I am learning and working with a Business Objects framework at work called CSLA.NET (Component-based Scalable, Logical Architecture). It is built heavily using the best of OOP especially polymorphism and abstraction. You build your objects all based on a handful of base classes that provide a huge variability of useful features. It also abstracts out data and .NET remoting layers to make the developers life easier. If you are building large, scalable n-tier applications, you should definitely look this one up.
Also check out the book Expert C# 2005 Business Objects, which is the companion to the framework. If nothing else, it contains a great description of n-tier architecture and why to use it.
 Ah, the classics. Occasionally, I will go back and re-read a book I haven't picked up in decades. Gateway is such a book. It has been so long, I couldn't even remember the plot. Oh, I remembered the premise alright, but the details of the plot were lost to me. This classic of Sci/Fi has spawned sequels, imitations and a pretty decent (1992) computer game.
Gateway is the story of a reluctant explorer in the hunt for Heechee artifacts. The Heechee were a race of ancients that left a space station, dubbed Gateway, complete with several hundred FTL ships. Once discovered, they were quickly experimented with to find that although no one could figure out how to program them, random combinations of the controls would send a ship out and return to Gateway automatically. Untold riches awaited volunteers who could ride the ships and return with more artifacts, if any are to be found. Of course, many dangerous and fatal things were on the other end of the trips, and chnaging the controls mid-flight meant certain death. Our hero is one of the volunteers who must overcome his very reasonable fears and make some trips out.
Gateway is told from a split perspective. We know that the protagonist is ultimately successful, as he is very wealthy and undergoing therapy, the primary vehicle of the plot. However, the therapy hints at horrible trauma and the deaths on his conscience. The well executed plot leads to a suspected, yet surprising ending that is very satisfying. There are many reasons why this is a classic, and well justified.
 Book 2 from the infamous Tom Cavanagh. Tom is an old friend that I discovered recently is also an author, and a good one at that. It is no surprise that I picked up this one as soon as I finished Zoe's Tale.
Mike Garrity has a brain tumor. He calls it Bob. And so we meet the main character of Tom's darkly humorous crime novel set in the Central Florida that I grew up in. Mike is asked by an old colleague from the police force to find a missing member of a up and coming boy band. With nothing better to do than feel sorry for himself and his mortality, he takes the challenge. Mike finds himself deep in the middle of a dangerous manhunt as well as surrounded by people who truly care for his well-being. Head Games is better than Tom's first book, which shows that he is definitely growing as an author. His dark humor shows in more subtle ways this time around, and again, his locals view of Orlando is very amusing to me. I am glad that Tom is doing well, and hope that this is just the beginning, if the least reason is for my own amusement. Great job once again, Tom!
 This is a novel approach: Take your last book, which was really quite good, and retell it from the perspective of a supporting character. Scalzi's latest book, Zoe's Tale, does just that. What's more, the supporting character is the sarcastic teenaged daughter of the protagonists in The Last Colony. Of course, being Scalzi, I ordered and read it in hardcover.
This is the parallel of the last book in the John Perry storyline. Zoe is the adopted teenaged daughter of John Perry and his ex-SpecialOps wife Jane Sagan who are asked to be the administrators of a new colony. She must leave behind everything she has known, again, because the colony, named Roanoke, will be hidden, or lost, from everyone. She must survive with the rest of the colony as the Conclave of Worlds comes after the colonists to destroy them for violating their non-compete edicts. Oh, and also needs to deal with an entire race of aliens who hold her in the highest reverence for the acts of her biological father. If you have not read The Lost Colony, do not read this book. I could only imagine what it must seem like to a non-fan. It does stand alone, but is not the voice of John Scalzi at his best. It is, however, extremely entertaining to one familiar with the storyline. Zoe is sarcastic, cynical, cruel in a teenage-girl way, and very funny. She is a very endearing character to someone who appreciates some of those qualities. This may be a fan-service book, but I am very happy to have it in my collection.
Ok, I broke my own cardinal rule of weblogging: I removed content from this site. Or rather, suppressed it. But since it is *my* rule, and I had good reason, I can do that. Three weeks ago, I was laid off from my job and needed suddenly to find gainful employment. Fortunately, I was already on the market anyway, but I wanted the FWHagen.com domain to reflect professionalism as much as possible. The Subversion/VS.NET article I posted was great for that, however, the two entries above it were book reviews. So I hid them. DasBlog makes that very easy in the way that it stores content. I merely moved the days entries and they were gone. Today, I started my new job and I have moved the entries back. Ironically, I have one more book to review tonight, and another this weekend, so it gets worse. BUT, I am excited about my potentials at the new gig, and anticipate much more technical stuff later. I am actually going to get to write Real Code!
 I am very excited about this book! I don't like murder/crime mysteries, but this one is different. (Disclaimer: Tom Cavanagh is an old friend of mine, so my opinion may be a little skewed!) When I found out that my old friend Tom is now an author, I didn't even hesitate to order this book. How could I not read it? I'm even going to post a link to his website: http://www.thomasbcavanagh.com/
Murderland is a story of Central Florida (where I spent 20 years), Theme Parks and tourists (where I spent 3) and murder. Kevin Lonnegan is an ex-cop turned private investigator who is asked by a old friend to investigate a pair of murders at the Empire Realm theme park. His friend is also an ex-cop and happens to be head of security at said theme park. Lonnegan is called in discretely because the head detective from the Orange County Sheriffs office is a former colleague of both of them whom they have little more than disdain for. So he goes under cover picking up clues that could endanger his life and that of his new friend Sheila with whom he struggles to figure out his own feelings for in the wake of his young wife's tragic death.
Ok, I started reading this book only because Tom wrote it. I then found it to be very amusing from an setting perspective. Tom lives in Orlando, as did I, and it is very evident in his writing. There are many insider references to the area, that Tom does a great job of exposing to the reader. And it seems to me that he did an excellent job of describing the theme park that is NOT Disney World, but certainly is to me! Suddenly, I discovered that I really cared about the characters and settled in for a very fun read. Only took me a few days, which these days is remarkable! Turns out, I really enjoyed the book! I don't know if it's a great mystery novel, for I am not the one to ask about that, but I know what I like.
I wish Tom the best, and many more novels (he already has 2 more). It is my hope that he become bigger than some of the less deserving authors I have read... And continue the poking at the mouse! I LOVE it!
 Continuing with one of my favorite authors, Warrior Class is the next in the series by Dale Brown. In my last post I described the series as "stories of near-future geopolitical conflicts with an emphasis on air-power. What's not to love?" Well, unfortunately, in this book we find out.
Warrior Class returns us to the modern political arena, only with the increasingly divergent stories with larger than life events, it's hard to say it's the modern world so much as an alternate history anymore. And that's great, really. A new isolationist president has been elected with little foreign policy experience and starts a policy of removing all U.S. presence around the world and slashing military budgets. (Sounds like a certain candidate running now that scares the crap out of me....) A Russian mafia boss takes the opportunity to make a buck in the Baltics and poor General MacLanahan must do something.
I was disappointed with this book. Is this really the same Dale Brown that wrote Flight of the Old Dog and Night of the Hawk? I will be giving the series a rest for a while, partly because I have a whole lot of other books to read. Hopefully, the next in the series will get back to the solid writing I have come to enjoy.
  There are a few articles online covering SVN and VS, but many are out of date and a bit more complicated than necessary with advances in both products. For a current install (Oct 2008: SVN 1.5.2 / VS2005), you only need 3 files:
Subversion is, of course, the Source Control server itself. The MSI install contains everything needed to run on a Windows server. TortoiseSVN is a plug-in for Explorer that gives a great deal of control to the source repository using the right-click context menu. Check-ins, updates, merges, etc. can be done through this interface as well as full repository browsing and maintenance. AnkhSVN is the most important tool for the .NET developer. It integrates the controls needed for team development directly in the environment. Much like the integration offered through VSS, but much better. Installation of Subversion itself is very easy. Just run the installer. I installed into C:\SVN\ instead of the default "Program Files" directory, but I am lazy and hate spaces in filename on the command-line.
NOTE: The installer only puts the files in place and sets the important environment variables.
Once installed, the following command is used to setup a repository: svnadmin create "D:\SVN\Repository" You can create as many repositories as needed, but one for now. Before we activate the server, two config files need to be edited. They were created with the repository above. They are svnserve.conf and passwd in the conf sub-dir of the repository. Uncomment the following: ~/conf/svnserve.conf
[general]
anon-access = read
auth-access = write
password-db = passwd
~/conf/passwd
[users]
harry = harryssecret
sally = sallyssecret
Now the installation can be tested. Execute the following command in a command window: svnserve --daemon --root "D:\SVN\Repository"
To create a project, execute: svn mkdir snv://localhost/newproject
Now would be a good time to install TortoiseSVN if it hasn't been yet. Connect to the running server from within an explorer window by right-clicking and selecting TortoiseSVN > Repo-Browser. Enter the name of the server to see the interface using the following URL: svn://servername/ The project "newproject" should be viewable there.
And now the most difficult part of all: Installing SVN as a service in windows. The following command will accomplish this. Syntax and proper spacing is critical. (I was having problems until I realized the space after each '=' in the command.) Here it is: sc create SVN_CSTeam binpath= "c:\svn\bin\svnserve.exe --service --root D:\SVN\Repository"
displayname= "Subversion Repository for CSharp.NET Team" depend= iisadmin
And that is why I do not use the default paths. Spaces have to be delimited with quotes, which have to be escaped, and it just is not worth it. All on one line of course. Also note that the name after the "create" parameter can be anything desired and allows for multiple repositories on the same server, along with unique displayname. I chose to use iisadmin as a depend, not because it necessarily is, but because it is sure to load other depends such as Tcpip and such.
The last step is to load AnkhSVN; a solution I leave to the reader. It's not hard. If you are familiar with source control at all, it is pretty obvious.
I'd like to thank the following sites for very useful information in helping me through the installation and the creating of this post:
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