I got a copy of VisualMake 3.0 from the Xtras.Net Developer Network (which is cool - you should join) and played around with it.

Hmmm.

Right now I use NAnt to automate my build processes. It’s a pretty flexible tool, and while it does require you script (rather than having some GUI to drag and drop tasks or organize the thing - hey, there’s a cool product idea… a real GUI editor for NAnt scripts, but something easier - and cheaper - than NAntpad), it’s also pretty accommodating and flexible.

I was hoping VisualMake might be a good, GUI alternative. If not for corporate/work projects, at least for my home stuff.

No dice.

I posted a review on it at Xtras.Net, but the long and the short of it is that VisualMake would be great for some straightforward builds, but it doesn’t seem to know Visual C++ projects (.vcproj), nor does it know setup projects (.vdproj). It also can’t open web projects via a URL, so you have to manually find those and add them.

In VisualMake’s defense, NAnt doesn’t do web projects, either, so it’s not like it’s missing functionality; I just figure when you’re graphically adding a solution (drag and drop) that includes web projects, a good GUI should automatically add them for you… at a minimum, it should determine if the project is on your local machine and start looking in the IIS metabase for the physical location. VisualMake doesn’t do that.

It does have some nice features, and I think for large Windows or console applications, this would be cool. Solutions that have a lot of dependencies and all generate .DLL files. I, unfortunately for VisualMake, don’t work in that world. All of my solutions have one or more web projects, a setup project… none of which works well with VisualMake.

Guess I’ll be sticking with NAnt.

Looks like I’m getting quoted over at Hanselman’s site. Go check out this article on the Laws of Prototypes at Tim Weaver’s site and tell me I’m wrong when I say the guy hit the nail on the head. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I went in today to get this tiny mole removed (maybe 6mm diameter) from my right side. I’ve had moles removed before - from my back, from the side of my head, etc., so I kind of knew what to expect.

Let me interject here that I am the biggest pain pussy ever. I don’t fear death, I fear pain. I fear any little kind of pain there could possibly be. Even if something isn’t hurting, I anticipate pain, and that hurts almost as much. I can’t watch medical shows on TV, and any needle bigger than the tiny ones I get my allergy shots with make me a little queasy.

Keeping that in mind, I got numbed (which hurt a lot, ironically - and the needle was a little larger than I’m comfortable with) and then the doctor started the operation. I was awake, but lying on my side not watching.

About halfway through, I started to feel the pressure of him pulling on the skin on my side and cutting and whatnot… and I started sweating profusely. I mean, like, sweat rolling off my forehead, soaked down, “I’ve been working on the railroad all the livelong day” sort of sweat.

Then he started cutting outside the area a little to make sure he got it all and I started feeling it a little, so he had to numb some more, which meant they brought a needle out and it made it all worse.

By the end of the thing they had to bring me an ice pack and a cup of cranberry juice because they were all worried about my distinct lack of color. I wasn’t at “pass out” level yet, but I was definitely headed there.

I have to go back in two weeks to get the stitches removed. I’m sitting here typing this and I feel the tightness in my side (probably due to the gigantic bandage attached to me) and I don’t know how long I’m gonna be able to stand that.

I think I should eat something.

Most of the weekend was spent doing yardwork; at least, the majority of Saturday was. I bought this lawn aerator device that is basically a set of spikes attached to a handle - step on the spikes to push them into the ground, pull the handle to get them out of the ground. Like dangerous romper stompers.

Thing is, that trashes your back really quickly, so the rest of the weekend I ached. I still ache.

We also started painting the upstairs bathroom, which is already proving to be less painful than the last bathroom we painted because: a) we’re only painting two of the walls; and b) there’s no border that has to be sanded off. We got a coat of primer on there pretty quickly. We’ll put another coat of primer, then two coats of paint, then be done.

And, of course, there was the typical cleaning of… well, everything… as there usually is.

Oh! I got my L’Instant Taittinger poster back, framed, from Michael’s and it looks brilliant. That’s now in my entryway so you see it pretty much right when you walk in.

I worked a little while on my Send To project and got the framework for a mixed-mode DLL set up. I have some managed classes (my public interface) in there and it compiles; now I need to start putting in the unmanaged stuff.

I also installed Windows XP SP2 on my home computer last night. I happened to get a disc with it on there from MSDN (subscription through work) so I took it home, threw it in the drive, started the install, and walked away.

A couple hours later I came back, rebooted, logged in, and have thus far really only noticed a couple of minor changes. First, the Security Center thing pops up to tell me that Windows Firewall is enabled, Automatic Updates (to the OS) are enabled, and it can tell that I have Panda antivirus software installed but it can’t tell the version of the updates. Fair enough. Second, the Windows Firewall is a lot more configurable and I like it better than the old Internet Connection Firewall. (It did, however, fail to properly migrate my ICF settings so I had to reconfigure, which wasn’t a big deal, just annoying.) Finally, the pop-up blocker is in full effect in IE.

That’s it. That’s all I really noticed.

I think that’s a good thing. I saw all of these “get ready for SP2!” ads and all of these articles about the drastic changes to the security on the system and whatnot, but when the end user finishes installing this thing, they really won’t notice much.

Now, from a programmer’s perspective, yeah, I have to be more conscious now about the security on the system and whatever for operations my program performs. But from the end user side… no big deal. Just more secure. Perfect.