LINKBLOG for November 18, 2008
Nov 18th, 2008 by AZuidhof
.NET Development Perf Testing in a Cloud VM (EC2) – Jason Young
Jason took the step of testing performance of Amazon’s cloud VM’s by doing a heavy build using VS2008. Amazon is faster, and has a lot of advantages. Also disadvantages though, so you have to weigh your options to see if it’s something for you ‘ Having virtual, dedicated computers available on-demand for pennies per hour is very exciting. This is half of the cloud computing equation ‘The Software Product Myth – Rob Walling
‘ At long last, after months of working nights and weekends, spending every waking moment poring over your code, marketing, selling, and burning the midnight oil, you’re living the dream of a MicroISV
Except for one thing ‘ (read on…)Constructors and Inheritance – Why is this still so painful? – Tom Hollander
‘ (…) why isn’t it possible to specify constructors as a part of a class (or interface) contract? ‘Configurable indentation for NHaml – Simone Chiaretta
‘ NHaml, an alternative view engine for ASP.NET MVC written by Andrew Peters, uses indentation instead of opening and closing tags to identify code blocks ‘ OK, nice, but I never really got languages where whitespace and indentation have a semantic meaningEmergent Complexity – Justin Etheredge
Justin shares some insight on how to avoid your code ending having 2.98023224 × 10^17 possible interactionsPTOM: The Composite Design Pattern – Ray Houston
When Will the Floppy Disk Die as a Save Icon? – Pete Brown
Funny when you think about it ‘ Even online applications like Google Docs fall victim to the classic imagery ‘
via Alvin AshcraftUnit Testing, TDD and the Shuttle Disaster – Stephan Schmidt
Let’s call this one “waterfall vs. agile in the Space Shuttle”
Man, it’s really confession time these days!Spackle.NET is Published – Jason Bock
This is what Jason got when he packed all his utility code together, and made it available for your perusal.
via Chris AlcockDesign Pattern Code Generator – Codeplex project
Tool time: So far this one supports Provider Model and Singleton; me guesses this number will go up soon, or it won’t really work.
via Twitter / Elijah ManorSpike Code and Source Control – K. Scott Allen
‘ The rule of thumb is to throw away code you write for a spike, but all code can be valuable, even if it isn’t production worthy ‘ It’s good to keep those two separated. When working on production code, you’re not bothered by throw-away code, when learning new stuff, you can do anything you like, and have version control as a bonus (well, not exactly bonus, but OK)Autumn of Agile Iteration 1 Part B Primer Notes – Steve Bohlen
Couple of nice resources/webcastsRecommend clients using FTP switch to SSL or SSH – Susan Harkins
How Many Cores does Windows Support? – Daniel Moth
A lot (see a cool screenshot of Task Manager showing 64 cores)First Steps with .Net Reflector – Jason Crease
If after reading this intro you’re still not convinced of Reflector’s power, you will never beIf you cannot afford to test it, you cannot afford to sell it – Jeffrey Palermo
‘ In the above case, this salesman was not given operating system details. Sales staff were told that only the browser mattered ‘
A clear message: why testing matters, why misunderstandings happen all the time, and what you can and should do about itWe Are Typists First, Programmers Second – Jeff Atwood
‘ There’s precious little a programmer can do without touching the keyboard; it is the primary tool of our trade. I believe in practicing the fundamentals, and typing skills are as fundamental as it gets for programmers ‘
Not sure if I agree. Typing fast is nice when you’re documenting, but when in programming mode I’d say time might be better spent doing a little thinking before just blurting out pieces of crap code that you need to refactor immediately. But again, maybe I need to chew on this for a whileA New Beginning: Staying Agile by Going off “Agile” – Shane Duan
the gist being: stop mentioning “agile” as a word and instead explain what you mean. Good idea, but maybe it depends a bit on who you’re talking to – when talking to fellow agilists there is no harm using the word, but in trying to convince skeptics, it might help avoiding it
via FriendFeed / Matt Hinze
Cool stuff, having an online (live)meeting instead of the cumbersome planning of seeing each other IRL. While that’s also neccessary from time to time, this is a low profile option to meet and still stay in our favorite spot: behind our computers
Spicing Up Your Standup – Dave Laribee
cool daily standup video. Come on, click, it’s only 2 minutesEstimating factors – Graig Brown
some factors influencing the efficacy of estimationManagement Improvement Carnival #47 – John Hunter
Overview of recent management articles with an Agile/lean focusWhat Toyota knows that GM doesn’t – Chris Spagnuolo
‘ (…) the message for you in all of this: Really commit to upholding the value that your people, let me repeat that, your PEOPLE are your greatest asset. Treat them with respect and dignity ‘
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