Reed Me : development

Scary. But probably true.

reedme — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:48:25 GMT

Emphasis in the quote below is Jeff’s; I didn’t fiddle with the bold or italics. I just made it blue, because blue is good, right?

Pretty soon, all programming will be web programming. If you don't think that's a cause for celebration for the average working programmer, then maybe you should find another profession.
Coding Horror: All Programming is Web Programming

Of course, that’s the conclusion of the post which makes Jeff sound like he’s not a right-tool-for-the-job kind of guy (he is). It’s just the bombast to convince you that you should go read it yourself. Heh.

For the record, I’m not a huge fan of web development (the tools are generally not mature enough to support my TDD habit), even though I ran the primarily web-based development team for a dotcom for nigh six years... I am a big fan of the principle of least power (and/or least complexity).

How high is your impulse buy threshold?

reedme — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:03:08 GMT

I think Jeff’s on to something:

While there's an odd aspect of race to the bottom that I'm not sure is entirely healthy for the iPhone app ecosystem, the idea that software should be priced low enough to pass the average user's "why not" threshold is a powerful one.

Coding Horror: Software Pricing: Are We Doing It Wrong?

But...

As usual, it’s a good, thought-provoking post from Jeff. He talks about a couple of games that were wildly successful at selling huge numbers of units after they lowered their prices... Which is the key concept that seems to be overlooked: Perceived Value™.

Jeff (like all of us in geekdom) seems to be thinking of finding the Perfect Price™, set it once and enjoy massive profitability. Unfortunately, marketing and economics don’t work that way because they overlap with the unpredictable, irrational “science” of human psychology. Like that country song chorus goes “... and people are crazy.”

Steam/Valve were wildly successful with these price cuts because the were able to LOWER their prices. If they started off at a lower price point, they might’ve front-loaded more sales on the curve, but they would not have the long, sustainable tail of moderate Half-Life or Left4Dead sales at the New Lower Price™ because they wouldn’t have the same perceived value to typical consumers.

People like Jeff and I who paid full price for L4D (the Reed Clan actually bought four copies at full price, but that’s a different problem) aren’t in the same buyer bucket as those people who got motivated when the price was reduced... and I doubt many game companies are going to be willing to start low and then go lower in the hopes of making more money without a lot more evidence than a table o’ speculative numbers.

Especially since the jury is still out on whether companies are going to win with the iPhone App Store’s race to the bottom strategy. Perhaps if the Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Community Games starts producing some profitable companies built primarily on titles in those arenas, that might suggest starting low is the way to go.

My wallet wants him to be right, but I’m just sayin’...

South Park mobile business model?

reedme — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:30:14 GMT

Microsoft Details How to Port iPhone Apps to Windows Mobile

1. Write an iPhone app.
2. ...
3. Profit!

Heh.

I’ll read this later when the mobile app store opens and I come up with a killer mobile app to fund my retirement.

Or I stop waiting for Windows 7 phones to street and take a bite of the forbidden fruit. (Unlikely. My Samsung i760 still does everything I need with only a reboot once or twice a week.)

Credit to Code Project for suggesting step 1 in their newsletter today.

Vista SP2 Compatibility Mode Builds Character... on Windows 7

reedme — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:20:34 GMT

The kids have gotten to the age where they’re pestering us to play Dungeons & Dragons with them. Well, my oldest son is and he’s dragging his sister along (kicking and screaming, metaphorically-speaking). Heh.

Unfortunately, this isn’t his Grandpa’s D&D anymore (or his Dad’s). We didn’t have none o’ them crazy software gadgets when we played D&D! We had slate tablets with chalk to write on, just like Abe Lincoln and Gary Gygax. And we were grateful for it!! Heh. As my beard gets grayer, people seem to expect old codger stories...

Wizards of the Coast seems to have turned out a great little widget in the Character Builder. A little paranoid about copyrights and DRM, for my taste but once I got it working, I like it.

However, like most small companies that outsource their software development and technical support (I don’t know that to be fact, it just seems that way from the outside looking in), they’re not exactly on the cutting edge. It is a .NET 3.5 SP1 application (according to their website), which is a good start, but...

Their Character Builder FAQ wasn’t any real help, since I’m running Win7. And I get really irritated when the answer to a badly implemented application is “run it as Administrator”. Grrr. But I tried that first anyway... to no avail.

Right-click | Run as administrator didn’t change the symptoms: “Logon Failed. You do not have access to this application.” whenever I tried to update the content for the first time on a fresh install of CB. Maybe that worked on Vista, but it didn’t seem to solve the problem on Win7.

WotC technical support verified that I’m a paid up and member in good standing for D&DI, so I tried forcing it to run in Vista compatibility mode. Hooray for backward compatibility. Good job, Win7 team! (I’m still working on forgiving you for removing my “restore folders at logon” option from Explorer, though.)

Just for giggles, I watched the directory in Program Files as Character Builder was updating, and sure enough they’re writing directly to the privileged directory during unelevated execution. Bad form, guys. That’s sooo Windows 95. Time to get with the modern development paradigm!

Attention WotC developer types! You should have the downloader dump files to a temporary folder, kick off a new process and prompt for elevation using Windows Installer to patch your app properly!! Otherwise you’re going to suffer breakage and other problems at uninstall time... and it’s just wrong anyway to write to a privileged directory without explicit user permission AND even then only during setup or patching!

I shudder to think how they’re probably ignoring the multiple users problem, among other things. Yup, no Vista-certified logo to be found. Doh.

But now I’m up and running and building character! All so that I can use my children as guinea pigs to prove my nefarious theory that roleplaying has therapeutic benefits for children with autism toward learning appropriate social interaction. How else are my little aspies supposed to learn what to do when they actually meet a dragon?

NTS: Always install the TFS Power Tools

reedme — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:28:40 GMT

Or you’ll wind up with:

TF10139: The following check-in policies have not been satisfied.
Internal error in Changeset Comments Policy

Well, you will whenever somebody else installs them on the TFS server and enables the Changeset Comments Policy...

Two links I want to save for l8r: WM6.5 DTK and Windows API Code Pack for .NET 3.5

reedme — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:59:41 GMT

From the MSDN Flash dated 20090623:

Download the Free Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft .NET Framework
The Code Pack is a source-code library that provides access to the new Windows 7 features (and some related Windows Vista features) from managed code. These features are not available to developers today in the .NET Framework. Minimum .NET Framework version required to use this library is 3.5.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit Released
While this has been a much-awaited release for the developer community, some confusion has arisen in the media. To clarify, the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit (DTK) is not an SDK. The DTK contains emulators, gesture APIs, and samples useful for developing Windows Mobile 6.5 applications. Developers will still need to install Visual Studio and the Windows Mobile 6 SDK prior to running the tool kit installer.

Now back to my regularly scheduled interruption.

[Corrected the reversed links. Doh. Thanks, Chris! Now let’s see if Live Writer dupes the post or just updates it.]

I wasn’t concerned about warbots. Until...

reedme — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:44:54 GMT

The quote is long to provide context, but the bold part is what worries me. Ruh-roh.

A recent study prepared for the Office of Naval Research by a team from the California Polytechnic State University said that robot ethics had not received the attention it deserved because of a "rush to market" mentality and the "common misconception" that robots will do only what they have been programmed to do.

"Unfortunately, such a belief is sorely outdated, harking back to the time when computers were simpler and their programs could be written and understood by a single person," the study says. "Now programs with millions of lines of code are written by teams of programmers, none of whom knows the entire program; hence, no individual can predict the effect of a given command with absolute certainty since portions of programs may interact in unexpected, untested ways."

Killer robots and a revolution in warfare (Reuters)

It’s not bad enough that we’re giving the robots guns, we’re not entirely sure what they’ll do when we tell them to shoot.

To whom it may concern (code comments)

reedme — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:10:21 GMT

I thought I was the only one who left warnings in my code for future maintainers... Or maybe Brian inherited one of my previous projects. Heh.

Funniest code comment ever...

Yes, today’s my last day in SQLBU, and I’ve left more than a few WARNING code comments alongside the TODOs and UNDONEs.

Developers MERGE thyselves?

reedme — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:05:51 GMT

I was reading this CIO.com article a while back and wondering if “database developers” and “regular developers” agree.

As Microsoft sees it, the roles of the database-centric developer and "regular" developer are less distinct than they once were, so the company is merging its VSTS database and development products. As of October 1, those who belong to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and currently own Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition or Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition will receive for free the Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition, Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition, Visual Studio 2005 Team System for Software Developers and Visual Studio 2005 Team System for Database Professionals. (CIO.com)

Is it really that simple? Or will it be in the future? Are all (or most) “regular” developers also database developers? And vice versa? Hmmm.

The whole imaginary syntax probably looks something like this:

MERGE Developers.All_Developers AS target
USING
    (
        SELECT
             COALESCE(dbds.DeveloperId, rds.DeveloperId) AS DeveloperId
            ,COALESCE(dbds.FullName, rds.FullName) AS FullName
            ,COALESCE(dbds.IsActive, rds.IsActive) AS IsActive
        FROM Developers.Database_Developers AS dbds
        FULL OUTER JOIN Developers.Regular_Developers AS rds
            ON dbds.DeveloperID = rds.DeveloperID
        GROUP BY COALESCE(dbds.DeveloperId, rds.DeveloperId)
    ) AS source (DeveloperId, FullName, IsActive)
ON (target.DeveloperId = source.DeveloperId)
WHEN MATCHED
    THEN UPDATE SET
         target.IsActive = source.IsActive
        ,target.FullName = target.FullName
WHEN NOT MATCHED
    THEN INSERT (DeveloperId,FullName,IsActive) VALUES
        (source.DeveloperId,source.FullName,source.IsActive)
;

Seems complicated to me… for imaginary syntax of imaginary data constructs. Feel free to nitpick imaginary flaws in it.

Of course, YMMV.

Testing the SQL Database

reedme — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:25:30 GMT

Being a big fan of test-driven development of any kind, database or otherwise, I was honored to sit on a panel with some other much smarter people than I at TechEd*2008 entitled "Testing the SQL Database." Not only did I get to opine a bit, but I also got to learn some, too, which happens whenever you get to sit and listen to smart people like Gert, John, Adam and Jamie.

Stream for Low Bandwidth Users | Small WMV | High Quality WMV | High Quality MP4 | MP3 Audio

I do have one observation: I'm not really that fat in person… It's the camera! Heh.

See the TechEd 2008 Video Library for more cool stuff.

How to crash agile-ly?

reedme — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:10:46 GMT

Charlie and I never worked together, but after reading his account of a recent cult experience, I could swear that we had. On that project.

The problems started when we tried to integrate these methods into our existing environment. First, management demanded that we estimate—and commit to—a schedule and budget. You can't do that without knowing what you'll be doing, so we built our use cases and created a schedule. Several months later, we had hundreds of use cases, and the local Microsoft Project wizard had a schedule estimated down to the day.
Cargo Cult Methodology: How Agile Can Go Terribly, Terribly Wrong

How agile is your current project? Be honest.

Can you tell a great architect from a bad one?

reedme — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:24:38 GMT

Since I'm going to be sitting as a panel member on an MCA review board soon, I'd like to think I can, but apparently some researchers are having trouble...

Highly capable designers have an incentive to choose somewhat more difficult designs to better prove their talent, while less-capable designers have an incentive to choose highly difficult designs to obfuscate their lack of talent, Prof. Siemsen concludes.
Software Designers Strut Their Talent At Cost Of Profit, Says Study

This doesn't even get into the real reasons (Second System Syndrome™, Perfect System Syndrome™, Repeat Business Syndrome™, etc)... It seems to lay the blame at the feet of career concerns, but I'm not entirely sure that's the whole picture, especially when consultants get involved.

Irreducible complexity does exist, but if it seems Too Complicated™, it probably is, and you're probably Doing It Wrong™.

Great architects do The Right Thing™ for their companies or clients: a design that's as simple as possible, and no simpler.

Consultants: You'll never run out of repeat business from satisfied customers if you leave them with something that does what they need AND that they can maintain themselves. I always used to announce during project kick-off meetings, "I am leaving in X days/months/weeks. One of my goals is that you be able to absorb and maintain the deliverables that I'm leaving behind, so if it doesn't compute while we're working together, ASK me to explain it and WRITE down the answers so that you can retain the knowledge for your company."

Gender neutral code? Srsly?

reedme — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:18:30 GMT

Admittedly being from Mars, my reaction to the this little piece is predictable... I won't bore you with my witty repartee (yes, that's a redundant phrase) involving Emma, my code and a kitchen. (Yes, I'm pretty much overdue for sensitivity training, and when my wife reads this, I'll be back in the doghouse for a while.) I'm not saying that there isn't some validity to stereotypes, but... [Our test build process takes an hour, so I've got time.]

Emma says: Men Write Code from Mars, Women Write More Helpful Code from Venus (wsj.com)

Following her logic, maybe bugs are like car accidents? Women have lower car insurance rates because even though they tend to have more accidents than men do, BUT men "do it right" and have much more damaging and expensive accidents... and therefore get spanked with larger insurance premiums. Nah, let's not go there with software bugs. The diversity police already have too many excuses to visit my office.

It's not just that Emma's premise and mathematics are bogus, but... As a long-time subscriber to the "Pillars of Pretty Code" philosophy who focused more on maintainability when training my development staff (in previous lives when I was a dev manager), I'm offended by her stereotyping of male coders!! (Heh. It's fun that it's my turn to be "offended" by gendertyping.)

While I'm not a pretty code nazi (it feels odd to have to say that), transparency of the program logic is of paramount importance to maintainability. If you think your code is disposable and nobody will ever have to/want to maintain it, why aren't you writing it in Visual Basic? But I digress...

Back to Emma. Her math is screwy. She says she can "guess" 70% to 80% of the time whether code is written by a man or a woman. That's a sucker bet. Since far more than 80% of the code in the Known Universe™ is written by men... All she has to do is "guess" male every time to hit better than 80%!!! If she's below 80%, then her analytical abilities are conceivably flawed. Doh!

Besides, some of the female coders that worked for me in previously lives wrote the most crazy, obfuscated, unselfdocumenting code I'd ever seen until I taught them better. (Let's hope they retained the skill after I moved on.) I'd go ever further and point out that most of the "boys" did, too. Can't we all just get along and agree that "people" write hard-to-maintain code until they're taught better? Please?

And now I work with a female coder on my team these days (Bonnie) and she says that Emma's full of [it]... So there! (Double heh.)

Cool (Free, Open) Tools: SQL RSS

reedme — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:15:40 GMT

Even if nobody has asked you for an RSS feed of data in one or more of your databases, it won't be long before they do! When they do, you can grab this configurable, easy to use data-driven RSS feed widget.

A couple ideas for using this application:

Business intelligence updates delivered to Microsoft Outlook 2007 for management.
Proactive application event logs to your Vista Sidebar news gadget FTW!

I'm sure you can think of more... Check it out!

SQL RSS on CodePlex.com (Microsoft SQL Server Community & Samples)

It's also a great way to get a solid introduction to these technologies:

Change Data Tracking (CDT) feature of SQL Server 2008
SQL Server Reporting Services
The syndication feed feature of WCF
LINQ to XML
ADO.NET

Join us!
This project is a bit different than other SQL Server-sponsored projects. We want YOU to contribute to it. We are actively seeking other people (i.e. not on my team) to enhance and grow this project. Whether you work for Microsoft or not, let us know if you'd like to help!

XNA to the n-th power trumps Gears of War 2 trailer?

reedme — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:19:25 GMT

I've been a closet XNA fan for a while. I've been lurking and watching to see how they plan solve some really hard user-generated content problems...

“The time has come for the games industry to open its doors to all game creators, enabling anyone to share their creations with the world,” said Schappert. “Our goal is to drive a creative and social revolution in games with the same transformative power that we’ve seen in digital music and video sharing.”
Microsoft looks to 'community' for new games (msnbc.com)

It seems like they've got some great solutions. Time to dust off the game proposals that I made my kids write* and actually sling some code under them...

Watched the GoW2 trailer last night on XBL. Several times. Since we couldn't see the lunar eclipse for all the freaking cloud cover!! I hope the new "chainsaw uppercut" is a move they're modeling for the actual game. Very cool.

Both are great new announcements!

In unrelated news, I'm still trying to get excited about Too Human, but I'm still chasing all the Mass Effect achievements (almost done with Medal of Valor on insanity; just got Krogan Ally and Sentinel Ally on the insanity playthrough) and I'll probably get distracted by Lost Odyssey if I can get my copy before the company store runs out today. I'm frightened by the fact that Too Human is already planned to be a trilogy. But since I already know that the first DLC for Mass Effect called "Bring the Sky Down" is scheduled for March 10, I'd better hurry up and snag all the achievements this week. So much for that plan to get to the gym and get back in shape some day, the webernets keep getting in the way... Ooh, shiny object!!

* Being a mean, ogre-type parent of homeschoolers, I treat everything as a "teachable moment" or a "learning opportunity." Heh! They wrote pretty good business plans for what they wanted to spend their allowance money on, considering the older two are 8 and 9.