Archive for October, 2004
Free Tools from SysInternals
Oct 24th
There are some great free tools over at http://www.sysinternals.com/.
Get them now before someone like Computer Associates buys the company and starts charging
for them.
Personally, one tool in particular called ‘FileMon’ helped solve a tricky file locking
problem on a recent project. FileMon showed the massive amount of files opened/closed
by our software. A little analysis identified the few files that were not being closed.
Stepping through code using debug mode and watching FileMon made it easy to see which
chunk of code was opening the file. Five more minutes of work rewrote the complex
file opening/closing code and the bug has not been seen again. Before using FileMon
I had wasted a full working day try to track down the rouge code.
Thanks to ‘Writing Secure Code’ for mentioning these tools. Michael Howard recommends
them for discovering why applications fail to run as non-admin users.
FileMon In Use:
RegMon is very similar, but watches registry access:
Backup your Blogs
Oct 18th
Probably everyone already does this, but if not it is incredibly easy to create a
DTS package that will do a nightly backup of your blog. The only semi-tricky part
is realizing you have to start the Windows Service SQLSERVERAGENT. My Domain server
is on 24×7 and it is comforting to know every evening it makes a backup of these jottings.
On a related note, does anyone remember seeing this on my blog:
.Text – Application Error!
Details
A blog matching the location
you requested was not found. Host = [dotnetworkaholics.com], Application = [blog]
>
It was due to two domains pointing to the same IP address. For an as-yet-unknown reason
the primary alias changed once in a while. Luckily it only took about five minutes
to download the .Text source code, make a quick modification and upload recompiled dlls.
If anyone sees the error again please let me know.
Agile Atlanta
Oct 18th
With the seemingly constant bombardment of .Net acronyms and technologies, few seem
to bother about how we plan, design and build software anymore. When starting my blog
such subjects were to be the main focus, but heck I’ll bow to the fashions and won’t
bore people too often about non-sexy buzzwords. This post is (of course) an exception.
’s Agile (ex eXtreme Programming) user group is highly enjoyable, and good opportunity
to hear from seasoned experts in software development. Attendees tend to be in their
late 30’s and 40’s but there is little stuffiness that you may encounter at other
expert-heavy groups in town.
The last meeting was a presentation by Jim Highsmith who wrote the book on ‘Agile
Project Management’ – I even won the book which is always a bonus. The presentation
was very enjoyable and informative; anyone not there missed a treat. Keep an eye on
this group’s agenda, they sometimes get geek superstars like
Martin Fowler to present.
Not to labor on, but if you currently work in a chaotic environment, try to attend
a meeting or two, it may bring a little more order to your dev life with little extra
effort. The next meeting should be an introduction to Agile Development: http://xp.thatatlantasite.com/index.html Meetings
are at the
in Dunwoody – I know it is getting cold but don’t wear a Black Hat in their building, I hear security will march you out!