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• Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework Review

  - by Ben Griswold

  Early in my career, when I wanted to learn a new technology, I’d sit in the bookstore aisle and I’d work my way through each of the available books on the given subject.  Put in enough time in a bookstore and you can learn just about anything. I used to really enjoy my time in the bookstore – but times have certainly changed.  Whereas books used to be the only place I could find solutions to my problems, now they may be the very last place I look.  I have been working with the ASP.NET MVC Framework for more than a year.  I have a few projects and a couple of major deployments under my belt and I was able to get up to speed with the framework without reading a single book*.  With so many resources at our fingertips (podcasts, screencasts, blogs, stackoverflow, open source projects, www.asp.net, you name it) why bother with a book? Well, I flipped through Steven Sanderson’s Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework a few months ago. And since it is prominently displayed in my co-worker’s office, I tend to pick it up as a reference from time to time.  Last week, I’m not sure why, I decided to read it cover to cover.  Man, did I eat this book up.  Granted, a lot of what I read was review, but it was only review because I had already learned lessons by piecing the puzzle together for myself via various sources. If I were starting with ASP.NET MVC (or ASP.NET Web Deployment in general) today, the first thing I would do is buy Steven Sanderson’s Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework and read it cover to cover. Steven Sanderson did such a great job with this book! As much as I appreciated the in-depth model, view, and controller talk, I was completely impressed with all the extra bits which were included.  There a was nice overview of BDD, view engine comparisons, a chapter dedicated to security and vulnerabilities, IoC, TDD and Mocking (of course), IIS deployment options and a nice overview of what the .NET platform and C# offers.  Heck, Sanderson even include bits about webforms! The book is fantastic and I highly recommend it – even if you think you’ve already got your head around ASP.NET MVC.  By the way, procrastinators may be in luck.  ASP.NET MVC V2 Framework can be pre-ordered.  You might want to jump right into the second edition and find out what Sanderson has to say about MVC 2. * Actually, I did read through the free bits of Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0.  But it was just a chapter – albeit a really long chapter.

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• Project Euler 53: Ruby

  - by Ben Griswold

  In my attempt to learn Ruby out in the open, here’s my solution for Project Euler Problem 53.  I first attempted to solve this problem using the Ruby combinations libraries. That didn’t work out so well. With a second look at the problem, the provided formula ended up being just the thing to solve the problem effectively. As always, any feedback is welcome. # Euler 53 # http://projecteuler.net/index.php?section=problems&id=53 # There are exactly ten ways of selecting three from five, # 12345: 123, 124, 125, 134, 135, 145, 234, 235, 245, # and 345 # In combinatorics, we use the notation, 5C3 = 10. # In general, # # nCr = n! / r!(n-r)!,where r <= n, # n! = n(n1)...321, and 0! = 1. # # It is not until n = 23, that a value exceeds # one-million: 23C10 = 1144066. # In general: nCr # How many, not necessarily distinct, values of nCr, # for 1 <= n <= 100, are greater than one-million timer_start = Time.now # There's no factorial method in Ruby, I guess. class Integer # http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Factorial#Ruby def factorial (1..self).reduce(1, :*) end end def combinations(n, r) n.factorial / (r.factorial * (n-r).factorial) end answer = 0 100.downto(3) do |c| (2).upto(c-1) { |r| answer += 1 if combinations(c, r) > 1_000_000 } end puts answer puts "Elapsed Time: #{(Time.now - timer_start)*1000} milliseconds"

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• Project Euler 51: Ruby

  - by Ben Griswold

  In my attempt to learn Ruby out in the open, here’s my solution for Project Euler Problem 51.  I know I started back up with Python this week, but I have three more Ruby solutions in the hopper and I wanted to share. For the record, Project Euler 51 was the second hardest Euler problem for me thus far. Yeah. As always, any feedback is welcome. # Euler 51 # http://projecteuler.net/index.php?section=problems&id=51 # By replacing the 1st digit of *3, it turns out that six # of the nine possible values: 13, 23, 43, 53, 73, and 83, # are all prime. # # By replacing the 3rd and 4th digits of 56**3 with the # same digit, this 5-digit number is the first example # having seven primes among the ten generated numbers, # yielding the family: 56003, 56113, 56333, 56443, # 56663, 56773, and 56993. Consequently 56003, being the # first member of this family, is the smallest prime with # this property. # # Find the smallest prime which, by replacing part of the # number (not necessarily adjacent digits) with the same # digit, is part of an eight prime value family. timer_start = Time.now require 'mathn' def eight_prime_family(prime) 0.upto(9) do |repeating_number| # Assume mask of 3 or more repeating numbers if prime.count(repeating_number.to_s) >= 3 ctr = 1 (repeating_number + 1).upto(9) do |replacement_number| family_candidate = prime.gsub(repeating_number.to_s, replacement_number.to_s) ctr += 1 if (family_candidate.to_i).prime? end return true if ctr >= 8 end end false end # Wanted to loop through primes using Prime.each # but it took too long to get to the starting value. n = 9999 while n += 2 next if !n.prime? break if eight_prime_family(n.to_s) end puts n puts "Elapsed Time: #{(Time.now - timer_start)*1000} milliseconds"

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• ASP.NET Meta Keywords and Description

  - by Ben Griswold

  Some of the ASP.NET 4 improvements around SEO are neat.  The ASP.NET 4 Page.MetaKeywords and Page.MetaDescription properties, for example, are a welcomed change.  There’s nothing earth-shattering going on here – you can now set these meta tags via your Master page’s code behind rather than relying on updates to your markup alone.  It isn’t difficult to manage meta keywords and descriptions without these ASP.NET 4 properties but I still appreciate the attention SEO is getting.  It’s nice to get gentle reminder via new coding features that some of the more subtle aspects of one’s application deserve thought and attention too.  For the record, this is how I currently manage my meta: <meta name="keywords"     content="<%= Html.Encode(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Meta.Keywords"]) %>" /> <meta name="description"     content="<%= Html.Encode(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Meta.Description"]) %>" /> All Master pages assume the same keywords and description values as defined by the application settings.  Nothing fancy. Nothing dynamic. But it’s manageable.  It works, but I’m looking forward to the new way in ASP.NET 4.

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• Project Euler 10: (Iron)Python

  - by Ben Griswold

  In my attempt to learn (Iron)Python out in the open, here’s my solution for Project Euler Problem 10.  As always, any feedback is welcome. # Euler 10 # http://projecteuler.net/index.php?section=problems&id=10 # The sum of the primes below 10 is 2 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 17. # Find the sum of all the primes below two million. import time start = time.time() def primes_to_max(max): primes, number = [2], 3 while number < max: isPrime = True for prime in primes: if number % prime == 0: isPrime = False break if (prime * prime > number): break if isPrime: primes.append(number) number += 2 return primes primes = primes_to_max(2000000) print sum(primes) print "Elapsed Time:", (time.time() - start) * 1000, "millisecs" a=raw_input('Press return to continue')

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• Introduction to Lean Software Development and Kanban Systems – Defer Commitment and Decide As Late A

  - by Ben Griswold

  In this post, we’ll continue the series by concentrating on Principle #4: Defer Commitment and Decide As Late As Possible.   In the next part of the series, we’ll dive into Principle #5: Deliver As Fast As Possible. And I am going to be a little obnoxious about listing my Lean and Kanban references with every series post.  The references are great and they deserve this sort of attention.  

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• Streaming Media with Sony Blu-ray Disc Player

  - by Ben Griswold

  The best gift under the tree this year? A Sony Blu-ray Disc player: The BDP-N460 allows you to instantly stream thousands of movies, videos and music from the largest selection of leading content providers including Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, YouTube™, Slacker® Radio and many, many more. Plus, enjoy the ultimate in high-definition entertainment and watch Blu-ray Disc movies in Full HD 1080p quality with HD audio. The BDP-N460 includes built-in software that makes it easy to connect this player to your existing wireless network.  So I did… I paired the disc player with the recommended Linksys Wireless Ethernet Bridge (WET-610N) and I was streaming the last season of Lost episodes in no time. Really cool. Highly recommended.

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• Introduction to Lean Software Development and Kanban Systems – Build Integrity and Quality In

  - by Ben Griswold

  In this post, we’ll continue the series by concentrating on Principle #3: Build Integrity and Quality In.   In the next part of the series, we’ll dive into Principle #4: Defer Commitment and Decide As Late As Possible. And I am going to be a little obnoxious about listing my Lean and Kanban references with every series post.  The references are great and they deserve this sort of attention.  

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• Custom Profile Provider with Web Deployment Project

  - by Ben Griswold

  I wrote about implementing a custom profile provider inside of your ASP.NET MVC application yesterday. If you haven’t read the article, don’t sweat it.  Most of the stuff I write is rubbish anyway. Since you have joined me today, though, I might as well offer up a little tip: you can run into trouble, like I did, if you enable your custom profile provider inside of an application which is deployed using a Web Deployment Project.  Everything will run great on your local machine and you’ll probably take an early lunch because you got the code running in no time flat and the build server is happy and all tests pass and, gosh, maybe you’ll just cut out early because it is Friday after all.  But then the first user hits the integration machine and, that’s right, yellow screen of death. Lucky you, just as you’re walking out the door, the user kindly sends the exception message and stack trace: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: type Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. Stack Trace: [ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: type] System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic) +2796915 System.Web.Profile.ProfileBase.CreateMyInstance(String username, Boolean isAuthenticated) +76 System.Web.Profile.ProfileBase.Create(String username, Boolean isAuthenticated) +312 User error?  Not this time. Damn! One hour later… you notice the harmless “Treat as library component (remove the App_Code.compiled file)” setting on the Output Assemblies Tab of your Web Deployment Project. You have no idea why, but you uncheck it.  You test and everything works great both locally and on the integration machine.  Application users think you’re the best and you’re still going to catch the last half hour of happy hour.  Happy Friday.

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• Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

  - by Ben Griswold

  You’re familiar with O’Reilly’s brilliant Head First Series, right?  Great.  Then you know how every book begins with an explanation of the Head First teaching style and you know the teaching format which Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates developed is based on research in cognitive science, neurobiology and educational psychology and it’s all about making learning visual and conversational and attractive and emotional and it’s highly effective.  Anyway, it’s a great series and you should read every last one of the books. Moving on… I’ve been wanting to learn more about Ruby and Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby has been on my reading list for a while and there was talk about cartoon foxes and other silliness and I figured Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby probably takes the same unorthodox teaching style as the Head First books – and that’s great – so I read the book, in piecemeal, over the last couple of weeks and, well, I figured wrong. Now having read the book, here’s my take on Why’s (Poignant) Guide – it’s very creative and clever and it does a darn good job of introducing one to Ruby.  If you’re interested in Ruby or simply interested, the online book is worth your time.  If you’re thinking (like me) that cartoon foxes will be doing the teaching, that’s simple not the case.  However, the cartoons and the random stories in the sidebar may serve a purpose. Unlike the Head First books where images and captions are used to further explain the teachings, the cartoons and stories in Why’s Guide serve as intermission and offer your brain a brief moment of rest before the next Ruby concept is explained.  It’s not a bad strategy, but definitely not as effective as the Head First techniques.  

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• Technical Screencast Series

  - by Ben Griswold

  Noah and I have started to produce a series of technical screencasts. In the spirit of Dimecasts.net, we’re limiting each episode to ten minutes as we thought the development community could benefit from short, focused episodes. We’re just getting started, but I’m really pleased with our progress and I’m very excited about what’s to come.  The first three episodes are focused on the .NET stack (specifically around Visual Studio Solution Setup, Managing .NET External Dependencies and Working with the ASP.NET Membership Provider) but since we work for a mixed shop of .NET and Java development, I’m sure we’ll eventually introduce all sorts of topics. We’re currently putting together a list of shows. If you have suggestions, please let me know. I plan to post the episodes to johnnycoder as they roll out and who knows?  Maybe your screencast idea will show up next.

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• F# in 90 Seconds

  - by Ben Griswold

  I mentioned in a previous post that we’ve started a languages club at the office.  In an effort to decide which language we will first concentrate on, I volunteered to give the rundown on F#.  Rather than providing a summary here, I’ve provided my slide deck for your viewing enjoyment.  There’s nothing special here outside of a some pretty cool characters from The 56 Geeks Project by Scott Johnson and collection of information from my prior functional programming presentations.   Download F# in 90 Seconds

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• C# Multiple Property Sort

  - by Ben Griswold

  As you can see in the snippet below, sorting is easy with Linq.  Simply provide your OrderBy criteria and you’re done.  If you want a secondary sort field, add a ThenBy expression to the chain.  Want a third level sort?  Just add ThenBy along with another sort expression. var projects = new List<Project>     {         new Project {Description = "A", ProjectStatusTypeId = 1},         new Project {Description = "B", ProjectStatusTypeId = 3},         new Project {Description = "C", ProjectStatusTypeId = 3},         new Project {Description = "C", ProjectStatusTypeId = 2},         new Project {Description = "E", ProjectStatusTypeId = 1},         new Project {Description = "A", ProjectStatusTypeId = 2},         new Project {Description = "C", ProjectStatusTypeId = 4},         new Project {Description = "A", ProjectStatusTypeId = 3}     };   projects = projects     .OrderBy(x => x.Description)     .ThenBy(x => x.ProjectStatusTypeId)     .ToList();   foreach (var project in projects) {     Console.Out.WriteLine("{0} {1}", project.Description,         project.ProjectStatusTypeId); } Linq offers a great sort solution most of the time, but what if you want or need to do it the old fashioned way? projects.Sort ((x, y) =>         Comparer<String>.Default             .Compare(x.Description, y.Description) != 0 ?         Comparer<String>.Default             .Compare(x.Description, y.Description) :         Comparer<Int32>.Default             .Compare(x.ProjectStatusTypeId, y.ProjectStatusTypeId));   foreach (var project in projects) {     Console.Out.WriteLine("{0} {1}", project.Description,         project.ProjectStatusTypeId); } It’s not that bad, right? Just for fun, let add some additional logic to our sort.  Let’s say we wanted our secondary sort to be based on the name associated with the ProjectStatusTypeId.  projects.Sort((x, y) =>        Comparer<String>.Default             .Compare(x.Description, y.Description) != 0 ?        Comparer<String>.Default             .Compare(x.Description, y.Description) :        Comparer<String>.Default             .Compare(GetProjectStatusTypeName(x.ProjectStatusTypeId),                 GetProjectStatusTypeName(y.ProjectStatusTypeId)));   foreach (var project in projects) {     Console.Out.WriteLine("{0} {1}", project.Description,         GetProjectStatusTypeName(project.ProjectStatusTypeId)); } The comparer will now consider the result of the GetProjectStatusTypeName and order the list accordingly.  Of course, you can take this same approach with Linq as well.

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• Visual Studio 2008 Solution Setup

  - by Ben Griswold

  In this screencast, Noah and I demonstrate preferred practices around .NET solution setup, naming conventions and version control.  I consider this an introductory video.  If you’ve been around the block, you might want to skip this episode but if you’re a .NET/Visual Studio newbie, it may be worth a look.    YouTube - Visual Studio 2008 Solution Setup   This is one of our first screencasts.  Actually it is the very first.  If you have feedback, I’d love to hear it.

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• Deploying ASP.NET Web Applications

  - by Ben Griswold

  In this episode, Noah and I explain how to use Web Deployment Projects to deploy your web application. This screencast will get you up and running, but in a future screencast, we discuss more advanced topics like excluding files, swapping out the right config files per environment, and alternate solution configurations.  This screencast (and the next) are based on a write-up I did about ASP.NET Web Application deployment with Web Deployment Projects a while back.  Multi-media knowledge sharing.  You have to love it! This is the first video hosted on Vimeo.  What do you think?

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• Are You Using Windows Live Mesh?

  - by Ben Griswold

  Most of the time, I’m the guy who authors the show notes for the Herding Code Podcast.  The workflow is relatively straight-forward: Jon shares the pre-production audio with me, I compete my write up and then ship the notes back to Jon for publishing with the edited audio.  All file sharing is all done with shared folders in the Windows Live Mesh. The director of my kid’s preschool was looking for a way to access her work computer from her home office.  VPN connection?  Remote desktop?  FTP?  Nope. I installed Windows Live Mesh in a matter of minutes, synchronized a number of folders and she was off and running.  (The neat thing is she’s running a PC in the office and a Mac at home.) I was using Dropbox before discovering Mesh. Dropbox is still very cool but I’m in and out of Mesh enough that it’s taken over.  Actually I still have a Dropbox folder – it’s just being synched by Mesh now. If you’re interested in giving Live Mesh a whirl, here’ are the notable links as found on the product’s site: What you need Create your mesh Sync folders Share folders Use your Live Desktop Connect to a remote computer Use a mobile phone Good luck!

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• Project Euler 18: (Iron)Python

  - by Ben Griswold

  In my attempt to learn (Iron)Python out in the open, here’s my solution for Project Euler Problem 18.  As always, any feedback is welcome. # Euler 18 # http://projecteuler.net/index.php?section=problems&id=18 # By starting at the top of the triangle below and moving # to adjacent numbers on the row below, the maximum total # from top to bottom is 23. # # 3 # 7 4 # 2 4 6 # 8 5 9 3 # # That is, 3 + 7 + 4 + 9 = 23. # Find the maximum total from top to bottom of the triangle below: # 75 # 95 64 # 17 47 82 # 18 35 87 10 # 20 04 82 47 65 # 19 01 23 75 03 34 # 88 02 77 73 07 63 67 # 99 65 04 28 06 16 70 92 # 41 41 26 56 83 40 80 70 33 # 41 48 72 33 47 32 37 16 94 29 # 53 71 44 65 25 43 91 52 97 51 14 # 70 11 33 28 77 73 17 78 39 68 17 57 # 91 71 52 38 17 14 91 43 58 50 27 29 48 # 63 66 04 68 89 53 67 30 73 16 69 87 40 31 # 04 62 98 27 23 09 70 98 73 93 38 53 60 04 23 # NOTE: As there are only 16384 routes, it is possible to solve # this problem by trying every route. However, Problem 67, is the # same challenge with a triangle containing one-hundred rows; it # cannot be solved by brute force, and requires a clever method! ;o) import time start = time.time() triangle = [ [75], [95, 64], [17, 47, 82], [18, 35, 87, 10], [20, 04, 82, 47, 65], [19, 01, 23, 75, 03, 34], [88, 02, 77, 73, 07, 63, 67], [99, 65, 04, 28, 06, 16, 70, 92], [41, 41, 26, 56, 83, 40, 80, 70, 33], [41, 48, 72, 33, 47, 32, 37, 16, 94, 29], [53, 71, 44, 65, 25, 43, 91, 52, 97, 51, 14], [70, 11, 33, 28, 77, 73, 17, 78, 39, 68, 17, 57], [91, 71, 52, 38, 17, 14, 91, 43, 58, 50, 27, 29, 48], [63, 66, 04, 68, 89, 53, 67, 30, 73, 16, 69, 87, 40, 31], [04, 62, 98, 27, 23, 9, 70, 98, 73, 93, 38, 53, 60, 04, 23]] # Loop through each row of the triangle starting at the base. for a in range(len(triangle) - 1, -1, -1): for b in range(0, a): # Get the maximum value for adjacent cells in current row. # Update the cell which would be one step prior in the path # with the new total. For example, compare the first two # elements in row 15. Add the max of 04 and 62 to the first # position of row 14.This provides the max total from row 14 # to 15 starting at the first position. Continue to work up # the triangle until the maximum total emerges at the # triangle's apex. triangle [a-1][b] += max(triangle [a][b], triangle [a][b+1]) print triangle [0][0] print "Elapsed Time:", (time.time() - start) * 1000, "millisecs" a=raw_input('Press return to continue')

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• Dell Docking Station Doesn’t Detect USB Mouse and Keyboard

  - by Ben Griswold

  I’ve found myself in this situation with multiple Dell docking stations and multiple Dell laptops running various Windows operating systems.  I don’t know why the docking station stops recognizing my USB mouse and keyboard – it just does.  It’s black magic.  The last time around I just starting plugging the mouse and keyboard into the docked laptop directly and went about my business (as if I wasn’t completing missing out on a couple of the core benefits of using a docking station.)  I guess that’s what happens when you forget how you got yourself out of the mess the last time around.  I had been in this half-assed state for a couple of weeks now, but a coworker fortunately got themselves in and out of the same pickle this morning.  Procrastinate long enough and the solution will just come to you, right? Here’s how to get yourself out of this mess: Undock your computer Unplug your docking station Count to an arbitrary number greater than 12.  (Not sure this is really required, but…) Plug your docking station back in Redock your machine I put my machine to sleep before taking the aforementioned actions.  My coworker completely shutdown his laptop instead.  The steps worked on both of our Win 7 machines this morning and, who knows, it might just work for you too. 

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• Introduction to Lean Software Development and Kanban Systems

  - by Ben Griswold

  Last year I took myself through a crash course on Lean Software Development and Kanban Systems in preparation for an in-house presentation.  I learned a bunch.  In this series, I’ll be sharing what I learned with you.   If your career looks anything like mine, you have probably been affiliated with a company or two which pushed requirements gathering and documentation to the nth degree. To add insult to injury, they probably added planning process (documentation, requirements, policies, meetings, committees) to the extent that it possibly retarded any progress. In my opinion, the typical company resembles the quote from Tom DeMarco. It isn’t enough just to do things right – we also had to say in advance exactly what we intended to do and then do exactly that. In the 1980s, Toyota turned the tables and revolutionize the automobile industry with their approach of “Lean Manufacturing.” A massive paradigm shift hit factories throughout the US and Europe. Mass production and scientific management techniques from the early 1900’s were questioned as Japanese manufacturing companies demonstrated that ‘Just-in-Time’ was a better paradigm. The widely adopted Japanese manufacturing concepts came to be known as ‘lean production’. Lean Thinking capitalizes on the intelligence of frontline workers, believing that they are the ones who should determine and continually improve the way they do their jobs. Lean puts main focus on people and communication – if people who produce the software are respected and they communicate efficiently, it is more likely that they will deliver good product and the final customer will be satisfied. In time, the abstractions behind lean production spread to logistics, and from there to the military, to construction, and to the service industry. As it turns out, principles of lean thinking are universal and have been applied successfully across many disciplines. Lean has been adopted by companies including Dell, FedEx, Lens Crafters, LLBean, SW Airlines, Digital River and eBay. Lean thinking got its name from a 1990’s best seller called The Machine That Changed the World : The Story of Lean Production. This book chronicles the movement of automobile manufacturing from craft production to mass production to lean production. Tom and Mary Poppendieck, that is.  Here’s one of their books: Implementing Lean Software Thinking: From Concept to Cash Our in-house presentations are supposed to run no more than 45 minutes.  I really cranked and got through my 87 slides in just under an hour. Of course, I had to cheat a little – I only covered the 7 principles and a single practice. In the next part of the series, we’ll dive into Principle #1: Eliminate Waste. And I am going to be a little obnoxious about listing my Lean and Kanban references with every series post.  The references are great and they deserve this sort of attention. 

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• T4Toolbox and Visual Studio 2010

  - by Ben Griswold

  I’ve been using the T4Toolbox to help generate my ASP.NET MVC models and scaffolding for a while now.  Another developer tried using my generator project last week and ran into troubles due to a breaking change around the RenderCore() and TransformText() methods in support for VS 2010.  If you upgraded to the latest version of T4Toolbox and receive a build error similar to the following, you are probably in the same boat: GeneratedTextTransformation.[Template].RenderCore(): no suitable method found to override We took the easy way out.  I had him uninstall the latest version of T4Toolbox and install version 9.7.25.1 which my templates were initially coded against.  For now, that worked great, but it sounds like I’ll be doing some rework of the 20+ templates in my project to support Visual Studio 2010 when we migrate later this month.

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• Configure SQL Server to Allow Remote Connections

  - by Ben Griswold

  Okay. This post isn’t about configuring SQL to allow remote connections, but wait, I still may be able to help you out. "A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 – Could not open a connection to SQL Server)" I love this exception. It summarized the issue and leads you down a path to solving the problem.  I do wish the bit about allowing remote connections was left out of the message though. I can’t think of a time when having remote connections disabled caused me grief.  Heck, I can’t ever remember how to enable remote connections unless I Google for the answer. Anyway, 9 out of 10 times, SQL Server simply isn’t running.  That’s why the exception occurs.  The next time this exception pops up, open up the services console and make sure SQL Server is started.  And if that’s not the problem, only then start digging into the other possible reasons for the failure.

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• SVN Export or Recursively Remove .SVN Folders

  - by Ben Griswold

  I shared this script with a coworker yesterday. It doesn’t do much; it recursively deletes .svn folders from a source tree.  It comes in handy if you want to share your codebase or you get in a terrible spot with SVN and you just want to start all over. Just blow away all svn artifacts and use your mulligan. It’s true. You can nearly get the same result using the SVN export command which copies your source sans the .svn folders to an alternate location.  The catch is an export only includes those files/folders which exist under version control.  If you want a clean copy of your source – versioned or not – export just might not do. The contents of the .cmd file include the following: for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%i in (’dir /s /b /a:d *.svn’) do ( rd /s /q "%%i" ) Just download and drop the unzipped “SVN Cleanup.cmd” file into the root of the project, execute and away you go.  If you search around enough, I know you can find similar scripts and approaches elsewhere, but I’m still uploading my script for completeness and future reference. Download SVN Cleanup

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• Database Connectivity Test with UDL File

  - by Ben Griswold

  I bounced around between projects a lot last week.  What each project had in common was the need to validate at least one SQL connection.  Whether you have SQL tools like SSMS installed or not, this is a very easy task if you are aware of the UDL (Universal Data Link) files.  Create a new file and name it anything as long as it has the .udl extension. Open the file, choose a provider: Click Next >> or navigate to the Connection Tab to provide connection information.  Once you provide server and login credentials, the database list will populate.  At this point, you know the connection is valid. but go ahead and click the Test Connection button anyway. On the final tab, you can provide extra connection information like Application Name which can come in handy.  The All tab is beneficial if you want to build a valid connection string to include in your own applications.  If you save the file and then open in Notepad, you’ll find that said connection string: Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=master;Data Source=(local);Application Name=TestApp I hope this tip helps save you some time.  How do you test if you don’t have SSMS installed?

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• Forced Learning

  - by Ben Griswold

  If you ask me, it can be a little intimidating to stand in front of a group and walkthrough anything remotely technical. Even if you know “Technical Thingy #52” inside and out, public speaking can be unsettling.  And if you don’t have your stuff together, well, it can be downright horrifying. With that said, if given the choice, I still like to schedule myself to present on unfamiliar topics. Over the past few months, I’ve talked about Aspect-Oriented Programming, Functional Programming, Lean Software Development and Kanban Systems, Domain-Driven Design and Behavior Driven Development.  What do these topics have in common? You guessed it: I was truly interested in them. I had only a superficial understanding of each. Huh?  Why in the world would I ever want to to put myself in that intimidating situation? Actually, I rarely want to put myself into that situation but I often do as I like the results.  There’s nothing remotely clever going on here.  All I’m doing is putting myself into a compromising situation knowing that I’ll likely work myself out of it by learning the topic prior to the presentation.  I’m simply time-boxing myself to learn something new while knowing there are negative repercussions if I fall short. So, I end up doing tons of research and I learn bunches to ensure I have my head firmly wrap around the material before my talk. I’m not saying I become an expert overnight (or over a couple of weeks) but I’ll definitely know enough to be confident and comfortable and I’ll know more than enough to ensure the audience will learn a thing or two from me. It’s forced learning and though it might sound a little scary to some, it works for me. Now I could very easily rename this post to something like Fear Is My Motivator because, in a sense, fear of failure and embarrassment is what’s driving my learning. However, I’m the guy signing up for the presentation and since the entire process is self-imposed I’m not sure Fear deserves too much credit.  Anyway…

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• ReSharper File Location

  - by Ben Griswold

  By default, the ReSharper cache is stored in the solution folder.  It’s one extra folder and one extra .user file.  It’s no big deal but it does clutter up your solution a bit – especially since the files provide no real value. I prefer to store the ReSharper cache in the system Temp folder.  This setting is available by visiting ReSharper > Options > Environment > General. Just update where you’d like to store the ReSharper cache and you’re good to go.  Note, the .user file continues to linger around the solution folder but at least the _ReSharper.SolutionName folder is moved out of sight.

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