Thursday, December 22, 2011
Not sure why this is being blocked, must be the word Amazon or maybe the link? So I am posting my review here word for word and hope they unblock it.
Review
Got it yesterday for my anniversary as a gift and was
loving it. Great size for a tablet, hardware performs well, screen is good, and
it's priced very well. If you want a tablet to read and watch "some" video it's
a good purchase, that would be even better if they had TV show and movie rentals
like Amazon.
It would have gotten 4 starts, but this is why I am taking it back:
Up until yesterday's patch (v 1.4.1) the platform was fairly open. With very
little work you could download apps from Amazon's store or the Android Market.
The Nook Color has been a dream for hobbyists for a year now. But that patch
locked everything down and now you are limited to the sad collection of apps
from Barnes and Noble.
I don't want to completely reset the device and root it,
voiding my warranty just to get a handful of apps I wanted working on it like a
decent client for Google Reader.
They are following Amazon's lead who did the
same thing this week. I stopped using Apple products because of its locked down
environment and I'm not going to start playing the same game with another
company. I know this is only angering a bunch of technical people, but don't
forget that we are a very vocal group and often the first people our friends and
family come to for technical advice.
I recommend if you really want a cheap
tablet, to stick with the Kindle Fire, because their app and video market is
much better even if the hardware is not as good. But if you can afford it, get a
real Android tablet. Some decent one's can be had for only $50 more than the
Nook.
Response from Barnes and Noble:
Your Review is no longer visible by others because it contains inappropriate language which violates our Terms of Use. If you update your content, it will be reconsidered by our moderators within three business days. This message will be removed when your content is approved.
I can't find anything in the Terms of Use that I have violated, so hopefully it's just a mistake that will be fixed. Sent a message to customer service.
Monday, August 08, 2011
Had a great time again this year at St. Louis Day of .NET. Thanks to everyone who attended my sessions. Based on feedback it seems like I'll need to do a presentation on SQL Server Compact next year. Doesn't seem to be a lot of awareness on this great product. But a lot can change in one year.
As promised, the PowerPoint slides and code samples can be found on my SkyDrive here.
Here is what you get.
Customizing BlogEngine 2 PowerPoint
(Slides and notes)
- How to configure BlogEngine to use ASP.NET 4.0 and SQL Server Compact
- Create custom themes
- Create custom controls
- Create custom widgets
- Create custom extensions
- Some hosting, publishing and SEO advice
IE9 Pinned Sites
(Slides and notes)
The sample code is found under themes/Standard in the Code Sample below.
Code Sample
A BlogEngine 2 site that implements the following:
- SQL Server Compact
- ASP.NET 4.0
- HTML5 Clean Theme with pinned site integration
- Custom Login Control
- Author List Widget
- Sample Logging Extension
Friday, July 08, 2011
I was going to highlight the messed up parts, but then the entire page would be yellow.
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Know your audience. I’m guessing more than a few Geeks With Blogs readers are also proud owners of Windows Phone 7 devices. If you want to know more detail about the blog content itself, head on over to our launch post. But for this readership crowd I’ll focus more on the technical.
- We built the site on BlogEngine.NET 2.0
- It uses a custom designed theme based on the Metro UI. Want it? Just ask in the comment section! We have not open sourced it yet but if you pinky swear to share changes you make and not distribute it to other people (just point them to this post, we’ll get them a copy) you can have it.
- It also has a mobile theme with a similar Metro feel. (see below)
- There is a actual app in the works. These are crazy easy to make using tools like AppMakr and Follow My Feed.
Please check us out and let us know what you think.
We’re also looking for contributors.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Microsoft has announced they are raising the limit of free applications a developer can submit from 5 to 100. But what does that really mean?
First, lets look at the reason for the limitation. The iTunes Store and the Android Market both have a lot more applications available than the Windows Phone Marketplace. But that says nothing about the quality of those applications. I attended a couple of pre-launch events and Microsoft representatives were clearly told to send a message. We don’t want a bunch of junky applications that do nothing but spam the marketplace. That was the reason for the 5 free application limit.
Okay, so now what has the result been? Well, there are still fart apps, but there is no sign of a developer flooding the marking with 1500 wallpaper applications or 1000 of the same application all pointed at different RSS feeds. On the other hand there are developers who want to release real free apps but are constrained by the 5 app limit.
So why did Microsoft change it’s mind? Is it to get the count of applications up, or is to make developers happy? Windows Phone Marketplace is growing fast but it’s a long way behind the other guys. I don’t think Microsoft wants to have 100,000 apps show up in the next 3 months if they are loaded with copy cat apps. Those numbers will get picked apart quickly and the press will start complaining about the same problems the Android Market has. I do think the bump was at developer request. Microsoft is usually good about listening to developer feedback, but has been pretty slow about it at times. And from a financial perspective, there will me more apps that Microsoft has to review that they will see no profit on. At least not until they bake in a advertising model connected to Bing.
Ultimately, what does this mean for the future?
Well, there are developers out there looking to release more than 5 simple free apps, so I think we will see more hobby apps. And there are developers out there trying to make money from advertising instead of sales, so I think we will see more of those also. But the category that I think will grow the fastest is free versions of paid applications that are the same as the trial version of the application. While technically that makes no sense, its purely a marketing move. Free apps get downloaded a lot more than paid apps, even with a trial mode. It always surprises me how little consumers are willing to spend on mobile apps. How many reviews of applications have you seen that says something like “a bit pricey at $1.99”. Really? Have you looked at how much you spend on your phone and plan? I always thought the trial mode baked into Windows Marketplace was a good idea. So I’m not sure how the more open free market will play out.
In the long run though, I won’t be surprised to see a Bing ad mobile ad model show up so Microsoft can capitalize on the more open and free Windows Marketplace.
Bonus: The Oatmeal on How I Feel About Buying Apps
Monday, March 01, 2010
So yesterday I got the bad news that yet another XBOX 360 had failed us. This time is was the video port that went bad. This makes like 5 or 6 failed XBOXs, I’ve lost count. Those things are turds. There is no way I was having another one fixed because they’ll just send me a different turd edition that has been fixed that will probably break down again in 6 months.
So I took everything I still had worth salvaging (controllers, hard drive, games, wireless) and traded them in.
We use to be a 2 XBOX house, now we are a 2 PS3 house. Microsoft really dropped the ball.
But about an hour after I completely abandoned the XBOX 360, PS3’s all over the world started breaking down. I’ve been staring at a copy of Heavy Rain I have yet to be able to play.
Somehow this is all my fault.
Monday, February 22, 2010
This question was posed by Jeff Atwood.
Easy answer. Because they can find jobs.
I have interviewed loads of people who were missing even the most basic skills. And these were not all junior programs, this happened even at the senior level positions. They are easy to weed out in a technical interview, but not every company gives one. I think companies are learning not to hire people based solely on manager opinions. And the land rush to get any programmer at all is over.
I remember doing an interview once with a recruiter, the HR guy and an owner. When I talked to the owner and asked when I would get to meet some of the team and take the technical interview he told me they don’t do that. He said he was a great judge of people and could pick out the smartest developers just by talking to them, even though he had no technical skills. I passed on the offer. I did have a chance to work with some of his people on a project a couple of years later, and surprise, they sucked. They were all talk and no talent. The bad programmers with good people skills gravitate toward these positions.
A more recent example is a large company that is hiring A LOT of people in the area. They will basically take any contractor that applies because they are desperate to meet a quota. These contractors don’t do much work, but that’s not the point. The point is to fill seats. All politics. These bad programmers even with zero people skills will eventually find a place like this, and assuming they have no ambition and are happy just to have a job, they will do fine.
My advice, if you interview for a company and they don’t do as much work to screen you as you would to screen someone else, think very hard about taking that offer. You could be working with a lot of bad code and some pretty questionable people. Unless of course you suck, then sign up, you’re home.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
I was trying to figure out how all my messages were flowing between FriendFeed, Twitter and Facebook. Eventually that let to this nightmare. I am going to take my medication now.
This is why the world will end in 2012. We are "sailing" toward communication Armageddon!
Full Size Picture
Sunday, November 08, 2009
My wife and I have been working on a new site for the past couple of weeks. This is our second project since we re-launched our home business.
ReleaseWeek.com
The site lists major new releases of movies and television on DVD and Blu-Ray, video games, music and books. All of this is put into a simple current week format.
This is our first project released as part of the Microsoft WebsiteSpark program. We built everything in ASP.NET Web Forms 3.5. I’m working on a new article on how to create public facing websites with Web Forms and I’m using this site as a test bed. I’ll post the article here sometime in the coming months after I have tested everything out in a real world scenario.
We’ll be tweaking it over the next few weeks. Let us know what you want to see in the site. To stay up to date on announcements of changes to the site, subscribe to our company blog at Code Alt Delete.
Monday, July 06, 2009
If you have an iPhone check out a game a friend just launched: Radial 50.
You can get the Lite version for free. And the full version is only $1.99.
Monday, February 16, 2009
This weekend I purchased a replacement laptop for my Gateway Tablet PC. I reviewed a lot of different options but focused mostly on HP, Dell, Gateway, Sony, Samsung and even Apple. First lets start with each of the lines of laptop I didn’t choose and why.
HP scored well on CNET reviews with the Pavilion dv3510nr, so I took a trip to Best Buy to check it out. I wasn’t really impressed. It was just another laptop.
Dell as always seems to have a build your own laptop for everyone. The cost of adding a Blu-ray drive and the limited number of models that ship with them drove me away.
Gateway’s new MD series is nice but this is a dying brand. I’m not sure they will still be here in a year.
Samsung’s new X360-34G is very nice, but the price is too high.
Apple’s designs are awesome but I’m not sure I will ever get use to the lack of the right click button. I almost went with a MacBook Pro to give me the option of running OSX, but I properly would have stopped using it after a month. Price was also too high.
The Sony Vaio line is my favorite PC laptop line as far as style goes. But to be fair, they seem like MacBook clones. The FW series was the closest to the specs I wanted. This review is based specifically on the VGN-FW35iJ.
Sony Vaio VGN-FW351J
The Good
The Sony Vaio VGN-FW351IJ feels like a MacBook Pro clone. It’s got good specs for the money. $899 will get you 4GB of RAM, a Core 2 Duo processor, Blu-ray drive, a 16.4” widescreen and a 320GB hard drive. It’s very light and portable for it’s size and well balanced. Heat doesn’t dissipate into your legs when using it on your lap. The HDMI output port makes this laptop a nice portable Blu-ray player. Blu-Ray playback was smooth, the drive wasn’t noisy and the system didn’t spike with heat. All bonuses when trying to watch a movie in bed.
The Bad
The area to the right of the touchpad warms up to a very noticeable level. The VGA port is on the left, most people will not consider this a drawback, but I have gotten use to having my monitor on the right so I have more cables crossing my desk than before.
The Ugly
The USB ports are all on the right. This makes it hard to use an external mouse for a right handed person while external components are attached. The OS is also loaded with a lot of crapware like Microsoft Works, Quicken and a whole bunch of Vaio utilities that badly need reducing and combining.
Recommendation
Well, I’ve only been using it for a few days, but I’m happy with the purchase. I would buy it again. It’s a great laptop for the price. I think I would need to purchase a MacBook Pro at 3 times the cost to get a better 17” laptop.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Our public beta has launched. Want to know what it is? Check it out at www.juggle.com.
Use the feedback form on the site to leave comments and request an invitation. Be sure to let us know if you are a GWB member.
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Sunday, February 01, 2009
The following is a simple checklist you can use when building web applications. Much of this still applies to other technologies and can easily be extended. I try not to get too specific on technology or methodology, but it is definitely leaning toward ASP.NET.
If you can think of something I am missing or disagree, please leave a comment. Detailed information follows the checklist.
How much of the checklist you follow will depend on the project. If its just a hobby site, you may skip items like load testing, but as the site grows you will likely need to check off more and more items. Some items, like separation of logic should just be done from the start. In any case, you should make an actual decision to ignore the item. This is much better than just forgetting to do it.
The Check List
Everywhere
- Use source control.
- Be consistent with naming conventions.
- Create documentation.
- Backup everything.
- Use code analysis tools.
Database
- Use non-clustered indexes on unique identifier columns.
- Setup foreign key relationships.
- Use a last updated timestamp column.
- Add simple audit columns or a history table.
- Analyze and tune your database.
Business Logic
- Clearly separate business and data logic.
- Use some standard patterns and stick with them.
- Do not duplicate rules. Data is okay.
- Create unit tests.
Web Interface
- Make the site accessible.
- Use resource files.
- Minimize use of server controls.
- Separate your HTML, JavaScript and CSS.
- Minimize ViewState.
- Pay attention to search engine optimization.
- Clearly separate presentation and business logic.
- Don’t forget a site map, favicon and search provider.
- Create user interface unit tests.
- Check your site with YSlow.
- Load test the site.
- Security test the site.
- Use a hosting provider.
- Minify and combine resources.
- Turn on IIS compression.
Process
- Stay agile.
- Vision before you design.
- Design before you develop.
- Test after you develop.
The Details
Use source control.
Even for small, one person projects, rollback can save your life. There are plenty of good ones to choose from including VisualSVN, Team Foundation Server, SourceGear Vault or SourceAnywhere. If your going open source, look into CodePlex. A lot of people really hate SourceSafe, but it’s better than nothing.
Be consistent with naming conventions.
There are lots of opinions on naming conventions. Microsoft publishes guidelines for class libraries. Whatever you use, be consistent. Having many developers on the same team with a different set of standards can make the code a mess. Comprise is likely needed. Don’t forget to apply this rule to database also.
Create documentation.
Document the code well with code comments and create high level documentation to explain major sections of the code. You’ll need it in 6 months. You should also document all your requirements and have a solid project management plan. TargetProcess is a great tool to help with this.
Backup everything.
These easiest way to do this is to make sure everything, including database schema is in source control. Then back that up. Mozy is a good choice of this. It will get your data offsite without any manual process. Be sure to backup your documentation, data and anything you choose not to put in source control. Just imagine your building burning down. What would you need to recover and how. It’s also good to test the backups and see if you can recover everything.
Use code analysis tools.
It’s like having an extra code reviewer on staff. And one that actually does review everything. FxCop, StyleCop and Resharper are great for this.
Use non-clustered indexes on unique identifier columns.
Lately I tend to use unique identifiers as primary keys because they are easy to move between environments and don’t require an extra column be added for replication. One gotcha here is the SQL Server Management Studio will default your primary key index to clustered. This is going to make inserts very slow as your database grows.
Setup foreign key relationships.
A lot of developers seem to miss this for some reason. Open up the diagram tool in SQL Server Management Studio and connect those tables.
Use a last updated timestamp column.
Adding a timestamp column is an easy way to determine if your data is stale and someone or something else has changed it while you had it.
Add simple audit columns or a history table.
Putting in a last edited by and on columns can help a lot. An audit trail in a separate table / tables is even more helpful but these tables can get very large.
Analyze and tune your database.
Indexes are your friend, but too many friends can also be a bad thing. Tune that database. Everything will work well when the database is small, so toss some serious amount test data in there. Red Gate’s SQL Data Compare is great for this. While your checking it out look at some of their other tools. They make data almost fun.
Clearly separate business and data logic.
They don’t necessarily need to be in separate class files, but there needs to be a clear separation in logic. Tools like Linq to SQL can start to blur this line, but you at least want some verification and authentication logic on data updates.
Use some standard patterns and stick with them.
Mixing in ADO.Entities, frameworks like CSLA, creating your own lightweight custom collections and DataSets can drive you crazy over time. Especially when logic starts to cross from one set of code to another. Pick something and stick to it.
Do not duplicate rules. Data is okay.
Any piece of business logic should be in one and only one spot. It’s okay to have multiple classes accessing the same data. This is a necessity when dealing with a full object and some simple lists. But don’t duplicate the logic. There should be one block of code that verifies a rule.
Create unit tests.
How many? That’s a long discussion. In general I create enough that I know the system works. If you follow test driven development you probably have a good handle on this. If you find a bug, check you test cases and see if it was something you could have caught. But definitely write these tests.
Make the site accessible.
Microsoft has a very good article that discusses this topic: Building ASP.NET 2.0 Web Sites Using Web Standards. Visual Studio has a few accessibility tools built in, use them, don’t ignore them.
Use resource files.
What percentage of the world speaks your language? Even if you never add a second language, the use of global and local resource files will keep this option open.
Minimize use of server controls.
If you don’t care about the state of a control, consider using standard HTML controls. ASP.NET server controls create extra overhead with long IDs and ViewState.
Separate your HTML, JavaScript and CSS.
I like starting with just HTML and making sure the site is usable without any JavaScript or CSS. This may keep you from putting everything in DIV tags and use lists and headers the way they should be. Also try to use CSS to style the site and leave JavaScript to handle behavior.
Minimize ViewState.
Turn this off at every level you can: page, user control, and server control. It’s unnecessary overhead.
Pay attention to search engine optimization.
If your site is public, don’t ignore SEO until the end. Google provides some good tips in their Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. And this Professional Search Engine Optimization with ASP.NET is a great book.
Clearly separate presentation and business logic.
Your application could easily start taking on more interfaces like backend processes, web services, mobile apps. Keep the business logic and presentation logic separated to get as much code re-use as possible. But be careful not to start pushing presentation logic back into the business layer, or your going to have just as many problems.
Don’t forget a site map, favicon and search provider.
These are common files to forget. Double check to make sure you have them. Although you might not need the search provider.
Create user interface unit tests.
If the interface doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter how solid the middle layers and database are. I like using WatiN, although it has some issues running a lot of tests in a row. I tend to build my user interface tests based on the test cases created for the user stories.
Check your site with YSlow.
YSlow is a great plug-in for Firefox that will help you identify problems in the client side design of your application. It gives you some very useful performance statistics and suggestions for fixing issues.
Load test the site.
Figure out how many users you need to support and make sure you can. We use Web Performance for this. It’s much more reasonably priced than some of its competitors and still very feature rich. JMeter is a popular free alternative. Don’t assume because your test pass that everything is perfect, but you are much closer to knowing the truth.
Security test the site.
You are really going to want to find these bugs first. Even if you store no serious personal information other than a password, that password is probably being used on many sites by your users. Even some simple injections can make your site look very unprofessional. Wikto is free and easy to use to test the servers for vulnerabilities, but your going to need something like Acunetix to do some deeper application security testing. I good hosting provider may also be able to help.
Use a hosting provider.
Your basement server is not going to cut it when you get dugg. A hosting provider will take a lot of worry off your hands. Even if its a simple ASP.NET shared hosting plan from GoDaddy or a more scalable solution from Amazon.
Minify and combine resources.
Bandwidth and multiple HTTP requests are going to slow your site down a lot. You can do some of this manually or use a product like Runtime Page Optimizer (RPO).
Turn on IIS compression.
Make sure dynamic and static compression is turned on in IIS unless you have a very good reason not to. RPO will do a better job at this than IIS.
Stay agile.
Keep moving forward. Don’t stagnate in one phase. Scrum is a great practice to start with. TargetProcess will also help with this.
Vision before you design.
Stop and think before you build. What is it you are building and why?
Design before you develop.
Don’t just start writing code. Get a set of core user stories together to help you flush out the idea before making any critical architectural decisions. Try not to get bogged down in this for a long period of time. This is also a good time to start writing test cases.
Test after you develop.
You should be testing as you develop, but do a round of testing before each release.
Money
Many of the tools listed above are free, but some cost money. You can get most of what you need without spending a dime. At some point you should evaluate spending the extra money against what it actually saves you. Of course you have to have money to spend it. Always be on the lookout for open source alternatives, but don’t pick something just because its free unless you have no choice.
The Free Zone
- Visual Studio Express
- SQL Server Express or MySQL
- VisualSVN Server and TortoiseSVN
- CodePlex
- TargetProcess
- FxCop
- StyleCop
- CSLA
- NUnit
- WatiN
- YSlow
- JMeter
- Wikto
The Paid Zone
- Visual Studio Standard or Pro
- SQL Server Standard
- VisualSVN client
- SourceGear Vault
- Dynamsoft SourceAnywhere
- TargetProcess for larger teams.
- Mozy
- Resharper
- RedGate
- Web Performance
- Acunetix
- Hosting providers
- Runtime Page Optimizer
The Oh My God I Got Money To Burn Zone
- Visual Studio Team Suite
- Team Foundation Server
- SQL Server Enterprise
- Managed hosting providers
- Strangeloop AS1000
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Well, the layoffs hit Yahoo. Good luck to all of you and anyone else losing their job in this unbelievable economic downturn.
We’re all in this together and hopefully things will get better sooner than expected.
Juggle is looking to add another .NET developer with good windows development and database skills if you are looking. Just use the contact form on this blog and I’ll get the right people in touch with you. The position does require that you live in the St. Louis area.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Good grief. Yet another XBOX has failed, this time it’s the new one from last year. The DVD drive stopped spinning up right after the NXE update.
Microsoft is footing the bill again and thankfully we have 2 so nobody will have to stop using their Lancers. I made it in just under the 1 year maintenance agreement.
But this is by far the least reliable product I have ever owned.
It was this same time last year we had failure #3.
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