secretGeek.net

The um, Leon Test?

blog, games, html, microsoft,

Joel is asking, (ostensibly on behalf of the WHATWG) what new features will allow HTML4 to make better web applications.

To try and fix a stake in the shifting sands, i'd like to propose a milestone for measuring 'better' web applications.

Web applications will be better when you can write (and deploy to all competing new browsers) compelling implementations of all of the following:

  1. A spreadsheet
  2. A paint program
  3. A wysiwyg word processor
  4. An integrated development environment

[continues]

What features does HTML <4 lack for writing such applications?

Many bloggers have made excellent suggstions. Stand outs include richer event models, and joel's mention of 'platform neutral' device contexts (for thing's like painting). One thing I'm keen for:

  • A simple, reliable and unobtrusive way of performing 'background-save' during form editing.

The question of Why you'd want to write such applications in a browser is a valid one -- but not something i'm willing to discuss (or argue about) just yet, by the way. This is just a thought game for me anyhow. (by 'this' i mean 'life itself').

cheers
 

For the Love of God, Enter this Damn Competition Already!

blog, hanselman, microsoft, UX,

Free Prizes for the Taking!

Roy's Gettin' Cranky! Only TEN people have entered the VS.Net Add-in competition he's hosting.

Given the low number of entries, and the excellent prizes, the expected Return on Investment (or 'Return to Player' in gambling parlance) is very very high.

If you know how to write a VS.net add-in, (however simple), whack it together and send it in!

If you don't know how to write a VS.net add-in, learn!

As Woody Allen says:

Ninety percent of success in life is just showing up.

I've already posted some ideas for this competition.

I've seen in the past that for some strange psychological reason developers are very reluctant to enter competitions. Hence you get a huge ROI when you do. (For example, Scott Hanselman won $2K for 15 minutes work in the Tablet PC competition).

So Please For the Love of God, Enter this Damn Competition Already!

[yes i'm trying to convince myself mostly]
 

Hot New Feature!

australia, [code],

I'm slowly adding more features to this website. Last month I changed the format so that comments appear at the bottom of each article, rather than in their own page. Now your comments are much more likely to be seen.

But I'm not resting there. No siree. What I'm interested in is backwards-compatability. What if your browser is offline? Or not internet-enabled? Thanks to a quite complicated network of postal services throughout the world, you can now leave a comment no matter what.

To leave a special backwards-compatible comment, please print out the form below, write your message on it by hand, put it inside an envelope, affix postage-stamps and send it to:

  Leon Bambrick
  c/o PO Box 551
  Indooroopilly Qld 4068
  AUSTRALIA
 


Name _______________________________


Subject ____________________________


Comment _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________
  

I would like a response? [_]  Yes
                         [_]  No

If yes: I have included a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

I understand that my comment may be published online
and used for the purposes of marketing or blackmail.

Sincerely



________________________

I've updated the About page to include that address, so that generations of future Luddites can benefit from the miracles of postage.

Or if you prefer, you can use the on-line version... it's your choice....
 

Lowering the ceiling instead of the floor

blog, [code], editor, html, microsoft, productivity, UX, visual basic,

David Truxal points out how Visual Studio Hampers VB.Net

This again brings to mind a quote from Simpson's episode "You Only Move Twice", where Bart is stuck in a remedial class:

Teacher: Okay. Now, everyone take out your safety pencil and a circle of
         paper. This week, I hope we can finish our work on the letter
         "A".
   Bart: Let me get this straight. We're behind the rest of our class
         and we're going to catch up to them by going slower than they
         are?  [making "crazy" gesture]  Cuckoo.
   Kids: [imitating him]  Cuckoo. Cuckoo. Cuckoo. Cuckoo.

The "My" namespace, by contrast, is a much cleverer solution to essentially the same problem.

Yes, i had to do a parody of this dialog.... okay, here it is... sorry paul! yet another difference between VB and C#
 

Y2-GAY: Government Approves Third Gender; DBA's Panic!

sql, sysadmin,
(don't you hate it when you think of a y2k parody five years too late?)

The IT world is in shock today, after an amended piece of legislature officially classified homosexual males as a new, third, gender.

Chongo-developers and cowboy-hackers who previously hard-coded only two genders into their applications are now reaping the benefits as they are called out of retirement to alter software algorithms written as many as forty years ago.

Database Administrators throughout the Nation are swinging into action adding the new row to their lookup tables, or dropping and recreating CHECK constraints.

Meanwhile, the Association of Future-Proof Software, who have long advocated the inclusion of three 'Spare' entries at the end of every look up table, have issued a steady stream of smug press releases.

A special shuttle mission will make the perilous mission beyond Mars to track down and re-program the 'Angel-1' deep space probe, whose internal lookup tables erroneously contain only two genders. Although the oversight is considered unlikely to cause any problems during the unmanned probe's exploration of the furthest reaches of the solar system, officials are not willing to take any chances. And a team of specialist navy seals will journey deep into the Atlantic trench, over four miles beneath sea level, risking lethal pressures and unknown beasts with shiny dangly things on their foreheads, in a desperate mission to refresh the EPROM of a twenty-six year-old fissure monitoring system.

Leading insurance companies have already announced that they will not cover software malfunctions in any tech agency that doesn't immediately address the so-called Y2-Gay bug.

The legislature in question, originally designed to deal with lengthy waiting times at gymnasiums adjoining hair salons in ritzy suburbs, was amended to include the new gender at the last moment by radical left Senator Chasey Rhoderum. Chasey, a long time activist on issues regarding database-integrity, is already warning about the possible inclusion of a fourth, fifth and possibly a sixth and seventh gender. The days of the week have fled in terror, as have the months 'June' through 'September'. 'Unknown' continues it lengthy campaign for equality with 'True' and 'False'.

 

Embedded-Sql without Sql-Injection

color, commandline, functional, google, legal, security, sql,

Do this and you can be legally shot:

Dim myCmd as SqlCommand
myCmd.Commandtext = "Select * from Users where " & _
    "Username = '" & txtUserName.text & "'" & _
    " and Password = '" & txtPassword.Text & "'"

So do this instead, at the **absolute** minimum:
    
Dim myCmd as SqlCommand
with myCmd
  .Commandtext = "Select * from Users where " & _
    "Username = @Name and Password = @Pass "
  .Parameters.add("@Name", SqlDbType.Varchar)
  .Parameters("@Name").Value = txtUserName.Text
  .Parameters.Add("@Pass", SqlDbType.VarChar)
  .Parameters("@Pass").Value = txtPassword.Text
End With

(You should still be smacked around for not encapsulating your functionality, not using tiers, and not using a sproc, but you will not be shot)

To learn why the first example is so much worse than the second, read about Sql-Injection.

 

Microsoft Crumbles Under Blogging Pressure

blog, editor, methodology, microsoft,

In a stunning backdown by Microsoft, a new single-developer edition of Visual Studio has been announced which specifically includes support for Test Driven Development.

While the blogging community are rejoicing that they have forced the software-giant's hand, some analysts fear that this new sense of power amongst bloggers could corrupt them in the same way that a young Anakin Skywalker was corrupted by the 'force'.

Meanwhile, the name of the newly-announced product may indicate sour grapes on the part of microsoft.

(leaked via my usual sources*)

Amongst other custom features, the splash screen is accompanied by the sound of a baby crying, and the "readme" file explains how to launch a denial of service attack against Peter Provost.

[since sarcasm is officially dead, i have to point out that the above post is actually a hoax.]

[my actual opinion, since you're still reading, is that unit-testing should have been slated for all editions from the start, and (despite their excuses to the contrary) the fact it wasn't indicates some kind of fundamental misunderstanding about what test-Driven development is, and who performs it (i.e. the same developer who writes the code)]

[By 'usual sources' i mean ms-paint and expression 3.]
 

Einstein Quiz -- Winners Announced

  1. CPresson
  2. Grant Queenin
  3. Lance Ahlberg

Thanks to those who sent me answers...

Sorry the winnners weren't announced sooner: this entry was written, but lost, during the moved from the previous domain.

cpressonIntellectual giant CPresson is the winner of the very challenging Einstein Quiz, published in January.

I've included a cross-section of C Presson's brain, in which you should note his obvious mental prowess:

analysis of C Presson's brain, demonstrating extreme mental prowess.

Runner-up is mental heavyweight Grant Queenin.

And third by a whisker is the clever Lance Ahlberg.

There is no actual prize -- but should I ever invent a faster than light spaceship, then I promise that CPresson will be allowed to borrow my old car for a week. Grant can have it for a day. And Lance, well, he can drive it up and down the driveway for about ten minutes. Third is, after all, third.

If you are searching for the answer to the Einstein Quiz, well, I'm not going to give it to you. It is, however, available on the comment page of the quiz itself.
 

Fat Kid's PIN is '2751'

australia, microsoft,

An obese private school boy, aged fifteen, who purchased a large Slurpee and two chocolate bars from seven-eleven about five minutes ago, using a National Australia Bank Eftpos Card, after pushing past me, has the Personal Identification Number '2-7-5-1'.

This information, broadcast via the boy's habit of mouthing the numbers while he typed them, could be of benefit to Australian thieves, should they happen to snatch a keycard from an obese private school student in the Brisbane area. His rich parents are certain to have stuffed his bank account as full of money as he subsequently stuffed his face.

If you are a thief, mugger, pick-pocket or burglar, the following artist's rendition of the child may help you to identify him:

the fat kid

Note that the artist (using creature house expression 3, from microsoft, beta version of a vector based drawing program, a free download) utterly failed to capture the slack jaw, the vacant stare, the sluggish eyebrows, the second and third chins, the puffy lips, or the smell.

I wish you good luck, Thieves of Australia, and I sincerely hope that he, and those like him, will refrain from pushing past other customers of the 7-11 in future. ;+)

  
 

A Gift Bag For New Programmers...

amazon, blog, cartoon, coffee, commandline, it industry, microsoft, sysadmin, tools, visual basic,
Larry O'Brien mentions that he'd include "Code Complete, 2nd Edition" in the gift bag he'd give to new programmers.

I agree, but must add a few ingredients to that gift bag...

Your Gift Bag

Welcome to your new cubicle.

Here is your DVD copy of "Office Space"

Here is your Big Fat Book of Dilbert. You will come to realise it is not a funny cartoon, but a serious reference manual.

Here is your copy of Coding Slave, your copy of MicroSerfs and your very own Bastard Operator From Hell.

Here is your plaque that says "You don't have to be mad to work here but... no, wait a minute, you do."

Here is a box of blank CD's. We are aware that they will all be used for piracy.

Here is a stapler. Guard it with your life. It is far more likely to be stolen than your laptop.

Your laptop is not ready. The sysAdmins are still putting evil spells and voodoo curses on it.

You chair has been designed by a specialist sect of sadistic carpenters, with large investments in the back-pain industry.

Here is the flaky piece of network cable that will cause your LAN connection to drop out during check-in of critical source-code.

And of course, here is your copy of "Coder To Developer" your copy of Programming .net Components, your copy of Windows Forms Programming in Visual Basic.Net (Or C#...), your copy of Code Complete (2nd Edition), your copy of The Pragmatic Programmer, your copy of the Gang of Four's "Design Patterns", your copy of Fred Brooks' "The Mythical Man-Month", your copy of PeopleWare your copy of Writing Solid Code your copy of Spolsky's Interface Design book and Don Box's "Essential XML", and something by Jakob Nielsen. Apparently a lot can be learnt from these books, though mostly they get used as foot stools.

Finally, here is a shot of caffeine. Kindly roll up your sleeve...

Stop Press!

While hunting at Amazon I found this: Joel on Software: Selected Essays -- Coming Soon!. Intrigued? I know I am.

After blog mint*

Check out CausticTech, courtesy of Bill Ryan