DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by dbottjer

Average People Discover Programming Simple, Wages Plummet!

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:54:37 GMT

I've heard this, often said tongue in cheek, "If people realized how simple software development was, it would be a minimum wage occupation." News flash, the general populace does not embody any of the listed characteristics...

Why XML SUCKS

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:01:02 GMT

As many of my colleagues know, I am not a really big fan of XML. I think it's bloated. I think it's not needed. I don't think it accomplishes much if anything that couldn't be done before just by sending text delimited in a different way. I'm not sure why if I want to tell someone a yes or a no answer on something being found, I have to wrap it in 1000 characters of SOAP data when i could just send a 0 a 1 or nothing and accomplish the same thing. Or why if I want a list of data, I have to wrap it up and package it as XML when I could just send the list as regular delimited text instead of delimited by 20% text bloat of so-called self description. Anyway, that's the short version of why I think XML sucks. Here are some other people that think it sucks and some much more in depth articles about it. =)

Top 20 .NET Garbage Collection Articles

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:31:01 GMT

Ah. Garbage Collection... how I love and hate thee. =P I think one sad thing about programming in .net is that it seems many developers don't know or care anything about garbage collection and memory management. You used to *have* to know about it in order to write bug free code. I suppose it is a two edge sword in that developers can develop faster as the intention was to relieve developers of the need to know or care anything about memory management. I personally have always tried to follow best practices for implementation and have tried to stay somewhat cautious of issues related to memory. I've been fortunate in never really having any memory management related issues in my previous applications. However, there, but for the grace of God, I too could go.

Office Business Applications Architecture Talk

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:01:01 GMT

The following conversation is a conversation with Microsoft Financial Services Sr. Architect Colin Cole discussing Office Business Applications (OBA). This is a new type of blog post for me and a Drowning In Technical Debt first. I hope to conduct similar conversations in the future. Finally, I would like to thank Colin for making time to have this conversation with me.

Space Used By SQL Indexes

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 23:29:48 GMT

How much space are your SQL Indexes using?

Hype Cycle

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 00:52:37 GMT

While researching web service best practices I came across Gartner's Hype Cycle and was immediately impressed with its simplicity and clarity. It summed up in a simple graph the wild technological rollercoaster ride I've (and probably you too) have been on for most of my career. Early on I used to fall for the "coolest" gadgets, the "hot" languages and the "latest" architectures. I'd spend a lot of money and time on books, courses and software in an effort to get up to speed. Aggravatingly, it seemed, I was just in time to see the coolest gadgets cool-off and the hot languages fall by the wayside and replaced by a new wave. Early out of college this was self-inflicted because I wanted to make an impact with my employer. Which lead to enough successes to justify the effort. But then in the early nineties something strange happened. My employer started bringing me the cutting edge technologies to see if there was any business value. And sadly, the same cycle reoccurred. But this time the amount of money, effort and time were exponentially growing with each project. I was amazed at how easy it was for them to drop a million on software license and then in a blink of an eye drop it like yesterday's dishwater. Yet after the dust settled we did seem to gain from the experience and our technologies matured.

Systems Integration: No Assumptions

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 04:51:03 GMT

There are many sayings about assumptions and I'll let you fill in your favorite. Regarding Systems Integration, the hard lesson I've learned is not to assume the other system will properly filter or handle a specific constraint. For example, Windows systems use a carriage-return-line-feed to mark the end-of-a-line. However, UNIX systems simply use a line-feed to mark the end-of-a-line. This is not to say that UNIX systems can't handle files containing CRLF's. It just means that most UNIX Systems just use an LF to mark the end-of-a-line.

Top 20 Funniest Geek Humor Bits of All Time

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 17:31:01 GMT

I have put together a collection of the absolute funniest Geek Humor bits in the history of geek humor. Among them is "Nick Burns", "Internet Help Desk", "Keeping Your Parents Off of the Internet" and many others. It just doesn't get any funnier than these, especially if you are a computer geek.

Sql Server 2005 CLR Objects

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 23:31:01 GMT

This talks about some of the basics of Sql Server CLR Objects

Basics of the Microsoft AJAX Library

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:31:02 GMT

This podcast video has the basics of the Microsoft AJAX Library.

Really Funny Geek Humor for the week of October 16th

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:31:01 GMT

"High Volume Email Deployment" - "The Smiley Intervention" - "Weird Al - Virus Alert"- "Perfect Strangers Meet At Coffee Shop" - "Stephen Colbert duals with George Lucas" - "YODA Syntax" - "How to "Not" Get a Job with your Video Resume "

Hacking the Report Viewer Redistributable

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:01:02 GMT

I have used the Report Viewer Control included in Visual Studio 2005 to embed reports within our Smart Client. The control allows me to create professional reports without the use of a third party tools. Plus I can always scale up to Reporting Services should the need arrise. There is a Report Viewer Redistributable available for download. However, the Redistributable is an MSI and installs all components in the GAC. This action requires administrator permissions which is not a choice due to our corporate security policy.

Win a Hydrogen Cell Car, 3D Mouse and other prizes for being a geek.

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 23:12:32 GMT

These are some of the 15 October Prizes for Community-Credit.com, where "We give stupid prizes to smart people". If you blog, attend tech events, post on discussion boards and the like, you have a great chance at winning a geeky prize this month.

Computer Geek Humor for the Week of Sept. 11th

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 16:01:02 GMT

Here are the latest Computer Geek Humor Videos for the week of September 11th, 2006. These are really funny!!!

"We Give Stupid prizes to smart people" - September Prizes

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 01:01:02 GMT

Blog, Post on discussion boards, attend tech events or contribute to the development community in any way and you can win some very geeky prizes. Septembers prizes include: ptimus Mini Three Keyboard - 512 MB SpyDisk Pen - USB 2.0 Bracelet Flash Band - Uber Cool Finger Mouse - Two Player Invisible Fighting Game - Lazer Trip Wire - The Ultimate Mars Rover Kit - Relativity Watch - Ninja Burger Honorable Employee Handbook - Tetran Cable Winder - Potty Putter - Uncut D&D figures - Nintendo DS Water Game - d20 Spiral Necklace - Street Fighter UFS Collectible Card Game a way to strangle your boss and many other stupid prizes

Computer Geek Humor for the Week of September 3rd

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 23:31:02 GMT

Here are the latest Computer Geek Humor entries for the week of September 34d, 2006. The Community-Credit humor discussion board may not have the largest collection of Geek humor in the world, but we do have the largest collection of Funny Geek Humor in the world.

Installing XNA Beta and SpaceWar

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 17:31:02 GMT

Quick read about installing the XNA Beta and running the sample project. With some tips and links to more information..

Computer Geek Humor for the Week of August 28th

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 20:31:02 GMT

Here are the latest Computer Geek Humor entries for the week of August 28st, 2006. The Community-Credit humor discussion board may not have the largest collection of Geek humor in the world, but we do have the largest collection of Funny Geek Humor in the world

Book Review - RSS and Atom

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 16:17:05 GMT

I decided to read this book because syndication formats are becoming more and more important as publishing systems for modern web sites. As the author remarks often (and he's perfectly right) there's a foundamental difference between a syndication (or publication) format like RSS or Atom (the two formats covered in the book) and a content format like HTML.

Computer Geek Humor for the Week of August 21st

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 01:01:01 GMT

Here are the latest Geek Humor entries for the week of August 21st, 2006. The Community-Credit humor discussion board may not have the largest collection of Geek humor in the world, but we do have the largest collection of Funny Geek Humor in the world.

Geek Humor for the Week of August 15th, 2006

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 02:57:41 GMT

Here are the latest Geek Humor Discussion Board entries for the week of August 15th, 2006. The Community-Credit humor discussion board may not have the largest collection of Geek humor in the world, but we do have the largest collection of **Funny** Geek Humor in the world.

"We give stupid prizes to Smart People" - August Prizes

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 02:31:01 GMT

The Community Credit prizes for August include an iLounge Toilet Paper Dispenser, an 8GB USB Microdrive and some other really cool, geeky and yes, stupid prizes. The full list of prizes for August is: Grand Prize: One 8GB USB Microdrive 1st Prize: iLounge Toilet Paper Dispenser 2nd Prize: nuclear war USB hub 3rd Prize: Hydrogen Fuel Rocket 4th Prize: USB Ghost Radar Detector 5th Prize: USB Beer Can Cooler 6th Prize: TIX Led Clock 7th Prize: #include Beer Mugs 8th Prize: Climbatron, Window Climbing Robot 9th Prize: Hydro-phobic Desktop Space Sand 10th Prize: Firewheel Rubber Band Guns 11th Prize: Pirates of Davy Jones Curse Special Edition Box 12th Prize: Space Ace DVD Video 13th Prize: Little Einstein