After some discussion with Jeff Key this morning, and reading in Coder to Developer by Mike Gunderloy, I decided to start testing out FogBUGZ to see if I like using it for a bug tracking software for my personal development.

So far I'm very impressed, and I like the price too. Just something about very affordable software for individual developers. Great thinking Fog Creek and SourceGear!

The experience so far has been very pleasant. You sign up for the 45 day trial, and you instantly have access to their site with your own personal database. What makes it really nice, is that at any point during my trial, I can purchase licenses, download my databases that I was using (either SQL Server or Access), install it to my local version and I'm off and running.

So, I have about 44 days and counting and I'm looking to add a development partner, so maybe we both can really get a sense of how great FogBUGZ is when working with a small team.

I've finally come to the crossroads of having very little time to advance my custom controls, and realized that I need to take on 1 or 2 development partners to help make the custom controls great.

Here are some stipulations:

• You need to be proficient in .NET, specifically using C#, for at least 1-2 years.
• Previous ASP.NET server control development a plus.
• Previous work will need to be available upon request so I can select the best candidate(s) to suit my needs.
• Be willing to donate their time, though dev partners will get a cut of all future source code sales.

So what are some of the benefits?

• Help create some of the best free ASP.NET server controls in the community.
• Donate your time from home!
• Use Vault as a SCC - no licensing cost to you.
• A cut of all future source code sales (% has not been determined).

So, if your interested in lending a hand, contact me with a resume and any pertinent information.

Update: Eric responds to the speculations and states that Hatteras is more on the lines to compete with ClearCase and not Vault.

So word is spreading like wildfire about "Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System," and it's sounding better and better with each post that comes up. However, much was overlooked and briefly mentioned concerning the VSS replacement, "Hatteras".

Korby had a great explanation of it:

"Hatteras is a spicy new SQL Server-based, fully transactional, client-server source control system that will blow your socks off."

Thats awesome, though its starting to sound a bit like a product currently out on the market -- Vault from SourceGear. It's funny also because I remember back to Eric's post long long ago submitting an application for Vault being the VSS replacement. Things that make you go hmmm....

Now, I'm sure SourceGear didn't sell their rights to Vault, I don't know why they would, unless MS paid them a hefty amount. Though, by the sounds of it, "Hatteras" may shape up to be a Vault contender when all is said and done. I get to meet Eric next week (he's speaking at our UG meeting), so I'll definately have to chat with him about this.

According to briankel, there's a new "hot" build of VS.NET 2005 CTP available that didn't make the attendee bag drop. Any TechEd attendee can pick a copy up at the Visual Studio booths in the Pavilion area.

Update: Michael notes that the May CTP is available for download. And in a very long time I'll have it.

So I finally received my copy of Coder To Developer by Mike Gunderloy. I started reading it today, and so far I've gotten through the first two chapters, and both of which have hit points that I constantly think about at work starting a new project. I've also walked away with a better understanding of how I should be prepping myself as well as a new project prior to actually writing some code.

The first chapter really inspired me to start using some mind mapping software in future projects (personal or not), so I can get a better understanding of how things are going. However, I find this to be difficult to do in my work setting due to me being a developer and not a consultant that gathers the information and prepares the requirements for us. I'm thinking that this book should be passed on to those individuals so they can get an idea of what's best for everyone.

The second chapter has really opened my eyes into the specific process that needs to be taken after the requirements are gathered. At this point, the methodology for developing the project needs to be determined based on the company's needs or risk. I especially enjoyed the distinct clarification between architecture, design, and implementation. Lastly, Mike hits us with the point of how the product should be delivered to the public or client. He states that this type really depends on the methodology chosen previously - ie. doing a normal beta process for waterfall and releasing working portions of an application if doing XP.

So far the book is really good and I'm enjoying reading it. It's very easy to read (for a semi-technical book), and is not for the faint hearted of starting programmers. As the title states it clearly, Mike's purpose is to transition you from a coder to a developer. To me, its a mindframe on how things are to come together and work - and I think I may be on the right track.

I would like to preface this post with the following:

In no way am I affiliated with Interscape or VisualBlogger 2004. What I will be writing is based soley on a discussion between Robert and I. As I will indulge your minds, I will not disclose any proprietary information that was passed on to me concerning VisualBlogger 2004. However, I feel the information discussed needs to be told, truthfully, and unfortunately its not come from Robert after more than a day of waiting in anticipation.

Here's the skinny...

VisualBlogger 2004 will become a commercial application sometime in July/August, price is unknown to me. The main reasoning behind Robert's decision was due in part that he spent 60+ hours refactoring from Beta 1 to incorporate the (uber cool) provider model. In short, this isn't a bad idea due to the amount of time that has been spent developing the tool.

Prior to becoming the final version, approximately 3-4 more beta's will be released to the public free of charge. During this time, the user interface will get an overhaul, more blog engines will be supported, VS.NET integration will be put into place and a few other awesome things (those of which I cannot divulge). Robert briefly mentioned having two final versions, one of which being a free, but crippled, version of VisualBlogger.

A lot of other factors came into play in his decision, one of which was relating to how the tool has become more than his intial plans of providing a simplistic posting utility that has VS.NET integration. The way I see it, is that Robert too initialy felt this to be a small developers utility, however didn't think of the big picture and over shot the initial plans by far.

Now...I'm sure there's more to it, as well as a definate plan for it, however it seems that we as a community are lacking that information. Robert, we wan't to know what your plans are, its that simple. Maybe after this post, something will come about, but until we see that, we'll just have to wait.

After a nice comment from Paschal, he noted what I was thinking after writing my original post this morning. So - what was it that he and I had the same thoughts on? Well, when Robert intially launched the idea of VisualBlogger, he stated in a comment on his initial post:

"Yeah, it's really free. I'm going to release it by the end of the week, barring any VS.NET integration issues. I'll have it set up so you can run it standalone as well (outside the IDE)."

So, whats the big deal? Well, according to his latest post and announcement, it seems as if VisualBlogger 2004 will become a commercial app, read it as you will:

"Oh yeah, and the winner will get a free copy of VisualBlogger 2004 when we do a final release in late July, early August."

In the above post, Paschal also posed the question, yet there is still no response.

Now - I'm not necessarily knocking the fact that VS.NET integration isn't there yet, that can be extremely tricky, so I can see why it hasn't made it yet. However, he teased us from the beggining, and I just wanna see it in action.

So, a response from Robert would be nice on Interscape's plans for releasing VisualBlogger as a free community tool or a commercial app. To me, if it's going to be a commercial app, then they have a lot of work cut out for them. As I previously stated, its not nearly as polished - and this could be due to its infancy - however to me, it seems more of a developer's tool rather than a commercial app.

Dmitry - you've got my $19.95 comin' for BlogJet.

Robert and his team launched VisualBlogger 2004, Beta 2 this morning, and so I decided to give it another shot since Beta 1. Overall, I really wasn't that impressed just like last time.

First off, the thing takes a bit to load for just a simple utility. It may be the provider model that's being used (which is an uber cool idea), but startup performance is crappy as hell. Yes - I realize you can minimize it to the system tray so startup doesn't take any time for future uses, by I don't want it in my system tray because my bar is precious and needs reality when I have 10-15 applications/windows open at one time.

Secondly, after attempting to submit a feature request (and later a bug report because the thing crashed on me) - well, they're 2 different items. First off, there was no indication, still, that my feature request had been sent. When the application crashed on me, I was typing a post and clicked "Configure Blogs", and after submitting my report, the whole app hung - effecitively loosing my blog post (that I'm now replacing with one in BlogJet).

Thirdly, the icons for "closing" dialog windows are just plain wrong. While configuring my blogs, it has a nice big red X underneath save and new (which by the way, I couldn't tell what is what because of now words or hovering text). Because of this, I didn't know if that X meant delete this blog or close. After a few seconds of seriously thinking about it (really, I did contemplate the click), I hit the red X to see it close and my blog be saved.

My last grief comes with the blatant indication of where the software came from. Most applications have an "About", but not VisualBlogger 2004. It comes with a nice link button on the form that says it comes from Interscape Technologies. Hmm, yeah - I know it does, why does it have to constantly tell me. This is more of just a grief, not a "you should remove it because its stupid", though it really should be moved to an About page or something.

I think the real kicker for me for using VisualBlogger 2004, is that it has the ability to paste formatted code, unlike the tool I love most, BlogJet. However, I've been assured from Dmitry, that code posting will come into BlogJet in the future.

Overall, I think its an OK tool. The beta seems more like an alpha to me - in the sense of beta testing BlogJet for so long. BlogJet was always more polished than VisualBlogger 2004, and easier to use. Plus, it has great performance and a nice community to back it and give support. Maybe its just early for VisualBlogger 2004, but for now, its still on the "nope, won't use" list for me.

Yesterday, Google decided to bump particular users' email storage limits to 1 Terabyte instead of 1 Gigabyte. And unfortunately, mine didn't make the cut (not like I'm really using it, though). Read the CNet article.

Now this is just plain cool. If I had only had this several moons ago when I was developing the NNTP Posting Plugin.

Exerpt:

"yeah, you can fire a SELECT-statement against a newsserver now :-)"

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