I've discovered an interesting source for essays in Paul Graham. I'm not sure what appeasl to me so much about his writing, I guess it's that he combines very technical topics (like programming and the like) with business and other almost philisophical topics. For example, his recent focus on comparing programmers to painters.
Paul has direct insight into startups - specifically technical startups - since he started a company in the very early Internet era and sold it to Yahoo! So he has serious understanding of the VC market and the pain of starting a company.
I've subscribed to the RSS feed for his essays and imagine I should buy his book Hackers & Painters.
It's sort of funny how the network of information works, especially now, when someone mentions something that takes you off in a whole new direction. For example, Paul made an offhanded remark about a web based application called BaseCamp. Well, I had to find out what that was all about. Turns out it's a web-based project management solution designed using an ASP model for sharing information in teams and with customers. It appeals to me on a variety of levels (there's a free option to try it out), but I'd love to see how others are using it to get a full flavor of its power.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
RSS Feeds
I'm starting to dabble a little in learning how to effectively use RSS news feed aggregation. RSS is a simple (it stands for really simple syndication) way for anyone to publish a listing of articles they want to allow others to poll regularly for updates.
I noticed a while back that the Wall Street Journal had RSS feeds for many of the sub-topics on the web site. But it didn't make sense not to just go to that site and read the news. Then I noticed Slashdot has RSS feeds. And now, as I'm tracking a blog or two I realize that's another way to capture updates is via RSS feeds from the blog.
The poblem is, no good application (like Outlook, for example) on my desktop to get it all in one place. There are applications and plug-ins, of course, but they cost money or have local installations that make it a pain to track both from work and home.
So, I found that Google has a newsreader online (http://reader.google.com/). Since I'm already using GMail. I don't need to sign-up or anything. Google knows me. So I start using it and love the user interface. It's web based, but uses very slick technology to make the movements within the page very smooth. It reloads content without reloading the whole page and makes using it feel a lot like a desktop applicaiton.
Only time will tell how much I actually use the Google Reader, but I think it will provide me with a good starting point as an aggregation of news that I want to keep up on.
I noticed a while back that the Wall Street Journal had RSS feeds for many of the sub-topics on the web site. But it didn't make sense not to just go to that site and read the news. Then I noticed Slashdot has RSS feeds. And now, as I'm tracking a blog or two I realize that's another way to capture updates is via RSS feeds from the blog.
The poblem is, no good application (like Outlook, for example) on my desktop to get it all in one place. There are applications and plug-ins, of course, but they cost money or have local installations that make it a pain to track both from work and home.
So, I found that Google has a newsreader online (http://reader.google.com/). Since I'm already using GMail. I don't need to sign-up or anything. Google knows me. So I start using it and love the user interface. It's web based, but uses very slick technology to make the movements within the page very smooth. It reloads content without reloading the whole page and makes using it feel a lot like a desktop applicaiton.
Only time will tell how much I actually use the Google Reader, but I think it will provide me with a good starting point as an aggregation of news that I want to keep up on.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Software Buildmaster
I'm doing some work on software builds, build automation and the like and looking for various resources to help identify best practices in build methodology. It's clear to me that tools integral to the job include:
I ran across a book called "Build Master, The: Microsoft's Software Configuration Management Best Practice" that I'm interested to find and read to see what it might tell me about tailoring build methodology (that largely seems to be targeted at the Java/C environment) to the .NET framework. I think the tools are mature enough (those that have leveraged the usage in Java) to fully utilize in the MS world.
Build automation in and of itself seems straightforward. However, the idea of getting the most out of build automation is something that could probably never be considered complete. For example, developing automated unit tests to run or good software design guidelines checking.
Integrated into this mix is the topic of configuration management. Some how these things are related in that we'd like to put a box around our software and make it a package that all works well together. This should include not only code we write, but also:
- NAnt (or Ant for Java)
- Cruise Control .NET (supported by ThoughtWorks)
- NUnit for automated unit testing
- Scripting languages like Perl or Python for source code manipulation
- Documentation tools like NDoc for automated documentation
- Source code analyzer tools like Project Analyzer (by Aivosto)
I ran across a book called "Build Master, The: Microsoft's Software Configuration Management Best Practice" that I'm interested to find and read to see what it might tell me about tailoring build methodology (that largely seems to be targeted at the Java/C environment) to the .NET framework. I think the tools are mature enough (those that have leveraged the usage in Java) to fully utilize in the MS world.
Build automation in and of itself seems straightforward. However, the idea of getting the most out of build automation is something that could probably never be considered complete. For example, developing automated unit tests to run or good software design guidelines checking.
Integrated into this mix is the topic of configuration management. Some how these things are related in that we'd like to put a box around our software and make it a package that all works well together. This should include not only code we write, but also:
- Database Schema
- Third party dependencies
- Framework dependencies
- Operating system dependencies
- What else?
Monday, November 21, 2005
Back in Business
Back in business. Ok, so it's was a two post start to my blog. Then nothing. For three years. But now I'm back. And, hopefully I'll be more active.
I find myself reading a lot lately. A variety of books. Maybe I'll try and write some book reviews to make it interesting.
"21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" by John Maxwell
I enjoyed this book very much. It was a concise description of many of the things I've identified as strengths (or weaknesses) of leaders over time. It did a good job at capturing the idea, outlining it, giving examples and discussing how to develop the particular strength in yourself. I would recommend it for anyone interested in leadership either as a personal growth path.
I find myself reading a lot lately. A variety of books. Maybe I'll try and write some book reviews to make it interesting.
"21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" by John Maxwell
I enjoyed this book very much. It was a concise description of many of the things I've identified as strengths (or weaknesses) of leaders over time. It did a good job at capturing the idea, outlining it, giving examples and discussing how to develop the particular strength in yourself. I would recommend it for anyone interested in leadership either as a personal growth path.