Tag: Best Practice

Categories
Ramblings

When Is and Idea more than a Idea?

When it makes sense. Everyone has ideas. Everyone has the way they think it should be, but there are many factors
that can contribute to how an idea come become more than an idea.
Does it make sense?

Feasible? (financially and resource wise)

Does it fit our goals?

Is there more to it that we aren’t seeing?

Is there an easier way?

What are we going to gain?

How long will it take?

Does anyone else agree?

Do you actually know what you are talking about?
I could probably keep going for another 100 questions. This series of question applies to everything you do
where someone has an idea. Your job is the thing most people thing of, but it applies to more: You and your friends
going out on a Friday night, you and your bandmates writing songs, just apply it to pretty much any situation.

You should try to make sure you “pre-qualify” your idea, so, #1, you don’t look like a total goof when you
bring it up, but then also when you get asked follow up questions, you know what you are talking about.

If you think you won’t know what you are talking about when someone tries to poke holes in your idea,
then it probably means you need to do some more research, or probably that your idea isn’t very good
in the first place.

Many people have ideas, but then have no follow up on how to follow through with them. Usually
that is where ideas that are bogus will get filtered out. Once you get other people to buy
into your idea and they actually thing its a viable thing to do, then it is easier to
get things pushed into an “action”

Sometimes too, your idea might be good, and in some given situations, if you can, just do it,
and if you are sure that it is a winner, and then it turns out to be, apoligize later. 🙂

Categories
Geeky/Programming

Do You Know How To Drive?

Yeah, I know how to drive. But do you know what the lights mean? What the signs say? Big difference. You really should ask the question, Do you know how to drive and all the laws that go along with driving.

Do you know how to program? Yes I know how to program. Do you know all the laws 🙂 – well not laws, but the differences of each language Do you know if, then, end if? While, Do While, Dim x as Int, string s; pInfo->Blah Blah etc?

If you know the basics of programming, you shouldn’t have to worry about the what language you are writing. Just like if you know how to drive, you shouldnt worry about the signs, because you can read them as you go, figure them out on the fly.

I see to many students get hung up on the fact that they just learned C++, Java, or vb.net. First, if you know vb.net like a rockstar, you know C# (or is id D flat?)

If you know C++. or C – then you should be able to learn or know Java and C# easily. With that syntax, you should be able to pick up javascript easily too.

VbScript? – you know VB6, VB.net. And like I said – VB.net – you know C#, so it comes full circle. You’re money 🙂
And if you know .NET – create a website and you start learning ASP.NET – which isnt a language as so many people think, but a paradigm – you can use C# or VB.NET to code – so don’t worry.

I started of with C++, then JAVA, then VbScript, VB6, throw in some wacky stuff, Batch files, KixStart scripting, Javascript, then VB.NET – and then C#. There is alot of other stuff that I really don’t know, COBOL, Python, whatever. But you can learn if you need to. If you want to get started with programming – start with Batch Files and VBScript. Look up WMI. Just do anything you can with scripting – it will just broaden your knowledge into the OS and Windows in general.
You also can’t forget SQL. Any programmer should know at least basic SQL – SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, etc. Without SQL, coding data aware applications is pretty tough.

I can’t say I’m an expert, or even close to one, in any of these languages, but I know enough to get me by, and if you know how to ask the right questions, then you can figure out what you need to know to complete your toolbelt of programming.
To really complete your toolbelt – Take a blank computer – setup Windows, IIS, ASP.NET, Visual Studio 2003, 2005, SQL 2005, etc. Its almost like a mechanic. Do you think mechanics don’t know how to get their tools in order? The machine, and the software you use are your tools. You should know them in and out. (Ex: My rachet is squeaky when I use a 1/2 socket). Things won’t always be set up for you. You need to know how to set up your tools! If you are a guitar player – you need to know how to tune your guitar. How else can you play anything good?
So, do you know how to drive?

Categories
Geeky/Programming

Hacking Wifi – Analogies

Well, if you have ever had to “borrow” someone elses wifi connection – here is what I was thinking about today. 1st, there have been cases where people get prosecuted for hacking others wifi. Here are my thoughts on why I dont think it is stealing.

1) If someone has their sprinkler on in their yard and it happens to spray onto the street partially, and you are on the street, and fill up a bucket with water, is it stealing?

2) Your neighbor has a huge picture window, and a huge TV. You live close by. You can watch TV through the picture window just fine. Is this stealing?

3) Back to the sprinkler – what if your neighbor’s sprinkler hits your yard a bit – stealing?

4) Where is the line drawn? If it is a windy day and your neighbor’s leaves from their tree blow in your yard, who should rake them?

5) It is to easy to secure. Don’t broadcast your SSID, turn on MAC address filtering, Using WEP/Tkip, etc. If you do all of these things, and then someone gets your connection – well then it is probably is serious hacking going on, and might be considered a crime.

6) If you have your stereo on and I can hear the CD you are playing – should I have to pay for the CD? phhhh

The bottom line is, people need to be responsible for the technology they own. Just like the guy who needs to be responsible for his sprinkler, TV, radio. Be responsible, take 2 minutes to read up how to secure your wifi router. If not, then expect your connection to be used. 🙂

Categories
Ramblings

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Learned a lesson this week. Measure Twice, Cut Once. I guess I’m not really measuring, or cutting, but it relates. Reminds me of a story. Back in high school, when I was around 17, I had a 55 Plymouth Savoy I was restoring. My Grandpa said I could use the lean-to on his garage as my place to fix it up. It was cool in the summer/fall, but once it started getting colder, we were freezing. A buddy of mine was working on it with me every day, so we decidied to put some insulation in the lean-to and some plywood up on the walls. We insulated everything, and then we needed to put the plywood up. Thing is, we needed to cut the plywood down a little. We measured, and it was something like 73 and 1/4 inches. We went and my grandpa was ready to cut, and said 71 and 3/4 – and we were like – no no, 73 and 1/4. We argued but didnt want to push the issue, so we cut it at 71 and 3/4. We goto put up the plywood, and there is a big gap at the top. All hell breaks loose, and we are scrambling to get something shim it up, etc, etc.

We should have measured twice.

Now, the example above isn’t a huge deal, we lost a few sheets of plywood. But just think if we needed to put up thousands of sheets, and we cut them all before checking – we would have been big time screwed. Moral of the story – before doing something that you might have second doubts on – double check it, then double check it again – otherwise would could be wasting alot of time later. Measure Twice, Cut Once 🙂

Categories
Geeky/Programming

Static Code Analysis in C/C++

If you ever need to run static code analysis on C/C++ files, you can use Vs2005, but if you are in Vs2003, here is what you can do:

c:Program FilesMicrosoft Visual Studio 8VC>cl /analyze “C:MyCodeFile.c” > c:MyCodeFileAnalysis.txt

Found this on MSDN

Categories
Random

Email Nice – Hyperlinks

I found out today Im guilty. Guilty of sending emails where my hyperlinks I paste inside them arent actually hyperlinks, so that the user getting the email has to copy and paste them into their browser. What a PITA if you ask me. I see that you actually have to hit ENTER after pasting a url for the autoformat to work correctly. I looked a little bit for a macro or add-in that would auto check for hyperlinks that weren’t actually “hyper” before sending an email, but couldn’t find one easily. Maybe I will look into VS2005 for Office and just create a little add-in. Or I suppose I could just hit ENTER 🙂

Categories
Geeky/Programming

CruiseControl.NET – Customize Your Project List with .NET Remoting

I had a need to customize a cc.net project list, and if you install CCTray, in c:Program Filescctray you will see 3 dll’s.

ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.CCTrayLib
ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.Remote
NetReflector

Note: If you have the latest CCTray installed, then you will have to develop any custom application in .NET 2.0

So first this, you need to reference those 3 dll’s, and add a using statement to your code

.csharpcode { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: Courier New , Courier, Monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }

using ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.CCTrayLib.Configuration;
using ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.CCTrayLib.ServerConnection;
using ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.Remote;
RemoteCruiseManagerFactory factory = new RemoteCruiseManagerFactory();
ICruiseManager manager = factory.GetCruiseManager("tcp://buildserver:21234/CruiseManager.rem");
ProjectStatus[] projectStatuses = manager.GetProjectStatus();
foreach (ProjectStatus status in projectStatuses)
{             
//status.Name; = Project Name
    //status.WebURL; = Web URL for the cc.net project
    //status.BuildStatus.ToString(); = cc.net build status
}

Well, I spent more time trying to format the code on this post than actually coding the program, so that stinks. I wish it wasnt such a pain to preserve formatting

Categories
Ramblings

Laptops in Meetings

I received an email from Microsoft, one of their daily or weekly “Microsoft News” emails. One good link that I saw was “7 rules for using laptops in meetings” By Jeff Wuorio. It really makes sense

Here is the link – enjoy

7 rules for using laptops in meetings