The Smithy

Three Characteristics of Engineering

1. Mature Engineering Disciplines Provide Design Decomposition from Top to Bottom
2. Mature Engineering Disciplines Use Analysis Techniques (Which Might or Might Not Be Mathematical) to Test Each Level of Design
3. Mature Engineering Disciplines Have Implicit Requirements, as Well as Explicit Requirements

So it seems to me I am not an engineer, I'm a smith at most :(

Multiplatform .NET

Microsoft® Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.

In other words MS is trying to spread its tentacles to YOUR computer. Are you afraid? Joking :)

In fact the the underlieing idea is more powerful than it may seem. I tried the VS2008 beta 2 + Silverlight SDK + Blend. And within 5 minutes I was capable to integrate video to the page.

Check the Silverlight project for cool examples.

How many types of architects do you know?

In general I know 3:

1. Solutions Architect
   Also known as: Application Architect, Software Architect, Data Architect, Integration Architect
   Role: The Solutions Architect manages the design of one or more applications or services within an organization, usually within the scope of a division.
   Some would argue that “Software Architect” is more applicable here. But since the design for many applications and services often transcends the creation of software – for example, in a data-heavy application or the integration of a series of applications – the term “Solution Architect” is a good fit in many cases and seems to be gaining adoption.
   The Solutions Architect works with the Enterprise Architect for strategic direction (both conforming to strategy, and helping to define it).
2. Infrastructure Architect
   Also known as: Technology Architect, Systems Architect
   Role: The Infrastructure Architect’s job includes the design of the datacenter and the deployment and maintenance of applications and services across the organization.
   This role involves working with both the Solution Architect to design for scalability, reliability, manageability, performance, and security, and the Enterprise Architect, from whom he receives and contributes to strategic direction.
3. Enterprise Architect
   Also known as: Strategic Architect, Chief Architect, Business Architect
   Role: The Enterprise Architect is concerned about the strategic vision of application and services within the organization. He or she is responsible in part for strategic direction and ensuring all applications comply with internal policies, and may be in charge of setting the direction for methodologies, tools and frameworks used.
   Many people believe that Strategic Architect is a more fitting title here because there can be a disconnect between Enterprise Architect (the role) and Enterprise Architecture (when used to describe architecture for an Enterprise), but the term Enterprise Architect seems to have built up some momentum over the past few years, and is generally more accepted.

The classification was taken from here.

Responsibilities of a System Architect

Recently I've read an article regarding system architect and found this definition:
"A system architect is responsible for creating or selecting the most appropriate architecture for a system (or systems), such that it suits the business needs, satisfies user requirements, and achieves the desired results under given constraints."
That brought me back my study in the uni with all those sophisticated definitions :)

Besides, read this if you want to know what does it take to be an architect.

Always for the road

Spent a couple of weeks in Western Europe. A lot of impressions've left, do you want to share them with me?

BeNeLux-2007

Also yesterday took part in a fascinating yachting event. Outstanding relaxation!

Yachting Summer 2007

Inflammatory Music

On thursday I visited the concert of Igor Butman jazz band. It was the first time he played in Kyiv. The audience was delighted with the music and me either. Great impression of jazz and the heat :) 32C - 11p.m. !!!

Cultural Shift

James Whittaker wrote a very important thing about his image of MS attitude to the Security. A quote from there: "The SDL works because a cultural change has happened at Microsoft. Innovation, security, customer experience are all so tightly intertwined that we don’t think about them as separate entities. We don’t do the SDL because we have to; we do it because we do it. Word is getting around, the cultural change is spreading. The clipboards have been thrown out and the natural resistance to change has morphed into a development culture centered around a secure customer experience."

I believe the shifts were caused by the whole community so let's be regarded as a merit! :)
I expect the changes will happen not only within MS but there and everywhere!!

P.S. The full article may be read here

Michael Howard Interview

Rather an engaging chat with the Microsoft employee Michael Howard:
http://howsoftwareisbuilt.com/2007/06/24/michael-howard-microsoft-interview/

Acropolis

Microsoft released "Acropolis" CTP 1.
Microsoft Code Name “Acropolis” is a set of components and tools intended to make it easier for developers to build and manage modular, business focused, client applications for Microsoft Windows on the .NET Framework.

Seems developers will be out of job soon :(

Download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=72386ce5-f206-4d5c-ab09-413b5f31f935&displaylang=en&tm

Security shifts?

It was just naturally to read the following post "Oil Change or Culture Change?". Some time in the past I had a discussion with a Microsoft employee. Amongst other questions I mentioned that SDL and other security frameworks can hardly be used outside MS.

Why? MS people apparently tell us the same and they came to a conclusion that there is a misunderstanding of a security problems importance on the CxO level and on the customer's level at the same time. I think CxO level is quite adequate. They raise money. Poor customers....

The final pasage is well turned: "A final note to help illustrate my point – for those of you that are old enough to remember, there was an old TV commercial for Fram Oil Filters that showed a mechanic working on the tear down of some old beater. At the end of the commercial, the mechanic turns to the camera and says, "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later..." "

The whole article can be found here: http://blogs.msdn.com/sdl/archive/2007/05/31/oil-change-or-culture-change.aspx

V-Day

Great day - Victory Day! Congratulate you heartily.

MS Released Privacy Guidelines for Developing Software Products and Services

The document is a set of privacy guidelines for developing software products and services that are based on Microsoft internal guidelines and their experience incorporating privacy into the development process.

Included in This Document:
Basic Concepts and Definitions
Guidelines:
Scenario 1: Transferring PII to and from the Customer’s System
Scenario 2: Storing PII on the Customer’s System
Scenario 3: Transferring Anonymous Data from the Customer’s System
Scenario 4: Installing Software on a Customer’s System
Scenario 5: Deploying a Website
Scenario 6: Storing and Processing User Data at the Company
Scenario 7: Transferring User Data Outside the Company
Scenario 8: Interacting with Children
Scenario 9: Server Deployment

You can download the copy from here.

Video Blogging

Recently I've registered my Video Blog at YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/nmedin
So you are wellcome!

P.S. There are lots of interesting things and I have not investigated them all yet.

4 May

Today is the 78th birthday of Audrey Kathleen Ruston also known as Hepburn.

Foto was taken from here
Also read the Diary of Anna Frank. May the 9ht is soon.

ASP.NET Asynchronous Model

Did you know that in ASP.NET 2.0 it is possible to use the power of asynchronous pages just by including an Async="true" attribute in the page's @ Page directive, like so:
<%@ Page Async="true" ...
Jeff Prosise's in his article explains that this tells ASP.NET to implement IHttpAsyncHandler in the page. Next, you should call the new Page.AddOnPreRenderCompleteAsync method early in the page's lifetime (for example, in Page_Load) to register a Begin method and an End method, as shown in the following code:
AddOnPreRenderCompleteAsync (new BeginEventHandler(MyBeginMethod), new EndEventHandler (MyEndMethod)
);
These two methods will be called after PreRender Event. To catch the idea look at the picture below.



Taken from http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/10/WickedCode/
Async processing benefits are depicted in http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/03/WickedCode/

Wherever you do - think of security

Did you know that the employment of Security Development Lifecycle techniques in Microsoft resulted in more secure software? According to surveys the number of security defects reduced by approximately 50 to 60 percent when the team followed SDL. The simple fact is that every product touched by SDL has fewer security defects.

In the article of Michael Howard "A Look Inside the Security Development Lifecycle at Microsoft" it is shown how to solve security problems on the grounds of development phases.

Special thanks to Oliver Szimmetat from Microsoft for the helpful references.

Digi-topia or not?

In the article by Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell "A Digital Life" it was announced a launch of a research project aimed at creating a digital archive of all Bell's interactions with the world. Bell's digital memories include documents from his long career in the computer industry, all the photographs he takes and conversations he records, every Web site he visits, and every e-mail he sends and receives. Some of the actual screen shots from Bell's archive are incorporated in the article images.
And this is only the start. What's going to be further? Perhaps some of us will have portable "tape-recorders" that will tape every step we do, every emotion, every smell and so on.....
These thoughts make me prick up ears.

MapGPS 2005

The Map GPS is an analogue of Microsoft AutoRoute. Rather a good soft for those who enjoys car trips. The program has different licence types and has a GPS extention.

You can find some differences below but the main feature of the Autoroute is Microsoft Live webservice integration.

Quantum Computer

Taken from here.

On the 13th of February canadian D-Wave company is going to present its Quantum Computer. As they say this machine should have unrestricted computational power: 65536 threads concurrently. This will certainly increase computation power although cryptoanalyst will get a key to the all existing cryptoalgorithms.

Guy Kawasaki "The Art of the Start" @ TiECon 2006

Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Forbes.com. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. where he was one of the individuals responsible for the success of the Macintosh computer.