Adam Caudill

PowerEdge 2500

As I’ve written about, I’m in the process of rebuilding my network at home. the first major addition is a used Dell PowerEdge 2500 server, while this is an older server, it’s quite stable and reliable – and with I intend to use it for, being reliable is critical.

This server will have a couple different roles at once, here’s the basics:

USQL: Unified SQL Editor

On a daily basis, I use Query Analyzer for Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access for Sybase via ODBC, MySQL Query Browser for a MySQL database, and PL/SQL Developer for Oracle access. While there are some features of all of these I really like, what I don’t like is that I have to use all of them.

I am proposing the formation of an open source project to develop a SQL front-end to allow users to access the major database platforms from a single, well-designed, and fully featured front end. This would not be a full replacement of the aforementioned applications, but a simpler, easy to use product wrapping the more common functionality. Developed in .NET (VB.NET most likely), this could greatly simplify the process of working with multiple DB platforms.

Piracy: Modern Marketing

Piracy is bad, right? Maybe not, and it seems Microsoft figured it out. Piracy can be indirectly profitable, both by giving you additional customers that you may collect from at some future point, and it also serves to reduce or limit the market share of rivals. Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates, acknowledged this back in 1998 while speaking at the University of Washington, saying:

Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don’t pay for the software. Someday they will, though,…

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Wink 2.0

I’m always interested in better ways to produce documentation or demonstrations for my software. One method I’ve found to be rather impressive is desktop capture, generating a movie either in a streaming format, or in Flash. The drawback: Price. The tools used for this are often rather expensive, and on a tight budget they can push you to the limit quickly. There is another option though, Wink – a free, cross-platform application that generates Flash demos and presentations.

First Impression: Google Calendar

I saw an article on Forbes mentioning the long rumored, Google Calendar, and sure enough! While I’ve not taken long to play with it, this, so far, seems to be very cool. I’ll post more after I play with it for a while.

Better late than never…

I previously wrote about an offer for a free copy of Microsoft Visual Studio, well, mine came today. While it look it’s time about getting here, it finally arrived. The book, while not the full version, is larger than I expected, and looks like it should be worth reading. I’m a bit disappointed in how soon that the discount for the MCP exam expires, as with the schedule I have for the desktop MCTS I don’t think I’ll have time to make use of it.

Best Job In The US: Software Engineer

MONEY Magazine and Salary.com have announced their top 10 jobs in the country. While it’s no surprise to me, Software Engineer took the #1 spot. Here’s what they had to say:

Why it’s great Software engineers are needed in virtually every part of the economy, making this one of the fastest-growing job titles in the U.S. Even so, it’s not for everybody.

Designing, developing and testing computer programs requires some pretty advanced math skills and creative problem-solving ability. If you’ve got them, though, you can work and live where you want: Telecommuting is quickly becoming widespread.

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Development Abstraction

When it comes to the world of development, Joel Spolsky is, without a doubt, my favorite writer. His work is always interesting and on-topic, and his latest work is something special. Development Abstraction, what a concept, the only way to ensure the highest productivity, and perhaps, a large part of the Superstars & Monkeys issue.

When I wrote about my views on how developers are treated, it was from a developer’s perspective, this article provides the manager’s perspective, on much the same issue. This covers what a development team should see, nothing more, nothing less. Focus is critical for productivity, the hassles of running a business, finding ways around over-restrictive internet filters, or wondering how long the Development database will be hosting Production databases, none of this should be involved in a developer’s day.

IE7: Of Time & Standards

While I’m not a huge fan of Internet Explorer, I am quite impressed with the progress the IE team has made. IE7 stands to be the most impressive release so far, with many rendering issues resolved, rather impressive security advances, and a great many improvements on the standards compliance front. I must applaud both the team, and Microsoft for making these moves.

By focusing on standards, instead of proprietary features that degrade the experience for everybody, developers can work towards a unified web, free of browser discrimination and hack filed code. It seems like the Redmond power house has finally started to see where IE needs to go to remain relevant for Web 2.0, and beyond.