AppDev: Something You Should Know by Irena Kennedy

SYSK 372: TFS – Enforcing Comments on Check-In & Violations Query

irenak — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:50:00 GMT

As many web sites point out, TFS uses policies to implement a requirement that developers provide comments when checking in code. The policy must be deployed to each developer (client machines). The Team Foundation Server Power Tools include the Changeset...(read more)

SQL Server Connection Leak Simulation Tool

irenak — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:41:00 GMT

Sometimes it’s necessary to test application performance in low available resource situations… I’ve seen tools that simulate low available memory, do network throttling, etc., but I have not come across one that simulates a lot of SQL Server connections...(read more)

SYSK 370: The Performance Cost of Extension Methods

irenak — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:33:00 GMT

First, for those who may not be familiar with this feature, .NET 3.5 allows developers to add methods to existing types without using inheritance or partial classes by creating static methods that can be invoked by using instance method syntax. When I...(read more)

SYSK 369: What’s Taking So Much Hard Drive Space? ... or Getting ‘True’ Folder Size

irenak — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:13:00 GMT

If, from time to time, you delete some files & folders from your hard disk, either because it’s no longer needed or just takes too much space and needs to be moved elsewhere, you may find the following utility useful… Basically, the tool below goes...(read more)

SYSK 368: SharePoint – Custom List Item Action that Starts a Workflow

irenak — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:54:00 GMT

First, I must start with the following disclaimer – this was my first SharePoint 2007 project, so, I do not claim any expertise in the subject matter… However, I believe, this post may be of value to some readers… Let’s say, you want to add a custom action...(read more)

SYSK 367: Outlook Add-In to Archive E-Mails

irenak — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:43:00 GMT

Do you wish there was an easier way to save individual messages to your hard disk in Outlook 2007? Moreover, do you want this utility to automatically modify the file name making it unique? For example, you may want to search for all messages from/to...(read more)

SYSK 366: Tool to Automatically Set Internet Explorer Proxy

irenak — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:24:00 GMT

As a consultant, I frequently work at my customer sites, and at my home office. Needless to say, remembering the proxy configurations, and changing them every time I plug in is a chore I’d rather delegate to software running in the background and automatically...(read more)

SYSK 365: How to get your unit tests (test project in Visual Studio 2008, a.k.a. MSTest) run multithreaded

irenak — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:47:00 GMT

If you want to test code that requires an MTA threading model (e.g. the code being tested uses WaitHandle.WaitAll), you need to change the .testrunconfig file manually and change the threading model from STA to MTA. There are other posts that say for...(read more)

SYSK 364: AJAX Extensions 1.0 Source Code and Debug Symbols

irenak — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:28:00 GMT

Did you know that AJAX Extensions source code and debugging symbols are available to everybody at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ef2c1acc-051a-4fe6-ad72-f3bed8623b43&DisplayLang=en ?...(read more)

SYSK 363: ‘Software is not made of bricks’ by Ragan Wald

irenak — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:00:00 GMT

I recently came across this gem http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/08/bricks.html -- strongly recommended! Here are the section titles to whet your appetite: · Software is not made of bricks · Assumption: it’s all about moving bricks · Software is more...(read more)

SYSK 362: The cost of try/catch

irenak — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 20:53:00 GMT

Since I’m still coming across a lot of conflicting recommendations on the “best practices for structure exception handling” (including those coming from different folks from Microsoft), I decided to write a blog post on the topic. So, what are the benefits...(read more)

Why I have not been writing any new posts...

irenak — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:26:00 GMT

As much as I love writing the SYSK posts, the reality is that it takes a lot of time... For the last couple of months, I've been working 14+ hour days consistently... To make the matters worse, I've learned that this type of activity doesn't even result...(read more)

SYSK 361: On the importance of signing assemblies from the versioning perspective

irenak — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:50:00 GMT

There are many reasons for signing your assemblies (security being at the top of my list), but in this post I’d like to address the importance of using a key to sign your assemblies from the versioning point of view. Now, let’s assume for the sake of...(read more)

:) When was the color khaki first used for military uniforms?

irenak — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:24:00 GMT

It was first used by the British in India in 1845, when soldiers turned their highly visible white uniforms khaki by soaking them in mud, coffee, and curry and better blend in with the landscape. Source: The 365 amazing trivia facts calendar 2007....(read more)

SYSK 360: What’s taking up the space in my database? Also, a word about SQL reports…

irenak — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 03:37:00 GMT

So, you’ve updated usage stats on your database by running EXEC sp_spaceused @updateusage = N 'TRUE' But, you still can’t figure out why it’s reporting much more used space then the data that appears in your tables… Try running the following query to...(read more)