BrettVeenstra.com http://brettveenstra.com Rants, Dreams, Recollections... on the Walk Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:08:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Bpointhttp://feedburner.google.comSubscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with PageflakesThis is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use. Certification Roadmap http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/XwgL8App3YI/ http://brettveenstra.com/2009/03/11/certification-roadmap/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:08:31 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://programmer.brettveenstra.com/?p=179 I’m finally sick of a few too many things:

  • Having certificates that are older than most of my children
  • Seeing the following Roadmap on my cube wall
  • Not moving forward on any of this

You may ask why of course, but I’ll leave that justification for another post.

So, the ultimate goal is MCPD: Enterprise Developer and MCITP: Database Developer 2008.

First, I must attain MCAD.NET status by passing:

Then, a “simple” All-In-One upgrade exam to attain MCPD: Enterprise Developer:

Then, I need two more exams:

If I have any energy left in the year, I’ll try to get my MCPD up to v2008 level by taking:

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]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2009/03/11/certification-roadmap/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2009/03/11/certification-roadmap/ Jeremy Camp – Speaking Louder Than Before Offer http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/8M5ZGD0w2QE/ http://brettveenstra.com/2009/01/10/jeremy-camp-speaking-louder-than-before-offer/#comments Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:33:24 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://brettveenstra.com/?p=335 Received an email this morning stating that the MP3 version of Jeremy Camp’s latest album is available this weekend for $5.

If you’re a fan, grab it here.

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2009/01/10/jeremy-camp-speaking-louder-than-before-offer/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2009/01/10/jeremy-camp-speaking-louder-than-before-offer/ Continuous Integration Gotcha: NAnt empty elements http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/gI5-Rej1A8Y/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/10/31/continuous-integration-gotcha-nant-empty-elements/#comments Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:43:05 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://programmer.brettveenstra.com/?p=168 For those of us using the TeamCity continuous integration tool, I ran across a gotcha this morning that I will forget very soon.

The problem

When running NAnt script on my local machine “in developer mode”, everything runs fine. However, once it goes to TeamCity, it puts up a general error:

Could not include build file ‘X:\teamcity-BuildAgent\work\684ab6ff82f1a29a\build\foo.core.build’. Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

In the end, my offending entry was:

<fileset id="cube.load.files">
  <!-- <include name="${build.mxl.dml.dir}\foo.mxl" asis="true"/> -->
</fileset>

Here’s my NAnt file pattern. I use a set of local.properties.xml for a development machine. I also create a buildserver.properties.xml for the TeamCity run. Then I create a “wrapper” NAnt file that includes both the CORE build script as well as the *.properties.xml file for the given environment.

This has worked very smoothly in the past so this morning it was rather frustrating to receive the error. The inspiration for this methodology was inspired by Jean-Paul’s excellent NAnt series. I highly encourage you to check it out.

Back to the problem… When running under TeamCity, I get a failure to include a build file, but everything works when running on a development machine.

The Solution

Remove EMPTY elements from the XML-formatted NAnt file (or close them using shorthand). For some reason, it looks as if TeamCity’s NAnt runner is parsing those files before sending them over to NAnt (guessing here).

And once I cleaned up this empty element, it worked! Interesting how this yet another reason why XML is the bane of developers.

<fileset id="cube.load.files" />

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]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/10/31/continuous-integration-gotcha-nant-empty-elements/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/10/31/continuous-integration-gotcha-nant-empty-elements/ Gotcha of inline Document Ready function for JQuery http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/iheCKfqxgjs/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/09/13/gotcha-of-inline-document-ready-function-for-jquery/#comments Sat, 13 Sep 2008 06:56:34 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://programmer.brettveenstra.com/?p=136 [...] ]]> I’ve had some reasons to use JQuery this week, and you should believe whatever good rumors and hype you’ve heard about this library. It’s amazing.

There are many benefits to a Javascript framework, particularly JQuery. Take this example that I put inside my <head> element:

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function(){

        $('#deliciouslogin').submit(function(){
            alert("This to authenticate with Delicious and start retrieving Bookmarks into Google Gears  database");
        })

    });
</script>

This is the “Document Ready” function. This solves the problem of running your Javascript code before your page is done rendering on the browser. Also note how easy it is to hookup an “onsubmit” event handler. You use CSS-selectors to identify what HTML element(s) to apply to, and JQuery does the rest, figuring out the best way to accomplish that regardless of your browser. Great fun.

My elation quickly disappeared when I fired this sample up in FireFox 3, nothing happened when my <form>’s submit button was triggered. Frustrated, I quickly tried it in Safari (Mac), it worked fine. I switched to the PC and grumpy IE6, and again, no luck. So what’s going on?

It turns out that the inline JavaScript will be ignored if you close the element just prior in your <head> section with the shorthand closetag “/>”.

This doesn’t work:

<script type="text/javascript" src="lib/jquery/jquery.js" />
<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function(){
        // blah
        })
    });
</script>

This does work:

<script type="text/javascript" src="lib/jquery/jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function(){
        // blah
        })
    });
</script>

Hopefully I will remember this in the future, as this is now the second time in two days I’ve wasted an hour or more wondering why my Javascript wasn’t activated.

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]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/09/13/gotcha-of-inline-document-ready-function-for-jquery/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/09/13/gotcha-of-inline-document-ready-function-for-jquery/ PhotoWalking – Metro Detroit – September 21 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/TlsTrgcyEpE/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/09/07/photowalking-metro-detroit-september-21/#comments Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:11:12 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://brettveenstra.com/?p=321 Mark your calendars for Sunday, September 21 from 4:00 – 8:00pm. We’ll be meeting in Ann Arbor at “The QuadDiag”. The QuadDiag is the large walk area just in front of the main library. Grab parking where you can find it and meet up with us. We’ll start walking at 4:15, and we should have a sunset around 7:00pm.

I’ve posted a central page with full details here.

UPDATE: Ashamed as a U of M Alumn that I mixed up my Quad and Diag terms. We’re meeting in the Diag (don’t step on the M!).

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/09/07/photowalking-metro-detroit-september-21/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/09/07/photowalking-metro-detroit-september-21/ Response to Readability http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/xaaa-2qesN0/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/08/28/response-to-readability/#comments Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:48:04 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://programmer.brettveenstra.com/?p=95 () .then<initialize_the_container_for_the_user_interface>() .then<initialize_the_user_interface_registry>() .then<initialize_the_ui_images_registry>() .then<initialize_the_main_menus>() .execute(); Here are my humble [...]]]> JP put out another post requesting comments on a Readable (Fluent) approach he’s currently using. I tried to leave a comment, but the system wouldn’t accept anything I used for the captcha… so here goes:

JP writes:


  Run.the<wire_up_global_error_handling>()
   .then<initialize_the_container_for_the_user_interface>()
   .then<initialize_the_user_interface_registry>()
   .then<initialize_the_ui_images_registry>()
   .then<initialize_the_main_menus>()
   .execute();

Here are my humble comments: + “Run” & “execute” seems redundant + The underscores are nice to look at but CamelCasing is also easy to read (for me), and easier to type … I suppose if you’re using your AutoHotKey ninja tricks like JP does, this would be minimum overhead.

So, for the full comparison in code: 


  Start.by<wireUpGlobalErrorHandling>()
   .and<initializeTheContainerForTheUserInterface>()
   .and<initializeTheUserInterfaceRegistry>()
   .and<initializeTheUiImagesRegistry>()
   .finally<initializeTheMainMenus>();

Hopefully JP gets this via a trackback.

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/08/28/response-to-readability/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/08/28/response-to-readability/ Resharper 4.0 Release Candidate Available http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/ae4GChQ8BRo/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/06/05/resharper-40-release-candidate-available/#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:47:13 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://brettveenstra.com/?p=88 JetBrains has just posted their Release Candidate for Resharper 4.0.

I’m excited to see this and already have my C# tax ($99) lined up for it’s official release!

I’m officially a convert from the CodeRush/Refactor Pro camp… I just found Resharper more discoverable than CodeRush.  CodeRush definitely has a slicker UI, but Resharper lets me work more like myself (renames/namespaces/interface-based architecture) in Visual Studio.

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/06/05/resharper-40-release-candidate-available/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/06/05/resharper-40-release-candidate-available/ May Challenge – 2/2 Up – Mustang http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/DPYU9LhMiec/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/05/08/may-challenge-22-up-mustang/#comments Thu, 08 May 2008 06:27:18 +0000 Admin http://brettveenstra.com/?p=87 I just had to take a shot of the classic Mustang badge. Enjoy. PhotoChallenge #3 - Tired Gnome A little tweaking in PhotoShop CS3 and we can take an 8MB file and turn it into 80MB, that’s progress!

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/05/08/may-challenge-22-up-mustang/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/05/08/may-challenge-22-up-mustang/ April PhotoChallenge #3 Up http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/pRVqfnq29WQ/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/04/03/april-photochallenge-3-up/#comments Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:50:42 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://brettveenstra.com/?p=84 I found this lonely old Lawn Gnome that I just had to snap a photo for Trevor’s April PhotoChallenge.

PhotoChallenge #3 - Tired Gnome

Plus, it gave me an excuse to play with the new beta of LightRoom!

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/04/03/april-photochallenge-3-up/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/04/03/april-photochallenge-3-up/ Utterances: Kathy http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/fWfQYlTRAyM/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/25/utterances-kathy/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:53:27 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://brettveenstra.com/?p=81 Kathy: “Man, that is a lot of hair.”

20080223-LydiasNewHaircut-7435

Apparently Lydia liked my recent haircut so much she decided to copycat. 20080223-LydiasNewHaircut-7436

Special thanks to the hair-savings skills of Aunt Linda.

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/25/utterances-kathy/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/25/utterances-kathy/ Surviving the Technological Future http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/wOQd3kd7Z4g/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/21/surviving-the-technological-future/#comments Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:22:11 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://brettveenstra.com/?p=82 My bud’s over at Geeks and God pointed me to this awesome video below.

Jon makes a great followup to something Rob and MF already commented on for unplugging, and being there when you’re with real people, not your virtual friends.

He also makes some resolutions about going “natural”, and finding a way to completely disconnect using nature. I wish him well in this endeavor, must past my estimated endurance of 3 days.

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/21/surviving-the-technological-future/feed/ 1 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/21/surviving-the-technological-future/ Multiple Views (redux) http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/ituqkejJyAM/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/19/multiple-views-redux/#comments Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:01:51 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://journeymantomaster.wordpress.com/?p=102 Jeremy posted an article on retrieving filtered results on collections, using the perennial Animal kingdom example. Great post.

As I was looking at this again, it just started looking “smelly”. First thought, can we do this cleaner with Generics?

public IEnumerable<AnimalType> AnimalsList<AnimalType>() where AnimalType:class

{

foreach (IAnimal animal in _animals)

{

AnimalType testAnimal = animal as AnimalType;

if (testAnimal != null)

yield return testAnimal;

}

}

Oh yeah… generics are just the coolest thing.

But, this still smelled to me (I didn’t like all the filter code inside the function). Sprinkling some functional programming goodness (thank you Dustin), it turned into this.

public delegate bool FilterAnimalPredicate(System.Type type);

/// snip

public IEnumerable AnimalList(FilterAnimalPredicate filter)

{

foreach (IAnimal animal in _animals)

{

if (filter(animal.GetType()))

{

yield return animal;

}

}

}

Admittedly, I have cheated … we are no longer using a Property, and hence the unit tests had to change. But I’d take this approach as it feels much cleaner.

Thanks again to Jeremy for sparking this post.

Here’s the final Test Code:

using System;

using System.Collections;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using MbUnit.Framework;

namespace MultipleIterators.Test

{

[TestFixture]

public class ZooTest

{

private static bool IsElephant(System.Type type)

{

return (type is Elephant);

}

private static bool IsZebra(System.Type type)

{

return (type is Zebra);

}

[Test]

public void Can_add_elephants_to_the_zoo()

{

Zoo zoo = new Zoo();

zoo.AddAnimal(new Elephant());

int animalCounter = 0;

foreach (IAnimal animal in zoo.Animals)

animalCounter++;

Assert.AreEqual(1, animalCounter);

}

[Test]

public void Can_add_zebras_to_the_zoo()

{

Zoo zoo = new Zoo();

zoo.AddAnimal(new Zebra());

int animalCounter = 0;

foreach (IAnimal animal in zoo.Animals)

animalCounter++;

Assert.AreEqual(1, animalCounter);

}

[Test]

public void Can_get_just_the_zebras_out_of_the_zoo()

{

Zoo zoo = new Zoo();

zoo.AddAnimal(new Zebra());

zoo.AddAnimal(new Elephant());

foreach (Zebra zebra in zoo.AnimalsList<Zebra>())

Assert.IsTrue(zebra is Zebra);

}

[Test]

public void Can_get_just_the_elephants_out_of_the_zoo()

{

Zoo zoo = new Zoo();

zoo.AddAnimal(new Zebra());

zoo.AddAnimal(new Elephant());

foreach (Elephant elephant in zoo.AnimalsList<Elephant>())

Assert.IsTrue(elephant is Elephant);

}

[Test]

public void Can_get_just_the_elephants_out_of_the_zoo_using_predicate()

{

Zoo zoo = new Zoo();

zoo.AddAnimal(new Zebra());

zoo.AddAnimal(new Elephant());

foreach (Elephant elephant in zoo.AnimalList(IsElephant))

Assert.IsTrue(elephant is Elephant);

}

}

}

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/19/multiple-views-redux/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/19/multiple-views-redux/ Utterances: Connor http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/RENdjdJvSyw/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/19/utterances-connor-2/#comments Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:25:24 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://brettveenstra.com/?p=80 Dad: “Connor, would you like me to make you a hot chocolate?”

Connor: “No way Dad, I like my hot cocoa old school ya know? A little milk, some chocolate syrup and then I pop it in the microwave!”

Here’s to the new old school.

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/19/utterances-connor-2/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/19/utterances-connor-2/ How long would you last? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/ly3ErnZzXos/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/14/how-long-would-you-last/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:00:12 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://brettveenstra.com/?p=79 The Today Show released a video to YouTube on how addicted we are in America. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmEErhy7AIc

MF wrote about the same thing, in a different perspective.

I think I could last a weekend, and the day after.

How about you?

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/14/how-long-would-you-last/feed/ 1 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/14/how-long-would-you-last/ Brrr… http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/1p7yQJ6VckE/ http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/14/brrr/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:00:46 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://brettveenstra.com/?p=78 Happy Valentine’s Day!

Man I’m sick of cold already…

  High / Low (°F) Precip. %
Today Feb 14 Mostly Cloudy 31°/20° 20 %
Fri Feb 15 AM Snow Showers 19°/2° 30 %
Sat Feb 16 Partly Cloudy 20°/19° 0 %
Sun Feb 17 Snow 31°/28° 70 %
Mon Feb 18 Snow Shower 28°/10° 50 %
Tue Feb 19 Few Snow Showers 14°/13° 30 %
Wed Feb 20 Snow Shower 28°/19° 40 %
Thu Feb 21 Scattered Snow Showers 31°/26° 40 %
Fri Feb 22 Rain / Snow 36°/29° 60 %
Sat Feb 23 Rain / Snow Showers 35°/32° 60 %
One more month… one more month… until we get something like…
High / Low (°F) Precip. %
Today Feb 14 Sunny 75°/52° 10 %
Fri Feb 15 Mostly Sunny 83°/61° 20 %
Sat Feb 16 Partly Cloudy 83°/64° 0 %
Sun Feb 17 Isolated T-Storms 83°/66° 30 %
Mon Feb 18 T-Showers 79°/52° 50 %
Tue Feb 19 Mostly Sunny 70°/51° 10 %
Wed Feb 20 Partly Cloudy 78°/54° 10 %
Thu Feb 21 Partly Cloudy 80°/60° 10 %
Fri Feb 22 Mostly Sunny 81°/61° 20 %
Sat Feb 23 Mostly Sunny 82°/61° 20 %
]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/14/brrr/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2008/02/14/brrr/ Photo(solo)walk – Florida http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/h8lNME-W6sw/ http://brettveenstra.com/2007/12/10/photosolowalk-florida/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:53:19 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://brettveenstra.com/?p=77 20071119-FLA-PhotoWalk-4525.jpg

We spent Thanksgiving in Florida, and I was lucky enough to break away one morning to find some shots. I need to finish the edits and I’ll put some more up soon!

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2007/12/10/photosolowalk-florida/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2007/12/10/photosolowalk-florida/ Vista SP1 – seeking users http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/G4_aGyVjnxc/ http://brettveenstra.com/2007/12/04/vista-sp1-seeking-users/#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:22:34 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://journeymantomaster.wordpress.com/2007/12/04/vista-sp1-seeking-users/ I’m not sure if I’ll ever run VISTA in this decade… I haven’t even played with the beta’s… I recommend to friends and family to keep their Windows XP disk around.

Why?  There are so many reasons, but maybe one of the biggies might be coming to an end…

Ed Bott of ZD Net is reporting that Service Pack 1 (SP1) of VISTA next year will not include the “kill switch”. You knew this one right?  If you do not activate VISTA in time, some functionality stops working… this gets more interesting if you’re not connected to the ‘net or experience a glitch.

I don’t know how much more evidence one might need to conclude that Microsoft’s latest operating system is not really hitting it’s mark, regardless of the hype otherwise.

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2007/12/04/vista-sp1-seeking-users/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2007/12/04/vista-sp1-seeking-users/ Storage in the cloud – JungleDisk.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/ugerRyO0jv8/ http://brettveenstra.com/2007/11/09/storage-in-the-cloud-junglediskcom/#comments Fri, 09 Nov 2007 05:16:30 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://journeymantomaster.wordpress.com/2007/11/09/storage-in-the-cloud-junglediskcom/ 20070901-IMG_0598.jpgThese are exciting times and another idea turned gold is Jungle Disk. A cross-platform Amazon S3 interface for remote storage. They setup a WebDAV service on your machine that runs their bits to encrypt and transmit your files up to Amazon’s S3 service.

Never heard of S3? Neither had I until visiting the Day of .NET in Arbor this past October. I happened to catch the tail end of Joe Klunk’s “Storage (and more) in the Cloud” session. He built a quick .NET application to push files up to Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3). Now that wasn’t mind blowing as I had done WebDAV operations back in the heady days of ASP, “classic”. What was mind blowing was the price for storage: $0.15 USD, per month, per GIG-a-byte.

Now the folks at JungleDisk has just made a program that even our mother’s can use to properly backup their systems. It’s a great connected world!

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2007/11/09/storage-in-the-cloud-junglediskcom/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2007/11/09/storage-in-the-cloud-junglediskcom/ First real day of snow… http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/Q-fYgve9SlA/ http://brettveenstra.com/2007/11/08/first-real-day-of-snow/#comments Fri, 09 Nov 2007 03:26:04 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://brettveenstra.com/?p=76 Yeah, there was real snow today… so Fall is really here and summer is gone. In memory, I found this photo as we look forward to another spring… Lonely Backstop (lonely backstop)

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2007/11/08/first-real-day-of-snow/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2007/11/08/first-real-day-of-snow/ Epic Edits – Top Photography Blogs http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bpoint/~3/QIw7o7MlRAI/ http://brettveenstra.com/2007/11/08/epic-edits-top-photography-blogs/#comments Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:53:24 +0000 Brett Veenstra http://brettveenstra.com/?p=75 20071028-Northville-3554.jpgEpic Edits posted a fine list of photography blog sites. I’ve already added many of the top 10 to my Google Reader.

Many of these sites are new to me and very informative and inspirational.

Do you have any sites that give you inspiration?

]]> http://brettveenstra.com/2007/11/08/epic-edits-top-photography-blogs/feed/ 0 http://brettveenstra.com/2007/11/08/epic-edits-top-photography-blogs/