Adrian Anttila

New Blog Site

aanttila — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 22:31:00 GMT

We have introduced a new blog site as part of our new website. Our blogs are now hosted in SharePoint 2007 and retrieved via web services for display.

So go check out our new blogs. Things look all shiny and new over there!

Why I don't believe that Open Source Software (OSS) model works

aanttila — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 17:56:00 GMT

I have links to a few OSS pet projects here on my blog. Generally the stuff I play around with is either software that's helpful or fun to work on.

Since I published my Data Tier Generator around 4 years ago, it's had 32,735 downloads. To somebody like me, that's pretty incredible. Most people don't know me and sure haven't ever heard of me, but one of the apps I wrote has a ton of downloads! /cheer, right?

Out of all those downloads, I have 4-5 people contact me through email, bug reports, or posts on this blog. One of them had a legitimate suggestion for improvement of the queries using INFORMATION_SCHEMA. 2-3 of the others were from people who have taken the source and based their own work on it. I've actually had a company in India "evaluate" it and contact me about Oracle support because they'd like to use it in their consulting company. So to sum it up, out of almost 33,000 downloads, I had one person contribute to making it better.

A lot of people believe in OSS. They believe they're making the world a better place by giving their stuff away for the betterment of software developers everywhere. Personally, I see OSS as giving away my hard work for little or no reward, not even a "thank you".

Have you had a better experience, or one similar to mine?

Programmers to blame for hard-to-use software?

aanttila — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 22:09:00 GMT

I saw this post on the Channel 9 forums, and it got me thinking. While the discussion is about the responsibility of software developers to learn and understand UI design, I think they're missing the point.

In most places of the world, software is chosen, not dictated. The real issue with poorly designed interfaces begins with whoever made them, but it rests firmly on the customers. People intentionally or unintentionally vote with their wallets. The right way to influence better software is to buy better products. Isn't that the spirit of capitalism to begin with? The person with the best product will sell the most.

It's too bad that this point of view is largely academic, since most of the time there isn't a better alternative or other factors are invovled ("here at Corporation X, we determined 3 years ago that we should partner with Company Y, and that's not going to change", for example).

While it's not always practical, I still vote with my wallet whenever I can. For example, I have a PowerMac that I occasionally investigate non-Microsoft programming environments on. I initially purchased BBEdit because of it's reputation. However, after using several competing products, I've settled on SubEthaEdit for my text editor of choice. It's smaller, cheaper, supports C# (for rare occasions), and let's me specify the default window dimensions. I won't be purchasing BBEdit again for those reasons, but if BareBones releases a new version that is better than SubEthaEdit, I would probably switch back. Another great example of my "voting" is buying movies and music that I like.

Do you vote with your wallet? Have any examples to share?

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta now available

aanttila — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:25:00 GMT

The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta is now available.

You'll need to install Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 before installing this update.

Beside the generalization that this patch corrects some incompatibilities with Visual Studio 2005 running on Windows Vista, here are some specifics on what this patch corrects.

Child's Play on 1UP

aanttila — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:11:00 GMT

I read the following articles, and was laughing the whole time. If you were ever a gamer, you should definitely read what kids think about the video games my generation grew up on.

Installing Adobe Acrobat 8 on Windows Vista RTM

aanttila — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:43:00 GMT

If you get the following error when attempting to install Adobe Acrobat 8 on Windows Vista, I have figured out a way around the problem.

The Temp folder is on a drive that is full or is inaccessible.

Run AdbeRdr80_en_US.exe
When prompted to run the installer, open Windows Explorer
Browse to C:\Users\YOUR_LOGIN_HERE\AppData\LocalLow\Netopsystems
Copy the Adobe Reader 8.0 folder to another location and cancel the installation
Double-click on AcroRead.msi, not Setup.exe, to run the installer without errors

Hope this helps.

Update: According to several of the comments, you can also install it by running the .exe in Windows XP compatibility mode. I haven't tried this myself, since I already have it installed, but it might save you a few steps if it works.

Truly Awful Star Wars Collectables

aanttila — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 17:48:00 GMT

I saw this link on Digg. There's some really bad ideas on display there. Go check it out for a good laugh.

SharePoint BDC Error

aanttila — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 20:50:00 GMT

I've been working on morning on getting a BDC Application Definition configured and working. All of the sudden, I started getting access denied errors when working with Application Definitions, including this one:

Application definition import failed. The following error occurred: Access denied by BDC.

I have no idea why this works, but the solution is to browse to Shared Services -> Business Data Catalog Permissions, check the account that isn't working correctly, and click the Copy all permissions to descendants link. If you try it again, everything should work.

New 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe Announced

aanttila — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 17:15:00 GMT

The 2008 Nissan Altima is going to be using the Infinity G35 body! If I ever have to get rid of my 350z, I know what "family car" I'm going to trade it in for. ;)

Griffin PowerMate Replaced

aanttila — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 16:57:00 GMT

I have a Griffin PowerMate that I've tried several times to use. I almost always have the same complaints and wind up disconnecting it and putting it in a drawer. Recently, I thought I'd give it another try, only to find that I still can't stand it.

Don't get me wrong, the device itself is very well made and it's quite attractive. I've had several people stop by my desk just to ask me what it is. However, I quickly rattle off the following reasons why they shouldn't get one:

The drivers don't work on Windows Server 2003
The drivers configured it as a removable device, so my Add/Remove Hardware icon shows up in the system tray
It has its own system tray icon that can't be permanently hidden (it has no caption, so when I reboot, it shows back up)

I really like have a physical control for my system volume and since I'm just using headphones and not speakers, there is no dial to turn. So I went to Dell's website and bought myself one of their multimedia keyboards for only $15. The keyboard comes with a wrist-rest, a volume knob, and controls for media player. It also has some browser controls, but those are a waste of space in my opinion.

The keys feel fine, the function keys are grouped correctly, the arrow keys are laid out using an upside-down-T, and the Insert, Delete, Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys are in the right place. Now if they only made a mechanical version, it would be perfect.

If you looking to replace your keyboard, I highly recommend this one and that price is pretty hard to beat.

Edit: it also works great with Windows XP and Windows Vista

Edit 2: They removed the keyboard from their catalog a few hours after I posted about it. The most similar keyboard is this one, which costs $22.95. The timing on that was a little strange...

Now Available: Windows Media Player 11

aanttila — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 21:15:00 GMT

Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP has been released. You can download it here.

Note: This version requries validation to download.

Motorola's "Dumb Phone"

aanttila — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 20:52:00 GMT

Finally, a phone for people like me.

Windows Defender Final Released

aanttila — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 18:46:00 GMT

Go download it now!

Trouble installing Project 2007 or SharePoint Designer 2007?

aanttila — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 18:44:00 GMT

If like me, you're getting exceptions when installing Project 2007 or SharePoint 2007, I may have the solution for you.

You must perform a custom install and prevent these two items from installing:

CorelDRAW (CDR) File Import
Word 97 for Windows/Word 98 Macintosh

They can be found under the Microsoft Office : Office Shared Features : Converters and Filters folders. Expand the Graphics Filters and Text Converters folders to find each item.

Hope this helps!

World of Warcraft: Loot Systems

aanttila — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 17:51:00 GMT

I'd like to take a quick break from my normal technical posts, and discuss the loot systems I'm familiar with in World of Warcraft.

Most guilds on my server use a system referred to as DKP (dragon kill points). The basic idea is that you receive points for each boss that is killed while you are present. The actual points awarded seem to vary slightly from guild to guild. Once an item drops that you want, you can spend your points on that item.

The catch here is the members with more points take priority. In other words, if you are only able to attend raids one night a week, members that attend more often will always take priority. This tends to make sense, since those members play more often and can contribute to greater degree. Better loot for regular attenders usually benefits the guild as whole, since other members will be affected by the increased contribution.

The problem with this approach is that often times, real life is the limiting factor those members that cannot attend raids regularly. It feels "unfair" to them to have to wait until everyone else has their gear first. In effect, by rewarding the members that can attend more frequently, casual attendees feel punished for not attending more often. What if there was another way?

My guild doesn't use DKP. Instead, we use a loot ladder system. Within our system, there are actually two ladders; one for general loot and one specific to a player class. The way it works is that players are arranged on the ladder, and when a player is interested in loot, priority is given based on their position on the ladder. When a member acquires a new piece of loot, they are moved to the bottom of the ladder while the remaining attendees are moved up to the next position (absent members maintain their current position). This means that even if you only raid once in a while, you can still move up the ladder, and depending on circumstances, have the chance to loot the first drop of an item. This has actually happened several times during our raids, and helps even the loot distribution out. Several of our members have even commented that our loot system is the reason they were drawn to our guild in the first place, and sometimes, it's the reason players have remained members of our guild.

The benefits of the ladder system is that rewards players who can't play as frequently, while rewarding players who attend raids more often, since regular attenders can move up on the ladder several times within a week.

What do you think? I would also be interested to hear from someone that uses DKP and prefers it to our system.