September 2004 - Posts
This has to be just about the coolest project I've seen in ages!!!!! Experimental research includes amongst others HiDeHiDeHo (high-density high-delivery hosting).
(via SADev)
Controlling and versioning stored procedures in SQL Server has always been hairy. I'm real happy to see that the SQL Server Management Studio that ships with SQL Server 2005 includes integration with VSS:
As Ayal Rosenberg suggested in his third brilliant P&P session here in Durban, we're all stuck in the relationl database world. The next idea is the Object Database. Exciting, and a whole mindshift. But isn't it actually just an abstraction of the relational world to make your life easier?
At the moment we write a 'Data Access Layer' which acts as the bridge between your datatables (the relational world) and your business objects (the object world). As soon as a proper Data Access Layer is in place, I don't have to concern myself with the intricacies of what the tables look like, I can just pass on my objects and know they'll get persisted in the database somehow. I can say Company.Save() without having to know how many tables represent the company and its entities in the database.
With an object database, Company.Save() does the same, without the need to write a Data Access Layer. So the end result of using an Object Database is that it abstracts the Data Access Layer for you. You don't need to write it anymore - and that's the only difference in the end.
A cool object database for .NET is Matisse (Ayal used db40 in his session - extremely cool too, but slightly limited in extensibility). I don't think I need to tell you about a cool relational database for .NET ;o)
Whilst Microsoft has provided us with one of the coolest development tools ever, called Visual Studio .NET, they have never really provided anything in the areas of source control, build and release. This is addressed by the release of their Visual Studio 2005 Team System, due next year.
We are currently doing a project that is tremendously huge. Although most of it's obesity could have been avoided by better design, we are where we are, and we need to build and ship what we have. So over the last two weeks I have investigated the alternatives, and we are now using CVS (with a TortoiseCVS client) for source control, and NAnt for builds.
I've used CVS before, and already knew about its benefits (speed over a VPN for one), but NAnt really impressed me with its versatility! Next I want to investigate Armand's suggestion to integrate CruiseControl.NET.
I've written an article while going through the process of learning the NAnt buildscript syntax, which I'll post on SADeveloper soon.
To find out what's happening in Durban, go here ;o)
Ever wondered how accessible your webpage is to... let's say.... people who are colourblind? Now you can find out by using the cool Colorblind Web Page Filter.
GDI+ has security issues with the way it processes JPEG - yip, that's right...... get patched.
Yip, they do run side by side, but there's a tiny gotcha: install Yukon first. (I'm referring to the beta versions released in the latest MSDN update).
I've had Whidbey installed on a PC for a few months now, and decided to add Yukon after inspiration from an extremely interesting webcast I saw last week. The setup prompted me to uninstall 'components that are incompatible', which ended up being the .NET2.0 Framework (installed by Whidbey). Removing the Framework before installing Yukon ended up in a smooth ride, and I'm now about to dump my first .NET assemblies into an SQL Server database. Ooohhhh...
The SADeveloper team spent the weekend at Avianto to plan Phase 2 of an innitial 3 for this developer community. The year ahead looks exciting, and promises to make this awesome community even better.
The SADev community can be expected to grow immensely over the next year. Thanks to everyone who have contributed to its success so far!! I can't resist posting a few photos taken on the weekend..... If you think this driver we saw on our way back to the airport looks hilarious, wait till you see the other sights we saw over the weekend!
[UPDATE: More on Rudolf's blog]
[UPDATE: Yet more on Ruari's blog!!!]