Visual Studio 2012: Setup VisualHG, Mercurial, TortoiseHG and connect to Beanstalk

My current project is a Visual Studio 2008 C# application and I'm using Beanstalk to host the Mercurial repository.

Why Mercurial?

My lack of experience with git led me to Mercurial (aka hg on a *nix system). Mercurial simplifies the command set which, I'm hoping, will reduce the learning curve. Currently, only two people will be touching the source code and overlap should be minimal. I primarily need backup and versioning, merges will be rare.

VisualHG Installing on Visual Studio 2012 on Windows 8

The only real option out there as a Visual Studio plugin for Mercurial is VisualHG. There is a known bug installing with Visual Studio 2012, fix is discussed on the Discussion Board. Basically (after following the VisualHG install directions), you to tell VS to refresh itself by running this from a cmd prompt running as admin:

Windows Key + X -> Command Prompt (Admin)

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\devenv /setup

Configure Mercurial to use Beanstalk

In order to use VisualHG, we have to install and setup Mercurial,TortoiseHg, and PuTTY. Beanstalk has a good guide for this.

PuTTY

The directions in the beanstalk guide are mostly sufficient but for pageant you want to put it in the startup folder.

If your not sure how to add things to the Startup folder in Windows 8, you aren't alone! Instructions here.

I made a shortcut on the desktop for pageant (right click pageant.exe, Send to-> Desktop), then copied the shortcup to the startup folder.

I also made a shortcut to AppData on my Favorites as I'll probably being in here quite a bit while writing apllications targeting the Windows desktop.

SSH Cache

I found one odd thing in the beanstalk guide, the last part regarding SSH Cache

You’ll need to store the Beanstalk host in your SSH cache. Perform this one-time step from the command line:

plink -ssh ssh://hg@username.beanstalkapp.com

Answer “Y” when SSH asks you to “Store key in cache?”

This doesn't work. What does work is (after cd to your PuTTY install directory):

plink -ssh hg@username.beanstalkapp.com

Where 'username' is the prefix of the url to your beanstalk account. http://username.beanstalkapp.com should get you to your beanstalk page.

Connect to Beanstalk

The connection is actually managed by TortoiseHg and beanstalk has a good guide for this as well.

After following these guides I have my repository downloading from beanstalk!

Windows 8 First Things First

First Things First

The very first things I did when my Windows 8 machine was up and running:

1. Open Internet Explorer in order to download Chrome and Firefox
2. Removed IE icons everywhere 
3. Setup Chrome Sync and bam I can easily move between my PC and my Mac 
4. Removed the Norton crap and turned on Windows Defender. I guess that's adequate, I'm certainly not paying for Norton to clutter up this fresh machine.
5. Install Evernote and Skitch desktop applications because the Windows 8 Store 'app' version is for a tablet and is pretty useless on a laptop (more on this later)
6. Install Google Drive

At this point I can do all my everyday tasks on either the PC or Mac without too much headache, everything is in sync.

To Work!

Download Visual Studio 2012 and install it. Still need to setup source control plugins and import source code.

Helpful Hints

Windows 8 does NOT have a traditional Start menu. This takes some getting used to but thankfully there are some very useful keyboard shortcuts. These 3 are my favorites so far.

• Windows Key + X pulls up a nice context window (thats really hard to get a screenshot of). Quick access to Control Panel, Run, command prompt, System, Desktop to name a few
• Windows Key + C opens the 'Charms', same as pushing your mouse to the top right corner
• Windows Key + Q opens the new Start menu and puts the cursor right in the search box, similar to Mission Control on a Mac

Windows 8 Impressions

I'll be giving my thoughts and impressions Windows 8 as I setup my new work machine. It is a Thinkpad T530 with Windows 8 Pro and 8 GB ram Core i7 at 2.40 GHz. My comparisons are based on my previous Windows 7 Dell which was heavily loaded down with corporate IT crap. And of course my MacBook Pro (2009) which is still going strong even though baby pictures and videos have filled my 320 GB hard drive. 

System Info

First impression of the Thinkpad:

1. This thing is fast!
2. The keyboard is great. Different from a Mac, but probably just as good
3. It's a 15" screen, same as the MBP, but the machine is quite a bit larger. This is not for business travel.
4. The Port Replicator I ordered with it does a fantastic job pushing video over USB to my DVI monitor

The Proposed Nutrition Label: A Quick Read, Out Front - Graphic - NYTimes.com

The Proposed Nutrition Label: A Quick Read, Out Front - Graphic - NYTimes.com:

'via Blog this'

Interesting idea proposed as a way to improve the nutritional label on foods. At first glance I like the design but find it hard to believe the data necessary to do this is available to a non-partisan 3rd party who could enforce this standard.

MLB Prospect Rankings

Kevin GoldStein of Baseball Prospectus annual Future Shock segment has been ranking each MLB team by quality of prospects. For 2011/2012 I have, with the help of a few intrepid data input fiends at Orioles Hangout, compiled the rankings and assigned a total score to each team. The math is simple, tally up the total number of stars assigned by Goldstein. Weighing the 5 and 4 star prospects more heavily might be wise, but for now, its this is simple.
Goldstein is only ranking each organizations top 11 (plus the next 9), assigning stars for quality. 5 stars is the highest, 2 the lowest. Everyone else in the top 20 is more a less a 1 star prospect, but that doesn't show up in this ranking. These scores are only for the top 11 who get 2, 3, 4, or 5 stars each.

Pitchers and Catchers Report

 

It is almost baseball season! Wish I was in Sarasota.

One of my many interests is the ever mind boggling state of the Baltimore Orioles. The best place on the net for Orioles information and debate is the Orioles Hangout. A recent post by your truly made the front page, regarding the Orioles and Cuban defectors.