Yes...
I do have a lot of pet peeves... :)
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I do have a lot of pet peeves... :)
Arrrrgh... It should be illegal to link directly to a PDF file on a website unless you display a huge warning that says something like:
"WARNING: This URL links to a PDF file! Clicking this link will bring your computer to its knees for 5 minutes while Acrobat Reader loads the document in your browser! This may be a good opportunity to get a fresh coffee or re-organize your sock drawer."
I get burned by this at least once a day!
Double arrrrgh!
Programming is like this:
Beat your head on the keyboard for 6 hours straight...
...Problem solved! The documentation was wrong...
Beat your head on the keyboard for another 4 hours...
...Wow, I FINALLY got that module working thanks to a combination of hints from 5 different Google queries...
Beat your head on the keyboard for 3.5 hours...
...Drag yourself to bed at 2:00am completely pissed off that you couldn't figure out that piece of code...
Toss and turn all night trying to figure out the solution...
...Wake up a few hours later (assuming that you got some sleep) and write the code that solves the problem...
Beat your head on the keyboard for another 5 hours on the next part of the program...
Repeat until you get a working program...
Programmers are insane.
Ah, now this is my kind of online community...
:)
I did so many SharePoint Portal Server installs last week that I actually dreamed on Friday night that I was the SharePoint Single Sign-on Service account.
I mentioned my "Technology Radar" in the last post. I'm sure every technology geek out there has one the same as me. Every day I keep seeing technologies, methodologies, cool software, etc. showing up all around me. Some things I'll go out right away and check them out. Others, I wait until I hear about them from enough different sources to convince me it's time to buckle down and give them a closer look. Right now, this is a completely ad-hoc process that's managed in my head. Blogs have really helped because I can see trends developing faster. If I see something blogged about by enough different people in a short period of time I know I should give it higher priority.
A few years ago, before the Internet really hit big, PC Computing magazine had a cool feature where they showed a graphic of a radar screen and mapped several tech trends onto it. The hottest trends appeared around the center, with new stuff just starting to show up on the fringes. I wonder if it would be possible to reproduce this type of chart automatically by scouring blogs for keywords? This could be helpful for determining possible trends to investigate more closely, or it could just help us to be more lemming-like than we already are... hmmm... Do you think it would be useful?
Maybe I'll just keep relying on Mike Gunderloy. :)
After having it appear again on my "technology radar" this weekend, I've finally decided to give Test Driven Development (TDD) a try with NUnit. I'm using my SharePointFav application as the guinea pig. So far, I'm finding it quite helpful. As promised, it's helping me take more time to think about my class design (and only implement the needed functionality) and refactor more vigorously. I've already completely refactored the basic architecture of this simple application and worked out a much cleaner class structure with more separation of code/GUI.
I used the following resources to help me get started:
I have to read this soon (here for my future reference):
It bites the big one... it's worse than useless...
There, I got that off my chest.
Microsoft needs a Chief Website Officer.
Microsoft has so many webcasts happening in a given month that it's mind boggling. But guess what? I rarely watch any of them. The main reason: They're so poorly organized.
Here are a few suggestions on how to make your webcasts of much greater benefit to users:
Anyway, this aspect of the Microsoft.com site needs desperate attention and fixing. Are there any MS bloggers out there with any influence over the part of the site?
Update: I just realized that Microsoft doesn't even provide the feed for the Downloads site. It's done by a third party. I wonder if anyone's done similar with the webcasts?
I have a dual monitor setup.
I'm never going back.
I didn't realize what all the fuss was about, but now I see that there are sooo many scenarios where dual monitor makes my life much easier -- especially given that I have major problems with short-term memory. I can remember complex technical information for years, but can't hold much more than 3 words/characters in my head for a few seconds.
Here are some scenarios that I've found invaluable already:
(The only place that I haven't found the dual-screen useful so far is when Acrobat Reader opens. That just brings my system to its knees anyway. It wouldn't matter if I had this while Acrapbat is loading.) :)
One more thing. If you're using mult-monitor setup, go download Ultramon.
I remember using the DOS version of PC Anywhere in the early 90's to access the point of sale computer at the retail computer store where I worked. I think it was over a 2400 baud modem, which I quickly upgraded to 14.4 as soon as the cost dropped below $500. I couldn't have imagined then the scenario that I'm using today to work remotely.
Today I'm upgrading a regular Windows Server 2003 computer to Active Directory using DCPromo. The server is on a very locked down DMZ subnet in our Data Center. I'm at home using a broadband connection from the local cable company. I don'th have any access to the DMZ from home, but the office firewall can access the DMZ via Windows Remote Desktop. To do the DCPromo, I'll need the Windows Server 2003 CD which, of course, is not in the CD tray. I don't want to have to drive to the data center (which is only 7 minutes away, but still...) to put the CD in the tray, but I do have a copy of the ISO on a file share on the corporate LAN. Here's how I got it to work.
My laptop is connected to my Linksys router via 802.11b wireless. I have a VPN connection established to the corporate LAN. Using the VPN connection I've connected to one of our LAN servers using Remote Desktop. From the LAN server, I've connected to the server sitting on the DMZ segment, also using Remote Desktop. To access the ISO of Windows Server 2003, I've configured a VPN connection on the DMZ server back into the corporate LAN and copied it from the file share. Then I've used a Virtual CD tool to virtually mount the ISO and point Windows to Z: drive to get the files it needs.
Voila! The server is now a Domain Controller. And I'm still sitting in my comfy chair drinking coffee and listening to my 80s MP3 collection streaming via Shoutcast over wireless from my wife's workstation downstairs, while my son plays with his animal collection behind me.
As much as we might gripe about computers being hard to use and buggy, we sure have come a long way. Take a few minutes today to think about how good we have it compared to even 10 years ago.
If you're in Canada and looking for a great potato chip to snack on this weekend, try Lays new Cape Breton Sea Salt & Pepper Chips. Sadly, I think they're only available for a limited time. I noticed someone's eBaying them.
I've been doing a bunch of SharePoint programming recently. One of the small apps I'm working on is a utility that allows you to right-click on any page in Internet Explorer and save the link to a SharePoint link library.
I think SharePoint is the ideal location to save bookmarks to. I rarely save a bookmark to my local machine anymore because my list has grown so big and wieldly that I end up googling everything anyway. I also found a need to share links with co-workers as we're working on projects. With this utility I can choose to save, say, links relating to SharePoint development to our SharePoint developer team site.
When I get it in decent enough shape, I'll post it here.
I've been using Avant Browser for a few weeks now. I really like having a tabbed browser with the Internet Explorer engine. The browser is free and doesn't have any spyware. Recommended.
I want one of these.
I really saw the power of these USB memory sticks this week while on-site with a client where we had no Internet or LAN connection, but a lot of files to pass around. Only problem with this type is I'd never get through airport security, so I could only use it locally.