I am trying out WordPress.  I've found my excitement for blogging waning.  I had the opportunity to install and configure WordPress for a peer and it truly impressed me.  The community behind the software is amazing.  I think I'd like to be a part of that so I am going to try using that for a while.  I will leave this blog here but I'll be active on that blog.  Likely, I will retire this one and import the content there.  That isn't great for seo traffic but I  am more interested in ensuring my visitors understand where things are going. 

so, without further adu...

Rusty's New Blog

http://www.vitaminzproductions.com/technology-blog

please update you feeds!

http://www.savenetradio.org/

Save Internet Radio

Its been a while since I've posted.  That just underscores how importnat I feel this might be.  Electronic distribution is the single, biggest threat to the current music industry since casette tapes.  We all know how the ability to record on casette tapes destroyed the record companies and the artists they support, right?  Its very similar to the way that vcr tapes bancrupted the movie industry.  We all remember when motion picture studios made millions of dollars from the production of a film.  Those were the days...

The threat is not against the industry or the art, its against the monopolists.  Not only that, but the threat is merely imagined.  Sure, a cheaper alternative to traditional recorded media distibution does impact the traditional supply chains revenue in a real way.  However, no one would argue that we should keep hauling buckets of water from a well when plumbing is cost effective and reliable. 

As a musician, I can attest that record companies do not exist to support the artist.  They exist to capitalize on you and your propensity to consume what is popular.  They feed on the emotional power that music holds and they exploit the psychological impact that a song has on an experience.  None of this is bad.  This is, in fact, good for our society.  It is good to feel happy and excited about something and recall that years later with a song.  It is good to explore your darker emotions with melody that reminds you that you are not alone.  However, it is not good to limit the opportunity for inspirational song and it is down right imoral to control the supply of pure art.  Controlled supply is offensive, selfish practice and it serves no on e but the controller.  The music distribution industry, ie: record companies (and there are really only 3... yes, three), are working very hard to make sure you can only get your hands on the music they deem worthy and profitable.  Everything else they would like to bury.

This new, porposed legislation is not targeted at protecting the people or artists of america, it is targeted at protecting the big three record companies and their fat pockets.  Hey, I want fat pockets, too.  ...but I would not accept a million tax free dollars if it came along with the knowledge that in keeping my money I'd be killing the future of thousands of musicians who were right on the edge of giveing the world something wonderful.

In closing, I want to encourage you to listed to music online, share your opinions with your friends, go to shows and sing in the shower.  Check out http://www.pandora.com if you haven't already.  Type in your favorite artist and see what great new music they find for you.

I've recently created my first levous myspace band profile: have a listen if you like and please don't let rock and roll die!


 

LoaderExceptions:
Could not load file or assembly 'Reflector, Version=4.2.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=18ca6bb8dd6a03c3' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. (FileNotFoundException)

The code is now available from googlecode as open source (thanks Jay Flowers!)

Found the latest, working version here: http://code.google.com/p/doubler/

This is far from complete but it is working and that is where I wanted to get it before letting others have a look.

Please let me know if you try it and how it works for you.  I would LOVE some feedback from someone with a different subscription from mine just to ensure that it works generically.

Currently it only supports a user story workspace and you can only update certain fields on stories and tasks. 

I'll be updating this regularly.  Eventually, I plan to post this on sourceforge but for now you can download it from me bloggernaut.

RallyDev.VSAddIn

RallyDev.zip (download) note:
note: there is an error in the "RallyDev.VSAddIn.AddIn" file found in your "My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Addins" directory.  Please open "RallyDev.VSAddIn.AddIn" in notepad and change the line <Assembly>RallyDev.VSAddIn.dll</Assembly>
to
<Assembly>RallyDev.VSAddIn\RallyDev.VSAddIn.dll</Assembly>

I'll fix it later but my wife is hovering over me wishing me to stop working on this for a moment!

I'm writing an Add-In that provides a Rally Agile Project Management Software interface inside Visual Studio.  I was feeling a little jealous of the people using Microsoft Team Foundation Server and realized that the consolidated development experience is critical if one wants to get the greatest benefit from the tools they invest in.  I sometimes won't check my email for two days because Lotus Notes takes too much memory and too long to load.  Its not a matter of not caring, its a matter of limited resources and screen realestate.  I also believe that convenience encourages compliance.  Make it easy and painless and people won't mind participating. 

Now that I have a start, I am excited for what new possibilities might present themselves.  For example, if an add-in were to show a test case, then perhaps a developer could drop a test case onto a unit test to associate that code with that test case.  Hmmm, one step at a time.

I still have to work in paging, provide the ability to search tasks first (currently, I'm querying for stories then showing child tasks), provide more detail about each item, allow a user to add tasks, allow them to reassign tasks or stories to other users and link back to the appropriate url in Rallyin an intelligent way (doubleclick?).

Here are some screens to wet your appetite.

 

Today the Rentals.com team joined up with out RentClicks counterparts to estimate a joint project that was less the trivial in scope.  We started with a simple model of where we were and what needed to be changed, in what way, and then broke that down into digestable chunks.  We estimated each one as a team and I was surprised by how easy it was to have agreement with vague requirements.  We had a feel for what we needed to do and a hunch as to how long it would take.  Its fantastic to see the team operating as one with such efficiency.

After we logged points for each story, I counted up the points and came up with what represented, according to our time to point conversion factor, 10 developer weeks.  A quandry came over me as I realized we'd landed two months late on our current release and began to wonder how to factor that into our planning.  It is not reasonable, after all, to assume the same thing would not happen again.  A suggestion was made to bloat the estimates with a fudge factor.  This is the traditional way to account for unforeseen circumstance when plannig a project.  I think this would take 3 weeks so I'll add 30% to account for things that I haven't thought of.  I used to do this myself with amazing accuracy.  I'd tack on 30% to all my estimates and I would almost always be right on the money.  Something didn't feel right, however, with that approach.  First, this was essentially just lying strategically.  We think it will take two days so we'll say three?  Considering the whole purpose for using points in place of time is that you can adjust point translation according to circumstance...  ah hah!  The amount of work you can accomplish per iteration is called velocity.  Don't adjust the estimate, adjust the velocity!

During our last project, we lost one developer and I was split between two independent products.  I was also distracted with unrelated initiatives that sucked most of my time and energy and effectively lost me to the team.  This contributed to our missed Dec 20 target date.  Missing that date introduced the holidays which pretty much eats a week.  Then a separate, unplanned release was inserted right in the middle that caused a slide in both schedule and scope.  None of these things were accounted for in our project plan.  When something impacts the project, its important to reflect that in some visible way against one of the vectors of the project projection.  Its either going to complete on some other date or scope myust be adjusted to accomodate the changes.  The preferred approach is to adjust scope.  I did not and therefore had no idea when things would wrap up until the project started to show a steate of completion.

The appropriate thing to do would have been to subtract the scope of the developer who left and calculate the new velocity.  Then we should have reduced the scope of that iteration to meet the date planned for delivery or, if necessary, change the date. 

Looking back, this is what makes the most sense going forward.  Rather then fudge the estimates in some arbitrary way, I've tried to calculate the impact of the lost developer and the holidays and factor in the intermediate release.  From there I think a 30% factor is appropriate for adjusting or plan.  Rather then bloat the estimates, I will reduce velocity for iteration planning by 30%.  This will visibly show that we are experiencing some inefficiencies that have reduced our productivity.  If this is concering to decision makers, its a great topic for conversation.  Why have you reduced your velocity to 66 points per 2 week iteration?  ...well, our last release was off track and we're adjusting to reflect that something is slowing us down.  Our goal is to bring that back up to 80 points per week and we're activley seeking ways to accomplish that.  The reduced velocity will keep everyone aware of our present condition.  That's not a bad way to talk about it.  Its a good measure to keep an eye on and set a goal against.  In fact, the two new developers on the team will only provide a fraction of their optimal velocity until they are through the HR hurdles, familiar with the product and work flow and have their environment configured.  Now its really making sense.  We have a logical way say, "this is a two week task but it will take us a little longer."

Frankly, this was a good day

I've realized something valuable after reading http://martinfowler.com/articles/itsNotJustStandingUp.html.  A pattern emerged on my present team where people show up to work around 10am, usually.  Sometimes they call in to the scrum and lately, often really, we end up with more then one caller.  Frankly, more times then not, the caller is me.

I have been curious as to why I have shifted my schedule unintentionally and why the whole team now works a later day.  We all have families so its unlikely that anyone is out partying late into the night.  The article pointed out that the daily stand-up either starts the day or it doesn't.  If your stand-up is in the morning, make it appropriately early so that it kicks of the core work hours.  If its not on by, say 9:30, move it to the afternoon.  Psychologically, the team will associate that meeting with the beginning of their day and they won't be motivated to begin any work until that commitment is behind them.  This is perfectly normal and makes sense in hindsight but it hadn't occurred to me until I read it.  I'm not advocating strict working hours or even suggesting that a later start is inherently bad, merely that one should be aware of scheduling impact.

I believe there is tremendous value to starting the day with the daily stand up or "scrum".  Don't wait until its is convenient for everyone to be present.  Rather, schedule it at a reasonable time that everyone can agree to be ready.  9:30 for example.  The team should plan to be at work around 9, log in, check their email, reboot Windows 6 times, and fill their coffee.  Then, at 9:30, come together and hit it like gangbusters. 

Granted, if the team is composed of a bunch of young punks who like to stay out late and prefer to start work at 10 am and work into the evening hours, there is nothing at all wrong with a 10:30 scrum.  Adjust accordingly but understand the impact of your kick off time.

I mentioned in my last post that I couldn't use the barebones case that Jason offered me.  I learned that the P4R8L in the Pundit case overheats unless you use the low power, low heat Northwood CPU.  (By the way, I thought it said "P4RB8" and had a heluva time finding information until I got that B switched to an 8). 

This morning, I was benchmarking the HD and memory on that squeeky Dell when the memory analyzer reported my CPU details.  Intel, 1.8mhz, core: Northwood.

Sweet?!  I think so.  Now I can shop for the faster Prescott core chip and move the Northwood to the p4r8l.  I think  the little pundit is a prime candidate for the BizZoo HeadQuarters Media Center.  At my rate of computer building progress, I should have it ready just about the time the dors open!

...ad the dell?   Let's just say I am not buying anymore Dells.  I'd be better off with a new barebones from TigerDirect then trying to salvage that cranky pile af junk.

I've been putting together a PC for some time. I started the project more then six months ago.  As I can stand to spend a little money, I get a few more components.  I started out with a micro atx mother board and a few hard drives.  I believe I have over a terabyte of storage though I have to review the box full of parts.  When I purchased the motherboard, I decided to give AMD another try since I'd discovered that my failing AMD a few years ago turned out to be a bad IDE on the motherboard, not a bad cpu.  I wonder if my extreme overclocking had anything to do with that...  Until the IDE controller failed, the computer was very reliable and incredibly fast.  Gamers across America can't be wrong!

I researched the system carefully in the beginning.  However, as the project dragged on, I started looking for a way to work within my means and get a great value.  I went with an AMD Athlon 64 4000+.   Apparently, this is good.  I have no idea.  I picked up the CPU at TigerDirect for around $80.  I also got a gig of PC3200 ram for $80.  My friend and business partner, Jason, let me have his old micro case.  Unfortuntely, the board I have is incompatable.  I was still unable to assemble my brain sucking device.  Jason is also the inspiration for this entire project.  His media center freakin' rocks!

The TigerDirect order arrived and I realized only two things stood between me and my media center: a case and a cpu cooler.  I had taken notes long ago regarding what parts I had decided were best and searched for this document on my dying-a-slow-death Dell PC.  I am so glad I took the time to review my own notes.   The case you see here is quite sweet, ain't it?!  In addition to being easy to use, my wife will insist that it look pretty in the living room.  I think I can convince her to work with this.  The CPU cooler I'd selected was not in stock so I pulled the trigger on the "Blue Orb".  I'm not sure if it was the fact that it is the last required component or if I just lost my head but the blue light sold me.  I really need to grow up...

BizZoo.Net is a new website focused around providing e-commerce websites for folks who have a passion for something specialized.  Right now its in stealth mode but it looks to be the next ebay. 

I'll update you when there's more information related to its development

With the recent development of Rentals.com, I've learned a great deal about teams, capability and myself.  With a small team of fantastic people, a tremendous level of productivity was accomplished.  Next year, we plan to better that.  IT will be an immense challenge but I am excited for the opportunity.  Along with that opportunity came a promotion to Development Manager for Rentals.com and a new office space just across the parking lot from the old.  The move is to truly empower the small team to operate as one.  Up until now we've been trying very hard to work  within a medium company that behaves like a giant company.  I believe this is going to be a significant year for all involved, especially the competition. 

In the last few months, I have received more employment opportunities then ever before.  Six months ago, I would have accepted the offers I've recently declined.  I love nothing more then to build things and there's nothing better then feeling a sense of ownership and responsibily for an outcome you are proud of.  I helped build ApartmentGuide.com over the years, not to mention NewHomeGuide.com, AutoGuide.com and a previous incarnation of RealEstate.com.  Each of these had varying levels of success and I played various roles and contributed on different levels at different times.  I am ecstatic to be intimately connected with this next venture. 

I am looking for top notch developers in Atlanta.  We are based in Norcross.  We have a beautiful office building, updated workstations with dual lcd monitors, flexible schedules, casual dress and really, really sharp people.  We are going to be running a pure agile (scrum if you know it) development process to build an infant of a product to a $200,000,000 company in the next two years.  The parent company is stable and profitable, compensation top tier and work loads reasonable.  Sustainable pace, right?  Its all dot net 2.0 and we're finally going to start using SQL Server.  You'll have some opportunity to build your Oracle skills, however, if that floats your boat.

So, please shoot an email to rzarse -at- consumersource -dot- com if you are 1) a fantastic dot net developer 2) highly motivated and a great team player 3) Bored at your current gig and looking for a fun, exciting challenge

I had recently moved from a usb modem to an ethernet modem and was empowered to use my LynkSys as my Dynamic DNS updater.  After a couple of months, however, I received an email stating that I was being blocked due to update abuse.  I asked for more info regarding the situation and the DynDns support rep was happy to reply and inform me that my router was updating on a timer, which is not allowed.  Unfortunately, three days later, I received another email stating that my DynDns account had been removed due to continued abuse.  The service they provide for free is absolutely fantastic and I certainly cannot complain that they have no patience for slackers who fail to fix their problems immediately.  So I finally spent about an hour getting things straight tonight.  I've disabled my LinkSys and returned to using the DynDns updater.  I was pleasantly surprised to find it now runs as a windows service!

If you're not famliar with Dynamic DNS and what DynDns provices, it allows you to point a url at your home computer that will allow you to access it from anywhere in the world as long as your computer tells the dns host what your ip address is every time it changes.  Simple but very powerful.  By installing a beacon service on your computer, you keep the DynDns server informed as to the address of your computer.  All requests are proxied through their server to allow access to your computer.  When your ISP changes your ip address, the beacon tells the DynDns server about the change.  You should never have to worry about it.  However, reboots can get tricky.  When I had a usb modem and the computer rebooted, my url would no longer connect to my computer until I physically logged in and established a connection.  I was very happy when I could use my router to update the server.  Too bad its an abusive piece of ...equipment.

To get a dyn dns account, go here: https://www.dyndns.com

create an account, then add a host to dynamic dns.  It will detect your ip address right there.  I won't go into detail about setting up wireless routers and port forwarding.  You can tackle that elsewhere.

Now download and install the preferred client: DynDns Updating Client

Set up an account that points to the domain you set up on DynDns.com. 

Once it is updating and the icon turns green, go to options on the dynDns client properties window, deselect "start with windows"  and click "install service"

Then exit the client by right clicking and selecting "exit"

Go to control panel > administrative tools > Services

Find "DynDNS Updater Service" right click and chools "start"

Leave a comment if you could use more information or some screen shots.  I'll add them.  I just wanted to illustrate how easy it is to set up remote access to your home or office computer if you don't have static ip addresses to work with.

 

I've been practicing for a year to play one silly little song!  Sorry for the $8 cover, I guess the crowd has grown enough to command pro ticket prices. 

I'll be playing at 9:30 ish.  That means I might play at 9:15.  Anyone coming at 9:30 and finding themselves surprised that they completely missed me should be referred to this blog.  Don't come after 9:15 if you are coming to hear me.  However, all the other bands will be worth listening to as well and you can then hang out with me...  All for 8measly bucks!  wow

so check out open mic madness in Atlanta and cheer me on.  Then boo the judges when I don't advance and throw empty water bottles at Josh Rifkin.

peas

A bookmark is describes a static place in the world.  Its a place you wish to label for revisit.  Its somewhere you wish to come back because its properties still serve you some value.  I created a bookmark today that I should have been creating all along.  I bookmarked a Google search that had more results then I had time or energy to read. 

Then it occurred to me that my url was actually a search instruction to the google machine and this bookmark was, in fact, a macro.  Gives me an interesting idea for automated testing...

These are tools that one should not be doing .net development without (in my opinion) 
most are free.  I'd like to take this opportunity to truly thank the contributors to each of these tools.  They are INCREDIBLE and I can't imagine going back to working without them.

Invaluable Tools for DotNet development

Title	Description	Purpose	Url	cost
Reflector	Lutz Roeder's tool for inspecting .net assemblies and reading the representative code	reverse engineering for the purpose of learning how something works or helping to diagnose the cause of some behavior	Reflector	free
NUnit	Automated unint testing framework	ensuring quality software and enforce continued adherance to business requirements	http://www.nunit.org/	free
CruiseControl.net	continous build server and dashboard for .net	Identifying integration issues minutes after they are generated and compile/unit test confidence for all configured projects	CruiseControl.NET	free
Fiddler	http request manipulation tool	Create explicit request contexts to test the behavior of your site at a low level	http://www.fiddlertool.com/fiddler/	free
TestDriven.net	Visual Studio plugin for Unit Testing	Integrates with NUnit to allow test exectution from within visual studio. Allows method invocation with no need for dummy form coding	http://www.testdriven.net/	free personal edition
RegEx Workbench	Regular Expression editor / evaluator	Interactive execution and testing of regular expressions	RegEx WorkBench	free
Enterprise Libraries	Framework based on Microsoft best practices	Well tested and thoughtfully designed frameworks for common business needs	Enterprise Library .NET 2.0	free

I'll try to keep this list updated and add items as I think of / discover / am told about them. Each of these represents a different aspect of enterprise development and, as a whole, reduce cost & complexity while increasing consistency and quality. Pretty sweet for FOC!

Now, if you have all of these, follow to Scott Hanselman's Ultimate developer and power tool list and have a ball.  It was his post that inspired me to officially post these.  That and the desire to consolodate my url list of downloadable tools.

    It feels good. 

Our problem was two fold.

1) Sander Gerz describes a Google related Context.Rewrite() bug in ASP.Net 2.0 that occurs when the browser header User-Agent setting is Mozilla/ 5.0.  This happens to be the browser Google identifies itself as.  The error will result in your form failing when trying to write the action tag.  An Exception is thrown. Read the post to learn more about the specifics.

2) We had a custom error page that used Server.Transfer to display a friendly message when an error was caught by the Page_Error event on a failing page.  Unfortunately, the developers did not explicitly set the response code to 500 so Google thought that we were a website all about "Errors have occurred...".  They got a 200 OK status, after all.  Lesson: set the response code to 500 when showing a pretty error page.  This will likely result in some browsers not displaying the content but it will trigger the appropriate escalation chain attached to error events.  Sending a regular page is the same as swallowing errors in an empty catch...  not good.

So, read the post about rewritten paths and google in ASP.Net 2.0 and think carefully about how you handle errors.  It is a good idea to practice diagnosing a problem having a similar configuration to your target production environment so you can identify what you'll need when break down occurs.  That would include whatever restrictions your administrators place on you such as no machine or filesystem access or debugging.  Sometimes you really cannot recreate something in another context or environment until you'll identified the cause of a problem.

Hint: use the Exception Handling Application block from the 2.0 Enterprise Libraries

I've read and been told that a transition to Agile is not an easy undertaking.  I under-estimated the resistance I'd receive to documented techniques and practices when the organizational leaders announced that it was their intention and desire to: "abandon our heavy waterfall process and go Agile."  I'd convinced myself that this was something that would be easy to sell once it came from the top.  I've come to realize, appropriately, that change takes time, even good change.  If its worth doing, its worth doing right and if it were simple, it'd be done already.

We recently had a meeting to discuss what documents wereto be authored, by who, who owned them and who the approvers or reviewers were.  A business counterpart of mine continues to ask about when "hand-offs" should occur.  Many insist that story cards are not adequate to convey requirements.  Business owners prefer a proxy from whom they channel all their communication with the team doing the work. 

I work with a left handed individual. When I sit at his computer, I cross my right arm over my left and operate the mouse with my arms tangled over one another.  Two other techniques that work much better are either to move the mouse over to the right side of the computer (revert to previous process) or to use my left hand on the mouse (adopt a new, unfamiliar technique).  I've found I am perfectly capable with my left hand operating the mouse.  However, Its slightly uncomfortable.  So I find myself crossed and bound up thinking that something must be wrong with this left-handed programmer.  I know, however, that my natural habit is the real cause for challenge and with practice it would feel more natural.  I'll have to remember to be patient and considerate of these long-established habits.

The ironic thing is that it was actually easier when everyone else stated that they were in favor of waterfall and I quietly and confidentially began researching how to manage a project with less ceremony and demonstrated the results of it in small, project by project, increments.  The first three projects lacked significant aspects of an Agile project but began to show the merits of the movement.  The most recent, http://preview.rentals.com,  lacked only frequent delivery to production.  We'd go as far as qa, then stop.  However, we were by no means fully implementing an Agile process.  We had facets of it: continuous integration, small iterations, automated unit testing, frequent communication, reflective review, collaboration, story card based development, just in time elaboration, pair programming, and others.  We still tested at the end of each iteration (not ideal) and some project contributors were outside the development process with little accountability.  We'd do sub-optimal things like extend dates to finish testing or fit a few extra features in.  Our review meetings would be postponed a week after the iteration was complete so that feedback from that review may affect work already completed.  I'm definitely learning as I go, we all are.  I am truly a fanatic about the change in approach.  However, there's a backslide happening lately...

In a book by Robert Pirsig - Lila, the author describes evolutionary change as having a ratcheting effect.  Things change, begin to fall back a bit, then they stabalize.  Then they change a little more, fall back a bit again, then stabalize again.  Stable patterns persist until mutation, or dynamic patterns, cause some change in the overall model.  If the new pattern has staying power, if it is superior, it will stick, and eventually become a static pattern.  If, however, it is unstable, it will fall back to the previous static pattern from which it evolved.  The static patterns are represented by the majority and the dynamic patterns are represented by the innovators and the rebels. Obviously, not all things persist.  Some good changes will be overtaken by a powerful competitive majority.  Sometimes several ratchets are needed to complete a massive redirection of behavior and sometimes people will have to fail before they will succeed.  Edison said that every failure is just one step closer to eventual success, or something like that.

My last note is that eternal question of: if there is no one in a forest who cares if trees stand or fall, should you bother to cut them down?  ...and if you do, should you do it your way or someone elses way?  ...and what the hell was I thinking getting into luberjacking in the first place?   I thought I was a guitar player

Sorry folks, the brakes were slammed on at the last minute regarding rentals.com.  There is some strategy thought process going on that required a massive redirection of intent.  If you care to see it, have alook at http://preview.rentals.com.  However, it won't be released into the wild for some time (intentionally not linked).  I will, however, be positioning the site at beta.rentals.com  shortly.  When we do that, I'll link to it.  Hopefully that will be enough of a feeder to spark a google investigation.  When that happens, we'll see just how valuable content is and how valuable inbound links are!  That's one of the tenets of SEO, inbound links.  One needs links to a site to give it credibility.  Without them, content is just a bunch of text in cyber-space.  However, with links that say something is about something: like this, you get the inferred vote from that external link that says, "this site is an authority"  Enough of those and you don't even need the specific word on your page! 

I've intentionally gone off topic. I'm excited about the new site. I wish we could have launched it.  I'llkeep the world posted as to my progress but for now we are continuing as planned with rentals.com except for the actual releasing of it and focusing more attention on our new, refreshed ApartmentGuide.com site.  We got a couple little things to tweak on that old salty dog.

cheers!

I found something interesting on my web stats today.  I had two hits on my mp3 @ http://www.vitaminzrecords.com/mp3/rusty/rusty%20-%20nothing.mp3

They were followed by 5 hits @ http://www.vitaminzrecords.com/mainweb/calendar.asp?z=1&PID=10&z_xml=rusty.xml.  You'll notice there are no events scheduled.  For now there are no shows...

The fantastic thing is that someone was checking out something I have practically forgotten about.  Even better, I've started pursuing musical interests again.  I am embarking on an acoustic duo with a new friend.  I played last weekend to a group of people I've been enjoying socializing with much more lately and I think it was mutually enjoyable.  I know I had a freakin' ball. 

So I hope to play a few shows soon. 

 

For one, yes Open Mic Madness!  I've been practicing more and this year I have no desire or hope to win it, I only plan to enjoy the hell out of it. 

 

Anyone want to go to see the best live music in Atlanta?!

Life is like the ocean eternally washing the sandy shore.  A wave approaches, crests, crashes, then rolls up onto the beach to then gently release its energy and finally fall back into the tide, another right on its heels.  I find waves of intensity ebbing in my personal and professional life all the time.  Sometimes things are building up, gaining intensity, sometimes they are playing out on a turbulent ride toward completion. 

The last four months I've been work-focused on designing and releasing a new Rentals.com.  It will be out Tuesday, August 1st if all goes perfectly.  If not, it will be shortly after.  Regardless, there will be a series of releases to increment the planned initial functionality.  The new site replaces a site that's been successful for a number of years but hasn't been allowed to reach its potential.  We're going to leverage the strong capabilities of the software that Phil Massum designed and drive a new website that I've adapted from the work of a recent redesign of ApartmentGuide.com.  For that project, I had collaborated (as architect) with Roman Pozdniakov (technical lead), Mark Stevens (project lead) and Blane Davis (data manager and seach guru) to leverage the capabilities of our Endeca search tool in order to satisfy the complicated business requirements surrounding large apartment community listing service.  Rentals.com will take advantage of an indirect client relationship to provide a more rich and valuable user experience with a focus on search indexable navigation.   We've designed the search engine spider bait and trap to be exactly the same thing, just like they've suggested.  I navigated the site using an alternative browser and I was surprised by how useful it actually is.  I was pleased by how terrible the competition was.  I can't wait to see what happens when its released into the wild.

Its been a challenging and rewarding project and has lead to a promotion to product development manager.  I now oversee product and project development for all things apartments at consumer source inc.  That includes ApartmentGuide.com and Rentals.com as well as content management applications, support applications, integration and future new/aquired product.  I'm hoping to help coach teams to be self organizing, self managing and self motivated.  This move is outside my immediate comfort zone and represents the first time in a long time that I've taken on a new role that wasn't something I was infinitely trained for.  There's a lot of disfunction to resolve and I'll be learning on the fly, having to stretch my own capacity to accomplish my goals.  Its due time I stop resting on my laurels.

We've been redefining our process to adhere to agile methodologies and principles and working toward more responsive, less cumbersome software development.  This is as exciting as the product itself and my passion for it has surprised me as much as my discovery a number of years ago that I LOVE database normalization and the inherent relationship of structured information.  These two concepts, adaptation and data relationships, take a new direction when considered independently and lead to ideas that are just beginning to reveal potential.  The crest of the Rentals.com release has just flattened onto the sand and the next one is beginning to swell. 

On the subject of waves and beaches, I just returned from a weekend at Sea Pines on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. The place is amazing.  Its very high end.  While I appreciated the wealth of the place, I found myself longing for the more personal Rosemary Beach.  I feel more at home away from home there then I did inside the security gate of the Sea Pines rich person compound.  There's nothing wrong with having money but I feel that it doesn't matter whether the uniformed guard waves you in or drags you in, you're no longer in the land of liberty and diversity; you're inside the prison wall. If you stay too long, you'll become institutionalized.  However, if you instead retreat inside yourself, and listen to the waves coming in rows, the waves all become one sound: like the wind but much louder.  You might realize that those waves are just ripples on top of some larger wave unfolding.  If you can focus on that wave and become curious as to how it might soon crest and play out, you might forget about walls all together.  You might realize that they are not a prison at all.  You might relax and enjoy the moment.  You might forget about the next wave swelling on the sand bar long enough to catch your breath and enjoy the ocean air.  I clearly need more vacations. 

Its been a long while since I've blogged code.

I have dynamic images (photos to be precise) coming in.  They can be various sizes.  I have a limited width area on my web page in which to display the photo.  I don't want to stretch the small images but I don't want large images to mess up my layout.  I require a clientside solution for maximum image <img> width without affecting thos images that aren't violating the threshold.

                <script>
                function maxImage(img, width){
                     //copy to new image so it will work in ie
                    var newImg = new Image();
                    newImg.src = img.src;
                    var iWidth = newImg.width;
                    var iHeight = newImg.height;
                    if( iWidth > width ){
                        var iRatio =  iWidth / width;
                        img.width = width;
                        img.height = iHeight / iRatio;
                    }
                }
                </script>

                <img border="0" src='<%# Eval("SomeDynamicImageUrl") %>' onload="maxImage(this,250);"/>

For years I have said, "can't be done."  Reinforces my philosophy: never say never

I am learning how to use SubVersion at the moment.  I am a very long time VSS user and have finally been convinced (by poor behavior from Visual Source Safe, not its opponents) that it is not adequate for source control.

While attempting to migrate from VSS bindings in Visual Studio 2005*, I tried to "add solution to repository" but I navigated to the wrong place.  Fortunately, nothing happens on the server until you commit.  Win #1 for SubVersion. 

( *Visual Studio 2005 is a fantastic product, just to be impartial )

Unfortunately, my folder was now a working directory for the root of my source control repository.  After failing to find easy instruction as to how I can "undo" my improper repository binding, I came to the assumption that deleting the magic _svn directory might cause subversion to forget what I had done.  I wouldn't recommend this in the midst of a project under source control but if you've added a project wrong and not yet commited, I see no risk.  So...

1. Use windows search (or your favorite desktop search) to recursively locate all directories named "_svn" from the root of the windows directory you would like to disassociate from subVersion. 
2. When search returns with your list, delete every _svn directory shown.  Make sure you are locating hidden files, these directories are marked hidden.

It worked!  The little icons all disappeard from the folders and I could open the project in Visual Studio with no issues. 

Time to try again!

I entered the url to the correct directory in my subVersion repository and checked the "create sub directory" check box.

An error!  It can't find the folder it created.  Repeat step1.  I think I'll try another approach...  more to come

JBL - OnStage vs. Harmon Kardon - iHome

My plan was to give a comparison between these two iPod Docking players.  The iHome is also a clock radio with a tuner and a remote control.  The JBL is small and easy to take with you on vacations, to work, etc.  I bought both at Costco to take home and try side-by-side. 

There really is no comparison.  The JBL sound a thousand times better.  It actually sounds so good its surprising.  The Harmon Kardon sounds decent for a clock radio but, for $100, it ought to sound a little better.

 The JBL is tiny compared to the iHome.  It makes it apparent that the JBL is intended to give you the ability to use your iPod on the go where ever you are.  However, the iHome is for your nightstand table.  If that's where you intend it, its great.  If you want something more generally useful, my advice is really, really simple.  Get the JBL!

A friend asked how to do this.  Since I was curious myself and figured others probably are as well, I've posted it here.

• right click on your web project
• choose "property pages"
• choose "start options"
• change the Server setting from "use default Web server" to "use custom server"
• configure your "Base URL" to the root of your website.
  note: I received an error: "Unable to start debugging on the web server. Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password." when attempting to open a local url using host headers (http://www.me.rentals.com).   Using localhost with a virtual directory worked fine (http://localhost/csi.rentals.web).

 

Now, when you <F5>, you'll launch your website like we used to in VS 2003. 

 

If you want to use a host header, I'd look into Internet Options/security settings in Internet explorer (check "automatically log on with current username and password) as well as the user configured for your asp.net application.  Documentation suggests that the debugging user must be an administrator.  I'd use SysInternals RegMon and FileMon to see what access might be failing but this is outside of the scope of what I was trying to accomplish.   Good luck!

Is it possible that someone has called me spam?  I just searched on terms that I should rock for and got nothing!  My website isn't even on the list.  Years old posts on unassuming forums are ranking higher on my name then I do.

Two possibilities occur to me.  One: vitaminzrecords is a very bad name for a personal music and blog site.  Two: vitaminz used as part of my own monacre is a violating someone's perception of their trademark and they bitched.  Three: my domain going down last year pulled me off the index for good.

I'd like to know which is the culprit.  If the name is killing me, I'd like to know now.  This is the name I came up with for my record label.  It is the last vitamin you'll ever need, baby.  However, if it is boycotted from Google, I'd rather have my content accessible and would acquiesce to change my domain name to something else.

cheers

 

Rusty Zarse

          using AgileDevelopmentMethodologies; using ASP.Net2.0; using VisualStudio2005; using NUnit; ///
   <summary>/// This individual will crank
   out high-quality, high-performance application logic ///
   to further enhance the absolute industry-dominance for their employer.///
   The product is the leading provider in its market vertical and seeks to broaden///
   their target market. It's an exciting and challenging opportunity. ///
   The website itself is a public facing, high volume, user-centric, high profile brand///
   and a valuable product to consumers/// ///
   Highly competive rate for competent individuals. Position immediately available. ///
   </summary>publicclass SeniorDeveloper
   : ExperiencedWebApplicationDeveloper { string _employmentType
   = "Contract/Contract to Perm"; int _immediateDotNetTeamSize
   = 3; int _organizationTeamSize = 20; //appxint _growthOpportunity
   = int.MaxValue; //TODO:
   consider refactoring to use larger datatype//
   developer must be able to work on a team yet complete tasks independently//
   skills needed are all facets of web development as related to high-traffic, //
   public websites. Think http://www.apartmentguide.compublic SeniorDeveloper()
   { bool requirementsMayBeChanging = true; //
   requirements changes are expected and embraced. //
   If they should change, impact to project development must be minimal. //
   Short iterations enable flexible project focuswhile(
   requirementsMayBeChanging ) { // turn business ideas
   into functional feature sets AnalyzeRequirements(); //
   elaborate on the above CommunicateWithBusinessSponsors(); //
   estimate the work required to implement EstimateFeatureDevelopmentCost(); //
   independently productive and organized. Aware of issues early and able to communicate
   risk ManagePeronalResponsibilitiesAndHelpManageProjectStatus(); //
   commitment to quality and zero defects (*required) WriteUnitTests(); //
   keep the logic out of the interface, keep the html out of the class library. //
   if any feature or function cannot be unit tested, it is a poor design. refactor! ImplementStrongObjectOrientedPractices(); //
   IE 5+, FireFox 1.0+, mac and windows SupportCrossBrowserUserInterface(); //
   check in code that compiles// Write unit tests
   that verify code-complete// strive for zero defects WorkOnATeamUsingContinuousIntegrationAndAutomatedUnitTesting(); //
   work closely with qa to provide a rich test plan //
   that extends upon the quality offering of developer authored unit tests//
   be production ready with every short iteration DeployShortIterativeReleasesToQualityAssuranceTeam(); //
   occassionally, defects pop up. Troubleshoot, isolate, write test(s) and resolve TroubleshootAndResolveDefects(); //
   the product's market performance drives the enhancement and extension of the website//
   if the product ceases to deliver business value, the product is not worth continued
   investmentif( ProductIsMeetingSuccessFactors()
   ) { // feedback from user response will help to make
   the product even better. // New features will
   be requested! requirementsMayBeChanging = BusinessSponsorHasAquiredNewData();
   } else { // isolated
   failure is only an opportunity to improve even more but continued failure is a problemthrownew NotMeetingObjectivesException( "Time
   to reconsider the current product direction" ); } } } }