Software Development should be as simple as possible. In fact, it should be designed and developed under the assumption it is disposable!
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Reducing email distractions |
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Written by Brian Houser
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008 03:19 |
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Email has the potential to be very distracting. How many times a day do you check your email? Everytime that little Outlook notification pops up about a new email coming in, don't we all immediately go read it? That's a lot of interruptions in a typical day.
As of this morning, I'm trying out a new way to process email to reduce those distractions. I'm going to check my inbox just three times a day: first thing in the morning, around noon, and at the end of the day. I hope to get that down to two checks a day eventually.
I've turned off the default Outlook notifications. I've removed the Outlook icons from the notification area in the taskbar. I set up a new rule to pop up an alert if I get an urgent email (so if you need me to respond immediately, mark it urgent). |
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Defining .NET properties the easy way |
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Written by Brian Houser
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008 03:14 |
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Once you've done a fair amount of programing in .NET, it quickly becomes tiresome to define your custom properties in code:
private int myProperty;
public int MyProperty
{
get { return myProperty; }
set { myProperty = value; }
}
It gets to the point where you seriously consider just declaring everything as a field instead:
public int MyProperty;
But resist the temptation! There are downsides to this including difficulties with databinding and all sorts of issues if you later change your mind and want them to be properties. |
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Storage of NULL values in SQL Server |
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Written by Brian Houser
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008 03:10 |
Earlier today a couple of team members asked whether NULL values in a database take up any space. I wasn't sure of the answer so I did a little research which I decided to share here in case anyone is interested.
The quick answer is no, NULL values don't take up any additional space. However, each column does take up a certain amount of space whether or not it contains any data. Fixed datatype columns (int, float, char, etc.) take up a specific amount of space depending on the size of the datatype (int=4 bytes, smallint=2 bytes, float=4 or 8 bytes). Variable length columns (varchar, varbinary) take up a minimum of 2 bytes per column even if empty (to store the actual length pointer).
The NULL status of each column is stored in a special part of the row called the NULL bitmap that contains one bit for each column, in 8-bit chunks. So a table with 1-8 columns has a one byte (8 bit) NULL bitmap but a table with 9-16 columns has a two byte (16 bit) NULL bitmap.
If you’re interested in the detailed version, be sure to check out Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: The Storage Engine, which I highly recommend with the rest of the series. |
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The document was sent to the printer |
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Written by Brian Houser
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008 03:06 |
I click the Print button in Word (or any application) and I quickly get a popup in the taskbar telling me "The document was sent to the printer."
What a surprise--I wouldn't have expected that!
That popup has to be the most annoying Windows feature. It's unbelievable that it still remains even in Vista. Of course my document was just sent to the printer--I just printed it!
A useful message would be one that told me when it was finished printing.
And (in my opinion), they don't make it easy to figure out how to turn these messages off. But I eventually tracked it down (here is the Vista version):
1) Control Panel -> Printer
2) Right click and select Server Properties...
3) Go to Advanced tab and uncheck Show information notifications for network printers.
4) Click OK and print away. |
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Tech Ed, Schmeck Ed |
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Written by Brian Houser
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Wednesday, 06 June 2007 08:37 |
A couple of my work buddies are at Microsoft Tech Ed this week as they have been every year for a while now. It's been a long time since I've been to a national conference. I just don't see the value in it--the signal to noise ratio always seems so low.
There's so much valuable information available online now. Don't waste your time at big conferences--if you boil down the content, most of it is really designed to get you hyped about the upcoming products the company wants you to buy (in this case, Microsoft). That tends to not be useful; it just keeps the fast train of technology speeding along. Slow down! You find out about those upcoming products once they really become relevant.
If you insist on partaking of the conference's content, do it online. Many conferences (especially Tech Ed) now offer videos, presentation slides, and blogs for non-attendees on the web. It's a lot easier to find the meat of a seminar by looking through the notes or fast-forwarding through the video than sitting trapped in a full day of sessions. |
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