The honeymoon is over, and it looks like the beta period is over, too. http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/ar... Two of the 17 bugs that I reported are listed on the Engineering 7 blogs, both trivial tweeks. Hopefully, the 15 other comments (10 of which were real bugs), have been addressed. I don’t think this list was intended to address real bug fixes, anyway, so I am not too worried. Taskbar “Open With” Let’s face it, if you are reading this than you are a power users,...

I understand that Microsoft has been targeted by governments for including Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer in the operating system, but we are talking about an application framework when it comes to .Net! Where else would that go? Media Players are consumer-oriented software not related to the OS Web browsers, err, well, I guess that’s the notepad of today. Keep it in the OS. Code libraries, frameworks, run-time libraries, etc – This IS the operating system, for Pete’s sake! Microsoft...

Jeff Atwood is a very good writer. I read the Coding Horror blog all the time. I can’t say that I know much about StackOverflow or Joel on Software. The recent brew-ha-ha over Uncle Bob’s SOLID principals had me choosing sides just like the next guy. I am not sure I can add much to the discussion, but here goes anyway… Two Types of Development Projects Consider two types of development projects: Contract Job for ATM machine In-house Job for Fracture Mechanics analysis of crack growth data The problem...

Here are my top five. What are yours? No. 1 Failure to clearly define a network protocol In today’s world of everything over HTTP, designing low-level network protocols are mostly a thing of the past. Behind the firewall, however, failure to clearly define a network protocol before implementation is one of the largest sources of re-work. Take the time to clearly define the network communication protocols – at whatever level is required for your application. Even if you are running over HTTP, define...

Recently, Jeff Prosiese blogged about a boot sector virus on one of his kid’s machines. He did not have time to work on it initially, and tried the Geek Squad. Geek Squad? Reading about his experience led to this post. As software engineers, we may not have much time, but we do have the knowledge to deal with these things. At least more than the Geek Squad does, I hope. If Jeff Prosiese’s family can be hit with this, I wondered “what’s next, Mark Russinovich with a rootkit”. I asked around, and exactly...

The Apple IPod is a great device. So good, that there are no less than 8 of them in my house (3 iPod touch, 1 old nano, 2 new nanos, a shuffle, and a mini). Apple iTunes software really stinks. It takes a quite a bit of bad network programming code to use up 41% of my CPUs while downloading two podcasts over a mere 1Mb/s internet connection. Each morning when I fire up iTunes, nearly half of my computer power is sucked up doing what? Waiting for the remote server to send more bytes? Drawing progress...

The IRS is charged with the responsibility of collecting taxes. This department has been created with a charter that requires it to provide services that facilitate the collection of taxes from the people. In 1918, this meant providing paper instructions and forms. In 2009, this clearly means providing software – both online and client-side. How else could you accomplish this charter? How else could they do their job! The IRS Provides forms and instructions The IRS provides forms and instructions,...

I log off all the time. Finished using the laptop, log off. Use the kid’s machine to check a movie listing, log off. Jump on the server to perform some admin, log off. Check the weather on the wife’s machine, log off. Log in with Administrator account to perform application installation or other maintenance, log off. I never shut down. Just before going on vacation, shut down. Lightning storm, shut down. I never sleep. The computer goes to sleep all by itself, so I don’t have to. Besides, if I did...