/bill's House O Insomnia : Humor, Misc Technology

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.

Interesting Mac iBook story

William — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:16:00 GMT

Every time I hear about the TSA, I become more and more convinced that if Darwin's theory is correct, the TSA will cease to exist before long. The latest 'can they really be this stupid?' incident has to do with a Mac Airbook. At first I started thinking along the lines of a corollary to Chris William's 'Grandma Theory'. Maybe the TSA officers weren't dumb and clueless, maybe they were just older and technologically illiterate. But that can't be the case here b/c they clearly know enough about technology to know what a hard drive is and what ports are. They knew enough to think there's something fishy about a computer without a disk drive and ports. That made me start to envision a Cliff Clavenesque know-it-all who is a self-proclaimed computer whiz - trying to look smart in front of his/her peers. It's kind of hard for me to imagine that a TSA agent, unless they just started (and his comments indicate more than one TSA agent was involved), hasn't come across an iBook by now. At a minimum you'd think they would have come across some really thin/small computer that wouldn't have had a disk drive in it.

"I'm standing, watching my laptop on the table, listening to security clucking just behind me," Nygard recalls of the situation. "'There's no drive," one says. 'And no ports on the back. It has a couple of lines where the drive should be,' she continues."

Assuming the reports are true and accurate , this would be hysterical if these people weren't 'protecting' our country (and at ridiculously high union wages). My personal experience with TSA is a lot different. While they are often strange, bitter and/or incompetent, they don't seem technologically clueless. I have a travel bag that I keep my Ultra-mobile, my Zune, Phone, Headphones, USB Hub, a trackball and a few other misc items in. It always causes them to run it through the machine a few times (even when I pull just about everything out). But usually, after they see what all the stuff is individually, they either make some gadget geek joke or ask about one of the items (the most common one is asking if my Zune is 'the new iPod').

Is she really this stupid?

William — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:02:46 GMT

On the one hand, I believe she's being sincere. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine anyone is this much of a moron. "I thought Europe WuZZZZZ a country"? Getting schooled by a 5th grader has to really suck.

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.

AOL Customer Service Call from H3ll

William — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 01:18:00 GMT

This is a Absolutely shocking . It took this guy over 20 minutes to cancel his account (and although AOL claims they don't encourage this stuff, how many nightmare stories have you heard about people cancelling AOL? Granted, few people use such a lame...(read more)

Why Technical People shouldn't design interfaces...

William — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 03:24:00 GMT

Not too long ago , I discussed the fact that programmers are pretty much the last people that should be developing interfaces. My point wasn't that developers are incapable of understanding good UI design concepts, it's just that for some reason or another...(read more)

A little bird told me Caustic Phil's coming back.

William — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 19:57:00 GMT

Well, I'm home sick today and feel like I'm about to die, but I got some good news that cheered me up. Looks like He's gonna be back Keep posted!

Recruiters - Read this

William — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 21:54:00 GMT

Hmm, when every single developer bitches about the same thing, maybe it's worth listening to. Maybe just maybe recruiters ought to start reading what their primary targets are talking about. Andy just posted this about recruiters. and well, it's military specific but pretty damned applicable for what we all have to deal with. I mean, how many times do you hear "Well, it says that they need someone with Object Oriented experience, and relational database experience." Seriously, back when that wasn't everyone I sort of understand it. But find me 10 programmers that actually collect a paycheck that aren't working/haven't worked with Object oriented design or a relational database. I've give credit where it's due. I talked to Microsoft's recruited twice and they were sharp. They were intelligent and knew what they were asking. I talked to a few (as in under 5 recruiters that impressed me as well). But most are annoying. And the really annoying ones are the ones that think they're good, the 'closers'. I have a lot of sympathy to someone new in the game that doesn't know much about it yet and is just doing what they're told. But after they screen you and you get the closer - those are the king jackasses. All they need is a Series 7 and they could be stockbrokers, or a car lot and be used car salesman offering you "buy here pay here" financing. Hopefully someday they'll get a clue, but I'm not holding my breath.

Beta induced Psychosis.

William — Tue, 17 May 2005 22:53:00 GMT

If you live in the Greenville area and you see some goofy looking guy that resembles me, run for it. I'm about at my wits end. Last week, I had all my demo stuff ready for code camp. I bought a new USB Drive, installed a clean build of Magneto and the latest VS, and life was dandy. Until I got to code camp. I fired up my virtual machine, started visual studio.. so far so good, and then it just went away. No errors. No feedback, nothing in the event log - nothing, it just goes away.

Totally different machine, I have Beta 2 installed and pull down the newest bits for Winfx to finish the chapters I'm working on. Clean install, all works well, then I reboot. Try to start up again, Nada. This same sh1t happened before the Reston code camp but fortunately, I got everything re-installed.

Today, I'm running through, prepping for my webcast tomorrow.... (not in virtual machine), Visual Studio starts up and then Kaboom. Now, to add f~cking insult to injury, I created a picture of the error message. However if I use Windows Explorer to try to copy it, then Windows Explorer just crashes....At least Visual Studio throws up the error message so I KNOW something is wrong (actually, I know something is wrong with Sql Server too, it's just that I have to infer it)

Sql Server 2005 CTP - well, it's there, but every time I click on it now, it starts up, the splash screen starts, and bye bye. No error, no nothing.

I thought it *could* be me, but this crap has happened on 4 different machines so far. Every time a new beta comes out, it's like a guarantee that I'm going to have my blood pressure up for a few days. This crap happens on clean installs as well so I honestly don't know WTF is going on. However I honestly think I'm going to have a quarantine machine that I use for demos and book stuff, then I just don't install anything new on it (which will work fine until I need to demo or write about a new feature.).

I know I know, everyone else has 0 problems with installs when they use a clean VM- but VS must just hate me or something b/c it's happening on every frigging machine I can get my hands on. I normally don't reboot my machines more than once every few months, but I've rebooted like 200 f~~~~~king times already and I'm about to go nuts.

Rumor has it too that either the ASP.NET or C# MVPS get terminal service access to the newest builds. I'm just about willing to sell my soul to be able to have access like that!

Seriously, if getting new betas to work is going to be so difficult, they ought not to half step and go all the way - include a bottle of Whiskey and a Loaded Glock with each DVD distribution