Andy Tegethoff's blog

I recently finished my first "real" Windows Forms app in .NET 2.0, and when I finally got to a "complete" working version I was ready to do some cleanup and refactoring. So, I began combing through my code, reading for things I wasn't completely satisfied with. After correcting a few "magic numbers" type issues, it so happened that Brian came by my desk. Brian is a younger colleague here, really sharp guy, great attitude--one of the ones who "gets it". And he points out that I'm using "old school" Collection classes, when I could be using Generics.

I've been busy and I've been on vacation so it's been awhile between posts. But I found a cool doodad that just saved my bacon so I wanted to post a link to it.

I've also been witness to the birth of vast numbers of RUP artifacts into a corporate project atmosphere of total apathy. Sheaves of use-case diagrams, sequence diagrams, UML versions of the Last Supper--you name it; unread, unused, sent straight to dead-document heaven.

Getting insinuated into the process of a new workplace is always interesting. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it just doesn't happen, and you remain a little island in your cube throughout your tenure. Nice one, Milton. Here's your stapler back.

Why do lawyers retain expert witnesses? Why does a general practitioner refer you to a specialist? Do you see a pattern here?

It's been a month or so full of transition for me, so I've been quite remiss in making entries here. But, due to all of said transitions, I'm pretty confident I'll have plenty to write about in the next few weeks.

I'm going to try to express an idea here that struck me this morning when I heard on NPR that Johann Sebastian Bach was born on this date in 1685...

...The upshot was, about 2 hours later, I still had to destroy most of the rainforests of Laos and Ecuador to print the damn thing out. And as far as portability goes, have you tried carrying around half a ream of loose sheets of paper lately? Fun with binder clips.

I was surprised at how technically "unsafe" certain very common aspects of managed code use were under .NET Framework 1.0 and 1.1. Particularly, any kind of Interop activity in a multi-threaded environment has some potential resource leaks and even security holes.

Further, my own personal well-being, I've learned, is actually threatened by staying a dev gig for too long. It breeds laziness, false contentment, myopia, fear of change, gout, scurvy, black hairy tongue, scoliosis, recidivism, mutually assured destruction, technological ghettoism, halitosis, unusual spots, cramping, bloating, water retention, and an extraordinary need to imbibe/self-inebriate. Heavily.

Ahh, the glory of a good Flash Gordon reference; it never fails to brighten one's day. But today I am not following the orders of General Kala, or doing the bidding of Ming the Merciless. Today, I am playing The Curmudgeon on the subject of Web 2.0 and the mysteries of Asynchronous JavaScript And XML--better known to the digerati these days as AJAX.

So, since I was the last person to squawk about how bloody awful our release process was, I pulled the duty without meaning to and definitely without wanting to. Therefore: I, InstallShield Chump.

Caught wind of this via Slashdot. It's a review of a billion webpages, undertaken by the WHAT Working Group, with an eye towards seeing what HTML names, elements, attributes, and related metadata people are actually using.

Anytime I get involved in a position where someone is clamoring for a heavyweight up-front requirements period, or for extensive documentation, or where people immediately start in with "it's not time to talk about code yet," my spider-sense goes off like an H-Bomb....

I've been sucked in by that most dangerous of forces: career inertia. I've grown dependent on my job to deliver learning opportunities. The problem is, it isn't....