WCF looks pretty nice if you can find some documentation to get it all working correctly. I've built some RESTful interfaces before, so I know what goes into designing and implementing them, but figuring out the head and tail of .NET web services was beastly to start on. Perhaps a RESTful interface in WCF wasn't the best project to start on with .NET. Oh well.

So I started with Microsoft's documentation, which was pretty good in general, but spotty on the details:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd203052.aspx

I guess I needed something a little more hand-holdy to start with, so after extensive searching of the intarwebs I came across:

http://christopherdeweese.com/blog2/post/drop-the-soap-wcf-rest-and-pretty-uris-in-net-4

Thats all I wanted. Give me a working sample to play with! Ok, if I can build from this, you can build from this.

First go grab the newest version of VssMigrate from Codeplex. I don't know why the author prefered to keep the newest version on Codeplex as opposed to Google Code, but I'll leave opinions for another time. VssMigrate does a pretty great job of converting repositories once you get it properly configured. The only issues I had are as follows.

If you get an issue about the SourceSafeTypeLib not being found (usually error 80040154), that means you need to register VSS's ssapi.dll. This should do the trick:

regsvr32 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual SourceSafe\ssapi.dll

If you still get an issue, then you are probably running 64bit Windows. Just change the target platform of the project from "Any CPU" to "x86".

The only other significant issue I had was in importing the entire repository at once. I didn't want to bother with importing a single project or just a couple of projects. I wanted to move the whole thing. To do this you just need to remove some of the error checking. As of version 0.2.0.0 you just need to comment out the lines around Program.cs:623-627 and Program.cs:673-681. Specifically these are the lines that verify that you filled in VSSPROJ and SVNPROJ. Then set VSSPROJ to "$/" and you should be set.

Also be sure to change "PerformImport" to "True" and to use a local subversion repo, and set the SVNREVPROPSPATH so  VssMigrate can alter the timestamps and authors.

Anyone that has been following the development will know that Junkster Wing used to be called Supernova Outlaws, but over the last few months the direction has been changing and pushing in a more unique direction. The old moniker just didn't really carry the descriptive vibe the game deserved. I think the new name gives a good feeling of what the game will ultimately be about.

The first, titled "Three Big Lies: Typical Design Failures in Game Programming," puts forth that many of the biggest issues we face as programmers is of our own design. Essentially, we are guilty of over abstracting and over modeling.  They argue that since all programming boils down to data transformations, we should just focus on the data.  "World Modeling" may be a nice way to ease new programmers into the field, but it is not necessarily the most efficient approach.

The second presentation focused on a design paradigm that I have worked very hard to create for many of my own projects.  "A Dynamic Component Architecture for High Performance Gameplay," essentially lays out a system for modeling game objects through composition of relatively flat hierarchies of components.  Where more traditional approaches create individual objects with complex inheritance systems.  The author not only explains the benefits of the system, but also a sample of his API and many examples of how it helps improve their system.

If these articles don't challenge the way you program, then either you are a genius and have already made these revelations, or you're an idiot.  Enjoy.

1. Rename patch.exe to patsh.exe.
2. Then create patch.bat in the same directory containing the following command:
   @patsh.exe %*

You will never notice a difference, and Windows 7 can go politely F*** itself.

Using their system, if you have about an hour and a half of time around the house, you can have a delicious loaf of bread. It only takes about 5 minutes of work, but it breaks down to something like:

• 40 minutes to rise
• 30 minutes to bake
• 20 minutes to cool

But really, you only have to do about a minute's worth of work between each phase. I liked the recipe so much, I bought their book. The full recipe is listed after the jump.

This recipe is essentially the same as can be found in the linked article and in Jeff and Zoe's book, though without all of their helpful tips. It makes 4 1-pound loaves:

• 3 cups warm water
• 1 1/2 Tbsp yeast
• 1 1/2 Tbsp coarse salt
  • for tablesalt reduce by 25%
• 6 1/2 cups unbleached flour

In a 5 quart bowl mix the yeast and salt into the water. Don't worry too much if everything doesn't dissolve.

Mix in the flour all at once. Don't worry about kneading the dough as it is not necessary. Just mix it until all the dry patches of flour are gone.

Cover with a lid (not air tight!) and leave out for 2-5 hours to rise.

Refrigerate for up to two weeks, but a minimum of 2 hours (so its easier to work with).

Dust the dough with a bit of flour, grab about a grapefruit sized ball and cut it away from the rest of the dough.

Cover and refrigerate the remaining dough.

Grab the corners of the dough and stretch them around to the bottom so that it has a smooth finish (do not kneed the dough, it is not necessary).

Dust a pizza peel with corn meal and place the dough on it.

Allow the dough to rise for about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, place a baking stone in the oven, and a broiler pan on another level.

Preheat oven to 425 for 20 minutes (to prep the baking stone).

Place dough on baking stone.

Pour 1 cup hot water into broiler pan to create steam.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove and let cool for about 20 minutes or until completely cooled.

Enjoy delicious bread!

The basic style is that you run on the balls of your feet instead of landing on your heels and rolling to your toes. Modern shoes prevent running on your toes, unless you are perhaps at a full sprint. Interestingly, the barefoot running style allegedly also helps prevent many common running related injuries. People who run barefoot generally have fewer problems with shin splints, ankle problems and knee problems.

Recently I started mulling over the concept again, and wondered what a shoe would look like that allowed you to run as though you were barefoot, but still gave you some protection. I played with the idea a bit, and then searched to see if anyone had made it yet. Turns out the awesome people at Vibram beat me to it with the Five Finger.

I haven't been able to jog in about a year, because of back problems that are aggravated by the impact of traditional jogging styles. Wearing these shoes, though, I have been able to run 10x as far and still no back pains. Best. Purchase. Ever.

IANAMD, but if you cannot run because of chronic pains in your ankles/knees/back then perhaps you should give them a shot.

[Updated: 10/13/2009]
After writing this article the SOCI team has resolved some of these issues, so some of these steps are no longer necessary.

Step 1: Setup SQLite

Step 1.1

Download the SQLite 3.6.18 source and library files.

• Source
• Libraries

Step 1.2:

Unarchive the SQLite archives into a directory, mine will be c:\usr\sqlite3

Step 1.3:

Create the sqlite3.lib file by using Visual Studio's lib command:

LIB /DEF:sqlite3.def

Step 2: Setup SOCI

Step 2.1:

Download the head of SOCI's git repository

Step 2.2:

Decompress the file into another directory, mine will be c:\usr\soci

Step 2.3:

Soci requires stdint.h but Visual Studio 2008 does not provide it, so simply download pstdint.h and rename it to stdint.h in the soci\src\core directory.

Step 2.4:

Open the directory soci\build and copy msvc80 to msvc90.

Now open the msvc90\dll directory.

Through Visual Studio 2008, open the soci_dll.sln file and allow it to convert it with the default parameters.

Step 2.5: Build SOCI's Core and SQLite3

SOCI's core project should build without errors, but the sqlite project will have several.

Step 2.6: Fixing Build Errors

Now SOCI's core project should build without errors, but the sqlite3 project will definitely fail. It will give two specific errors:

fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'sqlite3.h': No such file or directory

and

error C3163: '_vsnprintf': attributes inconsistent with previous declaration

Both are relatively easy to fix.

Step 2.6.1: Fixing SQLite3 include paths

In Visual Studio, navigate to View->Property Manager, then in the pane that shows up, expand the sqlite3 project, then expand "Debug | Win32" then "soci_dll" then double-click on the "soci" object. Select "User Macros" on the sheet you find there.

Find SQLITE3_INCLUDE_DIR and SQLITE_LIB_DIR and change them to the directory created earlier, "c:\usr\sqlite3"

Step 2.6.2: Fixing _vsnprintf

[Update 10/13/2009]
This step is no longer needed.

Expand the core project and look for soci-platform.h and find a line that says "HAVE_VSNPRINTF"

This is redefining something that VS2008 provides already and confuses the hell out of the compiler. Just comment it out, or change it to look like:

// Define if you have the vsnprintf variants.
#if _MSC_VER < 1500
#	define HAVE_VSNPRINTF 1
#	define vsnprintf _vsnprintf
#endif

Step 2.7 Building SOCI's sqlite3_test project

This project will be riddled with errors unless you have boost installed. I personally don't use it, so had to comment out large chunks of common-tests.h.  Specifically, comment out the area at the top where it includes the boost headers. Also comment out the contents of test26, test28 and test30.

Also add this line at the bottom of soci-platform.h:

#undef SOCI_USE_BOOST

Finished

Now you should have a working copy of SOCI 3.0.0 with SQLite3 support in Visual Studio 2008. Congratulations!

Download: SimpleFileWatcher 2009.09.14

This utility sends us lots of crash dump files and until now we've always had to dig back through our archives to find the corresponding symbols and source code. But today I decided to rid us of the headache and set up a Symbol Server that could automatically determine our version and load it into Visual Studio 2008. The documentation can be a bit lacking at times, so I will try to illuminate the path that I took.

Step 1:
Download Debugging Tools for Windows. This provides you with symstore.exe which will be important for creating the symbol store.

Step 1.5:
Add the Debugging Tools directory to your path, so we have access to symstore.exe.

Step 2:
Create a folder on your build server and share it such that you have something like \\BuildServer\Symbols available to your workstation.

Step 3:
For each build, execute a command like

symstore.exe add /r /p /f U:\Project\Bin\*.* /s \\BuildServer\Symbols /t "My Project" /v "Build 42"

Where U:\Project\Bin is the directory with your .pdb files, \\BuildServer\Symbols is obviously the symbols directory, "My Project" is the name of the project, and "Build 42" is the description of the version.

Step 4:
Open Visual Studio 2008,  go to Tools->Options->Debugging->Symbols. Set your cache directory to something like C:\SymbolCache, then add the location of the new symbol store: \\BuildServer\Symbols.

Step 4.5:
At this point, it would be advisable to add the Microsoft Symbol Store to the locations list too: http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols.

This should facilitate debugging crash dumps without tracking down the symbols. Also, check out the Source Server which will access your VCS system to pull out the correct source code files for you automatically too.