Ever came across an ASP.NET error page because of a missing configuration entry? Been faced with the question “shouldn’t we at least catch the exception and log it? Just to make sure?” or some statement like “you should catch every exception and throw a new one”? Stumbled over the notorious catch-all or a class whose methods all do exception handling a bit differently? Well, those are symptoms of a missing error management strategy.

It’s actually quite frustrating how often that happens. What’s more, many developers don’t even notice that there is something amiss; they’re quite content dealing with exception on a method by method basis, without taking the bigger picture into account. Or they are very well aware that there is something amiss, but they don’t get it. They know they have to do something, so they set out to do a bit here, a bit there, but not with a clear goal in mind, nothing consistent, only aiming to treat the symptoms and quite regularly overdoing it.

I really don’t remember what first brought the analogy with baseball, of all things, to my mind. Perhaps it was the notion that ‘try’, ‘catch’ and ‘throw’ could be outcries during some ball game, combined with my lack of understanding of baseball (a bit stretching, but that’s how mind twists work). Perhaps it was the idea that many developers do exception handling like they would play baseball if they had never heard of the game.

Stretching or not, that analogy is something I can work with. (And my apologies to everyone who loves and understands that game for everything that follows! )

A Quick Evaluation of … Baseball.

Baseball, like all games has rules. Rules that put the various players into roles they have to fulfill. Most importantly, rules you have to learn if you want to play along. Some are fairly basic “mechanics” of the game: The pitcher throws in the general direction of the batter and the catcher does what his title implies (or so wikipedia tells me).
Some rules are obvious by looking at the game: If the batter hits that ball, he drops the bat and runs, while those guys on the field are trying to catch the ball.
Some rules are rather convoluted and you may have to study some booklet to grasp them; like what the hell is an inning and how do they determine who is winning?

That’s about as much as I understand about baseball. But then, would I want to play baseball, I knew I had a lot to learn before even thinking of entering the field. What rules apply to pitching. What roles do those guys on the field have, what are their responsibilities. How to score points. When to move on to the next round. When does the game end. Under what conditions do the rules change. What is considered foul play and when does it lead to aborting the game.

And this is a surprisingly similar situation to exception handling… . Except that many who play that game play it as if there isn’t even the need for rules, much less asked for them (or have been told about them – which is telling something, too).

Back to Exceptions

The mechanics of exceptions revolve around try/catch/throw and the implied syntax, exception hierarchies, and understanding the runtime behavior. Knowing that much can be expected from every developer and is usually not an issue at all. It is however only just the mechanics, and merely a starting point to proper exception handling.

In the same way the current situation in a game does play a role in baseball (e.g. the batter’s decisions on whether to play safely or to take some risk), the location and situation of a particular code fragment plays a role in the decision on what to do with regard to exceptions. Dealing with them only in the scope of the current code fragment is simply too shortsighted. One has to ask about the overall application strategy to exception handling and how that respective fragment fits into that strategy.

The caveat is: You have to have such a strategy. And defining that strategy should be part of coming up with an application architecture. Yes, exception handling is an architectural topic, not a coding issue.

Exceptions vs. Errors vs. Complexity

As I said, exception handling is an aspect of static and dynamic application architecture, just like security, transaction handling, state management, whatever. But there’s one thing that sets exception handling apart, and that’s dealing with the unexpected, the contradiction of having to deal with what you didn’t think of in the first place.

Exceptions come into play under three different conditions:

• First, as a means to break the current control flow, say to abort a request upon redirection to another page. This is intended behavior in a regular situation, not even an error.
• Secondly in cases that disrupt the logically correct operation, but you actually planned for that disruption. Say you rely on a file to exist but you know that someone might screw up, so you handled that case, despite the fact that during regular operations it shouldn’t happen at all. This is an error, but an intended behavior in an expected irregular situation.
• The third condition is the worst of all: Something unintended happens, something you cannot do anything about. It may arise as ArgumentException (telling you that the developer screwed up) or may be as TypeLoadException (telling you that the environment is on quicksand). In any case this is a purely unintended error and the only thing you can assume about the state of your application afterwards is, that it is not safe to assume anything.

An application architecture should provide provide rules on how to handle these conditions. Add questions like how to deal with the consequences, or deal breaker like parallelism, asynchronicity, or loose coupling, as well as reasonable demands regarding data consistency and error compensation… . And this becomes quite a complex task.

The paradoxical situation however is: Complexity is the very source of errors. Adding complexity is like pouring gasoline into the fire. As developers we already have to deal with the complexity of the problem domain. An exception management strategy should kick in if we fail in that regard. And if he is already doing something wrong, how can we rely on him to do something other (that isn’t even in his line of thinking) right? We can’t!

So, a good exception handling strategy needs to solve that contradiction: The need to deal with different exception conditions on one side. Making things easy for the developers, at the same time not relying on them to do things correctly on the other. Not a small task, indeed. And perhaps this is the very reason that exception handling is usually dealt with so poorly.

Stay Tuned…

OK, this was a lengthy introduction and the actual story is even longer. However I thought it prudent to point out the bigger problem and generally raise the awareness for the topic. Of course I also enjoyed playing with that baseball analogy… . Anyway, in the interest of some readers not interested in such musings I split this one in two distinct posts. This one to explain the problem and make you curious, the next one to provide a solution. Stay tuned if I caught your attention.

PS: Special thanks to Karl for the permission to use his pictures…

PPS: There’s actually more to say about baseball than just baseball. Have a look here, German readers may find a more thorough explanation here. And no, it’s got nothing to do with software development

That’s all for now folks,
AJ.NET

To Apply: send your resume and cover to our recruiting team: 51616@americanworkforce.jobs Strong preference for local candidates to Austin.

A leading technology company in Austin is seeking a Software Development Manager who will lead the design, implementation and development of high-quality, scalable applications and systems in a large-scale, SaaS environment. The ideal candidate excels at building high-performance teams and is intimately involved with prioritizing multiple priorities across software development projects. This includes developing world-class human capital through aggressive performance management, topgrading and a relentless passion for Quality. There will be a heavy emphasis placed on successful, on time delivery.

Responsibilities
• Lead a team of software engineers and architects with an emphasis on rapid delivery of self-developed innovations and improvements.
• Work directly with customers and product managers to flesh out requirements and detail designs.
• Work closely with the project management team to ensure that the projects are resourced efficiently & completed in concert with budget & timelines.
• Constantly identify and evaluate ways to improve the skill set of the development team.
• Ensure alignment communicating the vision and values of the business.
• Work directly with both internal and external customers of your tools and drive your teams towards making operational and user experience improvements.

Requirements
• Technically credible to lead a team of world class software engineers with the proven ability to make the right design decisions and technology choices.
• Experience leading multiple and simultaneous software product development efforts using agile methodologies.
• Demonstrated excellence building distributed, SaaS systems
• Expert in agile, iterative planning/design and software delivery
• Ability to balance technical leadership with good business judgment.
• Extensive experience delivering the right product that is with high scalability and performance.
• Proven ability to achieve results in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment.
• Ability to quickly recalibrate and align with the senior management team to roll out new tactical and strategic initiatives within the development group.
• Must be a high-energy, passionate leader with excellent communication skills.
• Bachelors or Advanced Degree in Computer Science preferred.
• Solid understanding of the emerging digital publishing/media space.

To Apply: send your resume and cover to our recruiting team: 51616@americanworkforce.jobs Strong preference for local candidates to Austin.

Circos is hiring software engineers in Singapore and we invite qualified graduates to apply.  We’re looking for smart technical students who can think out of the box.  If you make it, you’ll work with a team of talented developers building innovative technologies to make the web even more useful than it already is.

Email your resume to: career.sg@circos.com.  You can check out what we’re hiring for at http://www.circos.com/careers/

I want to spend a little bit of time explaining the type of software engineer we’re seeking.  To succeed at Circos as an SE, you need to have strong CS fundamentals and excel in writing code.  The interviews that you will go through will primarily test your technical aptitude.  To help you prepare, here are 5 tips:

1. Know your fundamentals!
2. Be prepared to prove your “expertise,” in other words, don’t BS about what you know.
3. Don’t expect to know the answer to every question.
4. Knowing the right answer but not being able to explain how you got the answer is worse than not getting the right answer.
5. Listen to the question and understand what we’re asking before attempting to solve it.

We recently just considered over 100 students who applied to work at Circos and did not make a single offer because everyone who had applied encountered problems in one or more of the areas above, with the great majority not advancing because they failed the “knowing the fundamentals” test.

We understand that personality and fit is important, but at Circos we want to make sure that you’ve got the right level of technical aptitude before we consider personality and fit.

A final word of advice (and for interviewing with any company): arrive on time, leave your cellphone at home or on silent, and be professionally presentable.

Apply here: http://www.kershnertrading.com/positions.html

Summary:

• Testing professional skilled in requirements analysis, use case writing, test case development.
• Has a solid knowledge of software test automation and is skilled in HP’s Quick Test Pro.
• The candidate has a solid understanding of Testing methodology and software lifecycle. 
• The candidate must also have a solid understanding of formal Regression, Functional, System Integration, and Performance testing methods.
• The candidate must be able to follow a structured approach to testing, with a strong documentation skill. 
• The candidate must also have a proven track record as a self starter, proven ability to learn quickly without constant supervision.
• Working understanding of database applications (MS SQL, ORACLE, MS Access)
• A working understanding of .Net development
• Solid communication skills, written and verbal.
• The candidate must have a strong automation background

 Responsibilities & Necessary Skills:

• Analyze requirements for testability
• Write and execute test scripts, build automated test scripts
• Write and execute test plans
• Assist Development team in triage of defects
• Test the application for operational readiness
• Work alongside software developers to maximize efficiency and quality and eliminate errors
• Demonstrated ability to work within an established timeframe to complete projects
• Effectively communicate to peers of testing status

 Attributes we seek:

• Candidate must have a “can-do-it” attitude, positive, attention to detail, proven ability to complete tasks.

 Education and experience:

• Minimum: 3 years of demonstrated knowledge / experience in testing software applications
• Preferred: BA/BS Degree in CS, Information Management/Technology, or equivalent or higher

Kershner Trading Group, LLC is a proprietary trading company based in Austin, Texas. “KTG” provides unique opportunities to talented, energetic people, rooted in the philosophy that everyone can do more than they realize, if they try. KTG empowers independent thinkers who have the discipline to set long-term goals, the adaptability to “shift gears” but still stay on course, and are open to being both a student and teacher in a learning organization.

KTG offers the chance to join a high-performance team comprised of new and experienced traders trading more every day and adapting to new market opportunities, talented technology professionals developing leading edge trading and market analytics systems, quantitative/ business analysts providing tools and insights to fuel business growth and top-notch support staff keeping it all humming in an environment where every day brings new challenges yet maintains a cool, casual atmosphere.

If you are a technologist looking for a serious challenge and want to achieve your full potential, KTG just might be the place to be. Our traders rely on the technology we develop for making split second decisions in an incredibly competitive market.

To stay competitive in a continuous technology arms race we are proud to offer our technologists a very flat organization with a minimum of bureaucracy. With direct channels of communication between technologists and traders and mutual respect for each other, ideas can be turned over very quickly.

Whatever we have done in the past, our philosophy is to always improve what we have, and it is all about doing what we do better. 

Austin, Texas, PRNewswire  REAL Software, creator of REALbasic, a cross-platform development tool for creating software for Mac, Windows and Linux, is now shipping REALbasic 2009 Release 2. This release includes more than 70 improvements and 18 new features, including COM automation support for Windows and support for MySQL. Additionally, this release launches a new edition of REALbasic, REAL Studio, that is geared specifically for full-time commercial software developers. COM Automation Support: Applications can take control of any other Windows application that supports COM automation. MySQL Support: The Community Edition (free) of MySQL is now officially supported. REAL Studio: REAL Studio is a new edition of REALbasic created specifically for full-time, professional developers. REAL Studio includes: – A license key that can be installed on any number of computers or operating systems to make development and testing easier. – A Code profiler for optimizing code performance. – IDE Scripting for build automation. – A REAL Server (http://www.realsoftware.com/realsqlserver/) unlimited
connections license. – Priority technical support. – New licenses include 12 months of updates. – All of the features of REALbasic Professional Edition
REAL Software is offering new pricing for REALbasic Professional Edition and REAL Studio. New licenses for REALbasic Professional Edition, required for cross-platform compilation, will now be priced at US$299. REAL Studio licenses will be priced at US$1495. The complete list of improvements and new features in this release can be found in the release notes in the product download section, http://www.realsoftware.com/download. REALbasic and REAL Studio are availablein a free 30-day trial edition.
REALbasic / REAL Studio is a full-featured cross-platform software development tool suited to creating a wide range of applications, from utilities to enterprise-class applications. REALbasic Personal Edition for Windows or Mac is priced at US$99. REALbasic for Linux Personal Edition is offered for free. REALbasic Professional Edition, required for cross-platform compilation, is US$299. REAL Studio, geared for full-time developers, is  US$1495. All editions of REALbasic and REAL Studio are now available and can be downloaded directly from REAL Software at http://www.realso ftware.com/download.

Today I’d like to share another left over from the SDX Talk I mentioned earlier: Basically some screenshots from Visual Studio 2010 Architecture Edition (VSArch from now on). Don’t expect something fancy if you already know VSArch, I just couldn’t find all that much information on the Web beyond the two screenshots on the Microsoft site.

The main new things within VSArch include the Architecture Explorer, UML Support, and the Layer Diagram.

Architecture Explorer

Note: To make the following more tangible I loaded a sample project I use regularly as test harness and took respective screenshots while I analyzed it. Click the images for a larger view…

The Architecture Explorer is about getting a better view into existing code. Whether you join a project that is under way, whether you have lost control over your code, or whether you just need to spice up your documentation. Architecture Explorer helps you by visualizing your solution artifacts and dependencies. Artifacts include the classical code artifacts (classes, interfaces, etc.), as well as whole assemblies, files, and namespaces.

Architecture Explorer lets you select those artifacts, display graphs with dependencies, and even navigate along those dependencies and in and out of detail levels.

The following screenshot shows VSArch. The docked pane on the bottom contains the Architecture Explorer that acts as “navigation and control center”. This is where you select your artifacts and visualizations. It could certainly use some improvement from a usability perspective, but it does the job anyway.

The screenshot shows two different visualizations of the assembly dependencies in my solution, a matrix view and a directed graph. Just to stress the fact: This was generated out of the solution, by analyzing the project dependencies.

The next screenshot shows a mixture of various artifacts, including classes, interfaces, even files, across parts of or the whole solution.

Depending on what filters you set, this graph could give you a high level overview of certain artifacts and their dependencies. For example you could easily spot hot spots, like the one class your whole system depends upon. Or make sure the dependencies are nicely managed via interfaces and find undue relationships. Even spot unreferenced and therefore dead graphs.

Once you go one level deeper, you may want to cluster the artifacts by some category.

The image shows again artifacts and their dependencies, but this time grouped by the project to which they belong. It also shows what kind of relationship a line represents and lets you navigate along that dependency.

The Architecture Explorer should help getting a better understanding of your code. It helps you to detect code smells or may guide your refactoring.

UML Support

Yes, UML like in, well UML. Not extensively, but it includes activity diagram, component diagram, (logical) class diagram, sequence diagram, and use case diagram. I didn’t spend much time investigating them, just drew some diagrams in order to take the screen shots. Generally I can say that Microsoft can draw boxes and lines (big surprise here) but there is a lingering feeling that those diagram editors may not be finished yet (again, hardly surprising on a CTP).

Creating a new diagram is easy enough. Just create a new project of type “Modeling Project” and add an item:

Everything starts with a use case, so here is our use case diagram:

One can draw the diagram as he likes. As you can see from the context menu, there is something being worked on. Namely the “Link to Artifacts” entry shows the Architecture Explorer, yet I couldn’t quite figure out what’s behind this. Also note the validate entries which didn’t do very much, but we’ll see them later in the Layer Diagram.

Next on the list is activity diagrams:

Works as expected, no surprises, no hidden gems that I’ve found.

The same is true for the component diagram:

Just a diagram, no surprises.

The logical class diagram gets more interesting:

As you can see, it contains very .NETy stuff like enumerations. It also has these menu entries that hint on more to come in the future — right now the selected menu entry brings up the error message asking for a stereotype, yet I didn’t even find a way to set those. Also the editor may still need some work, e.g. one cannot drag classes in and out of packages.

As a side note: The relation between this logical class diagram and the already existing class diagram escapes me. At least they are a little redundant.

Next on the list is the sequence diagram. Rather than drawing one myself I reverse engineered the existing code:

Quite nice and again, used this way it can help you documenting or just plain understanding existing code.

Note: If you want to try that yourself, the CTP has a bug: You need to have a modeling project and at least one diagram before the menu entry “Generate Sequence Diagram” appears. And while you will be presented with a dialog asking what call depth to analyze, it usually works only for one level.

Layer Diagram.

Now for the most dreadfully looking diagram (though Microsoft has a more colorful one on its site…): Some boring connected blocks, meant to represent the layers of your architecture.

Actually this is one of the most interesting features for any architect and dev lead: It’s a living beast!  

You can add assemblies as well as other artifacts to the bleak boxes. Afterwards you can actually validate whether the dependencies between those artifacts match or violate the dependencies implied by the diagram. In the screenshot you can see that I deliberately misplaced an assembly and consequently got a respective error. Using this feature an architect can ensure that all layer related architectural decisions are honored during development.

To conclude…

The Architecture Explorer is certainly a worthwhile feature and I also like the validation feature of the Layer Diagram. That’s certainly something new and not to be found in other products.

Generating sequence diagrams is nice but it remains to be seen whether this will allow roundtrip engineering. The logical class diagram doesn’t yet meet my expectations and it’s not quite clear to me how it will evolve. The other diagrams? Well, they just work. However in this group is nothing exciting for you if you already have another modeling tool like Enterprise Architect (no advertising intended, just happens to be the one I’ve used recently…). And a dedicated tool probably will provide a more complete UML coverage. UML 2.0 has 13 types of diagrams, including state diagrams, which is in my opinion the biggest gap in VSArch UML support.

Anyway, if that caught your attention and your interested in more details there are two options: One, download the CTP and try for yourself. Two, if you want it more condensed and avoid the hassle with a VPC, watch a video with VSArch at work. For that there are two links I can provide:

1. Peter Provost’s talk at the PDC. Go to the timeline on the PDC site, search for TL15 and you should find “TL15 Architecture without Big Design Up Front”, which is about VSArch, despite the title. His talk was the role model for my analysis of VSArch, yet seeing it live could still give better insights.
2. Visual Studio Team System 2010 Week on Channel 9 has a bunch of videos, especially the “Architecture Day” ones. “top down” and “bottom up” show VSArch at work.

The final question however will be if all those features are compelling enough to actually buy the … Visual Studio Team Suite (i.e. the “you get everything” package). Why not the Architecture Edition? Well, if you are a developer as well as an architect, the Architecture Edition lacks too much in the other areas. Given that there is usually quite a monetary gap between dev edition and team suite, that gap might very well be used to buy a 3rd party UML tool instead… .

That’s all for now folks,
AJ.NET

The so-called „many core shift“ is happening. It’s not a thing of the future, it’s not „just around the corner“, it has already begun. And it will change our developers’ life.

Last week we had some customer events, containing some talks about PDC and other stuff and how it will affect the near term future. Among other things I tried to describe the many core shift as well as its consequences. Curiously the audience was largely aware of the facts, yet the consequences had yet escaped the vast majority. So let me try to repeat the gist and see whether this is maybe a common symptom…

What’s the many core shift, anyway?

Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors on an integrated circuits doubles every two years. Until not long ago, and accompanied by more complex designs and higher clock speeds, that meant faster CPUs. This was sometimes called the „free lunch for developers“, because if one happened to write a slow application… not that anyone ever would , all he had to do was wait two years and it ran twice as fast.

However this evolution has reached its physical limits (clock speed, power consumption, etc.). Yet, still the number doubles… .
So instead of building faster and more complex CPUs, the manufacturers started placing more CPUs, read cores, on a chip. It started 2006 with Intel’s dual cores, today you won’t find a single core desktop machine anymore. High end consumer machines come with quad cores, and servers with 16 cores (delivered as 4 quad cores). Have a look at the extrapolation:

The “lower” line shows cores on a CPU, starting 2006 with 2 cores, while the steeper one assumes 4 CPU sockets. And just in case the conclusion escaped you: Five years from now we will have between 32 and 128 cores. And remember, we are talking “consumer grade stuff”, that is the box under your desk, not something special! Impressive?

So that’s the many core shift. But what does it mean?

Well, it probably means that today’s software runs a bit faster. Not much, mind you, certainly not the 32 times faster a 64 core machine is supposed to be compared to my dual core. Why is that? Well, have a look at the following task manager of a 64 core machine:

(That’s a fake of course, but have a look at Marks’s blog for a real one.)

Now look at your own desktop and count the open applications. Outlook, Word, perhaps PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, Acrobat Reader? OK, say half a dozen applications, add 10 more for the OS stuff actually doing something. That’s 16 applications, using the upper row of cores, perhaps even to 100% and yearning for more, while the other 3 rows just sit there and twiddle their thumbs. That sad truth is: Most of today’s applications simply are not capable of employing these cores appropriately. Consequence: In order to leverage these cores we have to change the way we write our software!

Two questions come to mind: Do we actually need that kind of processing power? And if so, how do we open it up?

Seriously, does the average user need 64 cores?

Well, yes he does. If for no other reason, he did need the increase in processing power during the last years, why should that change?

So, what does he need it for? Gamers are always at the forefront of processing power demand. We have the generally increasing demand in UI technology: 3D, animations, visual effects are becoming mainstream with windows, WPF and Silverlight. The trend to digital photography has had its effect on the demand for graphics software. On my dual core, DXO needs about 1 hour per 150 pictures, so there’s certainly room for improvement (I brought 2500 pics from my last vacation in Tanzania. Do the math ). Background encryption, compression, virus scanning, etc. also add up.

Even if you are an “ordinary business user”: Word just sits and waits for your input most of the time? Well, open a non trivial 100 page document and see how long Word takes for pagination, spell checking, or updating the TOC. Change the formatting and watch again. So while Word mostly does nothing exciting, there are „burst times“ when it could really need those cores.

And I did not even mention Visual Studio and the compiler yet…

How do I, Joe Developer, put 64 cores to good use?
And how do I make sure the app doesn’t degrade on an old dual core beyond reasonable limits?

Here we are right at the center of the problem: Multithreading is not exactly something new, we’ve had that for more than 20 years on PC’s now. So why do I even have to ask that question? It’s because we didn’t actually use multithreading within our applications if we didn’t have to. Because it’s laborious, error prone, awkward. You have to deal with thread synchronization, race conditions, dead locks, error management, communication between threads. You can’t debug it, tracing doesn’t help very much either. In short: It’s a pain in the …, well.

So let’s face it: Most developers have avoided multithreading altogether (perhaps the lucky ones). And those who did do multithreading probably did it just for optimizations in very distinct areas.

But what we need to leverage those cores is quite the opposite: We need multithreading to become mainstream, kind of ubiquitous. For that it needs to be easier to employ parallelism. Complexity has to be pushed out of our code into the platform. Somewhat like nobody thinks any longer about virtual memory (while some of us are old enough to remember the days of physical addressing).

In other words: In order to deal with the parallelization demands, we need new patterns, libraries, and tools.

Microsoft is going to give us a first delivery on that with the next Visual Studio 2010 and .NET wave. Optimized runtimes (e.g. the thread pool), better tools (e.g. the debugger) and not the least, new libraries, introducing new patterns (e.g. Task Parallel Library). There’s more in the unmanaged world (e.g. Parallel Patterns Library), more on the server side (CCR), more on the language front (F#), more in the research area (transactional memory).
Microsoft even devoted a whole “developer center” to parallel computing (look there for more details). And quite rightly so, because there is no single solution to parallelization, it comes in different flavors (e.g. data parallelism vs. task based parallelism) and we can expect further developments in this area in the future.

Also it’s noteworthy that the OSes, namely Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 which share the same kernel, can manage 256 cores. Compared to what they supported before this is quite a jump.

Conclusion

So, parallelization is here to stay and we are going to have to deal with it. If anything, the trend is going to accelerate. It’s reasonable to assume that eventually processor manufacturers will trade single core performance for number of cores, i.e. put more but less capable cores on a chip, in order to save power consumption (green IT and mobility being two other major trends).

Looking even further, the many core shift may reach a break even where standard desktop systems will cease to profit from additional cores (how parallel can you become after all?), the problems of memory access may limit the amount of cores. Asynchronous multi cores may evolve, e.g. having cores optimized for certain tasks…

See, there’s a lot to look forward to. Our profession certainly remains interesting

PS: See Being Parallel? for some thoughts on whether today’s multithreaded client software will profit from additional cores…

That’s all for now folks,
AJ.NET

by Magda Rocki

After a brief reformatting pause, we are once again delighted to be hosting the Free Hackers event this upcoming Saturday, March 7^th 2009 from 1-7 pm. On the hacking menu: a presentation and hands-on workshop on the programming language Sugar– by Sebastien Pierre founder of datalicious– followed by an open hacking session. The full details and the sign-up for the event can be found here , so join us and let’s revel in the new Free Hackers format!

My Product Manager was recently here at our Chennai, India office, currently he stays in the U.S He actually suggested this to our customers or who ever he met at the trade shows, (when customer do enquire about stability) on how to get a stable working software.

Simple look at the build number for a released product, if the last two number was Zero after the last dot, it is not the right time to upgrade from the previous version, Which you currently have. The better one would be when product makes updates of the release and the build number reflects a decent version number. Well the “decent” depends

What makes the difference on the build number?
As soon as a software get released. Customers download a free version of the software or even buy them and install at their working environment. For some it works like a charm, for some the hell freezes over. This doesn’t mean that the software is not tested on different working environments, it is just that very few test bed opportunity happens or few environmental simulation happens, and adding fuel to the fire -  customer environment may have different hardware to software and some software may actually have conflict with the newly installed ones.

So the development team gets the feedback fixes the bugs and make a update of the release. So does the Build number change for any product.

one more other way to ascertain that the product is stable, is to look at the forums of the product or any other public forums if available. Look for number of recent issues, bugs being reported. If it is moderately low, It means you have “decent” version out there for you to install. Kindly note: I assume that the product is fairly known to the outside world.

What he said seems to be very true?
An year ago, I was an early adopter for the Mahindra Renault Logan in India, “Thee Car”, there has been a substantial improvement done on the new Mahindra Renault Logan and the price being much cheaper than when it was released.

The logic can be applied to various other fields, wait and watch.

I am sure most of you know this trick, I just made this post for the new bees. Hope this helps.

Posted via web from vinod v v’s posterous

I love the one in ten people don’t understand binary joke. It’s really clever but it is one of those jokes that is a bit of a software developer “in joke”. I first heard it in a report that Jeremy Paxman (many years ago) had been circulating it in his email round robin. It requires a knowledge of binary but also a bit of quick thinking.

It can also create a long silence if you tell it in the company of people who have never had to worry about the workings of a computer other than why the Start Button is used to shut things down.

… is something I did explicitly not want to do!

Not that it is not necessary to do so. It’s just that I expected a lot of bloggers, especially from Microsoft itself, trying to spread the news and foster understanding of what is ahead of us. Well, the Microsoft folks became kind of hushed, as if ducking down and counting the shrapnels after having thrown the bomb at the PDC. So I changed my mind…

Preface…

Given what Microsoft unveiled at the PDC — A new vision, a new strategy, a new technology stack, and a mish mash of existing, sometimes overlapping, not yet consistent, much less complete applications and services — it’s no wonder that it took me some time to grasp the idea. And when I thought I might have understood the gist I was still, well, unsure of whether I had gotten it all right.
The breakthrough came at the ask-the-experts. More to the point I had the chance to talk to Ori Amiga (the guy that did the “BB04 Live Services: A Lap around the Live Framework and Mesh Services” talk). Other than joking about the various ways to pronounce “Azure” and the fact that Americans always manage to get it wrong (sorry guys — and sorry Ori, hope I didn’t give you away too badly ) ), this little chat really turned “suspected functionality” into “understood technology” (at least I do hope so…).

Explaining Azure worked not on explaining the ever present Azure picture as is. It worked on developing the pieces of the picture, bit by bit, and relating it to other concepts. And since I worked for me, I thought I might share the gist of that conversation in much the same style, hoping I’m providing new insights rather than reiterating already available information. Actually I’m going to use the very sheet of paper we (mostly Ori) drew throughout said discussion. 

Enough of the preliminaries, here we go…

First of all, keep in mind that there’s two Azures: Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform. They are not the same and neither presents the full picture. I’ll try to dissect that picture layer by layer, like a cream gateau…

It starts with the cake bottom: Windows Azure

Windows Azure is the basic “infrastructure” (to avoid the term “Operating System” for now) to run applications on, highlighted in the following picture in red:

That includes computing capabilities, basic storage, management of applications (i.e. deployment, including upgrading), and operations (e.g. handling failures). These concepts are abstractions from the underlying OS (Windows 2008 actually), machines, and storage devices.

The terms to think of are service instances rather than processes or (virtual) machines. This is similar to the way virtual memory abstracts physical memory. While any memory access obviously has to happen on physical memory, the virtual memory manager is free to relocate it, even to swap it out to disk. This not only makes applications independent of the amount of physical memory, it also optimizes resource usage, allowing other applications to use the memory my application has claimed but does not access at the moment.

Yet, while Microsoft Azure is one level of abstraction above the machine’s OS, it has similar concepts (highlighted in the above picture in blue):

• computing ~ job scheduling, etc. (NT Kernel);
• storage ~ file system (NTFS);
• management ~ application installer;
• operations ~ task manager, event manager, etc..

Thus it is quite feasible to call Windows Azure an Operating System for the datacenter (or for the cloud if you’re a marketing guy), even if that may not match exactly what you learned in university about operating systems.

The implications of deploying an application to Windows Azure (i.e. how the application has to be built and how the fabric manages it) is actually quite interesting … but a whole new blog post, thus I will skip that for now.

Let’s move on to the second layer of the cake: The Azure Services Platform

A barebone OS like Windows Azure would be of limited use if it were not completed with other general purpose services. Which services exactly that includes may be debatable, yet, again, the similarity with our local environment may help depicting the features we as developers have come to expect from the platform we are developing on: database service, user accounts, IPC, etc..

Again, the following picture highlights the services in red and similarities in blue:

Microsoft decided that the following services may be good ones to start with:

• .NET Services: basic infrastructure services for application security (access control), application communication (Service Bus), and workflow (three guesses…?).
• SQL Services: database related stuff; not exactly a SQL Server, but aspiring to be…
• Live Services: All around social applications (community, devices, etc.)
• Core application services: This is a set of higher level application services, such as SharePoint Services and CRM Services (explicitly not including the UI!). In my opinion they are there because they were readily available, not because they are particularly necessary.

Oh, and not to forget the reoccurring three dots in the PDC slides; those dots tell us that these are not closed and sealed sets. Actually Microsoft said that every major server application will eventually be made available on Azure.

Now for the chocolate and the cream: the applications running on the Azure Services Platform

While Ori included the application layer in the platform, any PDC slide puts it on top:

Where you put the label is of no consequence anyway, because this is no more than a logical hierarchy. However, please don’t misinterpret this hierarchy by assuming that those applications have to run on Azure and only applications running on Azure can leverage the Azure services! Au contraire!

If you have an application deployed on Azure it is (technically speaking) no different from other services. The difference only lies in the purpose, or the consumer if you wish. And still applications and services are free to call any services, not just those running on Azure. Likewise if your application is running on your local machine or network it can use services deployed on Azure to store data or integrate with whatever, that’s fine as well. Actually the best example for this flexibility is coming from Microsoft itself: Live Mesh.

The cherry on the cream: Live Mesh

Technically speaking the Live Mesh Desktop and Live Services are just another set of applications and services running on the Azure Services Platform, complemented with applications running somewhere else and using those services. This limited view however would miss much of the capabilities of Live Mesh, and the way it enhances the platform.

Live Mesh aims no less than to connect people, devices, and applications. Live Services contains services for identity (LiveID), presence, etc., and Mesh Services to maintain users, devices, applications, and — a corner stone — synchronization. The resource model organizes mesh objects (data, news, etc.) in feeds and entries, which in turn are subject to synchronization among the applications being “deployed” to Live Mesh. “Deploying” an application means either actual deployment on Azure, or storing it for (seamless) installation on your local device, via Live Mesh Client, offline capable if built to be.

Still with me? Well, to make this mess, pardon mesh, a little more tangible, let’s recap the example of Ori’s talk (PPTX WMV, images taken from there):

He had his media center PC connected to the Live Mesh, advertising its meta data, like favorites, recordings, etc.. That information was synchronized to the Live Desktop (running in the browser), so he could pick a TV show there and “start” recording. (Actually that “start” was some little piece of data, synchronized back to the media center PC which in turn did, surprise!, start recording.) He then started a locally installed application that showed the TV guide and had the typical red recording sign right at the respective TV show. That application was offline capable, so he could have planed his TV recordings on the airplane and have it synchronized when he gets back online. Finally he also showed the same TV Guide on his mobile phone simulation.
The only thing missing was integration with other people, but I think it was in a key note where they showed an application that allowed sharing of film critics with some friends.
All in all, that’s what I call ubiquitous computing!

Spicing the cake: Developer tools

This part is actually not in the picture, but it’s no less essential: Where does your application or 3^rd party code fit in? How does it get there? Those parts in red may be your application or service:

It’s actually quite easy: You can write applications that run on Azure and provide services (just like the basic services Microsoft provides), or an UI (just like Microsoft’s applications). You can access any of those services from the cloud or your local application, no matter whether Microsoft provided it or someone else. And you can Mesh-enable any of these applications and services as you like. This is an open platform!

Also Microsoft provides a simulated local environment for Azure, called development fabric, along with Visual Studio integration. Thus it is possible to develop your application locally, test it locally, and only afterwards deploy it to the cloud.
Regarding Live Mesh Matthias has more information on developing with Live Framework.

Postscript…

That’s it. You can find the complete untampered drawing here. That scrawl at the bottom of the drawing is actually Ori’s signature, but you should attribute any error, misunderstanding and adverse opinion in this post to me.

Finally two links for some alternate explanations (already repeated a thousand times over, but what the heck, they’re good):

• “Manuvir Das: Introducing Windows Azure”: Manuvir explains a little deeper how Windows Azure works.
  http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/Manuvir-Das-Introducing-Windows-Azure/
• “Windows Azure (aka “Red Dog”) explained in 145 seconds”: funny and enlightening (presented on a site you might find interesting as well)
  http://www.azurejournal.com/2008/11/windows-azure-aka-red-dog-explained-in-145-seconds/

That’s all for now folks,
AJ.NET

by Magda Rocki

Preparations for the event:

A few hours before the first FreeHackers meet was to be held in the offices of Bolidea, the team itself was efficiently scrabbling to provide a welcoming space fitting for big and small hackers alike. So late last night, while other worker bees were nectaring their stressful workweeks away with alcoholic pollen, the Bolidea team was fervently at work, prettifying our offices, and finally installing our company’s name plate.

As I arrived sleepy-eyed at the office on Saturday under the noon sun, I was greeted by the infectious grins of the newly arrived participants of the inaugural edition of the Free Hackers meeting.

Organized by the ever-connected Heri, the informal gathering’s mandate was to congregate hacking aficionados, web and software developers, and innovation-seeking, entrepreneurship- touting individuals together, and allow them to share projects and code and most importantly experiment with new technologies. And my, was it fun, educational and productive!

As the diverse group of skilled participants settled into the Bolidea’s infamous “nipple lounge”, brief introductions of their technical backgrounds, current interests and projects made the rounds, and Heri democratically listed the objectives of the meeting, basing himself loosely on the guiding principles of Zed Shaw’s Free Hackers Union. Rapidly auto-organizing themselves, the group split off into smaller units, regrouped together by a common interest of a programming language, or by the magnetic appeal of a project, or simply to learn and pick up new knowledge. Whether projects included debugging a tenacious corruption bug, assessing a microblogging’s plugin fit, or developing code for a financial application in python, the tangible atmosphere of joyful camaraderie, good humor and friendly bantering established itself cheerfully throughout the office space.

Cohesive hacking/ entrepreneurship energy

As I worked contently at my workstation, occasionally getting up to inform the boys of fresh coffee infusions, I marveled at the cohesive synergy coming from this group of fairly individualistic participants and listened avidly, supplementing my meager knowledge base with programming concepts and lingo (no small feat, I tell you!). As I chatted with some of the participants, I was enthused by their intelligence, the originality of their projects, their business acumen, but most markedly their willingness to share their knowledge and concepts so freely with underlying respect being paid to the social aspects of open source. As the productive afternoon winded down, coffee cups were progressively replaced with tasty beer and even wider smiles and plans were made for a continuation of the hacking spirit over supper plans. At the meeting’s closing, all the groups talked about the advances, improvements or discoveries they had made during the day -while some where more successful than others –all were reassured by the energizing fact that the entrepreneurial, resourceful spirit of this meeting is only a month’s date away. We want to thank all the participants for their presence and input. It was a really great first experience and success for all. To be present at the next FreeHackers Montreal meeting, sign up here.

Every once in a while ideas pop into my head. I can’t help it. Most are crap, but some warrant further investigation. Problem is that I do not have the technical knowledge to look into some of them and create proof-of-concept type applications. I’m pretty good with WordPress and Scripting, and Database development. One of my ideas would require using the Google Maps API for instance, others need somewhat sophisticated database operations or SMS interaction, or… who knows.

What I’ve been looking for for a while now is someone to collaborate with on these concepts, brainstorm about them and -if we feel there’s something to them- go ahead and realize them. This, of course, is not a job offer. Chances are you’ll never make a dime, but there’s also a slim chance we’d be the next Twitter, or even the next YouTube. So if you’re into PHP (Ruby?), javascript, and like exploring new technical developments, contact me. Who knows what it’ll lead to.

I hesitate to mention this, because back then I had a television production studio, whereas the video below was created for under $300 (including the equipment costs), but this is my first full-blown video production in seventeen years. It’s a promotional ditty for Wonderhubby’s just opened robot manufacturing company, RoBe:Do Robotics.

These robots are an expandable platform for software developers pushing robotic technology forward. Stated in English, these robots are a potent tool for those kind folk working on bringing us the Jetsons’ way of life.

This entry was originally posted to my MySpace blog.

Software packages are online testimonials of the hands that devised and developed them-the same hands write the program too. Software development process is not mere design and coding but broad based computer programming. Software developers are often guided by lead programmers but they rarely dip their hands in individual programming tasks. Other names that point a finger toward software developers are ‘software analyst’ and ‘software engineer.’

Since software developers design the component interaction of a software system they may be hailed as systems architects. They become part and parcel of the software development process and participate in software product definition, specification, requirement analysis which includes simulations or prototypes, feasibility and cost benefit analysis. Tasks like installation, configuration and data migration, documentation of user’s manual, testing and collecting feedback come under their portfolio.

The cynosure of all eyes during software release is the software developer who later takes control of demonstrations, and sample presentation. He also undertakes competitive analysis for future product launch. Product maintenance is also part of the game. LocalBizNetwork, a firm of software developers in California is the best example of team work. The expert team of software developers at LocalBizNetwork design software according to customer specification. From product identification to product launch these software developers in California is in sync with the customer. If software development is the need of the hour then contact LocalBizNetwork, 1250 Oakmead Pkwy, #210, Sunnyvale, California – 94085-4037 who are direct marketing professionals and they will design a great website for you. You may call them on toll free at 866-724-3694 or email info@localbiznetwork.com

December 3, 2008 – Published in partnership with Hewlett-Packard, OPTIMIZE QUALITY FOR BUSINESS OUTCOMES: A Practical Approach to Software Testing (Wiley Publishing, Inc.; July 2008; $40.00) offers an essential guide for software developers seeking to improve their software testing strategies.

According to a 2002 National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) study, software bugs cost the U.S. economy $59.5 billion annually. Yet, more than a third of this cost could be avoided through quality software testing. OPTIMIZE QUALITY FOR BUSINESS OUTCOMES is packed with models, tips, and techniques to help developers improve the testing of software and design more stable software.

SOFTWARE PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

Written by the co-founders of the Mercury Quality Model, a testing standard for corporations worldwide, the book presents practical solutions based derived for implementation experience. Readers will learn how to move through software development and testing processes efficiently and cost-effectively. OPTIMIZE QUALITY FOR BUSINESS OUTCOMES also examines the fundamental questions of testing from a business perspective, including:

• Which software functions to test
• How to implement a testing strategy that satisfies business stakeholders and customers
• Testing for usability
• Using KPI, or key performance indicators, to meet business objectives

From effective methods for software development to practical strategies for optimizing software testing, this book shows how to prioritize testing tasks and which parts of testing should be automated. It provides the strategies, methods, and technical details, tips, tricks, and guidelines for those who want to implement the concepts. OPTIMIZE QUALITY FOR BUSINESS OUTCOMES is essential reading for IT managers, quality assurance engineers, software testers, and anyone interested in learning more about best practices for software testing.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Andreas Golze (Cologne, Germany) studied computer science at the University of the Armed Forces in Munich and has a background of 20 years in IT. After some years of software development in different roles, he is providing professional services in various types of organizations in the field of quality assurance. During this time he has successfully supported different large projects and developed new business solutions for quality management. Mr. Golze worked as Practice Director for the development and delivery of the Mercury Best Practice around Quality Management Solutions Worldwide. After the merger with HP he is now driving the global practice for Application Lifecycle Optimization within C&I.

Mark Sarbiewski (San Jose, CA) joined Mercury Interactive (now HP Software) in 2003 and serves as Senior Director of Product Marketing. Mark is responsible for the design and implementation of all HP’s Product Marketing and go-to-market activities for the Applications area within the BTO portfolio. Mark received his B.S.in Computer Science from University of California, Davis and his MBA from University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business.

Alain Zahm (San Jose, CA) Alain has more than 20 years experience in the IT industry, both in software product development and large systems integration projects. After 10 years working in Development and Project Management, Alain was appointed Innovation Director in Global Consulting & Systems Integration, a corporate division in SchlumbergerSema. Alain joined HP in 2007 as Application Lifecycle Service Practice Principal for EMEA.

About Wiley:
Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has been a valued source of information and understanding for 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfill their aspirations. Since 1901, Wiley and its acquired companies have published the works of more than 350 Nobel laureates in all categories: Literature, Economics, Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Peace.

Our core businesses publish scientific, technical, medical and scholarly journals, encyclopedias, books, and online products and services; professional/trade books, subscription products, training materials, and online applications and websites; and educational materials for undergraduate and graduate students and lifelong learners. Wiley’s global headquarters are located in Hoboken, New Jersey, with operations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia. The Company’s Web site can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com. The Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols JWa and JWb.

For more information, contact: Eric Holmgren 415-782-3161 eholmgre@wiley.com

OPTIMIZE QUALITY FOR BUSINESS OUTCOMES By Andreas Golze, Mark Sarbiewski, Alain Zahm Wiley; June 2008; $40.00 978-0-470-40466-9; Paperback

Software Development

http://www.mavininfotech.com/

Mavin InfoTech a software development company was setup to leverage the ??oeProven India Advantage??? in delivering low cost IT software services with a guarantee of Quality with Speed. We started by doing work for Indian Software Development companies and have evolved into a large network of; professionals with diverse skills and experience. We currently offer three services:

??? Offshore Development Projects

??? BPO & IT Enabled Services

??? Staffing & Onsite Consulting Services

We have 15 active clients and a reference network spanning over 25 firms. Nearly 90% of our business is derived from service exports to US and 80% of our clients are in manufacturing, financial services, retail and healthcare domains. The basis of our success and future progress is that we ensure ??oevalue for money??? in each and every client relationship. Nearly 85% of our revenue is from repeat clients. Our billing rates are in the range of US $14 ??” $22 per hour for offshore work and US $28 – $45 per hour for onsite work. Mavin Info Tech is structured in three parts:

??? Determine Opportunity Portfolio and Manage Skill Matrix Measurement & Progression

??? Manage Talent Pool through Recruitment & Skill Training

??? Opportunity Clustered Delivery Network (Value for Money & Quality with Speed)

Mavin Infotech Offers a range of outsourcing services in the areas of

??? Finance and Accounting

??? Content Monitoring

??? Customer Support

??? SEO (Search engine optimization)

??? Technical help-desk

??? IT Infrastructure Management

??? Data Migration

??? Voice & Non-voiced based backend process

The emphasis with Mavin Infotech???s BPO services is to take on those roles that free you up to excel at what you do best, whatever that is.

We have detailed and business relevant ??oeready to deploy??? frameworks that we use as a starting point to understand the client requirements. We then use incremental and iterative approach to implement the required changes as per client requirements. Speed & Business Relevance of our solution is the key differentiator.

We have 18 active clients and a reference network spanning over 30 firms. Our talent pool and clientele is almost equally divided among software and IT enabled services. Nearly 80% of our work pertains to financial services, manufacturing and healthcare domains. The basis of our success and future progress is that we ensure ‘value for money’ in each and every client relationship. Nearly 85% of our revenue is from repeat clients.

In today’s world of information technology, e-commerce has become one of the most effective ways of doing business. Such is the extent of e-commerce that it enables businesses of any type or kinds generate additional profits apart from delivering enhanced services to customers across the globe. The following is a discussion of issues involved in the implementation of an E-commerce in Business applications.

Some common applications related to electronic commerce are:

??? E-mail and messaging

??? Documents, spreadsheets, database

??? Accounting and finance systems

??? Orders and shipment information

??? Enterprise and client information reporting

??? Domestic and international payment systems

??? On-line Shopping

??? Messaging

??? Conferencing

We adopt both process and outcome control in our quality assurance practices to ensure that our clients get value for their money in every assignment. Each project or initiative is pursued in the spirit of making the relationship a potential source of ongoing repeat business.

content management system

cms

document management

http://www.mavininfotech.com/

content management system: content management system

content management system: document management

Article Source: www.articlesnatch.com

Really, hotshot developer guy? Let’s review a short conversation:

Me: So, umm, what does your program do?
Guy: Wehell (obnoxious half-laugh inserted into sentence) it does absolutely anything you want it to, is what it does.
Me: Answer the question whenever you’re ready…
Guy: It’s just one of those things that’s so monumental that…
Me: [walks off]

We’ve said it before: if you want to be a rockstar, put the keyboard down.

For all businesses it is tough getting new customers , you can spend money on advertisig on the web or in newspapers , and directories but as you will generally find you will get very little or no return on investment in terms of organic sales growth or new customers.

I believe the only way forward to get new customers with out spending a lot money is to invest your time and energies building a personal network through websites like ecademy , linked in and to join clubs like the BNI and chamber of commerce etc.

Why do this?

Investing time in people means you are giving , and you are sharing your personal knowledge and expertise , this is of great value to everyone as not only do you learn new knowledge and gain new friends, you are also connecting to their network of friends. The benefit of this is that when people in business discusss their needs , your network friends could recommend you as the solution. As we all know people buy from people like them and what a head start you would have. To explain what I mean let me expand further. Lets just say you are looking for a website developer, you visit an old school friend and you explain what your plans are. You old school friend says to you I know a couple of people , they are  good friends of mine , would you like me to introduce them to you? Now heres the question would you take your friend up on this offer of a personal recommendation or would you look in the phone directory or google website developers? I think it is fair to say that almost 100% of us would take up our friends kind offer of the contact details of the people or companies that could solve our problem.

Buying cold from a new supplier means you really have to rely on references given to you by the companies themselves or through their percieved reputation in your local area. In my opinion it is a greater risk to buy cold than to go through friends or connections in your network. People dont like to let their friends down and this is an important point to remember when considering where you will buy from. Buying through networks and friends is definitley safer , not only will you find that you will get a much better service and higher quality of work , you will save on costs to you in time , money, and peace of mind.

Obviously there are always risks in networking , and I would suggest you check out and trial the different networking options and choose what is best for you.

For me the greatest benefit of networking is as a company or person you can tender for bigger jobs that you would of otherwise not been able to tender for.  Think about this from a price perpective you will be cheaper and leaner, you can trade in any country and your knowledge and expertise will always have the leading edge in comparison to companies that trade through an employed workforce or choose not to move with the method of collaboration and networking. The power houses of the future will be people who are connected to the best skilled people.

I hope you enjoyed reading my point of view and welcome you to contact me at www.intravici.com or through  my profiles   http://www.ecademy.com/user/michaelbutler2 and http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbutler777 .