Brian Hartsock's Blog

Since the first piece of computer software was created, there have been defects. We have came a long way since those days, but defects are still prevalent throughout every application. They are reported by testers or end users, and eventually make their way back to the software developers that created them. Or did they? One thing I have observed over the past few years is the fact that almost all defects make their way back to software developers, but developers aren’t always the culprits. »

Every now and again, your build time gets so long you have to investigate what the cause is. Since Visual Studio uses MSBuild, it is possible to get very detailed build information. The first step is getting into diagnostic mode. This will print out way too much information, but it is the only mode that prints out execution summaries for each project. To get into diagnostics mode, simply go to Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> Build and Run. »

Some team members and I spent the better part of a few hours today researching a really weird bug we were seeing with our data access code built on NHibernate. The basic symptoms were a duplicate key violation on a unique column in a table. This only happened under decent load, so reproducing in dev was pretty hard. To make matters more interested, it only happened with NHibernate 2.0. We started looking at MySQL logs and saw the following. »

Each day, I am becoming more and more OCD. Tonight I wrote a script that will analyze a Visual Studio csproj file and compare it to the files in the directory. The main goal being an easy way to find orphaned files that might still be in version control. It probably only works on very vanilla projects, but I figured I would share anyways. # find-orphanedFiles.ps1 # # Compare files »

Sometimes I forget that cloud computing is still fairly new. There are still thousands of companies runnings their own servers and software. A couple weeks ago, in San Francisco, I saw something that caught my eye. Seeing a SalesForce ad didn’t surprise me. What amazed me was it was on a bus stop. Not a big billboard (although I am sure they have those too), but a dingy little bus stop. »

Don is #2 on my list of speakers from Business of Software 2009. Don forces you to understand how people are using your product. It sounds simple, but most companies have a different outlook on their product than their customers. Here are his 10 rules for successful products. Everything is a product. Everything is a service. You can’t have one without the other. The software you create is a product, but the experience you provide is your service. »

I spent the Thanksgiving holiday watching my dad play around with his new Droid. To my surprise, he was kind enough to let my try it out while he slept off Thanksgiving goodness. In short, it is Way Ugly, Blazing Fast, and ** Surprisingly Fun**. It won’t dethrone the iPhone, but I think Google is onto something if they can fix a few shortcomings. Way Ugly The aesthetics of the physical device and the OS itself was quite disappointing. »

And now for #3 (I paused for a few days over the holidays), Jennifer Aaker at the Business of Software Conference, 2009. Jennifer is a Stanford professor who researches what happiness really is and how we can achieve it. She gives the middle finger to opinions and has a ton of data to back up her thoughts, which is what I found the most interesting. Immediately, after I got back from the conference I asked myself two questions Jennifer recommended. »

This post isn’t so much about how to get started, but about how easy it is to get started with Android development. In about 5 min (excluding download time), I had a working Android app that spit out Hello Android. Here is how you can get started, should you so choose. Download and install Eclipse (I installed Classic) Download the Android SDK and read the quickstart (Install ADT plugin for Eclipse mainly) Run through the Hello Android tutorial The download is painfully slow, but after you get it installed, creating new apps is a breeze. »

The confusion over what Google Wave is/does is downright funny. A couple days ago, I failed miserably at describing it (mainly because I don’t really get it either). Then this evening I was reading Wired online and read this product description. Oversize bags are where small belongings go to die. With this handsome, well-built backpack, you'll never have to fumble for your keys or earbuds again. It's simple and compact and has plenty of pockets to keep everything handy — five on the outside alone. »