Oops! I dropped my blog....

....Oh!  There it is!

Things got busy at work over the last 2 weeks, and this is the first chance I have had to grab the virtual dry-erase markers and start scribbling again.  So, I decided to let-loose with a torrential rain of blogginess in a single MegaBlog!

Here is my "News", or something like it.  Now for the headlines:

  1. DAVE "I shall pun-ish you" FINDLEY is finally a blogger!
  2. I still don't like BizTalk!! (more rantz later)
  3. To PDC or not to PDC?...and what about TechEd?...And why not both?
  4. Management by Exception....plus other misnomers and misconceptions...
  5. Feelings of inadequacy, and other self-pity....

Bits-o-details on them headlines....

1.) David Findley, my local obsessive-compulsive .NET guru and co-worker, has finally decided to join the blogging craze.  (After 3 months of shaming him into it) Expect titilating conversation, pun-ishing rhetoric, and some quite impressively unfinished .NET projects.  :)  

Dave starts us off with his spelunkering in the ThreadPool cavern which resulted in his own custom ThreadPool class that he just published to a GDN Workspace.

2) BizTalk (EAI) is my day job.   I try to take on as many code-centric projects as possible,  but this last week I (re)started some assignments involving creation of BizTalk channels, ports, organizations, et al.     Here is a summary of my current feelings about this technology:

  • XDR...enuff said!   
  • DocSpecs, Maps, and Functoids, Oh my!  - At least its (mostly) XML...
  • BizTalk "Channel Filtering" via pseudo-XPATH language - Lets just say that BizTalk XPath and the XPath everyone else knows, often live in parallel, yet different universes.
  • BizTalk "Self-Routed Documents" - An interesting, if not obvious, idea to use metadata to identify how to determine document source, channel, and destination from routed documents.    However, it take a bit of effort to wrap your mind around exactly how the BizTalk "black-box" plumbs and executes this approach.
  • BizTalk admin tools - WHAT A JOKE!   Who wrote these things!  Take a UI course next time, guys!

Side Note: Based upon these comments, you may think I hate my job...but really I love the company, the benefits, and the people. I just often wish I had my own little world where I can work on the fun stuff and ignore the stuff that is actually valueable to my company.  :) 

3) The PDC is a while from now, but in corporate environments like mine, it never hurts to start testing the water early.  Since TechEd is in Dallas this year, I have little doubt we will send a few people there, but PDC is a harder sell.   Right now, it looks like its a go, but at the cost of my discretionary training dollars.   The debate is still on, and my project lead seems to be working an angle.....(crossing my fingers)

4) Management by Exception is a term I use to describe various counter-productive philosophies often employed by ladder-climbing corporate IT managers who have forgotten their programming heritage.  Here is an example:  

Programmer A: "We need to improve our methodology and focus on creating building blocks of shared libraries instead of the typical code-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach we always use"

Supervisor of Programmer A: "Great idea!  Can you have that done today?  Oh, by the way, that project you started yesterday is due in 2 days instead of 2 months, so just deploy that prototype you showed me."

(4 days later prototype that was deployed has crashed and burned)
Supervisor of Programmer A: "Why did you publish that shoddy code?!?  Wasnt it you who said we needed to focus on our methodology?  Now go rewrite it in a more componentized manner with a stronger emphasis on the architecture and OO principles.  You have 2 weeks to get this done."

(3 days later)
Supervisor of Programmer A: "We also need a couple new features added. {shows list of 20+ items} Oh, and I told the executive management team how well things were going, and they want you to demo this on Monday."

(4 hours later)
Supervisor of Programmer A: "We are going to have Mr. Contractor finish this for you so we can move you onto the {insert latest top-priority} project."

(repeat ad-nausium)

You may be scratching your head here....so is the programmer...there is no point, nor any meaning...just a sad reality.  Luckily, this is not my reality anymore, but I know plenty of programmers in many companies who live in this bi-polar world of conflicting perceptions, and failed leadership. 

5) By the title of this section "Feelings of inadequacy, and other self-pity...." i'm sure you are expecting another downer or rant from me...quite the opposite.  Since dabbing my toe in the water of the .NET development community, especially within the .NET blogosphere, I have been in "shock and awe" (sorry for the abused phrase) over the impressive talent and extraordinary cohesiveness of the .NET developers in our virtual community.   Its the first time in over 8+ years I have felt this unity and belonging as a Microsoft-centric developer.    I just hope one day to feel adequate enough to contribute as an equal with some of you...thanks for raising that bar!

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