chris carter's web log

Step 1: Balsamiq Mockup

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:54:51 GMT

Here's a quick stab at a hyperactive config editor using Balsamiq Mockups:

Matt Lauer "Helps" Unveil Windows On The Today, Sort Of

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:10:18 GMT

Matt Lauer on the Today Show this morning had Steve Balmer on to talk about today's unveiling of the consumer version of Windows 7. Unfortunately, around minute 4:30 he starts talking about CEO salaries and bonus payouts. WTF? Seriously Matt, CEO salaries have exactly what to do with the release of Windows 7?

They also show the Sony VAIO L Series all-in-one touchscreen PC which looked pretty frickin cool, I'm diggin' those displays.

Windows 7 House Party Already Started!

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:25:54 GMT

I've been running Windows 7 full time since the Beta was released. I signed up to host a house party for the Microsoft promo kicking off the October 22 consumer release of Windows 7. You receive a single license for Windows 7 Ultimate for hosting a house party so Friday night I decided to install the 64 bit edition on my Thinkpad. Everything rocks, here's what I have installed:

Hardware

Thinkpad W500 (Intel Core 2 Duo T9600, 4 gigs RAM, 512mb video)
64 gig SSD

Software

Windows 7 installed in about 12 minutes. Once the OS was installed, I updated the video and bios drivers only from Lenovo's site and that was it; audio, networking, and any other drivers were left out. The next steps involve getting the machine ready to develop .NET applications, so I start with Visual Studio 2008(and SP1), then SQL Server 2008(and SP1).

After the big pieces of software are installed, I continue with all of this:

Firefox, and set it as the default browser
Thunderbird, yep, I lost Outlook almost 2 years ago and haven't looked back
Tortoise SVN
Subversion
Filezilla
My Dark Theme
7-zip
CodeRush with Refactor!Pro
TestDriven.NET
Ghostdoc
NUnit
NAnt, the latest nightly build on their site
SnippetCompiler
WinSnap
Beyond Compare
Delete SVN Folders
Clean Sources, here's my VS2008 source and installer
Sql Compare
WPF Tookit
ASP.NET MVC
Notepad++
MS Office, only because my work requires it
Paint.NET, I installed the 3.5 beta 3
GTalk
Live Messenger

I spent from Friday night until Saturday afternoon installing. I'm pleased to say, that given the above list of software, I have experienced zero issues. Windows 7. GET IT.

Pair<TFirst, TSecond>

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:00:57 GMT

I first used the Pair and Triplet classes while figuring out how to recreate dynamic ASP.NET WebForms controls. They came in pretty handy. Since then, generics came out and I created this(I'm sure I'm not alone):

/// <summary>
/// Responsible for representing two values of any type.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="TFirst">The type of the first.</typeparam>
/// <typeparam name="TSecond">The type of the second.</typeparam>
public class Pair<TFirst, TSecond>{
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets or sets the first.
    /// </summary>
    /// <value>The first.</value>
    public TFirst First { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets or sets the second.
    /// </summary>
    /// <value>The second.</value>
    public TSecond Second { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="Pair&lt;TFirst, TSecond&gt;"/> class.
    /// </summary>
    public Pair() : this(default(TFirst), default(TSecond)) { }

    /// <summary>
    /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="Pair&lt;TFirst, TSecond&gt;"/> class.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="first">The first.</param>
    /// <param name="second">The second.</param>
    public Pair(TFirst first, TSecond second){
        this.First = first;
        this.Second = second;
    }
}

Usage includes those times when you have the need for a structure to hold two simple values but you don't want to create a new class just for that. Say you want a dictionary where the key is an int and the value is that structure, you can do this with the Pair<TFirst, TSecond> class:

var dict = new Dictionary<int, Pair<string, string>>();
dict.Add(1, new Pair<string, string>("Carter", "Chris"));
dict.Add(2, new Pair<string, string>("Carter", "Emmitt"));
foreach(var kvp in dict){
    Console.WriteLine(kvp.Value.First + ", " + kvp.Value.Second);
}

and the output would be this:

Kind of a lame example but you get the idea. I had made a similar one for the Triplet class but that started looking a little messy so I put that on the back burner.

"No Task" Is Way Easier

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:31:28 GMT

So the other day I was getting caught up with zenhabits.com and came across this post. It totally made me stop in my tracks. Why? Because I started rewriting the blog again and kept running into motivational road blocks. I just didn't feel like rewriting it. So there it sat, the beginning of a rewrite and it never moved.

Then I read that article and it hit me like a brick. Stop rewriting this shit, go back to the version(that I'm posting with now) and get on with other stuff!

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. Note to self: If you really don't need to do it, cross it off that list!

Broken Windows

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:03:35 GMT

From The Pragmatic Programmer:

"One broken window, left unrepaired for any substantial length of time, instills in the inhabitants of the building a sense of abandonment - a sense that the powers that be don't care about the building. So another window gets broken. People start littering. Graffiti appears. Serious structural damage begins. In a relatively short space of time, the building becomes damaged beyond the owner's desire to fix it, and the sense of abandonment becomes reality."

I keep getting the feeling in my current project that all of the // HACK comments are like broken windows. Near all of those // HACK comments, but not part of the described HACK, is some really shitty code.

Here's my feature request for future versions of Visual Studio: time sensitive // HACK comments. Meaning, after a customizable amount of time, those comments actually cause the project to start failing to build. Stop the broken windows!

Recursion Deep Dive

Fri, 29 May 2009 11:27:28 GMT

Giles has the easiest way to understanding recursion posted here. perfect.

Online Software vs Desktop Software

Mon, 25 May 2009 02:00:54 GMT

I just started writing on a blog I've had for awhile, http://chrisjcarter.wordpress.com. I've decided that's where I'm going to put non-geek related stuff.

The wordpress tools for blogging online are cool. But there's one thing that never changes with online tools like this:latency. After clicking a save button, I have to wait....and wait.....and wait. I frickin HATE waiting.

Waiting Sucks

That's why I like fast hardware. People have laughed at me for worrying about compiling taking 5 seconds versus 10 seconds. It's only 5 seconds, right? This means that every 12 compiles costs me one minute of time. Every 120 compiles costs me 10 minutes...see where I'm going. I'd bet that I compile somewhere closer to 250 times a day or more. That's 20+ minutes I end up waiting per day, I prolly average 6 days a week of that. That's now over 2 hours per week that I'm waiting for my software to compile. 50 weeks a year, that's 100 hours now spent waiting. Say you charge 50 bucks an hour. Do the math. That's $5,000 you just lost in possible revenue OR worse, that's $5,000 dollars that was billed to a client who, unbeknownst to them, paid for you to wait. F**k that.

OK. That was a sort of rant but c'mon, waiting sucks no matter what picture you paint. Is there a blogger client that allows you to very simply input content offline, and if you "happen" to be connected will publish it? That sounds simple, but my requirement for the tool is that it works like I do.

WYSIWYG? Nope

Oh, and I don't care about WYSIWYG editors. My content is simple, by design. Paragraphs, links, emphasized text occasionally, and some embedded images and/or videos. That's all. I don't need much. I'm using markdown in my online editor for this blog right now and it's just OK. It's better than FCKeditor for me because the WYSIWYG thing isn't needed for me, but that editor kicks ass and it's free(so if you want wicked awesome editor check it out).

Latency

I hate clicking the save button on this blog or the other one and waiting longer than a nano-second. I want the confidence that I can click save and keep working, and know that my shit was saved and I can continue working.

Random Post

Yes, this was a little rant-ish. I'm mostly setting up the requirements for what I want to build in terms of an offline blogging client, in wpf. I start my 21 days in two days. During that time, there will be some crazy software being built.

nVidia Windows 7 Drivers

Tue, 19 May 2009 13:22:04 GMT

huh, looks like nVidia is ready for windows 7.

It's a good thing, the machine running Windows 7 has an nVidia card and it keeps randomly rebooting, i'm taking a stab that all i need are nVidia's driver versus whatever Win 7 installed(hopefully they are different or this is a waste of time).

My First SSD Is In The Mail!

Tue, 19 May 2009 02:22:34 GMT

Woo hoo! So my laptop hard drive is VERY unstable, so I decided today that instead of waiting until it goes bye bye I'd better replace it. But since solid state drives are all the rage I decided to get one.

Then I saw this crazy ass drive via engadget. It's only about 3200 bucks more than the drive I bought today, but man it's wicked awesome. And get this, "item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping" ... ya think?