ViNull Records

FeelTheFunc: EP 29: A Little Func in your GAC

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:03:46 GMT

In this episode we talk about upcoming projects including the CodeStock and KnoXNA, and also question the GAC. Show Notes at http://feelthefunc.com

FeelTheFunc: EP 28: The Func's Destitute

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:47:26 GMT

In this episode special guest Nathan Blevins joins us as we remember IncaBlocks. Show Notes at http://feelthefunc.com

FeelTheFunc: EP 27: Failure to Func

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:39:53 GMT

In this episode we discuss Ustream, lack of IncaBlocks sales, releasing a FuncWorks XNA library, and the state of PC audio cards. Show notes at http://feelthefunc.com

R.I.P. IncaBlocks: 10/14/2009 – 10/24/2009

michael.neel@gmail.com (Michael C. Neel) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:46:05 GMT

The depressing chart to the left represents our recently released game IncaBlocks. The blue line is trial downloads, and the red line is purchases. The game is currently #518 out of 557 on the bestselling list of Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG). The best stat I can mention is we are 3 places behind one of the all time bestselling XBLIG titles “I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1” if you sort alphabetically. I believe I have the credit of releasing the worst game ever on the Xbox 360, a modern day E.T.!

Our conversion rate is a respectable 5%, but on 10/22 we were no longer on the XBLIG New Releases list, and you can see from the days following what not being on the list means for downloads. Rating wise we are holding a 2.5/5 with 59 votes, and have two not bad / not great reviews at gaygamer.net and xblig.co.uk.

This was our first game, so the only way I’d call it a complete failure is if we didn’t learn from the experience. I think the biggest lesson here is understanding there is no traffic in the XBLIG’s section. It’s been said you only find the section when messing around drunk, and surprisingly relying upon drunks is a poor business plan. Microsoft never makes mention of the section anywhere else on the Xbox, and while Major Nelson will blog about each new Rock Band song, there will only be a weekly footnote on top sales list for XBLIG.

Still, with a vortex of suckage to rival the Large Hadron Collider black hole generation, this can hardly account for a fraction of our non-existent sales. I have a few guess why trial downloads are so low. The best would be this is not the type of game that players who do visit the XBLIG section like to play, and that those who would like it aren’t aware of or looking at the XBLIG section. To be blunt, no one is interested. A second idea is the name, box art, and screenshots do not create interest. (The game play video isn’t listed on the official site, just the creator webpage).

We also contacted the sites known to review XBLIG games after release. Since you cannot predict when your game will pass review and be released (this can be anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks), this seemed like a good choice. It wasn’t. Most of the review sites have a back log of games to review, so you need to get on that list early for the chance of reviews timed with release. It also wouldn’t hurt to send out teaser press releases and videos to review sites – they may not publish them, but your game will be in their minds come release.

This experience hasn’t changed our desire to create more games for XBLIG. The view from the bottom might be a factor in our future titles. When your below every screensaver, massage app, and geometry wars clone, ideas enter your mind that otherwise wouldn’t:

In honor of hitting rock bottom, here are 15 codes to save you the 80 Ballmer Bucks ($1 USD) and get a free copy of IncaBlocks. They are one use only codes, so the first person to use the code will deactivate the code for anyone else. Given how bad this game is, I’d say there is no rush on trying a code!

B93TV-QGK7Y-B9Q6M-WH9DB-QQDG3

D7H3Q-KY3C6-MD8R4-7KVVW-B24DG

Q3XPX-JDX2B-82343-2T4F9-6G3G8

DX9GH-2BX6G-XF36V-6JQR8-JJT7B

HQQ3D-FFKYF-WR7VT-G2HGV-BH8X3

VHTVY-HHGDQ-WFQ83-WXX39-DBWX6

XQJW7-WGJYJ-TYVH4-DJQYF-PT3HJ

HXCQ2-B3X9C-XFGWV-XK2M7-KMWYB

F7GYX-4WKJQ-GPQHM-DF8TF-TYWYD

PMP94-KKYYG-YRRHQ-3J7YH-H3YQ6

GMR4F-BGFCG-F3HQX-GVFVV-TDPMJ

PDJXT-DC2HH-YKV2D-HGJG6-XVMRB

DKVF7-VKQ62-MQMP7-F9PRJ-GYWYQ

P36QW-TRMQB-THV7M-MD99M-QQDH6

BMFG4-YJ7VW-6QK8V-46HW4-TYWYW

(I don’t know when a specific code has been used, so I won’t be able to cross them off – if you use one, leave a comment to let others know which one it was).

FeelTheFunc: EP 26: Climbing a Wall of Func

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:08:00 GMT

In this episode we over analyze the release of IncaBlocks. Sow notes at http://feelthefunc.com

IncaBlocks Released, Thanks AgileZen and Kanban!

michael.neel@gmail.com (Michael C. Neel) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:06:58 GMT

FuncWorks, LLC’s first XNA game, IncaBlocks, is now available on Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG)!

This game represents the many hours and weekends Dylan, Cicelie and myself worked the past several months. Looking back at SVN, I started this as a side project to ROCS around July 30th. Shortly thereafter we decided to put ROCS on hold and make IncaBlocks the first game we would release. Keeping with our belief in over delivering, we priced IncaBlocks at 80 Points ($1.00).

Game play is pretty simple – stack blocks following some rules, and the one with the most blocks on top at the end wins. I recorded a short video of a game to help everyone check it out (there is also a free trial version on Xbox):

IncaBlocks was also the first project that we made heavy use of Kanban and AgileZen. Kanban is an idea I’ve loved in theory for a while, but hadn’t had the chance to use it on a real project (meaning a project with a deadline). We used both the online board at AgileZen, and a real board in my office. Nate and Nicole have done an awesome job with AgileZen, and in my not-so-humble opinion have a better project management system than Basecamp. As with Ninject, Nate has a knack for stripping away the excess and leaving only the good parts.

That said, you cannot beat the feeling of a physical Kanban board. Moving a work item physically through the project flow gives one a great sense of accomplishment. We stuck to two basic rules of the board: first, you can only have one task in progress at a time, and second, you must take a task, once started, all the way to done. I think at least 3 times I “reset” the board and moved tasks around in the ready columns to change priority. This allowed us to keep a high velocity while reacting to change (considering this was our first XNA game to be release, we had many changes as a result of just learning XNA and XBLIG worked). While we pruned the done items from AgileZen, we left them all up on the wall:

We already have ideas for our next games, though I will have to take a break from game development while I work on an ebook for Wrox. The working title is “XNA 3D Primer”, and will be a crash course in 3D game programming. I also plan to do some post mortem posts on IncaBlocks and the lessons we learned along the way.

FeelTheFunc: EP 25: FuncBall Review

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:19:37 GMT

In this episode we discuss the Xbox Live Indie Game review process, the new Zune HD, ESPN, Playboy, and Fantasy Football. Show Notes at http://feelthefunc.com

Critical Thinking and Dissent is a Requirement

michael.neel@gmail.com (Michael C. Neel) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:59:24 GMT

So the fires continue to burn, as Joel Spolsky’s internet access hasn’t been disconnected. For someone who is supposed to be an idiot and irrelevant, a lot of people still read and link to him. I guess one guy is corrupting all the new developers, who are assumed to be reading Joel’s every word but in reality these developers probably didn’t know he existed until all these people linked to him saying he was wrong.

The lastest outrage seems to be this question on Stack Overflow: Why do I need an IoC container as opposed to straightforward DI code?

Now, before we get into the flames, let’s take a moment to actually look at the real question. The use and benefits of Dependency Injection are not in question – not even by Joel. The author has taken time to use the currently popular IoC and DI frameworks for his platform. He is looking to understand the trade offs involved with using a framework and having to train his co-workers, and increasing the number of project dependencies. Now, Joel’s response included:

The most valuable benefit of using an IoC container is that you can have a configuration switch in one place which lets you change between, say, test mode and production mode. For example, suppose you have two versions of your database access classes... one version which logged aggressively and did a lot of validation, which you used during development, and another version without logging or validation that was screamingly fast for production. It is nice to be able to switch between them in one place. On the other hand, this is a fairly trivial problem easily handled in a simpler way without the complexity of IoC containers.

Of course, we will ignore this sane and rational portion and focus on the one line zingers like:

I'm with you, Vadim. IoC containers take a simple, elegant, and useful concept, and make it something you have to study for two days with a 200-page manual.

...

I believe that if you use IoC containers, your code becomes, frankly, a lot harder to read. The number of places you have to look at to figure out what the code is trying to do goes up by at least one. And somewhere in heaven an angel cries out.

Never underestimate the power of developers to focus on a leaf in the middle of a forest. In my view, this forest is using a framework versus using a pattern. You could have DI by using Ninject (which I highly recommend to anyone looking for a DI framework), or you could roll your own DI (which I do quite commonly).

To many, these are mutually exclusive options and that one choice is always better. This violates a core tenet of Agile – that we embrace change. Each project should have a discussion if a framework is right for that project and that the decision is not permanent. This extends beyond DI/IoC to every framework or line of code in the project – is it better to use an existing solution or roll our own? There is no universal right answer here except “It Depends”.

Critical thinking and dissent on your team is a requirement for success. If everyone accepts conventional wisdom (or worse, internet wisdom) without question, you might as hang up a sign that reads “because it’s always done that way.”

East TN .Net Users Group

2009-10-05T09:00:39.000Z

I will be attending East TN .Net Users Group! When: Tue Sep 29, 2009 6pm to Tue Sep 29, 2009 9pm EDT

XNA: From Concept to Cash

You've heard that the last 10% of a project is where you spend 90% of your time? No where is that more true than in game development, where "polish" is an official phase of development! Ben Farmer of Cyragon, LLC, along with Dylan Wolf and Michael Neel of FuncWorks, LLC will discuss what it takes to create an XNA game for sale on Microsoft's

FeelTheFunc: EP 24: Happy FuncDay Dylan!

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:55:54 GMT

We take a week off to celebrate Dylan's Birthday. Show Notes at http://feelthefunc.com

FeelTheFunc: EP 23: The Kewlniss Func

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:45:23 GMT

In this episode Mike sits down and talks with XNA MVP and author Chad Carter. Show notes at http://feelthefunc.com

Being a Duct Tape Programmer

michael.neel@gmail.com (Michael C. Neel) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:26:44 GMT

Things I’ve said in a session before:

“Friends don’t let friends ORM”

“ORM is a pattern, not a framework”

“I like typed datasets, and I cannot lie”

It’s not that I’m anti-ORM, or believe popular ones like NHibernate, Linq2Sql, and EF are useless (okay, maybe EF is). It’s the mindset that you need an ORM Framework bloating your app from the start. It’s the common:

“Hey, new project!” “Awesome, which ORM should we use!” – WTF!?!

While I’m busy loosing friends and respect, I’ll state this is an “anti-agile pattern” – if you were truly agile and doing iterative development, there isn’t a whole bunch of plumbing to write at once. SQL isn’t hard, and is too important to performance to let a tool codegen it for you. ORM frameworks encourage data-driven design, leading to a database friendly UX.

Last night I read The Duct Tape Programmer by Joel Spolsky and added Coders at Work to my Amazon queue (no Kindle edition, so they missed an impulse sale). I love this post and the description of a Duct Tape Programmer. I hate the term pragmatic – the word itself sounds academic, and I don’t think a pragmatist (another suspicious term) came up with it. I think the academics made up the word cause saying short sighted made them look bad. That’s really what many mean when they say “pragmatic” – Oh sure, he got the app out, but his code is awful, and he has tons of technical debt, and it will all have to be rewritten, and how far do you think an app like that can scale without an Enterprise Service Bus?, and I bet there isn’t even an Inversion of Control framework, and I know he doesn’t have good test coverage and any tests he does have are only integration tests, and...

The Duct Tape Programmer is driven by a different force than the Academic. The Duct Tape Programmer is looking at the release date, and only values stuff that gets the app working on that date. She would rather have 10 meetings with users than one meeting with a Systems Architect. She would tell you KISS when you asked if you should extract an interface for a single widget. She lives Agile and Lean on a subconscious level, because to her it’s just common sense.

Joel ended his post saying you can’t just be a Duct Tape Programmer. I’ll add to this - you can become one. Move your focus off the code to the app, and more importantly, the user. Expand your knowledge base horizontally – learn multiple languages, frameworks, systems. Do some raw socket programming, and write a graphics shader. Install Linux on a Sparc 10. Make an app for your mobile phone. Question the accepted wisdom, and be an old school hacker.

I’m off now to convince Cicelie (DragonTee.com) to design a “Duct Tape Programmer” t-shirt, in the meantime you can tell me why I’m wrong below. Don’t be shy, I’m used to it!

FeelTheFunc: EP 22: FuncBlocks Review

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:25:39 GMT

In this episode we discuss the status and remaining items for IncaBlocks. Show Notes at http://feelthefunc.com

FeelTheFunc: EP 21: Legal Func

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:37:03 GMT

In this episode we discuss the good and bad of Twitter, region blocks, and layers. Show Notes at http://feelthefunc.com

FeelTheFunc: EP 20: Func in Three Parts

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:21:21 GMT

In this episode we continue breaking in the new show format. Show notes at http://feelthefunc.com

FeelTheFunc: EP 19: I MAED A PODCAST W1TH Z0MB1E D3VS 1N1T!!1

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:06:08 GMT

In this episode we talk with James Silva of Ska Studios about XNA, Xbox Indie Games, and his latest game I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 Show Notes at http://feelthefunc.com

Book Review: Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod

michael.neel@gmail.com (Michael C. Neel) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:36:19 GMT

For the impatient, or those who trust my word completely, I highly recommend reading Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod.

Still reading?

Okay – Hugh MacLeod is one of those marketing Web 2.0 bloggers. He entered the world of internet fame with his post “how to be creative” (and that’s how I found him). He is an artist, whose chosen medium is drawing on the back of business cards. He gives away these for free, and you can even put them on the back of your business cards. Some of my favorites touch on agile, my ego, inspiration, Microsoft, Apple love, politics, and sex. you can check out many others (warning, this link will waste one or more hours of your day) here .

The book is really a distilled and edited version of Hugh’s blog posts of the years, and that is not a negative. The points are concise and well supported, reflecting how Hugh has refined his thoughts over the years. The book is also part auto-biographical, as Hugh explains his career and events that shaped his success. It is not a long or difficult read, but you will find your self stopping to ponder the words constantly.

A great video on some of the points covered in the book is on YouTube, and embedded below. Hugh didn’t have a hand in making this video, except for providing the content that inspired it.

RDU Code Camp

2009-08-28T12:28:14.000Z

I will be attending RDU Code Camp! When: Sat Sep 19, 2009

I will be speaking at the RDU Code Camp
http://codecamp.org/

Lucene: Search We Can Believe In!
Disappointed in your database's full text search? Too slow, or did the end users not grok the syntax? Maybe you need full text search over content not in a database. Wouldn't it be nice if you could download a GIAB (Google-in-a-box)? Well, thanks to the Apache Foundation's open source Lucene you can! The session will give an intro to the Lucene API (available in many flavors, including .Net and Java) as well as some tips on using Lucene in your websites and applications.

FeelTheFunc: EP 18: Func Reloaded

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:02:57 GMT

In this episode we introduce a new format, including Dylan on SharePoint, Mike's Target of the Week, and Cicelie's Audio Scribbles. Show Notes at http://feelthefunc.com

DevLink 2009 – Good News Everyone!

michael.neel@gmail.com (Michael C. Neel) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:14:03 GMT

DevLink 2009 has come and gone. Thanks to the hard work of John Kellar and crew it was once again awesome. John and DevLink were the inspiration for CodeStock, and this year managing a 3 Day event with 730+ attendees proved he’s still the master and I’m the padawan apprentice (whether I’m following the light or dark side is a up for debate).

The conference overall ran smoothly. I would have liked Open Spaces to run all three days instead of just two, but I’m an Open Spaces junkie. On the second day the caterers, McAlister's Deli, brought only 400 boxed lunches and had to go back to get the rest. I still find this amusing and I’m smiling as I write this, being a conference organizer I know what it’s like to have a vendor drop the ball (at CodeStock, the printers forgot to put logos on the back and I found out the day before the conference). To be clear, it’s amusing when it happens to someone else, not to you.

I had the opportunity to record a great episode of Feel The Func with Jennifer Marsman and Brian H. Prince, discussing Azure, Give Camps, and women in technology. Jennifer and Brian are two very passionate Microsoft evangelists, and I’m lucky to be located in their region. For Azure, we focused more on the impact and befits of the technology, rather than the implementation to cover the “business side” of things – though a podcast of 3 developers can’t help but get into some implementation.

My talk, Lucene.Net: Search We Can Believe In, went much better than in Atlanta. I completely rebuilt the session around the concepts and usage, and focused less on the code – the opposite of the original talk which took a “code first” approach. More proof that the talk fits the topic, not the other way around.

There were several ideas and takeaways I have from the conference, which I keep in a list:

Speaking with Alan Stevens and others, an idea emerged for a variation of a GiveCamp where developers gather for a weekend, break into teams, select an open source project and then work on as many bugs / feature list items as they can. FYI, it’s quite common when talking with Alan that ideas emerge – highly recommended.
I got a number of ideas for handling SIGs (special interest groups) inside of an established user group community. From separate meeting nights to splitting the main meeting night into two parts (main time and SIG breakout time). What was common among all the community that have started SIGs was that both parts – the main group and the SIG – grew. It’s not a zero sum game.
I was recommend to check out mybadges.com by more than one person. Anything that makes conference registration better is a win. Josh Holmes also described his favorite idea - a “tag cloud” name badge – that we will look into for CodeStock 2010.
I got a good, hands on demo of Live Mesh and it’s features by Jeff Blankenburg. Some of the features of Live Mesh can solve some of the issues we have at FuncWorks sharing designer assets (developer use source controls, but designer tools rarely support any form of source control or content sharing).
Sara Ford, Project Manager for CodePlex, held an excellent open space on being an Agile project manager. I was impressed to learn the CodePlex source code is managed on an internal CodePlex site – the ultimate in dog fooding. Some key takeaways for me was it’s easier to add tasks to an interation than remove, so start off lean and that capacity planning is not needed and generally causes more problems than it solves.
In a lunch chat with Darrel Hawley I learned of the The Philosophy Podcast which covers classic philosophic works and also the meanings and interpretations behind the works and authors. Looking forward to adding this to the podcast rotation.
In the same lunch, I got the idea that maybe there is a talk I can give based on the book Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software. This came up because of a joke at a party involving little endian (yes, there were only geeks at the party, why do you ask?) and wondering how many developers would be interested in hearing about the history of code.
Last, while I didn’t manage to record a second podcast with Brian H. Prince on XNA and Creators Club, I got a good deal of feedback on some of our (FuncWorks) current games in development that lead to a much better interface revamp in one game. More on this as I blog more on my time in XNA and 3D.

Looking at the above, you see the great value I had in attending DevLink 2009. The big shows might be great for seeing what a vendor has coming out next and some condensed training, but you can’t beat the value of the community conference!

(ed: The main lobby was named “The Farnsworth Lobby” which should explain the title).

FeelTheFunc: EP 17: Azure Func Computing

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:38:33 GMT

Special guests Jennifer Marsman and Brian H. Prince talk about Azure, Give Camps, and Women in Technology. Show notes at http://feelthefunc.com

FeelTheFunc: EP 16: Herbal Func Remedy

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 03:23:59 GMT

In this episode we talk about our experiences with XNA and 3D, and the upcoming DevLink conference. Show notes at http://www.feelthefunc.com/

FeelTheFunc: EP 15: Under the Func

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:21:29 GMT

In this episode we discuss 3D modeling and using those model in XNA. Show notes at http://feelthefunc.com

DevLink

2009-07-29T01:49:42.000Z

I will be attending DevLink! When: Thu Aug 13, 2009 to Sat Aug 15, 2009

I will be speaking at DevLink!
http://devlink.net

Lucene: Search We Can Believe In!
Disappointed in your database's full text search? Too slow, or did the end users not grok the syntax? Maybe you need full text search over content not in a database. Wouldn't it be nice if you could download a GIAB (Google-in-a-box)? Well, thanks to the Apache Foundation's open source Lucene you can! The session will give an intro to the Lucene API (available in many flavors, including .Net and Java) as well as some tips on using Lucene in your websites and applications.

FeelTheFunc: EP 14: Indie Func

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:30:25 GMT

In this episode we discuss setting up the LLC, XNA news, and the Rock Band Network. Show notes at http://feelthefunc.com

FuncWorks First XNA Game – ROCS

michael.neel@gmail.com (Michael C. Neel) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:54:50 GMT

I’m really excited about the next FuncWorks project, ROCS. ROCS is short for Robotic Combatant, because in the future human combatants have been outlawed. Not too many of us left after the last world war, so we settle disputes in ROC Arenas. (Anyone who knows me, knows I love a theme!).

Dylan, Cicelie, and myself are total noobs to XNA and game development. ROCS will be a learning experience and journey for us all, and choosing to do a 3D game has added a few thousand miles to our path. The last few weeks I’ve spent figuring out how to take a 3D model from a graphics program and get it to the screen. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but to see something go from a sketch in Cicelie’s notebook to a charater I can control with a Xbox 360 controller has left me more exited about software development than I’ve been in years.

I took some time last night to make a small video of our progress, and upload it to vimeo. The video below is normal quality, but if you click through there is an HD version. If you want to follow us down this journey, check out our podcast FeelTheFunc.

The Naked Truth of Knoxville GiveCamp 2009

michael.neel@gmail.com (Michael C. Neel) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:19:01 GMT

This past weekend was a blowout of charity coding – Ann Arbor MI, Columbus OH, and Knoxville TN all had GiveCamp teams. Nathan Blevins was the lead for Knoxville, and once again led us to a huge success. Instead of writing about our charity and how we helped them, I want to tell you how we got there. This is the making of the software sausage…

Warning: The following content may not be suitable for all readers. Reader discretion is advised.

These aren’t the projects you’re looking for…

I arrived late the first night – stuck in the office Friday – but Nathan was kind enough to hold the kick off until I arrived. I was teamed with Alan Stevens, Cicelie Caulton, and Nathan Kelly. The first bit of news – one of our projects had been pulled and replaced with a new project. Nathan had spent a good chuck of time fleshing out project details for us, but we no longer were on that project. I started reading though the project documents and went into “MediaPulse Mode” (aka the inner software consultant kicked in). The project we were given was really three projects, and two of which were a scope that couldn’t be done in a weekend. Nathan got us the contact info and we setup a conference call between the team and the charity.

It’s all about expectations

If you’ve been a software consultant, you know that expectations are everything. If you hand something they didn’t expect, you have a meltdown. Our point of contact was very easy to work with though, and realized there was only so much we could do in a weekend. We got them key items wanted from him, and went into planning.

For the GiveCamp, AgileZen was provided. While Nathan was squaring away getting us access, we began to talk CMS systems. In the 2008 GiveCamp, several companies had donated licensed solutions, but I suppose the economy clamped down on that this year. DotNetNuke was mentioned, along with several horror stories of performance issues (some I have experienced). We considered some PHP options, like WordPress or Drupal, but not being PHP natives it would be unsure if we could execute a full project in a weekend (no fault of PHP). Community Server came up, as did SiteFinity, but we couldn’t find out if the licensing was okay from their web pages. Graffiti was also mentioned, but I know it has a single admin limit in the free version so it was out. At this point I recommended Oxite, the CMS project from Microsoft based on ASP.NET MVC.

Why yes, I had a few beers, why do you ask?

It Depends

Getting Oxite up and running is a feat in and of itself. The project has many dependencies, and the wonderful Microsoft Legal Team has made it so Oxite can’t include those (free, sometimes from Microsoft) dependencies in the download. Alan and Nathan K worked on getting the thing to build while I setup the database. By the end of the evening, Alan was able to build the project and checked it into source control. It was midnight, so we headed out feeling good about our progress. I didn’t get home until 2am, because I got my truck stuck in Nathan B’s driveway, but that’s not relevant.

Puppies!

Saturday morning we set out creating tasks in AgileZen for the project, and mocking up the site with Balsamiq. I cannot say enough great things about Balsamiq – in 30 minutes we had a solid plan and everyone was on the same page. We sent the mockups off to the charity, and Cicelie called to get approval. We even had a charity watching us work over ustream.tv and tweeting how exciting it was. The odd thing was the tweets implied we were working on their project, an animal shelter, and we started mentioning that and how it seemed odd. Then they started asking on twitter what was going on, since they were told we were their team. Web 2.0 got really awkward for us, so we snuck off camera to talk with Nathan B. The best answer I heard was that in Ann Arbor there was a board with post it notes and someone moved assignments around. Nathan forgot to look at the Ann Arbor board on his way to the Knoxville location, but we were cleared to remain on our charity.

Morning Regrets

Now that we started working with Oxite, we were starting to see it was going to take more work than initially expected. It appears one doesn’t install Oxite, then customize, but rather you customize Oxite source then install. Nothing wrong with this, but we had a tight deadline. We start running down the options from the previous night, and discovered SiteFinity would be okay for our needs – it’s not well advertised that there is a free version on the site.

Facebook API Sucks

Sorry, don’t have a witty title for this section, but it’s the truth: the Facebook API sucks. We decided to use Facebook for the events section of the website, since the charity wanted a Facebook page as well as a website. This seemed like an easy task – just pull in the event feed from Facebook, and show it on the website. I spent a few hours trying to figure out how to do this before realizing the real problem: you can’t. Facebook, I hate you even more, and I didn’t know I could.

Life is better when you share

We needed a webhost, as it looked like their current host wouldn’t run .Net or at least version 3.5. Verio had provided accounts for the GiveCamp, and we started to set one up. I noticed something odd from the start – our connection to the SQL Express database recommended integrated security. It also seemed this database lived on the same server as IIS, and many sites shared the same app pool. Remember this, it will be important later.

Getting connected to the database remotely was rough. This turned out to be something on our side of the network blocking the needed ports, but I was able to bounce off of a server in the cloud to get us working. We used the Database Publishing Wizard to dump a script of the local SiteFinity install, and I ran it on the Verio server, but SiteFinity still didn’t work. It was about 5pm Saturday, and we still didn’t have a working CMS. I drunk a full pot of coffee over the course of the day, and needed something stronger, so I tried a 5 Hour Energy shot.

5 Hour Energy Fail

About an hour later, I’m ready to fall asleep on my keyboard. I know how the 5 Hour Energy commercials talk about how much stuff they don’t put in their shot – well, they should put that stuff in because it doesn’t work. Nathan K. was able to help keep me focused and we figured out the issue with SiteFinity. Somehow the database publishing wizard only wrote 80% of the needed SQL, and our database wasn’t complete. No sweat, Nathan found a magic “rebuild all” switch in SiteFinity, and we went for that. It didn’t work.

The error was that certain objects existed in the database we needed to delete before running the rebuild all switch. This was interesting, because I had deleted everything from our database, did a select * from sys.objects to verify, and even tried selecting from the table in the error message. Something caught my eye in the error – the account reported started with “IPOOL_” and wasn’t the account we were given to connect to the database with remotely. Nathan K. was using the recommended by Verio connection string, which didn’t have a database specified.

Integrated Security + Shared App Pool = I don’t want to say.

Let’s hope the best case was we created a few extra tables in someone else’s database… worst case I don’t want to think about. Kids, don’t mix SQL Integrated Security and Shared App Pools. With our CMS working, and my 30 Minute Energy drink expiring, I headed home to sleep.

I didn’t know there was a 5am!

5am was the plan, but it was really 6am before I got going. Since Nathan B’s network had given us issue the day before, I decided to just skin the CMS from my house. Cicelie had emailed me the template from the night before, and I went to work. SiteFinity is skinned through a combination of Master Pages and ASP.NET Themes so I had no problem wiping out my ASPInsider/ASP.NET MVPness and going to work. In a few hours, I had skinned the CMS and headed of to meet up with the team.

Once we arrived, Cicelie went to work adding content, I fixed various CSS issues and setup some advanced pages like Events, and Nathan K. went to help the other team since we were pretty much ahead of plan. How the hell that happened with all the issues we had is beyond me, but it all came together quite well. There was some miscellaneous clean up, items like setting up Google Analytics, and then we were ready to show the charity.

SiteFinity Makes Us Look Awesome

Alan mentioned we should have Live Meeting accounts as MVPs and also for the local user group. Lo and behold, I had actually setup my Live Meeting access, and after getting some remote help we had an excellent connection between us and the charity to demo their new site. There were a few pieces we didn’t get the info on (like the Paypal info for a donate now button), so I showed how that could be completed. Then we got a question that could have ended badly – how to add another level of navigation.

No matter how much you plan, how great tools like Balsimiq Mockups are, there will always be something that isn’t known until you demo it for the client. Our navigation was flat, both on SiteFinity and in the design template. Nervously I showed how to add a page in SiteFinity as the child of an existing page, while wondering what the reaction was going to be to adding a subnav control, and configuring it properly. I knew the fact it didn’t hook into the main nav was going to be a question, and I didn’t have a good answer other than “I think it’s possible, but you’ll need to add it to the template and adjust the CSS” If they could do that, they wouldn’t have needed help in the GiveCamp!

After adding the page, I went to the public site and refreshed the page. I moved the mouse over the parent page’s nav link and to my delight, a javascript sub menu appeared with the child page and even did a good job picking up the CSS! “Oh wow, that’s amazing! That’s exactly what we need!” came over the PC speakers, and I looked Nathan K., who was just as surprised as I was, and said quietly, “we got lucky!”

Par for the course

You could look at all these issue and begin suggesting ways to improve the next GiveCamp. I’m sure there are a few things that can change, but I think these types of issues are just part of the GiveCamp. We cram an entire IT project, including budget overruns, project delays, and changing requirements into a weekend. The end is all that matters, and in the end we were able to help out a charity that needed us.

You can check out our charity and the site at Latino Family Services.

FeelTheFunc: EP 13: Farmer In The Func

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:30:11 GMT

In this episode we talk with Ben Farmer and Mike Cooper about game programming and XNA. Show notes at http://feelthefunc.com

FeelTheFunc: EP 12: MechaFunc

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:51:24 GMT

In this episode we talk about the launch of DragonTee and the next project for FuncWorks. Show Notes at http://feelthefunc.com

FeelTheFunc: EP 11: CodeStock - Running a Community Event Panel

podcast@feelthefunc.com (Cicelie, Dylan, and Mike) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:52:03 GMT

This episode was recorded at CodeStock 2009 during the Running a Community Event Panel. Show Notes at http://feelthefunc.com