In a book that I've been reading recently, I came across the following sentence "Each time, I ask what the problem is, and we get to it immediately.  I like to keep a handle on all my [projects], and the problems are to be expected.  The time I worry the most is when there aren't any problems.  That's usually the result of misinformation or wishful thinking on someone's part." -- Donald J. Trump, How to Get Rich, ISBN: 0-345-48103-8 This statement applies very well to software projects and yet the number of meetings I attend where anything but the truth is presented absolutely...

This article speaks briefly about refactoring and code structure, focusing on several stylistic thoughts that have crept up time and time again throughout my career as a software developer.  The art of software development has many facets, however many of the goals that distinguish great software from its counterparts are often ignored, even more often ignored unintentionally.  The quality of a piece of software lies in many more areas than its ability to fulfil a requirement or perform a task.  The development lifespan of most software spans far beyond the initial release, and often beyond the initial developer.  Sooner or later, someone else is...

I recently came across a passage regarding the different ways of establishing belief for hypotheses and found myself thinking about an all too common area of missed opportunity in software quality assurance. It reads: "All swans are white- until you reach Australia and discover the black swans paddling serenely. For science built on induction, the counterexample is always the ruffian waiting to mug the innocent hypothesis as they pass by, which is why the scientific method now deliberately seeks him out, sending assumptions into the zone of maximum danger. The best experiments deduce an effect from the hypothesis...

Of recent interest to me has been the ability to deploy user-defined managed functions, stored procedures, and other objects to SQL from within Visual Studio 2005. With the .NET CLR in SQL Server 2005, these managed functions can be written and deployed from within Visual Studio, even as part of an automated build process. In wanting to investigate this further, I've decided to write a few articles on how this technique is used and on how it may be useful to you. When I first heard about the ability to (essentially) deploy .NET assemblies into SQL Server and then have...