RegEx - 30 Minutes tutorial

Check this out, it seems quite explanatory. I can only quote the author on this one:

The reality is that regular expressions aren't as complex as they look. The best
way to learn is to start writing and experimenting.

http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/RegexTutorial.asp

The right and wrong way to manage outsourced talent

As usual, the SitePoint guys are posting interesting articles. It is not only about the topics that match my point of interest, but it is also the thread of comments that these articles generate.

The current article represents something that interests all offshore involved guys, but not only. I am personally interested in this article because I was always curious on what is the opinion of IT professionals abroad on doing offshore business. How do they see “us” the offshore workers? How do they see the process of getting a project done offshore and what are their expectations or impressions on the quality of the work they received in case on an offshore contract…

The article here presents some main opinion and several contradictory comments from various people. Very interesting to follow up comments and thoughts.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/11/21/the-right-and-wrong-way-to-manage-outsourced-talent/

Good CSS Practices

There are several standards being enforced from all over the place but we have to recognize there are two strong players in the game, one is Mozilla and the http://www.w3.org community enforcing a set of rules they call standard and there are Microsoft guys that do whatever they like and we all call it a standard because the majority uses IE and obeys to their rules: users, developers.. all.

Still… we have to make a difference between the standard and the “best practices”, by standards we define specific usage of existing tags, structures, commands, methods, etc following up pre-defined rules. By “best practices” we understand ways of using existing items so you get what you want and even more with or without following up standards. This is a “best practices” article on some CSS tricks for Mozilla.

http://www.mozilla.org/xpfe/goodcss.html

P.S. Best viewed with Mozilla.

Should you spend more on technology or marketing?

Wow...

Now, this is a hard thing to read for a developer!

It is hard, especially for the ones that are involved in learning and understanding technologies, for the ones impassionate about new and excited by discovering and inventing.

But this is the truth, unfortunately: Marketing makes a difference. It doesn’t matter how new and cool and outstanding is a technology, how much money you got into building a project as long as nobody is buying that project. An uglier software solution, based on known technologies, freeware components and simplistic concepts, but with a good usability and great marketing will reach all over the market.

In order to sell a technical concept, you still have to do extra marketing effort, otherwise the high tech within your solution will always seem just an extra cost.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/11/19/should-you-spend-more-on-technology-or-marketing/

What's Wrong With This Code: Exceptions

I really like this type of articles, where the reader's mind is challenged to identify problems or figure out solutions. My believe (and not only mine) is that human mind learns only if challenged with problems, only if it is forced to face dilemmas and to come up with solutions for problems in a given time period.

But this article is not about that, it is a technical code tip on Java / C# type of structures / coding style, related to the usage of “exceptions” and code performance. The challenge is to figure out what is wrong with the code…

http://www.devsource.com/article2/0,1759,1882578,00.asp?kc=DSRSS04029TX1K0000651

The above article is the second one in the “What's Wrong With This Code” type of articles by the same author. The first one is interesting, too:

http://www.devsource.com/article2/0,1759,1835510,00.asp

I hope I will see more of these articles showing up on same website or anywhere else.

Defining a Build

I initially thought it would be an article about the Configuration Management and technical notes about “building sources” but it is about the entire development process, focused on the quality of the source being delivered.

I like to read about `other people's` way of doing things, other methodologies and having a critical analysis: identify possible flaws, but also being surprised with better ideas.

http://www.codeguru.com/Cpp/sample_chapter/article.php/c10981

Quick SQL tip

Constructing Strings of Repeated Characters in T-SQL

http://www.devx.com/tips/Tip/29849?trk=DXRSS_WEBDEV

IT Guru

Reading this article made me understand a couple of things. I knew several items described in here, but some of them were surprisingly justified, maybe just by being organized and grouped.

It makes you understand the difference between working on a salary, working as a consultant (by hour) and becoming a guru. Actually it gives a few advices (more like definitions) about how to become a guru in IT. Short and straight to the point.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/11/17/from-consultant-to-guru/

Google launched: Google Base

Every time there it is a Google Launch I HAVE to read about it and test it. There it is no way to skip it and that is because I am always impressed and because most of their tools become part of my life as soon as they get lauched.

What is "Google Base"? It is, as usuall, a simple, obvious and very usefull tool. It is a place where you can upload information directly into Google. Information has Attributes with values, Labels and Description... Why is this a good thing? Just think about it... Google just transformed itself into a huge database where anyone can post anything as information... What is that? Well that is THE INTERNET. Google is becoming "The Internet". Am I paranoic? I am not.. because I have no problem with Google becoming the internet.

Here's an article about it:
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/47394.html

And here it is the link to it:
http://base.google.com

(Complete) Tutorial to Understand IEEE Floating-Point Errors

If you are trying to build some complex math functions in C#, using various data types and trying to keep a very good precision on those numbers... well... good luck!

There are several things to consider, probable several articles to read. Here it is one that explains why this code:

item1# = 69.82#
item2# = 69.20# + 0.62#
IF item1# = item2# then print "Equality!"

will NOT print "Equality!", in other words 69.82# not equal with 69.20# + 0.62#

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q42980/

Thank you Laur for another revealing article...

Some more interesting IT articles

First one is about "taking a break" within a project and effectively giving yourself the time to analyze where are you ate, how is progress, where are you going… For the ESD guys, this is a version of the "5 Questions" Methodology :-) ... just presented by someone else.
Thank you Mihai for the link:

http://management.itmanagersjournal.com/article.pl?sid=05/11/10/1730203&from=rss

Second one is talking about "training" your users, getting things done the right way so you avoid problems, so you prepare the user for the things he is NOT supposed to do. It is written from the point of view of customer support / configuration management, but it has several "deep" true remarks about users.. like:

They're just as happy to not see you as you are to not have to see them.

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/secu/article.php/3563976

Top 10 Must-Have Features in O/R Mapping Tools

What is O/R Mapping and why do I need a tool for this? The article is a technical article, talking about code-generators that create business structures starting with the low - database level, up to classes and interfaces. Here's how the author invites us on reading the article:

If you're developing an object-oriented application that requires a
relational database, you'll need to develop persistence objects that are modeled
against your database design and know how to interact with different tables in
the database. You can either develop these objects by hand or use an O/R mapping
tool to map and generate them quickly. Hopefully, after reading this article,
you'll be convinced that developing by hand is a bad idea in most
situations.

Read the full article here (click)

Some of you might even enjoy this :-)

ASP.NET 2.0 QuickStart Tutorial

Do you still wonder what ASP.NET 2.0 (just launched) does look like?
Several good things, better environment, more controls.. etc

Here are two "official" links about it. One is a tutorial:

http://beta.asp.net/QuickStart/default.aspx

and the other one is a "Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition Guided Tour" :

http://www.asp.net/GuidedTour/default.aspx

I think that, if you didn't look over these already they will provide new (and some of it quite exciting) information.

P.S. Here's another link that offers some FREE Special E-Learning Offers. I didn't check them but they might be worthy:

https://www.microsoftelearning.com/visualstudio2005/

IT Job Market Continues to Grow

Good news?

Many companies are being forced to pull talented people from other companies...
They're luring them in with better salaries and the age-old attraction for tech
professionals -- the opportunity to work on the latest technologies or
high-impact projects

Hmmm... where ?

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/career/article.php/3563281

SQL Server 2005: I Said Be Cautious, Not Petrified

This is not just some feedback on SQL, but it actually states what was the “statement” on Microsoft product updates for the last couple of years or more: “It is an evolution, but let’s wait and update only if needed” Something like: let’s update when MS will cut out the support or when a real need in our systems will force us to update. Nothing extraordinary, nothing to make a difference.

The article points some good MS SQL Server 2005 elements and it is actually a follow up to a more negative article by the same author.
Interesting to see what the author considers as good news on SQL Server 2005

Opinion: SQL Server 2005 is a significant release, but from a business
standpoint there is no need to rush to it.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1885992,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000608

Re: Motivating Employees: What Do They Really Want?

As a comment to the blog item named “Motivating Employees: What Do They Really Want?” and posted on 11/03/2005, I received the following link:

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=173403018&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_ITcareer

I find it very well documented and interesting. Thank you Tibi. I bet it interest all of you programmers, especially if I post the subtitle of the article:

As the IT-job market improves, employers need to revise pay, benefits, and workplace policies to ensure their most valuable people don't leave
It describes type of “benefits” supplied by the employer and top reasons why not to leave an IT Company, it also describes top reasons employees are looking for other jobs… everything documented with statistical data.

My problem is that it is not us that have to read these type of articles, but the employer. We can read , agree and forward the message.

What's going to be New in C# 3.0

C# 2.0 Was released. What next? What else is to add to the history of C?

They will always come up with something new and they will make sure you need that "something". If there's nothing else to be added, they will invent, they will create new trends and... even worse, they will reduce support for old "ways" of doing things, they will add things that are so cool but supported only by the new features that you cannot afford to update, to learn more..

Still, something is great about adding on new and new features: you can achieve better things faster, and if you learn them you just become better than the programmer that doesn't know them yet :-)

Click Here for a brief of what's next...

Making Your Software Lovable

This is an important article for anyone involved in software development: programmers and quality assurance and others… It describes the basic elements to be considered if you want your software to be “loved” by the users. Of course there it is much more that what’s presented here, but these are the most obvious rules and have to be followed all the time.
- Make A Good First Impression
- Keep It Simple
- Be Nice to the User
- Write Real Documentation
Warning: This does not make the software a good one :-) it just makes users “like” it. If the software also does the job well, then, and only then - you are in business.

http://www.devsource.com/article2/0,1895,1880672,00.asp

Why eBay Bought Skype

Ouch... Hard but interesting article.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2005/10/25.html

Build an XML-based Tree Control with JavaScript

Learn XML!

Can’t survive without it these days.

Here’s one of my favourite articles that lets you create a complete tree menu based on an XML file with basic programming knowlegde, just by skinning up the XML using XSL and JavaScript.

http://www.devx.com/getHelpOn/Article/11874/0/page/1

About Conditional Comments

One of the most common operations performed in a Web page is to detect the browser type and version. This article focuses on conditional comments, which offer an alternative to scripted browser detection.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/ccomment_ovw.asp

Googlewashing

Search engines based on “hits count” and “ratings” had a great impact on almost everything goes on in IT these days. Most of the comments related to search engines are positive, but as we can see from this article there can be downsides.

Even if you are the author of some article, some other website that quotes that article can show up as the first result when using search...

Click Here for the full article

Programmers' Pay Way Up, but Confidence Down

What are the trends in programmer jobs these days? Is IT industry back on track?

The following article presents a curious fact: even if programmers’ jobs get paid better and better, the overall confidence of programmers in their job and position is falling.

They want people with not only specific skills, but specific
experiences.

''The more specific you get, the smaller and smaller the pool is of people you
want to interview,'' says Foote. ''In the old days, they'd say they want five
years of Oracle and some Web services experience. When you say you want that
experience applied in the financial services industry, the smaller the pool of
people who can fill that need. That's when it starts becoming a supply issue.''

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/career/article.php/3561131

If It's Not Easy, Users Don't

Keep it simple! Do not add extraordinary things; just make it a little bit more easy for the user to perform actions and, if possible a little nicer.

Change only by removing not used features or by adding small but effective usability changes. Think “user” and make it so things “just happen”.

Opinion: Successful systems add new function to processes that users
already understand.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1879803,00.asp?kc=CZRSS03129TX1K0000612

Free Oracle Database Edition - MySQL Days over ?

Oracle just launched an absolutely free database version. It received nice reviews and it was accepted as “good for business”. Oracle also offers lots of PHP & Java support, so it all looks good.

It seems Oracle improved their Installation Process with this Oracle version so it becomes not so difficult to get it running and use it for a PHP application.

I don’t know about you, but I am wondering about MySQL’s future right now...

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/11/01/oracle-10g-xe-and-php/

.NET 2.0, VS2005, SQL2005 Available

Here we go:

.NET 2.0 Framework http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/downloads/updates/

Visual Studio 2005 (only MSDN subscribers) http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/

SQL Server 2005 (only MSDN subscribers) http://msdn.microsoft.com/SQL/2005/

Bulletproof Web Design Contracts

For the ones looking into freelancing web design careers: some advices in this article.

For the rest of us: get some hints on handling clients when involved in a project: how to look for in a specifications document, what to request out of a "deal" with the client.

Even if it sounds kind of tyrannical, some statements got me thinking. Here's one: "

About six or seven revisions later, I began to wonder if the brochure would ever
be finished. I learned my lesson early, so when I began developing Websites, I
clearly stipulated the number of revisions and haven't had a problem since.

"

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/bulletproof-web-design-contract

THE STRONGER PROJECT MANAGER WINS!

What makes you a good Project Manager? There re so many things I’ve read and much more I’ve learned by myself… you know… the hard way.

Here’s a good (even long) article on Project Manager personal personality and behavior. I have to warn you, though: this is an article that is focused on “getting the job done” - type – of – manager, it does not talk about a perfect manager, about negotiations or handling human resources by knowing their weak and strong points, etc… The article is focused on one thing: the “fight” you have to carry on when you are a Project Manager and the skills that you should have (or that you should “educate” yourself into) in order to sustain this fight and win it.

http://www.allpm.com/print.php?sid=1377

Motivating Employees: What Do They Really Want?

Oh, c'mon... What do you really want out of your job? The answer will vary as percentage but will be one of these:
- Personal satisfactions as rank/position growth, technical skills improved, power, ...
- Nice working place and all that it comes with it as team, environment, benefits, ...
- Cash, Bonuses, Car, Phone, Paid Vacation, etc...

What else ...

It is not about ONE of these, it is about each individual's needs and personality and it is about colaboration.

Nice article here:

http://hodu.com/blog/2005/05/motivating-employees-what-do-they.html