So recently I was playing with an abstraction for dynamic LINQ queries. The typical usage scenario arises when one needs to search one or more tables with “dynamic” filter patterns. Usually this is one of those intoxicating multiple search criteria (“Advanced Search”) screens. To illustrate my point, let’s work with […]
In recent years I’ve noted a decline in television show quality & production values, not to mention – alarmingly – that most of my favourite shows have ended or been shown the door (cancelled). This morning I was lamenting the absence of good writing and acting – no doubt due […]
Hi All, I just wanted to bring your attention to the upcoming Microsoft Tech Days – a 24 hour event. You can get most of the info from the official site – https://www.msfttechdays.com/public/home.aspx – however seeing as this is a unique event, I thought I’d highlight some of the awesome […]
Welcome to my office.. Here is a view from the double doors leading inside.. Ahead is the main desk (with air conditioning and a nice large window behind). There are some backpacks and satchels next to the whiteboard on the left hand side, below the Millennium Falcon (the collectors series […]
You have to give Australian ISP iiNet credit for participating in the first round of the Government’s increasingly unpopular web filtering trials. In retrospect, it was the only way to evaluate the Government’s real motivation for such a draconian tactic. According to news.com.au, iiNet have been quoted as leaving the […]
Well, most of the votes have been tallied and it looks certain that Queensland has returned the hapless Labor administration to power for god only knows why. This is a great time to be in politics because it’s quite clear that the voting public are complete idiots easily swayed – […]
Recently I had to determine, given a specific date, what the recurrence of that date’s day of the week was within the month; for example, today (the 20th of March 2009) is the 3rd Friday this month. In addition, I also had to determine whether it was also the last […]
A question was posed: “If a table is not being used in a relational context, what are the benefits of putting a [clustered] index on the table?” Well, I’d highly recommend reading this article on (1) SQL indexes although it is a bit detailed. The short hand summary is that […]
Hi Everyone, Next week I’m off to Sydney from Sunday to Tuesday night which means I might get some more posts done shortly. The majority of our unpacking is done which leaves me with a bit more time to plug away on the computer and continue to write some interesting […]
Many years ago now, I used to enjoy the functionality of the Windows Power Toy suite of utilities (which included TweakUI, an image resizer, “command prompt here” etc). Unfortunately, they have long since been forgotten and do not run on the newer Microsoft operating systems. One of my most often […]
Not unlike that trusty old Windows file copy dialog which never seems to quite hit 100%, moving is an ordeal which is – almost – never ending. On the weekend we finished moving from Brisbane to our new home in the Gold Coast – approximately 30-40 minutes south on the […]
Well, you know.. All I can say is… “Get used to it”. This is a screen cap of the front page of News.com.au with one article on the bleak future for many employees of clothing manufacturer Pacific Brands whilst two articles below, an article on money Kevin Rudd and the […]
I’ve heard a lot of confusion about Gmail and the routing of email to the wrong user account. I thought I’d repost this from the Gmail help section, to clear up confusions. It seems once you’ve managed to register an email address, no one else can register a variation containing […]
I’m going to coin the phrase ‘Functional Transparency’ because it fits the definition. I’ve been working with functional transparency in LINQ to SQL for a few weeks now, and it seems to be working well enough to write about. The objective is to implement additional (background) functionality which is not […]
It’s always interesting to observe a couple of strong ideologues debate philosophic tenets in the public limelight. Especially when it relates to development process methodology. Whether this particular series of incidents merits much attention is anyone’s guess. However, if you hold (1) The Joel Test in any regard (and you […]