Dave Carabetta: My Thoughts - Databases

What's Your Ideal Source Control Setup?

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 13:00:00 -0400

Recently, I've been wrestling with the task of migrating our current source control solution from Microsoft® Visual SourceSafe® over to Subversion. Now, I know there are many of you who are cringing at the mere mention of using VSS. However, until recently, it has been an extremely stable solution for our source control needs. And hey, at least we have a source control solution, right?! Our needs are changing though, and our team is clearly outgrowing the feature set that SourceSafe provides. From directory-level branching to better binary file compression and storage to concurrent editing, Subversion clearly fulfills our needs...and it's free to boot. I keep my personal files in a Subversion repository at home, so I'm familiar with it when working on one machine. However, now I need to set it up for a couple of our departments (we got some non-IT departments into version control!) and I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it. The requirements are fairly straightforward:

All access will be internal. In fact, no public access will be granted to anybody. However, not all users will have an account on the repository's server.
Must be able to fully migrate the existing VSS repository to Subversion.
Must be able to support roughly 15-20 users concurrently accessing the repository. There may be more user than that overall, but that's the targeted number of actual concurrent use.
Must be able to lock down certain projects such that users must authenticate themselves when trying to access the files.

OK, now that the requirements have been stated, I need your help figuring out the best approach. First and foremost, where to physically put the repository. We have a shiny new development box (running Red Hat Linux 4.0) for our team with tons and tons of free space. I was thinking about creating a partition there dedicated to housing the repository. At the same time, I'm hesitant to put the repository on the same box as where most of the development is going to be taking place (we all have our own JRun/ColdFusion instances on this box, so we're separate, but sharing the same overall resources). I just don't trust all the banging that the box will be taking to house our core file repository, even though we'll be taking proper backups on a nightly basis. Should I phsyically separate the repository from the dev box? With regard to the network protocol, from my research, it seems like the best setup is to install Apache on the server and manage the file access and user autentication using the mod_dav_svn module. However, this feels like overkill to an extent. I have the excellent book Pragmatic Version Control using Subversion 2nd Ed. by Mike Mason (and published by Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt of Pragmatic Programmer fame), so I'm aware of the pros and cons of each of the protocol options (svnsserve, svnserve+ssh, and Apache). However, I'm looking for other real-world opinions on each, based on the stated requirements. With regard to migrating the existing VSS repository, this is a biggie. The problem I have with a lot of the current presentations about using Subversion is that they all assume that you're starting with a clean slate. However, we have literally years worth of comments, tags, labels, etc., that are an absolute "must keep." To that end, I have been monitoring the open source project Vss2Svn with the hopes of using their solution for migrating our repository. However, it doesn't look quite ready for prime time just yet. Has anybody succesfully used it by chance? I also found a solution from Polarion called Subversion Pro that looks to be free for at least the migration aspects of the product. Has anybody used this one? Lastly, are there any tips on the best way to set up authorization/authentication? Anything else I'm overlooking? We're currently using the amazing FogBugz project management system from Fog Creek software (it integrates with virtually all source code management systems, which is great), so we don't need things like Trac. Thanks for any insights.

For Tech Job Seekers and Employers, Joel Spolsky's New Site Is A Great Idea

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 17:40:00 -0400

I've mentioned before that I'm a big fan of Joel Spolsky. He just "gets" how to run a technology company and treat his Fog Creek employees. Well, he has just set up a new Jobs site that essentially aims to take the annoying marketing and recruiting out of job hunting, while providing high-quality tech listings. Are you tired of vague job listings that ask if you want to work for a "well established, leading online company," but get no more information than that until you talk with a recruiter? Well, apparently, so is Joel (and me too, for that matter). He's not aiming for it to supplant the gi-normous job boards like Monster or HotJobs. Rather, his goal is to keep it as a niche site where you can get the real job details for a given position without any hassle. Unique features include:

For candidates, the site is entirely free, including not having to register for anything.
Listings expire after 3 weeks. As he notes, most candidates don't apply for jobs that have been posted for longer than that.
All job posts must disclose the company at which the position is located. No "Company Confidential" listings are allowed. Since there are no recruiters involved, you can do all the research you want for a position without being hassled.
For a small $350 fee, an employer can post listings on the site. In comparison to the 15%-20% of base salary that recruiting fees that many recruiters charge employers for placing a candidate, this is chump change.
He offers his standard 90-day money back guarantee. If you don't find anybody to fill the position, hire the wrong candidate, if they quit just after starting, etc., you get your $350 back unquestioned. (Charities and non-profits can get in touch with their customer support reps about reduced fees.)
The job posting form contains checkboxes for answering each of the 12 questions of the Joel Test, which is his measure of the quality of a software team. This is a non-marketing way to really gauge the type of team you might be joining.

Since this is an experiment on his part, you'll note that there is no search functionality or saved profiles or anything beyond the basic listings. (This might expand if the site proves to be successful.) However, from Google to Six Apart to BEA to MySQL, there are a number of big-name company jobs currently listed, along with a lot of other smaller companies who I have seen are doing some great work. I'm not sure how the site will hold up, if only because recruiters will always find a way to post seemingly legitimate job listings, and there doesn't seem to be a screening process for who is posting the job. That being said, I love the idea of side-stepping recruiters with no tech background who are seemingly the gatekeepers to a lot of great jobs. Here's Joel's official announcement.

A MacBook Pro Review From A Windows Perspective

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 01:55:00 -0400

So I wrote a few posts about my dilemma regarding switching to a Mac for my personal laptop after spending (literally) my whole life on a Windows-based PC, and people were interested in hearing how it worked out, so here goes... The Ordering Experience Simple. Standard. The ordering process was very familiar if you've ever been to and/or ordered from Dell's web site. Choose your desired model, click a few radio buttons to configure your personal specs for the machine, and off you go. I will say that if Apple really wants to gain market share, they have to provide better financing options than they currently do. Essentially, you either pay by credit card or a P.O. if it's for work. That's lame. Where I believe Dell really has a leg up is that they provide a leasing option whereby you pay off the balance of a secured loan over a multi-year period at a fixed percentage rate. When I was paying off my old Dell, it was great to know that $78.56 was being deducted from my account every month and that, over the agreed-upon time period, the balance of the loan was paid off. Now I have yet another credit card to juggle. Oh yeah, and if you choose to finance through Apple rather than using an existing personal credit card, you literally have to open a new credit card account. The worst part about it is that you don't know what the interest rate is until after you've opened the account! So even if you decide that you don't want to use the account because the interest rate is too high, the account is already opened and reflected in your credit report. The above being said, I was still elated with my purchase (made on a Tuesday), and received an early birthday gift when it arrived that same week on Friday. The Machine Gorgeous. Sleek. Thin. Screaming Fast. Hot. Yeah, the common gripe is indeed true....these things get hot. Although I guess that's what happens when you take a high-powered processor and stuff it in a metal case that's only 1 inch thick. So I was definitely prepared for it. As the guys at the Apple Store told me when I was looking at the machines and comparing the 15 inch with the 17 inch model (I got the 15 inch), they're intentionally not calling them "laptops." Rather, the Apple company line has been to call them "portables" so that people don't put them on their lap and burn themselves. The Software This is probably my favorite part about the machine. A lot is made of the high cost of purchasing a Mac versus a PC. However, what I think gets lost in the debate is that Apple provides a ton of useful software out of the box. If you were to add up the cost of the individual software components, it's likely around $1,000 USD. Seriously. I'm not talking about the common PC trial-ware for AOL or EarthLink or any of the hundreds of other titles that most people uninstall as soon as they power up their new PC. I'm talking about a music recording application called GarageBand (which I now use to record my guitar songs....I'm not very good by the way), iTunes, iPhoto (a powerful photo editing and organization application), HD video editing software, multiple chat applications, iWeb (for creating web sites), and, of course, a solid web browser. Mac Eye For The Windows Guy OK, a cheesy section title, but that's the best I could do this late at night while trying to convey the fact that using a Mac is a different mindset as compared to using a PC. On a PC, you're likely have multiple partitions on your drive to separate your data from your applications in the event of a system crash (corrupt registry, etc.). Well, with a Mac, you don't have to worry about that. There's no such thing as a registry, and everything is treated as a file, so if you want to delete a program, just drag the program to the Trash and it's gone. No Start -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Do a Dance To Make Sure All Registry Keys Are Deleted, Which Likely Won't Happen. But I'm still having trouble adjusting to the fact that closing a window does not close the application itself. You still have to separately quit out of the application itself (in most cases). I'm not sure how I feel about that. For the most part, if I'm shutting the application window, then I'm likely done with it. So close altogether please. Installing software is still tripping me up from time to time as well. Most Mac applications come as a DMG file, which is roughly equivalent to a ZIP file. When you double-click the DMG file, it doesn't actually install the application in most cases, as you would expect from double-clicking an EXE file in Windows. All it does it mount the file archive so that you can then run the installer application. This took me a few attempts to figure out. I would "install" Firefox and then re-boot my machine only to see that it disappeared! The other problem I have is that sometimes applications don't tell me where they're being installed and I can't choose the location. I installed the TiVo Desktop Software about 8 times (seriously) before I realized it was in my System Preferences folder. I was clueless. Lastly, I went ahead and plunked down the amazingly cheap $39.99 for Parallels Software's Desktop For Mac application and installed Windows into it. Even in a virtual OS, Windows now runs about twice as fast as my old Dell ever did. Not that it's the Dell machine's fault, mind you, but it's still incredibe to see the speed difference. I'm going to be using this machine to do some Flex 2 development, and it's nice to see I won't be hindered by performance. The "Intel" Problem The big thing that I'm finding out about this machine is that most people still haven't updated their applications to support the Intel-based Mac yet (Adobe, I'm looking in your direction). So a lot of programs need to run in an emulation mode using something called "Rosetta" to translate the PowerPC-based instruction set to the Intel platform. It's supposed to slow down the application, and I suppose it does, but, honestly, these machines are so fast as it is that it's barely noticeable. I will say that running ColdFusion is a royal pain in the behind. See, Macs come with the Java 5 SDK as its default Java Virtual Machine. Unfortunately, ColdFusion doesn't run on this JVM yet. So, thanks to Google and Simeon Bateman's blog, I was able to track down a shell script that allows me to set the JDK to Java 1.4.2 so that ColdFusion is happy and will start. So I have ColdFusion out of the way. Now I have to track down an Oracle installation for this machine, as this is what my company uses and it'd be good to have it set up locally. The Negative So with all the gushing and positive comments, you'd think everything is great. Well, it is and it isn't. You see, my computer technically works, but it's also what Apple considers to be DOA (Dead On Arrival). The second memory bank (where I was trying to install some more RAM because it was cheaper than getting it from Apple) is dead. So I call up the AppleCare number because that's what I just paid good money for. Within 10 seconds, the tech support guy tells me he's a "software guy" and that hardware's out of his realm. His suggestion....bring it to a Mac Genius at one of their retail stores. I was a bit annoyed, but I was willing to give it a shot. I made an appointment with a "Genius," and, sure enough, he confirmed what I already knew. So you'd think that they would replace the laptop there on the spot because it's a retail store and they carry those kinds of things. Well, not so much. It turns out that because I upgraded a couple items at the time of my purchase (from 512 MB to 1 GB RAM and frm the 5400 RPM to the 7200 RPM hard drive), that's technically considered a "custom built machine" and they'll have to have it specially built for me in China. Oh yeah, and that'll take two weeks. I mean, what the heck's the point of the retail stores if they can't replace my machine right there? So, needless to say, I'm blogging this entry right now on a soon-to-be-returned machine. However, since it does function without issue with the 1 GB RAM module that came with the machine, they're letting me keep this through the CFUNITED conference next week, which is the main reason why I bought it when I did. I do have to say that their support staff was very accomodating to my situation, and they're allowing a "grace period" for me to return the machine for a new one rather than repairing this machine. As they put it, who wants a new computer that immediately has to be repaired? A Couple Pointers In closing, since this is the longest post in my short blogging history, I wanted to pass along two great little tips I've learned in my short experience with the computer.

Empty Trash vs. Secure Empty Trash: I saw this one whie waiting on line in the Apple Store. When you empty your Trash Bin, you're not really deleting the files from your system. Sure, they don't appear in your folders, but all you've done is tell the OS that the space the deleted file once occupied is eligible to be overwritten when space is needed. If you want to erase all remnants of a file from your system and immediately free up the space, choose the Finder->Secure Empty Trash menu option. This is particularly important for personal data files.
Get the iStat Pro Dashboard Widget: The Mac Genius I spoke to pointed out the iStat Pro dashboard widget, which gives you a high-level overview of all the major system components, such as battery life, temperature, memory usage, broadband speed, and more. The temperature and fan feature isn't working on the Intel-based Macs yet, but support for it is imminent, and this free widget is certainly a useful utility.

Overall Yeah, I have to send the computer back, but overall I'm ecstatic with the purchase. I really am. There are some things I need to learn to better use the machine (shortcuts, etc.), but I hope to pick the brains of some Mac users at CFUNITED next week to get a better grasp of the OS. I'm already more productive with this machine than I have been in a long time for my personal work. If you're on the fence, do it. You still have Windows via Parallels as a safety net, and it's such a complete system that has everything I need to be productive. The product reviews I read before buying the MacBook Pro were all from previous Mac users, so I was a bit skeptical. Well, I see why Mac users are loyal. Apple's on to something with this line, and if they can sort out the aforementioned financing problems (and ship fully functioning hardware), they have a great shot at converting large numbers of Windows users.

Adobe Developer Week Breeze Presentation Links

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 10:05:00 -0400

Via Ted Patrick's blog, I saw that Adobe has released the URLs to all the recorded Breeze presentations from Adobe Developer Week. I attended several of them and will try to post up a quick review of each when I get some time to breathe (along with the 85 other topics I've been wanting to post about but haven't had time to). However, I will say right now that most of the presentations were excellent and I'm absolutely in love with Breeze as a conferencing platform. Enjoy.

Free Online UML Course From The Ground Up

Tue, 23 May 2006 15:00:00 -0400

Using the Unified Modeling Language (aka UML) is an area where I know lots of developers are interested in but don't really know how to get started. It's a very dense area and it's extremely easy to get in lost in the various types of diagrams available in the language. I've searched around for tutorials myself, but the hits I usually get are the "first in a series" that never seem to have a second or third entry! Well today I was using my UML modeler of choice, Poseidon for UML by Gentleware, and decided to go to their site to see if they had an update for their current edition (they did). On reaching the homepage, I was extremely excited to see that they have partnered with Synergy Learning to provide an incredibly comprehensive online course entitled Introduction to Object-Oriented Modeling and UML. I went ahead and clicked into the course to see if it was the usual high-level stuff and was blown away by how detailed the course is. Again, there's no registration and no cost for the course. Not only do they cover virtually every area of UML and approaching UML, but they offer the course as PDFs, PodCasts, videos, and downloadable source code. Here are the high-level areas covered:

Overview (how to approach Object-Oriented Modeling, intro to the Poseidon for UML IDE)
Structural Elements (modeling object, classes, instances, etc.)
Behavior (modeling class interactions)
Inheritance (modeling base and sub classes)
Advanced OO Concepts (modeling relationships, packages, etc.)
Best Practices (naming conventions, commenting, etc.)

If you're a complete novice to UML, this looks to be your one-stop shop. Even for intermediate and advanced UML users, there looks to be something to learn. Gentleware even offers a free Community Edition of Poseidon for non-commercial use if you're just curious about learning. I've used UML to do class diagrams, use cases and light class interactions, but there's so much I don't know about the language. I will say that if properly built in to your development practices, UML can really be a life saver. It helps me better visualize my domain and the relationships between my classes. In case you're wondering, I wasn't able to find anything with regard to whether or not this is a short-term offering. Have a look!

Oracle Releases 10g Express Edition

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 11:39:00 -0400

Yesterday, Oracle announced the immediate availability of its Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (XE) for 32-bit Windows and Linux (free registration required to download). This entirely free distribution is a smaller-footprint version of its flagship Oracle 10g database, and it's based on the latest Release 2 code. There are some limitations to be aware of (outside of the OS support, of course), but I don't think it's anything most of us will have to worry about:

Supports up to 4 GB of user data
Single instance only on any server
Only executes on one processor, regardless of the total number in the box
Will only use up to 1 GB of RAM, regardles of how much is installed

We use Oracle here at work, and it's not for the faint of heart. There are definitely features and concepts that are different from other databases like MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server. That being said, it's incredibly powerful and has awesome features for doing analytical processing and storing and working with XML. If you use Oracle (or have ever been interested in testing it out), definitely give this version a look.