Scott’s wife is funny!
http://hanselminutes.com/default.aspx?showID=171  

To read:
http://jimbarritt.com/non-random/2009/03/04/object-calisthenics-jeff-bay/ 

I’m down! 
http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/2009/03/10/oo-micro-types/  

Me
http://twitter.com/5x1llz

Around these parts, iBatis.NET is the reigning ORM. No fear, just turn your iBatis swag on like I did and you’ll be okay. I’ve been working with this frameworkd for only a few months; with the help of what little Java I remember I’ve been able to get through a lot of online material to help me feel reasonably comforable with iBatis.NET. I’ve decided to post this in case anyone out there is interested in using this ORM and wonders why there is a lack of information out there for .NET projects.I am always open-minded about new tools/frameworks, my most valuable 5x1ll as a Software developer is, the ability to learn, everything else is a by-product of this 5x1ll and learning can’t happen with a closed-mind. If you’re interested, let’s get into it:

You: Need to implement an iBatis custom Type HandlerFor any number of reasons you have determined a Custom Type Handler is the way to go. In case you can’t make a decision, seeing how straight forward it is may help you get over that analysis-paralysis. It is either this or keep your Mapper to very simple types and then transform Object to Object. sometimes the database schema binds your hands. Here is an example of such an instance.

Scenario: Your Database uses Y or N values as indicator fields. Previously in 1.1 you would have to implement a custom type or if you haven’t taken a JP course or use the flyweight, you may even be tempted to use the Enum ( don’t do it – you will only face endless derision and ridicule ) . 2.0 has a little more swag to it thanks to Nullable types.

1. Your Class definition

VB.NET

Dim _myYesNoIndicator As Nullable(Of Boolean)

C#

bool?   _myYesNoIndicator;

2. Implementing ITypeHandlerCallback interface

You will need to create a class and implement the logic to map from your DB type to your POCO. This is straight forward enough as the interface has enough comments to tell you how it will be used. It is used in the “CustomTypeHandler” class and that will tell you a lot about what to expect when your handler is called.
…click here to read more

 I have recently discovered Lighthouse ( or LighthouseApp ). I really like it and thought I’d share this app simply because I found it hard to find something open and cheap/free to use to track bugs with the other person involved in this project. I needed something that could allow either one of us to create and track issues, assign them and manage them as the project commenced. I didn’t want anything too cumbersome and I was hoping to find something not in PHP. The answer was Lighthouse (http:///www.lighthouseapp.com)

It does the Basic Stuff

As claimed, the application is simple but powerful.

Tracking Requirements

• I first create a new “Milestone” something that you would normally consider a category. i.e. “Shopping Cart Process”Then I’d start adding “Tickets” and assign them to this Milestone i.e. “As A Customer, I want to Add An Item To the Cart”
• You can also attach a date for the Milestone to be reached. This is useful if you want to organize and target certain dates or track progress for all the Tickets associated with the Milestone.

Tracking Bugs (Tickets)

• Bugs work in a similar way and can be added as a Ticket and then add it to a Milestone and assign it to another user
• Useful features are that it allows you to upload a file ( i.e. document, photo ) to the ticket and alert other users of the new Ticket

Tags

• LighthouseApp requires the same shift in concept as the Gmail Inbox, no folder, just tags. You can tag your tickets and then search for them. The good news here is there is lots of help to get you to the tickets you’re after. Make sure all users tag and you shouldn’t run into any problems

 

It has some Shiny Features

Update without logging inIntegrate Subersion

• This is no suprise given their Warehouse application, but Lighthouse allows you to integrate with Subversion. I haven’t opted to do this as of yet, but if I do I’ll be sure to expand on this in the future if I decide to use it.

But, It’s Not Perfect

…click here to read more

I wasn’t at Alt.Net in Seattle this year unfortunately. I believe in the message Alt.NET hopes to instill in developers and I also appreciate how quick they are to embrace change and new idea’s. 10 months may as well be 10 years in Software, some things have changed and some things haven’t..

Interesting Topics

• NET/Mono on the Mac, Linux, the iPhone

No clue who Miguel is but I do plan on reading into this some more.. Sounds like it’s in the early stages and I hope it doesn’t fall into oblivion!
http://www.go-mono.com/visualstudio/

• TDD and Microsoft

I have many gripes about this, I would like to know if anyone out there has a very smooth, easy to adopt way of doing TDD in Microsoft (using MSTest). I had to install Gallio and use TestDriven. Our Team Lead has set up the tests in two different solutions that have to be accessed by a proxy. I probably would not have done that. I’d like to know what others have tried and how they’ve made TDD work (well) with Microsoft.

• Why So Mean

Funny that this was posted by Hanselman, then again maybe it’s not so odd. I wonder this myself.Alt.NET while an awesome idea can easily turn into pseudo-oligarchy that only seeks to dictate and not listen. Many blog posts are negative and derisive, people arguing with eachother over nonsense, no clear voice/vision at times, people become clique-ish and start believing they’re a secret society out to take over the world. In my mind, this community would be better off without these sorts of attitudes even if this mindset is fostered by some of the leaders of Alt.NET. If it’s not peace-ful, inviting and honey-sweet nobody is going to want to listen. That being said, the best examples of members of the community are heads above the rest. They ignore the hype and post less on the community itself -instead, they are are quiet/sturdy pillars of the original principles that lead to Alt.NET taking off in the first place. They seek to inspire instead of brainwash and tend not to eschew/ridicule Microsoft technologies.For the record big up to Microsoft for staying involved in this community and for continuously listening. At least they’re trying, the problem is they can’t please them all.. there’s nothing that will make me stop reading a post than when someone starts hating on Microsoft.
Some other people agree

• Enitities vs Messages

Sounds like it may be way over my head, but it’s one of those subjects you like to think you will one day get to implement!

• State of AOP

Still haven’t made the time to really understand Aspect Oriented Programming. I’m eager to learn more about what it is and why it’s the next hot thing

• Multi-Threading

Always an issue! Have there been any advancements in the framework? Techniques, approaches, patterns, testability? Holla!

• UI Frameworks in 2015

XAML? We had a similar discission at the Canadian Alt.Net last summer… but what’s the consensus from the community.. where are we going? What about mobile apps? Web vs Win.. there is a lot of room for improvement at the framework level for this.. I would love to see a more universal approach to web interfaces and also less polarity between Windows and Web..

• Writing Good Unit Tests

I always feel there is room for improvement in this area.. From “Tripple A” style of writing tests to “BDD” getting some shine and Assert’s going out of style faster than Lil’ Wayne’s Rock album I’m wondering how to write and maintain good Unit Tests, this is a session I would have learned a lot from ( I’m hoping there is a video of this session )

Alt.Hero

I have to second this because Scott Hanselman is easily one of the nicest people I met at Alt.NET. Despite possibly being the most visible member of the .NET community, he is also insanely humble and genuinely interested in meeting people in the community. He definitely makes a lasting impression and has no ego unlike some of the other attendee’s.

Videos

By the way I’m not really feeling Kyte.tv… maybe after it gets out of beta but the video interface isn’t intuitive at all. Anyone here are some links via Kyte. If you don’t get too annoyed you’ll be able to find more video’s linked to these.

http://www.kyte.tv/ch/245251-jrwren

http://www.kyte.tv/ch/240253-shanselman

Link’d Up

• Hanselman speaks
• A favourite blog of mine: Tom sprinkles a few non MONO posts in there, this is proof
• Sessions and notes ( no one is updating this Wiki!)
• Osherove is calling you out!
• Haack speaks and speaks and speaks ( I mean that in the nicest way, where are all the other day by day’s?)
• Cooper loves him some Alt.NET ( Wish I’d been able to speak with him the first go around, I have since followed his blog in my Shortlist of RSS Feeds. His is one of the better blogs out there technically )
• Did he just diss Lincoln?
• Someone, somewhere out there, watched from afar…

Like many of us, Microsoft is an 80′s baby… I’m feeling Softwear by Microsoft“>Softwear and not just because Common‘s co-signed it! Since the 80′s Hip Hop and MS have grown to iconic heights and it’s hard to imagine the world today without either… As easy as it would be, I won’t write an essay and metaphor-ize one with the other… I’ll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions and parallels. Check out these fly t-shirts while you’re doing that.

Bonus: Common performs & A Hip Hop Gem after the cut… …click here to read more