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Andrew Bragdon has come up with a very interesting way of working with code.  Check out CodeBubbles.  CodeBubbles helps bring fragments of code together instead of having to open up multiple files and solves the issue of having to trace through different files when looking for something in code.

It runs on top of Eclipse so it will not work with Visual Studio but it would be great if Microsoft created a feature similar to this in the next version of Visual Studio.

I wonder how well it works with larger and more complex functions.  Either way, I believe this is a great step towards improving developer efficiency.

It is about time.  Visual Studio finally supports multiple monitors.  Most developers I know use multiple monitors as we switch between Visual Studio, email, SQL Management Studio, the Internet, etc. but now we can split code up between multiple monitors using Visual Studio 2010 and floating windows.  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z4y0hsax(VS.100).aspx

As a new user of jQuery I find the syntax very hard to follow.  From some of the samples I have worked with it is extremely powerful.  Microsoft has announced plans to support and contribute to the jQuery effort.  That is great news and I believe that will mean better integration into Visual Studio and IntelliSense making jQuery much easier to use.

What do you do with a confrontational boss?  At my previous job one of the owners always had issues with me.  I believe it was because I held him accountable.  If he said he would do something I expected that he would do it and when he did not do it, I would follow up.  I was polite in my follow up but apparently it was too much for his ego.

In a recent meeting he was upset at me for not being available at 11:00 PM to do a deployment of code to production.  The deployment had not gone well and there were errors with a few components.  I had sent an email that morning at 8:00 AM with some things to try.  I followed up at 11:30 AM with a question as to if my suggestions had been followed yet.  Still no response.  I sent another email at 1:00 PM asking if anyone had done what I suggested.  Still nothing.  Then at 10:30 PM my boss starts sending emails panicking that no one can get a hold of me (they hadn’t even tried.)  They finally tried what I suggested sometime after 11:00 PM but I was no longer available.

In the meeting I kept asking the Director of Network Services, who is an owner, why he would not do what I suggested and why he would not respond to my emails.  He kept trying to put the blame on me for not being available at 11:00 PM but I kept putting the ball back in his court asking why he wouldn’t do what I suggested.  He never did answer me.  The fun part though was that he started to stare me down, literally.  He is a former cop and believes he is tough and since he does not know how to handle conflicts without a gun he stared me down like a 5th grade schoolyard bully.  It was very funny.  I finally stared back at him for about a minute and then looked away and then he finally looked away.

I am glad to be gone from that company.  Childish owners and egos so big there was no room for me.

Unfortunately both owners of the company were very similar like that.  I tried working with them but after 4 1/2 years it was clear there was no room for anyone who was not willing to be subservient to them.  Their egos were just too big.  It’s a shame because they really could do well.

Apparently CRM 5.0 will natively support filtered lookups; however, for CRM 4.0 there is an excellent plug-in available at http://mscrmfilteredlookup.codeplex.com/.  To use it follow these steps:

1. Go to the Source Code tab, http://mscrmfilteredlookup.codeplex.com/SourceControl/list/changesets
2. Download the source code and unzip somewhere on your disk.
3. Use Visual Studio to compile the code.
4. Register the plug-in following the steps listed in the readme file that comes with the download.
5. Add simple JavaScript code to any entity you want to have filtered lookups.  Readme file explains the JS.

I tested this plug-in and it works great and is really easy to use. 

Note: You will need access to Visual Studio and to the Plug-in Registration tool to be able to do this.  At the time of this post the only thing you could download was source code, not any dlls.

What do you do when your boss lies?  I am not referring to little things where maybe the boss was mistaken but when you have proof of repeated lying and unethical behavior.  What can be done?

I was faced with this scenario at my previous employment.  For the first 2 years I believed that my boss was simply overly-optimistic and that he actually believed the promises that he made to me.  Over time I caught him in other lies that were clearly lies and not just optimism that something would happen.

 When I accepted my position at my previous employment I had 3 other job offers.  The deciding factor was that I would have ownership of the company.  This is what he told me on the phone when he extended the offer to me.  When I received my official offer letter it said that ownership was just a possible benefit.  I then assumed that it would be available very shortly.  After starting at this new job I asked about it and he said the lawyers were working up the papers and should be done in a few weeks.  A few months went by and nothing happened so I asked again.  Same response.  I let some more time go by and every time I asked it was always the same response.  After 2 years I finally gave up asking.  After being employed for 4 1/2 years I still did not have ownership even though I was told I would.

I was speaking with a co-worker a few weeks before I left my previous job and he asked me how much the largest profit sharing I had been given.  I told him $500.  He then told me that when he was negotiating his offer he asked my boss how much the smallest profit sharing amount had been and my boss told him $1,000.  Then, to confirm, my co-worker responded that he should expect at least $4,000 in profit sharing every year since the smallest ever given was $1,000 per quarter.  My boss responded affirmatively which was a blatant lie.

So, what can be done?  In my case I confronted my boss over and over and have the emails to prove him a liar and yet he continued to claim that he was an honest Christian.  He thought that by claiming to be Christian I would believe him.  After 4 1/2 years of his lying and no willingness to change I had to leave.  It literally made me sick to go to work every day.  I could not stand to see the sight of him.  He was the owner of the company so I could not go anywhere else for help.

To top it off, my boss is cheating me out of earned money now that I have left the company and is not paying me everything he owes me.  I will likely have to take him to court.

It is a real shame.  He has so much potential and really could be a great guy but I have come to believe that he is clinically sick and needs help.  Now that I have a new job with a real company all I can think is good riddance.