C#, VB.Net, XML and mass consumption of coffee.

This is going to be a rant. I can’t say that I am pissed off, I am annoyed and amazed. Let me tell you what happened. I spoke to my good buddy Will from clubpath (great site if you are around Toronto and night clubs are your thing). We had this discussion on best ways to advertise on line. Continue reading →

Lately all coolest things are being done online. The whole concept of on-line application is a pretty revolutionary idea. You only have to maintain ONE installation, people can access your app at all times from any machine connected to internet, if you wish, and most people would, you can really track what your users are doing with your app, both to see what needs to be improved and covertly do some data mining, I can go on forever. Continue reading →

I had discovered ReSharper some time ago reading a blog post on more efficient ways to code. At first I was skeptical, but after installing it I became a true believer in this tool. Continue reading →

According to this blog, LINQ to SQL is going to be dropped. I have not had a chance to work with LINQ to SQL, but I am loving LINQ to XML. This is exactly what we needed to streamline most of our XML transactions. I mean XPath is good and all, but LINQ to XML makes perfect sense. I am hoping that Microsoft will reconsider this decision, as in my humble opinion the whole idea of LINQ is the best addition to the .Net framework, well, LINQ and generics.

I can’t help but feel that this might make me think twice before jumping on a new technologies especially from Microsoft. Now, on to reading .Net 4.0 specs.

Couple of days ago I wrote this. I was trying to look at my career and see what do I really want to do with my life. I know, the thing with management might look like a good idea, but after all, I am a coder. It is not going to be easy, but I will get myself back in coding somehow, I guess by delegating some of the less important paperwork and such. But it looks like this means lots more sleepless nights to get myself back into action.

I have been told many many times that changes are supposed to be good for you (or me, since it’s my situation that we are looking into). I have been a coder for quite some time now. I can’t say that I am absolutely ecstatic about programming. It does not influence my life outside of my office hours and time that I spent at home trying desperately to improve myself. For instance, I don’t watch Star Trek or build some kind of crazy contraptions which could loosely be called a robot in my basement, although come to think of it, that sounds like a good idea; the robot one, not the Star Trek. I don’t wear nerdy t-shirts with BSOD on it. I am not participating in heated discussions like “My IDE is bigger then yours!” and “My OS can kick your OS’s butt” and so on. I can’t say that coding is my passion, it is something I am interested in and it pays my bills. Another factor would be my formal training - I have some in development, but as for the other areas I can’t say that I am properly trained. Lately something had changed in my work - I am doing more managerial things then coding. Continue reading →

There is something special about the lists. Lists are easy, visually appealing and short, which makes them absolutely favorite format to write blog posts in. When you are reading a popular blog of some sort, you would notice that most of the posts are actually lists. The headlines basically write themselves - X (usually a nice number like 10) things that blah. Users love those because they are basically a Reader’s Digest version of whatever the writer was trying to say, and lets face it, even if you would never admit to reading Reader’s Digest to anyone, fist thing you’d grab in a waiting room of your dentists office would be this regurgitated portion of news, events and literature to help you pass time. Hey, I am the same way, at times I would have Sports Illustrated to hide Readers Digest, just to maintain my manly image.

So the lists, summaries and so on dominate blogosphere, so what? What really gets me is that obligatory post that every blogger must write X things your “insert your profession” guy/girl/person wants you to know/do/act. Worst of all are developers/coders/admins and all other IT people write. I know your job is tough, you are dealing with issues that other people can’t or won’t understand, but for the love of all that’s holly, get off your high horse and face reality. You and I are rarely people who are center of the universe. We are liabilities, not assets. We can be compared by the crew that runs lunch rooms - we are there to serve people - be it clients that purchase your software, annoying guy from AP or a secretary who can’t manage simple task of writing a document to a flash drive. Our clients are people who make money, they do pay our bills. I am coding a software that automates report generation - well guess what - people who use my software make money for their companies. If you are coding an accounting software - accountants are making money. We, on the other hand cost money. We want the best hardware and software available. We want newest and best gadgets out there, we want free coffee and shorter working hours. I know, I get it, I am the same way. But what gets me is posts like this one.

I mean come on, just treat people with respect. Get back to them quickly, speak their language, don’t act all high and mighty in front of the users, and what’s more important to me personally - users pay your bills - listen to them. Don’t tell them what they need, listen to what they are asking you for and make it better. That’s how you run an efficient IT department and maybe even make a friend or two who is not an IT person.

Would like to hear your opinion on this.

This has nothing to do with coding, managing or all other thing that I normally would write here, but the situation really bugs me. Recently I had to change my cell phone. Old contract was running out, and was not even in my name, so I have decided to go and get my own phone with my own contract (go me, all grown up and such!). My wife was in the same situation, so we went shopping for the cell phones together. Let me clarify something - I don’t pay bills. My wife does - she has some magical system where all the bills are paid on time and everyone is happy. Since I don’t pay bills, I have no idea how much are we paying for cell phones. To save some cash, or so I thought I have used my powers of persuasion to go get the cell phones from the same company that does our TV and house phone. I had honestly thought that this might make it cheaper, well, I was wrong.

Now I am resenting the whole idea of changing the plans, companies and all. What I can’t understand is how come my 3 year old contract was about $50.00 a month, pure basics - no internet, no data just some minutes, voicemail and caller id, and now I have to pay close to $90.00 per month for less minutes, less voicemails and a phone that does not have reception in my house, unless I am in my back yard. What happened to the cell phone companies, how come all of a sudden am I paying more? Did we regressed in terms of technological advances so cell phones are once again expensive? Is this because I am in Canada? It’s not that I can’t pay $90.00 for my cell phone, I just don’t see a reason why. Looks like I am cancelling this one sometimes soon.

This is intended as a response to a post by Alan Skorkin - 3 Things They Should Have Taught In My Computer Science Degree. Aron brings up some interesting points, but I am convinced that while his points are valid, there are more important things to consider. Well, three things that are actually mentioned are:

• Open Source Development
• Agile and other methodologies
• Corporate Politics / Building relations.

Somehow at my school there was always more information and emphasis on Open Source. School had actually maintained couple of Open Source projects where students could participate freely. We had number of courses that deal with Linux, Perl and other things which are normally associated with Open Source. We were not pro-Microsoft, as a matter of fact, my C and C++ coding had to be done on a Unix machine, and it had to compile and run on Unix. Use of IDE was not promoted until we started C#. We had to use Vi or other editors available on Unix to code. I was too lazy to learn VI so I found Joe - a straight up text editor. We had great profs that were passionate about Open Source, for instance Cris Tyler, my Linux/Perl prof would spent lots of time with me trying to help me launch my first eCommerce site. He did it not for money, but because he understood the importance of getting young developers involved in actual coding.

We did not do any Agile on purpose, but for couple of projects, Raf and I had used Agile without even knowing about such thing. It was fun, Raf is a great developer. I don’t think that knowing programming methodologies would really help young developer. You go into a coding shop and you will learn and adapt to the way others work; I don’t think that schools should spend student time on this. It will come as soon as developer starts his first job.

Corporate Politics and Building Relations now this is something I can agree with Aron. Let’s face it, developers are not the most socially adapt bunch, it’s just the way most of us are and some training on how to deal with others would be very beneficial to a new developer.

I can add couple of things to the list - when I got my first programming job this was something that amazed me. I remember thinking that our assignments and projects at school were huge with tons of work involved. At times I thought - no, this can’t be right, this is just too much to do here. But after getting my fist project at work I realised that my definition of huge has to be changed. What we did at school was nothing compare to real world. I guess an experience with a “real life” project would be very beneficial to at least me as a college student.

Another thing was time management. Until I started working, I never truly realized how important time management was. You have a schedule and you must do everything you can to meet your deadlines. Because there are consequences, at times very harsh consequences. Once my employer had to re-schedule a user conference because coders did not meet dead lines and that was something we heard about for couple of years after.

My main point is there are bunch of things that CS students can benefit from, but they would vary from one student to the next. It is nearly impossible for any school to accommodate it all, so this responsibility of preparing yourself in a career in a real world falls on the student himself mostly, but hopefully schools will provide some guidance in this process.

I have to admit that I have never read Stephen Walter’s blog before, but now I am hooked. His series on creating a shopping cart with ASP.Net MVC is exactly what I was looking for to get up to speed with ASP. I have not had an opportunity to get much exposure to ASP, which I guess is a strange thing to admit for C# developer. Yes, I am stuck with WinForms at least for now, but I have been thinking about getting into ASP for quite some time. In any case, this is a great series by Stephen Walther, enjoy.