Monday, December 31, 2007

When debugging, watch your watches

I should know better.

We had a section of code where a new 'document' was created in our web app. A document in this app consists of data in various tables. So, what happens is, we start adding rows to the tables in the dataset, but before we add any rows, we turn off EnforceConstraints for the dataset.

Later, right before we Save the dataset, we run a method, IsValid, which turns EnforceConstraints back on, and checks the dataset's HasErrors.

So, our flow works like this:

CreateButton.Click
  EnforceConstraints = False
  ... add a bunch of rows, which may at times have Nulls where their shouldn't be.
  ... Nulls get filled in.
  IsValid
    EnforceConstraints = True
    ... If HasErrors, throw exception.
  Save
End Method

Now, what would happen if you put IsValid in the Watch window? That's right, EnforceConstraints would be set to True very frequently.

I'll go bandage the hole in my foot now.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

A new idea in music.

At least it is to me.
http://www.yourmusic.com/

It sounds like, you pay $6.99/month, and then order the CDs you want.

Has anybody tried this or investigated?

Thursday, December 20, 2007

In regards to my last post

Some may dislike my comments on a custom that many people cherish.

Everybody has beliefs. Some people base their beliefs on how they were raised. Some base them on what they hear at a church. The interesting thing is, many people do not question their beliefs honestly and openly very often.

I feel that I have based my beliefs on facts. Facts that I have seen with my own two eyes. There is nothing wrong with being presented with facts and coming to believe as the presenter, as long as your are testing their facts for truthfulness. My parents will confirm, I test.

I have come to believe, through non-biblical sources as well as the 'Good Book' itself, that the bible is the inspired word of god.
(2 Tim. 3:16) (also see New American Standard Bible)
Why You Can Trust the Bible

I have come to see that if you do not believe the entire bible, or add to it, you might as well not believe any of the bible.
(Galatians 1:6-9) (see also New International Version)
(1 John 4:3) (see also New American Standard Bible)
(Revelation 22:18) (see also New Living Translation)

I have come to see that God hates idols, idol worship, and using symbols, including trees, to worship him.
(Isaiah 40:18-22) (also see New International Version)

I have come to see that there is a better way to remember Jesus, and that Christmas actually DIShonors him.
(John 2:13-16) (see also Amplified Bible)
(A Birth to Be Remembered)
    Granted, Jesus’ birth was remarkable, but his early
disciples attached much more importance to what he did
and to what he taught. Surely God never intended Christ’s
birth to eclipse his life as a mature man. Yet, Christmas has
succeeded in obscuring the person of Christ in a mire of
Nativity legends and folklore.

Many people pray for god's kingdom to come, just as Jesus told us to.
(Matthew 6:9-13) (see also New International Reader's Version)
(What Does the Lord’s Prayer Mean to You?)

This model prayer says we should make God's name known. (Jesus' father)

It also states we should pray for God's kingdom to come.
Do you know what God's kingdom is or what it will do for mankind?
(Daniel 2:44) (Today's New International Version)

Perhaps we should focus on the everlasting message Jesus brought instead of giving each other gifts that will eventually come to nothing.
(What Does the Messiah's Coming Mean to You?)

You'll notice, I've used several bible translations to come to my conclusion. I've also included links in this post to resources that go into greater depth on the subjects. Shouldn't we all test our beliefs?

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

My thoughts exactly

I had to post this. See more at http://www.dilbert.com/

>>>
Dear Dogbert,

How do holiday traditions get started? I mean, who goes first?

Brian

Dear Brine,

Traditions are started by attractive people who are not too bright. Ugly people can’t start trends, with the obvious exception of scrapping, because no one wants to do what ugly people do. And smart people are unlikely to come up with ideas such as killing a perfectly good tree, covering it with crap, and keeping it in the living room for a month.

Sincerely,

Dogbert

Monday, December 10, 2007

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Up to date

To keep everybody up to date:
Circuit Assembly was great.

Steph is ok. She was only in the emergency room for 2 - 2 1/2 hours. They gave her an IV because she was dehydrated, and some medicine to settle her stomach. The doctor said it was a stomach virus and would run it's course. She's feeling better but week.

It's important to keep things up to date. But that can be hard when you have tons of links scattered throughout your blog. Like this link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dndotnet/html/persistappsettnet.asp from a post on January 10, 2005. The page doesn't exist.

However, the page did once exist, and the Wayback machine helped me find it with this link: http://web.archive.org/web/20050909193245/http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dndotnet/html/persistappsettnet.asp

I'm taking some of the content, and I'm going to put it on my site, since it was so helpful to me.