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There was a potential deadlock in the last piece of code. When you obtain any kind of lock you will mostly use a try..finally block to ensure the lock is released when you have finished with it. The using() command expands to a try..finally block so the original code might look okay, however if you …
Continue reading Synchronising downloads and updates (2)

Apparently my boss used to be annoyed with something on his old website. When he wanted to upload an updated binary he often couldn’t because his product was so popular that someone was always downloading it at the same time. He’d have to continuously hit Delete in his FTP client until eventually he’d slip in …
Continue reading Synchronising downloads and updates

If I had to write a large business app which accessed a DB, or a website, I would use .NET without hesitation. When it comes to small apps (less than 10MB) that will be downloaded by home users what should I use? I have such a project coming up soon, my boss has bought D2009 …
Continue reading The best tool for the job

An odd title for a coding blog I know, but I love martial arts too, especially competitive ones. I’m just putting together a CD for my car. The tunes on the CD music really make my adrenaline pump, so I am putting together a compilation of tunes which make me want to win a fight…with …
Continue reading Music to fight to

I can’t believe it, I really can’t! I’m writing a shopping cart for a website. One of the features required is to give the user an X amount discount off their next order when they buy a specific product. So let’s say the user has a £20 discount on their next order, how does PayPal …
Continue reading PayPal doesn’t do discounts

Someone pointed this link out to me today: http://www.screensketcher.com/examples.html It’s another application along the lines of Balsamiq. This app does seem very “sharp”, it has very snappy response times etc, which is nice and everything BUT I still don’t like these kinds of apps! I do prefer the name though, it suggests “I sketch screens” …
Continue reading More Balsamiq madness!

I’ve just spotted a “Publish to Blog” option in Word 2007. So I thought I’d give it a spin and see what happens. If it works then Blogging is going to be a much more pleasurable experience. My spelling is atrocious. I find complex formatting on BlogSpot is terrible. I will no longer have to …
Continue reading This is just a test

Finally there is proof that God exists. The proof has come in the guise of a product named Balsamiq. Balsamiq allows you to create mock GUI when specifying an application. Rather than having graphics that look like real forms etc it uses a pencil drawing lookalike approach. Here is my reasoning. It does nothing you …
Continue reading Proof of the existence of God

I am currently developing part of a website where I pass cart information to PayPal to accept payment. PayPal will call back a “secret URL” on my website to allow me to confirm the cart details haven’t been tampered with. I hate installing software I don’t need. This is especially the case with software like …
Continue reading ASP.NET Development server and PayPal instant payment notification

I am just creating some classes that allow the user of an app to specify date/time validity. As I am modeling them it reminded me of some recurring event classes I once wrote to schedule payments between bank accounts. One day my customer phoned me up. “Has your invoice been paid this month?” he asked.“Yes” …
Continue reading Ultimate integration testing