New Will Hoge CD

It came in the mail today! Sounds good so far. I've listened to the first 5 tracks and "Woman Be Strong" stands out the most. "The Man Who Killed Love" just started and it's got a killer guitar lick. I've got a meeting to get to, so I'll have to finish listening this afternoon. It's loaded up on the iPod ready for the drive home.




Listening: The Man Who Killed Love - Will Hoge

The Man Who Killed Love

I just ordered the new Will Hoge CD "The Man Who Killed Love" that came out yesterday. Can't wait for it to arrive. I've gotten spoiled by iTunes, I just click Buy and I'm listening to it. I had to order this the old school way directly through his site. I will review when I get it.


Listening: Improve/Amazing Grace - Bela Fleck & the Flecktones

"Celebrities" on Ice

While waiting for the best television show currently on (24) to come on last night, I had the misfortune to witness some of show "Skating with Celebrities". Is this what passes for entertainment these days? Washed-up celebrities skating with has been skaters? People, if you have enough time on your hands to watch pap like this, you need a hobby. Read a book, take a walk, play a game with your family or just sit there and think. Anything would be better than watching has beens make a last ditch effort for 15 more minutes in the spotlight. I just wonder if it is the money or just another chance to be on TV for these former celebrities.

iTunes meme

Saw this was going around and thought it was a fun diversion.

(Note: I excluded podcasts, videos, educational and sound effects)

Total Songs
2935 songs, 9.2 days, 12.61GB

Sort by song title - first and last
"'Til the Day I Die" by Third Day
"Zoot Suit Riot" by Cherry Poppin' Daddies

Sort by time - shortest and longest
Shortest: "Blank" (0:00) by John Mayer.
Shortest non-zero is "Prelude to the End of the Game" (0:20) by Sting
Longest: "Octavarium" (23:58) by Dream Theater

Sort by Album - first and last
First: 'Til The Medicine Takes by Widespread Panic
Last: Zoot Suit Riot by Cherry Poppin' Daddies

Sort by Artist - first and last
First: .38 Special
Last: Yarbrough & Peoples

Top five played songs
"A Boy Named Sue" - Johnny Cash
"Black Math" - The White Stripes
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" - Bob Dylan
"Liberty" - Steve Vai
"Tangled Up in Blue" - Bob Dylan (yes, I've been on a Dylan kick lately)

Find the following words. How many songs show up?
Sex: 21
Death: 15
Love: 162
You: 326
Home: 20
Boy: 77
Girl: 23
Blue: 312*

*I added this because I have a playlist just for songs with "Blue" in the name.

Listening: Dust in the Wind by Kansas

Yellow Submarine

That's what I'm going to need to get home. It's raining cats and dogs out there. Just checking in with random thoughts...

On the way to work, I heard some lyrics that were appropriate for the weather...

"And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'."
--Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-changin'

I had a funny occurrence at the bank drive-through. The guy in front of my left, so I pulled up to the air tube thing. The little plastic container wasn't there. I hit the teller call button, but they were pretty busy. Then I see the guy that was in front of me come walking back with the container. We had a chuckle about it.

Listening: New Rose - The Damned

Free Speech for the Dumb

First off, who the hell cares what Harry Belafonte thinks or says? You may or may not agree with him. Personally, I do not agree. But he has the right to say what he believes, just as I do. What I find disturbing about this tempest in a teacup are the reactions of some people. Some of the reactions from here are simply nauseating. Let me be up front and say I am a white, male Christian and when making a choice at the polls between a Republican and Democrat, I generally choose Republican at the national level. If I had to choose a classification, I would pick libertarian. So I should be Fox's target audience.

"Harry Belafonte is an idiot, and should be deported." — Charlie (Newport Beach, CA)

"I think H. Bellefonte should be deported and have any U.S. citizenship revoked." — R.S.U.

"Belafonte should be ashamed of himself especially when the USA has been good to him, he is only digging himself deeper and deeper to the left, his US passport should be taken away from him." — Richard

So we are going to start deporting idiots? That will definitely cut down on traffic for my commutes.

Another "deportation" I had to single out…

"Harry Belafonte should be deported to his own country or better yet to Venezuelan where he can party with his buddy Hugo Chavez. The man is a disgrace. All the money and fame in the U.S. and treats the country like crap. Deport him, revoke his citizenship and no visa allowed." — George (Orlando, FL)

Belafonte was born in New York City (New York City!?!), so if we deported him to his own country, wouldn't that cause some kind of rip in the space-time continuum?

"Good job, Comrade Belafonte. You have always upheld the highest traditions of the Communist Party. After all, what has America ever given you? It's no wonder that millions of Americans are fleeing this rotten country to live in the socialist and communist paradises in North Korea, Cuba and Communist China. Good and faithful Comrade, your ticket is waiting." — Andy

This is great! See, this is how you should react to people when they spout socialist propaganda. Others in this vein…

"Mr. Belafonte should stick to writing and singing songs, and leave the politics for the nation's leaders." — Kelsie (Spring, TX)

"I think Harry Belafonte is a washed up, communist, bigoted, old man who wants the spotlight again. If he doesn’t like it here, by all means, go away!" — Fran

"I don't care. Most Americans don't really care and I can assure that Mr. Bush don't give Mr. Belafonte a second thought." — Richard (Washington, DC)

"Belafonte should take his act to Venezuela on a more permanent basis." — Ron

"Harry should move to Venezula, give up his US citizenship and learn how much of a democracy there is in Chavez-land." — Ron

"I don't give one darn 'Day-O' what Mr. Belafonte thinks. When he sings 'Me-wanna-go-home' -- he should, back to Venezuala!" — Matt (Kings Mountain, NC)

"Thanks, Harry! Now I have a reason to clean my shelf of all your albums. Oh wait, I don't have any and neither does 99% of America!" — Phil (Los Angeles, CA)

"Mr. Belafonte has the right to speak his opinion. MANY Americans have died so that he has that right. I think that if he believes Mr. Chavez and Venezuela are so great, he should really consider moving there. He would be much happier, I am sure." — Cathy

Then you have the people throwing around the "t" word: Treason. Speaking out against the government is not treason.

"Harry Belafonte is an idiot. I think he can be called a traitor!" — Bonnie

"This is outrageous! It borders on treason." — Bruce

"I feel he is a traitor! This country is at war. We need support and prayers. He is endangering our countrymen who are on the front lines." — Shirley (Mount Washington, KY)

I hear the ideas behind Shirley's comment quite a bit. That because we are at war, we should automatically support the president and the government. Should we support the troops and their families during war? Of course we should. Do our elected representatives get an automatic pass because we are at war? Hell, no. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. And are the Republicans who are saying this trying to convince me that if John Kerry were in office right now (and we were at war), they would shut up and support his decisions? Yeah, right. The radio waves would be overloaded with people complaining about everything he did.

"I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
--Voltaire

Out of the Silent Planet

It's been quiet around here. The holidays and readjusting to working again after being off for a week and a half have consumed most of my time. The other time has been spent importing every CD I own into iTunes since I got an iPod (Video/30GB/Black) for Christmas. It took a while, but now I can carry all my music in my pocket. Awesome.

If you are looking for an in-car FM transmitter for your iPod (so you can listen over the radio), check out the DLO TransPod. I first bought the Monster (can't remember the model) and it pretty much sucked. I realized that I really wanted a dock, so my iPod wouldn't be sliding around in case I had to stop quickly. Plus the FM transmitter either was very weak, or it was sensitive to positioning. I had to change channels several times during my drive home to keep a clear signal. With the DLO, I've had to change it one time. I keep it on 105.5 and if that gets a little interference (north of town), I switch to 106.3. $79.99 at CompUSA.

Listening: (Pretty Sure) I'm Over You - Will Hoge

Damn Right, I've Got the Blues

This is just wrong. I was browsing through iTunes' Blues section and found this album cover.

Crash Course in Brain Surgery

As I've stated in a couple of previous posts, I am using Agile development methodologies. I'm not using one particular discipline, but my own Frankenstein creation that borrows from Scrum, Crystal Clear and XP. I thought I would share a few of the books I found useful with my 2, no make that 3 readers. After getting a comment from a guy I used to work with, I discovered I had 3 readers. Anyway, here are 3 of the books that really helped me discover Agile development...

Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams by Alistair Cockburn
User Stories Applied by Mike Cohn
Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber

I also have Agile Project Management by Jim Highsmith which I have not finished yet. So far, it's been a little tougher to read than the others.

I am starting to work on a series of articles on unit testing. I'm not sure how often I will post them here, but be looking for the first one next week.

This is not a paid endorsement, I am not an affiliate of Amazon.

Listening: 'Til the Day I Die - Third Day

Key to the Highway

I understand that HOV lanes are a big hit in some areas, such as L.A. and other big cities. There is even talk of allowing single occupied vehicles access to the lanes via a toll, which would be a moving price based on demand. Here in Nashville, single occupied vehicles don't have to pay a toll to ride in the HOV lane. They just do it. And there is no penalty for this action because there is no enforcement of the law.

I don't like HOV lanes. I believe they make traffic worse, not better. And the impact on the environment is negligible at best. Every driver is paying for the interstate system, yet we are not allowed to use certain lanes at certain times of the day. And for those of us that do follow the law, we must deal with three different types of asshats on the roads.

Asshat #1 - The person just flat out ignores the HOV lane signs. This is the guy who just doesn't care about the signs. That is, until they are getting ready to pass a cop. Which is very rare, because the police never watch for HOV lane violators and if an officer happens to be on the interstate, they are usually going faster than everyone else, so the violator never catches up to them. This morning I saw the king of these asshats. He whizzes past at about 85 in the HOV lane, obviously alone in his Buick Rendevouz. It has dealer plates, so the guy is probably a car salesman, which already makes him an asshat. He comes up behind a car going 65 in the HOV lane (see next paragraph) and proceeds to tailgate the offending car. I don't mean a "I’m a slightly unsafe distance from your car" tailgating, I mean a "stuntman can jump from my hood to your trunk" tailgating. I pass both of them in the lane next to the HOV lane. He squeezes between me and the car, rides my bumper until he gets around and starts to try to squeeze back to the left lane, getting very close to my bumper. I, of course, let off the gas so the gap doesn't widen as quick as he estimated, but he missed me.

Asshat #2 - The person who thinks because they have 2 people in the car, they MUST ride in the HOV lane. Okay, the idea behind the HOV lane is that when traffic gets heavy, those who are carpooling can ride in a less congested lane, thereby going faster than other traffic. If regular traffic is going as fast as the HOV lane, there's no reason to ride in it, if you are planning on going slower than traffic. That is what the right hand lane is for. The person who was being tailgated in the above example was this type of asshat. She was going 65 (the speed limit is 70) in the far left lane when just about everyone else was going 70. Tennessee (and most other states) specify that slower traffic must keep right. Which leads us to our final asshat type (at least for today).

Asshat #3 - The person who drives slow in the left most, non-HOV lane. When the HOV lane is in effect, the lane next to it should become the "left" lane for single occupied vehicles. For example, there are 4 lanes at one point of my commute. Starting with 1 for the right lane, you would have 4 3 2 1. 4 is the HOV lane. So 3 should be the "fast" lane for non-HOV cars. Some people don't get this. They driver slower than traffic in that lane. I can't pass on the left without breaking the law and I can't pass on the right because they get people seem to get a herd mentality on the interstate where they want to drive in tight packs with other drivers.

If you are one of these types of asshats, pay attention to your driving! Quit shaving, putting on makeup, eating, talking on the phone, reading the newspaper, reading a book or sending e-mail* and drive!

*Yes, I've seen all of those things being done by someone while driving.

Listening: Trip Through Your Wires - U2

Practice What You Preach

Creating software is all about delivering value to the customer. By focusing on features of the software instead of framework, you are free to concentrate on delivering that value. Your users don't care about your object model or customizable database schema. They care about what the software DOES and how they interact with it.

You may be creating software that uses all the latest buzz words and is a technological marvel, but unless your customer getting more value from these technologies, it is pointless. I realize they may not realize immediate value, because some decisions are made to make the software more customizable or flexible in the future. But if all you are doing is pulling data from a database (which is what 90% of all applications I've ever worked on were doing), you don't need to spend the next year creating a distributed database engine with 456 abstract classes that are the basis for on-the-fly generated code to handle XML in Swahili*.

Business software development is not an academic exercise. Just like a manufacturer who produces widgets to sell to Wal-Mart, we must create software that gives the user more value than it cost them to purchase our software. So, quit reading this and go write something useful. Unless you are not a developer, then go do whatever it is that you do. Just stay away from Microsoft Access©.

*unless Swahili support is on the feature list

Listening: On Any Other Day - The Police

Working Too Hard

The past few weeks have been very busy at work. The good thing is, it has been very productive. I feel like we are starting to get a handle on agile development and we are seeing pretty good results.

Software development is very much a "what have you done for me lately?" career. It doesn't matter if you delivered your last project early and it wowed everyone. If your current project is late, you're in for it. I think we are getting back on track and agile is helping us deliver often, which shows our progress. At the end of August, we were given 4 projects and asked if we could deliver them all by the end of the year. 3 were small projects, one was big. As of right now, one has been delivered and is in use; one has been delivered and is in use, but still has some defects to fix (will be done by today); one has been completed, pending some requested changes from the demo, and will be in place and running by Dec 1; the other is in it's 2nd 2 week iteration with more features completed during the 1st than planned. Even though I feel like we can meet our goal, I will still be amazed if we reach it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Listening: Would? - Alice in Chains

Veteran of the Psychic Wars

Kevin Drum says Congress evades its own responsibility for war

Listening: Black Ice - John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess

A Fool Such As I

Sometimes I doubt my intelligence when writing code. This morning I was working along, writing code and tests, running them in nUnit. I added a new test and some code and suddenly got an error in nUnit:

nunit-gui.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

If you were in the middle of something, the information you were working on might be lost.

I had the option to Debug or Close. I closed it, looked at my test and didn't see anything out of whack, so I tried it again. Same issue. So the next time I chose to Debug. I loaded it into my open copy of VS 2005 and got the message below.

This was on the code in my service that the unit test was calling. So I look at the code a little closer.

public DataSet GetPrimeInvoices(string employeeCode)

{

return this.GetPrimeInvoices(employeeCode);

}

See anything wrong with that?

The function I was calling was an overload of another function that took 2 parameters. I forgot to add the 2nd parameter to the call, so it was just calling itself until it crashed. I added the 2nd parameter

public DataSet GetPrimeInvoices(string employeeCode)

{

return this.GetPrimeInvoices(employeeCode, Level.ProjectManager);

}

I reran my tests and got the beautiful green dot...




Listening: Mr. Soul - Rush

Am I Evil?

I'm tired of the comment spam! So anyone who wants to comment will now have to use word verification. I'm sorry to my 2 readers that you will have to go through this ordeal, but I can't handle the spam anymore.

Now I will never have any comments because no one ever reads this except the spammers!


Listening: Fife and Drum - John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess

A Little Bit More

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
--Thomas Jefferson

I'm in a good mood today because I passed my 2nd Microsoft certification exam this morning (See my other blog). And now I can start reading the book I got from Amazon yesterday: User Stories Applied : For Agile Sotware Development by Mike Cohn.

Listening: My Black Cadillac - Lightnin' Hopkins

Deleted Comments

You may see some comments that say they were deleted by the blog admin. I'm not censoring anyone, I just had some spammer try to pass off a advertisement as a comment.

A moment of silence...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8331097/

Let us have a moment of silence for the death of private property rights. They have been on life support for a while now. Yesterday, the Supreme Court took them out behind the barn and finished them off.

I just read a story in my local paper about the cost of land in my area. There are people who bought land in the 50's and 60's for $100 an acre. That land is now selling to developers for $50,000 - $75,000 an acre. Now, the local government could just declare that building a neighborhood is better for the public good than having a farm or wooded area. The developers would no longer have to pay 50K per acre because they can just bribe an elected official (yes, that happens) and get it on the cheap.

This is just further evidence of our "government knows best" nanny state. The Constitution was written to protect the rights of individuals and to limit government. Where is the protection for the individual in this situation?

Gemini IssueTracker

I recently set up Gemini to be a part of my build system. Gemini is an awesome product. I am using SQL Server 2005 Beta 2 as my database and had some issues getting Gemini's DB setup script to work on 2005, but was able to easily fix them. Here are my notes...

Installed Gemini to local machine using Setup.msi and had no problems.

Ran SetupDB.msi and got this error for several stored procs…

Msg 4104, Level 16, State 1, Procedure gemini_getlut_1, Line 18

Multi-part identifier 'b.username' could not be bound.

Msg 104, Level 16, State 1, Procedure gemini_getlut_1, Line 18

ORDER BY items must appear in the select list if the statement contains

a UNION operator.

Contacted support via email at 2:07pm, received reply at 2:15pm (awesome support). Support said they do not support SQL Server 2005 yet, but that other customers had modified the install scripts to work. They did not say what changes those customers had made. So I opened the Create_Procs.sql script in Deploy\Step1_SQL_Database.

I edited the following stored procs…

• gemini_getlut_1
• gemini_getissueupdatedata
• gemini_getlutentries
• gemini_getxplutentries

I changed the order by clause for the union all to "username" instead of "b.username", i.e.

union all

select a.userid, b.firstname + N' ' + b.surname as username from projectresource a, users b

where a.projid=@projid and b.userid=a.userid and a.isactive = 'y'

order by b.username

Became...

union all

select a.userid, b.firstname + N' ' + b.surname as username from projectresource a, users b

where a.projid=@projid and b.userid=a.userid and a.isactive = 'y'

order by username

Ran the script file and everything installed correctly.

Logged in using admin/admin and created a new user with admin privileges.

To move to my build machine, I backed up the database and restored it on the target server. Installed the executables (setup.msi) to the target machine and edited the web.config to point to the new server. Also pointed web.config to SMTP server for e-mail.

Sorry for the incomplete sentences and any grammatical mistakes. I was just recording my steps in OneNote as I was working through the process and I am posting them unedited.

XML and Blogger.com

Wow, blogger.com doesn't like XML. It doesn't support the code or pre tag at all. And in the XML file example below, the first two elements should be...

Project DefaultTargets="Build"

and

Target Name="Build"

For some reason it cut the words Project and Target off.