tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64618302024-03-12T20:33:51.388-04:00Matt Culbreth's dependably friendly and engaging insights into technology, development, consulting, consumer electronics, travel, and some other stuff from time to time.Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1128510738043431372005-10-05T07:05:00.000-04:002005-10-05T07:12:18.046-04:00

And so for the past ten months I've been out of active client-facing consulting, mostly bound to my desk driving the good ship. Don't get me the wrong--the good ship needs driving and I'm greatly enjoying it. But there's a real sense of enjoyment with getting back to the good stuff. Some albums that have gotten play lately: Alanis Morissette, "Jagged Little Pill" Jane's Addiction,

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1111148890144369692005-03-18T07:24:00.000-05:002005-03-18T17:25:18.036-05:00

Wow, over two months gone. Pretty poor, I know. But some things have been happening and I've been too busy to write.First things first--it's my birthday and I'm 31. That would have sounded old to me a few years ago, but I think I've still got a few good years left in me. We'll find out.Secondly, take a look at this. Clearly I'm happy about the new gig. I work harder than I ever have so that

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1104960577235209072005-01-05T16:16:00.000-05:002005-01-05T16:29:37.236-05:00

A few thoughts, completely random and unordered, on my profession (IT consulting): It's a relationship business. It's a mutually beneficial relationship when a company engages a consulting firm. If it's not then there is a problem somewhere. If the client is feeling that he is getting taken then the relationship will not last. If the consultant feels that he is getting away with murder

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1104955567300545112005-01-05T15:03:00.000-05:002005-01-05T15:06:07.300-05:00

Here's a great article from Joel Splosky: The key line is this: Like I said: if you love to program computers, count your blessings: you are in a very fortunate minority of people who can make a great living doing work they love.I agree completely. There's simply no better way to make money if you are one of the few people who do this work very well.

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1104450476534084612004-12-30T18:47:00.000-05:002004-12-31T07:33:45.626-05:00

On Jay's suggestion I'm trying post by email. Cool stuff. Now onto Contracting, and I mean the type with hammers and nails. My wife and I are presently doing a good bit of renovation work on our house. One thing we're both realizing is that there is a potential business opportunity if you ran a home renovation company as you would a normal professional services firm. Some of the guys in that

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1104348720335969692004-12-29T14:15:00.000-05:002004-12-29T14:32:00.336-05:00

A frequent reader of this space recently had a comment: why don't you do a personal blog instead of this resume blog. Good point friend. How about this: Some recently observed excellent songs for programming are: Genesis, "Turn It On Again" Zeppelin, "Since I've Been Loving You" Afro Celt w/ Peter Gabriel "When You're Falling" T-Mobile recently took care of me when my

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1104329086741364442004-12-29T08:55:00.000-05:002004-12-29T09:04:46.740-05:00

So I've got a client now that is using a Cisco VPN box for remote access. I needed to do some extra work on the project from home last night, and I installed the Cisco VPN Client. So far so good. I typically have my Start Menu organized into hierarchies of folders, such as Applications, Development, etc. So I moved the new Cisco group into the Applications group. Cisco didn't like this when I

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1102720856753723982004-12-10T18:16:00.000-05:002004-12-10T18:20:56.753-05:00

Take a look at this page for a greatly improved way to generate .NET code from an XML XSD schema. xsd.exe, the tool which comes with the .NET framework, works fine for generating very simple classes. The problem is that it generates classes with only public variables--no properties are created. The issue is that the .NET data binding controls (and most third party controls) are set to only

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1101766289342420872004-11-29T17:10:00.000-05:002004-11-29T17:11:29.343-05:00

A good article by Chad Dickerson on common IT mistakes. I especially like these: 19. Violating the KISS principle Doug Pierce, technical architect at Datavantage, says that violating the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) principle is a systemic problem for IT. Pierce says he has seen “hundreds of millions” of dollars wasted on implementing, failing to implement, or supporting solutions that are

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1101763624265752872004-11-29T16:24:00.001-05:002004-11-29T16:34:36.136-05:00

This is a good blog post from Peter Yared on the evolution of the application server. I'm in the .NET world where our app server is a bit more of a logical concept than in J2EE, where you might use JBOSS or WebLogic or Websphere. Still, an interesting read. His take on things is correct I think. We don't need an application server in the middle when all we're doing is throwing XML around from

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1100706940668219492004-11-17T10:46:00.000-05:002004-11-17T10:55:40.666-05:00

Check out this article on Loosely Coupled. Phil Wainewright makes an interesting case for why the ESB is an idea that, while new and exciting, might not last forever. His main point is that the good points of an ESB--extreme loose coupling, standard XML support, message oriented middleware--are hurt by the reliance on yet another large software package an enterprise must install and maintain.

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1100208115946038162004-11-11T16:17:00.000-05:002004-11-11T16:21:55.946-05:00

I've been working an engagement recently with a company doing some large .NET and VB6 development. This company would like to automate its build and deployment processes to relieve pressure on the developers who presently do all of these steps manually. I can strongly recommend Visual Build. This tool makes it easy to do all of the little but very detailed steps that take place in a large

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1100119207241585682004-11-10T15:37:00.000-05:002004-11-10T15:40:07.240-05:00

Visual SourceSafe, clearly the worst product in the Microsoft catalog and one that keeps biting me every time I run into it. Right now, before you even take another sip of coffee even, click this link and buy SourceGear Vault. You'll thank me for it later.

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1100035347494149182004-11-09T16:10:00.000-05:002004-11-09T16:22:27.493-05:00

I'm working with a client now in their performance testing of a very large web application. This application was written in .NET with Microsoft's assistance and they're now using Compuware's QA Load product. It's a well written application and the guys working it are quite sharp. Some random thoughts here: .NET Remoting is not a good idea. It's a tightly coupled distributed architecture that

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1099908379519981032004-11-08T05:02:00.000-05:002004-11-08T05:06:19.520-05:00

The BlackBerry 7100t from TMobile! I'll try to snap some photos of it later, but a quick word--I love the thing. I used to have the (much larger) 6750 and this phone-sized BlackBerry makes a world of difference. The screen is perfect, the calls and speakerphone are superb, and the typical BlackBerry email quality is great so far. Recommended.

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1099334878731746102004-11-01T13:46:00.000-05:002004-11-01T13:47:58.730-05:00

Looked into it, thought about it, deciding not to do it this year. Just too busy to make it as good as it could be. Great idea though. In general I like the idea of forced deadlines to create an impetus for doing something. I'll definitely look into it more.

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1099061409249720172004-10-29T10:48:00.000-04:002004-10-29T10:50:09.250-04:00

Going to be writing a trip report of my latest trip soon enough, but here's an early indication. Anybody know the beach?

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1098983270561261882004-10-28T13:02:00.000-04:002004-10-28T13:07:50.563-04:00

As I wrote in a previous post about things I'd like to do in my lifetime, I'd like to write a novel or two. It turns out that there is an entire community that is focused on doing such a thing in a public setting. If you go to the National Novel Writing Month site you'll see that people write an entire novel in one month. Blogger has gotten into this and has a similar program where you'll

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1098909481129881172004-10-27T16:25:00.000-04:002004-11-01T08:27:46.426-05:00

Looking to replace my BlackBerry 6750 with a newer model. The 6750 is fine, and at the time I got it last year I was very pleased with one device for phone and email, but it's just gotten stale. So I'm just now getting into the swing of things, but the two leading contenders are: BlackBerry 7100t: PalmOne Treo 650: I'll keep this updated as I choose. The BlackBerry has a huge

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1098207946951773382004-10-19T13:37:00.000-04:002004-10-19T13:45:46.953-04:00

Check out this helpful document to see a very concise listing of your workflow options in BTS 2004. I haven't done a lot of this yet with BizTalk, but my bias would be to use one of the separate products mentioned in the document. I've looked at both K2 and Teamplate before and they both seem very complete.

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1098129847522676142004-10-18T15:55:00.000-04:002004-10-18T16:05:51.410-04:00

The more I think about software architecture and the new wave to SOA, the more I like the thought of graphically designing business processes and exposing them as Web Services. A big part of this now is the use of BPEL, or the Business Process Execution Language. The full name of the standard is actually BPEL4WS, but most folks are going with BPEL now. If you've done any BizTalk work at all

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1098061517085487472004-10-17T21:04:00.000-04:002004-10-17T21:05:17.086-04:00

In answer to the Anonymous Commenter on the last post: a fair enough point I suppose, but it's hard to argue against poor programming. If you'll allow me to suggest that an application might be more service-based instead of data-based then we might have something. If we use something like LLBLGen to generate a data access layer, and allow that layer to use dynamic SQL to access the database,

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1097867876157675272004-10-15T15:03:00.000-04:002004-10-15T15:21:05.523-04:00

To answer a comment from my post on CRUD a few days, I'd suggest a look at LLBLGen Pro. The name might not be so hot, but it's the best tool I've used in several years of looking for .NET data access. It's a complete object-relational mapping tool that dynamically generates SQL against the database of your choice. Though it's currently limited to SQL Server, Oracle, Firebird and Interbase, I

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1097773759164688142004-10-14T13:05:00.000-04:002004-10-14T13:09:19.163-04:00

I've upgraded to Trillian Pro finally, and I'm glad I've done it. I think it's the best IM client out there, and the Pro version has some nice extras. For $25 you can't go wrong. I'm working with a client today on a new build and deployment process for a couple different software teams. I'm looking into Visual Make, Visual Build, and Nant. More details to follow on the tool selection and process

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6461830.post-1097684351101978322004-10-13T12:19:00.000-04:002004-10-13T12:19:11.100-04:00

Interesting take in this MSDN article on some architecture stuff. It's still amazing to me the amount of time we software developers spend on simply reading from and saving to a database. I've swung around to the "generate it and then use an ORM" model myself. At least this week.

Matt Culbrethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13635063495275241261noreply@blogger.com