What is the “Mythical Man Month”

Well, there is a book out there explaining it.
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition)
Though a great source, it’s one dry read.

I actually recommend the cliff notes.

The basic gist is this:

If a developer gives an estimate for a project that might take 320 hours or “2 Man Months.” Some might think 2 developers can complete the same task in half the time. 

This might work in a manufacturing world, but not so well in a software world because of two factors, partitioning and communication to maintain the partitions.

The reality of the matter is, software depends on other software. Some things can’t be independently partitioned. When they can’t, developers must constantly communicate to make sure their pieces will work together. This communication takes additional time.  The more developers you add, the more communication you need, and therefore the more time you’ll have to spend.

There is a “sweet spot,” but unfortunately, there isn’t a perfect way to calculate it. When writing software, every project is different.

-Justin Kohnen

For a better explanation I encourage you to read the book, or at least the cliff notes.

How to use Window 8 on a PC

So you’re thinking about installing Windows 8 (or you’ve already installed it) and you’re wondering “It’s changed so much, How the heck do I use it?”

I wanted to share an instructional video with you that will answer just that question.

Here is the 25 minute version

And here is the “3 minute” version

Preparing a SQL database for CLR assembly loading

A few times, I’ve had to install CLR assemblies into a Microsoft SQL database.

In order to do so, the deploying user must be granted certain permissions.

Here is the script I use.

/*===========================================================

  THIS SCRIPT WILL PREPARE A SERVER FOR LOADING AN ASSEMBLY 

  BY GRANTING RIGHTS FOR THE SPECIFIED USER TO LOAD

  ASSEMBLIES OF ALL PERMISSION SETS

  AND SETTING THE DATABASE TO TRUSTWORTHY TO 

  ALLOW THE ASSEMBLY TO BE LOADED INTO CLR

  NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU REPLACE THE <Username> PLACEHOLDER

    WITH THE USERNAME YOU WISH TO ELEVATE PERMISSIONS FOR

  NOTE 2: A USER CANNOT ELEVATE THEIR OWN PERMISSIONS. THIS SCRIPT

    SHOULD BE RUN BY A DIFFERENT USER THAN THE ONE BEING ELEVATED

  NOTE 3: RUN IN DATABASE YOU WANT TO LOAD THE ASSEMBLY

  ===========================================================*/

       DECLARE @user NVARCHAR(50)

       DECLARE @tsql NVARCHAR(MAX)

       DECLARE @error INT

       SELECT @user = '<Username>'

       PRINT 'STEP PREPARE SERVER AND DATABASE FOR ASSEMBLY LOADING'

       PRINT 'SERVER  :   [' + @@SERVERNAME + ']'

       PRINT 'DATEBASE:   [' + db_name() + ']'

       PRINT 'USER    :   ' + @user

       PRINT 'START TIME: ' + convert(varchar(max), getdate())

       PRINT ''

       PRINT 'GRANT PERMISSION TO LOAD EXTERNAL_ACCESS ASSEMBLIES'

       SET @tsql = 'USE MASTER ' + char(13) + char(10) + 

                            'GRANT EXTERNAL ACCESS ASSEMBLY TO ' + @user + ''

       EXEC sp_ExecuteSQL @tsql 

       SET @Error = @@Error

       IF @Error <> 0 

              BEGIN

                     PRINT 'ERROR OCCURRED: ' + CONVERT(varchar(50), @error)

                     PRINT 'GRANTING EXTERNAL_ACCESS LOADING PERMISSIONS'

                     PRINT 'TO ' + @user

              END

       ELSE

              BEGIN

              PRINT 'GRANT PERMISSION TO LOAD UNSAFE ASSEMBLIES'

              SET @tsql = 'USE MASTER ' + char(13) + char(10) + 

                                   'GRANT UNSAFE ASSEMBLY TO ' + @user + ''

              EXECUTE sp_ExecuteSQL @tsql 

              SET @Error = @@Error

              IF @Error <> 0 

                     BEGIN

                           PRINT 'ERROR OCCURRED: ' + CONVERT(varchar(50), @error)

                           PRINT 'GRANTING UNSAFE LOADING PERMISSIONS'

                           PRINT 'TO ' + @user

                     END

              ELSE

                     BEGIN

                     PRINT 'MARK DATABASE ' + db_name() + ' SO ASSEMBLIES CAN RUN'

                     SET @tsql = N'USE MASTER ' + char(13) + char(10) + 

                                          'ALTER DATABASE ' + db_name() +

                                         ' SET TRUSTWORTHY ON '

                     EXEC sp_Executesql @tsql 

                     SET @error = @@ERROR

                     IF @error <> 0 

                           BEGIN

                           PRINT 'ERROR OCCURRED: ' + CONVERT(varchar(50), @error)

                           PRINT 'MARKING DATABASE ' + db_name() + ' SAFE TO RUN ASSEMBLIES'

                           END

                     END

              END                        

       PRINT ''

       PRINT 'STEP COMPLETED'

       PRINT 'END TIME: ' + convert(varchar(max), getdate())

I post this in hopes that someone else will find value in it.

Cheers,

Justin