65 posts from: Jonathan Cogley's Blog
Cleaning the BlackBerry 8820 track ball
(Indexed 2008-01-28):
I love my 8820 ... I have had it for about a year and it replaced my 8700 which I also loved. I was a little skeptical when I first got the 8820 because the beloved thumb wheel was gone and replaced by a track ball in the middle of the phone. But it didn't take long before I was happily scrolling around the screen enjoyed the improved 4-way motion. :) Then one day moving to the left suddenly stopped working. I could move the track ball to the left but it didn't move on screen....(truncated)...
Speaking on Refactoring at RockNUG in March
(Indexed 2008-01-25):
I will be presenting on Refactoring in C# at the Rockville .NET User Group (RockNUG) on March 12th 2008 at 6:30pm. Refactoring in C# - Bad code to better code What could be more fun on a Wednesday evening than critiquing some bad code and making it better? :) Come along to learn how to clean code like the Thycotic team. What do we look for? How do we take small steps to keep it working? What tips and tricks make it easier? This session will be code, code and more code (and a few unit t...(truncated)...
Bad password requirements
(Indexed 2008-01-24):
This morning I signed up with a major credit card company website. Much to my surprise I was greeted with this requirement while choosing a password: Your Password should contain 6 to 8 characters . at least one letter and one number (not case sensitive), contain no spaces or special characters (e.g. &, >, *, $, @) and be different from your User ID. Let's review these limitations: 6-8 characters - Requiring a minimum of 6 seems reasonable but still not very strong. Capping the...(truncated)...
Secret Server 4.0 has shipped!
(Indexed 2007-12-22):
[Image] We were hoping to ship one day early but a few delays in getting some updated artwork and some of the upgrade documentation caused us to ship yesterday on the scheduled day. Secret Server has never missed a launch date since first being released in November 2005 - this is something we attribute to Test Driven Development, Pair Programming and an agile planning schedule. Usually this means reducing scope slightly as the launch date approaches - this time we had to drop a fix...(truncated)...
Removing dead code
(Indexed 2007-12-05):
[Image] What does your code terrain look like? Are there bodies of dead logic lying here and there? Maybe they helped briefly while you worked towards a better solution or perhaps they just fell victim to changing business rules. At a recent Code Camp, there was a question about code generation and I answered that we (as developers) are required to love every line of code (it drew a laugh from many). But love isn't cheap ... it takes time, care and hard work. Therefore w...(truncated)...
RockNUG tonight - Geoff Snowman showed off BizTalk Server
(Indexed 2007-11-15):
[Image]I attended my first event at the new Rockville .NET User Group (RockNUG) in Maryland tonight. Geoff Snowman, our local Microsoft integration specialist showed off the latest BizTalk Server (BTS) technology and talked about the future of BTS and its related products. As Geoff pointed out, BTS is a niche product that works well for large customers that have unique or complex integration requirements. The power of BTS was clearly in its mapping/transformation abilities, fle...(truncated)...
Symmetric Salting - remember that salt goes with more than just hash
(Indexed 2007-11-15):
If you understand hashing and salting then skip the next paragraph. Stored passwords for logins should be hashed and salted. Hashing is a one way mechanism to produce a practically unique value based on the given input. This is useful since we can store the hash (and validate the password whenever needed) without storing the actual password. The same input will always produce the same hashed value which is useful for validating password logins but it is also problematic sin...(truncated)...
Do you have what it takes to be a Thycotic TDD Developer?
(Indexed 2007-10-11):
[Image] Thycotic is gearing up for a new product development cycle and we are looking to grow our team of passionate test-first developers. Our team is one of the best places to learn and improve your agile development skills. Can you solve the problem below? http://www.thycotic.com/codetest.txt Please submit your solution with your resume to tddjobs@thycotic.com You will be joining a highly capable team of .NET developers who work on consulting projects for clients and interesting products...(truncated)...
Agile Estimating and Planning with TargetProcess - RCC4
(Indexed 2007-10-08):
On Saturday, the Thycotic crew (well, only three of us this time) went down to Richmond to the forth Richmond Code Camp. It is a 2 hour drive but my new handy TomTom GPS did well - asides from one occasion where it decided to re-route us back through Washington DC when we were only 30 minutes from the event! Kevin presented on "C# 3.0" and the audience seemed very pleased with the content. We had seen the presentation the day before at an internal Thycotic meeting so we knew it would be intere...(truncated)...
Secret Server 3.1 has shipped.
(Indexed 2007-08-01):
[Image] You can download it here. The release notes are here. It was an aggressive schedule to turn these features from proposals after TechEd in June to shipped by the end of July. This was all achieved with a team of four developers (five if you count my occasional 10 lines of code on this project!), Test Driven Development, Pair Programming and almost Continuous Integration (we are still having some problems with CruiseControl.NET on this project due to all the external dependencies in Secr...(truncated)...
Shipping Software ... Secret Server 3.1 Sneak Peek
(Indexed 2007-07-30):
Shipping software is one of the most exciting times for a development team but this new release is easily the most anticipated version of Secret Server to date by our customers. Secret Server 3.1 will feature the two most requested features from customers who visited our booth at TechEd in June 2007: full Active Directory synchronization along with remote password changing. I am very proud of our team being able to take both of these features from whiteboard to release in about 7 weeks. What t...(truncated)...
The Case of the missing ASP.NET tab in IIS
(Indexed 2007-07-26):
We recently had a problem on our development build server that had us puzzled. The ASP.NET tab disappeared and our CruiseControl.NET server quit working. We had seen the problem with CruiseControl.NET before - a serialization error on DateTime - and we knew it was related to running the dashboard in the wrong version of ASP.NET. So the two issues seemed to be related. I finally came across a blog post today that named the cause of the issue and a fix that worked so I thought I would help spre...(truncated)...
Some photos from TechEd 2007
(Indexed 2007-06-11):
Kevin has posted some of our photos from TechEd 2007. [Image] My personal favorite was the Secret Server remote office at the Orlando airport bar - 4 geeks all with laptops! :) TechEd was very different for me this year since it was my first experience as an exhibitor and not an attendee (I didn't attend a single session!). However the customer feedback on Secret Server was phenomenal - talking to several hundred potential customers can certainly help shape your product roadmap! As always, Se...(truncated)...
Still putting your passwords in Excel?
(Indexed 2007-06-06):
[Image] There is a better way. Stop by the Secret Server booth at TechEd (booth #946) to see our latest version - Secret Server 3.0. If you are not at the show, you can try out a free hosted version here or download it here. (more info here) Secret Server is a central web-based repository for you to track all your server, network, local admin passwords and more - then securely share them with other members on your team - never lose or forget a password again! The response at TechEd has bee...(truncated)...
Arrived at Microsoft TechEd 2007 in Orlando, FL and first shot of the Secret Server 3.0 booth
(Indexed 2007-06-03):
[Image] We arrived in sunny Orlando this morning after meeting at Reagan Airport around 5am - needless to say that everyone was a little tired but there was definitely excitement in the air. We were greeted by the sign for TechEd right in the Orlando airport ... nice touch. Thycotic has a good showing at TechEd this year - we have two booth staff and two developers attending sessions (this is also our first year with a booth at TechEd to showcase Secret Server). I will not be attending sessio...(truncated)...
Non-Technology Thinking
(Indexed 2007-05-07):
[Image] Synchronized, sealed, variable, interface and even tool. These words all conjure up very specific things in the mind of a programmer or IT person. Much to my surprise they hold very different meanings for non-technology people - well at least the word "tool". This last week, I was invited to attend a meeting of the Arlington Business Council. It was their spring kick off event and it was very well organized and attended. The variety of the business people present was quite amazing ...(truncated)...
Secret Server goes to Microsoft TechEd 2007 in Orlando
(Indexed 2007-05-03):
[Image] This will be the first year that Thycotic has a vendor booth at Microsoft TechEd. This is an exciting milestone for the company and we are busy with preparations for the conference. There will be four of us from the team going - the flights and hotels are booked. Dan Parker and I will be staffing the booth during regular hours and are planning to meet lots of interesting people. Kevin and Pouya will actually get to go see the sessions and then will be helping out on exhibitor night. ...(truncated)...
Richmond Code Camp 3 reviewed
(Indexed 2007-05-02):
[Image] This last Saturday morning, the Thycotic team headed to Richmond at a bright and early 6am. This alone wouldn't have been too bad but some on the team had been busy until 2am on a client project! For the first Richmond Code Camp ever, it actually didn't rain (it rained all day for the last two). John started out with his presentation on NHibernate which drew a large audience. I watched Hal Hayes (of Acritech) present on XQuery which is an interesting session that I have somehow missed...(truncated)...
CMAP Code Camp Sessions are posted
(Indexed 2007-04-12):
[Image] The CMAP Code Camp is being held on Saturday 4/21/2007 from 9AM to 7PM - you can register here. The sessions for the day have been posted here. It looks like a great spread of SQL, Web, future stuff, alterative languages and some Agile. Also don't miss the NovaCodeCamp in Reston, Virginia this Saturday. I think April is most definitely the Code Camp month. :) Jonathan Cogley is the CEO and founder of Thycotic Software, a .NET consulting company and ISV in Washington DC. Our product, ...(truncated)...
Kevin Jones is now an ASP.NET MVP!
(Indexed 2007-04-10):
Our own Kevin Jones has been awarded MVP for ASP.NET by Microsoft. This award recognizes his excellence in technical skills and his contributions to the community in spreading best practices in software development. Kevin has been instrumental in the development of Secret Server since 2.0 and now including Secret Server Online. He has been involved in some fun stuff including SHA512, AES256, symmetric hashing and encrypting Unicode. He has a passion for security and cryptography with lots of ...(truncated)...
The Indulgences of Open Source
(Indexed 2007-04-09):
[Image] I am always amused by the complete lack of customer savviness that open source projects sometimes demonstrate. Of course I am not being fair at all and my observations are in no way scientific and I am sure you can find ten more examples of commercial companies doing the same. With that in mind, here are my two examples: DokuWikiA great wiki platform, my favorite to date - recommended to me by two techies at a Virginia networking event and I haven't looked back since; asides from an a...(truncated)...
Refactoring example in C# and VB.NET
(Indexed 2007-03-26):
Our very own Bryant Smith has revamped his conversion of Martin Fowler's refactoring example (originally in Java) to now cover both C# and VB.NET. You can find the article here with the relevant downloads and walkthrough. Martin Fowler's example works nicely because it is a simple class structure that is easy to understand. It also has enough complexity to allow refactorings like MoveMethod to show how data and operations should be related. I also like Bob Martin's refactoring example on ge...(truncated)...
Whitespace is a code smell
(Indexed 2007-03-23):
[Image]Do you space out your code so there are line breaks between the pieces of logic? Why do you think this is necessary? Typically this is done to separate chunks of logic so that they can be easily distinguished. If it is a complicated enough chunk, then it may even make sense to put a comment at the top of the chunk. At this point, the Agile police will jump on you and tell you to turn your comment into a method name and perform an Extract Method refactoring. This is great practice (fe...(truncated)...
Pair Programming improves your communication skills
(Indexed 2007-03-20):
Many developers in our industry prefer a dark corner to the presentation podium. This is often explained away with references to introverted personalities and geekish tendencies. While this may be true for certain individuals, there are definitely many benefits to breaking away from this stereotype. One of the best ways to progress in the business world is to develop strong communication skills - customers want to be understood and the combination with technical ability provides a powerful sk...(truncated)...
Code Review - Standing on the shoulders of smart people
(Indexed 2007-03-19):
[Image]A very intelligent person once said:"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."The person in question, is of course none other than Sir Isaac Newton. He was able to go further with his discoveries because others had solved some of the details already and provided a layer of abstraction for him to improve upon. When doing a code review, I often encounter a little defensiveness. Since we practice pair programming almost exclusively, this code review usually happ...(truncated)...
Writing "good" code: How do you understand code?
(Indexed 2007-03-19):
John Morales has a great post on understanding complexity and how to think about difficult concepts. I think John hits on a key concept in the idea of "good code" while I realize it wasn't the main focus of his post: good code is simple for everyone (the team in question) to understand. I think this falls in nicely with our typical #1 goal on projects - writing maintainable code. I always smile when I hear the saying "if it is was hard to write, it should be hard to read" and nothing could b...(truncated)...
Live Writer
(Indexed 2007-03-16):
This is my second post with Live Writer and so far it seems pretty good. We have been using BlogJet for a while and really like the intuitive interface although it seems like Live Writer has most of the same features. Being able to easily pull up an earlier blog post to make a correction is such a great feature for me since I always spot typos or missing links after the post goes out. I was also very impressed with the easy configuration of Live Writer - I simply pointed it to my blog url, gave...(truncated)...
Code Camps, Code Camps, Code Camps.
(Indexed 2007-03-16):
I presented on Pair Programming at the Maryland ColdFusion User's Group on Tuesday and was very pleased to tell everyone about all the upcoming Code Camps in our area. I also promised to post the links to the group, so here they are: 4/14/2007 NoVa Code Camp (Reston, Virginia) 4/21/2007 CMAP Code Camp (Baltimore, MD) 4/28/2007 Richmond Code Camp (Richmond, Virginia) Thycotic is buzzing with Code Camp excitement and everyone has been submitting session proposals and coordinating topics. We sho...(truncated)...
Yet Another Mid-Atlantic Code Camp - but AGILE!!! (April 14, 2007 8am-6pm)
(Indexed 2007-02-26):
Do you breathe agile? Do your progress bars always turn green? Do you refactor in your sleep? Then I need you for the agile track … We are looking for attendees, speakers and volunteers! This is the first Mid-Atlantic Code Camp to have an official Agile track (and I am the track chair – woohoo!)AttendeesRegister here, now, just do it.SpeakersWhat are you waiting for? Fill in this form and upload it here.VolunteersSend an email to volunteers at novacodecamp dot orgThe official ...(truncated)...
Will TDD become mainstream?
(Indexed 2007-02-25):
I have been asked a number of times in the last few years if I think TDD (Test Driven Development) will go mainstream. Firstly, we need to agree on what mainstream is – Wikipedia does not give any hard numbers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream) but it seems like 20% would be a good number for software development (I pulled this out of thin area – please share your thoughts). For TDD to have that much mindshare (in the stubborn software development world) would firmly seat TDD...(truncated)...
Speaking on TDD at the CMAP Architect Group in Maryland tonight (2/20/2007)
(Indexed 2007-02-20):
I will be presenting on Test Driven Development at the CMAP Architect Group in Maryland. Session details and directions here.Abstract: TDD is hard. It is hard because we have to unlearn the way many of us have always coded. Instead we have to start writing unit tests and what is more; we have to write the test BEFORE the code. Come along to learn the history, theory and then participate in an onscreen coding session TDD-style. There will be lots of opportunity to ask questions and see if TDD is...(truncated)...
Want a new email signature? (ShorterSigs)
(Indexed 2007-02-18):
ShorterSigs is a new service from Thycotic Software which solves the problem of communicating relevant contact information (and even your photo!) without cluttering up your email messages. This is just what every techie needs whether posting to forums, newsgroups or just a friendly chat among your peers.Here is my public ShorterSig:http://shortersigs.com/50454T3F7R3NGet yours here.http://shortersigs.comThey are secure, customizable and free.Shortersigs is built in C# and ASP.NET with a Microsof...(truncated)...
When the developer tools fail
(Indexed 2007-01-24):
As developers, we pride ourselves on our analytical skills and being able to quickly deduce a problem. Being “engineers” and “craftsmen” we use tools to gain insight and learn about a problem while we determine our diagnosis. Every now and then, the tools fail. This evening I was dabbling with some licensing code in one of our dependent .dlls to troubleshoot a problem that one of UK customers is having. We had our suspicions that the problem is a globalization issue w...(truncated)...
Looking for the perfect job where you can do Test Driven Development and Pair Programming?
(Indexed 2007-01-22):
Thycotic is growing once again – we are looking for another top calibre developer to join our team - this is a great opportunity to practice agile techniques on the Microsoft .NET platform from an experienced team while working on great products and with interesting clients.We are looking for a highly skilled, motivated .NET software developer to join our consulting team. We are a unique employer since we practice Test Driven Development and Pair Programming and focus on constantly improv...(truncated)...
TDD Programmer Internship with Thycotic
(Indexed 2007-01-17):
We are currently offering a programming internship on our developer team. This is a great opportunity to improve your skills and see if you have what it takes to become a Thycotic developer. We practice Test Driven Development, Pair Programming and Continuous Integration. We are a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and are breaking new ground in the security space with products such as Secret Server and our Two Factor Authentication technologies.If you are looking for a developer minded company...(truncated)...
5 things you don't know about me (probably)
(Indexed 2007-01-15):
This has been going around for a while and Andy finally got me.I was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa (yes, that gives me a funny accent!).I worked for a few years in London (my folks are British).My first professional programming language was Perl (and I still dabble in it every now and then).I studied Microbiology and Genetics at college and was supposed to go into Biotechnology before the programming bug kicked in.I like to fly kites – I started with two line sport kites bu...(truncated)...
Thycotic presented in Rockville, MD at WinProTeam
(Indexed 2006-12-10):
This last Wednesday, myself and two other members of the Thycotic team presented at the WinProTeam Rockville meeting.Topic: Data Access Strategies for your .NET DevelopmentThree sessions presented by members of our Thycotic team – John Morales, Ryan Olshan and me.1. ADO.NET Interfaces and how to be database agnosticEver wanted to support Oracle and SQL Server for your software product? We will look at the ADO.NET interfaces and how you can write more generic code by using them. The free op...(truncated)...
Bait and switch leaves a sour taste
(Indexed 2006-11-13):
I am surprised at a new trend (ok, so only based on 2 experiences recently) but companies will make their product available for free (as in beer), get a lot of users and market share - then discontinue the free edition and start charging. TestDriven.NETAVGWhile I understand the appeal of such a strategy, it does leave a very sour taste in the consumer’s mouth. Paying for software is a good thing (heck, we charge for Secret Server) and everyone needs to be able to pay their bills …...(truncated)...
Presentations at WinProTeam - ADO.NET interfaces, Gentle.NET, LINQ, Refactoring
(Indexed 2006-11-02):
Unfortunately my co-presenters were not able to make the WinProTeam presentation due to unforeseen circumstances so I went it alone. This meant that the topics had to change a little but the audience seemed agreeable. The schedule for the evening changed to:ADO.NET InterfacesThis is a favorite topic of mine since many people still seem to miss the boat with ADO.NET and use the boilerplate SQLConnection/SQLDataAdapter code everywhere. This presentation explores IDbConnection, IDbCommand, IData...(truncated)...
Thycotic is presenting at the WinProTeam Vienna meeting tonight (Wednesday 11/1 6-9pm)
(Indexed 2006-11-01):
Three sessions will be presented by Jonathan Cogley and John Morales of Thycotic Software at the WinProTeam User Group meeting in Vienna, Virginia tonight.Theme: Data Access Strategies for your .NET Development1. ADO.NET Interfaces and how to be database agnostic Ever wanted to support Oracle and SQL Server for your software product? We will look at the ADO.NET interfaces and how you can write more generic code by using them. The free open source API Thycotic.Data also makes working with multi...(truncated)...
MSSQLTips.com
(Indexed 2006-10-14):
While at the Verify 2006 Conference, I got to catch up with Jeremy Kadlec (one of our local NOVASQL User Group leaders) and found out about some of the new things that Edgewood Solutions are doing. The Edgewood team, who are experts in Microsoft SQL Server, are now publishing a daily Microsoft SQL Server tip on their website http://www.mssqltips.comSome recent tips that grabbed my attention:Deleting Data: TRUNCATE vs DELETEThe NORECOMPUTE option of UPDATE STATISTICSImprove Performance with SQL ...(truncated)...
Upgrading memory in the Toshiba M400 Tablet PC
(Indexed 2006-10-14):
My new laptop is a Toshiba M400 Tablet PC – it only came with 1GB RAM which I planned to upgrade. I ordered two 1GB sticks of M400–compatible RAM from EZ-Computer (EDGE MEMORY - PERIPHERAL KTT667D2/1G-PE 1GB PC25300 NONECC UNBUFF 200PIN DDR2 SODIMM). When the sticks arrived, I started poking around the back of the tablet only to discover that there was no memory compartment!? After searching around the net, I came across this awesome detailed explanation of the procedure from Tosh...(truncated)...
Verify 2006 Conference : Review
(Indexed 2006-10-12):
There was a good turnout for the Verify 2006 Conference especially since it is the very first year of the conference. The attendees were typically software testers or software development managers. There weren’t many developers so the Thycotic crew was a little out of our comfort zone but they were a great bunch to pitch on our Secret Server product.One of the hardest parts when building an ‘off the shelf’ product is understanding the customers needs – because there is ...(truncated)...
Verify 2006 Conference: Day One (arrived)
(Indexed 2006-10-10):
Thycotic is sponsoring our first ever vendor booth at the Verify 2006 Conference in Crystal City, VA (Washington DC Metro Area). The conference is all about testing, testing frameworks and tools but from a quality assurance and developer perspective. Thycotic is well versed in testing since we practice Test Driven Development and use NUnit and NUnitAsp every day!The morning started well with Shiva and I meeting at the office at 6am to get some promotional items and one of the workstations with...(truncated)...
Richmond Code Camp 2 : review
(Indexed 2006-10-10):
At 5:00am on Saturday morning, I headed in to downtown DC to get some prizes and a few books from the Thycotic office. Then off to collect Ryan Olshan at 5:30, and John Morales at 5:45. We hit 95 and headed south for Richmond. The drive was uneventful with most of us still in pre-coffee haze and Bob Marley playing. We got to the Code Camp at the ECPI center well before the kickoff time and claimed our hard earned coffee and bagels (outstanding cream cheese from Panera!).The turn out was good...(truncated)...
Speaking at Richmond Code Camp tomorrow
(Indexed 2006-10-07):
I will be presenting two sessions at the Richmond Code Camp tomorrow:RefactoringThis will be a walkthrough of the Martin Fowler example but in C# (thanks to our very own, Bryant Smith who converted it to C# some time back). We will also get in to why, when and how to refactor.Unit Testing ASP.NET with NUnitAsp and WATIROur team excels with NUnitAsp – we use it daily on all our projects and this session will highlight our tips and tricks. The smaller section on WATIR is very new and is de...(truncated)...
Ryan Olshan (ASP.NET MVP) joins the Thycotic team
(Indexed 2006-08-30):
Ryan Olshan comes to us from California where his main line of work was focused on the non-profit sector. From redesigning the web presence of Pacific Wildlife Project to creating an application for tracking wayward pigeons for the 911 Pigeon Alert group, Ryan has extended his love for animals to a technological aspect. In 2006, he was awarded the Microsoft MVP award in the area of ASP.NET for his ongoing commitment to the ASP.NET community. You can catch him online on many Yahoo! Groups and the...(truncated)...
New office with Pair Programming team room
(Indexed 2006-08-19):
We have just moved our offices from the Vienna, Virginia area to downtown Washington DC. We now have more space for our team room and have tried new strategies to minimize wiring and optimize communication across the team. Here is a picture of 2 pairing stations in the new team room.[Image]The desks are part of the GALANT series from IKEA and we used their new SIGNUM cable holder which screws into the underneath of the desk at the back. This means no cables on the floor!Next step is to get wh...(truncated)...
Pair Programming presentation tonight at NOVASQL
(Indexed 2006-07-24):
I will be presenting on Pair Programming at the Northern Virginia SQL Server User Group tonight. I have done this presentation several times before but it is always fun to hear new perspectives – tonight should be interesting to hear DBA turned developer opinions (many people in this user group seem to fall into that category).Please stop by and share your experiences.** There will be several door prizes including two free 5 user license packs for our product, Secret Server. **We (Thycoti...(truncated)...
Secret Server 1.2 is out! Release notes.
(Indexed 2006-07-03):
Our next release of Secret Server is out. This release includes lots of performance improvements and minor new features as per customer requests. We have also invested a lot of time in support for browser toolbars which we will be releasing soon. The browser toolbar will communicate with your Secret Server instance and automatically log you into web sites! * Slashes are now escaped on Secret View page avoiding any clipboard failures* Quick Search added to the tabs/toolbar* Secrets can now be "de...(truncated)...
Presenting without slides
(Indexed 2006-06-24):
I tried something the weekend before last at the 3rd Mid-Atlantic Code Camp ... I went slideless! I presented 3 sessions during the day and I did not have a single slide, not one, nada, nothing. The good news was the audience loved it. I took a few polls during the day and the response was definitely positive.Pros:Definitely an adhoc, adlib feel to the sessions - it was "real". I even started the first session (The Tao of Test First Coding) by offering 3 choices of things we could build and ...(truncated)...
Pair Programming at DC Extreme Programming User Group tonight!
(Indexed 2006-06-20):
I will be presenting on Pair Programming (something we practice daily at Thycotic) tonight at the Washington DC Extreme Programming User Group. The session involves an exercise (which I have blogged about before) but it is always interesting to hear peoples opinions and past experiences. Pair Programming is definitely something that can have great effect in the right setting but requires disciplined practices and the right people to work effectively.Please stop by to join the group which meets...(truncated)...
What motivates software developers?
(Indexed 2006-05-15):
Developers who simply work for a paycheck have different priorities so I am going to ask you to forget about them for a minute. If you joined software development out of pure passion for the industry then you have a different agenda. Building software is a very creative and constructive process but the intangible nature of software makes the parallels to traditional engineering difficult. The job titles in our industry typically reflect some form of engineering but it seems to have lost its i...(truncated)...
How agile is your country?
(Indexed 2006-05-11):
Google's new Trends service (which appears to be the old Zeitgeist but now on demand) allows you to find out what people are searching on. I tried it with a number of different Microsoft agile terms and was surprised at the results:[Image] It is only a relative comparison without any real numbers or drilldown capability so it is hard to read much into the results. However it seems that other countries are searching for more Microsoft agile stuff than the US. Is this a side effect of offshorin...(truncated)...
.NET TDD Developer opening at Thycotic!
(Indexed 2006-05-11):
In our last round of hiring, I had a great response from my blog post so I am trying it again. We are looking for another top calibre developer to join our team - this is a great opportunity to practice agile techniques on the Microsoft .NET platform from an experienced team while working on great products and with interesting clients.We are looking for a highly skilled, motivated .NET software developer to join our consulting team. We are a unique employer since we build software in a way tha...(truncated)...
Reston Code Camp - Register now.
(Indexed 2006-04-28):
The Reston Code Camp has been announced for June 10th 2006. This will be the 3rd Reston Code Camp - they are a great way to get your skills and knowledge up to date in a single day (and they are free!). You can register here.The Call for Speakers is here. Sahil Malik is chairing the Data Track and is looking for local presenters!I have submitted a few proposals (some new material such as the Tao of TDD and Refactoring) which should be fun. See you there! Jonathan Cogley is the CEO and founde...(truncated)...
Pair Programming Presented
(Indexed 2006-04-25):
Over the last few months, I have presented a session on Pair Programming to two User Groups (WinProTeam Rockville and PA FoxPro) and one Code Camp (Richmond this last weekend). I especially enjoy presenting this topic for a number of reasons: It is not .NET specific so you can take it to many audiences (which gives different perspectives) It draws lots of discussion from the audience who frequently relate personal experiences Audience participation is mandatory by having a hands on exercise It...(truncated)...
MVP Reawarded!
(Indexed 2006-04-19):
I am very pleased to blog that I have been reawarded as a MVP (Microsoft Valued Professional).Recently I have been more involved in the Microsoft marketing and Microsoft partner side of the house and it is amazing how far this credential has been communicated within Microsoft. Microsoft employees are certainly aware of the contributions made by MVPs and seem to always be looking for more ways to engage MVPs in their programs.Ps. Don't miss the Richmond Code Camp this weekend if you are in the ...(truncated)...
Speaking at the Richmond Code Camp on Saturday, 4/22/2006
(Indexed 2006-04-11):
I will be presenting on two topics at the Richmond Code Camp on 4/22/2006. The event starts at 8:30AM and runs all day. If you have never been to a Code Camp before, you are missing out. They are a great place to ask questions and find out about technology from your local community.My topics are: Build and Deploy your applications with NAnt and MSBuild Pair ProgrammingYou can register here.Jonathan Cogley is the CEO and founder of thycotic, a .NET consulting company and ISV in Washingto...(truncated)...
Duplicate column name weirdness in ADO.NET
(Indexed 2006-04-10):
I came across the following issue the other day with a very large stored procedure that had *lots* of columns. Unfortunately I had introduced a duplicate column name by using "as" in my SQL but things definitely work as I expected. Take a look for yourself ... 1 using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection("user id=x;password=y;server=localhost;")) 2 { 3 connection.Open(); 4 SqlDataAdapter adapter = new SqlDataAdapter("SELECT 1 as A, 2 as a, 3 as a", connection); 5 DataSet dataSet ...(truncated)...
Secret Server 1.1 makes the Daily Grind
(Indexed 2006-03-28):
Mike Gunderloy, one of our early adopters, has added our Secret Server 1.1 release to the Daily Grind today! This is a huge compliment from a guru in tools, development and the developer community. Thanks Mike!If you don't know about the Daily Grind, read all about it here. Jonathan Cogley is the CEO and founder of thycotic, a .NET consulting company and ISV in Washington DC. thycotic has just released Thycotic Secret Server which is a secure web-based solution to both "Where is my Hotmail pa...(truncated)...
Feeling your users pain (and release notes for Secret Server 1.1)
(Indexed 2006-03-27):
It is a wonderful feeling to ship software - it has been a long hard slog to get this round of features complete. Especially while juggling our developers across various projects and client work. This is also a welcome release as we get to use all the new features in our own company Secret Server instance. It is also a relief to finally get rid of those few really annoying bugs that I deal with everyday. The process of dogfooding your own application really makes you feel the users pain - th...(truncated)...
Secret Server 1.1 is out ... go and get it!
(Indexed 2006-03-27):
I haven't blogged in a few weeks but I have a few good reasons. Client projects with tight deadlines, the final push for our second big release of Thycotic Secret Server and also holding back on the irresistable urge to talk about features that aren't released yet (not much of a marketing person, huh?). We have listened to feedback and added several features as requested by users. One of the biggest new features - new support for Microsoft Access - which means that you DO NOT have to use Micr...(truncated)...
Last minute presentation: Pair Programming in Fairfax with the Potomac Area FoxPro Users Group
(Indexed 2006-03-01):
Unfortunately the speaker for March is unable to make it so I have been asked if I would present this month instead of later this year. I will be presented on Pair Programming at the Potomax Area FoxPro Users Group on Thursday 2nd March 2006 in Fairfax, VA (I have presented this topic in the past). Directions here.Pair Programming is something we practice on a daily basis and have done so for a few years now. We have tried lots of different layouts and techniques to maximize productivity and ...(truncated)...
Conversion to subversion
(Indexed 2006-02-27):
Thycotic Software has always used the software preferred by our clients and has made recommendations in some cases, mostly away from Visual SourceSafe and its exclusive checkout or generally connected nature. We had been using SourceGear's Vault for our own projects and even had it setup in our online hosted environment for access from our offices and client locations (asides from our own products, we also have open source and internal APIs that our developer consultants would often need to acc...(truncated)...