When you have client work that you’ve been cranking on for 5 years or more like I do or ASP.NET sites that are still chugging away after years you know it is not realistic to go back and introduce testing so you have better code coverage, it is just impractical. With legacy systems, one ends up with testing procedures that are outside of the model and normal testing frameworks. Whether it be custom SQL scripts you’ve written to ensure the order totals or that deliveries are made or if its the smell tests you’ve experienced from creating, modifying, and maintaining a codebase for an extended period of time, these are your tests. Obviously that doesn’t extend well and when you have to train in people on the processes that is when the introduction of testing to the code can offer great benefit. Not only will you have the coverage but it also helps anchor the students understanding by having them write the tests and introduce them.

And then there are the cases I have with my current client who has a great business model that is hampered by a less than optimal ASP.NET design. Sure, it has tiers/layers, repositories, some design patterns, broken out classes for every type of functionality possible with the web and internal systems. It has custom exceptions, extenders, modifiers, AJAX of many flavors; yes, it has some cool stuff. But it doesn’t have a central vision and you can tell that multiple outfits have hammered on the codebase because over here a cost is performed this way and over there another. So the design and structure quickly turned to spaghetti with Ragu and I’m in there to uncook the noodles and put them back in the box. But I don’t see how I can add testing to this asp.net site and still get this ship out of the harbor before the school season. And you could say that if the outfits had used testing they wouldn’t be in the place and perhaps that is true; but it is also true that if they followed one vision the project would be better off as well.

Now, if I could rewrite everything using MVC then I’d have coverage all over the place. In honor of NFL training camp I’ll say I’d have a 110% coverage and take it day by day. And before I forget! The job posting that triggered this thought.

A former MSSE graduate, contacted me about software testing positions that he is trying to fill at <company>. Their technology controls those flashing white lights at intersections that signal the approach of emergency vehicles.

Download details: Visual Studio 2010 Keybinding Posters.

My personal reference point:

VS-KB-Brochure-CSharp-Letter

Well, apparently Lumberjack Days also exists during the day! Who knew?! And part of the festivities are a 5K and a 10 miler. Even though many of my run buddies were doing these races I did not plan on it. With the Pikes Peak ascent coming up I have been working under the pretense that I can not run the trails at Hyland enough and planned to do a double loop there on Saturday. However the body has shown me a different path yet again as all those uneven trails, ruts, and foot shuffles have brought a nasty left quad issue which tugged and wrenched on my knee to such a degree that I had to take off three days from running.  So off the advice of some folks I am taking a hill break and to make a long story shorter but yet not short I signed up for the 5K.

My goal was to see where I was at right now. I’ve been building up the base miles over the past few weeks after a light June and have yet to reach the weekly mileage I am looking to settle in at. With the last race being the Fargo marathon I wasn’t expecting a rockstar performance but then again there had been some solid track workouts that were focused on the shorter stuff and getting the fast-twitch fibers back in the game. The expectation was that I’d have the turnover and speed but maybe lack the fitness for a solid race.

With Kelly was out of town I had to take care of the pooch and ended up behind schedule and not picking up my packet until the last of the buses were loading to bring runners to the start of the point-to-point course. The packet pickup was chaos and one of the worst I’ve ever seen. The directions were to pick up your packet by bib number but the signs alerting folks to which line they should enter were hidden by the lines. The pickup took a solid 15 minutes and it looked like a solid warmup wouldn’t be happening that day. Then I saw Rob and we met after the packet pickup and we ran to the start for our warmup (good thinking Rob). Race start was coming so I put in a few drills and maybe two strides and went to the start. My legs were not feeling loose or good and the while it wasn’t hot it was humid enough to have me already soaked and slightly uncomfortable.

Rob and I wished Brian good luck and settled back further in the pack and found Shawn and Nicole. Race plan was this. Rob was going to pace me to a sub 19 and I was hoping Shawn would be there with us; first mile at a 6:10 and then hammer. This was damn exciting. When I broke 20 minutes in the 5k for the first time Brian paced me and now Rob was pacing me; another reason I love running with these people.

Gun. Start. Away we go, the first mile is a descending one and the pace is quickening. I tend to run too fast on that first mile, suffer the second, and fight back on the third; I would guess this is common. First mile shows a 5:58 on my watch. So the good news is we’ve gained 12 seconds on the race plan, thrown that in the bank and we are feeling okay. The bad news is that I know I’ve just thrown 12 seconds in the bank and nothing is free! The legs are suffering already and Rob has activated his jet-pack and is taking off. My thought here is to keep Rob in sight, focus on form, fight, and hope Shawn is right there with me.

But it got worse. Ouch. I was struggling and mile two was as 6:17, a full 19 seconds slower. Granted it ascended a bit but still I was dejected and figured a sub 19 was out. I also considered pulling up there and coasting in as I was spent but I trudged along and then looked down at my watch, less than a mile to go so I started focusing. 0.6 miles, 0.5 miles, you get it and I started thinking about track workouts and running an 800 is all I have to do and picked up the pace. Third mile in 6:05! I have a chance but then the last tenth was across a grass common area that was damp and slower than the road and I slowed until seeing the club, hearing encouragement and trying to push it that last tenth (5:10 pace) a hundred yards out or so I saw I was actually near 19, shocked I pushed again and the clock read 19:01 as I crossed. I was a little disheartened but loved the fight I showed when I wanted to quit. I glanced at my watch and 18:57! Boom! New PR baby.

http://www.lumberjackdays.com/roadraces.asp

Those rest posts:

http://developer.yahoo.com/dotnet/howto-rest_cs.html

http://devlicio.us/blogs/derik_whittaker/archive/2009/02/14/posting-data-to-a-rest-service-using-c.aspx

Last week I ran in the Chicago Marathon (more on that later) and that closes the chapter on racing for 2009. Now I may dabble in a few fun runs but for the most part I’m going to focus on recovery, relaxation, and catching up with house projects before working up my 2010 goals. 2009 was a great year for racing for me for a few reasons. First, I took the triathlon plunge and really liked them; heck, I ended up doing four of them. Now I decided to try the tri because long distance running has left me pretty banged up since since 2007 and my last two stunk! In fact I had decree that NO MARATHON would be run in 2009 (for me only of course, you go ahead). Training for the tri left me feeling fresh and the swimming allowed my upper body to feel strong unlike marathon training which kills the beach bod! Most of the winter was spent in spin class and swimming (although you couldn’t tell by my swim splits this summer). Okay, the second reason 2009 was successful was that I broke the Jake Decree and signed up for Chicago. My run club buddies where all going and I had yet to run Chicago and didn’t want to miss the opportunity to run it with friends. So I wanted to recap 2009 race circuit…what a year. I started the year out of shape and then worked back into it for the tri’s. Then at the end of June I was sick for a solid month with little activity and my races suffered. At the end of July I did a 230 mile mountain bike trip in the San Juan mountains which started my road to recovery. I built up the running base after that and started getting in running shape again. RUNNING RACES

• Chicago Marathon
  10/11/09 – 26.2 Mi 3:17:54 7:34

  Chicago is a major marathon and I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to experience that with my running club buddies. Running a race with the support of friends is a treasure and the collective Chicago Marathon experience of the group is a major positive. Kelly and I made a long weekend of it and the race went as planned. I was playing it safe and going for a solid PR but not my BQ. My job was to pace Todd to mile 20 one a 3:20 pace and then I would take off from there, Todd ended up taking off on me! My splits were consistent though and I felt good. The Chicago support was beyond amazing, the mass of runners and spectacle of spectators made me realize I love the big races. New York, I’ll be seeing you.

• PACE 5K
  Lake Nokomis – 9/26/09 - 5 km 19:25 6:15
  Good follow-up to the 5K the week before.
• Bolderdash 5k
  Lake Nokomis – 9/19/09
  - 5 km 19:19 6:13
  PR – burned a little too fast at first but banked enough time to roll it in under 20 which was my goal.
• Midnight Summers Run
  8/13/09 - 3 Mi 19:39 6:33
  Bummer of a run because they served light beer instead of Surly but I ran a good workout and beat Carrie Tollefson!! (Trust me, I have no illusions.)
• Brian Kraft 5K
  Lake Nokomis - 5/25/09 - 5 km 20:17 6:32
  Good start but ran out of gas on back side.
• Eau Claire 1/2 Marathon
  5/3/09 – 13.1 Mi 1:39:11 7:35
  Felt good and that I could hold the pace for a while. Think I could have cranked it up a little bit more but was real happy with the race especially given my running fitness. I was hoping for a 1:42 or so.
• Get in Gear 10K
  4/25/09 – 10 km 43:18 6:59
  Pretty happy with this 10K. First one in three years I think and for not running much I felt like this was a good time. The second 1/2 was a little faster.
• Human Race 8K
  3/22/09 - 8 km 34:34 6:58
  First race since last fall and ran it hard. I had a late night with Bill & Terri over for dinner and the legs felt heavy and I couldn’t catch guys like I wanted but I had a good kick at the end.

TRIATHLONS I don’t have good info on my tri times…or any notes from them as well. It was a whirlwind.

• St. Croix Tri – 9/5/09 – Sprint overall place: 64 out of 511 division place: 7 out of 32 time: 1:14:53 swim: 11:34 trn1: 2:44 bike: 31:41 trn2: 1:38 run: 27:18
• Lifetime Tri Olympic - 7/11/09 (sick)
• Rochester Tri – Sprint - 6/28/09 (won clydesdale)
• Buffalo Tri Olympic (First one ever) – 6/7/09

I’m entertaining a period of greater self-reflection that feels a little indulgent since I’m generally fairly self-aware but hey, I’m going deeper. As a part of the exercise I wanted to reflect on some of goals I have put forth in the past while. Now I’m not the best list taker so these are as my tonights recollection. And I’m going to remove the general goals of continual self-improvement like: get more sleep, be a better listener..blah blah blah.

• Start my MBA – so I’ve been bored and when I’m bored I like to kick start things by signing up for more expensive years of school! This goal has been shelved for sometime in the next 5  years. While I know I’d enjoy the experience I really need to focus on the why’s because just last year I enrolled in a Ph.D program in Computer Science before collecting myself. Besides, I’ve already self-funded one graduate program and afterwards I did not give myself a raise! There will come a time when this is more aligned to the present and that just isn’t now.
• Start my startup – pulling on the bootstraps and going to town on the idea that has been baking in my head for quite a while. I’ve discussed it with folks, sought feedback from would be consumers of the niche endeavor and feel confident but I got caught up in billing time  that by the end of the day I did not want to code. This should see traction soon.
• Production Rails work – I’ve read about Rails, Rails 2, a now there is Rails 3 and while I’ve made the local blog engine and used Ruby for some administrative server work I’m missing a production rollout until…drumroll…I finally do it through some running club focused development I’m throwing on Shawn’s design with our run club. So this goal will have been met in a few weeks.
• Improve Networking and Mentoring – The world is a small place and I’ve been working to stay in touch with those I’ve had the opportunity to work with and trying to get to know those I haven’t yet. One of the benefits I’m looking for is to feel involved in the local developer communities and it has been working and I’ll keep on it. Another aspect is mentoring which has been a nice aside from the day-to-day and I do look forward to teaching at some point.
• Contribute to Open Source (kinda) – so I broke the rules a bit on this one and decided to volunteer my time on something I really enjoyed which is runningahead.com and is not open source but it is free so I figure good enough. Now this goal has been met in theory only as I haven’t given Eric the attention I planned on but he’s being patient so this goal will get checked off.
• Improve my running – this has been going well, my effort and dedication to running has grown as has my appreciation of good health as I’ve had plantar fasciitis for 6 months was close to tying the famed shin splints of 06 as the most painful and is only a year away from matching my record of longest injury with my double hernia of 07. Once the plantar heels up I feel like I’ll drop it to another level. I was keyed in for an easy Boston Qualifier at Fargo this year and drew a bad weather day for this clydesdale and overheated.
• Read more consistently – I read all the time and waste little of my day but I have a plethora of magazines and the daily paper along with my technical (print and web) content that my ‘fun’ reading collection has been largely ignored. I really did enjoy reading The Road on the Kindle this year and I read the Dan Brown book candy finally giving up my boycott to see what the fuss was about. Turned out like I thought, easy reading the doesn’t bring much in the end and yet draws you to it…much like when I watched Rambo as a child (and perhaps still).
• Write you fool write – so there is the writing of this variety which I have not taken too very well. I’m been adament about the separation of Jake and computer but lately am having a different take and plan to write more. I’m not sure what about, my first approach was to treat this as business only but really who are we kidding with the separation of concerns these days. Google will find all sides of us and present it with a nice little bow to whoever looks. If I treat this as business only it is not like the 4500 races I’ve ran won’t come up 2nd, 3rd, 4th in the google results. And trust me, I just can’t be that guy who posts code about the latest IoC framework written entirely in Scala for JSON or business advice detailing my knowledge on the devaluation of Apple because of AntennaGate (I’m keeping my iPhone4…you can’t pry it out of my kung fu grip). I will work on writing more but at the end of the day I prefer building things or dreaming of large nest eggs.

  BUT – My creative writing has been dormant and my poetry as been decimated. Once upon a time I would attend poetry slams and open mikes…now I wouldn’t perform but I’d think about the day I’d perform and if you are still here you should know that you are reading the blog of 2004 Sonoma library – Healdsburg branch – poetry champion! Those days were wonderful inspiration, being in a new place and drinking wine all the time generates a lot. So! I’m going to write some more and I may even put something on here from time to time to keep it fresh.

Patient Money – Losing Weight the Smartphone Way, With a Nutritionist in Your Pocket – NYTimes.com.

InfoQ: Architecting TekPub – Moving from ASP.NET MVC to Ruby on Rails.

Rebuilding my dev environment…always have to google this one.