Darren Smith - Software Development

SVN Checksum Mismatch

I've seen several solutions on the Internet to SVN's checksum mismatch problem. The one that not only worked for me, but was also the easiest can be found here: http://antoniolorusso.com/2008/06/11/quick-solution-to-svn-checksum-mismatch-2/

Basically, it entails backing up the directory where the checksum error is happening, deleting it, doing an update to restore the directory, and then copying back any files from your backup that have been changed on your local machine. Then you can commit.

The Stockdale Paradox

This is pretty interesting, and it comes from Jim Collins' book, Good to Great. Admiral Jim Stockdale was a former POW during the Vietnam war. He was prisoner for 8 years and was tortured over twenty times. Yet, during that time, he did whatever he could to increase the number of prisoners who would survive imprisonment. He created rules for how the prisoners should deal with torture, instituted a communication system to reduce the feeling of isolation, and even disfigured himself so he would not be video taped as a "well-treated prisoner". Now, get this. When asked who did not survive imprisonment, Stockdale replied, "the optimists." The optimists always expected to get out soon. Next Christmas or maybe next Easter. When that didn't happen, they gave up hope. Stockdale, on the other hand, accepted reality. Imprisonment wasn't not going to end any time soon. Yet, at the same time he remained faithful that he would prevail in the end. Even more, he believed he could turn imprisonment into the defining event of his file. That's the paradox. Accept reality with all of its brutal facts, but remain faithful that in the end you will prevail. This paradox can apply to business's and many other areas. The trick is that you always got to realize reality, and then logically prevail onward.

Test Code Education

Although, I have been writing unit tests for some time now, I have never fully educated myself on the best ways to organize and architect test code. I knew that this was knowledge I was missing so I decided to go to Barnes and Noble and buy a thorough book on the subject. The book I bought is titled xUnit Test Patterns: Refactoring Test Code and is written by Gerard Meszaros. The book is over 800 pages and covers way more than I thought there was to know about test code. The book is endorsed by Martin Fowler as well.

A sample of what can be learned from this book is how Meszaros classifies tests:

Customer Tests - Tests user stories.
Unit Tests - Tests a single class.
Component Tests - Tests a group of classes that provide a service.
Performance Tests - Response time tests, capacity tests, and stress tests.

These are not all the classifications, just some basic ones that I made sure I took notes on.

I'm still in the earlier chapters, so I'll probably be blogging more on what I learn from the book.

Global ASAX and IIS App Pool Rights

An ASP.NET website will run under the permissions that you give it. For custom permissions, this usually done by adding the <identity impersonate="true" /> tag to the web.config and then configuring a user in the website's IIS options. This will work throughout most of the website, but these permissions are not used for code executing from the global.asax. The reason for this is that the code in the global.asax executes at a higher level and uses the permissions coming from the website's app pool.

To change the app pool's permissions you can have the pool run under a custom Windows account. The account, however, must be part of the IIS_WPG group (IIS Worker Process Group) on the local web server. To add the account to the group, open up the Computer Management utility, and navigate to:

System Tools \ Local Users and Groups \ Groups.

Right-Click on IIS_WPG, and click on Add to Group. Add your account and it should be ready to run an IIS app pool. Once you set up the account for the IIS app pool, you'll want to stop the pool and then start it again. Recycling will not refresh the account. Now you can control the permissions of code executing from the global.asax file.

Mission Statement

I'm Darren Smith and I'm a software developer with a interest in software development and all aspects of business. I'm starting up this blog for several reasons. One is that I've been learning quite a bit and I figured writing about what I learn will help me not only clarify my new knowledge but also to remember for the future. Another reason is to give back. So many times has a blog or a message board saved me time and money, that I now desire to help people similar to myself who seek out knowledge The last reason I can think of is to learn from others. I'm not perfect by any means. If I blog about something that is the not the perfect solution  or about something that is just plain wrong, I hope to be criticized and corrected. That way I'll learn something new.

As I as I said above, I have a interest in both software development and business. I'll be blogging about both. I don't know if there's ever been a successful blog with both subjects, so we'll see where this ones goes. But as successful people say, failing can help you become a winner... as long as you learn from your mistakes and keep on trying.