Can't Grok, Won't Grok

I have just read a blog post (will keep the link to myself I think – I don’t want to offend the writer) that seems to me a real problem with a lot of what I see coming down the RSS tubes to be fed in to my brain. People pick good topics to write about. But how often do they write something that makes us think differently, question what we do, help us to improve our skills/craft? The article I am referring to was actually discussing dirty/smelly code . It did a great job in identifying some common code smells, but did little to actually give insight in how to rectify them. I have approached this before (the topic of discussion in the article in fact) with a question of mine on StackOverflow *. In this question I asked “what are code smells?” and importantly “ how do we fix them? ”. * This has actually turned out to be my most popular question! Otherwise, what do we have? We have a lot of people on teh Interwebs going “ this is bad! this is bad! ”. Well duh! We know! Tell u...

So, there is often lots of talk about SoA and SaaS within the geek community. They are great ways to build reusable, malleable frameworks and provide functionality to people, great. But I can’t help but feel that even with all of these acronyms and buzzwords that we are sometimes missing the point. Software, regardless of design is about providing a service. This may be a humble “beep” to let people know something has happened, to keeping people connected and communicating, to maintaining a life support machine to keep someone alive! As developers, we should never forget this core purpose. Think about the application, what it is going used for and what it could be used for. The “could” is important, as this sparks innovation. You may be able to write a Facebook clone, but can you make it better ? I like to think of it like this. You go in to a store, you want to purchase that awesome new Christmas sweater you have seen, you get to the store and are horrified that they are ...

ASP.NET Debugging with VS2008 at the Dallas ASP.NET UG – A look at various debugging tools available to the ASP.NET developer. Development Using Singletons Safely - @Mendelt talks about not how to create this popular pattern, but rather how to use it safely – something often missed in other guides. 50 Extremely Useful and Powerful CSS Tools – LONG article (was trying to read on my Xda!) but covers a LOT of good tools. Very good resource. Experimental Study about TDD – From the people at Channel9 , Nachi Nagappan talks about the good/bad sides of TDD, based on metrics (not had a chance to watch this myself yet, but it looks like it may be interesting). Design and Testability – Good article with some good links about how design and testability do not always go hand-in-hand, but design and test-focused development (TDD/BDD/ATDD etc.) can reap some great rewards. TDD Does Not Mean “Test First” – Great article on testing approach. Only just found Sarah’s blog , che...

ASP.NET Oxite, ASP.NET MVC-based Blog – Video from the peeps at Channel9 and some code they put together :) 3 New Hands-On Virtual Labs for ASP.NET – Covering ASP.NET AJAX 3.5 SP1, Developing ASP.NET Dynamic Data and Introduction to ASP.NET MVC . How to create nested master pages in VS2008? – Title says it all :) Community New Firefox extension turns Amazon.com into illegal free-for-all – Dubbed “Pirates of the Amazon”, while inappropriate I thought it was an interesting concept (certainly sparked some discussion for me on Twitter ). Sadly, it has already hit the rocks . 40 Ways to deliver killer blog content – as always, Chris Brogan offers good advice, I need to take a lot of this on board. Twitter needs two Channels – Chris Brogan brings another good article about making Twitter a more useful platform/system for all concerned. Don’t be afraid of people better than you - @SaraJChipps writes a good article on why we should deal with the fact some people ...

I never got the chance to post yesterday, so there may be a double-whammy today! GTD & Lifehacking Solid State Drive: Enhance developers' productivity – Good article that has got me seriously thinking about upgrading my primary drive to a SSD.. Productive Brain Exercises? – Good list of mental exercises to help keep the old noggin fresh. Google Reader – Square is the new round – VERY INTERESTING – Look at the interface Google now seem to have taken on compared to the previously linked Helvetireader .. Development List of talks now up on C# in Depth site – Jon Skeet, the man, the legend has posted links to his talks on the C# in Depth site. Book: Coding4Fun, 1st Edition – Another book that popped up on the Safari radar. Looks like it may be good for those looking to get more creative and have some fun with code in their spare time (without too much digging!). Design Expression Webcasts – Series of webcasts on MSDN for Microsoft Expression . Designing...

I’ve been having some interesting discussions with some work colleagues of late. The general theme was “ are we happy with what we are doing? ”. Now, I do not want to speak badly of my employer, they pay me money which allows me to do things that I want to do. However, there is a general feeling of upset at this time as we have been through a rough project, and the current outlook it that it is not going to improve in a hurry. I personally just take it as a challenge, I am not the sort of person to let something bother me for too long before doing anything about it, so I don’t let things like this phase me (other than my initial rants!). I responded to the question with: I love what I do, I just don’t like the way I am/we are doing it. The thing is, while walking home from work, this really sparked some brain activity, because I was lying . Recently, I have NOT been loving it! I have been fed up going in to the office, and this was rubbing off on ME and my outlook . I g...

So, while reading @Mendelt ’s blog post I thought “What the hell” let’s see what this site thinks of my blog (and my brain).. ISTP - The Mechanics The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts. The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters. Interesting results.. Anyone who knows me will know I wanted to be in the Royal Marines (before it all fell through due to medical reasons). I am also a little bit passionate about what I do (as people on my twitter network will probably tell you!). You also get a nice image of your brain: Which is...

I have been giving my blog some thought lately, I’ve been really busy with both study and work - I really can’t wait to have my studies done next year so I can do more of what I want to do! Like most geeks, I read a lot of information each day using RSS in my reader (I use Google Reader ). Some of this does nothing for me, others spark a large amount of interest. The sad thing is, at this point in time I rarely have a chance to follow up on it and play with my thoughts but I cant help but feel I need to at least get something down, anything! Even if I don’t get a chance to play with it myself, I can at least possibly spark interest for other people who can. So I decided to start “Can’t Link, Won’t Link”. This will give me the opportunity to share any links I find that may be of interest, with a small summary of my thoughts on it. Hopefully, this will spark some interest your end, and will also serve as a repository and public reference point for some of my ideas (which may la...