Branch outside computer science
Frequently, I have budding developers ask me about college and computer science degrees. Whereas most developers I work with have a computer science degree, I do not. I have a degree in astronomy...
View ArticleDon’t forget a key member of your audience
Sorry for the delayed post. This theme has been in my head for two weeks, but work and life have been busy between the Thanksgiving holidays and ensuing shopping season. I got a call from my wife one...
View ArticleSimple communication failure and success
Just witnessed this Scrummaster: Hey QA Guy, just wanted to check with you about the order of the cards in the QA Ready column. QA Guy: Yeah, I see you keep moving cards around and I keep putting this...
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Visual code coverage tools
(I’ve been quiet a few months, but not for lack of topics, and I have kept notes. There may be a sudden blast of posts as I catch up.) Such a simple concept. Automated tests and code coverage...
View ArticleSome good reading
Recent articles that passed across my monitor: On the subject of when and what to test, Derick Bailey’s post, On Testing “Trivial Code,” spawned further reading from Jimmy Bogard (When should you...
View ArticleRestricting downloads in WordPress on Lighttpd
Here’s the scenario: you have a WordPress site with a collection of files that need to be protected to only authenticated users. The site is not super high security, but you want a basic obstacle. All...
View ArticleCreating WordPress users in bulk
On one of the WordPress sites I maintain, I found myself needing to create about 50 users. With a quick search, I found the needed functions are wp_create_user and wp_new_user_notification. However,...
View ArticleCreating TDD monsters
I get solicited for advice frequently by budding software engineers. ”How do I start?” ”Can you recommend a book?” “What language should I learn?” As a homeschool family, I had a large impact on the...
View ArticleSo You Want to Learn SQL…
I had a request from a new QA at the office to mentor him in the fine art of SQL. Since most query requests come from marketing folks, I decided to open up the session to anyone interested and quickly...
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So You Want to Learn SQL… Session 1
Here is a summary of today’s session. The Goal To be able to write 90% of your own queries Not to be a DBA All of our topics apply well to MS SQL Server (TSQL), MySQL, Oracle PSQL, Access, DB2,...
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So You Want to Learn SQL… Session 2
Review Homework Answer For orders in July of 2008, list the territory IDs, average total sale and number of sales per territory ID, sorted by best to worst sales SELECT TerritoryID AS ID, AVG(TotalDue)...
View ArticleCurrent State of Azure’s Preview AutoScale
Today at the Austin Code Camp, Aaron Murray and I gave a presentation on our experience with Azure’s AutoScale which is in preview. Take a look at our slides.
View ArticleMoving the sessionState connection string to a separate config file
Typically, the sessionState for SQL is specified in the web.config something like this: <sessionState mode="SQLServer" sqlConnectionString="Data Source=dbserver;User Id=username;Password=password"...
View ArticleSo You Want to Learn SQL… Session 3
Homework Answers List AOV per credit card type and country region code for July, 2008. Drop rows with statistically irrelevant results, i.e. less than 10. Sort by card type, AOV descending, then...
View ArticleSo You Want to Learn SQL… Session 4
Homework Answers Generate a list of products that have a bill of material, stating each subcomponent and the quantity used. You should use the Production.BillOfMaterials table and create a human...
View ArticleSo You Want to Learn SQL… Final Session
As mentioned in the previous session, this is the last issue of this series. Even though I could continue with more rarely used SQL features, I feel the content presented meets the stated goal. Here...
View ArticleThanks, LinkedIn, but no thanks
LinkedIn has been really pushing their new premium service. I have not subscribed, mostly because it is not a trivial amount of money, but a lot of recruiters have because I am now getting pounded with...
View ArticleUpgraded to Windows 8.1, what am I installing?
I have been running Windows 8.1 Preview since it was released. It is a nice improvement over the original version. Of course, with the upgrade to the official release, I have to reinstall all of my...
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Azure SDK DFInit fails for usernames with a space
I was moving some of my dev projects to a new computer today. Usual procedure: pull down source from repository, open in VS and do a sanity build. Well, my Azure based project kicked off the Azure SDK...
View ArticleWhat metrics to collect in a Scrum Sprint cycle
I recently joined PureWRX as CTO. PureWRX is a very new company which that means I am building out the technology team and all of the processes that accompany the team. I’m a big believer in the...
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