Don't buy .NET Reactor it is a DEFINITE NO GO

Save yourself time and money and don't buy this software. It's a oneman operation as far as I can see.

I have wasted so much time trying to get it to work correctly. Finally I gave up. The main reasons were:

• My applications are slow as fuck when "protected" with .NET reactor
• Sick to the teeth of all the small bugs
• The customer service is crap
• Its a typical rush approach to producing software where releasing something that is not properly tested is no big problem
• It doesn't work
• The licensing system is not well thought out

Have decided to use xenocode for protecting my application. It is wonderful and well worth the money. Basically you can virtualise the complete application. Marvellous indeed.

Don't measure it, just manage it.

Year by year (and I have been working 10 years) there has been a drive to control everything. The "If you can't measure it you can't manage it" mantra is a religion that ought never to be questioned.

Well here is a question:

What if measuring becomes the primary activity of a company?

Let's measure the measuring to begin with.

First of all start with the hypothesis that measuring adds no productive value whatsoever and that this hypothesis is true for every type of measurement unless individually proven otherwise.

Secondly, once you introduce measuring, all the people affected by it will engage 100% with working the system to ensure the measure reflects well upon them.

Let's not forget that other activities will suffer because resources will be spent on measuring that could have been used on the core activities of the companies. So you will certainly need more staff.

My final point about measuring is that it is historical. Now of course there is a value in experience gained over time etc. It's good to know your turnover and profits over the years etc., but for any company the most important thing is to look forward. You can't change the past but only build for the future. Measuring distracts from looking forward. Right now, it doesn't matter that last month there was a complete denial of service for 5 days for all customers. What does matter is to know there was/is a problem, try and understand the cause and have a clear idea that THIS is what we are going to do about it right now.

I say to hell with measuring altogether. Focus on what the situation is NOW. Focus on what needs to be done/achieved:

• Now
• In one week
• In one month
• In one year
• In five years
• In ten years

My cable provider is absolutely a disaster (It's Coditel). Every couple of months I loose most of my channels and have to perform gymnastics to get the issue resolved. From my point of view, I hate fucking Coditel. As far as I am concerned, the sooner they go out of business the better and as soon as I have a choice (within a couple of months) I am going to another provider. I will never buy anything else from them. They can forget about me ever using them for broadband or telephony. That a customer should hate your company is a tragedy.

Now if you were Coditel and were to measure (as I am sure they do) network issues, your measurement might say that 97% of subscribers had a perfect service in a particular month. That sounds pretty good. But it isn't. Why should anyone have a denial of service ever?
However an alternative approach is to say we should never have any denial of service to any customer. Denial of service to even one customer should be seen as a disaster. The minute there is one, Coditel should focus on the cause and ensure that it fixed for good and do whatever it takes to ensure that this never happens again. With this approach, over time your company improves tangibly.

Management is about making decisions. A good Manager makes decisions. Sadly most Managers seem to be afraid to make decisions. You can make good decisions without measuring.

EZIRIZ .NET Reactor - Everything looking very good

I just got the new version and everything seems to be working perfectly.

It is such a cool application. A must have for any .NET developer.

The balance of consequences - Just another HR Nazi scheme

A friend of mine works for a certain company and that company might just be Dow Corning. Anyway he told me this story. The company gets employees to waste their time working out the "balance of consequences".

What is this "balance of consequences" lark?

Well it goes something like this. I arrive at my desk and I drop my computer bag beside my desk. The positive consequence would be something like: My bag is near me, I will be able to access it at a moments notice . The negative consequence would be something like: My bag has a strap and some stupid tit might fall on the strap and kill themselves. Although should the person be a member of HR, this could also be considered as a positive consequence. You get the idea, you must apply the "balance of consequences" methodology to every thought and action of yours.

But it gets better. HR not being content with just simply issuing a memo, go a couple of extra lengths to make sure the "balance of consequences" becomes a big part of your life.

First of all (and I am not making this up) they put a couple of electronic devices in the stairwells. These devices detect motion and parrot out "Hold the handrail" to those passing. However when a rep from L'Oreal fell over one and hurt himself (nearly fell down the stairs) while also damaging the device, it was realised that the "balance of consequences" had not been fully applied in relation to the devices.

Secondly the head of HR, in all her wisdom, took it upon herself one day to monitor people leaving the company car park. She duly noted those who were not wearing their seat belts. Those offenders received an email that was sent to the head honcho at Dow Corning. Right to the top.

They also have huge posters which they are going to hang extolling the virtues of the "balance of consequences" in true Nuremberg rally style.

So what's next, a mandatory yellow star of David for those not following the "balance of consequences" methodology correctly.

What is it with HR people. They generally seem to be a simple kind of folk and lack any vision. A certain leading company where I do a lot of contracting, has a few beauties. One of them has some stellar reading material. I was in her office and could not believe it when I saw on her desk the book, "The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People". If you think that such simplistic drivel is of value in understanding the complexity and diversity of people, what kind of staff will you hire?

Another freind of mine did an interview for a company where he now works. During the interview, in a burst of creativity, the interviewer asked him if he had any negative points. Rather than giving the usual "I work too hard" bullshit answer, he said "I am frequently late for work". The interviewer transformed into a goldfish and gulped for a couple of minutes and then said nothing. He did get the job. Furthermore he is an asset to the company as he actually possesses a brain. So he gets in a bit late to work sometimes, but he also works late. He is a good lateral and original thinker. So what if he comes in to work late. They are lucky to have him. The point I am trying to make is that turning recruitment into finding square pegs for square holes is a cancer for organisations. It seems as if in many ways western society has advanced but companies have regressed. The end result in many companies is that most people operate completely in their own interest to the detriment of the business. Bullshit "look at me" emails abound. Work becomes surviving in the workplace. One has to fit an expected image. The image is more important than the work you achieve.

.NET Reactor - I got support and it is looking good

Looks like I have to eat my hat. I got a new version and now generating a license is working like a charm. Will test the rest tomorrow.

If everything works I will be the first to say it is the most useful software for .NET developers.

Guess the problem was more one of communication.

.NET Reactor - encountering some blocking problems

Well as part of my software development, I needed a protection and licensing system. So I went online and downloaded and tested a number of them. The one I liked the most was .NET Reactor.

It "seemed" to work very well and all my initial tests were good. I had a couple of questions and got a lightening fast response. So I bit the bullet and bought it.

I admit it I was naieve. I was, some might say, delusional. I thought it was the answer to all my prayers.

Everything seemed to be okay. However once I started to go deeper I started having problems.

Two key aspects of it do not work.

It can't read the license info from a protected assembly at runtime.(There is an assembly provided which you reference and is supposed to do this). It just gives a meaningless error. So that is my first problem - I can't access license info at runtime - and it is kind of a basic requirement.

Secondly I can't generate licenses using the wrapper assembly provided to do this. Once again I get a meaningless error that I am absolutely powerless to do anything about. It means I cannot automate the process and that is fundamentally important to me. I believe so much in automation, that the time I invest now will save me so much time in future. Also it avoids manual error etc. (you know the score!). My goal in doing this is actually to have a really fast and error free back office to support customers. If I can't automate, it raises a whole load of problems. Unfortunately with .NET Reactor I can't automate.

Now that I have paid the money, guess what - the time response is, well how can I put this, jurassic. Absent would also be an appropriate word. I had the guy on Messenger one day (only once) and I got the impression I was pissing him off. Customers are a real annoyance. They should all be shot. However from my point of view I am so dependent on this third party product that it is totally blocking and every deadline is now held up. It has just thrown such a spanner in the works. Choosing .NET Reactor was the worst decision I made in a long time.

Aside from the money spent buying the product (not much) I have invested so much time. I have spent more than 100 hours, probably close to 200 at a guess on work related to .NET Reactor. I have architected code around it etc. It is all time wasted. So it is better to move on to another software. http://www.xheo.com/ looks interesting. If anyone has any recommendations please let me know.

I think eziriz are a one man operation who obviously can't support their customers.

But that's life, sometimes you make mistakes.

So if you are in business, here's a nice old fashioned ethic to have. Help your customers. Bend over backwards for them. Work late if you have to but do everything to help them. You'll sleep better at night and they'll probably send you a Christmas card too.

As a contrast, I host with go daddy http://www.godaddy.com/ . And you know what I love about godaddy. The customer service is fantastic. It is just the best. I have had guys on the phone that have been so helpful. As far as I am concerned I will only ever deal with godaddy. The price isn't even the issue (although their prices are great). I just love that ethic of looking after your customers. In the short term it may cost you but in the long term you end up as #1 in your market.

In case you are skimming through this post, it can be summed up as follows: Avoid .NET Reactor and eziriz.com . Spend the money on potatoes instead, they are without a shadow of a doubt highly nutritious and you'll know what you are getting. They are also as suited to .NET assembly protection and licensing as .NET Reactor is. Trust me, your software needs potatoes as much as it needs .NET Reactor.

ps. Since I replaced .NET Reactor with potatoes I have been delighted with the support I am receiving from the farmer I bought them from.

Great green site not to be missed

I added http://www.monbiot.com/ to the links on the right hand side. Simply put, it is a great site and very informative. It is my favourite site because the articles are usually very interesting. What impresses me about his (George Monbiot) writings is both the diversity and scientific accuracy.

He has that rare ability to tear apart specious bullshit (and let's face it, there is a lot of it out there) and, at the risk of repeating myself, back up his arguments with solid facts. He somehow manages to contain his evident anger and channel it into something of value.

He has a number of books out there and I have read all of them, except the most recent one - Heat ... - which is lying on my bookshelf as I write.

Also his writing is often motivated by a genuine concern for humanity. I found some of his writings quite moving. His book "Captive State" should not be missed. Tony Blair - hang your pathetic head in shame. Residents of the Isle of Skye - hold your heads up high with pride.

An article in Wired made me think I need a blog

I don't really read blogs much (with a couple of exceptions) and I never thought that I would write one. But then I read an article in Wired magazine that kind of made me think again. So I am starting this and at the very least I hope it will be a kind of therapy !

What's big in my life at the moment is that I am near releasing software I have been working on for the last two years or so. So I aim to really chart that whole process of trying to make money online. I think it will be an interesting journey and I hope maybe some people will spot it and give me advice. I think my blog will be very eclectic because that's just the way I am.