30 Dec
2005

VS 2005 DataSet Annoyance

So MS wants us to use DataSets, DataTables and TableAdapters in the new ADO.Net 2.0. I am very game for this, in fact I am all for it because it is pretty darn close to Data Access Layer(DAL) auto generation. I pursued a solid solution for generating a DAL all through the long, lonely years […]

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28 Dec
2005

Still the Dungeon Master

After an approximately 22 year hiatus, I have returned as the world’s greatest Dungeon Master! How do you best fill 2 rainy days after Christmas with a house full of children? By introducing them to D&D, that’s how! Of course, none of them are able to take a character to level 3, but by God, […]

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21 Dec
2005

Physical Build Notification

While CCNet Tray is a great, there is arguably even great value in a physical manifestation of KPI monitors. Jared Richardson recommends that I look at lava lamps as a build notification system, but I think there may be problems with that idea. Lava lamps take a long time to heat up. Here are some […]

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21 Dec
2005

Prescriptive Build Notification

I gots me a fever, a fever for build notifications and the only prescription is CruiseControl.Net Tray. Monitoring your Cruise Control builds has never been so exhilerating, so positively thrilling! I have taken myself out of our email build notification group because of this application. The application runs in my system tray and shows a […]

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8 Dec
2005

Uncle Bob Was Great

Robert “Uncle Bob” Martin spoke in my workplace last week and the presentation was phenominal. His presentation was an entire day of Agile theory starting with an executive overview and progressing in detail throughout the day to culminate in live examples of Fiteness regression testing and TDD. Uncle Bob’s ability to keep an entire room […]

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7 Dec
2005

Off Shore Search

While searching for an off shore development shop to augment our development efforts, we came up with a list of questions to ask of the candidates. What would you do to improve upon this list? Physical Environment Programmer environment, photographs are encouraged. What are the computing platforms, specifically development hardware. Describe the network access and […]

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7 Dec
2005

Uncle Bob is Coming to Town

Uncle Bob Robert “Uncle Bob” Martin of Object Mentor is speaking at our company tomorrow morning. I am really looking forward to hearing the agile talk from this software icon. So far, I cannot say enough positive about him and his willingness to work with us a client. We have been able to tweak the […]

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