Bundles are a concept in Mac OS X whereby a specially named folder becomes what appears to casual users to simply be a file that can be copied as usual and often launched by double-clicking on it.

Other operating systems have file formats that are little more than containers for other files and in doing so keep those interesting resources out of your reach. (Okay, we have DMG but that’s more of a transportation mechanism like ZIP, TAR etc.)

For some time my primary workplace has been having a problem with SQL Server replication delaying for several minutes at a time which is surprising given the 12GB of RAM and quad processor hardware behind it.

Activity Monitor showed a number of processes on the distribution database used for SQL Server’s replication were blocked by another process which was in turn blocked by a SQL Agent – TSQL Job executing on the distribution database.

This great book shows you the process, thinking and code behind the open-source .NET IDE SharpDevelop that went on to branch into MonoDevelop.

It was not in print for very long but Apress bought Wrox when they closed down and made the book freely available on its site for download in PDF format.

Wade Wright is preaching that IDs in a database should always be GUIDs and lists four reasons. I commented there with my opinions but it hasn’t shown up – some people like to censor if you don’t agree with them completely. My points addressing each of his four ‘reasons’ were:

He does acknowledge that querying the database by hand is a bit of a pain but underestimates the Guid/uniqueidentifier performance penalty in SQL Server especially with regards to INSERTs (might be able to optimize there by having .NET generate the GUID instead of SQL Server).

Every month FontShop make a font available for free for a limited time so grab it while you can. The best option is to join their monthly newsletter so you don’t miss one!

Ralph is behind the excellent Inconsolata font which is great for printing code or if you like large programming fonts. He also has a number of classical typefaces including the great ATF Century Catalogue, Museum Caps, LeBe, ATF Bodoni and ATF Franklin Gothic.

Since moving house I have been using my MacBook Pro 15″ 2.0GHz at home, for contracting and even for the odd diagnostics and organization in the office.

The last 20 months have been a bumpy ride with the logic board being replaced twice once for whining and the second time when the inner memory slot went dead. The battery has been recalled and the power supply cable started melting and the paint started flaking off the enclosure but thankfully Apple sorted out all these problems rather swiftly with advanced replacement parts and speedy repairs through local service centers iQ Guernsey and Guernsey Computers.

One compiler improvement in .NET 3.5 is the object initializers feature that lets you concisely set properties of an object as you create it.

If you’ve ever used VB.NET you may well have found and enjoyed the with keyword to write code such as:

It has been a crazy couple of months between moving home, spending a week in Seattle and a couple of days in Holland for my real day job (the source of income!)

It was a little too close to my USA trip which has meant I’ve missed my niece trick-or-treating for the first time since I returned to Guernsey 3 years ago which leaves me a little sad. I guess I should be grateful for not being hit with jet-lag and the fact I’m surviving just fine on 5.5 hours of sleep a day which tonight is in a cubicle hotel…

Space was a little tight (5GB) after my upgrade to Leopard and so I went on the hunt to free up space and ended up freeing almost 20GB of my 100GB disk – enough to let me set-up a new 20GB Boot Camp partition that will host Vista and take over from my XP Pro Parallels image with any luck.

Disk Inventory X helps identify large files on your system which may no longer be required. In my case 8GB of imported iMovie clips, a 4GB Parallels backup HD image and a 140MB download of Boot Camp 1.4. A few blank DVD-R’s later and I’m almost 13GB lighter.

I couldn’t pick up a copy in the USA as the Seattle store was closed for remodeling and when they said October 26th, they meant at 5pm and not 9am, go figure! Thankfully IQ in Guernsey had them in-stock when I arrived back home Saturday.

It’s good, but I wouldn’t say twice as good as a usual OS X upgrade… which is almost how long it took.