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Review: Constable Authorization Engine (CAZE)
After about a month and a half, I finally feel that I have had enough time with the Constable Authorization Engine (CAZE, hereafter) that I understand it enough to write about it. This is a big product. I'm actually a little intimidated by it (it's that big). It almost feels like one the Enterprise Library components (it's that big and appears to be that deep)
CAZE is all about application security policy (the rules for security). Dan Appleman describes windows security policy this way (and it applies here): all security policy decisions come down to this one question, "Can this account/role do this...
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SharpTools 2.0...
Last Friday, I saw that Morrison Schwartz had released SharpTools 2.0. I love this tool, btw. It makes writing an addin to VS.Net a whole lot less complicated, and better yet, it's free!
They are having a contest for the best plugin built with their tool. The winner will get a 1GB USB thumb drive.
Oh yeah, and speaking of freebies... someone cashed in on the whole VB6 scenario. Real Software (the makers of RealBasic) is offering a free copy of their RealBasic 5.5 standard to disgruntled VB6 programmers. Note: they are about to release a new...
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I'm all for cheap (read free) code...
[I have managed to pull 2 posts from Brendan (Ok, their more like comments, but expanded comments)].
Brendan, blogged about the fact that he is quickly becoming an Open Source Hippie. For the second time today, I have to say that I agree with him.
I have mentioned in the past that I'm a big fan of SharpZip. I also use a couple of other open source libraries (including PostgreSQL). I'm still not a fan of the GPL, and am not planning on installing a Linux or any other open source OS under anything other than an emulator...
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Invasion of the cheap conference...
So Brendan blogs about why he's not going to TechEd 2005. I agree with him. I'm planning on going to TechEd this year, but only because my employer is footing the bill. I went to the Sells XML Dev Con last October, and would do so again on my own because with Hotel the price was about $750 ($350 for the conference I think). $2000 is too much money.
I want to throw something out to my fellow CodeBetter bloggers (and maybe the community in general). How about we do our own conference? Could a...
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Ken Brubaker: Security Bullets
I'm sure everyone thinks I quit reading Ken's blog a while ago despite
the truce. We definitely have a different opinion about a couple
subjects (that I'm not going to bring up). We both evidently have
a passion for security. (BTW, I definitely still read his blog
despite some of our past disagreement).
Ken has recently read Keith Brown's security book -- The .NET Developer's Guide to Windows Security. Ken has taken the time to distill the into Security Guidelines bulletpoints for his team. He also provides it for us... good post! Thanks Ken!
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Coding Slave: A Message from another Dev Theologian
So I finished reading Coding Slave last weekend. It's taken me awhile to fully process it. Bob Reselman
has written a book that truly describes the programming
condition. I would highly recommend this book for this reason
alone. I know that we all know the issues, but I really like the
way that Bob puts it into perspective. Some of us (American
Coders) think that the problem is outsourcing jobs to other
countries; the real problem (my opinion) is the fact that we have let
greedy people rule us all, so it's not that there are programmers
working for lower wages; it's that we are all in bondage to...
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AJAX (formerly known as Remote Scripting)
The last few days I have noticed an influx of the term AJAX around the
net. After a little bit of investigation I realized that it is
nothing more than a technology that I invented (or maybe Microsoft
did...) I know that may seem hard to believe. But let me
explain.
I have had to support and ASP 3.0 site that has been infested with MS'
classic remote scripting for sometime. I worked with another
developer who absolutely loved the stuff. In the midst of working
with him I managed to create an alternative using IE's native XML
objects and XML Data Islands. (I eventually got into XSLT and
script-based...
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Coding Slave: some thoughts midstream...
Blogging has become for me a lot like coding. I have to blog just like I have to code. I have no choice. I have to get things out. When I have something cool to say, the feedback really helps my ego. When I’m melancholy the feedback also helps me know that others have suffered just like me. It’s really a way for me to connect with others. It’s really weird to sa that I have friends some fairly close who I have never met. (For instance Eric Wise who I just saw was on Instant Messenger right now… although...
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My 220th post (You can pay attention to me if you want to)...
My first post entitled “My first post (please ignore)” was created exactly 1 year ago today. In it I ranted about the number of single post bloggers that I had found on MSDN… I told you, dear reader, to ignore me until I had at least 2 posts… well, 219 posts later we are here.
There were a number of factors that caused me to start blogging (I had been reading blogs for sometime and had considered it as a way to get involved in the community and maybe get one of those MVP awards — something I’ve wanted for awhile). Anyway,...
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D.Code throws down...
My good buddy -- D.Code -- throws down on the whole VB6 petition thing. D.Code is the man behind my infamous "College Students post." He shows his usual brand of humor to put this whole petition thing into perspective (and then ends with a rather funny set of ideas).
I especially like his advice to the VB6 petition signers, college students, and companies in other countries that might outsource my job... Follow his advice, please, so I can guarantee myself some more work. [now, if he only blogged a little more... I'd try to get him on Codebetter]
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.NetCF SP3: TypeLoadException Solved! (AKA more reasons I hate Newsgroups)
Ok, so Tuesday, I blogged about my Compact Framework Problem (right here). To re-cap, I upgraded my Dell Axim X30’s Compact Framework build to SP3 and an App I wrote for a client started throwing a TypeLoadException error and it was complaining about the Dataset class.
First of all, here’s what my problem was (and probably yours). [I’m going to give this to you as clearly as I can]. Check your app very closely. Check the main project and each sub project very carefully… does it target the Compact Framework; Check the project properties to make sure. Next check the references...
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Web services insanity...
I've recently encountered a couple people giving some advice that I think is nonsense. One of them is a Microsoft employee and the other is a contractor here at my work place... I found the advice as an overzealousness to sell people on a new technology without looking at the sense or nonsense of the technology...
So here's the deal my buddy and architect (who has in the past been maligned by me here in hopefully good humor) ran into a discussion and was venting for quite sometime a few days ago. He was talking to an MS Rep (about an project...
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.Net CF SP2/SP3 woes...
[This is going to be one of my pathetic "help me... I refuse to use the newsgroups posts]
I have written a Compact Framework app with Visual Studio.Net and VB.Net (and a little C#). It uses Peter Bromberg's Compressed DataSet which uses pieces of SharpZip and a Binary Formatter hack for the Dataset to give me a compressed dataset for storage on the Pocket Pc.
The app also uses Justin Wenberg's mutliform technique outlined "Another Multiform Framework..." (this is actually a variation on a framework that was built by someone in an MSDN article).
Anyway, I updated my Pocket PC (a Dell Axim X30...
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We interrupt our normal friendly .Net/tech blogging...
For a Rant!
I felt that Geoff's Rant (the last of which is here) answered this subject well... I told myself (stay out of it)... you don't want to be a part of the lunacy... you were a part of it once before, and now you should just stay out of it...
Until, I saw Joel's Spolsky's post here and then Scoble highlighting it again. I think Joel is doing people a disservice as do I think the petition does. I'm not talking about companies here; companies will always make strange decisions to support the unsupportable because they think they can save money... ...
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Scott and Rory go to TecEd - A Love Story (A critique)
Scott and Rory made a movie about how they are both heading out to TechEd… You can view Scott’s post here. The thing that got me is that the opening scene shows Rory walking up to a urinal. If my XmlDevCon experience is valid in any way (and once Rory blogged about the bath rooms… I became ultra observant… no, I’m not some kind of freak… just scientifically curious… err… Ok, I’m a freak… leave me alone), Rory doesn’t appear to use urinals and he especially doesn’t use them if someone else is around. He does wash his hands with...
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Java, C#, and VB programmers
[WARNING: I expect that I may get heavily flamed for this post... especially from my co-conspirators here on codebetter.com... there are a bunch of C#ers here and I'm about to take a couple shots... Please don't take it personal... it's just an observation...][11/12/2007 - Yep, this is an old post]
So I read an interesting post today (I'm still trying to get caught up) on Scott Swigart's Tech Blender [yep, it's from the Feb. 26th, and yes, I'm that far behind in blog reading... right now I browse the Engadget posts and skim Scoble... no time for that kind of heavy...
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Vonage, security, and hosting web apps...
I know that there are a lot of programmers out there who have Vonage. I have had Vonage here at my new house since August. I had noticed that it was harder and harder to get special apps working (I used to have a dedicated VPN running between my house and Dave's, for instance). My configuration, BTW, is Cable Modem to Vonage VOIP box, and VOIP Box to Router (Most people just by the Linksys WRT54G and hack it... I decided that I wanted to try to let the Vonage box control traffic (hopefully that way it could give itself...
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Repost:Visual Studio .Next
Ok, so this weekend I installed Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 (December CTP). I've decided to post a couple observations as I play with the new environment.
First of all, it seems to run fairly fast (for a beta... my experience in the past is that MS Beta's are slow -- my guess is because of the added debug code... this one seems fairly speedy).
I decided since I've spent the last 8 years doing mostly web work I would try a web project... now let's see where is that... “File... New Project” Ok, there's the dialog... web form project... hmmm... Web Control...
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Repost: Some Weird Ideas
This article has caused me to want to throw out some random ideas on OOP (none of which are directly related to the article... BTW, Rory's rant -- during DotNet Rocks Show #97-- on this article is absolutely funny!).
I've begun to see some failings in my Data Access Layer template (look way back in the archives for info on this) that builds a SQL handling class and a business object class. One of the problems is that I am discovering that sometimes I need to be able to tell if the a particular field was null when it came out (and it is still holding the default value). So,...
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Repost: An App I'm Proud of
Bob Reselman stopped by today (just in time). Bob left a little bomb in my life last year on a .Net Rocks show. They gave away the weekly prize to the first 5 people who answered this question - What is something that you've created that you are proud of... BTW, Bob hates the question... pride is one of the 7 deadly sins (and probably the most fatal of them). Nevertheless, I have spent much of my career as a coding slave to someone else (that's the point). Bob's question exposed me for what I...
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Welcome to my blog's new home...
I'm back in action over here at CodeBetter... I'm not going to dwell on the negative. The best part is that all of my blog goes with me. Which means I have all 200+ posts with me and most of the comments. (Thank you, Brendan! You are the man!)
I need a birthday present for my blog. Since I'm coming up on my 1 year anniversary as a blogger I would like some company out there to donate product so I can give something away. I can maybe go for a weird cryptic contest like Rory and Carl were going to...
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SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition
Tim pointed me to this eweek article. At first I was a bit confused (and griped at Tim because I felt their message was inconsistent), I thought that SQL Server 2005 Express allowed 10 users and that Workgroup drops me back to 5 users (so I have to buy Cals for the same number of users). I just discovered this blog entry that helps me understand a little better.
According to what I can find SQL Express has unlimited users but limited hardware and database size (it also includes replication, and some reporting features). They are really wanting Express to replace...
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Considering a new host...
Considering all the comment spam I've been enduring recently I've been considering changing blog hosts. I took care of all the comment spam last night before I went to bed and found that I had 7 new pieces of comment spam overnight. I'm getting a lot of it again.
I'm considering moving my blog because I can't take this. I understand where Donny is coming from, but I can't take the comment spam... the site instability is something I can handle (believe it or not), but I need to not have to kill all this comment spam (and when I...
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Avaratec Review... Update
Ok, so I originally posted a review of my Avaratec TabletPC here. In my review I failed to mention battery life (I did post in the comments). Battery life is more or less as advertised (3 hours). But wireless sucks the life out of the battery you usually get about 2 hours out of the battery that way. Multimedia really sucks the life out of it... playing a movie from a CD will reduce your battery life to 1-1.5 hours (at best). If you are using the tablet for notes word processing, etc. than you can probably get the 3...
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Catching up..
In case you haven't been able to guess I'm on vacation. I took 2 weeks off from work to help my wife out with the new baby (and the almost 3 year old that we already had). It's been very relaxing and somewhat good for my sanity. I haven't even really thought about work (I go back on Monday), but I have managed to build a couple apps for myself (as noted here).
This last part has been awesome for my own self-image. After 11+ years working for the “man,” building him buttons that he can make money off of,...