Is it October yet?

Although, here in Kansas City, it still feels like October (kinda chilly), we are many months away. Still, I am anxiously awaiting for October 2008 to arrive because that is when the Southwest Fox 2008 Conference will take place. Last year's Southwest Fox 2007 Conference (featuring EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about Microsoft Visual FoxPro) was the most attended ever; bucking the trend of reduced attendence at VFP conferences. There is no reason why this year's conference can't be even better. It was HIGHLY received by the attendees last year, and first time organizers, Tamar Granor, Rick Schummer, and Doug Hennig are in the process of building upon last year's success.

There are several ways in which the conference can be improved and one of them is to spread the word throughout the FoxPro community about the conference. It is in that spirit that I am pointing you to one of the pages on the ( Southwest Fox website ) that is specifically designed to assist community members in publicizing the conference, the ( "Promote the Conference" ) page. On that page, you will find several ways to help promote the conference and spread the VFP "Word".

I am particularly directing your eyeballs to the section displaying two animated banner ads. One (or both) of these banner ads will easily fit onto a page of anyone's website and/or blog. You can cut and paste the HTML code provided to easily display the banners. It would be a genuinely unselfish gesture if each and everyone of you reading this blog would take the time to post an ad (as well as pass along the URL to the promotion page to others likely to post an ad). Incidentally, if you don't, it will reflect on your parents and a big, black checkmark will go on your permanent record. Seriously, anyone who loves Fox and wants to see it continue to flourish is encouraged to post an ad banner. Your help in making the 2008 conference the best one yet will be greatly appreciated.

Lastly, if you are interested, the call has gone out to all those interested in being a speaker at the 2008 conference.  Details are on the Southwest Fox website.

Bugs the Debugger Won't Help You With

SET RANT ON

You do not even have to read any further because there is nothing you can do to improve the situation and contrary to the title, this has nothing to do with any debugging tool.  However, Dear Abby says that I will feel much better if I get it out of my system, so here goes.  The "bugs" where the debugger WON'T help are those little things that, frankly, annoy the H-E-double hockey sticks out of me. I am wondering if they bug you as much or perhaps you even have some that annoy you and would like to vent. Feel free to comment.  Right now, it is my turn.

#1 on my list are the companies who have a double door leading into their establishment and NEVER, repeat, NEVER unlock one of the doors.  What is that all about?  They paid for the door.  Why not use it?  Otherwise, it is just an expensive wall.  I don't need to have my carpel tunnel syndrome aggravated by walking into a door (assuming that it will open) only to find it doesn't budge because it's locked.

#2 is public restrooms where the maintenance person has jammed the paper towels so tightly into the towel dispenser that it is almost impossible to pull a towel from the dispenser. Invariably, my wet hands try to pull the towel only to come away with a white triangle about the size of my thumb. I try again; same result. I then reach into the slot and pull out 15 towels. The triangles have fallen onto the counter, making a mess and I have killed another tree by wasting 15 towels when two would have done the job.

#3 is a corollary to #2. The hand dryers that blow hot (if you are lucky) air.  Their drying span is too short to complete the job and yet, too long if run a second time. Think of all the electricity we are wasting by having to run the hand dryers a second time. If we want to stop our dependence on foreign oil, we can start by increasing the amount of time in the drying cycle of hand dryers by 50%, thus requiring only one cycle.

#4 are cell phones.  Oh, you are all shaking your heads. Well, then, I won't go any further because you already know what I am going to say.  Please, save me the effort and just say it for me.

You know, Dear Abby was right. I do feel better and the price of the therapy was cheap.  Thanks for listening. You, too, can avail yourself of this free, cathartic treatment. Just let me know what is bugging you.  Until the next time, here's to better mental health through griping, moaning, and complaining.

SET RANT OFF

A Promise is a Promise

Back in October, I promised to elaborate on the Southwest Fox 2007 conference and review some of the sessions. Well, Santa is checking out who has been naughty and who has been nice, and frankly, I need as many of the “nice” checkboxes checked as possible. I apologize for the delay, but for those of you who are still awishin’ and ahopin’ I would come through, here ya go.

Before I begin, I would like to regurgitate (what a revolting word; but fun to say) what you have undoubtedly read on many occasions in the past. Namely, if you have never attended a developer conference, what the heck are you waiting for?  15 years ago I was in the same boat.  I read (almost) those exact same words and thought a developers’ conference can’t be that good.  Well, I was wrong and every time I think I am right, I attend another conference and prove to myself that I am, indeed, wrong, wrong, wrong. Believe me; if you are in the trenches and do application development (i.e. write code) on a daily basis, you owe it to yourself to attend a conference specializing in the coding discipline of your choice. While I am partial to Visual FoxPro, other conferences for other languages are just as rewarding. You get shortcuts, tips, tricks, traps as well as renewed enthusiasm for your work. You get the chance to meet with people who are in the same “development boat” as you.  You are not an island.  OK, you may be an island, but in a chain of islands that, together, form a beneficial archipelago. Bottom line,.. Consider attending a conference of your choice. I wax poetic, but I also digress, so on with the show.

The two sessions I will address in this blog are the two sessions given by Cathy Pountney.  Some of you may know that a few years ago I was a technical editor on a Hentzenwerke book, “The Visual FoxPro Report Writer – Pushing It to the Limits and Beyond” written by Cathy. It was written in the days when Microsoft swore that the report writer would never be improved. It is still a very viable book for those of you who have not upgraded to VFP 9. However, with the release of VFP 9, many of the enhancements were to the report writer.  So much so, that it is almost a totally different animal. While I have been hibernating in a cave mainly doing maintenance work on applications written in VFP 8 and earlier, Cathy has been leading the charge to push the VFP 9 report writer past its limits and right into the 5^th dimension. So while she is on the cutting edge of the report writer enhancements, I have made a comfortable home on the coagulating edge. I still have a few years of coding energy left in me and I felt it high time that I get on the VFP 9 report writer band wagon. I was reluctant to do so because I felt so at ease with the “old way” and besides, it was a bit intimidating, but biting the bullet, I attended both of Cathy’s sessions with the express purpose of getting over my fears and intimidation.  BOY, am I glad I did!

“Getting Your Head Around the VFP ReportListener” was the first session. This was the session that I was hoping would remove the mystique from the newest version of the report writer. It did, or I should say, Cathy did. She knows her audience. She can speak to her audience so that the “difficult to grasp” is “graspable”. This was a good thing. When I walked out of this session, I had been (practically by hand) taken through the basics of the reportlistener.  One of the revelations, at least for me, was how the various components worked together to produce the report. In the old days (pre-VFP9) there was just the report engine.  With VFP 9, you not only have the engine, but the listener object, the preview container (separate from the report engine) and the extension handler. This fact, in and of itself, was a key to understanding the “new and improved; whiter than white” report writer. Each component was explained and placed in its proper environment as it relates to creating reports. Next came all of the new properties, events, and methods. Cathy’s practical, real-world examples using several of the methods and properties made the task of creating the reports seem easy.  It was at that point that she dangled the carrot in front of me that by knowing the basics and understanding the fundamental concepts, developers could then use them to their advantage to create reports the way the user has requested (instead of being forced into a pigeon hole of “this is the ONLY way it can be done”).  Extensibility.  What a concept!  Unfortunately, those tricks will be shown in her OTHER session.  For now, she continued with the basics. It was just like having to take Chemistry 101 to learn the periodic table BEFORE you could take Advanced Chemistry and blow things up. Also, she is correct. Learning the basics of the methods, events, and properties is what will allow us to (in a nice way) blow things up when we need to print out those mind-boggling reports.

OK, now for the cool stuff.  With the basics out of the way, I later went to the “OutFox the VFP Report Writer: Printing on My Terms” session. I am really glad that I went to the basic session first because this session built upon those concepts. Rather than tell you about the session, I am going to list just a few of the new abilities that users of VFP 9 have at their disposal. How about being able to select which pages of the report they want to print?  Or printing only the odd pages, or only the even pages?  You can now specify how the report is collated and how many pages print on a sheet of paper (ideal for printing “mini pamphlets”).  You can specify the margins. Perfect when you want a wider margin for three-hole punching. You can shrink to fit the page.  How cool is that?  Haven’t you ever printed out a report and ONE detail line printed on the second page?  If only you could have shrunk the report enough to get it all on one page.  NOW, you can. You can rotate the report; you can specify different size paper for different pages. You can create your own printer dialog to allow for user input as to all of the specifications mentioned above. Using the extension handler, you can customize the preview container toolbar or modify the print dialog box.  I haven’t even added the use of GDI+ to the equation. BOTH sessions were eye-opening. BOTH sessions did exactly what I had hoped; namely removed the mystique and pointed me in the right direction and allowed me to say to myself, “This isn’t so tough.”  Of course it isn’t when someone else has done the heavy lifting.  Cathy would be the first to acknowledge that she gained valuable insight in certain areas of the VFP 9 report writer from others more informed than she. THAT is the beauty of these conferences. Developers sharing and passing down information so that the less informed can be educated. THAT is another reason why you should consider attending a conference if you never have.

Lastly, and realistically, there is no way one person could walk out of those sessions, sit down to the keyboard, and put what they saw into immediate use. Fortunately they don’t have to, but when they are ready, Cathy provided (as did all speakers) examples, code samples, and white papers about the topics so that you could review later and take the time to master this facet of Visual FoxPro.  Two sessions; tightly coupled, but giving me the basic fundamental understanding and the wherewithal to decide how to move forward in the manner that most benefits me when attempting to tame this beast. Time well spent.

Sometimes, It Is the Small Things In Life That Count

Has this ever happened to you?  It happens to me a minimum of once a week, but NOT ANY MORE!  Most often it happens when I am copying a directory (yes, I am “old school” and refuse to say “folder”) full of files from a hard drive to a thumb drive. I know that the process will take a few minutes so I begin the copying and go get a drink refill.  Adding fresh ice, topping off the glass, and meandering back to the computer, I notice a message on the screen.  Have you seen one similar to this before?!?!

                    

While not completely wasted, the time getting my refill wasn’t as productive as I thought it would be because the copying process did not complete, but, instead, paused waiting for my input. I said “Yes”, but then had to wait for the process to complete. What a pain. Oooh, thank you Microsoft. I certainly wouldn’t want to overwrite a file that I can recreate any time I want to (usually whether or not I actually want to). The fact that it is referred to as a “system file” makes it seem that much more important, too. Well, in MY opinion, (I use the phrase, “in MY opinion” so that if I am wrong in anything I say, I can just say that “MY opinion” was based on MY experience) there is very little upside by even having these Thumbs.db files hanging around all over the place.  If there was only a way to prevent them from propagating like tribbles in heat.  Hey, there is!

I ASSume that the main purpose for these files is to have a way to easily (and quickly) see thumbnail images of any graphics files.  Nice concept, no problem. It does take some amount of overhead to create the file, but to me, the time is insignificant unless you had a couple thousand .jpgs in a directory (and then, I would question THAT behavior). At any rate, you can prevent the OS from automatically creating (AND THUS, ELIMINATING THIS ANNOYING “FEATURE”) as follows:

Open up Windows Explorer, go to the menu Tools|Folder Options| click on the “View” tab, and under the “Files and Folders” section, look for the checkbox with the caption, “Do Not Cache Thumbnails”. Stick a big, old, fat check in that box and from now on the Thumbs.db file will not be written to your hard drive. Yes, you WILL still be able to select Thumbnails as a format to view the directory’s files, but since it is not written to disk, it is never copied, and you will never see the above message again. As I mentioned, there is a very minor, minor, minor performance hit each time you request a thumbnail view, but it is a small price to pay (again) in MY opinion. Ah, life is good.  Sometimes it’s the small things in life that count.

Too Cool for School!

Last October, when I attended the Southwest Fox 2007 conference, Rick Borup of ITA Software, showed me a pretty slick tool that he recently discovered. I have been using it for about a month and although I do not use it often, when I need it, it really comes in handy. I thought it was cool enough to pass it along so that you could evaluate it for your own personal use.

The product is called ZoomIt and is available at: http://tinyurl.com/2xv7eu. It is, essentially, an easy way to magnify your screen. It is much easier to use than the magnifier that Microsoft routinely provides under the Accessories|Accessibility options. On top of that, it has a couple of features that are pretty cool. Before I go any further, I will tell you that it will be worth your time to read the accompanying documentation (it’s only one page) to save yourself some startup time.

If you read the documentation, you will find that ZoomIt has the capability to display a countdown timer on the screen so when you are giving presentations and take a 10 minute break, the countdown until the break is over is displayed so that all attendees are aware of the “official” time left before the presentation will continue.

Additionally, ZoomIt allows the user to (crudely) use the mouse as a pen to circle a specific area of the screen for emphasis. In fact, (again, mentioned in the documentation) the user can draw straight lines, using the proper keys, to “box in” an area of the screen. Like I said, I don’t use it often, but it is definitely the “right tool for the right job” and comes in real handy when you need it. Give it a shot.

Ruby on Rails moves to 1.1

Ruby on Rails (RoR) is another of those hot development topics right now.  I've used a few Ruby based applications and have been generally impressed.  The main benefit of RoR is the ease of deploying AJAX (COMET?) apps.

The Web Services Journal and Internet news cover this new release of Ruby.

From the Web Services Journal, here are the what's new in RoR1.1:

What's New In Rails: (complete list here):

• RJS - Write your Ajax application's Javascript in Ruby
• ActiveRecord++Rails' ActiveRecord is a powerful, automatic Object/Relational Mapping tool.  It gets a major steroid boost in Rails 1.1.
• API Support - Adding an API for your Web 2.0 software is now even easier
• New Integration Tests - Rails understands testing and adds even more automatic test support
• Backwards Compatibility - Even with 500 new changes, old Rails apps will almost universally run in Rails 1.1

Like my previous post about COMET, these new development platforms are pushing applications to a new level of development/deployment speed and user interactivity.  Exciting times!

Tags: Ruby on Rails, Ruby on Rails 1.1, RoR, RoR1.1

Catching the tail of COMET

From the Irish Developer Network I found this very thorough description of AJAX's next phase--COMET.

The article goes into detail (not too much) on the architectural differences between AJAX and COMET.  The main benefit, and if you've tried any of the online apps below you've seen it yourself (I like the GMail-GTalk integration myself), is that COMET is more persistent with long-term connections.  Activities that take time to complete.

• GMail’s GTalk integration
• Jot Live
• Renkoo
• cgi:irc
• Meebo

So the question is, should more apps be moved online via AJAX or COMET?  I'm not so sure.  I still live in an online-offline world, so I need applications that run when I'm not connected.  That being said, I see a lot of potential for internal applications like expense reports or maybe even group spreadsheets and word processors.  Even an internal IM system might be a good application.

What do you think are the AJAX or COMET apps that have the most potential?

Tags: COMET, AJAX, web development, online applications

A comet for the development dinosaurs?

From Tyler Blain comes a post that, well, we've all been there ... the long and grueling software development process.  Tyler's point is that the cycle of dev, code freeze, test, continue doesn't let software evolve.  Tyler suggests using an automated build and test system where software is tested as you go instead of testing a bit at a time.  Would this work?  Seems that it could help developers get rid of app-killer bugs while allowing them to develop "cool" features.

Hat tip: Chris Breisch

Tags: software development, automated test and build

AJAX tourtorials online

As AJAX gets hotter you can bet that you're going to be asked to start turning out AJAX apps yourself.  Don't know where to start?  Lifehacker offers a list AJAX tutorials.  Since most of us learn a lot of our web programming online ... sounds like a good idea to me.

Tags: AJAX

C# vs VB.NET... is there a difference?

Coding horror compares Coke vs Pepsi as an analogy to C# vs VB.NET.  The post is an interesting one for me, not because I'm a programmer, but as a product manager.  I have to ask myself when choosing a coding language ... which is most compatible, which has the best support and documentation, which is the easiest for that programmer to code in, how easy is it to find other people to program in it?

Technical considerations aside, sometimes the real-world considerations are the ones that make the final call.

Tags: C#, VB.NET, Coke, Pepsi, programming, software development

Maybe all bugs aren't worth fixing.

When a patient arrives at the emergency room, there is a disaster, etc. -- medical teams perform a triage of the injured.  If you've watched any TV medical show you've seen this before ... take this person now, she can wait, he isn't that bad.  The idea is that those who need help the most, get it first.  Squashing software bugs should operate in much the same way. From CodingHorror and Chris Breisch come these four factors to consider:

1. Severity: When this bug happens, how bad is the impact?
2. Frequency: How often does this bug happen?
3. Cost: How much effort would be required to fix this bug?
4. Risk: What is the risk of fixing this bug?

We go through this process all the time, and it is very important to setting development priorities.  So next time a bug crops up ask yourself ... is it worth it to fix?

Tags: software development, Visionpace

Feed your readers with .Net syndication libraries

Syndication is hot.  Personally I subscribe to over 700 of them.  Now ... one thing that bugs me when there isn't a feed for a great site (thanks for the sites Doug!).  Looks like there are some .Net libs so you can do it...

http://www.howdev.com/technologies/ http://www.howdev.com/news/howelldevelopments-rss.opml

Hat tip.

Tags: .Net, RSS, Atom, OPML

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Why Vista?

Thanks to Scoble I came across Manuel Clement's blog with outlines the key features of Vista and why you should upgrade from XP including videos (by Scoble) on each feature ... worth a look!

• All new networking stack
• All new audio stack
• New search integration and file management
• New fonts and readability technology
• New kernel changes
• Performance, security, and all that
• New features for international users
• New print technology
• New installer technology
• New sidebar and gadgets
• New sideshow (external monitor for laptops)
• New updated applications like Windows Mail
• New crypto technology
• New RSS platform
• New sound experience by Robert Fripp

Tags: Vista, XP, Microsoft

Live Messenger 8 hardware will be ready when LM8 is ...

Clearly Microsoft is seeing the success that Skype has enjoyed and the relative slowness of getting hardware out, especially inexpensive hardware, to integrate VoIP into your day-to-day life.

From the Live Messenger blog (via Liveside) here are some high-level details of an upcoming phone that you can use for both your standard land-line and Live Messenger 8.

Who will make it?
We have partnered with Uniden in the US, and Philips in Europe, Asia, and Latin America to produce these devices.  The Uniden phone is a 5.8GHz digital wireless model, designed for the Canadian, US, and Mexican markets, and the Philips is a 1.9GHz DECT model.  Suggested prices for both are under $100.

Do people like it?
The Windows Live Messenger Phone was a big hit at CES. As we showed off how well it ties together phone and internet experiences, it was great to see peoples' eyes light up.

When can I get it?
Look for these to become available soon after the final release of 8.0.

No, this isn't earth-shatteringly new or news.  What is worth noting that Microsoft planned early on to have hardware available to coincide with the launch of Live Messenger 8.  Another thing to go head-to-head with Skype and give it a run for its money.

Tags: Live Messenger 8, VoIP, Skype

SQL Server and ObjectStudio

From Smalltalk Tidbits ...ObjectStudio and SQL Server

Microsoft has sent out an advisory about the old DB-Lib and SQL Server that should push developers to update their DB calls ...

What does this mean for ObjectStudio developers using SQL Server? You would be better off using the ODBC DB wrapper that comes with ObjectStudio than with the SQL Server wrapper (which, at present, still uses DB-Lib).

Tags: SQL Server, DB-Lib

OneCare Live is in public beta

Once I started trying the new MSN Messenger 8 beta (Live Messenger) started looking for news and info on this new initiative from our palls in Redmond.  I found LiveSide which states it isn't associated with MSFT, but will be reporting on the whole Live product process.

I tried OneCare recently and wasn't too impressed, but from LiveSide it sounds like an update has come out.  While I'm not too comfortable with Microsoft holding the keys to my computer's security if Microsoft makes it free or cheap, it could really do a lot for improving online security overall.

Oh, and yes I have invites for MSN 8 and yes I will share.

The curse of the beta

Michael Arrington writes the TechCrunch blog which is where I usually hear about cool new Web 2.0 things to try.  Since Michael has a huge readership (17,000 subscribers according to FeedBurner) he gets invited into a lot of private and public betas.  With this tremendous amount of experience he wrote an aptly named article:"Don't Blow Your Beta" ...  for software developers I selected the points below as being most relevant:

First Impressions

The main thing to remember is that you generally only get one look from the early adopter crowd. There is just too much going on for them to give a flawed company multiple chances to get it right. You either grab their attention, or you lose their attention. If you grab ‘em, everything is easier from then on. If you bore them, you are facing an incredible uphill battle just to get them back to the site. So, basically, don’t blow your first impression.

Once they’ve made the decision that you are not noteworthy, it is very hard to get them to pay attention again.

Rolling Feature Release

Somewhere along the line people got the idea that rolling out functionality in stages is a good thing. There are two arguments for this.

First, it allows an earlier launch. Ok. That’s true.

The second argument is that by releasing features in stages, you’ll have regular news that bloggers and other journalists can talk about. This is also true, but a lot of companies get a little too religious about this and start to pull features just so that they will have news down the road. I hear this all the time from companies - “please don’t write about this feature yet. we want to release it next month and get you to write about us again then.”

If your first impression is positive, people will want to hear about future news. If it isn’t, people won’t care. Focus on making that launch a memorable one.

Every new feature is not news.

Incomplete Features

Some people take the “rolling feature release” idea above to mean they can release half-baked stuff. This allows for a quicker launch, of course. Slap a label on it, like “developer release”, “alpha” or “beta” and the hope is that people will be understanding and kind, and give you good advice and suggestions for improvement and evolution.

This is a bad idea. You will be crucified for wasting people’s time and they will leave brutal comments slamming your product. It is far better to delay launch, or remove the feature entirely, than show stuff that doesn’t work.

This is a “fall on your sword” issue. If the team is pressing to do this, spend political capital in fighting it. Your equity will be worth more because of it.

Pre-launch labels do not protect you from scorn.

For me the lesson is one of optics.  I know when I've shown prototypes around there are some people I will not show them to until I'm pretty far along.  Some users get all twitchy over cosmetic issues and it colours their view of the project.  And having place holder buttons?  I wouldn't go there.  Show a beta that is really ready to roll.  No it doesn't have to be (can't be) perfect, but useable it must be.

Michael also recommends these articles and blogs as well ...

• Stephen Bryant: 2006: First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Betas
• Adam Green: The danger of beta burnout
• Fred Oliveira: Fewer templates, more user experience (good advice on design and usability)
• Rob Hof: Best Way to Post Video Clips to Share Publicly? (an example of a lost opportunity)

Tags: beta software, software development

Why Blog?

Why Blog? From a business perspective blogs are no different from marketing channels like video, print, audio or presentations. They all deliver results of varying kind. The kind you can expect from blogs is mainly about stronger relations with target groups important to you. Below are a few blogging advantages we hope to benefit from.

Customer Relationships
In a forum where your main objective is not to directly sell, you'll have a more personal relationship between you and your customers. Blogs are a fast way to engage customers' discussions, provide tips and insights or receive feedback.

Media Relations
It's every PR-consultants dream to create a channel where media regularly check what you have to say, instead of media just being passive - sometimes indifferent - recipients of press releases.

Recruiting
If you establish your company as a thought leader, people in your business will pay attention. They'll read and discuss what you have to say. Chances are good they will see you as an attractive employer.

Testing Ideas or Concepts
A blog is informal. It's part of a conversation where people (often) can comment, and the blog can provide you with a measure of value. Publish an idea and see if it generates interest. Does anyone link to you? What do they say?

Search Engine Optimization
Google and other search engines reward sites that are updated often, that link to other sites and most importantly, that has many inbound links. Start a blog at your regular site and your ranking will receive a boost.

Blog Entries
Don't be as concerned with the length or style of your entry. Keep the focus on sharing your thoughts and opinions on a particular subject. That's what readers are most interested in.