Some days I hate programming

**pzkpfw** · 19th January 2012, 00:06

Back in WSE 2.0 days I could set up a web service with a fairly simple policy file that signed and encrypted stuff nicely, then call the service over HTTPS nice and easy. A bit redundant (using SSL on top of the WS-* stuff) but the client liked it.

So now the thing has to be converted to WCF, but does it support both transport security and message security? Nope. Unless you're calling MSMQ.

So I've got a sore arse from sitting trawling MSDN and google, needing to read tons and tons of obscurely written specs hoping to find the answer to my issue. Mind numbing. Computers should be getting easier, but all these standards and frameworks don't seem to be helping with that.

Not a relaxing way to earn a living. I want a job where I walk through the forest, or something.

(No need to reply, unless you are a .Net WCF Guru; ...or if you have your own "I work in I.T." bitching to do.)

**Gremlin** · 19th January 2012, 00:50

That's easy. Contract network management... It's always my fault/problem

**jrandom** · 19th January 2012, 04:25

This is why I always avoided webby and databasey jobs.

Until the end. A year of it drove me into becoming a bicycle courier.

This counts as bitching; I know SFA about WCF.

Might I recommend looking for a job as an embedded software engineer? Coding directly on the metal is much more fun.

**vifferman** · 20th January 2012, 18:40

Originally Posted by jrandom

Might I recommend looking for a job as an embedded software engineer? Coding directly on the metal is much more fun.

Yayes.
That's #2MutantTroglodyte's expertise (after music, and knowing everything about everything, of course....)

**Mental Trousers** · 20th January 2012, 19:12

You think that's bad. A single hard drive has led to me spending 3 weeks rebuilding our entire network (I was at work from 30/12/2011 to 09/12/2011 before things were working well enough to have a day off). Shouldn't be able to happen, but it seems if you are using a single drive for the L2ARC cache on a ZFS file server and that drive goes a bit dodgy it starts corrupting things far and wide at a great rate of knots.

Surprisingly (or not if you know what ZFS is capable of), we lost only 5 snapshots that were corrupted and had to be deleted out of a couple of hundred. Everything important is still pristine. I'm an even bigger fan of ZFS now.

**wharekura** · 27th February 2012, 17:54

Originally Posted by jrandom

This is why I always avoided webby and databasey jobs.

i enjoy database stuff (sql server) but finding always playing catchup with web tech such as jscript, then json, ajax, mvc - goes on and on and on. i find going back to basics (simple jscript instead of json) tend to solve todays problems.

database tsql hasnt changed that much (for me anyway for practical day to day use) from sql server 6.5 to sql 2008 r2.

**jrandom** · 27th February 2012, 18:20

Originally Posted by wharekura

database tsql hasnt changed that much (for me anyway for practical day to day use) from sql server 6.5 to sql 2008 r2.

No, it hasn't.

I've (oddly) found myself writing SQL again recently. For 2008 R2, in fact. Because the Express version is now the best free database platform. I came to it by way of driving diggers. Turned out that the project needed a warehousing database.

It's much the same as it was 10 years ago, except that SQL Server (or possibly just its ODBC driver) is now slightly buggier and I've had to add a few defensive SQLCloseCursor() calls to the C++ connection class that I wrote when I was barely out of nappies and have been dragging around with me ever since.

The fundamentals of algorithms and data structures haven't changed since the 1950s, and relational database design is what it is and is unlikely to become anything else any time soon.

**wharekura** · 27th February 2012, 18:52

Originally Posted by jrandom

...except that SQL Server (or possibly just its ODBC driver) ...C++ ...

ODBC!

c++

its OLEDB and C# nowdays mate - especially if its for data mining. joking.

Originally Posted by jrandom

The fundamentals of algorithms and data structures haven't changed since the 1950s,...

yep, i still draw crows feet when going through a spec (usually a bunch of handwritten vague notes) - OO databases my ass.

**jrandom** · 27th February 2012, 18:56

Originally Posted by wharekura

ODBC!

c++

its OLEDB and C# nowdays mate - especially if its for data mining. joking.

Oh, I know. But I'm a dinosaur from the 90s who's spent most of his life writing ARM assembler and I'm hardly going to go back to school just to knock out a one-week coding job for people who have no idea about any of the above and don't care so long as it works, so C++ and ODBC it was.

Originally Posted by wharekura

OO databases my ass.

Yep. Total fad. Fortunately mostly buried and forgotten by now.

**mashman** · 27th February 2012, 19:07

Originally Posted by jrandom

Yep. Total fad. Fortunately mostly buried and forgotten by now.

Oh I dunno, a decent DB design is worth its weight in gold... chuck in a home made MVC code generator (I hate edmx) to pump out models, views and controllers and ye can batter out a fair sized application in a matter of minutes... it's when it comes down to the requirements that things get hazy... but yeah, I'm feckin bored with upskilling. Give me XSLT and Javascript any day of the week.

**wharekura** · 27th February 2012, 19:29

i use to love coding and saw it as art - now its a chore but admittedly it pays the bills. every now and then though i would marvel at how effeciant something is and how it works like clockwork (a stored proc doing cross tab reporting with dynamic ad-hoc colums anyone?)

im old school too, i use to do cobol with pdp11s and my first programming language was sega 2000 basic grabbing my stuff from a casette tape. so dont get me wrong, im not knocking your c++ etc - its just another level i dont want to know

- dont get me started with peeks and pokes.

**avgas** · 27th February 2012, 20:30

I started out doing the smarts in boxes that were slightly IT related but essentially engineering. Protection relays, quality analysers......................then moved to SCADA n networks and the like to feed the family........................picked up bits and bobs of SQL/VBS/C and various other things.................................NOW THE BASTARDS WANT ME TO LEARN AJAX AND DOJO!!!!!!!!! WANKERS!!!!!!

On a side note just been playing with the new Axure beta that just got released. Looks promising. Very easy to use. Simpler than whatever that rubbish was they got me to use earlier (reaches back to find big horrible book) ..... Dreamweaver.

**DangerMice** · 27th February 2012, 20:41

Originally Posted by mashman

Oh I dunno, a decent DB design is worth its weight in gold... chuck in a home made MVC code generator (I hate edmx) to pump out models, views and controllers and ye can batter out a fair sized application in a matter of minutes

with MVC & EF I'm less a software engineer and a more a jigsaw puzzle solver with a magic right click button....

**sil3nt** · 27th February 2012, 20:46

Originally Posted by DangerMice

with MVC & EF I'm less a software engineer and a more a jigsaw puzzle solver with a magic right click button....

almost takes the fun out of it doesn't it?

Still don't know what I want to do for a job. At the moment front end developer has me most interested and entertained.