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  • How do I change the logged in user to another?

    - by TruMan1
    I would like to change the logged in user to another user temporarily to do some process. For example, say I am logged in as "Joe". In my method, I want to make the logged in user from "Joe" to "SuperUser", do some process, then change the logged in user back to "Joe". Can someone help with this?

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  • Distributed development systems

    - by Nathan Adams
    I am interested in a system that allows for distributed development with an authentication piece. What do I mean by that? Ok so lets take SVN, SVN keeps track of revisions and doesn't care who submits, as long as you have the right to submit you can submit, really, to any part in the repository. Where does my system come into play? Being able to granulate access control and give a stackoverflow like feel to the environment. In the system I am describing we have 4 users Bob, Alice, Dan, Joe. Bob is a project managed, Alice and Dan are programmers under Bob and Joe is a random programmer on the internet who wants to help. Ideally in this system, Bob can commit any changes and won't require approval. Alice and Dan can commit to their branches, or a branch, but a commit to the trunk would need approval by Bob. This is where Joe comes in, wants to help, however, you just don't want to give him the keys to the kingdom just yet so to speak, so in my system you would setup a "low user" account. Any commits that Joe makes would need to be approved by Dan, Alice or both. However, in the system, Joe can build up "Karma" where after so many approved commits it would only need approval by one of the programmers, and then eventually no approval would be necessary. Does that make sense and do you know if a system like that exists? Or am I just crazy to even think such a system/environment would be possible?

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  • One table, need multiple values from different rows/tuples

    - by WmasterJ
    I have tables like: 'profile_values' userID | fid | value -------+---------+------- 1 | 3 | [email protected] 1 | 45 | 203-234-2345 3 | 3 | [email protected] 1 | 45 | 123-456-7890 And: 'users' userID | name -------+------- 1 | joe 2 | jane 3 | jake I want to join them and have one row with two of the values like: 'profile_values' userID | name | email | phone -------+-------+----------------+-------------- 1 | joe | [email protected] | 203-234-2345 2 | jane | [email protected] | 123-456-7890 I have solved it but it feels clumsy and I want to know if there is a better way to do it. Meaning solutions that are either more readable or faster(optimized) or simply best-practice. Current solution: multiple tables selected, many conditional statements: SELECT u.userID AS memberid, u.name AS first_name, pv1.value AS fname, pv2.value as lname FROM users AS u, profile_values AS pv1, profile_values AS pv2, WHERE u.userID = pv1.userID AND pv1.fid = 3 AND u.userID = pv2.userID AND pv2.fid = 45; Thanks for the help!

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  • Debugging Windows Service Timeout Error 1053

    - by Joe Mayo
    If you ever receive an Error 1053 for a timeout when starting a Windows Service you've written, the underlying problem might not have anything to do with a timeout.  Here's the error so you can compare it to what you're seeing: --------------------------- Services --------------------------- Windows could not start the Service1 service on Local Computer.   Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion. --------------------------- OK   --------------------------- Searching the Web for a solution to this error in your Windows Service will result in a lot of wasted time and advice that won't help.  Sometimes you might get lucky if your problem is exactly the same as someone else's, but this isn't always the case.  One of the solutions you'll see has to do with a known error on Windows Server 2003 that's fixed by a patch to the .NET Framework 1.1, which won't work.  As I write this blog post, I'm using the .NET Framework 4.0, which is a tad bit past that timeframe. Most likely, the basic problem is that your service is throwing an exception that you aren't handling.  To debug this, wrap your service initialization code in a try/catch block and log the exception, as shown below: using System; using System.Diagnostics; using System.ServiceProcess; namespace WindowsService { static class Program { static void Main() { try { ServiceBase[] ServicesToRun; ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[] { new Service1() }; ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun); } catch (Exception ex) { EventLog.WriteEntry("Application", ex.ToString(), EventLogEntryType.Error); } } } } After you uninstall the old service, redeploy the service with modifications, and receive the same error message as above; look in the Event Viewer/Application logs.  You'll see what the real problem is, which is the underlying reason for the timeout. Joe

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  • Join one row to multiple rows in another table

    - by Ghostrider
    I have a table to entities (lets call them people) and properties (one person can have an arbitrary number of properties). Ex: People Name Age -------- Jane 27 Joe 36 Jim 16 Properties Name Property ----------------- Jane Smart Jane Funny Jane Good-looking Joe Smart Joe Workaholic Jim Funny Jim Young I would like to write an efficient select that would select people based on age and return all or some of their properties. Ex: People older than 26 Name Properties Jane Smart, Funny, Good-looking Joe Smart, Workaholic It's also acceptable to return one of the properties and total property count. The query should be efficient: there are millions of rows in people table, hundreds of thousands of rows in properties table (so most people have no properties). There are hundreds of rows selected at a time. Is there any way to do it?

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  • javascript filter array of objects

    - by user441521
    I have an array of objects and I'm wondering the best way to search it. Given the below example how can I search for name = "Joe" and age < 30? Is there anything jQuery can help with or do I have to brute force this search myself? var names = new Array(); var object = { name : "Joe", age:20, email: "[email protected]"}; names.push(object); object = { name : "Mike", age:50, email: "[email protected]"}; names.push(object); object = { name : "Joe", age:45, email: "[email protected]"}; names.push(object);

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  • How to do this Python / MySQL manipulation (match) more efficiently?

    - by NJTechie
    Following is my data : Company Table : ID Company Address City State Zip Phone 1 ABC 123 Oak St Philly PA 17542 7329878901 2 CDE 111 Joe St Newark NJ 08654 3 GHI 211 Foe St Brick NJ 07740 7321178901 4 JAK 777 Wall Ocean NJ 07764 7322278901 5 KLE 87 Ilk St Plains NY 07654 7376578901 6 AB 1 W.House SField PA 87656 7329878901 Branch Office Table : ID Address City State Zip Phone 1 323 Alk St Philly PA 17542 7329832221 1 171 Joe St Newark NJ 08654 3 287 Foe St Brick NJ 07740 7321178901 3 700 Wall Ocean NJ 07764 7322278901 1 89 Blk St Surrey NY 07154 7376222901 File to be Matched (In MySQL): ID Company Address City State Zip Phone 1 ABC 123 Oak St Philly PA 17542 7329878901 2 AB 171 Joe St Newark NJ 08654 3 GHI 211 Foe St Brick NJ 07740 7321178901 4 JAK 777 Wall Ocean NJ 07764 7322278901 5 K 87 Ilk St Plains NY 07654 7376578901 Resulting File : ID Company Address City State Zip Phone appendedID 1 ABC 123 Oak St Philly PA 17542 7329878901 [Original record, field always empty] 1 ABC 171 Joe St Newark NJ 08654 1 [Company Table] 1 ABC 323 Alk St Philly PA 17542 7329832221 1 [Branch Office Table] 1 AB 1 W.House SField PA 87656 7329878901 6 [Partial firm and State, Zip match] 2 CDE 111 Joe St Newark NJ 08654 3 GHI 211 Foe St Brick NJ 07740 7321178901 3 GHI 700 Wall Ocean NJ 07764 7322278901 3 3 GHI 287 Foe St Brick NJ 07740 7321178901 3 4 JAK 777 Wall Ocean NJ 07764 7322278901 5 KLE 87 Ilk St Surrey NY 07654 7376578901 5 KLE 89 Blk St Surrey NY 07154 7376222901 5 Requirement : 1) I have to match each firm on the 'File to be Matched' to that of Company and Branch Office tables (MySQL). 2) If there are multiple exact/partial matches, then the ID from Company, Branch Office table is inserted as a new row in the resulting file. 3) Not all the firms will be matched perfectly, in that case I have to match on partial Company names (like 5/8th of the company name) and any of the address fields and insert them in the resulting file. Please help me out in the most efficient solution for this problem.

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  • Windows batch file to list folders that have a specific file in them

    - by Lee
    I'm trying to create a file that has a list of directories that have a specific file name in them. Let's say I'm trying to find directories that have a file named *.joe in them. I initially tried just a simple dir /ad *.joe > dir_list.txt , but it searches the directory names for *.joe, so no go. Then I concluded that a for loop was probably my best bet. I started with for /d /r %a in ('dir *.joe /b') do @echo %a >> dir_list.txt and it looked like it wasn't executing the dir command. I added the "usebackq", but that seems to only work for the /F command extension. Ideas?

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  • Using CSS to insert text

    - by abelenky
    I'm relatively new to CSS, and have used it to change the style and formatting of text. I would now like to use it to insert text as shown below: <span class="OwnerJoe">reconcile all entries</span> Which I hope I could get to show as: Joe's Task: reconcile all entries That is, simply by virtue of being of class "Owner Joe", I want the text Joe's Task: to be displayed. I could do it with code like: <span class="OwnerJoe">Joe's Task:</span> reconcile all entries. But that seems awfully redundant to both specify the class and the text. Is it possible to do what I'm looking for? EDIT One idea is to try to set it up as a ListItem <li> where the "bullet" is the text "Joe's Task". I see examples of how to set various bullet-styles and even images for bullets. Is it possible to use a small block of text for the list-bullet?

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  • DOS batch script to list folders that have a specific file in them

    - by Lee
    I'm trying to create a file that has a list of directories that have a specific file name in them. Let's say I'm trying to find directories that have a file named *.joe in them. I initially tried just a simple dir /ad *.joe dir_list.txt , but it searches the directory names for *.joe, so no go. Then I concluded that a for loop was probably my best bet. I started with for /d /r %a in ('dir *.joe /b') do @echo %a dir_list.txt and it looked like it wasn't executing the dir command. I added the "usebackq", but that seems to only work for the /F command extension. Ideas?

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  • Ubuntu 12.04 Fails to Boot after Reboot

    - by Joe
    I have installed Ubuntu 12.04 on several Dell c6220 servers. The install was successful and all hardware is recognized. The problem that I am running into is that when issuing the reboot command or when pressing ctrl-alt-del, the server shuts down, but never comes back up. Instead, the fan revs up to full speed and stays that way until I power the server down. Once the server has been powered down via the power button, Ubuntu will boot just fine -- until the next reboot. I have found that by rebooting the server via the DRAC web interface will reboot the server correctly. I have also found that this problem does not exist with CentOS -- I can press ctrl-alt-del all day long and it always comes back up. I've tried several kernel parameters such as: reboot=bios reboot=pci reboot=acpi reboot=cold acpi=off noapic Nothing seems to work. I have also tried upgrading to kernel 3.4, but no change there, either. Has anyone run into a similar problem or any pointers on troubleshooting? Thanks, Joe

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  • Need a Count, but Multiple other fields

    - by user3727752
    I have a table that looks like this: person trip_id date home destination joe 1 3/10 chicago new york joe 2 4/10 chicago l.a. joe 3 5/10 chicago boston luther 4 3/12 new york chicago luther 5 3/18 new york boston I want to get a result like person trips firstDate home joe 3 3/10 chicago luther 2 3/12 new york Currently I've got Select person, count(trip_id) as trips, min(date) as firstDate from [table] group by person order by firstDate I can't figure out how to get home in there as well. Home is always unique to the person. But my DBMS doesn't know that. Is there an easy way around this problem? Appreciate it.

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  • Confused about NoMethodError in Ruby

    - by E L
    In a simple Ruby example, I'm getting an error that does not occur in irb. name = "Joe" def say_hi "\"Hi there!\" said #{self}" end response = name.say_hi puts response This code should return, "Hi there!" said Joe. It works perfectly fine in irb. However, when I attempt to put the same code in a file and run the file, I get this error: say_hi.rb:8:in `<main>': private method `say_hi' called for "Joe":String (NoMethodError) Any suggestion about why this happens?

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  • Resolving a FQDN to a local server

    - by Joe
    Hi all, I have a domain name with WebFaction. I created a new subdomain that I want to point to a local server behind a NAT firewall. I can change the DNS records of the subdomain. What do I change so the FQDN points to the local server? Thanks, Joe

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  • Parsing SQLIO Output to Excel Charts using Regex in PowerShell

    - by Jonathan Kehayias
    Today Joe Webb ( Blog | Twitter ) blogged about The Power of Regex in Powershell, and in his post he shows how to parse the SQL Server Error Log for events of interest.  At the end of his blog post Joe asked about other places where Regular Expressions have been useful in PowerShell so I thought I’d blog my script for parsing SQLIO output using Regex in PowerShell, to populate an Excel worksheet and build charts based on the results automatically. If you’ve never used SQLIO, Brent Ozar ( Blog...(read more)

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  • Parsing SQLIO Output to Excel Charts using Regex in PowerShell

    - by Jonathan Kehayias
    Today Joe Webb ( Blog | Twitter ) blogged about The Power of Regex in Powershell, and in his post he shows how to parse the SQL Server Error Log for events of interest. At the end of his blog post Joe asked about other places where Regular Expressions have been useful in PowerShell so I thought I’d blog my script for parsing SQLIO output using Regex in PowerShell, to populate an Excel worksheet and build charts based on the results automatically. If you’ve never used SQLIO, Brent Ozar ( Blog | Twitter...(read more)

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  • The Missing Post

    - by Joe Mayo
    It’s somewhat of a mystery how the writing process can conjure up results that weren’t initially intended. Case in point is the fact that another post was planned to be in place of this one, but it never made the light of day.  This particular post started off as an introduction to a technology I had just learned, used, and wanted to share the experience with others.  The beginning was fun and demonstrated how easy it was to get started.  One of the things I’ve been pondering over time is that the Web is filled with introductions to new technologies and quick first looks, so I set out to add more depth, share lessons learned, and generally help you avoid the problems I encountered along the way; problems being a key theme of why you aren’t reading that post at this very minute.  Problems that curiously came from nowhere to thwart my good intentions. Success was sweet when using the tool for the prototypical demo scenario. The thing is, I intended the tool to accomplish a real task.  Having embarked on the path toward getting the job done, glitches began creeping into the process.  Realizing that this was all a bit new, I had patience and found a suitable work-around, but this was to be short lived. As in marching ants to a freshly laid out picnic, the problems kept coming until I had to get up and walk away.  Not to be outdone, sheer will and brute force manual intervention led to mission accomplishment.  Though I kept a positive outlook and was pleased at the final result, the process of using the tool had somewhat soured. Regardless of a less than stellar experience with the tool, I have a great deal of respect for the company that produced it and the people who built it. Perhaps I empathize for what they might feel after reading a post that details such deficiencies in their product.  Sure, if you’re in this business, you’ve got to have a thick skin; brush it off, fix the problem, and move on to greatness. But, today I feel like they’re people and are probably already aware of any issues I would seemingly reveal.  Anyone who builds a product or provides a service takes a lot of pride in what they do.  Sometimes they screw up and if their worth a dime, they make it up. I think that will happen in this case and there’s no reason why I should post information that has the potential to sound more negative than helpful.  While no one would ever notice or care either way, I’m posting something that won’t harm. Joe

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  • Replacement of Outlooksoft (SAP BPC) with Oracle EPM at Brady Corporation

    Nigel Youell, Product Marketing Director, Enterprise Performance Management Applications at Oracle discusses with Joe Bittorf, Project Manager at Brady Corporation why and how they embarked on this major project to replace SAP BPC with Oracle's Enterprise Performance Management Solution. Joe covers the outstanding improvements they have achieved in their financial close process, how they worked with Oracle Partner Emerging Solutions and the current project to further improve their planning and budgeting processes.

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  • ADF Mobile @ Oracle Open World 2012 - A Look Back...

    - by Joe Huang
    Hi, everyone: It's been a little over two weeks since the end of Oracle Open World 2012, and hope everyone has recovered sufficiently.  We have seen a tremendous amount of coverage on Oracle ADF Mobile during this Oracle Open World.  For starters, ADF Mobile demo booth was positioned in the Oracle Red Lounge in Moscone North, where all new and innovative technologies are being demonstrated.  The booth is liternally out front and the first booth in the area, and we had a lot of interested attendees talking to us.  It feels like ADF Mobile has finally arrived on the big stage. There are numerous sessions and hands on labs that covers ADF Mobile.  Details can be found in Oracle Open World page.   The Oracle Cloud: Oracle's Cloud Platofrm and Application Strategy by Thomas Kurian (Keynote) Near the beginning of the keynote, showing a great analytics application built using ADF Mobile  Oracle Fusion Middleware Strategies Driving Business Innovation by Hasan Rizvi (Keynote) The Future of Development for Oracle Fusion—From Desktop to Mobile to Cloud by Chris Tonas (General Session) Co-presented with Accenture, an ADF Mobile Beta Partner Extend Oracle Fusion Apps to Tablets/Smartphones with Oracle Mobile Technology (General Session) Extend Oracle Applications to Mobile Devices with Oracle’s Mobile Technologies (General Session) Building Mobile Applications with Oracle Cloud (General Session) Mobile-Enable Oracle Fusion Middleware and Enterprise Applications with Oracle ADF (Conference Session) Co-presented with Infosys, an ADF Mobile Beta Partner Develop On-Device iPhone and iPad Apps Without Writing Any Objective-C Code (Oracle Develop Session) Mobile Apps for Oracle E-Business Suite with Oracle ADF Mobile and Oracle SOA Suite (Conference Session) Developing Applications for Mobile iOS and Android Devices with Oracle ADF Mobile (Hands on Lab) This lab was repeated 8 (!) times Build Mobile Applications for Oracle E-business Suite (Hands on Lab) It was an extremely busy Open World for the team, and we were in the middle of trying to release ADF Mobile!   By far, the most memorable event during Open World was the ADF Meett Up at the OTN Lounge, where beers were flowing (for a little while) and familiar names are finally matched with faces.  We also appreciate the opportunity to interview the attendees from New Caledonia - sorry we probably surprised you with the video record, and many thanks for coming through for us. I also want to thank my fellow ADF Mobile and Fusion Middleware team members - from product managers, engineers, and product marketing, everyone worked extremely hard to make this Open World a great success for ADF Mobile. I really enjoyed meeting everyone at Oracle Open World, at the booth, sessions, etc.   Now it's on to release ADF Mobile - for real! Thanks, Joe Huang PS: If this thread shows up on your RSS feed, please keep watching...

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  • ASP.NET MVC for the Rest of Us Videos now available

    - by Jim Duffy
    Microsoft Senior Program Manager, Joe Stagner, has released his first 3 ASP.NET MVC for the Rest of Us Videos. I like the way he helps you learn ASP.NET MVC by building bridges between ASP.NET MVC concepts & ideas and ASP.NET WebForms concepts & ideas which you may already be comfortable working with. Good job Joe. Have a day. :-|

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  • LINQ to Twitter Queries with LINQPad

    - by Joe Mayo
    LINQPad is a popular utility for .NET developers who use LINQ a lot.  In addition to standard SQL queries, LINQPad also supports other types of LINQ providers, including LINQ to Twitter.  The following sections explain how to set up LINQPad for making queries with LINQ to Twitter. LINQPad comes in a couple versions and this example uses LINQPad4, which runs on the .NET Framework 4.0. 1. The first thing you'll need to do is set up a reference to the LinqToTwitter.dll. From the Query menu, select query properties. Click the Browse button and find the LinqToTwitter.dll binary. You should see something similar to the Query Properties window below. 2. While you have the query properties window open, add the namespace for the LINQ to Twitter types.  Click the Additional Namespace Imports tab and type in LinqToTwitter. The results are shown below: 3. The default query type, when you first start LINQPad, is C# Expression, but you'll need to change this to support multiple statements.  Change the Language dropdown, on the Main window, to C# Statements. 4. To query LINQ to Twitter, instantiate a TwitterContext, by typing the following into the LINQPad Query window: var ctx = new TwitterContext(); Note: If you're getting syntax errors, go back and make sure you did steps #2 and #3 properly. 5. Next, add a query, but don't materialize it, like this: var tweets = from tweet in ctx.Status where tweet.Type == StatusType.Public select new { tweet.Text, tweet.Geo, tweet.User }; 6. Next, you want the output to be displayed in the LINQPad grid, so do a Dump, like this: tweets.Dump(); The following image shows the final results:   That was an unauthenticated query, but you can also perform authenticated queries with LINQ to Twitter's support of OAuth.  Here's an example that uses the PinAuthorizer (type this into the LINQPad Query window): var auth = new PinAuthorizer { Credentials = new InMemoryCredentials { ConsumerKey = "", ConsumerSecret = "" }, UseCompression = true, GoToTwitterAuthorization = pageLink => Process.Start(pageLink), GetPin = () => { // this executes after user authorizes, which begins with the call to auth.Authorize() below. Console.WriteLine("\nAfter you authorize this application, Twitter will give you a 7-digit PIN Number.\n"); Console.Write("Enter the PIN number here: "); return Console.ReadLine(); } }; // start the authorization process (launches Twitter authorization page). auth.Authorize(); var ctx = new TwitterContext(auth, "https://api.twitter.com/1/", "https://search.twitter.com/"); var tweets = from tweet in ctx.Status where tweet.Type == StatusType.Public select new { tweet.Text, tweet.Geo, tweet.User }; tweets.Dump(); This code is very similar to what you'll find in the LINQ to Twitter downloadable source code solution, in the LinqToTwitterDemo project.  For obvious reasons, I changed the value assigned to ConsumerKey and ConsumerSecret, which you'll have to obtain by visiting http://dev.twitter.com and registering your application. One tip, you'll probably want to make this easier on yourself by creating your own DLL that encapsulates all of the OAuth logic and then call a method or property on you custom class that returns a fully functioning TwitterContext.  This will help avoid adding all this code every time you want to make a query. Now, you know how to set up LINQPad for LINQ to Twitter, perform unauthenticated queries, and perform queries with OAuth. Joe

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  • Comments on Comments

    - by Joe Mayo
    I almost tweeted a reply to Capar Kleijne's question about comments on Twitter, but realized that my opinion exceeded 140 characters. The following is based upon my experience with extremes and approaches that I find useful in code comments. There are a couple extremes that I've seen and reasons why people go the distance in each approach. The most common extreme is no comments in the code at all.  A few bad reasons why this happens is because a developer is in a hurry, sloppy, or is interested in job preservation. The unfortunate result is that the code is difficult to understand and hard to maintain. The drawbacks to no comments in code are a primary reason why teachers drill the need for commenting code into our heads.  This viewpoint assumes the lack of comments are bad because the code is bad, but there is another reason for not commenting that is gaining more popularity. I've heard/and read that code should be self documenting. Following this thought pattern, if code is well written with meaningful names, there should not be a reason for comments.  An addendum to this argument is that comments are often neglected and get out-of-date, but the code is what is kept up-to-date. Presumably, if code contained very good naming, it would be easy to maintain.  This is a noble perspective and I like the practice of meaningful naming of identifiers. However, I think it's also an extreme approach that doesn't cover important cases.  i.e. If an identifier is named badly (subjective differences in opinion) or not changed appropriately during maintenance, then the badly named identifier is no more useful than a stale comment. These were the two no-comment extremes, so let's look at the too many comments extreme. On a regular basis, I'll see cases where the code is over-commented; not nearly as often as the no-comment scenarios, but still prevalent.  These are examples of where every single line in the code is commented.  These comments make the code harder to read because they get in the way of the algorithm.  In most cases, the comments parrot what each line of code does.  If a developer understands the language, then most statements are immediately intuitive.  i.e. what use is it to say that I'm assigning foo to bar when it's clear what the code is doing. I think that over-commenting code is a waste of time that slows down initial development and maintenance.  Understandably, the developer's intentions are admirable because they've had it beaten into their heads that they must comment. However, I think it's an extreme and prefer a more moderate approach. I don't think the extremes do justice to code because each can make maintenance harder.  No comments on bad code is obviously a problem, but the other two extremes are subtle and require qualification to address properly. The problem I see with the code-as-documentation approach is that it doesn't lift the developer out of the algorithm to identify dependencies, intentions, and hacks. Any developer can read code and follow an algorithm, but they still need to know where it fits into the big picture of the application. Because of indirections with language features like interfaces, delegates, and virtual members, code can become complex.  Occasionally, it's useful to point out a nuance or reason why a piece of code is there. i.e. If you've building an app that communicates via HTTP, you'll have certain headers to include for the endpoint, and it could be useful to point out why the code for setting those header values is there and how they affect the application. An argument against this could be that you should extract that code into a separate method with a meaningful name to describe the scenario.  My problem with such an approach would be that your code base becomes even more difficult to navigate and work with because you have all of this extra code just to make the code more meaningful. My opinion is that a simple and well-stated comment stating the reasons and intention for the code is more natural and convenient to the initial developer and maintainer.  I just don't agree with the approach of going out of the way to avoid making a comment.  I'm also concerned that some developers would take this approach as an excuse to not comment their bad code. Another area where I like comments is on documentation comments.  Java has it and so does C# and VB.  It's convenient because we can build automated tools that extract these comments.  These extracted comments are often much better than no documentation at all.  The "go read the code" answer always doesn't fulfill the need for a quick summary of an API. To summarize, I think that the extremes of no comments and too many comments are less than desirable approaches. I prefer documentation comments to explain each class and member (API level) and code comments as necessary to supplement well-written code. Joe

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  • PASS Summit 2010 Recap

    - by AjarnMark
    Last week I attended my eighth PASS Summit in nine years, and every year it is a fantastic event!  I was fortunate my first year to have a contact (Bill Graziano (blog | Twitter) from SQLTeam) that I was expecting to meet, and who got me started on a good track of making new contacts.  Each year I have made a few more, and renewed friendships from years past.  Many of the attendees agree that the pure networking opportunities are one of the best benefits of attending the Summit.  And there’s a lot of great technical stuff, too, some of the things that stick out for me this year include… Pre-Con Monday: PowerShell with Allen White (blog | Twitter).  This was the first time that I attended a pre-con.  For those not familiar with the concept, the regular sessions for the conference are 75-90 minutes long.  For an extra fee, you can attend a full-day session on a single topic during a pre- or post-conference training day.  I had been meaning for several months to dive in and learn PowerShell, but just never seemed to find (or make) the time for it, so when I saw this was one of the all-day sessions, and I was planning to be there on Monday anyway, I decided to go for it.  And it was well worth it!  I definitely came out of there with a good foundation to build my own PowerShell scripts, plus several sample scripts that he showed which already cover the first four or five things I was planning to do with PowerShell anyway.  This looks like the right tool for me to build an automated version of our software deployment process, which right now contains many repeated steps.  Thanks Allen! Service Broker with Denny Cherry (blog | Twitter).  I remembered reading Denny’s blog post on Using Service Broker instead of Replication, and ever since then I have been thinking about using this to populate a new reporting-focused Data Repository that we will be building in the near future.  When I saw he was doing this session, I thought it would be great to get more information and be able to ask the author questions.  When I brought this idea back to my boss, he really liked it, as we had previously been discussing doing nightly data loads, with an option to manually trigger a mid-day load if up-to-the-minute data was needed for something.  If we go the Service Broker route, we can keep the Repository current in near real-time.  Hooray! DBA Mythbusters with Paul Randal (blog | Twitter).  Even though I read every one of the posts in Paul’s blog series of the same name, I had to go see the legend in person.  It was great, and I still learned something new! How to Conduct Effective Meetings with Joe Webb (blog | Twitter).  I always like to sit in on a session that Joe does.  I met Joe several years ago when both he and Bill Graziano were on the PASS Board of Directors together, and we have kept in touch.  Joe is very well-spoken and has great experience with both SQL Server and business.  And we could certainly use some pointers at my work (probably yours, too) on making our meetings more effective and to run on-time.  Of course, now that I’m the Chapter Leader for the Professional Development virtual chapter, I also had to sit in on this ProfDev session and recruit Joe to do a presentation or two for the chapter next year. Query Optimization with David DeWitt.  Anyone who has seen Dr. David DeWitt present the 3rd keynote at a PASS Summit over the last three years knows what a great time it is to sit and listen to him make some really complicated and advanced topic easy to understand (although it still makes your head hurt).  It still amazes me that the simple two-table join query from pubs that he used in his example can possibly have 22 million possible physical query plans.  Ouch! Exhibit Hall:  This year I spent more serious time in the exhibit hall than any year past.  I have talked my boss into making a significant (for us) investment in monitoring tools next year, and this was a great opportunity to talk with all the big-hitters.  Readers of mine may recall that I fell in love with the SQL Sentry Power Suite several months ago and wrote a blog entry about it just from the trial version.  Well as things turned out, short-term budget priorities shifted, and we weren’t able to make the purchase then.  I have it in the budget for next year, but since I was going to the Summit, my boss wanted me to look at the other options to see if this was really the one that we wanted.  I spent a couple of hours talking with representatives from Red-Gate, Idera, Confio, and Quest about their offerings, and giving them each the same 3 scenarios that I wanted to be able to accomplish based on the questions and issues that arise in our company.  It was interesting to discover the different approaches or “world view” that each vendor takes to the subject of performance monitoring and troubleshooting.  I may write a separate article that goes into this in more depth, but the product that best aligned with our point of view, and met the current needs we have is still the SQL Sentry Power Suite.  I’m not saying that the others are bad or wrong or anything like that, just that the way they tackled the issue did not align as well with our particular needs as does SQL Sentry’s product.  And that was something I learned too, when you go shopping for these products, you really need to know what you want to get from them.  It’s best if you have a few example scenarios from work that you can use to test out how well each tool fits your particular needs. Overall, another GREAT event.  I can’t wait to get the DVDs so I can sit in on a bunch of other sessions that I couldn’t get to because I was in one of the ones above.  And I can hardly wait until next year!

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  • Is it Hard to Write a Blog?

    - by Joe Mayo
    Responding to a tweet I received, asking if I found it hard to write a blog and keep it interesting. This is one of the situations where a 140 character response doesn’t do a question justice. There’s a lot to think about between the subjects of writing, subject matter, and entertainment.  Here’s my take on each of these three topics: There’s all types of writing you can do with various degrees of difficulty. If you’re writing a book and you have a gazillion editors bleeding over your every utterance, then the task becomes harder because you’re second-guessing yourself, not knowing whose opinion will be violated. However, if you’re communicating in a public forum, not too many people care about the grammar as much as whether what you have to say is correct.  For a blog, I would say it’s somewhere in-between.  Right now, I’m using Windows Live Writer, which gives me a few advantages to just typing into the blog editor, such as spelling correction and the ability to save my work and resume later.  Overall, writing is one of those things that you just need to get used to.  It’s an essential skill for developers because you need to document your work, depending on what your definition of proper documentation is, and communicate with other developers via various communications mediums. Not begin good (or not thinking that you’re good) shouldn’t hold you back.  Like most things in life, practice will improve your skill.  So, push away that inner voice that keeps you from moving forward and just do it. A good grasp on the subject matter you’re writing about helps.  However, don’t let a lack of knowledge stop you from writing about something. I recall reading something a while back by a developer who didn’t know a technology but wrote about their experience in learning it. They ended up learning more by expressing their thoughts in writing. If you look around out many blogs today, there are many items written by developers learning what they’re writing about.  So, whether you are sure or unsure, you can still write – just be honest with yourself and your readers about what you’re writing. Also, don’t be afraid to have a different opinion or worry if someone will disagree.  I’ll freely admit that it took a while for me to become accustomed to being criticized. Take the good with the bad and use the bad to make yourself better. Guaranteed, someone will disagree with one or more parts of what I’ve written here or think they have a better approach. No problem, more power to them, and whatever constructive comments they have will be a benefit to me in the future; Otherwise, to h*ll with them. :)  Every time you get knocked down, get right back up, dust the dirt off your backside, and keep moving forward.  You’ll learn in time how to align a subject with your own presentation of the material. Entertainment could be hard or could be natural, depending on the personality of yourself and your target audience. It’s even more challenging because you can say something you think is funny and someone will be offended. In fact, there are a lot of things that you shouldn’t say in the name of a joke, but I won’t mention any of them here for want of not offending anyone. Of course, I probably offended someone by saying that and there is probably an organization somewhere in the world out to get me now. I’m probably not the best person to be giving you advice on entertaining an audience.  I mean, every time I try to tell a joke on Twitter 10 people unfriend me. Okay, maybe 15, but you get my point. One thing you might be interested in knowing is that it’s not too hard for one technical person to entertain other technical people, especially when the subject is of interest.  It’s the excitement in each sentence and passion in each paragraph that will keep another developer entertained and interested in what you have to say. Not everyone will like what you’ve written, but the important part is to find your own voice and it’s likely that there is one person in some corner of the world that likes what you have to say, even if it’s your mom and she doesn’t understand a single word you write. :)   If I could leave you with one final thought; Just do it and don’t let anyone or anything hold you back.   Joe

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