Everyone has an opinion. When you embark upon your first real job as a programmer you will find this out very quickly. I have found that software developers can be some of the most opinionated and dogmatic people you will ever meet. This certainly is not a bad thing. However, young programmers will need to cultivate the ability to make their own minds ......

---

I read two blog posts recently that got me to thinking. The first is a post entitled Programming Isn't Fun Anymore by Eric Allman. The second is a response to the first by Dean Wampler called Programming can be fun again. These brought the question to my mind as to whether or not new and young programmers are missing out on some of the fun parts of ......

---

Yes, I was. Recently, I’ve taken a good hard look at JavaScript. I’ve used it before but mostly in the capacity of web design. Using JQuery to make your web page do cool stuff is different than really creating a JavaScript application using all of the language constructs. What I’m finding as I use it more is that I may have been wrong about my assumptions ......

---

I recently began feeling like it was time for a change. I have been programming in C# for about a year and so I felt the urge to learn something new. So I went to the library and checked out a book on Ruby programming. I chose Programming Ruby 1.9 written by Dave Thomas and part of The Pragmatic Programmers series. I figured I might as well document ......

---

Something that took me a while to learn is how to be balanced when deciding on how to architect an application. Since at my current job I was thrown into a hybrid Architect/Developer position due to the small size of the company and my team, I didn’t really have any experience with doing it. After almost a year at it I decided to look back and see what ......

---

Yeah, you read that right. I may be weird, but I do think that unit testing is fun. It is also very important. I didn’t know much about Unit testing when I came out of school. I think colleges need to have a class dedicated to it. But anyway, I didn’t do much of it at my previous job since I was developing the Siebel CRM. Since Siebel is an Oracle product, ......

---

If you are a developer, you will encounter countless problems in your career. As a developer, problem solving is what you do. Still, some may try to shy away from problems in order to make their lives easier. I say do not, especially if you are a new developer or are learning a new technology. Learn to embrace problems as they come along. I am not simply ......

---

A lesson I learned while building a module in the custom ERP I am working on at my job: build the UI the way you would want it to be built. What do I mean by this? I’ll explain by sharing my experience. There was a piece of the application that had a textbox that the user used to enter a client number. They then click the Search button to bring back ......

---

I found a blog post by Davy Brion (one of my favorite bloggers on the ‘net) that spoke about the .NET world’s current state. He mentioned that Microsoft’s products (such as WebMatrix and LightSwitch) are mainly geared toward what he calls “low-end” developers. At the same time, Microsoft is backing off on other products that more experienced and seasoned ......

---

Welcome to my blog! This is my first blog, so I’m learning as I go. I’m excited though. Let’s get started with some background on me. I started down the IT road as a QA tester for a large financial firm. At the time I was in the middle of getting my BS degree and wanted to get my hands dirty a bit. So I moved to a developer role in the same company. ......

---