What makes JustDecompile different from other decompilers?

* Simple to Use – JustDecompile is simple to use and the UI is highly intuitive. So you can decompile and browse .NET assemblies with a single click.

* Creates Visual Studio Projects – JustDecompile can create a Visual Studio project from a decompiled assembly. So you’ll never lose another project.

* Easy Assembly Management – JustDecompile quickly loads the core framework assemblies for .NET 2, .NET3.5, .NET 4, and Silverlight, so loading the assemblies you want to browse is simple.

* Searchability – JustDecompile’s robust search method, quickly pinpoints problems. With the addition of Full Text Search in the Q1 release version, the search is even more comprehensive.

* Visual Studio Inline Decompilation – JustDecompile is part of the powerful Visual Studio productivity add-in JustCode. This integration allows you to decompile your project references directly inside Visual Studio.

* Multi-language Support – JustDecompile can decompile .NET assemblies to VB.NET, C# and MSIL.

* User Feedback: – JustDecompile users can suggest features on User Voice or directly within the product interface. Since JustDecompile was introduced last April, user feedback was instrumental in shaping each and every version JustDecompile.

* Industry leading support – JustDecompile comes with Telerik’s legendary support, so your enquires are answered within 72 hours.

* Free and it always will be
JustDecompiled T-shirt Giveaway

In celebration of the JustDecompile official release, Telerik is giving away JustDecompile limited edition T-shirts. The T-shirts were highly requested by JustDecompile fans after our team was spotted wearing at a recent tech. event! Everyone who successfully installs JustDecompille between now and February 29, 2012 will enter a daily drawing to win one of fifty Deco-Paks. Each Deco-Pak includes a limited edition JustDecompile t-shirt, along with a bottle-opener, stress-ball and more.

The drawing will be held every day now through February 29, and winners will be announced on Twitter and Facebook. To enter, install JustDecompile now.

fn+enter/return

Hope this helps. This will also serve as a reminder to myself when I get stuck again!

Converted to Decimal: 4095

Converted to Hex: FFF

For CSS: #FFF == white.

Happy White Day!

Go ahead and snicker for the inside joke, too. Even if you’re not inside. :0)

If you’re in a shop that uses Web Forms, I highly recommend checking out the webinar series.

As an added bonus, the folks at Telerik are offering a prize to one of you: a FREE developer license for RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX (worth $799)! To participate in the draw for this prize, you need to help us spread the news about this learning resource by simply:
1. Tweeting this blog post (title and URL)
2. Use the following hashtag in the tweet: #AJAXWebinars

The deadline for retweeting is November 15, when I will announce the winner as a comment to the post and via Twitter.

Something like this: Great Telerik Learning Resource: http://goo.gl/KhMTB #AJAXWebinars

Good luck!

One of the things I did in Windows was using Windows Live Writer for blogging. Windows Live Writer is a singularly satisfying experience for blogging, no matter what your blog engine. I will continue to use WLW for blogging using Parallels just the way I use Visual Studio from OSX. But there will be times when I wish to post a quick entry, but don’t wish to boot up my windows VM.

I went in search of a WLW replacement for the OSX side, but there just isn’t one. None have the ease of use and intuitiveness of Windows Live Writer. While there are some that have similar functionality, none deliver like WLW. So I just went in search of something that I could USE. Then I cam across this screencast while looking for some TextMate help.

So I am writing my first blog post from TextMate following these instructions. Brilliant!

I will continue to post entries about other new mac tools I find for Windows developers.

Use It

Lose It

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve heard, on more than one occasion, that [department X] thinks that the software I am building to automate several painful, manual processes that they are responsible for, is going to put them out of work. They whisper at the water cooler, and they may even secretly (maybe even unintentionally) try and sabotage the project. The fallacy in the thinking comes from most people innate pessimism. They think that if I automate their job, they’ll be “downsized”. Well think again my paranoid little scuttle-butt saboteurs.

Twice As Much, Not Half As Many

First of all, unless your job is brain dead simple (get this item, put it in this machine, push that button), and that is all you do; then you cannot be replaced. Software cannot automate humans (not yet, anyway). There comes a point in writing software to explain a complex business process where all languages fall short. There is some decision that must be made that needs a human brain to rationalize. Why do you think most software has a User Interface? So (human) users can interact with it.

What software CAN do, is make the mundane, routine work go away, and leave only the exceptional work to deal with. Only those circumstances where the human needs to make the call. Only the cases where the business rules must be bent. The case-by-case… cases. This leaves the people doing that job supremely capable of doing twice as much volume (or more) with the same amount of effort. This is NEVER a bad thing.

So, instead of the company needing half as many people to service the same number of customers; what you get is the company becomes able to handle twice (or more) as many customers with the same number of people. First of all, how many companies do you know that aspire to not add any new customer? None companies is my bet. Companies always want to add more customers. What do you suppose would happen if they were suddenly able to service twice as many customers with the same staff. They might be able to afford to give that staff a substantial raise. Maybe purchase new equipment that the department has been clamoring for for years. Maybe both!

If I DO Automate You Out Of A Job, You’re Probably Better Off

If by some chance, your job really IS mundane and routine enough for software to completely automate without the need for any human interaction, don’t you think you’d be better off? Eventually, they’re going to get a monkey to do it anyway. Why not start training for a new (and exciting) career in typewriter maintenance now.

Seriously, how long do you think you’d be able to do that job? If the boredom doesn’t end up making you want to lean on something sharp first, eventually there will be no way for you to get raises. It wouldn’t make good business sense to pay you $20/hour to do something they can get a kid to do for “work experience” and ramen money. Replacement is inevitable. Get out now.

So don’t fear that software is going to run people out of work. Software can only do what human beings tell it to do (for now). The Matrix, however, is inevitable…. Mr. Anderson…

   1: var _repository = MockRepository.GenerateMock<IRepository>();

   2: _repository.Expect(repo=>repo.SomeCall()).Return(SomeValue);

   3: var _controller = new SomeKindaController(_repository);

   4:

   5: ... some exercising code

   6: _repository.AssertWasCalled(repo => repo.SomeCall());

I was happy with that syntax. I didn’t go looking for something else, but what I saw was:

   1: var _repository = new Mock();

And I thought, “That looks really nice!” The code was very expressive and easier to read that the Rhino.Mocks syntax. I have gotten so used to the Rhino.Mocks syntax that it made complete sense to me, but to developers I was mentoring in mocking, it was sometimes to obtuse.

SO I thought I would write some tests using Moq as my mocking tool. But I discovered something ugly once I got into it. The way Mocks are created makes Moq very easy to read, but that only gives you a Mock not the object itself, which is what you’ll need to pass to the exercising code. So this is what it ends up looking like:

   1: var _repository = new Mock<IRepository>();

   2: _repository.SetUp(repo=>repo.SomeCall).Returns(SomeValue);

   3: var _controller = new SomeKindaController(_repository.Object);

   4: .. some exercizing code

   5: _repository.Verify(repo => repo.SomeCall());

Two things jump out at me: 1) when I set up my mocked calls, do I set it on the Mock or the Mock’s “object”? and 2) What am I verifying on SomeCall? Just that it was called? that it is available to call? Dealing with 2 objects, a “Mock” and an “Object” made me have to consider naming conventions. Should I always call the mock _repositoryMock and the object _repository? So I went back to Rhino.Mocks. It is the most widely used framework, and show other how to use it is easier because there is one natural object to use, the _repository.

Then I came across a blog post from Patrik Hägne, and that led me to a post about FakeItEasy. I went to the Google Code site and when I saw the syntax, I got very excited. Then I read the wiki page where Patrik stated why he wrote FakeItEasy, and it mirrored my own experience. So I began to play with it a bit. So far, I am sold. the syntax is VERY easy to read and the fluent interface is super discoverable. It basically looks like this:

   1: var _repository = A.Fake<IRepository>();

   2: a.CallTo(repo=>repo.SomeMethod()).Returns(SomeValue);

   3: var _controller = new SomeKindaController(_repository);

   4: ... some exercising code

   5: A.CallTo(() => _repository.SOmeMethod()).MustHaveHappened();

Very nice. But is it mature? It’s only been around a couple of years, so will I be giving up some thing that I use a lot because it hasn’t been implemented yet? I doesn’t seem so. As I read more examples and posts from Patrik, he has some pretty complex scenarios. He even has support for VB.NET!

So if you are looking for a mocking framework that looks and feels very natural, try out FakeItEasy!

1.) Lose weight. Everyone has this on their list, but I am going to be conservative and specific. I currently weigh 393lbs. (yeah, I know). So I want to plan to lose 10lbs per month, that’s 1lb. every three days, that shouldn’t be difficult if I stick to my diet and exercise plan.
- How do I do this?
- Diet: vegetarian. Since I already know I have high blood pressure and borderline high cholesterol, a meat-free diet is in order. I was vegan for a little over 2 years in 2006-2008, I think I can handle vegetarian.
- Exercise: at least 3 times (preferably every day) a week for 30 minutes. It has to be something that gets my heart rate up, or burns in my muscles. I can walk for cardio to start and mild calisthenics (girly push-ups, crunches, etc.).
- Move: I spend all my time behind the computer. I have recently started to use a slight variation of the Pomodoro Technique (my Pomodoros are 50 minutes instead of 25). During my 10 minutes every hour to answer emails, chats, etc., I will take a few minutes to stretch.
2.) Get my wife pregnant. We’ve been talking about it for years. Now that she is done with graduate school and I have a great job, now’s the time. We’ll be the oldest parents in the PTA most likely, but I don’t care.
3.) Blog More. Another favorite among bloggers, but I do have about six drafts for blog posts started. The topics are there all I need to do is flesh out the post. This can be the first hour of any computer time I have after work. As soon as I am done exercising, shower and post.
4.) Speak less. Most people want to speak more. I want to concentrate on the places that I enjoy and that can really use the speakers (like local code camps), rather than trying to be some national speaker. I love speaking at conferences, but I need to spend some more time at home if we’re going to get pregnant.
5.) Read more. I got a Kindle for Christmas and I am loving it so far. I have almost finished Treasure Island, and am getting ready to pick my next book. I will probably read a lot of classics for 2 reasons: (1) they teach deep lessons and (2) most are free for the Kindle.
6.) Find my religion. I was raised Southern Baptist, but I want to find my own way. I’ve been wanting to go to the local Unitarian Church, so I will make a point to go before the end of March. I also want to add a few religious books to my reading list. My boss bought me a copy of Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus , and I have a copy of Bruce Feiler’s Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths (P.S.) . I will start there.

Seems like a lot now that I spell it out like this. But these are only starters. I am forty years old. I cannot keep living like I am twenty anymore.

So here we go, 2011.