/bill's House O Insomnia : Humor, Data Access

The Microsoft® Windows Mobile Line of Business Solution Accelerator 2008!

William — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:04:00 GMT

The main features include:

Intelligent resolution awareness
Synchronization Services
Windows Communication Foundations "Store and Forward"
MapPoint
LINQ
Custom Controls
Managed Stored Procedures and Triggers
Notifications and Online Help
Language Switching and Localization

Some of these (WCF, Synchronization Services) are a lot more thrilling than others but all in all it's a great step forward. With that said, I think MS really needs to work on a few things. When the iPhones first came out, I was lucky enough to have one sent to me. I liked it but didn't go gaga over it. After two days, I decided to sell it. I think UI wise, it was far ahead of a typical SmartPhone although the PocketPC edition phones gave it a lot better run for the money. But I know that my opinion is not typical. In fact, most iPhone users who have used or use Windows Mobile are really adamant about the superiority of the UI and usability. I think some of that is b/c they are comparing a 500.00 phone with a much cheaper one in many cases but across the board, the iPhone does probably have the advantage. Having started to toy with the iPhone SDK, I have to admit it's fairly easy to pick up (nowhere near as easy as the Compact Framework) so once more applications come out for it, it will make it all the more attractive to mainstream users. I have a lot of faith in Microsoft though and nothing would please me more than for Windows Mobile 7.0 to work so well that my obnoxious iPhone owning friends will have to pipe down about the greatness of the iPhone. The accelerator however, is definitely a step in the right direction.

Comment of the week - Sql Server Reporting Services vs. Crystal

William — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 05:27:00 GMT

A while ago, I posted this about how much a55 I think Crystal Reports sucks. A long time ago, back at like v.7, I thought Crystal was a decent product. And to be honest, it still is a decent product. But it comes with a lot of baggage and has a lot that just makes it lame. So I had almost total consenus on the Crystal Reports w/ .NET sucks side, I think there are two people that disagree. Ignoring the fact that SSRS is very new product and Crystal has been around forever, I think side by side it's a slam dunk. But one big mouth said this: (NOTE: I'm only posting a comment that was publicly posted on my site. So hopefully the guy won't be a cry baby about it and throw a temper tantrum over it)

"Either you guys are idiots or you have never used Crystal and don't realize the minimal functionality that SQL Reporting Services offers. I have spent the last week evaluating SSRS and am greatly dissapointed. I came up with a list of over 250 items that SSRS could not do. As for all you Access reporters, your probably the only people to ever purchase Microsoft's "Bob" product. "

So the guy claims to know enough about Crystal to have cataloged over 250 features that SSRS doesn't have. That means that including the features he'll admit it does have, he knows way more than 250 features. I think that would qualify you as a fairly advanced Crystal user if you'll pardon the oxymoron. And he spent one week with SSRS. And the only conclusion he can draw is that SSRS is definitely lacking those features and that it couldn't possibly be that he just doesn't know how to use them, right? And far be it from me to say anything positive about Access, but come on, being a hard core Crystal user still means you're the report ***, and that gives you credentials to snob no one. Certainly not Access developers and certainly not Bob users. Is he really claiming Bob was lame but Crystal Reports isn't? Pulllleeezz. But if you read the context of the comments, the people were pointing out that Access, as lame as it is, provides more effective funcionality. The fact this can even be debated speaks volumes don't you think? Is Access supposed to be first and foremost a report writer? Last time I looked it's main purpose was as a relational database (more precisely, a database that anyone can build with, that causes major headaches for the people that will inevitably be brought in to clean up the mess it made) not a report writer. Reports are one of its features but one would certainly expect that a mature product who's sole purpose is report writing ought to be a little better than a RDBMS product with reports added in.

So I offered a challenge, I asked him to post just 20 of his 250 features that CR can do that SSRS can't. I'll see if they really can't be done and post the results. If I'm wrong, I'll admit it. If he's wrong I'll point out what an a33hat he is. I actually believe there are probably 20 or so features missing, but certainly not major ones. Even assuming there were really 250 features missing, how many times do you need 250 features for a report? Typically you need Grouping, Subreporting, charts/graphs, conditional formatting, functions and the like. He didn't comment as to his evaluation of how each stacked up there - for reasons that are obvious. Anyway, I believe his 250+ number about as much as I believe in the easter bunny so although *someone* could probably post 20 things lacking, I doubt he can. One of us is very wrong here and hopefully it's not me. We'll have to wait and see.

http://www.everythingado.net

William — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 08:45:00 GMT

Well, I finally bit the bullet and purchased my site from Brinkster. I'm going to be hosting blogs for a few of my disaffected DNJ friends - but well, due to the nature of the site - I'm not handing them out to everyone - If I know you, or you can convince me your not a dork, or if you're a dork and can convince me you have some technical content - drop me a line or if you're a regular contributor to a newsgroup that begins with microsoft.public.dotnet.framework - if it ends with compactframework or adonet then you're automatically invited. I'm also going to have a Uncensored portion or which is going to be cool - Bridgette Kerkove, Jenna Jameson, Janine & TS type of cool. I'm debating about how to host the “Unrelated Cool“ content - probably make it restricted access. And on the off chance you're wondering - no, I'm not moving my blog over there. I really dig it here. But I want to do a few things. Sahil already found a good place but it seems DNJ is going to crap these days - I see more Exception messages than I do content since 2005 began. I also want to host a few web services that are public, a few private ones that I can dish out the tokens to if people are interested... etc etc.Part of the reason I want to host my own Text stuff is b/c I want to mod it out - and I can't create skinz and stuff without being an pain in the a33 to the wonderful patron of this site. basically I just want a playground - ADO.NET and Compact Framework oriented - where I and other people that don't write me STUPID hate mail all the time can use.

But the real rub is that it looks like they are going to let me install the 2.0 framework to run some ASP.NET 2.0 and Yukon samples on. Still gotta check with MS and make sure this is ok but I think it will be. If it is, then there's Lot's o Potential. Can't get too into the details now - but using Yukon - there's potentially a much cooler way to send out notifications that articles have been posted, blogs updated, or Bridgette has another movie available. Also, Sonny & EDC the Coding Cuckooz are going to be active in development - and you know what sort of stuff they are interested in. Suffering at the moment from More ideas than ability to stay awake...............

Setting up .Text is a total pain in the a33 - at least so far it has been. It's mainly the web interface and all the f**** sql scripts that I have to run - ONE AT A TIME. Anyway, I'm screwing around with .NET Nuke and one of the starter kits. can't figure out which one I prefer. Feedback is welcome.

I'm also working w/ one of the starter kits but I'm leaning more toward .NET Nuke. Not sure if the hype is real but I hear it is - so sometime tomorrow hopefully I'll have made up my mind. I won't be doing anything other than sitting in my apartment wondering why this whole f~ck1ng city is shut down b/c of 1/2 an inch of snow - so I should get something done.

Compelling Proof that Unemployment is TOO Low in the Software Industry

William — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 07:44:00 GMT

This is an Unbelievably Terrifying use of T-SQL. If old boy didn't give back his paycheck for that week and then pay the company a penalty fee, then it's identical to theft. As good as the original post is, the comments are even better.