I haven’t read Coder To Developer, but I love the term that secretGeek has pulled from it: “Inch-Pebbles.” When I was running DevelopMentor Software I learned to schedule from my then-mentor John Robbins, who learned it at NuMega (of BoundsChecker fame).

John’s insight was that nobody can look at a software release or even a feature and come up with an accurate schedule. Instead, they hold up their thumb in the wind and say, “Hmmm… Two weeks.” Of course, it’s never anywhere close to that. However, if you break something down into tasks of 1-2 days, aka “inch-pebbles,” those can be accurately estimated and then rolled up into how long each feature and then each mile-stone will actually take (“What? Three months?!? I had no idea…“). Once I learned how to schedule debugging time (rule of thumb: as long as coding time), we were able to schedule our software to w/in a week or two (although John, to show off, would pad a little and pick the day and time and deliver the golden master CD with balloons, champagne and marching band music : ).

At the time, we didn’t have a name for the granularity that could be accurately scheduled and, since I haven’t read Mike’s book, I don’t know how he defines the term “inch-pebble,” but from now on, that’s what I’m going to call it and if that’s different from what Mike called it, well, then he’ll just have to update his definition in his next edition. : )

I love Luke’s RSS Aggregator [1]. He loves my book. For what more could a man ask?

[1] I just tried the lastest RSS Bandit — don’t get me started…

Ian posted a fun little snippet of XAML showing off the new support for image effects on anything that Avalon renders, not just images:

<FlowPanel xmlns=“http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/xaml”
  xmlns:def=“Definition” Text.FontSize=“24″>
  <Text>This seems clear enough.</Text>
  <Text>
    <Text.ImageEffect>
      <ImageEffectBlur Radius=“3”/>
    </Text.ImageEffect>
    This is considerably less clear.
  </Text>
</FlowPanel>

I’ve rewritten it using a more compact syntax:

<Text ImageEffect=“*ImageEffectBlur(Radius=3)“>
This is considerably less clear.
</Text>

1. For 1 free UUID, is this legal XAML? Why or why not?
2. For 2 free UUIDs, what other popular XAML construct uses the exact same syntax?
3. For 3 free UUIDs, what popular C# construct has a similar syntax? How is it subtly different? (Hint: I’m not showing the difference in this example.)

We’ve got answers.

Don Box always used to say that COM Is Love, although I'm pretty sure he'd agreed that we've long since given up COM for a new trophy technology .NET which, apparently, is about developer love. One guy spent 17 years doing COBOL. I think he needs our love most of all...

Lately, when the subject about how to actually secure a .NET app or component comes up, a magic phrase is uttered: “threat modeling.” Apparently, this is the thing that tells you how folks could use your well-intentioned code to do bad things. And on a mailing list with a fairly select membership (although not too select — I’m on it : ), the Swiderski, Snyder book Threat Modeling was recommended. And the free threat modeling tool that goes along with the book is hosted right on microsoft.com, which I take as a sign of quality. Model those threats towards a happier, healthier you!

[via Pierre Nallet]

Friday, May 28, 2004

Today was the first time that I was called to jury duty, even though I’ve been eligible for almost half of my life. I always dreaded being called when I was a consultant because the $10/day didn’t cover a day’s meals, let along the revenue I would miss as the sole breadwinner of the family. However, much like the body puts off illness when you just can’t afford to take the time (stress has its uses), my dread seems to have put off my jury duty ’til I had a full-time job with enough redundancy to live w/o me for a day or so.

Even when your job pays, most folks seem to want to get out of jury duty in any way possible. George Carlin says that the best way to get out of it is to admit to the judge that you know how to tell if someone is guilty, “It’s all in the distance between their eyes…” Personally, I’m a believer in America’s system of justice (I’ve often fantasized about a life as a prosecuting attorney and as a judge), so I didn’t mind serving my turn on a jury. Unfortunately, it was not to be. While I went down to the court house, my number wasn’t even called to appear on one of the two juries needed today.

Doing a little math, I found out that the overall odds of me actually being on a jury were actually pretty low. Here are the stats:

• 47 people showed as potential jurors on 2 juries

• 28 were called for the 1st jury, of which 12 were needed

• 15 were called for the 2nd jury, of which 6 were needed

• According to the State of Oregon Washington County Jury Director, 70% of people that show up for a trial see the assembled jury and decide to take the plea bargain after all

• Therefore:

  • Folks called to jury duty that were actually put on a potential jury: 91.5%

  • Percent of juries, once formed, that are used: 30%

  • People called for a jury actually placed on that jury: 42%

  • My chance of actually serving on a jury today: 11.5% or less than 1 chance out of 8

  • The opportunity to make the US justice system real for the brothers Sells w/o them actually committing a crime: priceless

I get to read all of Eric Sink's pieces before we publish them, so I got to follow the link to the trailer for Commedian before you guys did (although the movie's been out for 2 years, so you had a bit of a lead...). While I like Jerry Seinfield and I've placed this movie next on my NetFlix queue, I can't believe that it'll live up to the trailer.