Great Links

Karl Seguin has done some good analysis on the stages of unit testing. I stole the and content and copied the full post to my blog (because I enjoyed reading every line/stage of it…). I have experienced every stage except the elusive stage 7 :-).

1. Refuse to unit test because "you don’t have enough time"
2. Start unit testing and immediately start blogging about unit testing and TDD and how great they are and how everyone should do it
3. Unit test everything – make private methods internal and abuse the InternalsVisibleTo attribute. Test getters and setters or else you won’t get 100% code coverage
4. Get fed with how brittle your unit tests are and start writing integration tests without realizing it.
5. Discover a mocking framework and make heavy use of strict semantics
6. Mock absolutely everything that can possibly be mocked
7. Start writing effective unit tests

Original post

UI Prototyping with Microsoft Expression Blend 3 (Sketch Flow), looks promising. I need to check this out.

Prototyping with SketchFlow via Arjan’s World

Saving changes is not permitted – SQL Server 2008 Management Studio

I ran into an error in SQL Server 2008 Management Studio when I tried to disable the Identity Specification on a column. It is a default setting problem, flipping the setting made it work. May be it makes more sense on a production system. But then Fool-Proofing everything will result in an unusable product. This is a perfect example.

Saving changes is not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created. You have either made changes to a table that can’t be re-created or enabled the option Prevent saving changes that require the table to be re-created.

Read more in Rick Strahl’s blog here

Making of the Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us.

We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!

I asked for Strength………
And God gave me Difficulties to make me strong.

I asked for Wisdom………
And God gave me Problems to solve.

I asked for Prosperity………
And God gave me Brain and Brawn to work.

I asked for Courage………
And God gave me Danger to overcome.

I asked for Love………
And God gave me Troubled people to help.

I asked for Favours………
And God gave me Opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted ……..
I received everything I needed!

 

Source: http://www.whereincity.com/stories/inspirational

Currently reading – Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Here is a quote to keep our humility, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few” – Shunryu Suzuki

A quote from the book which I am Currently reading Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Talking about “Great Performances in failed projects”

PAWEL BRODZINSKI is talking about “Great Performances in failed projects”. It is very nice read, especially if you had been in one 😉

Bridge the Distance has a good entry on Building trust in virtual teams. Read here

The 90/10 Principle

My colleague Deepak Khandelwal shared this in an email with me. Its an article about choosing our attitude. Read it here The 90/10 Principle.

Seek First to Understand, then To Be Understood

Leo Babauta has a really nice post on 5 Tiny Steps to Quit Being Such a Jerk via Arjans World.

Architect Competition from Microsoft India

Morning I was reading Sreedhar’s blog entry on an Architect Competition from Microsoft India. You can read more about it here. The problem statement can be read here. It is a very good initiative. I just had one thing to say,

I was slightly disappointed by this.

Work on the Solution – Create a 5-slide PowerPoint Presentation and a 5-10 minute Audio Recording of you presenting the Solution

Architecture is not about just PowerPoint presentations. It will be Promoting Ivory Tower Architects IMHO.

Do not judge things too quickly

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise. The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment. The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree’s life.

He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season,and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring,the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall.

Moral:
Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.
Don’t judge life by one difficult season.
Persevere(to be persistent) through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come some time or later.

Source: http://www.whereincity.com/stories/inspirational

Paradigm(accepted perspective)shift

This is a very interesting message about paradigm(accepted perspective)shift.

Imagine you’re in London’s Heathrow Airport. While you’re waiting for your flight, you notice a kiosk selling shortbread cookies. You buy a box, put them in your travelling bag and then you patiently search for an available seat so you can sit down and enjoy your cookies. Finally you find a seat next to a gentleman. You reach down into your travelling bag and pull out your box of shortbread cookies. As you do so, you notice that the gentleman starts watching you intensely.

He stares as you open the box and his eyes follow your hand as you pick up the cookie and bring it to your mouth. Just then he reaches over and takes one of your cookies from the box, and eats it! You’re more than a little surprised at this. Actually, you’re at a loss for words. Not only does he take one cookie, but he alternates with you. For every one cookie you take, he takes one.

Now, what’s your immediate impression of this guy? Crazy? Greedy? He’s got some nerve! Can you imagine the words you might use to describe this man to your associates back at the office? Meanwhile, you both continue eating the cookies until there’s just one left. To your surprise, the man reaches over and takes it. But then he does something unexpected. He breaks it in half, and gives half to you. After he’s finished with his half he gets up, and without a word, he leaves.

You think to yourself, "Did this really happen?" You’re left sitting there dumbfounded and still hungry. So you go back to the kiosk and buy another box of cookies. You then return to your seat and begin opening your new box of cookies when suddenly you glance down into your travelling bag. Sitting there, in your bag is your original box of cookies………still unopened.

Only then you do realize that when you reached down earlier, you had reached into the other man’s bag, and grabbed his box of cookies by mistake. Now what do you think of the man? Generous? Tolerant? You’ve just experienced a profound paradigm shift. You’re seeing things from a new point of view.

Is it time to change your point of view? Now, think of this story as it relates to your life. Seeing things from a new point of view can be very enlightening. Think outside the box. Don’t settle for the status quo. Be open to suggestions. Things may not be what they seem. Unless and until, one realizes about the fact, no one will change his or her view of thinking in spite of lot of external factors.

Every Point has THREE Sides; Your Side, My Side and The Right Side. To understand either the Other’s Side or the Right Side, one needs to leave His Side.

Source: http://www.whereincity.com/stories/inspirational