Personal

MSXML 6 failure on SQL Server 2005 Tools install

Stacy Vicknair — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:37:39 GMT

Today I ran into this problem when setting up the SQL Server Management Tools for SQL Server 2005. Like any good little code slinger, I googled (if you are particular to Microsoft, you can read that as “binged”) to see who’s had the problem, because it’s no news that when you aren’t on the crest of the tech wave that someone else has had the same issue.

In particular, MSXML 6 would fail and the log would have a message similar to:

MSI (s) (40:58) [22:16:00:859]: MainEngineThread is returning 1605

Well, undoubtedly I found many other results for others who have had this issue, primarily those that have XP SP3. To get around this failure, you’ve got to install the tool available at the link below and then use it to remove any entry starting with MSXML 6. For me, I had two entries, one “parser” and one SP2. Afterwards, just start the install over again.

I think what made the experience frustrating for me is that the SQL Server 2005 Setup fails in too friendly of a way. I’m used to the brutal honesty of the NUnit GUI. Give me a big red bar to illustrate how bad I failed or get out.

For the uninstall tool:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

A couple resources about the problem itself:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqlsetupandupgrade/thread/493b5a95-1af6-4ec1-aa24-92875e4497c0
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/conversation.aspx?messageid=33740907&threadid=33664744

Technorati Tags: MSXML6,MSXML,SQLServer2005,SQL Server 2005

Adventures of a Lonely Agilist: Formal User Stories

Stacy Vicknair — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:59:13 GMT

Although not yet to the big project that I have coming up, I’ve had the opportunity to try out formal user stories for the first time for a project. Before this, I was using a method that mimicked Joel Spolsky’s painless functional specs. Most of this process I will maintain, except I’ve moved to the “As a (role) I want (something) so that (benefit).” user story format proposed by Mike Cohn in User Stories Applied.

I find that using this format really does help me 1) write from the user perspective, which is hard for a developer sometimes, 2) really think about the motivation for the feature and 3) keep the description concise. The details will need to be further fleshed out and explained in greater detail as the feature gets implemented, but this has been a quick route to a common ground understanding of what will be delivered.

The one problem I’ve had via this collaboration is that the first time around I assumed the reason for benefit and I was wrong. This might seem minor, but the truth is that the benefit to the user is the reason for their passion for that feature. I apologized and corrected this and have made a mental note. This was an assumption that I shouldn’t have made.

Technorati Tags: AOALA,User Stories,Specs,JoelOnSoftware,Agile

Adventures of a Lonely Agilist

Stacy Vicknair — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:32:02 GMT

As a result of working for a business instead of a small software shop, I often have to play all roles in a project. I am one of two developers, and we hardly do work on the same projects simultaneously. As a result, I can be seated as the project manager, the architect, the developer, the tester, QA, DBA, or any other role that is required.

Sometimes it’s an intimidating position. I’m an army of one and sometimes the stakeholders outnumber me greatly. It’s a battle to ensure quality and that the product I deliver is what they want without compromising quality or myself.

As a result, I’ve been toying with the idea of tackling the next project I have as a lonely agilist. I’ll be the only team member, but I’ll try and follow the practices of XP (to the limits that I have). This means user stories, delivering demo-able products every iteration and continuously adding value to the application.

I hope to document how this project goes on my blog. I will be talking about the obstacles of being a one-man team playing all roles in an agile environment. The project is still probably a month or more away, so I will provide updates as they come. I wanted to start out with my concerns as I prepare for the endeavor:

As the PM, will stakeholder interruptions keep me stagnant?
As the only member of the team, will I be able to deliver a demo-able product in 2-4 weeks?
Will stakeholders see the value in user stories? Will they understand why I need them weighted?

So here is a new path in my journey as a developer. For those who’ve been down this path before, can you truly be a lonely agilist?

Technorati Tags: Agile,XP,SDLC

Look Ma, I’m an MVP!

Stacy Vicknair — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:21:37 GMT

I’ll tell you, I never imagined it would happen this quickly, but I was nominated for the first time this quarter and also received the MVP Award for my contributions online and offline to the VB.NET community. I’m very honored and very thankful to everyone involved in getting me mobilized within the community, including Zain Naboulsi, J Sawyer and PJ Forgione (who nominated me). Also, I’d like to give some thanks for other great individuals I’ve met through becoming active in a great community: Jeff Julian, Andrew Duthie and David Silverlight.

Now, the award is for what I’ve done over the past year and my involvement in the community for that period. I’ll have to say I’m just getting started here, and I hope that I can bring some more to the table, enough to make them wonder why they gave it to me already when I earn it doubly so next time around *wink*.

So, I want to talk about my motivations (once again) and talk a little about this coming year as an MVP. Here are my goals:

Keep giving VB.NET the love it deserves.
Energize online communities for the coming of F# to Visual Studio 2010.
Promote the creation of groups, both online and offline, and help develop resources for those who are looking to do so.

I’ll be honest, if you read through my blog, you’ll notice I’m not a developer who’s been working for years. I’m a lowly junior dev, a self proclaimed master of nothing with a passion for what I do. If I had to ask myself why I was nominated and why I was selected, I’d have to reply that it is because I’m passionate about development and I believe in VB.NET as a language. I’m a mover with my own goals and my own schedule of what I want to learn. I’m not a master of anything in particular, but I’m an energizer, a catalyst. I want to learn, and I want to share what I’ve learned in a collaborative way.

So, if we cross paths, let’s learn together. Maybe I can give you a fresh perspective on something, and most likely I’ll walk away having learned something as well. The real result is that by us crossing paths, by us blogging and telling others, we create a network of shared information. We aren’t giving out trade secrets and we shouldn’t feel like we’re shooting ourselves in the foot by sharing the info instead we should feel as if we are furthering our field for the better, through increased awareness and shared practices.

Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you guys around!

Technorati Tags: MVP,VB.NET

The road to passing the Joel Test revisited

Stacy Vicknair — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:11:57 GMT

A while back I made a post about the Joel test and how badly my current employer is doing according to it. I've made it a personal goal to help improve my working conditions here as long as I am employed here, and as such I've started tackling weak areas, namely beginning with implementing source control management (SCM).

As I've mentioned in my year wrap-up, we've made great progress in this department. I no longer write code unless I've first created a repository. For older jobs, as I use and update them, I add them to the repository. Slowly, many of our critical projects are making their way into our Subversion based solution.

The reason I went with Subversion is because I currently don't have much pull here. Subversion is free (something management loves hearing) and proved easy to implement. We're using VisualSVN Server for the repository and TortoiseSVN for the client side (checking out, updating and commiting).

My goals have changed from implementing source control to now making sure that any critical and changing code is available and updated to the source control server. Also, I hope we can migrate the server eventually from a spare dev box to an actual server, because I'm having some issues with VisualSVN and the the box suspending or sleeping (namely I can't commit at these times, and have to wake the box AND log in... I thought it shouldn't happen like this since VisualSVN runs as a service).

So altogether, our work environment is improving. Next on my list is something so critical it serves as an assumption rather than a question on the Joel Test, and that is proper unit testing / testing period. This needs to be overhauled here, and I'll be working on it.

Technorati Tags: Joel on Software,Joel Test

Year 2008 wrap-up and my hopes for 2009

Stacy Vicknair — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:48:44 GMT

So, this post is probably more for my personal benefit than for anyone who may read, but I'm just going to highlight the good or bad of 2008 for my personal life and then visit my hopes for 2009.

This year really marked the beginning of my involvement in the .NET community. I consider myself somewhere around a junior level developer, and by giving back to a community that has given so much to me, I know I have grown and learned more than had I just waited for knowledge to come to me.

I got involved with the community thanks to Zain Naboulsi and his talks at the Heroes Happen Here event in Baton Rouge. Before then, I hadn't really heard of user groups, and I didn't realize how the .NET community truly thrived in Baton Rouge. I was also introduced to the Second Life .NET Users Group, and met many interesting and smart people through it.

From the HHH event, my community involvement spiked, and I started WTFNext.com. The idea behind the website is for me to clarify some of the moments I've had where I was left jilted at the alter of Visual Studio when a tutorial or a book just decided that I didn't need to know more. So, I want to create content that hopefully prevents the "WTF next?" moments for myself and others.

From there, I've just been enjoying getting deeper into development and working on developing the good practices I can extract from others. Here's my list of 2008 milestones:

New job working with VB.NET instead of Visual FoxPro 9
Created WTFNext.com
Joined the Second Life .NET Users Group and BRDNUG, ultimately becoming an Island Officer for MS Island and Co-Chair to the website migration committee for the BRDNUG.
Took (but sadly did not pass) my first Microsoft certification exam.
Implemented source control management at my current job, incrementally improving the work environment.

Here's what I'm hopeful for this year:

Pass the 070-536. I've got it scheduled later this month, I'm touching up on what I was insecure in the first time and I'm very hopeful to get it this time.
Continue to delve deeper into .NET and learn more about my weak areas. After the framework exam I'm going to focus on ASP.NET development.
Keep on the road to passing the Joel Test. As long as I'm here, I'm going to improve this environment for those who might tread after me.
Start new open source projects to help my continued learning. I want to make new desktop and web applications and explore aspects of .NET I haven't touched before, but at the same time keep it open for the community's critique and hopeful benefit.
Never stop learning, and never stop telling others what might be helpful.

That's all for now. I hope you guys have had an equally rewarding last year, and I hope the best for your upcoming year. This year I'm hoping to make great strides in my career and my ability to develop great apps in .NET.

Technorati Tags: 2008,2009,Resolutions

Microsoft Exam 070-536: How I've prepared

Stacy Vicknair — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:03:49 GMT

Tomorrow I'm taking the 070-536 exam. This will be my first Microsoft certification exam, and I'm hopeful to pass but I won't be terribly surprised if I do not. From what I've seen around the forums online and other blogs, this exam is not one that is a breeze.

So, here's a look at how I've prepared, and maybe some helpful links for those of you looking to take this exam in the future. After I take the test tomorrow I will review how I could do better, and what might be better advice to those looking to take the exam.

A couple things to note:

I'm paying for my exam and all materials I use. This makes my exams studying based on minimal cost.
I'm taking this exam probably sooner than I'd like. I have studied for over half a year, but I'm still not at a point where I can say I'm comfortable or completely knowledgeable about every aspect of the exam.
I have only been programming in .NET for a bit over a year. Studying for this exam has proven to be a great way to learn powerful intricacies of the framework.

So here's my steps to prepare:

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Application Development Foundation read cover to cover. The book is known for errors, but many of the errors to me seemed self evident. Reading this book is great for learning more about the framework itself, and has helpful labs every step of the way. The errata sheets is available here. Even with the overwhelming errors, this book is still a great reference.
Take the practice tests on the CDs for the book. If you find yourself lacking in a certain section, reread the section or check out the MSDN articles on the subject. Again, take note of the errata.
After you're comfortable with the book and practice exams, look over the complete exam topic coverage, and compare it to MSDN articles that are relevant.

Finally, helpful posts concerning the exam:

http://dotnetforum.dk/blogs/mac/archive/2007/05/22/passed-microsoft-70-536.aspx - How another guy passed.
http://devlicio.us/blogs/derik_whittaker/archive/2007/09/02/taking-the-mcts-test-70-536-that-sucked.aspx - A general rant about the exam
http://en.csharp-online.net/Preparation_Guide_for_Exam_70-536 (I'll be taking in VB however)
http://mctscertification.blogspot.com/ - Quite a few examples of the framework in use.

Altogether, I'm excited but worried. The exam won't be easy, and I'm just going to have to think logically and take my time. I really do hope for the best, because this exam is a stepping stone to many MCTS statuses, both for the Framework 2.0 and 3.5.

Any of you guys who've taken this exam want to chime in? Let me know any further links / helpful hints for those coming in the future or if I end up retaking >.<

Technorati Tags: 70-536,Microsoft Certification

I broke my own build...

Stacy Vicknair — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:56:47 GMT

Yesterday morning I took the time to work on a personal project and I wrote some great code. I wrote a class whose purpose was to enumerate the search engines that are installed in Internet Explorer so that I could implement them into a Word Ribbon, allowing you to do searches straight from Word. I got the bulk of the work done, the class was finished, it just wasn't hooked up to the project to produce output yet. I committed my changes because the changes didn't break the build, and I was on my way out to go to the renaissance festival.

Now, I try frantically to find the class and it isn't on my work laptop. The work I've done wasn't in source control because I didn't select all files when committing, and tortoise defaults to not send new files (Is that a setting? I need to check...) The result, a very sad day. I was hoping to get started on finishing the hookup and working to complete the launcher ribbon project. Now, I have to wait until I get home and can check my home laptop. I believe that is where the uncommitted class resides.

Lesson learned. I need to use greater care when committing, and as such I've created these guidelines for myself:

When committing, first think through what you've done since last commit, and the purpose of the new commit.
Actively peruse the updated file list and make sure to include all pertinent files.
Never drunk-dial. Believe me, this applies to committing too.

So, by not being cautious, I can effectively say I've broken my build. Thankfully, I only broke a build on a project where I'm the only worker. However, I actively am tasting the effects of a broken build first hand.

Technorati Tags: broken build,commit,SVN,Launcher

The bad then the good…

Stacy Vicknair — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:32:24 GMT

I haven’t had the chance to update lately (by lately I mean this week really) because my grandfather has passed away. He was a great guy and I loved him. I just hope that he’s happier now than he was for his last few days on earth.

That was the bad news, but he was a great guy and I am better for knowing him. The good news is that I’m really motivated to get some new series under way.

The underlying idea when I made WTFNext was that I’ve seen so many tutorials that I’ve felt were incomplete or could be explained so much better, I felt that I should try to do those tutorials better myself. The name of this blog is a reference to how I felt after reading those incomplete and somewhat hard to follow tutorials.

So, on this site, I want to work my hardest so that you never have to read something I’ve written and wonder for yourself, “WTF do I do next?”

That being said, I want to outline what I expect to do in the upcoming posts.

Series on threading to update the UI. I feel that if you’re looking to learn how to thread, you can find some resources that are helpful, but take a large amount of hard thought to understand. Threading really isn’t that bad, and in .NET there are some real easy steps you can follow to get threading implemented. From there, it isn’t much more difficult to update your main UI from your thread without locking the system down.
Series on creating Ribbons in VS2008 with VSTO. Ribbons are a new beast that combines XML with programming addins using Visual Studio Tools for Office. We’ll take a look at the creation of a Ribbon, including full finished code for a ribbon that I think anyone might find useful.
Miscellaneous rants and posts. I’m good at miscellaneous ;) Expect some future posts about what I deal with at work, at home, and also some opinions that you might not want to miss.

So I hope you guys stick around, because I’m really looking forward to the upcoming posts here on this blog.

Technorati Tags: future of wtfnext,wtfnext

My Halloween Costume 2008: Domo-kun

Stacy Vicknair — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:52:10 GMT

I’m blogging my costume because I’m sure there are some out there who would appreciate it (and the nearly 10 hours I put into sawing the frame, cutting fabric, sewing, hot gluing, etc deserve more than 4 hours of a party, how about partial immortalization via the web?)

Next year I’ll be either a goat (my nickname, feel free to call me Goat if we cross paths) or a CAT-5 cable. Either way, at least this year I’ll be ahead of the game.

Without further ado, meet Domo:

The pink you see in Domo’s mouth is my “advanced” harness system. Sort of like a straight jacket with arm freedom.

Here’s my girlfriend and myself, she was little bo peep:

I was literally sewing until the last minute, otherwise I would have sewn arms and legs as well.

Any of you guys got hot Halloween shots to share?

Technorati Tags: Halloween 2008,Domo-kun,Little Bo Peep