This week I want to write  something about security with the MSBA from Microsoft. After a hard week working with the new blade series from HP we do have a bit of insight of the benefits of the c7000. This time the security geek’s will be pleased. First we take a look at the question “what is an Blade Center?”. A blade center is an 12 U high rack mounted system. In this box you have six 2700 Watt power supplies, eight multi-function network slots, ten high performance fans and place for up to 32 dual Quad Core Server. The whole center can be managed from two websites. So its very cool for IT professionals.

Hardware blade, bladecenter, c7000, hp

A little while ago I was helping a colleague of mine to subscribe to the planetgeek.ch syndication feed with microsoft outlook. I personally use rss bandit because I think this is a really nice and small application. But nevertheless I thought with outlook I should be as easy as it is currently with rss bandit.

But see what happens if you try to subscribe to our syndication feed:

Announcement, Software Feed, outlook, planetgeek, RSS, subscribe, Syndication

I’m often hearing thoughts about Test Driven Development from people not using it, which are not true (at least not 100%).

Therefore, I want to describe some of these myths here:

• Writing unit tests is difficult and complex
• Projects take longer because of the additional test code that has to be written
• Not everything can be tested with unit tests. Therefore TDD cannot be used.
• There is no need for architecture and design because TDD claims to evolve that from tests

Methodology, Software, Test Driven Development Architecture, Design, Myths, TDD, Test Driven Development, Unit Test

Today I stumbled upon the problem eclipse did not find some classes with the code completition or [Ctrl-Shift-T]. If you write the class name in the code everything looks ok. I tried to clean my workspaces with rebuild etc. did not work.

But there is hope: After deleting all content in .metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.jdt.core eclipse re-indexes the workspace again and everything is ok. I guess -clean as startup parameter would work likewise but I can’t verify.

Java, Software code completition, eclipse, indexing, Java

Have you ever used your own custom ant task in the eclipse environment. Well – I have written some ant tasks and they are being used by all developers in our company. But there’s the annoying thing that I always have to add the libs containing my tasks to the classpath. Nothing easier than this you might be thinking. Add it to ants classpath in the eclipse preferences. This works on my machine but what about all other developers? What about updates to the libs?

I guess I found the perfect solution for this problem. Write an eclipse plug-in that adds all libraries to ants classpath using the extension point of the ant plug-in and put the plug-in on an eclipse site so all developers can get it automatically.

That’s easy to say but how? Lets get our hands dirty…

Java ant, eclipse, eclipse-plugin, Java, task, update-site

We don’t have to wait for the official announcements of Windows Mobile 6.5 to get the latest news about the mobile operating system. Yesterday a beta version of Windows Mobile 6.5 hast been leaked to the public which everyone can install on his qtek 9090.

Mobile qtek 9090, ROM leaked, Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile 6.5, Windows Mobile 7

Part One. Today and in my next posts, we want to take a closer look at the security settings of windows server. One good way to start is the “Security Configuration Wizard” later called as SCW. The wizard was patched in the operating system with SP1. In the release 2 of windows server 2003 you don’t need to patch – it’s from start up SP2.

Administration, Software 2003, Baseline Security, scw, Security Configuration Wizard, server, Windows

Yesterday, I found an interesting page (in German) describing some of the most important patterns and practices in software development: http://www.clean-code-developer.de/

Although I’m not a fan of wrist bands (see the linked page to see for yourself), I like the page for its short description of patterns and practices like:

• Don’t repeat yourself
• keep it simple stupid
• single responsibility pattern
• separation of concerns
• interface segregation principle
• dependency injection principle
• Liskov substitution principle
• open close principle
• law of Demeter
• principle of least astonishment
• you ain’t gonna need it
• use a version control system
• issue tracking
• continuous integration
• automated tests
• mocking
• code coverage
• test first
• reviews
• and some more

Architecture, Software Architecture, Clean Code, Design, Development, Patterns, Practices

There are rumors going around on the internet about the release of windows mobile 6.5. Some say that windows mobile 6.5 is never going to be released but other strongly believe that the new windows mobile 6.5 will be released soon.

Not long ago people were blogging on the internet that Microsoft is probably going to focus on windows 7 and it’s integration into the newest mobile devices. But that has not been approved by Microsoft.

Mobile Rumors, Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile 6.5, Windows7

Often I get asked: Why should I write a test. What should I answer?

My preferred answer is: It’s an insurance to you.
At the time you have tests for your code, somebody else can do modifications on your code and you are sure it still does what it should. Otherwise your test will fail. (Well some people think: Why should somebody else modify my code? That’s impossible, this code is too complex, as it can be modified by somebody else… But this is another story.)

I also like the counterquestion: How can you assure me this code is working?

Testing Testing