GASP

Sobrecarga De Redes Sociais

Paulo Morgado — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:35:00 GMT

Tem havido um crescimento de redes sociais e a adicção de características de redes sociais a outros sites.

Hoje em dia existe um vasto universo de redes sociais:

Existem, também, algumas redes profissionais com as mesmas características das redes sociais mas dirigidas à vida profissional dos seus membros/utilizadores:

Algumas pretendem captar os dois públicos, como o Plaxo.

O meu problema é que tenho amigos e contactos profissionais em todas estas redes e começa a tornar-se impossível gerir tudo isto.

Mesmo com o OpenSocial, a maioria das redes está mais preocupada em capturar utilizadores do que prvidenciar informação sobre os seus utilizadores que possa ser consumida e agregada por outras redes.

E, quem quiser, ainda pode criar a sua própria rede no Ning.

Eu gostaria que estas redees disponibilizassem informação normalizada que pudesse ser consumida pelas meus amigos e contactos profissionais na rede da sua preferÊncia (desde que aceite por mim, claro).

Mas, tal como acontece com o OpenID, todos querem ser um provedor. Aceitar qualquer OpenID como identificadores de utilizador já não é tão apetecível.

Gendarme - Code analysis tool

tspascoal — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:20:14 GMT

In the last few days I've found a tool called Gendarme it is an open source tool from the Mono Project that allows you to find problems in .Net (either Mono or Microsoft.Net) applications and libraries.

It has a rule based system to do the analysis and it can be seen as an FXCop/Team System Code Analysis kind of system.

I haven't counted the number of rules it provides but doing a visual analysis it doesn't seem to have as many rules as Team System Code Analysis. However quantity isn't everything and from my analysis it has a pretty number of good rules (including some categories that the Code Analysis doesn't has like Linq)

The rules are grouped in the following categories

You can see the full list (and description) of the rules here

There is no Visual Studio integration so you either have to run it from the command line or from a supplied windows form wizard. No MSBuild integration exists either but it would be fairly easy to implement a custom action or just call the execute task.

Integration with TFS could be either easy or hard depending on how fully integrated you would want it. Since the execution of Gendarme produces a report (XML,HTML,etc) you can execute on your build process and make the HTML report available on the build results (the easy part) or if you want full integration like having the data directly on the TFS build warehouse that could a lot more work.

I've spent a couple of hours running it on a median sized project and it enabled me to fix some naming mistakes, make the code more clear in some areas and even fix an error where disposed wasn't being called.

During my analysis I also found a bunch of false positives. The tool has a feature that categorizes the issues that it has found with a degree of confidence, which states the degree of confidence that the rule has in the face of the found issue (most false positives had a medium to high degree of confidence which is a bummer).

The rules documentation is complete and allows you to understand the consequence of not implementing the rule and why you should fix the found issue (although some rules are not documented).

Definitively a tool to use in the future.

[cross posted on http://agilior.pt/blogs/tiago.pascoal/archive/2008/12/29/6537.aspx]

Your Code Sucks and I Hate You

tspascoal — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:03:22 GMT

Did the title catch your attention? Well it did mine.

It is the title of a post that I've just read. Although the title seems a little bit trolish it's because it probably is, if you read the subtitle you will see the main title is not only trollish but very misleading. The post subtitle is The Social Dynamics of Code Reviews.

It mainly talks about code reviews in open source projects but most of the knowledge sprung in this post is applicable to close source projects.

Code reviews is something that is hard to do effectively. Even you get past the sociological issues mentioned on the post, without a decent tool it is very hard to keep track what has been reviewed and it's not.

Code review is one of the area I wish there were some kind of offering for TFS. Granted you can do code reviews with shelve sets and some sort of informal communication via email (assigning code review tasks or even a work item type) but that would give us no metrics or a simple way to keep track which parts of the code have been reviewed.

The more complete solution for TFS seems to be TeamReview (freely available on codeplex) which combines specific work item types and a Visual Studio add-in to help you manage the process. While I never tested the tool, I've given some attention to the description and workflow and it seems to work at a very micro level of the code. And the metric tools (what has been reviewed, what is not, etc,etc) seems to be non existant.

There are some more mature solutions that perhaps can be adapted to be used with TFS:

Review board which has originated from VMware
The venerable Codestriker
JCR - which unlike other tools doesn't work at the source control level but with whole files

On the commercial side Code Collaborator from Smart Bear has a good reputation and it works with TFS but never tried it either.

[Cross Posted on http://agilior.pt/blogs/tiago.pascoal/archive/2008/12/28/6528.aspx]

Team System Virtual Machines updates

tspascoal — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:11:49 GMT

TheVSTS 2008 virtual machines that are currently available are set to expire on 31 December, so Microsoft by the magical hand of Brian Randell dressed as santa (people who know Brian can easily get the resemblance :-)) and updated the virtual machines to expiry on 31 December 2009.

Not only he updated the machine with the latest goodies (power tools, the database edition GDR) but he also added to the list 2 new virtual images that can be run on Hyper-V, this brings up a total of 4 virtual machines (one with only TFS and another with TFS and Team Suite).

This is what has been included

the latest virtual machine additions or integration services components
all of the latest Windows Updates as of December 1, 2008
Team Foundation Server 2008 SP1
Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite SP1
Team System Web Access 2008 SP1
Team Foundation Power Tools, October 2008 update
the latest MSSCCI provider
Team Explorer 2005 (this allows you to work with TFS from Visual Studio 2005 which is installed so that you can edit and customize TFS reports)
the GDR for the product formally known as Visual Studio 2008 Database Edition (aka Data Dude)
current Process Explorer, Process Monitor, and Background Info

You can get the goods here

VSTS “all-up” Virtual PC/Virtual Server image (6 GB download, expands to 15 GB)
TFS “only” Virtual PC/Virtual Server image (3 GB download, expands to 8 GB)
VSTS “all-up” Hyper-V image (6 GB download, expands to 15 GB)
TFS “only” Hyper-V image (3 GB download, expands to 8 GB)

Or read all the details on Brian's post

[Cross Posted on http://agilior.pt/blogs/tiago.pascoal/archive/2008/12/26/6506.aspx]

Mais Um Grande Exemplo De Silverlight Deep Zoom – Da ViaTecla Innovation Laboratories

Paulo Morgado — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:29:51 GMT

Este iniovador uso do Deep Zoom usa imagens de sítios que usam as solucões de software ViaTecla’s para formar uma imagem do Pai Natal.

TFS Branching guidance 2.0 has been released

tspascoal — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:32:12 GMT

When I give a Team System Workshop one of the topics that tends to generate some discusssions is the module about source control and branching (mainly the branching patterns and usage).

Branching is not an easy subject, it normally requires a mindset shift for people who are not used to it. Specially when there are so many ways of doing it.

In TFS 2010 branching is going to be a lot easier and powerful since the team has been spending a lot of time on branching and visualization support

When it comes to branching patterns my bible is still Software Configuration Management Patterns: Effective Teamwork, Practical Integration but a few days ago the VSTS Rangers with the collaboration of the VSTS MVP's has launched the second release of the TFS Branching Guide on codeplex. This will help TFS users deal with branching scenarios and usages in TFS.

What will you get if you download the package?

TFS Branching Guide - Main 2.0
- This is the main article which briefly explains branching concepts and introduces 3 levels of the most common branching scenario
TFS Branching Guide - Scenarios 2.0
- A collection of less common branching scenarios
TFS Branching Guide - Q&A 2.0
- A set of most frequently asked questions with answers
TFS Branching Guide - Drawings 2.0
- A set of branching drawings in different formats including a large branching poster
TFS Branching Guide - Labs 2.0
- A couple of examples for hands on labs with step by step instruction for practicing the branching scenarios

[Cross posted on http://agilior.pt/blogs/tiago.pascoal/archive/2008/12/23/6467.aspx]

Salvo Pela .NET Framework Cleanup Tool – Outra Vez!

Paulo Morgado — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:26:26 GMT

Não sei o que se passa com o meu sistema XP (Alem do facto de ainda o estar a usar) mas não consegui instalar a paltaforma .NET 3.5 sem remover a 2.0 e agora não consegui aplicar o SP1 sem remover a 3.5.

Felizmente, fui salvo pela .NET Framework cleanup Tool do Aaron Stebner – ambas as vezes.

Kudos Aaron!

Feliz Natal E Um Próspero Ano Novo!

Paulo Morgado — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:21:52 GMT