Mixed authentication
While setting up SQLServer 2012 RC0 on Windows 8 in order to run a demo, I found out that my application failed to work when trying to access the SQLServer. And then I realized that I had to set the SQLSever secruity to mix mode, otherwise I will
get the error 18456.
SQL Server and Windows 8
I need to run SQLServer on Windows 8 Consumer Preview, so I fired up SQLSever 2008R2 installation, only to find out that it didn't work. So I had to try SQLServer 2012 RC0, and turned out it seemed to work pretty OK.
Next I tried to use DevExpress components, and found that DXDock and DXRibbon didn't work on Consumer Preview. I found it odd because I vaugle remember that I wrote an app with DXDock and ran it on Windows 8 Developer Preview, and that seemed to work out fine. Anyway, I think I have no other choice but modify my app by getting rid of all the DevExpress control. I am sure eventually they will work on Windows 8.
I found that turning on WCF Web Service support in Windows 8 very straight forward as long as I know what feature to turn on in "Turn on and off Windows Feature".
Windows 8 Metro development, round 2
Windows 8 Consumer Preview means nothing to me UNLESS I can write code and have what I expected it to do showing up on the screen. So last night I spent sometime porting a tiny app that I wrote on Windows 8 Developer Preview.
The process wasn't particularly smooth. The solution that works on last version of Visual Studio 11 beta didn't work anymore. And then there are quite some API changes here and there. At the end I manged to get my code compiled, although not all feature are working as I expected.
Looks like there will be some head banging time this weekend.
Culture of writing crappy code
It's take an end to end culture to create a environment that nurture
low quality constantly cranking out in Fortune 500 companies. A lot of us experience the pain of working in such a culture, and a lot of us find it pretty powerless when facing such culture. No wonder a lot of developers prefer putting their real talent on their side projects instead of the company they work with.
I said this because recently I got a message from my boss asking me to "change the way I communicate with email." The reason is that, as a auditor of our enterprise software code base, I recently sent out an email complaining that some junior developer creating useless constructor just to cover up failed unit test. Knowing that they were junior developers, I worried that they don't understand the severity of the problem. So I used an analogy of putting unwashed dishes in drawer to illustrate how writing code just to keep the code compiling instead of solving the root problem is bad. My boss' boss saw the email and went into panic mode claiming that what I did was "
not very professional" when the developers are "not very professional." His exact wording is " its one thing one you have a developer sitting
in a room with you and another when they're in a different country, culture,
etc"
I found that a irrational and almost racist comment. When commenting on a wrong coding practice, there's no different between telling that someone "sitting in a room with you" and someone "in a different country, culture, etc". I am talking about C#, Constructor that does nothing, not about something subjective like beauty or which-one-is-true-faith. If he has problem with my auditing, he should STOP me from making my comment REGARDLESS of whether the developer is "sitting in a room with you" or someone "in a different country, culture, etc".
Our current system is full of duck-taping code on the top of duck taping code, can't be unit tested, slow in performance, and caused a major revamp on the code. I wonder if the attitude of how the management team constantly downplaying criticism on code quality contributes to the problem.
