Rory Blyth: Blogging is Stupid

Just read this gem:

One of the examples of a risk that Alfred brings up in his post is my tendency to write about my depressive nature and the drugs I take to try and undo the crap job nature did on wiring my neurons. I’ve been told similar things by some of my friends in the “blogosphere.” They tell me I’m nuts for posting about my mental problems. I agree. But that’s part of being nuts, so what’s the confusion about?

Is it stupid or not? Well, I guess it is stupid, but it is more stupid when you cannot write like him :)

Fyodor Dostoevsky

I am very grateful to Juan and to Stef for introducing me to the writings of this "crazy" russian genious.

The more I read, the less I blog.

ADO.NET Entity Framework on Channel 9

Channel 9 published a very interesting video about Microsoft's O/R Mapping tool that will be included in a future version of ADO.NET. It is actually a remake of a video that was published a couple of months, also in Channel 9, only to be shutted down soon after.

As almost every .NET developer does, I use ADO.NET every day, and have been a fan from the first hour.

But as an architect -in a limited sense I must add- I have to deal a lot with both theoretical and empirical aspects of multi-tier development, so I have been looking for the silver bullet for the Data Access Layer for years.

Pablo Castro, Technnical Lead of ADO.NET (and a native from Buenos Aires!) was very nice answering the comments I posted to Channel 9. I will reproduce my own writting here, but you can read his very interesting answer directly on the site.

As I mentioned before, one of my great concerns is how team development will look like with the Entity Framework. I took some time to detail my thoughts:

First, many real life projects are partitioned in modules, so their data layers are partitioned likewise.

Often, there are sets of tables that are used exclusively in each module, and a set of tables that are common to all. Yet, there are some tables that are reused in more than one application (typical examples are security, navigation, etc).

Besides, building a useful data layer is not done in one step nor does it take a single day. It is more often an evolutionary and error-prone process in which a programmer “imports” objects from the database each time he/she realizes they are mentioned in the specification.

During this process, errors that affect maintainability (duplications, improper use of naming standards, etc.) are very usual.

So, here is a short list of features that I would like to see in the Entity Framework (some are actually hard requirements). Of course I ignore if any of these are already included:

1. Partitioning of the conceptual model in multiple files and assemblies.
2. Referencing and extending (entity inheritance) between entities defined in separate files and assemblies.
3. Creating reusable “libraries” containing entities and mappings that can be reused by different modules or different applications.
4. "Incremental" reverse engineering of databases (I think this one is already in the graphical design tool).
5. Support for basic refactorings (unification, replacement, renaming, etc).
6. Very readable and maintainable XML (it should be easy to merge two files with a source code comparison tool).
7. Efficient and easy serialization of entities and entity sets outside the database.
8. Separation of the conceptual model from the persistence logic (take a look at what Steve Lasker does with typed datasets).
9. A migration tool for typed datasets XSDs.
10. A degree of resiliency to some schema changes.

If you can answer any of my doubts, I will be grateful. My boss is pressing me to evaluate O/RM products, and I am telling him to way for your framework everyday :).

All in all, I am very enthusiastic about this new piece of technology. I think it could make my life and the life of many other developers a lot easier and also more interesting!

Microsoft buys Winternals for the talent

I am glad for Mark Russinovich and for Bryce Cogswell, but I am even more happy for the future of Windows. These guys really create amazing software.

First improvment I hope to see in Windows is a "Suspend" option in the process view of Task Manager... It is an obvious one, isn't it?

Microsoft renames WinFX as .NET 3.0

Somasegar announce the change in his blog.

Those are welcome news to me. I don't want to say I told you, but I remember I suggested John Montgomery to stick to the .NET branding in a comment to his blog, back in November 2003. That was just after the PDC in which all these new technologies were announced.

The general consensus by then was that the.NET branding had been completely eroded by the various marketing mistakes Microsoft made (like adding the .NET moniker to products that did not carry the CLR).

But I told him that we developers were not that much confused and that we always got the story right.

It is nice to see that once more Microsoft does what I want ;)

Letter to David LaVallee

Ok, you don't know me, and I don't remember hearing from you before. But now that I found a few things about you, including your blog, I felt the need to write you this note, just to express my deepest envy for you:

• First, you are in a Guitar Craft right now! How can you?... Darn!
• The Guitar Craft is in Lunlunta, Mendoza, in that same house that gives me so many good memories of my teen years (even if I do not enjoy the company of the saints anymore). Thanks for the pics!
• You are so close to Mendoza city, where I was born and were most of my family and half of my friends live!
• You are part of the Windows Live Team! Darn, this one causes me the greatest pain!
• You helped invent Java! Ouch!
• Where you the one that convinced Steve Jobs of buying GarageBand? Wow!
• You obviously play the guitar better than me ;)
• And you are probably are a better programmer too ;)

Ok, ok. I do not really envy you. I just got amazed at all this, and wanted to wish you good luck and great success.

Do you like wine? Being in Mendoza, I hope you do! Enjoy the hospitality of the locals, and the delicious Malbecs. Anything you need, ok? I can recommend you a few good places to visit (You will find good people there too).

If you are bored, take the route, drive a few kilometers, and get a picture of you posing with a "Departamento de Lavalle" sign :)

An Apple in my future?

UPDATE: I have been reading the FAQs at BootCamp's Beta site, and I have changed my mind somewhat. They say they do not provide support for Windows running on a Mac. Not a brilliant way to get customers. Reading about the drivers they provide, I don’t get if they really want to get it right. Apparently they don't want to get their feet wet. They have still a long way to go in deciding whether they really want a good stake of the PC Business or not. They are so close, but I guess they are too arrogant or just used to the minority elite aura. I will wait and see if things improve. Anyway, I want my next computer to be a 64 bits dual core.

Sean Alexander reports that Windows Media Center Edition runs on his MacBook Pro.

I spent an hour last night talking with a friend that is a Mac fan. He almost convinced me. As I see it now, my next notebook computer could be an HP, a Sony or an Apple. There is a premium price for the Mac experience, but I think it is completely justified.

Now they have positioned themselves to get a significant stake of the PC business, the future of Apple looks brilliant.

The only thing I have against it is that as far as I know we won't get 64 bits mobile Intel Core Duos soon. Dual core AMD Turions seem to be closer. But Apple seems to be, like Dell, married to Intel.

We are Level 2 in CMMI

The company I work passed a CMMI Level 2 appraisal a couple of fridays ago, and we satisfied all the criteria for certification.

I seldom give names in this blog and have never mentioned the name of my employer, but this is such a good thing that I needed to do the show off and of course, also congratulate all my colleagues ;)

So congratulations to all, especially those that had the vision for it, those that worked so hard for it and those that supported it all: José, Melvin, Wendy, our Project Leaders, and many more.

Visual Studio and SQL Server 2005 Training

Today I began taking an intensive 40 hours training course on Visual Studio and SQL Server 2005. I hope by the end of the week the coarsest holes in my knowledge will be filled with substance ;)

I had the pleasure of meeting Adolfo Wiernik, a Solid Quality Learning consultant that came from Costa Rica to impart the course.

I wouldn't have heard of Adolfo before if I hadn't listened to his webcast last Wednesday. He is, although, famous in the community and a Microsoft Regional Director.

I am indebted to my company for sending me (along with two mates) to take this course.

Tomorrow is ASP.NET 2.0 day, clearly the technology I have been using the most for the last 9 months. I think Adolfo will be sick of me by tomorrow 6 p.m. ;)

Atomik Circus

This is just to show that this blog is not dead.

I have just seen Atomik Circus on TV, and it was hilarious. I simply did not know that you could do a movie like this. I mean, it seems impossible to try something like this and not to spoil it completely.

Everybody was sleeping at home, so I was not able to enjoy the music, but I think it must be good (I turned volume up a little and put my ear close to the speakers, just to get an idea).

So, I have to see the movie from the beginning again. Atomik Circus Part II anyone? :)

The New Live.com

I have been following this people work for some time (they make my browser's home page). I think the new version is looking more brilliant than ever.

Nothing very deep to say. It has been working here since 10 minutes ago.

The new style looks great on grey, but of course I would like to have more choice of styles (including "clasic") or even better to ability to skin it.

Multiple pages are very wellcome. The new speed is wonderful... I like it a lot!

Congratulations, and I hope you will have a nice party! And Sanaz, remember to avoid the car until you get a spare!