Problem: using Application Settings in a .Net project, you find that there are so many entries that some organization is needed.

Solution: create custom, serializable data types for logical groups of settings.

In honor and memory of Mr. Ronald White, of St. Paul, MN, I set out this evening to find a documentary on the Ojibwe people and/or language. His story, as a part of that people, is not mine to tell (in so far as I know some miniscule part). So I will share this documentary. It does not sugar coat the past, but neither does it dwell on it. It dwells on the present and the future of the native language and culture of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other areas around the Great Lakes.

Problem: need to move rows up and down, and from one table to another, in an HTML page.

Solution: careful use of jQuery. There are probably many different solutions already out there, but I wanted to learn how to write one for myself. Key functions: closest, detach, append, prev, next, before, and after.

Wherein I record a few tips on the use of System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations, which I am likely to forget if I do not need to think about them again for some months…

The EPA has a proposed new standard for fossil fuel-burning power plants, which will be constructed in the future, that will help ensure a lower carbon future and hopefully spur innovation in the electric industry. They are accepting public comments through June 25^th.  There are a number of organizations that will help you provide comments directly to the EPA, such as the National Council of Churches or the Union of Concerned Scientists. My letter, with extra citations, is below.

Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests by Steve Freeman and Nat Pryce

I did not realize how much I still have to learn about writing good object-oriented (OO) code, and about hewing to a tight test driven development (TDD) methodology, before I read Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided By Tests. My education in OO and unit testing has been largely theoretical, with no time spent directly learning from experienced OO programmers; my best mentor was a COBOL coder. Books like Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (“Gang of Four”), Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Iterative Development, Xunit Test Patterns: Refactoring Test Code, and others are wonderful but have few detailed real-world business-case examples.