I’ve been having such good luck lately.  Aparently my code got a bit too complex for Delphi 7 and it has started to die whenever I try to complile the TimeTracker project.  I think its mostly due to nested include files and our copy protection code (which gets rather complex & devious).  The 3rd time Delphi blew up (while I was trying to find what was causing the issue) - it took its software license with it.

Next time I started Delphi 7, I got, ” Borland License information was found but is Invalid for Delphi…  you
cannot run Delphi…”  Bummer.  Found the Delphi 7 registration wizard and it wouldn’t even run, it said something about corrupted license data.

Luckily I found a post from borland.public.delphi.ide.general dating back to 2003 where someone had the same issue.  Aparently Borland keeps some license files under the current user’s Windows profile directory.  Immediately under the user’s root profile directory there is a “.borland” directory.  Wiped out the content of that, ran the Delphi 7 Registration program, entered a valid product key and I’m back up and running (45 minutes later)…

Back in early January I had to rebuild my Windows XP Pro system (see prior post for details).  Ever since then WMI has not worked properly.  I have a system logging service (likely to become a SnappyWare product down the road) that uses WMI and has completely ceased to function.  That wasn’t critical and I’ve been busy, so I’ve ignored it.

However, recently I needed to install a copy of Microsoft SQL Server on my development system.  I have a couple installed on local servers, but I need one on my actual development computer for a client project.  Good time to install the shiny new SQL Server 2005, yes?  No.  Turns out it uses WMI in the installer to check system compatibility.  So it totally failed to install with a WMI error (I forget which one).

Like most serious problems involving Microsoft products I expected to be either A) Out of luck or B) at it for countless hours.  I was truly surprised to find the following web page as the first result returned by Google:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/topics/help/wmi.mspx

I used Google because I found other people’s info much more helpful than Microsoft’s in many cases in the past.  Not this time though.  I followed the 2nd to last link, “I have a script that I know is valid…” and it took me to a page on how to rebuild the WMI repository.  I had WMI fixed and running within 15 minutes.  That’s a record (for me and Microsoft)!

Then on to SQL Server 2005 Standard, which has been installing for the past 20 minutes and still isn’t finished.  Wow, this new version must be really impressive if it takes that long to install!  [smirk]

In January, two days before attending CES, my primary development computer died.  One moment it was fine, then it rebooted and failed to come up.  It was dead.  I ordered new hardware while in Las Vegas (I had a deadline to meet) and got the system up and running upon my return.

This week I discovered that two good friends of mine had their Windows XP systems mysteriously die over the past couple of weeks.  Both simply failed to boot, but there appeared to be no obvious problems with the hardware.  Fred fixed his problem by re-flashing his BIOS.  Once done, his computer was back to normal.  I fixed mine by replacing my motherboard (kept the same hard drive).  My other friend has not fixed his yet.

One must ask, are these coincidence or is there something out there corrupting system BIOS (intentionally or not).  I don’t know, but I suggest you keep this in mind and be careful.  And if your system should fail to boot one day soon, check out the BIOS before resorting to more serious steps.

SnappyWare’s first software product will be ready for sale in the near future.

TimeTracker is designed to do what the name implies, track your time. What sets it apart from the competition is an extremely efficient and intuitive user interface which makes logging your efforts in real-time a breeze. I’ve worked at several companies in the past that wanted out time logged - I always thought it was an inefficient waste of time. When I needed to log my own time for hourly contracting (because I wanted to get paid) I had no choice. And thus TimeTracker was born. Because I consider it a chore, I took extra effort to make it painless - and I think we succeeded! Besides tracking time it also has a full compliment of features to handle project invoicing, for us its a one stop solution. We’re hoping other companies will find it equally useful.

We have been using the tool in-house for over 6 months with great success. The rather comprehensive context sensitive help and manual are 60% complete. We finished the remaining features required for a public release this past week. The first limited beta was sent out yesterday. A few details still remain to be finished and there are a couple of known issues we want to fix before release, but most of the remaining work is non-technical. For instance we need to create marketing materials and intend to redo the SnappyWare web site to be more product focused.

Plus, a collection of free ware tools we’ve built in the past will most likely be released around the same time.

In 30 to 60 days expect big things from SnappyWare. Wish us success.

Delphi 1 was released on Valentine’s day 1995.  It certainly doesn’t feel like I’ve been programming in Delphi for 11 years.  Lets hope the next 11 are even brighter for Delphi.

Another excellent blog post by Allen Bauer (a Borland Chief Scientist) discusses the concept of Delphi as a cash cow product.  While that particular subject is somewhat interesting, the overall post is quite good and is one of the first to truly paint the recent announcement in a positive light.

Click here to read his Alan’s blog.

Borland Chief Scientist Allen Bauer had a few things to say in his blog regarding the name Borland.

A very common question and comment that keeps recurring is “Why doesn’t the new IDE company keep the Borland name and the surviving company rename around the ALM strategy?”  In principle, I agree that this would be an ideal thing to happen.  I, too, have an extreme attachment to “Borland.”  However, if we have to lose the Borland name in order to gain autonomy, focus, invesment and all the things we know is needed to keep Delphi on a forward track, I’ll count it as a huge net gain.  Yes, let us mourn the loss of the Borland name attached to Delphi, but at the same time let us celebrate the opportunities and opened doors that are now ahead of us!

From an outside perspective I don’t agree with Allen on this.  Shedding the name Borland may result in a long-term marketing win.  Due to consistently poor marketing for well over a decade, the name Borland is not well received by corporate managers.  It would probably be easier to sell WhizzyBang Delphi 2007 to a manager than Borland Delphi 2007.  Just my opinion, of course.

In the end, the Delphi and JBuilder names carry significant brand recognition all on their own.  They seemed to survive the “Inprise” debacle quite well.  I’m confident that whatever the “NewCo” name ends up being, it will be complementary and recognizable.  This assumes, of course, that the spin out winds up being an independent company (my personal preference).

This is do very much agree with.  Delphi has a tremendous following and apart from the bad business & marketing sense of Borland may very well thrive.  I’m wholly undecided on if Delphi would be better served being owned by a new start-up company or an exisiting company.  Of course *which* existing company is the question, there are probably a lot of bad long-term choices available there.

Aparently there is a new type of drug under development that can target and kill microbial, bacterial and viral infections.  The compounds show indications of being effective against many diseases plaguing humankind - among them HIV/AIDS, influenza, smallpox, herpes and possibly even the dread bird flu.  Will this be the Penicillin of the 2000s?  Read more in the article “Has BYU prof found AIDS cure?“

Borland released the following press release today:

Borland to Acquire Software Quality Company, Segue Software;
Announces Plan to Divest IDE Product Lines

I can’t say that this comes as a huge shock. A few years back Borland turned into Inprise which was going to focus on Application Lifecycle Management tools (ALM). The CEO at the time was all gung-ho on ALM, but not so much on actual development tools. They seem to think that managing the process is more important than actually doing the work. In my opinion without good development tools no amount of ALM will help you. Apparently their customers agreed, because a couple of years ago Inprise became Borland again along with a renewed commitment to their IDEs. However, all of their recent IDEs (Delphi 8, Delphi 2005 & BDS 2006) have been lack luster at best. So maybe it was a hollow commitment. Delphi 8 was bad, Delphi 2005 was poor and I hear that Delphi 2006 is actually usable. That is, not compelling but usable if you should want. It seems that the vast majority of all Delphi development is still being done in Delphi 7 - that can’t be good for Borland’s bottom line. Plus, Borland has gone on to acquire even more ALM tools and clearly invest significant effort into that space. So, like I said, this isn’t really a surprise.
Instead of improving their poor IDEs, they are going to sell them off. If they can find a buyer, of course. Posts I’ve read today find it strange that Borland would announce their intention without having a buyer lined up. I can take a guess why, they probably can’t find a buyer. They are hoping that by making it public someone will step forward, because all the channels they could reasonably try are probably exhausted. At least that would be my best guess…

After all, I can’t imagine there would be too many potential buyers. Borland probably wants a significant amount of money to sell it. Whoever buys it will be in direct competition with Microsoft Visual Studio. Borland’s most recent products aren’t exactly all-stars. And lots of people keep telling me Java is dead. Add all that up and its quite a leap of faith to buy the IDEs from Borland.

So, what are software developers who appreciate quality, efficient tools to do? It seems most Delphi Win32 development is still being done in Delphi 7. Since Microsoft is focusing on .Net Delphi 7 will probably suffice for Win32 development for at least several more years. For .Net development Chrome will do quite nicely.

So, who really needs Borland anymore?

Not that I wouldn’t just LOVE to see some new high quality IDE products. I would, that would be great. Maybe we’ll all get lucky. Maybe a company who actually gives a damn about software development will actually own the Borland products once again…

Quoted from Dan Miser’s blog

I’ve long held that knowledge comes in one of 2 flavors: borrowed or earned. Let me illustrate by example.

If someone comes to me and says “How does Application.OnException work?”, the odds of that person ever retaining that information and converting it into knowledge is rare. BOCTAOE. The exception would be people who are human sponges who can soak information in, and retain it, much like trivia experts. The information becomes “borrowed knowledge”.

On the other hand, if someone takes the time to look at the online help and/or manuals, search through the source code to see how it works, searches online, and writes test cases to exercise the functionality, then they have a much better chance of retaining the information. In short, they have earned the knowledge. You can start by borrowing knowledge to figure out where to go/what to do in order to earn the knowledge, but the last step of truly obtaining “earned knowledge” falls on you.

The comment I posted on his blog:

Dan,

Interesting categorization which I believe is true.  I may have something to add regarding the distinction between the two.

Earned knowledge imparts a deep understanding of the domain.  It also allows you to build upon that knowledge.  Possessing a large quantity of earned knowledge in a certain knowledge realm allows a person to earn additional knowledge in that realm very quickly.

Borrowed knowledge imparts use information.  It allows you to use something or accomplish a specific goal.  It does not allow you to build upon that knowledge and does not significantly accelerate learning additional knowledge in that realm.

I base the above on personal experience.  I have a huge amount of earned knowledge in computers and specifically software development.  Awhile back I converted a library from Delphi Win32 to Delphi.Net in a matter of hours, having never worked with .Net previously.  More recently I completed a complex Palm application in C++ using CodeWarrior quite successfully and quickly.  I had never used CodeWarrior, only minimally programmed for the palm before and it had been years since I worked in C++.  In both cases I picked up additional earned knowledge on the specific bits I did not know rapidly because I had earned lots of other similar knowledge previously.

In contrast, a couple of years ago I was working with a programmer who is very advanced in mathematics.  I was working on a game engine at the time and was stuck on some math.  Math is not my forte and I do not posses a lot of earned knowledge in that field.  He sat me down and “taught” me the things I needed to know.  They worked and I finished my project.  However, I no longer retain that knowledge and I could not apply or build upon it today.  That was borrowed knowledge.