Continuous Refactor

Redirecting with web.config

2009-12-08T16:09:00.000-08:00

Here is how to redirect a web site to another location using web.config in ASP.NET:

   1:  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

   2:  <configuration>

   3:      <system.webServer>

   4:          <httpRedirect enabled="true"

   5:                        destination="http://www.digitalhoneycomb.com"

   6:                        exactDestination="true"

   7:                        httpResponseStatus="Permanent" />

   8:      </system.webServer>

   9:  </configuration>

Zero to Plinqo in 90 minutes

2009-07-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

What is Plinqo? Plinqo is a collection of CodeSmith templates designed to work with LINQ to SQL. Here are the steps I took to go from knowing very little about Plinqo to being ready to implement in my next development project.
1) Download a CodeSmith Trial
2) Install CodeSmith
3) Download Plinqo
4) Watch 16 minute Quick Start video See notes below.
5) Watch 22 minute Feature Overview video See notes below.

Quick Start Video Notes

Plinqo provides DBML, business entities, and manager/queries.
Running the quick start generates three projects: Data, Test and UI.
In the Data project there a .dbml file is generated along with /entities/ in single files and /managers/ folders.
To use the Plinqo gernated projects in your project just add references to CodeSmith.Data and the auto-geneated .Data.

Feature Overview Video

The DBML inherits database schema changes
The DBML persists changes to DBML mappings
Meta data updates are perserved through merging
Plinqo can be used to create a powerful business rules engine

Plinqo overs a lot of automated horsepower in wiring up database schema to business objects. Templates can be generated in both C# and VB.

FogBugz SQL Maintenance

2009-05-26T15:52:00.000-07:00

I have used and have been an avid fan of FogBugz for years. One quirk that I experience when running on Microsoft SQL Standard or SQL Express is that the database grows very quickly. Even so, it can be reduced back to an acceptable size by running a simple script. I am now running FogBugz 6.1 and using SQL Server 2008 Express, 64-bit.

Here is the SQL maintenance script:

USE FogBugz
GO
ALTER DATABASE FogBugz
SET RECOVERY SIMPLE;
GO
DBCC SHRINKFILE ([FOGBUGZ DATABASE FILE DatabaseName],1);
DBCC SHRINKFILE ([FOGBUGZ LOG FILE LogFileName],1);
GO
ALTER DATABASE FogBugz
SET RECOVERY FULL
GO

Since I am running SQL Express edition, there is no built-in support to run maintenance packages, so I use the command line OSQL to run the script above.

Here is the command line:

osql -ic:\tools\fb_shrink.sql -E -S.\SQLEXPRESS -oc:\tools\fogbugz_shrink_results.txt

I saved that command in a BAT file and then scheduled using the system scheduled tasks to be executed once daily.

What to do with old software

2009-04-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

Podcast #15 from IBM Fellow Grady Booch explores the Nine Things to Do With Old Software. Here is the list, but you'll need to listen to his podcast to get the dialogue, discussion and details.

1) Abandon it.
2) Give it away.
3) Ignore it.
4) Put it on life support
5) Rewrite it.
6) Harvest from it.
7) Wrap it up.
8) Transform it.
9) Preserve it.

You are what you read

2009-04-16T16:56:00.000-07:00

Philippe Kruchtenn at the University of British Columbia published an article entitled You Are What You Read in the Career Development section of IEEESoftware, March/April 2009. In the article he indicates that his favorite interview question is to ask the candicate what they have read lately. He goes on to discuss what to read: books, journals, blogs; when to read; and how to retain what you've read. He develops the concept of a fieldstone to use a sort of bookmark with notes. Near the conclusion of the article is a real gem, a link to a list of the Top 100 Best Software Engineering Books as listed by Jurgen Appello, the CIO at ISM eCompany in The Netherlands. I noticed that the author of the book I recently reviewed, Steve McConnell, has four books in the top 100 list with Software Project Survival Guide as #47.

Software Project Survival Guide

2009-04-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

I just finished an excellent book by software project management guru and author Steve McConnell. After over twelve years in the IT industry as a developer, business analyst, team leader, project manager, architect, engineer and consultant, I was expecting this book to a be a good review and in many ways it was. But as the title implies, it is an excellent guide. It took me through areas of the trade that I am very familiar with and it introduced me to a few more tools and techniques that I'm anxious to put to use. As the author describes, he uses three main references in writing the book: The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) from theSoftware Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh PA, NASA Software Engineering Laboratory's (SEL's) Recommended Approach to Software Development, Revision 3, and third, his own experience which itself is extensive. I highly recommend this book to any one leading or supporting software development projects.

Free Tools to Build a Web Presence

2009-01-08T16:36:00.000-08:00

In the last month and a half I've built out a launch page site at KellyOrr.com, a professional blog at ContinuousRefactor.com, a personal blog at 43five.com and a photo stream at Fotographiti.com. Aside from the hosting space, I have used a suite of free tools. Here is the list:
Retaggr - the Definitive Online Profile. This service dynamically builds and serves out the badge that appears on KellyOrr.com and ContinuousRefactor.com with a collection of logos for each social network on online service that I use. It shows a brief description of who I am, my picture and my last Twitter update.
Facebook - helps you connect and share with the people in your life. This site is primarly used for personal social networking. It enables you to link with colleagues and friends and share udpates, photos and Facebook-enabled games.
LinkedIn - Over 30 million professionals use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas and opportunities. The network enables users to stay updates about colleagues as they move between jobs. I used it to keep an ever-current online resume of my professional activities.
Twitter. I often call this micro-blogging. Twitter enables you to update your status from anywhere you have access to a web browser.
Ping.fm - a simple service that makes updating your social networks a snap. I type my updates into the website at Ping.fm and each social network that I have identified in my account is updated automatically.
Flickr - a Yahoo! service for storing pictures online. Admittedly, I do pay for the Pro version of this service, the free version is very powerful and only puts limits on daily uploads.
Flickriver - this service creates a photo stream of pictures from a flickr account. I like how it presents the pictures and allows users to search by keywords and sort by tags.
BlogEngine.NET -- BE.N, as it's often referred to by fellow developers, is my blog software of choice. It’s simple, effective, skin-able, written in .NET and free. I run my personal and professional blogs from it.
Skype -- I used to pay more than $50 per month for a land line and dial tone with no voicemail or caller ID out here on the countryside. Now that land-based high speed Internet is available, I got rid of my home-office land line and use Skype instead. For a dedicated number, I pay about $5 a quarter! Skype-to-Skype calls are free and people can call my Skype number from anywhere in the world and I can take the call anywhere in the world that I can get access to the Internet and Skype. I've used the service and my account in Germany and Russia with no problems.
Gmail -- For years I insisted on using my own domain names and Microsoft Outlook for email. I still use my own domain names, but I got rid of Outlook when I realized I have access to Google’s search horsepower in a GMail account. I no longer have hundreds of nested folders that I sort mail into. All of my mail gets tagged and added to a single archive folder. Now I search instead of sort.
Amazon.com -- I signed up for an Amazon.com Associate account. When I write book reviews or list books referenced in talks that I've attended, the pictures of the books come from Amazon. If a reader clicks the book, they are transferred over to Amazon and if they buy the book, I receive a commission from Amazon.
Google Analytics -- I've used several web traffic analytics tools over the years, but they all pale in comparison to Google Analytics. The basic version is extremely powerful and, of course, free. Once you sign up for your account, Google will generate a simple snippet of code for you to add to your website. That code will send information about each visitor to Google for analysis. The aggregated data is presented in numerous reports for your review via a web interface.
Clustrmaps -- This service provides a push pin style map of where your readers are located. The more visitors you have from a location, the bigger the head of the push pin. This map is available as a dynamic graphic to include on your site. The service is free.

VMWare Server on a Fresh OS Install

2009-01-08T05:40:00.000-08:00

I've installed VMWare server on several freshly built hardware servers over the past year. I'm still tripped up by the message that often pops up: "The system administrator has set policies to prevent this installation." Here are the steps to adjust the local security policy to allow the installation:

1) Start/Administrative Tools/Local Security Policy
2) Right Click on 'Software Restriction Policies' and select 'New Software Restriction policies'
3) Double click 'Enforcement'
4) Select "All users except local administrators"
5) Exit Local Security Settings
4) Click OK
5) You will not be prompted to reboot, but you should. Reboot.

I tried to run GPUPDATE to update the global and local policies instead of rebooting, but it didn't work. I still ultimately had to reboot. I installed VMWare then still had to reboot again.

Installing TortoiseSVN Updates

2009-01-07T04:46:00.000-08:00

For whatever reason, the Tortoise update notices like the one shown here are always intimidating to me. I right click and select 'SVN Update' and get the update checker pop-up. I think, "What? There is another update? I'm not running the newest version? What am I missing? Was there something in the last versions that could be a risk to me? How long will this take to update? Where do I go again and what do I do?"

It's quite simple really. Here are the steps:

Notice the pop-up and think "Gee, I should update this. It'll only take a minute."
Browse out to http://tortoisesvn.com and click the 'Download' link at the top of the page.
Scroll down and select the version needed for your computer.
Save the file. I prefer to just put it on my desktop so I can easily find it again.
Double click and walk through the installation.
Reboot. Done.

ASP.NET Chart Control, A First Look

2008-12-11T17:23:00.000-08:00

Several of my colleagues referred me to Scott Gu's blog entry on ASP.NET Chart Component for the .NET Framework 3.5. I had time to take a first look tonight. I downloaded the component, the Visual Studio 2008 tool support and the sample project. Each package installed easily. I copied the sample project into the IIS directory on Vista and after encountering several error messages, I set the directory to be an application. The first look is very impressive. I've purchased packages from Infragistics and DotNetCharting over the last four years and this free component easily meets or beats quality and quantity of charting options offered by those packages.

Read Scott Gu's blog entry
Download ASP.NET 3.5 SP1
Download the Control
Download VS2008 Tool Support
Download the sample project

Reducing the size of a SQL transaction log

2008-12-09T17:32:00.000-08:00

I used Microsoft SQL Server quite a bit and have been stuck numerous times on an ever growing transaction log. After much pounding on the server this evening I once again found the magic commands. The commands are executed in Query Analyzer or Management Studio after a full backup of the database.

   1:  BACKUP LOG <database_name> WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY

   2:  DBCC SHRINKFILE(<logical file name>,0)

With a command line backup:

   1:  BACKUP DATABASE <database_name> TO "<path to backup location>"

   2:  BACKUP TRAN <database_name> TO "path to backup location>"

   3:  DBCC SHRINKFILE 0, TRUNCATEONLY

   4:  BACKUP LOG <database_name> WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY

   5:  DBCC SHRINKFILE('<logical file name>',0)

You can get the actual database name and logical file names by examining the contents of the sysfiles table:

   1:  SELECT * FROM SYSFILES

Microsoft ArcReady

2008-12-02T15:22:00.000-08:00

I attended Microsoft ArcReady today in Cincinnati OH. Although typically technical, the presentation today was focused on soft skills for software architects. I was a fantastic presentation and reinforced a lot of career development concepts that I have learned over the years. Highlights from the event are below:

The first presenter was Brian H. Prince, Architect Evangelist for Microsoft Blog

Mentors -- pick something you want to grow in and assemble mentors
- Write down a mentor list and keep track of strategy
- Mentors don't have to know they are your mentor
- Discard mentorships as needed
"You are in charge of your career, your company is in charge of your job" -- @dmarsh
Be introspective
- Review your job annually and mentally sign-up for another year
- Check to see if you job is still aligned with your career objectives
- Clearly define your career objectives
- Pick something you want to be known as
Invest in your career: school, playing, reading, blogging, code camps
Book Recommendation: Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? by Lou Gerstner
Three steps to higher a Power Team -- not rock stars, but power team members
- Passion
- Learning
- Problem Solving
Everything else you know today will be worthless in two years
Book Recommendation: Rules for Revolutionaries by Guy Kawasaki
Just like body building, work out different muscles (skills) each day.
Creativity
- You need to practice it to strengthen it.
- Design a system, throw out the design, do it again differently two more times to boost creativity
- Mix it up; read a book you normally wouldn't
- Read a book a week
Book Recommendation: The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What it Means to All of Us by Robyn Meredith
Book Recommendation: Guns, Gems and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond
Tips for client interaction
- Say "I don't know"
- Be an active listener
- Don't have distractions
- Ask smart questions
- Don't multitask in your head
- Ask open-minded questions, not yes/no questions
- Take notes even if to just map the conversation
- Use metaphors or analogies to communicate
- Don't use bad language
- Follow through (review action items and send a follow-up email)
- Over communicate until they bleed
- No agenda, no attenda
- Be prepared
- Preception is reality
Objections: Feel. Felt. Found.
- "I understand how you feel. Others have felt the same way. Others have found..."
- Make finding a solution to the problem something we are going to work on together.
Don't be a plumber. Write code that only you can write to add value to the business.
Do more of what works and less of what doesn't
Focus on helping the end-user kick a$$.
Architecture/Career/Life is about balance.
The effort is the effort and is not negotiable. Don't merely reduce a quote, but de-scope or get more money.
Project manager's job is about communication.
Project fail because of failed expectations or communications not because of technology.
Teams should play together.
Always hold the door.
Never burn a bridge behind you. "You can't burn your way to excellence."

The second speaker was Michael Wood, SDS. Blog. He spoke onOrganizational Dynamics.

Four areas: Responsbility, Authority, Power, Influence.
Economics in one line: Profit = Revenue - Cost
"I need to add value to the business"
Director: "I need to get the right people on the right projects"
Manager: "I need to make sure everyone is happy." Authority but no power.
Architects: Influence and responsbility, but little Power and Authority.
Co-worker: "I want to work on cool technology with people that carry their weight."
Yor agenda: "I need to choose technologies with a future."
Focus on adding business value and project success not necessarily efficiency.
Agile: plotted backlog of items that can add business value fast.
Survival Tips:
- Dress + 1, one level better than the audience. First impressions matter.
- Plug into companies information pipeline
- Learn the art of small talk
- Be prepared to have the hard conversations.
- Learn to read the room.
- Seek out a mentor.
- Don't be a lemming -- think critically.
- Evangelize
- Learn the art of public speaking -- Toastmasters
- Build a network of like minded people
- Build coalitions -- move on individuals agendas and company agenda
- Decisions should not be made but announcedat meetings.
- Keep an eye on the sharks
- Learn the right way to gripe. Not 30 minutes of griping, but 5 minutes of griping and 25 minutes of suggesting solutions.
Political tools
1. Compromise (win-win)
2. Arbitration (independent third part)
3. Escalation
- Arguing hurts the business value
- Accept decisions and move on
- There is always a different point of view
- Always maintain your composure. It ruins you credibility if you don't.
- Know your boundaries and limitations (constraints)
Be a leader. Get things done. Be a Mentor. Add business value.
Architects are the bridge between business and technology.
Book Recommendation: Systems Thinking, Second Edition: Managing Chaos and Complexity: A Platform for Designing Business Architecture by Jamshid Gharajedaghi
Book Recommendation: What the CEO Wants You to Know : How Your Company Really Works by Ram Charan
Book Recommendation: CIO Wisdom: Best Practices from Silicon Valley by Dean Lane

Freshbooks

2008-12-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

I launched an effort earlier this year to take accounting for my consultancy to completely paperless. Although I wouldn't say it is perfectly paperless now, I would say that I'm very close, say 98%. The bulk of the heavy lifting is done with Freshbooks. It is a fantastic SaaS online tool that lets me keep my finger on the accounting from any where that has an Internet connection. May favorite features include automated billing with tried and true "set it and forget it" functionality. They also interface with my payment gateway, PayPal, and Amazon Payments as well as allowing me to receive paper checks (remember that 2% remaining) and process them manually. Recurring invoices can be automatically emailed or postal mailed monthly. Estimates can be created, emailed to the client, accepted by the client online for tracking and converted to an invoice. Reporting is extensive enough to for accounts receiveable enterprise-wide or per client. I highly recommend Freshbooks for paperless, automated, efficiently accounts receivable accounting. Click the logo to sign-up.

Determining the SQL version and release

2008-11-29T15:55:00.000-08:00

For years when I needed to determine if a service pack was installed on SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005, I would check the build number and ten search the web to find what the build number was for the latest service pack. Today I was going through the same routine, but when I searched Google, I found a SQL query that would more directly reveal the version and release:

   1:  SELECT

   2:  SERVERPROPERTY('productversion'),

   3:  SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel'),

   4:  SERVERPROPERTY ('edition')

Here is the Microsoft KB article.
Here is a chart of all SQL Versions, their names and release dates.