Disable touchpad on dell latitude with 64bit Windows 7 – Alps driver

After installing Windows 7 on my Dell Latitude D620, I couldn’t find a  driver to disable the touchpad (It was not automatically installed).

After scanning google and the Dell support website, I finally stumbled acrross this post.

Removing attached object (1..n relation) in the Entity Framework

When having 1…n relation between a base object and a list of other object, e.g. when a tournament has a list of players, removing one of the players from the list isn’t as obvious as one might expect.

var t = DB.Tournament.FirstOrDefault(c => c.Id == idTournament);
var g = DB.Golfer.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Id == idGolfer);
t.Golfer.Attach(g);
t.Golfer.Remove(g);
DB.SaveChanges();

This Stack Overflow post fixed this issuse for me.

Table treated as view when no primary key is defined in the DB

I was receiving the following error:

Unable to update the EntitySet 'Player' because it has a DefiningQuery and no element exists in the element to support the current operation.

Turns out that Entity Framework treats tables that are created without an explicit primary key, as views, and therefore does not generate an update function.   As usual, a StackOverFlow post quickly put my mind on track.

Linq to entities insert problem – make sure the qualifiedEntitySetName is correct

After drinking cold coffee in agony for 24 hours over the Insert functionality in Linq to Entities, I finally stumbled up on a good solution.  I had been getting errors like ..  “The member with identity ‘Entities’ does not exist in the metadata collection. Parameter name: identity” in the Context.AddObject() method.

First of all I found the core place to be for my concerns and questions. The ADO.Net forum and then I found this post which really got me on the track.

Ended up solving all my problems with the following when inserting an object with 2 foreign keys;  Course and User which are of types (Course and User);  for which I don’t want to retrieve the objects from the database just to add them as the foreign keys for the insert.  The eventual solution for the insert looks like this (with the root problem bolded).

public void InsertRound(Round round)

{

round.UserReference.EntityKey = new EntityKey(DBContext.DefaultContainerName + “.User”, “Id”, round.IdUser);

round.CourseReference.EntityKey = new EntityKey(DBContext.DefaultContainerName + “.Course”, “Id”, round.IdCourse);

DB.AddToRound(round);

DB.SaveChanges();

}

You know that you are having fun programming …

… when the coffee turns cold before you have time to have a sip.

.. and you are having too much fun when you drink that cold cup of coffee because you don’t want to spend time away from the code to get another (hot) one  :)

Dynamic Linq to Entities – using Like conditions

I have been using L2E for a while, and I am pleasantly surprised with what I have seen so far.  Today I ran into one of the expected walls, building dynamic queries (based on incoming request params).  Finding a solution to this I stumbled onto Dynamic Linq.

• http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/01/07/dynamic-linq-part-1-using-the-linq-dynamic-query-library.aspx
• http://www.west-wind.com/Weblog/posts/143814.aspx
• http://naspinski.net/post/Writing-Dynamic-Linq-Queries-in-Linq-to-Entities.aspx

Having downloaded a single class implementation for the dynamic part.  There I ran into syntax problems when trying to construct a ‘Like’ based query on a string field.  Searched for a while until I found this:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/linqprojectgeneral/thread/ec89724c-a9f3-47e7-9743-989a0f459718/

Which solved my problems … and L2E still continues to impress on flexibility!

Refreshing view on “Bad agile”

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/09/good-agile-bad-agile_27.html

If you have a few minutes to spare, reading this good-agile-bad-agile article offers loads of fun and is a mental reset on agile if you inhale every word.

Agile software process tools review

Going through my annual review of the software development process tools on the market.  As the world moves to agile I am stunned by the lack of comprehensive tools available.  Maybe everybody is waiting for Microsoft to catch up and don’t dare enter this niche … ?   This is a more of a checklist for me than anything else ….. anyways the four tools on my list this year are:

 VersionOne (versionone.com): I have been a big fan of VersionOne for quite a while now.  It continues to provides excellent functionality but IMHO it hasn’t taken the big leap forward I have been expecting for the last 4 years.  Still the best tool for iteration planning and tracking on the market

Rally (rallydev.com): Impressive stuff. I will test this one next time I have the chance to test a product management tool in a real project

TargetProcess (targetprocess.com): No experience with this one but in its simplicity it looks like a university project (KISS), even thought the functionality seems to be comparable to VersionOne.  After browsing through the demo for a while it seems to have a better test functionality than VersionOne.

Scrum for Team Foundation Server (conchango.com): MS has been miles away in providing agile process managemenet capabilities by default with the team foundation server.  The scrum plugin is (surpisingly) the only option pushed as an option for extendin the basci TFS functionality.  Looking to install that today and test.

Are you doing a good job? :)

Most people think that they do pretty good work (even if they don’t). It’s just a little trick our minds play on us to keep life bearable. (joelonsoftware.com)

Software project management basics

Found a great article by Esther Derby while browsing through SCRUM user groups.  (http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/CrossTalk/2006/11/0611Derby.html)  The very bare basics of being a software development manager.  Articles of excellence which I have seen too many examples of being absent from people struggling to control software development departments and organization.

• Decide What To Do and What Not To Do :: Great managers do not just accomplish work, they accomplish the right work.
• Limit Multitasking :: People lose time as they put away Task A and remember where they were on Task B. It takes time to retrieve and review documents or notes related to the task and to re-create a train of thought
• Keep People Informed :: People work best when they have the information they need. Great managers share what they know about the task and how the task fits into the goal of the project or organization.
• Provide Feedback :: People need to know how they are doing at work. Do not assume that people know when they are missing the mark or what they are doing well. Great managers meet one-on-one with people regularly, every week or every other week
• Develop People :: Great managers know the career and professional aspirations of the people they work with, and they strive to help them meet those goals when they can and help people move on when they cannot.