Another day in the life of a programmer gal.

Blogger to stop FTP publishing...

2010-03-13T09:57:00.004-07:00

Whatever was free once, is no longer free, after all, Google has to get money out of something else, other than ads...I had used Blogger for a while, probably since their beginning when it was acquired by Google.I never liked to host my blog on their servers though, and I still won't. Hosting on my own account gives me the freedom of owning anything I post, whether it is a rant, an image or just

To nvarchar or to varchar in SQL Server to accept French text

2010-03-12T08:56:00.005-07:00

I found one single character from the French language that its binary representation is not the same for Unicode and Windows-1252. The oe ligature. Let me rant about it...create table test_table(name1 varchar (1) ,name2 nvarchar (1) )insert test_tablevalues ('œ', 'œ')select * from test_tableselect ASCII(name1), ASCII(name2), Unicode(name1), unicode(name2) from test_tableselect COL_LENGTH('

I couldn't stop laughing...

2010-03-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

Java Initialization blocks...why should we ever use them?

2010-02-02T22:00:00.003-07:00

Coming from a C# world I'm trying to get a grasp on the Java language, mostly for comparison purposes and to see if really the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.What I like so far of the Java 1.6 that I see C# might benefit from:1. The main one is cross platform portability. I wish Mono would have more support.2. Enums are more complex, but I'm wondering if we ever really use that

Cuban flag with an HDR touch

2010-01-04T18:42:00.003-07:00

We drove to St Agustin while visiting Florida these holidays and to my surprise they had a museum with Martí and the Cuban flag :)... mi bandera.

HTTP 1.1 caching directives for dummies and caching problems for old versions of Internet Explorer.

2009-12-03T09:28:00.005-07:00

The reason why I published this link is because a coworker had a problem with viewing a PDF on IE6 when the cache was set to no-store over https.The problem does not happen with Internet Explorer 7 or above or with FireFox, but the old IEs fail to retrieve the files when the cache directive is no-store or no-cache.More of this on:Internet Explorer file downloads over SSL do not work with the

The importance of schemas, where's that XSD file?

2009-12-02T18:18:00.004-07:00

I'm coming across more and more projects that make heavy use of xml for data integration or data exchange that lack of schema files.First case:My team was POC-ing the integration with a third party web service. I won't mention names but this company is one of the main sources of collected data for rating. After a purchased subscription for monthly text files with data dumps we are also able to

Re Microsoft's Entity Framework: persistence ignorance is a bliss I won't give up on

2009-11-04T21:32:00.002-07:00

I came across this articleWhy use the Entity Framework? Yeah, why exactly?refuting a marketing like article by one of the EF team members.After using NHibernate for a while and looking into JPA and old JDO on the Java world, I don't think I'll get my hands on the EF any time soon, if I can avoid it.Why? The main reasons are summarized on this site:ADO .NET Entity Framework Vote of No ConfidenceI

RIP Geocities

2009-10-26T20:31:00.001-06:00

http://geocities.yahoo.com/http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/26/geocities.closing/index.htmlI had my first free sites posted there back in the late 90s...This is how the web used to look like back then :-phttp://web.archive.org/web/19961022173245/http://www.geocities.com/

Debunking the duct tape programmer

2009-09-29T08:27:00.002-06:00

The nasty truth about misapplying duct tape solutions in serious software development is that the duct tape solution ends up creating unnecessary additional complexity because it doesn’t address the whole problem, just the symptoms. This isn’t unique to software development, but if duct tape solutions are used to achieve short term gains, then future solutions are built on a foundation of duct

UX advice I got from an expert...

2009-08-25T13:00:00.004-06:00

1. Give users multiple ways to achieve their goals2. Give users all the functions they need to achieve the task at hand.3. Be consistent in navigation, screen layout, and interaction design.4. Use ‘widgets’ correctly. Incorrect use of widgets make people confused.5. Assume users have no memory. They shouldn’t need to remember things about function or navigation.6. Users are like Bears. Never

Composing web applications with the ASP.NET frameworks in the market... MVC 2 Areas vs MVC with MEF

2009-08-11T12:20:00.004-06:00

On my previous post I ranted about the need my team has for a plug in implementation for a web portal. I'm sure this requirement is on almost every web team that develops a web portal.We were paying close attention to the ASP.NET MVC framework in conjunction with MEF:MEF and ASP.NET MVC sampleand see great potential here. the only drawback is that plug ins will run as part of the same application

Can cross browser communication solve my need for a true composite web application or SSO is the best way to go?

2009-08-04T09:06:00.006-06:00

I must confess that the lack of posts on my blog are mainly due to a very silly reason, I started playing FarmVille on Facebook with my friends and it reminded me of my favorite game SimCity.What I like most about the game is how it runs on an iframe, is able to send requests to all the FB friends and keeps the FB session alive even though I haven't clicked outside of the FarmVille iframe in a

Did you ever wonder how Bill Gates' FB profile page looks like?

2009-07-29T10:52:00.006-06:00

I should be posting about serious technical concerns and I soon will, but this is hysterical...

The concept of test beds or velcros for software modules...

2009-06-05T13:55:00.011-06:00

Last week I attended a conference by Mario Cardinal at MSN Canada. The conference was part of the Toronto Architecture User Group.The presentation had quite a few valid points along with the concept of "velcro" or test bed for modules. Test beds are a very familiar concept in electronics. In order to test hard drives or dvd drives, the manufacturer create test beds as opposed to test the parts in

Being tech support for the fam...

2009-06-05T09:19:00.002-06:00

I like helping my family whenever I can. Two weekends ago I set up the wireless network at my aunt's and last weekend my dad had a problem with a software he installed.He needed the Vademecum application to do some research on prescription drugs (dad is Endocrinologist and draws comics on his free time)The Vademecum application is a Java based desktop application and for some reason, after Dad

Java vs. C# access modifiers looked at by a C# programmer

2009-05-25T22:10:00.007-06:00

I'm looking into the SCJP 6 as I don't have hands on experience on Java projects (only academic apps). I had bookmarked long time ago a great C# vs. Java comparison Dave Obasanjo made: A COMPARISON OF MICROSOFT'S C# PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE TO SUN MICROSYSTEMS' JAVA PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE I noticed tonight that the member's access modifiers could use some tuning and show: