Michael Fransen’s Blog

Up until this past weekend, I would have recommended TFS to any development department. I would have mentioned how it is easy to merge and branch. I would have said how useful the built in project alerts were. I would have told you that we have not had to waste hardly any time managing our code base. But that was last week. A 4th or July weekend with TFS can sure change someone’s mind. While all those things are true, I would now add that you should think twice about TFS in your organization. Especially if you are considering TFS 2005. I have not used TFS 2008 yet, but let’s just assume that Microsoft got it right the second time around, they usually don’t the first time. TFS was definitely not designed to be moved or broken apart. We have one TFS server that has approximately 20 projects on it. I wanted to break three of them off. To do this I took backups of the original TFS server and restored them on a separate box. We won’t even begin to talk about ITs troubles with this difficult install, that deserves its own blog post. I restored this box following these instructions. Just to give a brief explanation of what a restoration entails. TFS functions on 11 databases. You must configure reporting service. You must process a cube. You must set up sharepoint. Yes, I know, it sounds like Microsoft got sick and threw up all their products and then bundled them all together and named it TFS. Its like it was some massive integration project that went wrong.

Anyway, after I was done with this I attempted to use TFSDelete command line utility. Now if you think that just because Delete is in that command that you are deleting your project permanently, you would be seriously mistaken. Yes, intuitive, I know. This command actually just “deactivates” your project. All your source code still sits in a few tables within the 11 databases. Some people have had luck with removing contents from the repository by running ad hoc delete statements. I did this and I corrupted the system. One thing TFSDelete did do though was deactivate the projects on BOTH my TFS servers. I can’t even fathom how that one happened. So at this point, I forget about the projects I am trying to migrate and try to get our original server restored before developers are coding on Monday. I thought I did this successfully when I was informed otherwise this morning. I started hearing complaints about how the C++ guys were checking stuff in and seeing C# code in the middle of their classes. I also am hearing from the .NET teams that they have C++ and XML when they do check-ins. I spent numerous hours trying to figure this out. I was so close to starting from scratch and losing our version history. I then came across this forum. I guess Microsoft forgot to mention a very important part in their directions. You have to delete cache from the application tier. This took about 40 minutes to do. Once I did this people were able to check-in/out without problems. Now it appears that our source code has been restored. What a mess! In a nutshell, if you ever intend on segmenting your source code, you might want to think of alternative technologies to manage your source code.

In preparation for the iPhone 3G release this Friday, I needed to get my contacts off my blackberry. If I would have had my contacts being synced with the Exchange server at work, this would not have been a problem since the iPhone now supports exchange. I did not want all my personal numbers and info though on the exchange server at work cluttering up my Outlook. I found this utility called PocketMac that is being distributed by BlackBerry. It is a very simple program. Within 5 minutes I had all my contacts downloaded from my Blackberry and imported into my address book on my Mac. It even combined email addresses on Mac with the phone numbers on my Blackberry. This application is free. Starting on Friday, when I activate my iPhone these contacts will be pushed from MobileMe to my iPhone and my work contacts will be pushed from exchange to my iPhone via ActiveSync. I can’t wait!

Two weeks from today I will be on my 4th Red Ribbon Ride. I am very excited as usual. The RRR is a 4 Day, 300 mile bike ride throughout southern Minnesota. We ride out of Mall of America and make our way down to Rochester and then back up to the capitol in St. Paul. In previous years, we ended at a school in richfield, so this is a nice change. I heard that we still have to ride on the usual narrow rode in Eagan. That is the worst part of the whole 4 days. Let me tell you, there are some crazies in Eagan. Anywho, the point of the ride is to raise money for non-profit organizations that assist people living with HIV/AIDS and also prevention. I am happy to say, from the help of some generous people and my very generous company, I met my original fundraising goal. Each rider is required to raise $1,500 to ride. This is not a small task! If I am lucky enough to get an iPhone next week, I plan on blogging and posting pictures to my blog. If you feel like being part of this great event, it isn’t to late to donate. Please visit the following link to do so. http://www.redribbonride.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1189443&pg=personal&fr_id=1070

Below is a link to a story in the St. Cloud Times today. If you have some stuff you want to get rid of, this Saturday is the day.

Aren’t you going to recycle that?: “Load up your e-waste — such as DVD players, VCRs and appliances — and get rid of most of it for free at local recycling events.”

(Via Headlines from the St. Cloud Times.)

Some people discredit Apple’s success with their innovative products and software by calling them “Marketing Geniuses”. These images go to show that is not true. Is it just me or do these images have a lot of similarities? Typed prefixes with “me” written in handwriting. Why in the world would Apple make their logo look and sound like one of Microsoft’s biggest flops? In case the flop isn’t clear, I mean Windows Me, not Windows Vista or Origami. I am pretty excited for this revamp since I am a .Mac user. The applications or technology isn’t anything new, but it will be nice to be able to have push email, calendar, contacts and pictures. I am also excited for the revamp of the web interfaces which are more web 2.0 like.

New iPhone Images Leaked: “Crunchgear has released photos leaked from someone with obviously strong Apples connections of the new iPhone.”

(Via Digg.)

This weekend I spent some time trying to get my TV on the wall. If you are ever thinking about paying Best Buy’s 300 dollar price to have them do this for you, DON’T. It was super easy. With about 150 dollars and a half hour you can do this. I am paying the price in back pain today though from carrying that entertainment center into my house. Even the guys at Hennen’s were surprised how heavy it was. With this and along with my piano and treadmill, I am pretty much anchored in my Sauk Rapids’ neighborhood for eternity.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up an Apple TV along with a HDTV. Lucky for me, Best Buy has created an apple section at Best Buy. I am very happy with Apple TV but not very happy with iTunes. Apple TV was pretty easy to hook up. I just had to hook up the power cord, an HDMI cable and type in my network password. It then asked me to type in a password on my computer and my iTunes library was linked. It started syncing all my content. I have it set to automatic so it picks up the latest shows and music. If you have more on your computer than what will fit on the Apple TV, it will stream from your computer. I was also very happy with other internet capabilities. They have a pretty slick interface to spend hours browsing You Tube. You also can hook up a flickr account and other flicker contacts so you can view photos. Those photos can also be your screensaver if you are listening to music on it. I was also very happy with the interface. It was extremely easy to browse movies and watch trailers. I have rented a couple of HD movies so far. This is a big step from Amazon Unbox on Tivo. Another thing that is better than Unbox is that you can start watching your movie within 60 seconds of selecting it. With Amazon Unbox you had to wait until it was done downloading and it was slow as hell, even on a 10 Mbps internet connection. Now, just so not everyone thinks I am an apple fanboy, I will point out a couple of negative points regarding Apple TV. First and foremost, I think they need more content. I think that this will get better, but right now it’s not the best especially if you are only willing to pay for HD content such as myself. The biggest complaint I have is the content being wrong on iTunes. I downloaded two seasons of Nip/Tuck and the first season has two episodes that are exactly the same. I watched an episode that was supposed to be at the end of the season towards the beginning which left me very confused watching things out of sequence. The second season had a show that was only 8 minutes long. The rest was chopped off and it appears that way on iTunes so I know it wasn’t problems downloading it. Regarding the first issue, I was refunded plus some. The second one is flagged to get fixed once my account has been charged. I pointed both issues out to iTunes and they are still offering the wrong content as of tonight. Their customer service wasn’t the best either. Despite these problems, the experience has been great and I recommend the product. I am filling up hard drive space fast though. I only have a 200 gb drive right now that is almost full with my media and backups of my computers. I think this all part of Apples evil plan to get me to buy a Time Capsule.

I thought I would share some of my mail with all of you in case you didn’t get the notice from Michele Bachmann. She sent me this flier that has print on both sides and is on pretty thick paper. She was just dropping me a note telling me how April 23rd is national TAX FREEDOM DAY. She is also working very hard in Washington to free up our tax dollars so we can decide on how to spend our money. She mentions all of the different taxes she is attempting to cut, but with no mention of who or what will suffer. What a trooper! OK, enough sarcasm, she is actually the second biggest mistake besides George “dubba” Bush. You can imagine my surprise when I look at the address it was sent from and see a little note which i have blown up for you. It says, “This mailing was prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense.” So let me get this right. Michelle Bachmann is spending taxpayer dollars to tell us that she is trying to cut taxes? With her proposed tax cuts, I wonder if the reduction in spending will come from her mass mailing campaigns or those less important things like eduction, bridge maintenance, healthcare and so on. Michele, next time you feel like informing me of your nonsensical message, don’t. Instead, keep that money. Don’t give it back to me, give it to the teachers that are buying school supplies for their classes out of their own pocket or the people that are not getting medical attention they need because they don’t have insurance or their insurance doesn’t pay for the necessary procedures. Now for the icing on the cake, I received this junk mail on Earth Day! This just goes to show that Michele’s ignorance isn’t just limited to one particular political issue.

Tonight while checking LinkedIn, I actually clicked an ad!! It is a pretty cool product to help you prototype your user interfaces on a white board. This would have been very useful on the Experimentation Platform we developed awhile ago at work. It’s called GuiMags.