Programming
He built a nice framework and demoed how to use the same set of classes to do different things. I love how he built his form by just mere UserControls and no code on the form itself. I agree with him when he said that seperation of concern is the way to go in builfing applications. I wasnt able to take down alot of notes because i was enamoured by the amount of cool stuff he was showcasing in his demo. i was able to take note of the third slide though.
A properly designed framework will
promote proper seperation between interface, implementation and user interface
promote lose coupling and strong cohesion
promote reusability of code(write once use everywhere)
promotes RAD of production quality code
wait theres more: automatic API for your application
1:00 - Bill Sheldon's ASP.NET Membership Customization << currently in progress
I saw this in my Inbox today coming from the PinoyJUG(Filipino Java Users Group) mailing list... It's about a case filed against a developer who have move to a new company and is currently being sued by her former employer.
Brendan Tompkins and the guys at CodeBetter.com is having a weekly book giveaway! 8 great books and 1 easy way to win.
I'll be at the So Cal .Net Tech Summit tommorow at Irvine Hilton, Irvine CA.
Pete Stevens has a bright idea on how to make fun of those neighbors utilizing your wireless connection. Pretty funny! I'll try this at home tonight! Hoorah!
Damn! This is freaking cool! I can't wait to use my skype to call friends all over US and Canada! I hope this can extend more than December 2006 and cover more places too!
Yikes! Man, you wasted your skills.
"A 22-year old former call center agent faces imprisonment after pleading guilty to charges of hacking into his company's system to steal credit card information. Jeffric Carlos Abiera was sentenced Thursday by the Quezon City metropolitan court to a minimum imprisonment of one to two years plus a fine of P100,000 ($5,858) in violation of section 33 of the E-Commerce Law."
Read more about this story here.
I wish we could also do this in the Philippines...
This ad is currently being ran in India to promote social awareness about poverty. Pretty slick if you ask me :)
I saw this article today and it reminded me of my early years in IT. Users and developers banging heads over and over again 24/7.
I'm doing a developer presentation this friday and i've been talking to people who have been doing it for quite sometime now and they have given me some key pointers that i think would be useful to any future presenter. I got some valuable lessons from them and i wish to share them to you guys thru this post so here it goes:
Communicating to users/clients is hard... specially if they are not that knowledgable about software developement. so here's a list of things that i think could help you to better communicate with people.
Finally! I got the the shirt i ordered from Zazzle.com. I was abit dissapointed on the quality of the print... I guess i was expecting more... but it sure is a great shirt! something i would be proud to wear anyday and anywhere!
"With the advent of free software coming of age and the dawning of Open Source applications being a moving force in developement.. it seems that it is timely for database servers to go and be free as a bird could be... and guess what... Oracle has been set FREE"
Anybody who has thought about this? putting Microsoft, corporate and software logos as their tattoo.... i'm just wondering how many people who have thought about doing this.. anyway, here's a some notable people who have done this...
This is my tribute to the people whom I learned and helped me understand C/C++.. although i'm not that great with it unlike MisterClay(he was my college buddy) whom i consider to be a totem pole when it comes to C and C++!!!
Somebody in the UK(..i think) has some sense of humor... check this out! This is via Google Maps nad you'll be amazed on how this happened... that some serious Google hacking right there.. :)
I found this in Channel 9 and it was hilariously funny that i need to blog about it! Enjoy!
Finally! After 30 minutes of coding and 5 hours of modification(I wasn't satisfied on how it looks so i ended up revising it a couple of times.. :P This also includes me watching UFC at the same time:D) I have finally released the first beta of the DevPinoy Visitor Locator. DPVL is an application that displays the geographical locations of visitors in the DevPinoy.org website and plots those visitors location to a Google Map control.
i think this is the coolest feature implemented by the GMail team.. having to chat to you GTalk inside Gmail! That's impressive! alot of AJAX i bet, but totally remarkable! Way to go guys!
Lets see if there are some architechture people around here :)
Looking at code below... scrutinize this class and tell me whats wrong with its structure... what design pattern closely resembles it.. and how you can improve it? the code is provided in both C# and VB.NET so that it would be easier for those people who prefer {} and non-case sensitivity to look at it!
Want to know which APIs are now obsolete in .NET 2.0?
C5 Generic Collection Library for C# and CLI
I stumbled on this interesting link today which talks about the pros and cons between using C/C++, Ruby, Python and Java...
I've been using Microsoft Virtual PC for quite sometime now and it has been a great companion for me.. abit pricey but still a valuable tool that i use in my everyday 'programmers life'... but, i might let go of this tool soon... i just found out todat that VMWare has announced that their VMWare Server (formerly VMWare GSX) will be available for free.. this is a big leap for the company which was considered to be the top virtualization company in the world a couple years ago.
I was looking at the site today and checking the advertisements running on the site when i accidentaly stumbled on one of the DUMBEST white papers I have ever encountered. It was talking about how bad OOP is and its implications to work.
Once there was a System Administrator song... and it was good... And came the Gamer's song which was good... but... would a programmer let a day pass without him having his own song to log about in this wire driven cosmos? I bet you he wouldn't!!!
System Administrator Song
I just came back from Code Camp. and i must say that i was a great experience to hangout with developers from all over Southern California. 2 days of presentations an code is something that i took with much delight! I've documented my Code camp experience in pictures. Check them out here.
I can say that i had one of the most knowledge enriching conference and its totally memorable. I met alot of guys from developers, ms guys up to industry gurus that i have been looking up to eversince the day i started programming on my 486 computer.
This is what bored software engineers do... :D Enjoy!
What is Code Complete? Code Complete is probably every developers Bible giving concrete guidelines on how and what are the proper ways to develop applications in any programming language.
Guess what? We are giving away 3 signed copies (signed by Steve McConnell himself) to 3 lucky bloggers here at devPinoy. A definete must-have on every developers toolbox.
I installed Pinnacle Studio Plus 10 yesterday and everything went smoothly up until i saw a dialog showing that it was installing MSDE. and thats how the troubles started... :(
Finally! We haved decided who won the "Why should Keith give me the VS.NET and SQL Server 2005 Cds!" contest. It was a tough judgement that me and our judge Woody Pewitt, my local Microsoft Evangelist need to take.
As with any contest, we were hoping that alot of people would be joining the promo since the prize is every .NET Developers dream.. A package containing both VS.NET 2005 and SQL Server 2005. But then again, only the boldess survive and succeeds in this goal driven world.
Here's the rss feed of articles from people who have joined the "Why should Keith give me the VS.NET and SQL Server 2005 Cds!" contest.
Read it! There's already a couple of interesting post and we are waiting for more! :)
With the spirit of Christmas in the air... Wouldn't it be nice if you could get a Free VS.NET 2005 and SQL Server 2005 this season? I bet you that would be one of the coolest things that you could get on this time of giving!
Well, wait no more! devPinoy.org is giving away one package containing VS.NET 2005 Standard Edition and SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition to one lucky blogger! This DVD was a spare that i got from a recent developer convention, the Ready Launch event. This is not a trial version!
On the first episode of devTrain, a weekly video training blog about the .NET framework that i started. I have decided to talk about one of the newest feature of .NET 2.0 which is Multiple Language Support.
Although not recommended for development its good to know that you can write an application using multiple languages because this would increase the effort on maintaining a project, particularly if the application would be maitained by someone who is not familiar with all the programming language use(just imagine an application written in C#, VB.NET amd J#! Gee! that would be a total pain in the ass!).
I just makes me smile knowing that people are browsing our site, devPinoy.org
Ei,, I have been receiving alot of emails lately asking me to share some details about the Mark Miller talk at the San Diego .Net Developers group last week. I'm sorry guys if I havent had the time to post the thoughts that were shared on that session, i have been a bit busy lately but dont worry... i have all my notes... all i need to do right now is organize those accumulated knowledge that i got from that session (i havent been in me lethal shape lately after doing some PHP coding for a friend... arrrgh!) so just stay put,, i'll serve you those talk lines soon!
Gee! I'll be having a blast tommorow! Finally i'll get to see one of the guys that i look up to in Application Development and Design!
Mark Miller, author of (among many other things) CodeRush, a productivity add-in for VS.NET and Refactor! an add-in to Visual Studio .NET that parses your Source code as you move through it and delivers context specific refactorings that automate the process of reorganizing and shaping your source to make it easier to read and cheaper to maintain. Mark will be the guest speaker tommorow on the group meeting of SD .NET Developers Group. His topic for tommorow would be about "The Science of Great UI " which is expect to be a a great session since i know Mr. Miller is very well-versed when it comes to designing application UI.
The meeting will be on Qualcom Incorporated's San Diego Design Center - Auditorium at 6:00-9:00pm. There would be free pizza for the attendees courtesy of SMS.ac plus there would be raffle for some authentic San Diego .NET Developer swag.
"People say that your favorite piece of code tells tales about you.."
I want to hear it from you guys, whats your favorite piece code?
I work alot with flat files and databases using c# and most of the time the processing of data takes rigorous implementation of string handlers.This takes me to realize that my probable bestfriends right now are the string functions.
"I guess i was also a supervillain... before!"
Someone with a great sense of humor made a compeling dissection and presentation on why people should move to the Big Penguin. it's funny, interesting and uhhh...ok ok ok! I admit! its kinda cute! :) definetely something for Linux geek. [:D]
Configuring other IM clients for Google Talk
After several weeks of planning I could say that we finally got our goal to come true..Finally www.devpinoy.org is online A dream of builing a Filipino developers website where people from different programming language and platform can join hands and build a community
One thing that i really really really really want to be included on the next release of dasBlog is the ability to ping more than one feed site inside dasBlog. Something like pingomatic.com where you just select which website you want to send a ping when a new post is created. This feature would be really useful specially if you want to generate traffic to your blog by adding your blog to blog directories all over the internet universe.
How to fend off assigned work!
As always, Mike Gunderloy made my eyes go 'BIG' after reading his article regarding some of his recomendations on how to use and manipulate strings in .NET 2.0. This post also gives some highlights about some key changes on System.String namespace and other aspects of using strings including the dreaded localization.
Grasshopper: Visual Studio .NET IDE for Linux!
Zachary Hunter, A senior programmer analyst in Sand Diego, CA has started his blog!
A tool that automatically formats your sql statement in any language (C#, Java, VB and Delphi)
XPSMTP provides a SMTP based SQL Mail solution for sending MIME based email over SMTP, implemented as an Extended Stored Procedure.
It does not require any software to be installed, just a SMTP email server that can handle the outgoing mail request. XPSMTP is using TCP/IP sockets to communicate to port 25. XPSMTP does not spawn additional threads, the xp_smtp_sendmail request is handled on the same thread as it is being called on by SQL Server. Each call to xp_smtp_sendmail establishes a connection to the SMTP server and disconnects when done sending the email. The connection is created using asynchronous communication and aborts based on a timeout value (@timeout which by default is 10000 milliseconds, so 10 seconds).
"Acrylic" is the codename for an innovative illustration, painting and graphics tool that provides exciting creative capabilities for designers working in print, web, video, and interactive media. The Acrylic beta comes shortly after Microsoft announced Metro, a format meant to compete with Adobe's PDF.
SharpChess is an Open-Source game wholely developed using C#. This application was developed by Peter Hughes.
With the advent of Visual Studio 2005 being released at the end of this year, wouldn't it be suitable to think about whats the future Visual Studio would be like?
Planning to get your MCP/MCAD/MCSD/MCDBA exam?
Worried about paying and failing the exam and not having the money to get another exam?
Well, here's you chance! Get a free second take on you Microsoft Certification Exam.
Excel Pacman and Space Invader
Steve Balmer sells Windows 1.0
Crossposting in dotnet.org.za
My Vision: A new developer community.
FreeTextBox or FCKeditor?
Are you kidding me? VB6 on VS.NET IDE? HELL NO!!!
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