After Hours

Ask something
Discussion Locked

NameOfTheBlog

0 helpful
17 replies

by ward

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
blog root

17 replies

by ward

Just starting a blog, and looking for something to rant about.? Thumbing through the pages of my mind, a few old favorites bubble to the surface.?

I program for a living.? But I also love to program.? It started as a gift computer from my parents, a TRS-80 Model 1, for those of you who like to wander the halls of nostalgia.? That poor machine only had 4K of memory, but it did boot straight into basic.? Every typed order was a small program running.

When I discovered that a simple SET command could light up a dot on the screen, I was in heaven.? Power, Control, Geekdom!? The ability to create something - where nothing had existed before.? It was heady stuff.

I have to give a lot of credit to BORLAND, and their Turbo Pascal,?Turbo Basic?and Turbo C products.? They had a deal that students could buy these compilers for about 40 bucks each, and I bought them all.?

I miss the days of free/extremly cheap compilers.? I think it's about winning the hearts and minds of young programmers, and currently no company seem to be interested in this "market segment".? I must insert here that Microsoft is testing the waters with their Express Editions, and I wish them luck.?

The first computer I ever bought, I paid for with earnings from mowing lawns.? I seems to me that young programmers today are going to go with Linux, due to the price.? And these lawn mowing, pizza eating teens are going to be the decision making executives some day.? There will be no fear of Linux or shareware.? They will have the same fondness for Linux that I have for Borland.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by ward

"The Old Ways Are The Best Ways" - L. Long
?
Right now, I am in a struggle with Serial Vs. USB technology.? Serial communications is like that old comfortable robe to me.? I just bought an LED display for the front of my computer.? You know those geeky things with buttons that can display information about temperature inside the case, and fan speed.
?
I was on the store web site ( http://crystalfontz.com ), and when the moment of truth came to click "SERIAL" or "USB" on the web store, well, I clicked SERIAL dangit.?I?really, really wanted to click the USB.? It's so cool.? It's so modern.? It's so unsupported in the dotNet Framework.
?
Heck my motherboard only has one serial port, on the outside of the case.? There are?no serial port headers on the mother board itself,? while USB headers abound (10 of them!).? I refuse to?desolder the DB-9?connection, so I will use a serial cable from the outside of the computer to route back inside the computer.? Man, I wanted to click that USB version!? But fear stays my hand.?

?
It's hard enough to stay on the learning edge of technology.? But then my development tools (dotNet Framework ver 2.0)?don't support USB using managed code.??

?
I just now got serial port support with the 2.0 framework, and wasted no time in writing an SMDR windows service?application that reads the SMDR data produced from our PBX, and writes into a SQL Server database.? From the database, I have a web site, and a Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services report that the sales guys can query.? This would be a nice bit of code to post to The Code Project, if I can ever get some free time.? Can you hear me whining?? I need USB support.? Don't even know what I am going to do with it...? But I know that I need it.
?

This post originally appeared on an external website

by ward

Well, Microsoft came close with their free "Express" editions, but I can tell that they still have someone in the chain of command who does not get it all.? Whoever this person (or persons) are - they seem to think that the purpose of building compilers and editors?is to make money directly from the compiler and editors.??

?
I even read a Blog of someone at Microsoft who basically said: "We are producing a quality product, and should be paid for it."? Fair enough, but like the car sales man who is really selling loans, you should defer the payment until the Operating System sale.? For the long term health of Microsoft against the barbarian Linux at the gates.
?
I think it was Gillette who said "Give the razor away - charge for the blades".?

?
Why else would you cripple a fine product like Visual Basic Express with a limitation that it can only connect to file based databases?? Ugh - a swing and a miss.? I bet somebody was thinking along the lines of "If we cripple this version, people will spend money to buy the bigger version".? What idiocy.? Your in a slow death struggle with Linux, and you will loose at some point unless the game is played just right.
?
Let's be very clear about this: Give the programming tools away.? Even the?"good stuff".? Especially the good stuff.? More on this later...
?
The money not realized?will be earned on the back end of the economic cycle.? The availability of quality development tools in the hands of programmers is the first step in guaranteeing that there is an abundance of software written for said Operating System.? More software for an operating system is the best way to continue dominance against Linux.
?
Here is a visual: Operating systems are like land.? You gotta have land to live, a place to put your stuff, and build your house.? Software is like water.? Land without water is the next best thing to useless.?

?
Those mountains ARE beautiful, and you can live up in them for free.? But there is no water.? Down in the valley, there is a huge river, and abundance of water.? You want a program to play your videos?? In the valley we have 38,000 of them.? We had to build?a ranking, tagging, organization?system into the valley, software is so abundant.?

?
Up in the Linux mountains, there are?120?of these programs.?That may seem like a lot, but if you have grown up with abundant water, you may move away, but there is also a good chance that you will miss the abundance, you will come back.? I have installed Linux and lived there four different times, and still I keep coming back.? But each time I go, it gets better.
?
?
?

This post originally appeared on an external website

by gtlpad

An excellent example of "poor writing is like land . . ."  You own a ranch. 

by ward

There could be another "thought" about limiting Visual Basic.NET Express edition to file based databases.? This one is more along the lines of "Hobbiest and kids will be using these products, so we don't want to confuse them.? Besides they don't need a server based database."? Strike Two.? The time to introduce new, budding programmers to server based databases is early, not late.?

?
I know?a programmer right now who has an inherit fear / distrust of server based databases.? Not because he is mal-adjusted, or weird, but because they are UNFAMILIAR.? Look up the definition for alien.? He has been programming for over 20?years, since he was a little kid, and has never been exposed to server based databases.? All the software that he writes for the Windows Operating?System uses file based databases.??Can you say Mapped Drives?? ?Concurrent update issues?? Yes sir, our Windows software has that build right in!!? Chock full of single user goodness.?

?
What's next?? Let's not give them graphics?? They just need text???Multiprocessor support!? Surely they don't need that!? Hmm, we would take networking out, but it's already been in there for a while...
?
Feature limiting a development product, any development product, is just?not good sense, if your main line of business involves selling a line of Operating Systems that the development product produces software for.??For Borland this would be a good business move.? For Microsoft, it's stupid.
?
Once more : the goal should be to have an abundance of QUALITY software for the OS.? Free, Quality development tools are the yellow brick road for this.? If programmer in the wild?are using limited tools, the result is sure to be limited in many cases.?

?
That is what Linux suffers from today.? In many cases, in order to use the software, your hands will get dirty, and manuals will have to read, config files edited, etc.? The problem is: Linux will continue to improve over time.? Already we see the installers getting better, and the command line vanishing.? To stay ahead of this steady improvement, Windows programmers need tools that are not limiting.? In any way.?
?
Eclipse may one day lure me away, unless Visual Studio offers compelling counter measures.? Believe me, if both products are quality, offer the same feature set, and one is free while the other cost money, the free one wins.? Sorry.? I really would like to stay, it sure has been fun, but the kids need braces...
?
Meanwhile, we are stunting the growth of a generation of Windows programmers.??
?
The real danger of limiting the development tools?goes along the lines of this:? "38,000 video players for the Windows OS, and almost every one of them is crappy because they only work on a single?computer, or you can't update the media database from multiple sites."? The only way this strategy?beats Linux is if Linux has the same problem.?

?
It's the same knock that Windows developers are getting right now on Security. We were not brought up on security.? DOS had not a care in the world about certificates and access control lists.? The knowledge and techniques that we do not expose?for young programmers are the things that can only become limitations.?
?
?
?
?

This post originally appeared on an external website

by ward

File based databases, while serving their purposes, and performing most excellently for some tasks,?need to be relegated to second class citizen status in this age of connected collaboration.
?
I am so sure of this principal that I think that Windows should have a server based database build right in, much like it has tools to list the directories and files on a hard drive.? We give away a free web server with every copy, and you can not tell me that has not been brilliant and healthy for the company.?

?
Thank God for mySQL.? And now, huzzah for SQL Server 2005 Express.
?
In the early days of the dotNet Framework 1.0 beta, I used to tell people that: "The?dotNet Framework would be a success in?the eyes of the common man?when it was distributed by Microsoft as just part of the OS", and not distributed by Ward's installation program.? I didn't need the hassle, or have the resources.?

?
And it used to?garner funny looks when I would?talk about this new?wonderful add-on for the Windows operating system, that makes writing code so much faster, produced by Microsoft, distributed by Ward.
?
That's the next step.? Distribute SQL Server Express and the Management tool suite as part of the OS.? Slip it in with Microsoft Update.? Make it part of SP3 for Windows XP.? I don't need something that will compete with Oracle in a line of business application, but I do need multiuser updates and freedom from the bondage of drive maps!
?
?

This post originally appeared on an external website

by ward

I love my Dual Core processor...
?
I got mine at the end of last year, and I love it.? When I have two copies of Visual Studio.NET open debugging a SOAP transaction, 10 windows of Internet Explorer, MySQL and SQL Server running, and my mail client, things just run.? None of the sluggish behavior that I used to live with.? I can just keep moving, where before starting a debugging run was followed by 5 to 15 seconds of sitting still and waiting.? Now I can kick off the debugger, and go click on my email or run a google query.? The machine is responsive, and I feel productive!

This post originally appeared on an external website

by ward

I just installed Microsoft Virtual Server on one of the machines at my house.? Installation was quick and painless, once I turned on the HTTP Server Service.? No reboot required.??VM admin is done through a web page / activeX control.? Now I just need to find an OS to load to give it a spin.
?
The first virtual machine software?that I worked with was the old VM-386 back in the DOS days.? As I remember it was a pretty good implementation of the concept.? I remember something akin to ALT-1, ALT-2, ALT-3 to jump between the various virtual machines.? I also tried the "Virtual PC" beta from Microsoft a year or so ago.? Got all the way to installing an OS, and gosh if I couldn't even find a copy of DOS laying around.?
?
That?was at work.? DOS was hard to come by, and the few copies of Windows flavors that I found were non-bootable.? I wound up removing it from my machine without ever loading an operating system onto it.??The war was lost for want of a nail?
?
I know that at home I have several copies of , uh, wait, didn't I toss those old floppies when I moved to my new house?? I have a memory of tossing old manuals, floppies, and game boxes into a black trash bag, thinking "I'll never need this again".? Argh!!? Suddenly I am not so sure that I do have a floppy of DOS.?

?
I have two thoughts at this point, more on the second in a later blog...
?
My first thought is that Microsoft should include a "disk image" with DOS 6.22 into the distribution of Virtual Server.? They already have included an image of "Virtual Machine Additions".? There is even a drop down listbox in the CD/DVD properties that is quite nicely labed: "Known image files".? Well, this drop down listbox needs to know about DOS.?

?
I am thinking that this would be relativly painless for Microsoft.? Unless there are royality issues, or some other legal hurdle, including a copy of DOS would go a long way to ensure the success of a product like Virtual Server.? It's one of those "Let's just make this super easy" kind of things.
?
I totally understand the position that some may take in saying "Virtual Server requires that you supply a legal copy of the operating system."? I am not even talking about that.? I agree.??
?
What I want to do is not supply an operating system, but remove DOS from the list of operating systems and send it to stay with?it's buddy BIOS.? Let's just make it part of the environment.? It's there.? If you need it.?

?
For the?organizations that use Virtual Server on any kind of scale, this may be an "Unused Feature".? Nothing wrong with that.? I use HyperTerminal about once every year, and I am glad that it's there.? Saves me time and energy.
?
For the 14 year old kid getting his hands on a trial or beta, this may be the best feature.? This may be the piece of the puzzle that let's his mind experience that "Ah-ha" moment.? And that 14 year old kid may have other contributions to make to the world.? Let's make it easy to get started.
?

This post originally appeared on an external website

by ward

Virtual is a fancy word for NOT.
?
After all the trouble moving from the Visual Studio Beta to the release version, I found myself thinking alot about the nature of software installation, versions, and the Windows registry.? What I want is a virtual application.? Or perhaps what I really want is a virtual installation.
?
Image a new PC.? Install an Operating System.? This is as good as it gets.? The snappy, responsive user interface will never be faster.? As a matter of fact, something quite the opposite happens.? The longer the PC is used, the slower it becomes.? As software is installed, used, and then deinstalled, it's as if the "arteries" of the machine become clogged.
?
Registry entries are added, during installation and run time of the program.? The removal of the progam of does not remove every entry.? Even Microsoft software does this naughty behavior.? After deinstalling SQL Server 2005, and browsing the registry, I found an entry for "LastConnect" that pointed to the SQL Server that I had just deinstalled.? No doubt this entry was added not by the installation program, but by one of the programs during run-time.? Perhaps this entry was used to pre-poplulate the "Connect To:" field in a connection dialog.? It's easy to see how a setting that was added outside of the installation could not be removed by the installation.
?
There is something wrong with the design of the system that requires me to write an "INSTALL" program as a seperate entity from my main program.? Often this installation program is written by a seperate person, or team of people.? How do we know that they got it right?? Why does the system design mandate that they must get it perfect for the de-installation to?be perfect??

?
Inside my source code is the knowledge of all the "settings" that I will read and write.? Even dynamic settings that are defined during run-time could be tracked by the operating system.
?
I am picturing an overhead projector.? Turn it on, and there is a large splotch of light projected onto the wall.? Take a sheet of plastic with information encoded onto the surface. Overlay the plastic sheet onto the projector, and there is the application.? You can write onto the plastic, and perhaps you can erase.? But when the sheet of plastic is removed from the projector,?the projector is back to it's base state.
?
?
?

This post originally appeared on an external website

by ward

There is a great "Technology Preview" on the MSDN web site that involves the new language extensions for Visual Basic.? LINQ is the "language integrated query" extension.? The basic idea??Microsoft is proposing extending the Visual Basic language.? There are two videos, the first one is the lead and program manager discussing the technology, and the second is the demo, with the program manager (Amanda)?running Visual Studio 2005 with the extensions installed.?

?
There is also an installable extension so that you can run the technology preview yourself.? You need VS2005 to run the preview.? As I am currently working on a release of software, I dare not install this right now!

?
I have put the second video?on my media server here:

?
mms://media.durossette.com/OnDemand/Video/PaulV-AmandaS_Demo.wmv
?
There was one eye-widening moment for me in this video.? Amanda?is typing code into the editor, and intellisense is popping up, suggesting statement completion options.? She has typed something along the lines of:
?
Select * from _
?
The intellisense dropdown list appears, suddenly I notice that other items are in the list besides the expected tables, views, etc.? The list contains the standard objects and collections?that would normally?be present, like PreformanceCounters.? She mentions that you can query any of the standard collections present in the framework.
?
If this is truly the direction that these "Language Integrated Query" extensions are going, then I am excited.? If you have ever queried WMI to get information, then iterated through a framework collection looking to match an ID value then imagine both the WMI query and the collection query using the same language structures.? For that matter, imagine performing both lookups at the same time, via a join.
?
One more thing that struck me deeply.? On my old web site (www.durossette.com) I have several RSS feeds as tickers across the top of the page.? Mostly technology feeds, they act as headline teases.? If one of the headlines catches my attention, I click to find out more.? A couple of days ago, the headline "Microsoft Previews Visual Basic 9" caused my mouse to click.
?
The story was a technology writer's description of the language extensions.? There were links to the MSDN site.? It's one thing to see a demo and download of a proposed "Language Extension", and quite another to hear this described as "Visual Basic 9.0".?

?
I had to think for a second... where was 8.0?? But then it occured to me that after VB6, VS2002-2003 would be VB7, and VS2005 would be VB8, so the next number up to bat would nine.? Wow.? The train is moving now.
?

This post originally appeared on an external website

by ward

?

From a newsletter that I get:

...
For the sake of argument, let's stick with the idea that there will indeed be nine versions of Windows Vista when the operating system ships later this year. If your're in the U.S., you can ?eliminate three versions right away:

  • Windows Starter 2007 is designed for emerging markets in countries where Microsoft is trying to reduce piracy by providing an affordable, but limited, version of the OS.
  • Windows Vista Home Basic N and Windows Vista Business N will be available only in Europe. The versions are required by an antitrust ruling.

This leaves six versions from which to choose:

  • Vista Home Basic
  • Vista Home Premium
  • Vista Business
  • Vista Small Business Edition
  • Vista Enterprise
  • Vista Ultimate

...
So for every server release, MS has been upgrading the name of the top-of-the-line product...
Windows Server
Windows Server Enterprise Edition
Windows Server DataCenter Edition
and now we have... Vista Ultimate!

Now the only real question is:
??? On the next version how are they going to TOP ultimate ??

From Dictionary.com:

Main Entry:?? ultimate
Part of Speech:?? adjective 1
Definition:?? final
Synonyms:?? bitter end, blow-off, bottom line, capper, chips down, closing, concluding, conclusive, curtains, decisive, end, eventual, extreme, far out, farthermost, farthest, final curtain, furthermost, furthest, hindmost, lag, last, last hurrah, latest, latter, lattermost, most distant, nose cone, payoff, swan song, terminal

Some of my suggestions:
?

  • Windows Vista Bitter End
  • Windows Vista Nose Cone
  • Windows Vista Swan Song

This post originally appeared on an external website

by ward

I once told someone that the Microsoft .NET framework would be considered "real" when it was installed as part of the operating system.? At the time, the .NET framework was a beta product, and I was writing code using the framework due to my participation in the beta program from Microsoft.
?
The other day I thought to myself: "They are doing it to me again."? I know it's a self-centered thought to imaging that Microsoft is making my life harder on purpose, but when users complain that they have to load the .NET framework 2.0 in order to "enjoy" one of my programs, I really begin to wonder why isn't the framework just automatically installed?
?
I have had some really good software that has never been loaded because the hassle of navigating to the Microsoft Update / Windows Update / MS New Name Update website, selecting optional or custom or where ever the framework is hidden on that particular day, then finding the framework in the list of optional thing-a-bobs to install....? Do you see my point?? Click here to install the point seeing framework.
?
I know, there are all kinds of programming / administration resolutions to this issue.?

?
1. Install the .NET framework with an AD policy, logon script, or other AD trick.?

I could use an Active Directory gizmo tech to install the framework.? Already doing that, actually.? Problem is, some of my "Customers" are not on my "network".? Some of my customers are not even in my company.? So AD deployment of the .NET framework is a looser idea.? Thanks for asking.
?
?
2. Add the .NET framework to the install program of my program.
I am prolific.? In software, if not blog posts.? After three or four years with the same company, my dev directory has over 100 sub-folders.? Two weeks ago I wrote a small utility to browse X9.37 files, which are the image cash letter files that the Federal Reserve uses in the Check-21 act.??If that means nothing to you, image notepad for text files.?

?
Small applications like the X9 viewer don't warrant their?own setup.? They are simple .EXE files designed to the xcopy deployed to our "bin" directory, along with the other?300 progams and utilities.? Microsoft wants programmers to convert from VB6 to VB.NET, but when a user complains that the VB6 programs all run just fine, but the VB.NET programs require them to perform a painfull download...?

?
So, all the other executables in the BIN directory run just fine, but the?X9 viewer won't run.? Not without the .NET framework 2.0 version installed.? So to distribute one small utility?I should write a setup program?? A setup program who's main purpose is not to install the utility, but to install some Microsoft code that the utility uses??
?
The answer in my mind is clear.? Why Microsoft does not see this is a mystery.? Install the Freaking Framework as part of the Operating System!!!? Are you ashamed of it?? Do you see the framework as a piece of software that is not really ready for prime time?? What is the issue here?? The burden of installing your software should not be on my shoulders.?
?
?

This post originally appeared on an external website

This discussion is closed to new replies.