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27 February 2009

Debugging NUnit Test

Mental note as I always have to look this up :

1./ Add required break points.
2./ Launch NUnit
3./ Within Visual Studio Debug --> Attach To Process
4./ Ensure Managed Code is selected.
5./ Run your tests from NUnit.

23 February 2009

Linux Starter Pack

The good folks over at Linux Format have released a guide for new Linux users.

You can find a zip file full of PDF's here.

15 February 2009

Debian 5 - "lenny" Is released.

From the release note :

"The Debian Project is pleased to announce the official release of Debian GNU/Linux version 5.0 (codenamed Lenny) after 22 months of constant development. With 12 supported computer architectures, more than 23,000 packages built from over 12,000 source packages and 63 languages for the new graphical installer, this release sets new records, once again. Software available in 5.0 includes Linux 2.6.26, KDE 3.5.10, Gnome 2.22.2, X.Org 7.3, OpenOffice.org 2.4.1, GIMP 2.4.7, Iceweasel 3.0.6, Apache 2.2.9, Xen 3.2.1 and GCC 4.3.2. Other notable features are X autoconfiguring itself, full read-write support for NTFS, Java programs in the main repository and a single Blu-Ray disc installation media. You can get the ISOs via bittorrent. The Debian Project also wishes to announce that this release is dedicated to Thiemo Seufer, a Debian Developer who died on December 26th, 2008 in a tragic car accident. As a valuable member of the Debian Project, he will be sorely missed."


13 February 2009

How Microsoft Gets It So Wrong.

This is not a post about how Linux is great and Microsoft is rubbish. Anyone that knows me will know that I base my opinions on what I believe to be technically better. Hence why I switch to Linux a long time ago.

However, by day I hack on .Net which until I get around to getting a new work laptop set up with an image running in Virtual Box means I have to run Windows. I refuse to use the inept Vista and have stayed loyal to XP.

Today I have suffered a second bout of Microsoft's in ability to package software correctly inside a week. I guess unless you have encountered apt, rpm based installs or pacman you don't realise that in fact you don't have to suffer the way Windows software is packaged. Anyhow I digress....

Last Friday I attempted to remove Virtual PC 2007. I had it installed for creating an image for an Indian developer I _had_ to work with for a short period who was not willing to use anything that was not made by Microsoft. I no longer needed it and thought I would uninstall it. The uninstaller hung..... for about 20 minutes before I finally killed it and shut the machine down and thought I will deal with it another time. Indeed I did need to deal with it...... the next time I turned it on in fact as it had wipped my VPN network connections!!

WTF.... How can uninstalling Virtual PC wipe my vpn's. Anyway.... I reinstalled and carried on.

This morning I turn my laptop on before jumping in the shower (I sadly have a structured morning routine!) and came down to find that Windows update has downloaded an update and restarted my machine after installing it. Only it has managed to uninstall my wireless driver!!

WTF ... I know it was working because pre shower I was on my mail. Post Windows Update reboot I have no driver. There is no excuse. I have not got some unusual hardware/software combo. I have a bog standard Atheros card running under XP sp2. Why on earth would some update they are pushing down the wire require it to mess with drivers anyway.

I'm sorry but this shows how technically inept Microsoft are these days. It's a shame for the talent that work there that the company as a whole is turning into an embaressment.

I'm a PC and I __don't__ want Windows!

6 February 2009

People prefer KDE 4 than windows.... the word on the street is official.

This is a video of a couple of guys showing some ordinary users Windows 7 and getting their feed back.

Only what they are looking at and saying is great is actually KDE 4.

Priceless!

4 February 2009

Kontact.1.4

OK I am blown away with the new functionality of KMail within Kontact.

(I am running vanila Arch packages).

This is how a mail client should be. Excellent multiple account handling, sensible grouping, tacked conversations...... love it.

Windows Needs Root!

This is an article about research done by BeyondTrust Corp.

It shows that of the issues it study reported against Microsoft Products 92% could have been either useless or less destructive if the user was not running with admin rights.

This was one of the great things that drew me to *nix systems as it just makes sense.

3 February 2009

A Newbies Impression Of Visual Studio

Catherine wants to learn C# but already she is finding Visual Studio a bloated, complicated option. An impression that I share with her.

I have now used Visual Studio for about 7 years in all it's forms. The one thing I notice? Each version adds a ton of features of which a handful are useful and most are never used. Each version slows down even though the hardware I now run it on is more powerful. Each version adds more "mouse only" functions and newbie friendly "wizards".

To do anything useful I tend to install the addin's I need and set the colour scheme to a dark version. However, that is another thing. The addin's slow Visual Studio down. On the recommendation of Yoda (our esteemed technical guru) I installed the PowerCommands addin and now when I right mouse click on the project file it takes about 3 seconds for the menu to appear.

The thing is that Microsoft are capable of some great stuff.......but as is more the case Visual Studio is now not one of those items. Perhaps if you have no experience of alternative IDE's, editors etc then you might be happy to use Visual Studio and I would imagine there are hundereds of developers that do love it. I just wish I could be one of them!

Come on Microsoft, lets look at the 3 areas that Visual Studio needs improving and do something about it. Sort the number of files and amount of memory that Visual Stuido needs to run, sort the addin architecture so addins do not have the performance of a retarded snail and remove the bloated features that most people do not use and turn them into add ins.

Or make everyone really happy and create a bare-bones Visual Studio IDE and create everything as a addin. That way most people would get what they want, an IDE that works how they want.

Oh and lastly......any chance of vi key bindings ;)