Month: June 2009

The concept of test beds or velcros for software modules…

Last week I attended a conference by Mario Cardinal at MSN Canada. The conference was part of the Toronto Architecture User Group.

The presentation had quite a few valid points along with the concept of “velcro” or test bed for modules. Test beds are a very familiar concept in electronics. In order to test hard drives or dvd drives, the manufacturer create test beds as opposed to test the parts in a computer. The same line of reasoning applies to software.

Here’s a Tech Ed 2009 presentation by Mario Cardinal.
Download Video

I look forward to see the code from this presentation at CodePlex and see what Mario Cardinal will blog after the Alt.NET conference in Vancouver, whether the same approach can be achieved with mocking frameworks.

Today (June 15th) I found the code for the Velcro project at codeplex.com. Hope this helps you evaluating this concept: http://velcro.codeplex.com/

Happy coding!

Being tech support for the fam…

I like helping my family whenever I can. Two weekends ago I set up the wireless network at my aunt’s and last weekend my dad had a problem with a software he installed.
He needed the Vademecum application to do some research on prescription drugs (dad is an Endocrinologist and draws comics on his free time)
The Vademecum application is a Java based desktop application and for some reason, after Dad installed it, it didn’t work. Dad’s desktop has Windows Vista. We also had another problem, Dad is based in Spain while I’m in Toronto.

I tried back and forth via email to see what was going on, but explaining over email can be exhausting…

Dad ended up sending me this :-p out of his frustration finding the Windows Explorer.

The caption reads “This is what comes out when I press the flag key and the key e on my keyword. Where is the explorer?”. Dad sent me a screen shot with Vista’s windows explorer and a explorer :)…

I finally came across the TeamViewer application. This app is free, not like GoToMyPC which costs about 29.99 a month, and allows you to share the desktop if both parties have the TeamViewer client…

I hope that helps you too in case you’re being tech support of the fam 🙂

Have a great weekend!!!