TeamViewer – Latest favorite in remote support software

 

So once again, being the “computer guy” for friends, family, and all their friends has led me to need to remote into someone’s computer. I decided to give TeamViewer a try and I really liked it.

Why?

1) Simple and quick: no creating accounts. It creates a unique id for each install and a unique one-time password for each session. They read me the numbers over the phone, and I am in.

2) Can run the program without installing it – so I can keep it on a thumb drive or… link to it from my blog and don’t even have to install it (need admin rights though)

3) Special (lighter) app for “customer.” Doesn’t require installation, and doesn’t even require admin rights…

4) Free for non-commercial use

Now for the links:

Full Installer (ideal for the technician) http://www.teamviewer.com/download/TeamViewer_Setup_en.exe

Light App (ideal for customer)http://www.teamviewer.com/download/TeamViewerQS_en.exe

Culture at Netflix

http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664

Awesome slide deck on the culture at Netflix and the definition of a culture without “politics.”

Thanks to Rob Hale  for brining this to my attention.

In particular – check out the slides on Talent Density and the obvious but often overlooked consequences of increasing processes (talent leaves).

async / await

So after finding out that this is something I should be familiar with during a recent user group meeting – I decided to check it out…

http://www.dnrtv.com/default.aspx?showNum=205

I really enjoyed this video – while it is highly technical and a bit dry – it left me with very few questions. This talk literally goes into what the compiled code will be, and what the CLR is going to do.

It is so exciting to see C# continue to evolve – and in ways that make our lives as programmers easier!

Meeting: Magic Bag of Tricks

I intend to add to this post over time with those tricks I want to remind myself before walking into a meeting.

Pearl Metaphor: Iterative development is like a pearl starting with sand and adding Calcium Carbonate. Instead we add functionality and usability over time.

Construction Metaphor: Moving a wall 3 inches to the left doesn’t cost a lot in terms of materials – sure you need a few more nails and maybe a few more 2x4s but it is going to cost a lot in man hours. Same is true for many late changes to a program.

Source: Code Complete

MVC View Not Found Misdirection

I recently came across the following error:

I was deploying to a discountasp.net and could think of an infinite causes of the problem. I decided to write a simple little code block to verify the view was there and accessible:

This confirmed that the file was in fact there. Sure that the problem had to be with discountasp.net, I sent them an email and slept on it. Their response was that it was my fault:

I tried searching their forum and found it lacking so did some google searching when I found this:

http://forums.asp.net/p/1592374/4038196.aspx

Which basically states the obvious – what about your master page? Yeah – what about my master page? Wait – why didn’t my master page publish…?

Well that would do it… no idea how that happened – I wouldn’t have changed it on purpose.

Problem resolved – hopefully this saves someone else some time.

PDC Downloader

Below is a super simple (hardly resilient) PDC downloader. Feel free to compile and tweak it to your hearts content.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml.Linq;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
     public class Video
    {
        public string title;
        public string description;
        public string url;
    }
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

          

            var doc = XDocument.Load("http://videoak.microsoftpdc.com/pdc_schedule/Schedule.xml");
            var sessions = doc.Descendants("Sessions").Descendants("Session").Where(session => session.Descendants("DownloadableContent").Descendants("Content").Where(content=> content.Attribute("Title").Value.ToLower().Contains("mp4 high")).Count() > 0);
            var videos = sessions.Select(s =>
                                         new Video()
                                             {
                                                 title = s.Descendants("ShortTitle").Single().Value,
                                                 description = s.Descendants("ShortDescription").Single().Value,
                                                 url =
                                                     s.Descendants("DownloadableContent").Descendants("Content").Where(
                                                         content =>
                                                         content.Attribute("Title").Value.ToLower().Contains("mp4 high"))
                                                     .First().Attribute("Url").Value
                                             });
            var downloadableVideos = videos.ToList<Video>();

            var failedLog = new List<Video>();
            for (var count = 0; count < downloadableVideos.Count; count++)
            {
                var video = downloadableVideos[count];
                try
                {
                    DownloadFile(video);
                }
                catch
                {
                    Log("Failed to download " + video.title);
                    try
                    {
                        var path = video.title + ".mp4";
                        if (File.Exists(path))
                        {
                            File.Delete(path);
                        }
                    }
                    catch
                    {
                        Log("Failed to delete " + video.title+ ".mp4");
                    }
                }
            }
            var x = failedLog.Count;
        }

        private static void Log(string msg)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(msg);
        }

        private static void DownloadFile(Video video)
        {
            if (!System.IO.File.Exists(video.title + ".mp4"))
            {
                var webClient = new System.Net.WebClient();
                Log("Downloading " + video.title);
                webClient.DownloadFile(video.url, video.title + ".mp4");
            }
            else
            {
                Log("Skipping " + video.title + " - it has already been downloaded");
            }
        }
    }
}

XNA Conference–Lack of VB

I recently attended a user group meeting with http://augustadevelopers.org/ by Chris Williams http://geekswithblogs.net/cwilliams/Default.aspx covering XNA Games for Windows 7.

The new Windows 7 phone is living up to its hype. The little the I played with it  - it proved to be just as snappy as an iPhone. You won’t see me trading in my Droid just yet but credit is due!

I was surprised at the XNA conference to find that XNA currently doesn’t support VB. It is important to point out that the XNA team is small, and support for VB is on their (someday) feature list. The fact that it was even optional by MS came to me as a surprise.

I recently landed a new job where they prefer VB. This has forced me to take a step back and analyze the difference between C# and VB. I started out with VBA and VB.NET but in my last job I fell in love with C#. I now find myself wondering if I have a good reason to like C# over VB or if it is just a comfort bubble. I am finding that there are far more reasons to go with C# than VB.

One of the most convincing arguments has been the close relationship C# has with other languages. I have found very few developers embrace JavaScript and far fewer (none that I know personally) have been VB purists. JavaScript might as well be chinese to a VB purist, while a C# developer can stumble through it with little or no knowledge of the language rules.

Less important (for me) is the transition to other platforms like C++ and Java. VB has the advantage of VBA and VisualFoxPro but VisualFoxPro is already in end of life and I believe VBA is (or already has) gone to .NET which will mean that you can use either language.

Another point worth mentioning is that a majority of the documentation on the internet, in books, at conferences is all C#. Check out PDC – how many videos are in VB?

At the end of the day – I believe that each language has its strengths – and being flexible to the language is a must. But those that say you should be completely language agnostic ignore the fact that by focusing and embracing on a language – you become a master with the language. The language becomes a tool and as such – an extension of your creative ability. Being (too) language agnostic will create an implementation barrier as you are unable to gain momentum. Your intelligence is shifted from business logic problems and onto syntactic problems.