Oh you fancy huh?

In a nutshell:

meh…

What they say it is:

NuGet is a Visual Studio extension that makes it easy to add, remove, and update libraries and tools in Visual Studio projects that use the .NET Framework. If you develop a library or tool that you want to share with other developers, you create a NuGet package and store the package in a NuGet repository. If you want to use a library or tool that someone else has developed, you retrieve the package from the repository and install it in your Visual Studio project or solution.

http://www.nuget.org/

http://docs.nuget.org/docs/start-here/overview

What it REALLY is:

Ruby Gems for Microsoft stuff…

Hype:

As expected, there is the hard sell from MS

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MIX/MIX11/FRM09

DISCLAIMER: No shots at Hanselman or Haack at all!

Beef:

• Seems it is automatically installed either with MVC or with VIsual Studio. Oh, Microsoft…
• How hard is it really to add a reference to a project? of all the challenges we face as Mircosoft developers, adding a reference is the least of my issues.
• Attempts to hoodwink us into believing this is revolutionary, simple and easy. So far, it hasnt been easier than right-clicking and adding a reference

I doubt I’ll bother uninstalling it, as the premise is a good one.  If you dig PowerShell you might love it, if you find that right clicking and downloading and right-clicking again and adding a reference is too much work then this might be for you. Be warned, you STILL have to click a bunch of stuff to install it into your project and if you run into any hiccups like I did, you might wonder if its really making life easy? NuGet is worth a whirl and may help new frameworks get instant visibility and adoption. On the flipside, some developers will ONLY use ‘packages’ hosted on NuGet. Its a good tool to be familiar with just in case it becomes a trend but personally, I’m okay with downloading the frameworks I use and adding them manually without all the overhead of NuGet. Womp.

First thing I remember was when ISPs and hosts started chucking deuces to any site that got a complaint from government. That still seems unfair and almost certainly the beginning of online censorship and blatant disregard of  due process when it came to online expression. These issues are only now becoming talkign points due to the popularization of Cloud based services but have beena  reality to many for over a decade.   (btw, protect your stuff in the cloud)

Enter napster, we all loved it and it was he biggest site of its kind but not the only avenue to getting the same “content” but it was too big, drew too much attention especially for amateur “subscribers” and welp, the owner went from Bugatti’s to Bus passes in about a year. Subscribers went elsewhere, lawmakers and our friends at the RIAA sent the dogs after a number of their own customers and other similar sites. Then they started lobbying heavily (some would call it hating) against “pirates”. Unreal.

Today the threat to net neutrality, and the bold Acts in the US Congress (that will undoubtedly filter down to other follower-countries) are pretty scary. It could literally stall all innovation and freeze the internet in 2011 forever. Meaning, they could block all sites LIKE YouTube but let YouTube go if YouTube bends over without complaint. We have already seen Google owned-sites begin to lean toward censorship-friendly practices like taking down emails and sites and videos and books etc. They are well within their power yet it still seems unfair and makes their users feel powerless. Where is the love? We should all be very concerned. Imagine being stuck with ONLY YouTUbe for the rest of our lives simply because they had a chance to get popular before these stupid rules came into being. YouTube as we know it wouldn’t be as big  (leading to Googles purchase) had it NOT been open to all manner of content. Now, you can BUY movies on YouTube. Say Wha? I thought the whole point was to see videos from other people and escape the “system”? This is also another version of restricting our freedom, basically they start by saying NO to our content and YES to some bull$hit mainstream movies that have already been sanitized and censored through all proper channels. Thereby, a sanctuary for fresh, cool, free content is turned into a mall to sell the latest and greatest from ACME Inc.

On net neutrality, you could see some people (maybe entire cities)  not even be able to access the internet. Who determines who gets what level of access. Its a slippery slope. Corporations would likely dictate either by policy or by dollars. They’d get the best of the internet and access to certain sites (the few that make it through regulated DNS screenings). Imagine how much content could be restricted until they are undiscoverable and unpatronized and eventually disappear.

In the future, there are talks of having international regulatory bodies of the internet and making websites PAY dues for traffic. Meaning an attempt to have a United Nations like body for internet policy and charge sites like Google fees sort of like buying land on the internet. Yes, yet another tax that will inevitably “trickle down” to you and me. Incredulous as it seems, this is really what is going on. Our emails are already watched, ad agencies will begin to have  lot more say and power over which sites survive (by simply pulling their support). Wikipedia may be the only site left and maybe with only a fraction of its content.

The fun part is all of this is happening without OUR say! I have yet to meet a single human person that thinks any of this is a great idea or even fair. Most people hear about these issues but dont put much thought into it yet we “reblog” or post songs or visit sites every day. I dont believe its apathy, I think its due to our alienation to the process of law-making, and how little people know about how the internet works. All of it could be heavily restricted in a few years. We see signs of it today, links broken due to vague claims of copyright infringement. Not only do have they attempted to take down sites contrary to what they think we should have access to, they also try to bully corporations and block any products or services that offer hacks. Tumblr could fold just like napster did and nothing like it will ever see the light of day again. Stay aware, look for an opportunity to join and voice dissent. Corporations get the most say and are the puppeteers behind many of the new Acts and “ideas”. Meanwhile when was the last time a corporation surfed the net? Their main goals center around how to further leverage (read: pimp), commercialize, and regulate the internet for their own purposes.

Get hip:

http://www.savetheinternet.com/

http://www.tgdaily.com/security-features/60351-fcc-says-internet-freedom-under-threat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality_in_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_IP_Act

http://www.buzzfeed.com/willio/the-dangers-of-sopa-in-a-nutshell-460x

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/12/20/62546950.html

<iframe width=”640″ height=”360″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/P6cxulnDo5g?feature=player_embedded” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Infographics:

SOPA

Net Neutrality

The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.
- James Baldwin

Words can’t express how sad I’ve been since I heard he was in a coma and then hearing about his untimely passing. God works in mysterious ways, I can’t blame him for choosing Michael Jackson seeing as he wasn’t really appreciated here on earth.

I’ve loved and grown to respect Michael Jackson over the years. I might not have adored him as much as in my youth but I always kept an eye on his life ( triumphs and tribulations ). He became like the family member you see but don’t really speak to but always have in your heart. Today, I feel like I wish I’d spent more time with him, his music and the many ways he inspired me. I miss that feeling and thus, I miss him deeply.

I remember him fondly, his music, his story, everything he went through, how sad I felt for what people said about him. I can’t deny that this has affected me deeply, I just can’t help but feel the whole world has lost something special.

We love you forever Michael, we will celebrate you forever as we know you put your whole soul into your music. You are still with us. Rest In Peace.

Twitter is Smart 

• Migrator.Net

I’d never heard of this and it’s a nice way to help migrate DB changes.. loving it and I intend to look into it even though I’m using Fluent nHib at the moment. via @rockarts

• Starting With Migrator.Net
• Migrator.Net

• 16 sites every .NET developer should read daily

Useful,

• Free ASP.NET 4.0 beta hosting available
• jquerylist.com

.. And Funny

• How To Write Unmaintainable Code
• http://www.metacafe.com/watch/266087/the_end_of_the_world/ via @HuntJason

I’ll try to start tracking where I get these links so you know who to follow on Twitter…

A few glitches here and there until I was wondering where SQL Management Studio was hiding.. installed it seperately a few times before I figured something was wrong.

I was able to google and find this post.. the problem is choice, too many links and downloads form Microsoft and they refuse to link them in a cohesive way. They have their main site but will not on the actual download page ( assuming you surf in directly to the download page that there are other options.. jeez )

 Anyway, I blame my tired eyes because I should have noticed it during the install seeing as I just installed it on my old laptop a few months ago. Here is the solution and a great blog post.. with the fix if you find yourself in the same vicious circle (installing over and over and nothing is working )

Fix: Can’t install microsoft sql server 2008 management studio express

I have been twittering a lot lately and I have to say a few things about MVC vs WebForms discussions on Twitter today.

MVC to me will not stay a niche solution only meant for the ultra-hip, uber-fly web developers. I think it will eventually be well received and widely accepted. It might be a pain in the neck if your first experience developing for the web was with WebForms but it shouldn’t be avoided, they’re just growing pains.

To put it bluntly, I’ll say.. learn MVC. Learn it and when you eventually love it yourself, bring it forward as a solution over WebForms but not because anyone told you to do it.

We all know MVC is the shiny new toy in the MS box – undoubtedly the best way to stunt on your peers right now, but when it comes down to it, don’t fret. I think it’s okay to “switch lanes” and pay the bills with WebForms at work. The whole point is not to be a one trick pony and if you’re not in the position to deliver a solution with MVC where you know it is the superior choice then just let it go.

Pick a lane pick a lane. That’s all I ever heard.
But I’m just trying to swerve.
Without hitting the curb.
-Drake, Stunt Hard

The discussion will probably last a long while and nobody will back down, and that probably isn’t serving the community at large. This is why I say, don’t follow blindly, play with it yourself and then still be CAPABLE of switching lanes when you need to!

A few hours into Fluent nHibernate. I decided to log some of these errors. As time permits I’ll update this one post. Eventually once I’m running smoothly I may do a post on Fluent nHibernate and my findings. This is assuming I stick with it, but so far, so good.

I will also add that the docs for Fluent nHibernate have been very good so far which is why I’m able to ge so far in such a short time. Shout out to Fluent nHibernate team… they need a shorter name though…

Errors

“The element ‘class’ in namespace ‘urn:nhibernate-mapping-2.2′ has invalid child element ‘property’ in namespace ‘urn:nhibernate-mapping-2.2′. List of possible elements expected: ‘meta, jcs-cache, cache, id, composite-id’ in namespace ‘urn:nhibernate-mapping-2.2′.”

Fix: In your mapping class, make sure you have an Id

namespace Store.Domain.Mappings
{
    public class Product: ClassMap
    {
        public Product()
        {
            Id(c => c.ProductId);
        }
    }
}

The Dilemma
I have a model similar to this:Member.Login.Username
Member is a base class for different types of members.Login object is lazy loaded. Username is self explanatory.
Suppose you’re attempting to Map from this complex object (Member) into a simple Member Edit View or Partial View in your MVC application. I am currently doing something like this:

namespace Store.Web.Controllers
{
        MemberProcessingService _service = new MemberProcessingService();   

        public ActionResult EditMember(long id)
        {
            Domain.Entities.Member data =  _service.GetMember(id);
            EditMemberViewDataMapper mapper = new EditMemberViewDataMapper ();
            EditMemberViewDataviewdata = mapper.MapFrom(data);   

            return PartialView("EditMember", viewdata);
        }
}

There are a few things in here that could be refactored but for the sake of simplicity, the main issue here is that we’re allowing the _service to handle the ISession. BUT, because we do not know what type of member to expect nor do we want to violate SRP, we do not want the service to do the mapping as this is the job of the controller, to provide the view with data. Any number of actions could be calling the _service.GetMember method, we definitely do not want to be mapping the view data in that method. So how do we get around this error with the session…?

The Fix(?)
Simply put, we need to take the ISession “up” a level so that it reigns from the start of a request through to the end.
This has probably become obvious to you by now as well. We can’t call the Member.Login.Username without loading the Login object and we need a session to do this.

There are a few ways to achieve this, I am now in the process of doing this when I though I’d blog. I will be back later to set out a defined approach.

So far here are some options and reading:

Sharp WebSessionStorage
(scroll down to the /NHibernate/WebSessionStorage.cs: An ISessionStorage

Jeffery Palermo’s ISessionBuilder
ISession builder to maintain a session through the entire WebRequest.

At this point, all my Actions represent an entire request ( or unit of work ). By the time it sends the view/partial view, everything should be complete. I’m not sure what scenario would be outside this understanding but for now that works.

Long story short, I’m going to refactor to better handle the session without necessarily adding that concern directly to the action method.

As this blog has evolved, and will inevitably continue to do so, I feel I can take some time out from technical posts to vent a little about the frustrations I’ve had in the past few weeks surrounding the Tools of the trade.

While I’m tempted to list in agonizing detail, each error and issue I’ve faced, for brevity’s sake I won’t. What I will do is say simply state the general area’s most damning to your happy use of any tools.

Documentation

Too much or too little are a bad thing. Wading through an avalanche of documentation, demo’s, sample projects, video’s can be daunting, tiresome and confusing but I’d rather have too much than too little. With too much, you can cherry-pick and track ( see resources ) with too little, you end up posting questions, reading vague forum/group/blog posts trying to figure out what’s going on. Don’t do this to yourself.
Lesson learned:
If all they have are a sparsely populated Wiki, avoid this tool!! All the blog posts in the world can’t make up for lack of documentation or a “How To’s”, “FAQ”, “Demo”, “Sample”

Popularity

You may be forced to follow a trend even though you feel there are issues with said trend. I hate herd mentality, I like to think I have a choice in what I do and how I do it. However I find that a lot of times, popularity of certain tools while tempting, shouldn’t overshadow your own good sense.
Lesson learned:
You can’t fool all the people, all the time.

Open Source

Oh, the gift and the curse that is Open Source. It might be free but, Caveat emptor!

Maturity, popularity and trends are factors when picking an OSS and few make it to the mature stage. Too new and there is no community, too mature and they’re behemoths with multiple off-spring contributions. Hidden complexities that can compound the original problem.

Other concerns to factor when assessing the degree of pain that you should anticipate with a particular OSS tool:

• Downloading the tool.
  Almost always an unexpected excursion wading through versions and various download sources. Desperation and sore eyes might tempt you to click the first arrow you see and save whatever assembly you find, but take the time to read and be selective about the download options. Often times, the small print and versions really do matter.
• Installation.
  Some are well done, easy and straight forward (Gallio for instance) and others, well.. not so much. They may rely on other OSS tools and require you to do things manually, and before long you forget what you were installing in the first place. It’s not unheard of to be required to install/upgrade sometimes 2-3 other things, change system settings, uninstall versions.. it can definitely be a pain.
• Too cool for School.
  Be wary of the OSS tool that is very clique-oriented, it’s so new Google hasn’t heard of it talk-less of a production system. It’s too tied to a “principle” or some such and was built by the current Cool Guy, self-ordained Guru and/or demagogue-with-a-blog – who is above actually supporting his creation. Call me crazy but, you might want to reconsider this tool UNLESS it really delivers.
• Configuration.
  This can easily become a nightmarish hell of which there is no hope of deliverance. NEVER underestimate how much time/energy configuring a tool can devour. ALWAYS research the configuration and issues others have had, track these before you click the download button. If you need another tool to HELP you configure, find out how easy THAT is to configure and use. You can see how this could snowball. The tool might be great but if you can’t even get it to run, then I’m sorry, life is just too short.
  That being said, don’t discount it without research. Sometimes there are good simple solid tools that can help you master the beast…
• Ease of use, lifespan, support, community
  You’ve downloaded, installed, configured and and still there’s more, the tool is a pain to use, doesn’t work properly and is hard to understand. You find yourself spending hours learning while deadlines come and go. We’ve all been there, every OSS tool or framework has it’s own idiosyncrasies . My biggest frustration is the learning curve for EACH tool, we use dozens of tools daily for various things, everything from SVN to VS plugins has their own approach, syntax, commands, whatever. Using them in unison can sometimes cause new unexpected problems.I am ESPECIALLY choosy when it comes to using OSS for this fact alone. Key things to ask yourself: How long has it been around, is it being updated, how big is the dev team, where is the main community, how quickly can I use it and never have to worry about it? There are so few tools that just install and work quietly. If the updates are too frequent, I suggest you pass. Don’t do nightly builds if your paycheck is on the line. If it’s stable, there is usually a decent amount of time between releases. People won’t complain if it’s a reliable, widely-adopted tool that just works. Don’t adopt anything that isn’t properly handled. I like to see some professionalism in the website, docs and, support. You usually know right away if the project is taken seriously or if it will be “Closed” in about 2 months.
• Be ready to code.
  Sometimes, you have to extend OSS, this is a given. I’ve been there and it’s not so bad. Extend it and blog about it or somehow share what you found and had to do to get it working in your situation. I have to say it is fulfilling IF you get it working the way you want.

Lesson learned: Go with the mature product. Not the fad. However, weigh the options and if it’s time to adopt a newer model do it. Just be wary.

Comparison

When people love tools it’s hard to get them to shut up about it. I’m sure you already know a few people like this. Well, the problem is how much of it is because they don’t really know anything other option? How objective are they really? It is hard to find an fair, un-biased comparison post about tools/frameworks without the Author blasting one or the other side. This makes it hard to see things clearly..

Lesson learned: Don’t read anyone’s blog like it’s a Bible. Keep an RSS and search through it. You will find people from both sides and be able to gauge things better.. shop around basically, don’t become a Stan.

Errors

Weird, unexpected, hard to understand, unhandled, cryptic/illegible errors. Hours can be spent debugging errors generated from the use of tools that a little better documentation would help avoid entirely. Everyone is guilty of this, from Microsoft on down. WTF do these errors mean!

Lesson learned:
No lesson learned here, just try to remember how you solved them and maybe blog about it for the next guy.

Google

Google is good at searches, but there is a missing link when it comes to development related searches and people goggling Britney Spears.

Major failures are Time & Topics. Time, for instance people rarely specify enough information for google to do it’s job properly. i.e. version, dates on blogs, e.t.c. Google itself is a tool (lol, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded) and you have to learn how to use it properly and know when to abandon it for other means. If you leave the safety of your RSS/resources and venture into the wild unknown that is google.com to search for help, hours and focus are usually lost along the way.I still can’t blame Google though, if things were better documented I wouldn’t need to search. And searching/asking doesn’t mean you’ll get an answer.

Lesson learned:
Avoid Google. Use your resources instead.

Resources

Why is it so hard to develop without a vault of resources at your disposal? I just don’t think it’s possible in this day and age. Even with a photographic memory (which I don’t have anyway) it’s a pain to find, track and maintain resources needed to use tools.

Lesson learned:
Don’t program without resources. Keep them neat, easily accessible, up-to-date. Keep as many as you can assuming it’s in a searchable format. This includes RSS, Twitter, Delicious, eBooks, Whitepapers, Blog Post favorites, Blog printouts, templates, CodeGen, Snippets e.t.c.
Keep them in multiple places if need be. Online, portable drive, your phone, your blog.
Use tags, index and search by those tags.
If it’s a hardcopy, scan it and file it. Paper is so 2008!