When to use which Database Vendor

On databases one thing a number of people do not understand is which database vendor to use when. Below I have put together a basic comparison list to give you a better idea of the amount of data by the size and need. The price of each solution goes up as the need to scale and maintain larger data stores.

• File (.dat, .dbf, .xls, .csv) = Car, Motorcycle, walking
• SAM (.mdb (Access), MSDE = Van or large 4 wheeled truck
• SQL (MS SQL) = a fleet of semi-trucks nearing trains
• Oracle = a fleet of trains nearing 747’s
• DB2 (mainframe) = a fleet of trains, 747 airplanes and very large/fast cargo ships

So you use the database vendor for the need, size, cost and ease.

MS Portable Executable

Do you know if the PE approach Microsoft is looking at will affect all the program on the system?

No it will not affect older programs as they will try to maintain backward compatibility. It will require the DOT.NET Framework to be installed. You simply create a folder and copy the files into it. It is ready to run. To delete the application you delete the folder, thus the end of DLL Hell.

They are also work on application level security. This will be in Longhorn only. Today most applications have free reign of your computer and there is no authentication method for the OS to tell which is a good application and which is a bad one.

Once they get that built they will put an end to most of the evil that we have today or at least an end to script kiddy evil.

Why Software Installs Fail

Many businesses do not use the System Development Life Cycle. What is a likely explanation? Why do system installations fail? Is an unfinished system a failure? Why do system installations succeed?


Many businesses do not use the System Development Life Cycle. What is a likely explanation?
The most likely explanation is they do not know what SDLC is. This concept is still in it’s infancy as compared to other business practices concepts and theories. The reason no one knows what it is, because most every development project and development company are dramatically different. The driving forces are money available, costs, people, expertise, experience, budget and timeline.

When I started writing code there were no schools to teach code writing. We just invented things as we went along. Only the very large organizations and veteran programmers that have been dragged through the hot coals of the development cycle really understand what it is and its sub components.

Most development projects are done with small teams that share a portion of a much larger development program like at Microsoft. Most other upstarts and smaller companies are less structured and have more free spirited development teams.

Programming is like being an artist. They maybe a really good painter, but they may not be able to manage a project. Since development is a skill like being a painter not everyone can function in that structured manner or have been trained.

Like the really great artist, programming is something that has to be desired and the person has to have the vision for it. Managing SDLC requires someone who knows and understands both doing development and knowing what SDLC is all about.

Today there are very few managers that understand what the developers are doing and only understand time and money. In the industry SDLC is known, but the term is shortened to development cycle.

Here are a couple of sub components of SDLC that contain their own life cycle.

• Windows Life Cycle
  
• Support Life Cycle

Why do system installations fail?
There are infinity + 1 reasons why an installation will fail. Because there are many different operating systems at different stages of patches and critical updates, with hundreds of localizations for a particular country, with 100,000’s of third party software with it own multitude of various versions, different hardware versions, firmware versions, device driver version levels, different levels of user knowledge about the products and systems and billions of lines of code running on trillions and trillions of billions of transistors. There is never the perfect installation for all cases and all situations. The best that you can hope for is the vast majority of your target audience.

The recent XP Service Pack 2 installation is a classic example. Microsoft has reported that there have been over 120 million downloads of XP Service Pack 2. The Gardner Group (an industry watch dog) is reporting that 10% of all XP SP2 upgrades will result in failure. That means that 12 million installations of XP SP2 have failed.

Is an unfinished system a failure?
NO! Software is one of the few products that you cailing, out of disk space, not enough system resources, file corruption, and all the items listed about under why installs fail.

Why do system installations succeed?
LUCK! LUCK! LUCK! And LUCK! System installs can be successful if they are very simple and not complicated. Testing, Testing and Testing and more testing on the various versions of your largest target audience will give you the largest base of success.

You will have has failed installations due to odd ball reasons, such as the computer is infected with spyware, the hard drive is failing, out of disk space, not enough system resources, file corruption, and all the items listed about under why installs fail.

I was introduced to Microsoft’s long range vision for software installations back in 2001 at Redmond, WA. Future software installs pulls out a chapter from the old school book from the DOS days. Back then to do an install, you just created a directory and copy the files into it. Microsoft will be doing future installs with the .Net platform OS’s with what is called Portable Executables (PE).

The install will create a folder and copy the files into it. To uninstall you just delete the folder. What a concept! Today’s software installs are so complex it is a miracle that we have successful installs. Thousands of files are copied to hundreds of locations, with hundreds of registry entries, often times over writing newer entries and with older versions of files.

It is a nightmare called DLL HELL. Microsoft is making great strides in this area to eliminate it. However it is taking much longer than I expected it before PE becomes a reality.

MS Anti-Spyware Software

We are getting a lot of enquires about the new Microsoft Anti-Spyware software. They released it yesterday. It is BETA1 which means that there are two more releases to come before the final release. The next two are RC1 and RC2 then the final release.

We ask that you NOT download and install the software unless you are having serious spyware issues. It is BETA software which is buggy and has issues per the internet buzz. Please wait for the final release for your business and home computers.

With that said, we have tested it in the lab (under ideal conditions) and have found it to be impressive as to the finding and proper cleanup of the registry, left over files and finding things that the others anti-spyware did not find. It has a bunch of new features that are going to be really nice and welcomed in the fight against spyware.

Please be patient as I do not think the testing cycle will last very long. It is nice as a BETA application and if you are having serious spyware issues then it is worth a try to kill the evil.

Here is the link to the BETA software:

When Your PC Crashes

Poor oh Bill Gates demonstration of the latest media center software crashed while doing a live demo at CES yesterday. So the next time your PC crashes be glad that you are not the founder of Microsoft doing a live demo in front of millions of people. That should ease the pain a little.

Shopping Online

If you are doing product comparison shopping please look at the shipping, warranty & return policies, taxes and the site ratings before making a purchase. Sometimes the cheaper price is not always the better prices after purchase.

Sales ethics online are not always as they appear.

Is IM Annoying You?

MSN Instant Messenger, is it annoying you? Is it launching when you do not want it to. I suspect that IM is launching when you open Outlook Express. Just go into Outlook Express under Tools, then Options and on the General Tab. The fourth one down uncheck “Auto logon Windows Messenger”. That should make that issue go away.

AOL Install Hell

Are you frustration with one of the most famous offenders of software development?

You are not alone. AOL should not be in the business of software development. They just can not follow a few basic rules in Windows development.

At one point we banned any business computer that had AOL installed as was actively being used. In the old days they really had their head up something. They tried to redo Windows networking and changed in the registry key location of files and created their own version of the WINSOCK.DLL which handles most all the TCP/IP communications for Windows applications. AOL is the poster child of DLL Hell.

It wasn’t until Microsoft and AOL started working together did they finally get the networking thing straighten out. Now that they are divorced AOL is falling back into their old ways.

There are hundreds of case studies that I could write about AOL. One would be “This is how not to write code”. The fact they shot to the number one ISP baffles me.