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Does Visual Studio Rot the Mind?

Posted In: Technology, Editorial — October 27, 2005 @ 10:52 am — Peter

http://charlespetzold.com/etc/DoesVisualStudioRotTheMind.html

I came across an essay/talk (linked above) via Slashdot.org the other day and it really hit close to home since I’ve become increasingly familiar with the Visual Studio development environment at my new job. While I’m by no means a code purist, I do however, like to know the function of every line of code in an application I’m responsible for. In previous environments I’ve worked in, you start with a blank workspace and start building a program via whatever approach you chose. However, like the author of this essay mentions, Visual Studio forces you into the approach that Microsoft deems to be the best practice. Along with the guidance offered by Visual Studio comes a volume of generated boilerplate code that obfuscates the intricate details of the program you’re implementing. A perfect example of this behavior is web service development using Visual Studio. While I enjoy the rather painless implementation of web services via the .NET framework, you’re out of luck if you’d like to see the actual SOAP messages being exchanged. Sure there are convoluted hacks that can add tunnels and listeners to the environment stack, but their configuration isn’t exactly straightforward. Even the SOAP trace tool from the MSSOAP Tookit 3 is crap. I’ve ended up using Etherreal to capture HTTP packets generated by web service calls to reassemble a SOAP conversation in a way that satisfies my debugging needs. I’d love to hear some suggestions on a better way to inspect the raw XML content of the <soap :fault> element when using .NET. Anyway, the point of my rant is, the Visual Studio environment hides vital details of web services that could be useful during the debugging of interoperability issues and such.

Regarding Intelisense (aka code insight), I’m quite fond of this feature. I’d love to know all the members and methods of my most frequently used classes, however, I simply don’t have room for this type of information in my brain. Also, code insight has been a feature I’ve grown to love long before using Visual Studio. Eclipse, for example, does a lovely job of when building Java application. To be quite honest, the thing I love most about code insight is the amount of typing is saves me. Unfortunately, when using Visual Studio’s Intelisense to cruise through coding, it tends to insert annoying spaces between things.

One issue that wasn’t raised by the essay is the visual debugging component of Visual Studio. I’m convinced that this “feature” has resulted in a culture of hack and debug programmers that are unable to think through a problem start to finish. I’ve witnessed developers throw together a minimal amount of code and logic and immediately being stepping through the code using the debugger to determine what the next logical steps should be. Not only is this approach time consuming, it often results in a program that just barely works. Forget data validation and exception handling… just make the code work under ideal circumstances!

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Congress Pulls Plug on Viagra Subsidies

Posted In: Editorial — October 25, 2005 @ 11:09 am — Peter

http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20051024k

Wow, I had no idea that the U.S. government was subsidizing the cost of Viagra, and other crap, via the Medicaid program. How absolutely appalling, many citizens go without basic healthcare, while slime ball men are getting their rocks off using our tax dollars. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a strong supporter of taxation for providing a strong social network of assistance for those flirting with poverty. However, subsidizing sexual dysfunction drugs is a flagrant waste of money.

One can only wonder how long these subsidies would have continued if it were not for the redirection of funds required to support those affected by hurricane Katrina.

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Political pawn

Posted In: Editorial — March 21, 2005 @ 6:28 am — Peter

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/21/politics/21cnd-debate.html

The U.S. government has completely overstepped its boundaries today by assuming the role of “God” and passed legislation forcing the feeding tube to be reinserted for Terri Schiavo. This shocking decision was made by a largely ignorant group of people, the majority of which have no medical experience whatsoever. This knee jerk reactionary motion is yet another brazen attempt from the far right extremist government to win the support the religious rite. Perhaps they should debate the fate of each human being that is denied health care due to lack of adequate medical coverage. I cannot help but wonder who is paying to keep this ailing human being alive. If there was not such a political circus surrounding her situation right now, I doubt the family would have enough money to pay the hospice to continue supporting her life. But now that the bible thumpers and right to lifers are on the bandwagon, some rich tycoon probably seized on the political muscle power that will be gained by keeping this mass of muscle and tissue alive. If only these narrow minded fools could see how badly they are being duped…

What is going on here is anything but natural. I do not understand how those who believe in a higher being can argue this person has a quality of life that should be sustained. I will definitely have legal documentation prepared that explicitly states that I am not to be kept alive in such a state. Terri Schiavo is not alive. She has been dead for years and these selfish self righteous freaks need to let her body die.

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Serial rapist off the streets of Denver

Posted In: Editorial, Everyday life — February 19, 2005 @ 10:01 am — Peter

This past week has been a very difficult. Reports of 6 sexual assaults within a 3 miles radius of our home made it clear there was a serial rapist on the loose in metro Denver. After the 5th incident, the DPD had determined the identity of the man as Brent J. Brents, a man who served jail time and has been deemed a dangerous sexual predator. I can’t help but ask, why was this man back out on the streets? What value did he contribute to society that the prison staff felt he sound be released from prison early. From the information that has been release, he served 13 years of a 20 year sentence, released early because of good behavior. Within weeks of his release, he assaulted an 8 year old boy in the eastern suburb of Aurora. This person is a life long criminal and should be euthanized just as an aggressive dog would be at an animal shelter. Actually, it bothers me to know he will likely receive a near life prison sentence and my tax dollars will contribute to his meals, healthcare and other recreational activities at the prison. I would much rather see those dollars go to innocent underprivileged children in the metro area. Oh well, he is caught and Denver is now a safer place to live. I have not seen this type of crime since we moved here and I hope nothing like his surfaces again. I really enjoy living in the city and don’t want to be forced to move to a suburb because criminals make the city neighborhoods inhospitable.

Denver Post Article about the case

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The nomination of Dr. Rice

Posted In: Editorial — January 26, 2005 @ 3:19 pm — Peter

Senator Byrd - Speech

I heard this on KGNU this morning and thought it was a great speech opposing the nomination of Dr. Rice. While she will likely be walked right into office and any dissent will be cast aside, it is nice to know our elected officials are contesting her appointment. She is part of this gang of thugs that thinks we can bully ourselves to a sound state of national security. This is such flawed logic… The more muscle flexing we do around the world, the more people will hate us. The more nations we invade, the more insurgent uprisings with thwart our efforts. We need to transcend these primitive tactics and explore more evolved types of diplomacy. As long as there are massive groups of people living in poverty and squalor, the world will hate us. The US needs to engage in massive philanthropic efforts to rid the world of chronic poverty and hunger. If these conditions did not exist, it would be much more difficult for insane dictators to take power. Instead, we oppress the populations of third world countries by exploiting their labor forces, and ignoring issues of poverty that could be remedied with the same amount of spending we have allocated to the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Why are we willing to commit massive resources to these efforts for a false sense of security, when we could channel the same resources toward poverty alleviation and gain real security? This quote sums up my feelings best…

“Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education. Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.” –Abraham Flexner

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