August 2007 Entries
A Shocker I know but there you go. Windows Server 2008 won't ship by the end of this year as expected. [More here]
Google's Blogger site is being used by malicious hackers who are posting fake entries to some blogs. [More on the BBC site]
Across here Colin MacKay has a good posting about using the Data Abstraction Layer pattern (DAL). That got me thinking, since I'm a bear of little brain, I like to keep things simple. A simpler pattern than DAL is the ActiveRecord pattern where the database function is a responsibility of the business object. This pattern (implemented below) is suitable for departmental (or smaller) scale applications. namespace garyshort.org.patterns.activerecord
{
/// <summary>
/// GS - ActiveRecord implementation
/// </summary>
public class ActiveRecord
{
private int _Id = 0;
public int Id
{
get { return _Id; }
set { _Id = value; }
}
public void Save()
{
if (_Id > 0)
{
Update();
}
else
{
Create();
}
}
public void Create()
{
//GS - Save object to db and insert returned Id
}
public void Read(int targetId)
{
//GS - Read row from db and fill in attributes
}
public void Update()
{
//GS - Save changes to db don't forget optimistic
//locking check
}
public void Delete()
{
//GS - Delete row from db where PK = Id
}
}
/// <summary>
/// GS - Impliment a business object that extends ActiveRecord
/// </summary>
public class BusinessObject : ActiveRecord
{
//GS - Business specific code here
}
/// <summary>
/// GS - Implement a class to test our implementation
/// </summary>
public class Tester
{
public void Test()
{
BusinessObject bo = new BusinessObject();
//GS - Set BO specific attributes here
bo.Save(); //GS - Will call Create()
//GS - Change specific BO attributes here
bo.Save(); //GS - Will call Update()
bo.Read(bo.Id);
bo.Delete();
}
}
}
Available Talks
The following are talks that I can present at your event. Each talk lasts approximately one hour, with a question and answer session at the end. If you are interested in having me present any of these talks then drop me an email at gary@garyshort.org.
AJAX Demystified!
Want to know how AJAX works under the hood? Then this talk is for you! We'll take an in depth look at the underlying objects used in AJAX, then we'll look at rolling our own AJAX calls and finally we'll finish with a look at Microsoft's ATLAS offering for Visual Studio.
The Agile Enterprise and Independent Software Vendors
Agile is all the rage at the moment, everyone wants in on the act; but agile software engineering is not the same across the enterprise and ISVs. In this talk we'll look at some of the different ways that agile software engineering principles are applied in the enterprise and in ISVs.
SaaS - New Boom Times for the Software Industry?
With Software as a Service (SaaS) due to grow by 100% this year (versus 8% for shrink-wrapped software) this area looks like the next boom for the software industry. But what are the principles of SaaS and how do you actually create a SaaS solution? In this talk we'll cover some of the defining points of SaaS and walk through the creation of a fictional SaaS product using ASP.Net (C#), web services and SQL Server 2005.
Introduction to Seaside with Smalltalk
If you like Ruby on Rails then you'll love Seaside! With Seaside, Smalltalk, the father of OO languages, moves into the web arena with a development paradigm that allows you to forget about HTML and HTTP and concentrate on solving your real world problems with real world objects. In this talk, I'll introduce you to Seaside and walk through a coded solution to a fictional business problem.
Using the Web Client Software Factory
The Web Client Software Factory provides comprehensive architecture guidance to help developers build composite web clients using the Microsoft platform including ASP.NET 2.0 and Workflow Foundation. In this talk Gary will provide a brief overview of the WCSF before embarking on the creation of a transactional web site for a fictional company.
My Favourite Design Patterns
A design pattern is a general repeatable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design. A design pattern is not a finished design that can be transformed directly into code. It is a description or template for how to solve a problem that can be used in many different situations.
In this talk I'll show you a few of my favourite patterns. I'll tell what the are, what they are used for and then I'll russle up a coded example - just for the hell of it! If you've heard of design and enterprise patterns and want to find out a bit more, or if you know about them already but just want to see how someone else does it, then this talk is for you.
Praise for me as a speaker:
Gary Short is a brilliant speaker, and I enjoyed this very much.
Excellent chat Gary, came across really well!
An hour or so of very useful information delivered with enthusiasm.
Excellent presentation, Gary appeared very comfortabel in front of an audience. Enthusiatic, a few jokes, and a detailed look at approaching Agile made for a very enjoyable talk.
Superb! Gary’s unique presentation style was both insightful and funny. I’ve been to a few ‘Agile’ presentations, this was the best so far.
Excellent presentation Gary is an accomplished speaker. One minor suggestion is to put a summary of each agile principle on every slide dealing with it
A really interesting talk, something different to just code. I found it most enjoyable. Good to compare and contrast the ISV and Enterprise world. Maybe a follow up on Scrum would be a good idea.
Gary is a good presenter and certainly knows his stuff; it was good to hear anecdotal evidence of what we were being told!
Good well presented session, thought provoking session and great how you referred back to past experience to relate all of the topics.
The clearest session on patterns I have seen.
Thought I'd play around with this. Here's a link to Craig Murphy's NRW07 pics.
Dave McMahon (of NxtGenUG fame) sent me the feed back from my recent agile talk in Birmingham, things seemed to go pretty well Gary Short is a brilliant speaker, and I enjoyed this very much. Excellent chat Gary, came across really well! An hour or so of very useful information delivered with enthusiasm. Excellent presentation, Gary appeared very comfortabel in front of an audience. Enthusiatic, a few jokes, and a detailed look at approaching Agile made for a very enjoyable talk. Superb! Gary's unique presentation style was both insightful and funny. I've been to a few 'Agile' presentations, this was the best so far. Excellent presentation Gary is an accomplished speaker. One minor suggestion is to put a summary of each agile principle on every slide dealing with it A really interesting talk, something different to just code. I found it most enjoyable. Good to compare and contrast the ISV and Enterprise world. Maybe a follow up on Scrum would be a good idea. Gary is a good presenter and certainly knows his stuff; it was good to hear anecdotal evidence of what we were being told! Good well presented session, thought provoking session and great how you referred back to past experience to relate all of the topics. Of course, I had to bribe them all with booze and money, but hey, it was worth it! :-)
Michael and Dan (my old partners in crime over at Computa) have come across a "gotcha" when using ClickOnce to release software into the wild. Does anyone know if the hoops they have to jump through are right? Is it really that hard when your certificate expires? Seems a real PITA to me. :-(
Gemma completed her second D of E hike over the week-end which means she has now finished her silver Duke of Edinburgh's Award. :-)  
Announced yesterday, Google now support embeddable maps. Here's an example showing the location for tonight's NESDNUG meeting.
View Larger Map
It's another travel day and I'm heading back from Birmingham. During my visit I've spent a while in airports, rail stations and hotels. Surprisingly they all had Wifi. Not surprisingly (in rip off Britain) none of it was free. I can't help but think someone is missing a beat here. They are all seeing wifi as a profit center (something to make money out of) instead of a cost center (something that is the cost of doing business, e.g. marketing). It strikes me that some of these guys could use a bit of their marketing budget to make the customer's visit more comfortable by providing free wifi. If not free, then surely they could do better than the £1 / minute that's on offer at the moment. Guys, you don't have to make money at every thing you do - especially if you are charging £2 odds for coffee at the same time!
Well I'm just back from giving my talk. It seemed to go well, but I guess we'll have to wait until the feedback's in to know for sure. I had a great time and met some top people, including the guys behind the new Cambridge branch of NxtGenUG who have a great programme lined up. Shame they are so far away, it all sounds very cool. Technorati tags: Communtiy, NxtGenUG
Today is a travel day. I'm off down to Birmingham to give my agile talk to the NxtGenUG guys - don't trash the place while I'm gone.
After being missing for a while due to a server outage, Colin MacKay is back with a posting asking why is it so hard to recruit good developers right now? Technorati tags: Recruitment
Back here Hugh said he favours web devs from London despite this being the age of the Internet. Now, on Twitter, Hugh's just said "I want no office. I just want a cottage for the country, with Starbucks and hotel lobbies for the city." Not sure that you can reconcile those ideas.
Well the boyz (and girlz) in NxtGenUG to be more accurate, but "The Hood" sounds cooler right? The Boyz from NxtGenUG are really excited to announce the opening of a brand new NxtGenUG region - this time in Cambridge. So now Developers from the flatlands of East Anglia can gather together to learn, chat, eat Pizza and get 'swagged' in the 'NxtGenUG Way' along with their counterparts in Birmingham, Coventry and Oxford. The region will be run by Chris Hay and Allister Frost who live and work in the area. Chris and Allister have put in a great deal of effort to get the region off of the ground including securing a fantastic venue, courtesy of non-other than Microsoft Research Cambridge! The 'Launch' meeting will be held at Microsoft Research on Tuesday 18th September 2007 and will feature Mike Ormond speaking on Silverlight Microsoft's new Rich Web Application Development Platform. They'll also have a speaker from Microsoft Research covering the fascinating new subject of F#, watch out for details! Finally Rich, Dave and John will be there to do something or other, probably involving 'swag' (tut). Anybody is welcome to attend the meeting whether they are a NxtGenUG member or not. Just go to the NxtGenUG site at http://www.nxtgenug.net, register for FREE and book your place! The evening starts at 06.30pm and ends at 09.00pm. As with other NxtGenUG regions details of events at Cambridge will be available at http://www.nxtgenug.net/EventList.aspx, and we know that Chris and Allister have a bunch of great sessions planned for Cambridge over the coming months. Also check out the NxtGenUG site for Articles, 'Radio Style' Podcasts http://www.nxtgenug.net/Podcasts.aspx, Interviews, News Items, Competitions, details of membership and much more at http://www.nxtgenug.net
This nonsense appeared in my local newspaper this week. Carnoustie Today - News - JOY AS MAST PLANS ARE THROWN OUT "OBJECTORS to mobile phone masts in Monifieth and Carnoustie were rejoicing on Tuesday night, after Angus Council's development control committee threw out applications for both burghs." So why did these people object to the mast being built? "Reasons for objecting included impact on health" Sigh, okay let's leave to one side the fact that the "health implications" of mobile phone masts are probably the biggest medical fraud perpetrated on the British public since the "MMR jab causes autism" nonsense. Let's, just for the sake of argument, say that mobile phone masts are dangerous to your health. Are the objectors campaigning against mobile phone technology per se? No, they are not. Presumably, each objector - or someone in their family - has a mobile phone and that, on at least one occasion, has welcomed the opportunity to summon assistance to a break down, or been able to ascertain the whereabouts of an errant child. Therefore they do support the technology, just not near them as they think it's dangerous. Doesn't that just show the intellectual bankruptcy of these people? If you believe that mobile phone technology is dangerous then what is the outcome of you successfully objecting to a new mast? Well, it means that the existing masts must be run at a higher power to provide the coverage that everyone (including the objectors) want. The clever thing to do in this situation, is to campaign for more masts. Yes, that's right, more masts. When a company wants to build a mast near you, campaign to make them build two or even four, that way they can be run at half or quarter of the power that they are running at just now. Sigh, but no, that would be too sensible wouldn't it?
Observant visitors to our website will have noticed a new feature which we added yesterday. From now on, you will find social bookmarking links at the bottom of all the stories on the BBC News website. 
BBC NEWS | The Editors
"More and more older people are trying to climb Mount Everest, but they are three times as likely to die doing so as younger counterparts, a study says." BBC NEWS | Health | Youth the key to Everest success
If price fixing is illegal in this country (and it is) then how can this be legal...? 
You can't tell me that five different companies examined their costs and worked out what margin they wanted to make and independently came up with a cost to the consumer that is within a few pence of each other. No way! That just didn't happen. These guys have gotten together and fixed the price of airport parking, and that, is illegal.
Agile Scotland is plugging my talk in Glasgow on September 12 Agile Scotland
On twitter Hugh wrote... "13 years of using the internet, and I would STILL much rather work with a London-based web jockey, than one living abroad. Plus ca change... " Well, so much for the "I have a laptop and a mobile so I can do business anywhere" 21st Centaury ideal eh? Not great news for those of us living and working in Scotland either :-)
"Facebook is doing the same thing, and I'm pulling back from endorsing them until they take the religion out of their docs." Atom is not better and users don't care (Scripting News) Hmm, I wonder if Dave can fathom the depths to which Facebook don't care about him?
"Smalltalk YX is an open source programming language. It's an implementation of the Smalltalk-80 standard." SYX - Smalltalk Technorati tags: Smalltalk
The agenda for the VBUG 2007 conference has been published. I'm speaking on the Web Client Software Factory. I recognise a few of the people from DDD #5 who will also be speaking there so it'll be a good chance to catch up with them. As usual, if you are going, leave me a comment here and remember to say hi at the event. :-)
Just a heads up; I'll be delivering my agile talk to the Glasgow Branch of the Scottish Developers on September 12, full details here.
Via Hamish, I discovered Dolphin Smalltalk is no more. Though Andy Bower would sell up to the right buyer. Are you listening James Robertson?
Technorati Tags: James Robertson, Smalltalk
Just to remind you I'm going to be delivering a talk on agile software development techniques in Birmingham next Monday (20/08/07), full details here. If you are planning to come along, drop me a comment and don't forget to say "hi". Also, because of the way my flights work out, I'll be in Birmingham most of the day on the 20th and 21st, so if anyone wants to get together for a techie meetup leave a comment.
Via Craig, I've been tagged with this meme, so here's my list of, if not stuff I couldn't live without, then stuff that makes my life easier. - Mobile phone
- MP3 player
- Podcatcher
- Audacity
- Laptop
- Visual Studio Express Editions
- Digital Camera
- Smalltalk
- Python
And I tag, Hamish, Barry, Michael and Colin
She's got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories...
For years, I've lived a double life. In the day, I do my job - I ride the bus, roll up my sleeves with the hoi-polloi. But at night, I live a life of exhilaration, of missed heartbeats and adrenalin. And, if the truth be known, a life of dubious virtue. I won't deny it - I've been engaged in violence, even indulged in it. I've maimed and killed adversaries, and not merely in self-defence. I've exhibited disregard for life, limb and property, and savoured every moment. You may not think it, to look of me, but I have commanded armies, and conquered worlds. And though in achieving these things I've set morality aside, I have no regrets. For though I've led a double life, at least I can say - I've lived.
Greta Garbo, and Monroe
Dietrich and DiMaggio
Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean
On the cover of a magazine
Grace Kelly; Harlow, Jean
Picture of a beauty queen
Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire
Ginger Rogers, dance on air
They had style, they had grace
Rita Hayworth gave good face
Lauren, Katherine, Lana too
Bette Davis, we love you
Ladies with an attitude
Fella's that were in the mood
Don't just stand there, let's get to it
Strike a pose, there's nothing to it
...then this post should also end up on twitter (eventually).
Gemma received her Higher results today and she passed them all - well done Gemma!! :-) Luckily for her, she gets her brains from her mother. ;-)
Via Craig, I've just received the feedback for the talk I gave at Developer Day #5. I've included the average scores, out of 5, below for your information. | Overall | Knowledge | Presentation | Content | | 3.74 | 4.37 | 4.26 | 3.60 | So all and all it looks like an above average performance, which is a relief as it was my first talk at a Developer Day event. I've also taken into consideration some of the comments that came along with the feedback and I'll be making the following amendments to this talk before I deliver it to the NxtGenUg user group in Birmingham on August 20. - Cut down the number of differences between the Enterprise and ISV as many differences have the same route cause.
- Give examples of how to solve some of the pain points associated with the differences.
- Leave time at the end for discussion of problems faced by the audience.
So, if you saw the talk at DDD #5 and you are in the area, why not pop along and see the improved version?
"So what begins", I hear you ask? (Whadda ya mean you weren't asking that!!). Well if you must know, and yes you really must, what has begun is our user group. A few of us .Net developers, based in the North East of Scotland, have gotten together and formed a user group; cunningly, we called it the North East Scotland .Net User Group. We're based in the Dundee area so if you live near enough to travel to our meetings, you should definitely think about signing up on the site. The site's good, but the meetings are better (hint: there's no beer on the site, but at the meetings, well...). Also Sarah Park, from Microsoft, asked me to give her a call, or drop her an email, when we were up and running and being the highly organised engineer I am, I've lost her details. Sooo if anyone out there knows what they are, let me know will ya?
 My daughter Gemma fell and hurt herself during her Duke of Edinburgh expedition last week; looks like she made a good job of it too :-)
As you may (or may not) know, a group of friends and I are in the middle of setting up a .Net focused user group for the north east of Scotland. We've just done our first podcast which you can download from the NESDNUG web site.
Via Craig, I found out the official slide decks from Developer Day #5 are now available for download. Technorati tags: DDD5, UK Community
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