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10 Programming Proverbs Every Developer Should Know

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:01:02 GMT

Proverbs are used to express universal truths or life lessons in a short and memorable fashion. I find that they are a great way to keep things in perspective, both in life and in work. Because of this, I have assembled 10 programming proverbs that every developer needs in their arsenal.

Best practices for creating websites in IIS 6

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:46:02 GMT

A list of steps that I always take while creating ASP.NET websites in IIS 6. It ensures better performance maintainability, and scalability of your application.

Check username availability with JQuery & ASP.NET

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:01:04 GMT

This article shows how to use jQuery in a real world practical situation - to check username availability - by making an AJAX call to a WebMethod. In this artcle we examine how to make the call, how get the desired username and pass it correctly as well as using jQuery to style and display firnedly notification messages.

Thought Driven Development a Methodology of Abile Development

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:46:03 GMT

Warning: This is a rant against TDD extremism! Sensitive TDD people better step out of this dark sleazy communist place right now! Why do I pick on TDD? Because it makes no sense. The development and design shall be driven by thought not by test. Yes some people are able to "think" better about their problems while using TDD. Kudos to them! But not all people are alike.

Want to Speed Up Your ASP.NET Web Site?

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:50:47 GMT

There are lots of tricks to optimising the speed of your web site. Most of them require you to follow certain design and implementation best practices. But, if you're looking for a quick and (really) easy way to make your site even faster then you should definitely check out the new Runtime Page Optimizer (RPO). Deployment is pretty much copying an assembly to your web server and adding a couple of lines to your web.config - it's that simple!

Supporting Leaderless Projects

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:25:47 GMT

Are you a junior developer working alone? Are you part of a team with no Development Team Lead (DTL)? Do you feel neglected, unloved and with nowhere to turn? Then this article is for you and your manager.

Json.NET 3.0 Released

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:46:02 GMT

The latest version of Json.NET brings lots of new features including Silverlight support.

Bad advice on exceptions from Joel

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:46:02 GMT

Starting from some comments on my exception handling series of articles I run into a couple of blogs pointing to this post on joelonsoftware.com. I think this is the worst advice on exception handling I have ever read, sorry Joel. I know this is an old post, I know Joel is entitled to his own opinion and I know he has the right to write his code as he sees fit. But as an opinion leader he influences others.

Starting with jQuery

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:16:02 GMT

This is the first of number of posts to come on getting started with jQuery with no previous knowledge of the framework. Over the course, various jQuery Plug-Ins will be used and discussed along with gradual integration with traditional ASP.Net 2.0 web applications components (i.e. Master Pages, User Controls, and ASP.Net AJAX).

Documenting Coding Standards - Less is More

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:31:11 GMT

A colleague and I were recently invited to provide feedback on a client's coding standards and were sent a 60+ page document to review. In preparation for the meeting I diligently started to go through each section providing comments and suggestions as I went. But after about page 30 my concentration began to wane and my comments grew more and more sparse. The moral of this story... If someone that's being paid to review your coding standards is struggling to get through them then you can bet your bottom dollar your development team won't be reading them either. This post reflects on the things to consider when documenting your company's standards.

WCF Simplified to a Single Diagram

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:27:45 GMT

Anyone learning WCF for the first time will quickly become bewildered by the array of new terms and concepts they have to get their heads around. As part of a presentation I did recently I produced a single diagram that helps gain a quick overview of these terms and how they relate to one another. Check it out.

Foundations of Programming - Learning Application

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:46:10 GMT

If you're anything like me, you probably learn a lot better by going through code rather than reading books. I'm happy to release the Foundations of Programming Learning Application - it's a complete solution meant to show what was covered in the Foundations series.

So What's Your Personal (Developer) Brand?

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:46:02 GMT

I am increasingly being asked by members of my team how they can further themselves within the company. While this is certainly an option - and a popular one - it is not the only track to follow. You could choose to become a technical specialist, an architect or even a technical salesperson. But whatever path you choose to follow your ability to achieve it will be dependent on how you develop your own personal brand - in other words the way you portray yourself to others will directly reflect the opportunities that are presented to you.

Mocking the Linq To Sql DataContext

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:31:02 GMT

A generic solution to mocking the Linq To Sql DataContext and how you can test your linq queries against an in memory database.

An Open Letter to the ALT.NET Community

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:31:03 GMT

It seems as if everyone in .net land has chimed in on the whole Entity Framework "Vote Of No Confidence" petition recently, and up until now I have mostly stayed on the sidelines. As with any seemingly risky move, I was quite torn on the issue. And to a certain extent, I still am ...

Development Team Meetings - Keeping the Focus

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:40:54 GMT

Weekly team meetings are an essential part of any Development Team. Especially when team members are working on different projects and multiple locations. Keeping these meetings relevant and informative is crucial - people are busy and no-one wants their time wasted. I recently sent out an email expanding on the types of meetings we have and how people can participate - perhaps they will help your team when they get together.

How to get up to speed with Team Foundation Server

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:01:03 GMT

A collection of links about TFS, from evaluation to installation to customization and maintenance.

Don't be clever

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:01:03 GMT

How being clever can create headaches for you (later) and other team members.

Faster domain model development with schema round-tripping

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:01:02 GMT

Schema round-tripping is the ability for your domain model entities to be updated seamlessly when schema changes occur or, when your modify your model, for those changes to be propagated back to your database schema without any fuss. This article covers how to leverage schema round-tripping with LightSpeed 2.0's Visual Studio 2008 integrated domain design tool. This functionality is baked into every version, including the free express edition.

LightSpeed 2.0 Released

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:16:02 GMT

LightSpeed 2.0 has been released. It includes a full, round-tripping Visual Studio designer and support for LINQ!

Linq to SQL with WCF in a Multi Tiered Action - Part 2

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:01:02 GMT

Second Part of Sidar's multi tiered walkthrough with Linq and WCF - Presentation issues and Data Layer implementation covered, source code is available to download too.

CSS Adapter For ASP Wizard Control

Wed, 28 May 2008 08:42:16 GMT

Ever wanted to use the ASP Wizard control but couldn't bare the verbose (table based) rendering? Check this post out for a CSS adapter that will render the control using a CSS friendly div based layout.

How to wrap the ASP.NET session state

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:16:16 GMT

A handy C# code snippet for accessing ASP.net session state data. Exceptions are handled, usage is intuitive.

Eight Simple Tips To Improve Your Presentation Skills

Sun, 18 May 2008 20:46:02 GMT

Recently, a user group held a conference whose subject was Domain-Driven Design with nHibernate. Now, this is a really cool topic of discussion! So, I decided to attend the conference in order to improve my perspective and knowledge on the subject. Little did I know that the speaker was an introverted programmer who greatly lacked in public speaking skills. Many people, including myself, left early, as the presentation became unbearably tedious and awkward.

ALT.NET Podcast - Management Crisis!

Thu, 15 May 2008 07:16:05 GMT

The first ALT.NET Podcast discussed some interesting points but one stood out for me - apparently there is a Management Crisis. Read how this manager responds... crisis what crisis?