Riaan's Blog

Irony

riaan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:18:00 GMT

I find this a very interesting project.

Irony is a framework created by Roman Ivantsov and used to write internal DSLs or entire new languages that run on .NET, the grammar being written in C#.

Irony, a CodePlex project, allows one to create a new language by specifying its grammar directly in C#. The framework generates the scanner and the parser making the job of creating a new compiler considerably easier.

Read more on InfoQ - http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/11/Irony

WPF Memory Leaks

riaan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:03:00 GMT

Below is a link to an InfoQ article on some serious WPF leaks. Good to know info if you are using WPF for UI.

http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/10/WPF-Memory-Leak

WOA as benchmark for SOA

riaan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:57:00 GMT

Web-Oriented Arrchitecture is more and more becoming part of the everyday lives of architects, companies and developers. In this article WOA get used to help solve some of SOA’s issues.

http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/10/SOAWOA

New Features and Performance Improvements for System.IO

riaan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:02:00 GMT

Microsoft has just announced some changes to the System.IO class, including changes to the File object. Read more at InfoQ - http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/10/System-IO

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 SP1

riaan — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:33:00 GMT

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is an update for BizTalk Server 2006 R2. It includes fixes to issues that have been reported through our customer feedback platforms, as well as internally discovered issues.

It is available for download on the Microsoft Connect site to any customers that sign in to that site with their Live ID. Any feedback or issues you encounter can be reported here.
To see a listing of the customer-reported issues that are fixed in this service pack, click here.
For a description of some of the other updates included in this service pack, see What's new in BizTalk Server 2006 R2 SP1. For a list of of BizTalk Server hot fixes that are included in BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Service Pack 1 Beta click here.

Original post - http://blogs.msdn.com/biztalk_server_team_blog/archive/2009/10/12/announcing-biztalk-server-2006-r2-service-pack-1-beta.aspx

Some BizTalk Goodies

riaan — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:54:00 GMT

Here is some cool BizTalk Server goodies.

The first link is to an article with links to some Vision Stencils to use when designing BizTalk related solutions - http://connectedthoughts.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/visio-icons-for-biztalk-server/

The second link is to a blog post linking to some BizTalk "how to's" and posters - http://blogs.digitaldeposit.net/saravana/post/2009/10/01/BizTalk-Videos-and-Posters.aspx

The Pomodoro Technique

riaan — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:24:00 GMT

While browsing the web this morning I came across this Agile like management technique - http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/. While I don't think is going to revolutionize Agile practises, I do find it a worthwhile technique in self management. Go have a look for yourself.

Biztalk Adapter Or Tools and Utility Packs

riaan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:14:00 GMT

As a consultant on Integration platforms and Architecture I have been asked to build custom tools and utilities specifically for Microsoft's BizTalk Server. As a result I am now offering custom Adapter and custom Tools and Utilities development packs for clients. These packs included the following:

Adapter pack
--------------------

Custom adapter with installer
Source code
3 hours free support
10 Hours support at R450 per hour

Delivery time depends on specification provided by client

Tool and utility pack
----------------------------
Custom tool and or utility with installer
Source code
3 hours free support
10 hours support at R450 per hour

Delivery time depends on specification provided by client

For more information, please contact me riaan@riaansnyders.co.za

Twitter

riaan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:25:00 GMT

I can now be followed on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/riaansnyders

SOA being more formalized?

riaan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:21:00 GMT

In my daily readings I came across this post on Infoq - http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/09/spec-soa. According to the article SOA is in the process of being spec'd and the organization running with this task is asking us - the community (from all software backgrounds) - to give input. Formalizing SOA is certainly going to help with implementation strategies and design and hopefully it is going to help to clear the fact to companies that SOA is not Web Services.

Let's watch this space and see what come of this process

Bugs in scrum projects

riaan — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:16:00 GMT

In this InfoQ article some different approaches to handling bugs in a SCRUM / Agile project get discussed. My opinion is to add bugs found in the current sprint as a new sprint. In other words, each sprint will have a "bug sprint" following the actual development.

http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/07/coping-with-bugs;jsessionid=01BF97B60BBE85AA1D120AFC02243317

post also at www.riaansnyders.co.za

BizTalk 2009 WebCast Series

riaan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:55:00 GMT

Mick Badran and a couple of BizTalk experts has create a series of webcasts on BizTalk 2009. The full post around the series can be read here:

http://blogs.breezetraining.com.au/mickb/2009/07/08/UnofficalLaunchOfTheBizTalk2009LightAndEasyWebCastSeries

Post also at www.riaansnyders.co.za

Self Organizing Teams

riaan — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:16:00 GMT

In the world of software development team work is essential. Very few ever get to work in a team. With team work, the importance of that team to manage themselfs has also become more of a requirement. This InfoQ article - http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/07/self-organization-success-factor - highlights some of the factors making a great self organized team. The importance of this article for me, is the concept of letting the team really organize them selfs - let them do what they have to do to get the job done. But there need to be some management - the management of possible failure. To me a self organizing team has to have a manager or leader looking after business needs. The manager or leader can not be a seperate over looking entity, but must be a working member of the team.

Post also at www.riaansnyders.co.za

Focus from SOA to just "Services"

riaan — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:47:00 GMT

Interesting read on the possible death of SOA and the move to just Services. This post from Burton Group:

http://apsblog.burtongroup.com/2009/01/soa-is-dead-long-live-services.html

WSCF Blue In Beta

riaan — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:41:00 GMT

The WSCF-Blue tool ( succesor to the WSCF tool) is now available in beta from CodePlex. Read more:

http://santoshbenjamin.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/wscf-blue-beta-1/