http://beautifulfutility.com Cynicism is humor in ill health. H.G. Wells Sun, 18 Jul 2010 03:22:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en For my current personal project (i.e., code I am writing for my wife) I am using RavenDB for a few reasons: It's time to break out of the OO/RDBMS impedance mismatch Ayende is a freaking monster It seems the most promising of the document db's out there In order to do ... http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2010/07/17/checking-for-existing-index-in-ravendb/ I have a problem with shiny things distracting me. But since the shiny things are so compelling, I need a mental way to deal with them. It needs to be streamlined, simple, and effective. I've tried the GTD way, but I can't seem to hold onto doing it for than ... http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2010/05/21/the-day-of-pomodoro/ Since the company I work for doesn't have a big QA presence (we're working on it), it's often the case that UI changes break things with no one being aware of it. I'm not a giant fan of automated UI tests, my brief experience with them has shown them to be ... http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2010/05/20/using-codeduitest-in-visual-studio-2010/ This is one of those posts that exists to remind myself of my own stupidity. So, this is the code I was writing: string pathToFile = Server.MapPath(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("SmartCardMaker_PathToPdfForm")); FileStream _stream = new FileStream(pathToFile,FileMode.Open,FileAccess.ReadWrite); string pathToFile =                    Server.MapPath(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("SmartCardMaker_PathToPdfForm")); FileStream _stream = new FileStream(pathToFile,FileMode.Open,FileAccess.ReadWrite); Seems pretty straightforward, but for the life of ... http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2010/02/23/server-map-path-failure/ Pivoting off this post by Phil Haack about creating custom data annotations, I found myself in need of one today when putting together some code for a project for the spousal unit. I wanted to be sure that a given field contained a valid abbreviation for a U.S. State. It's simple, ... http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2009/11/28/custom-dataannotation-for-us-states/ So let's say that you drag your view onto the design surface in L2S. Why, you ask, aren't there the extensibility methods for OnCreated() and the rest of the INotifyPropertyChanged interface? Because a view doesn't have a primary key and without one there is nothing to track. Set a PK, save, and ... http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2009/11/23/linq-to-sql-wont-generate-partial-methods-for-view/ Since I have written a post here, and for good reason. Most of the time that I spent writing about politics and such here in comments in other places, I was unemployed. Which makes plenty of time available for writing and venting one's spleen. It's all well and good to ... http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2009/11/17/304/ ...and I know that most of you are too. Sorry, I just need a moment to vent to the outside world. The kids are swimming the bacteria frappe of kindergarten and pre-school and I have a sinus blockage so bad that oxygen needs a passport to get into my lungs. There, ... http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2009/02/05/man-im-tired/ There is an inherent contradiction, I think, in being a widely read blogger and a decent human being. As just about anyone who has been here at least once knows, I made some people mad last week. The consequence of that were three days of easily my best traffic on ... http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2009/01/30/im-trying-to-be-the-shepherd/ Has to go to CEO Howard Schultz of Starbucks, who described closing 300 stores and firing nearly seven thousand workers as a courageous decision. Not to put too fine a point on it, Howie ol' boy, but this has nothing to do with courage. This has to do with saving your ... http://beautifulfutility.com/index.php/2009/01/30/the-definition-of-ass-hat/