My Only Resolutions
Boy, am I the worst blogger of all time. Look at that last post date.... But I guess that's just an occupational hazard for Your Working Boy. Too much coding, not enough blogging.
Still, with the New Year I've been taking stock of my priorities and I've determined that I really should make a legitimate go of keeping up with my blog. So I'm making that one of my very few resolutions this year. And here we are, which brings me to my next resolution...
I need to strongly re-focus my energy towards "outside learning". Up until last year, I had always made a concerted effort at keeping up with industry trends, both techological and business-oriented. I devoured several trade rags a month, worked through two or more software development books at a time, attended seminars and user group meetings. But I've been sucked in by that most dangerous of forces: career inertia.
I've grown dependent on my job to deliver learning opportunities. The problem is, it isn't. And actually, the problem is manifold, because of the intensely slow adoption curve here, and because of the poor implenmentation of whatever new technology does actually get picked up.
My primary target, and the critical gap in my experience right now, is ASP.NET. While I am extremely comfortable with the C# language and the VS.NET dev environment and its related build/deployment issues, I am still almost a complete newbie when it comes to ASP.NET.
So, with the Internet as my witness, I hereby pledge to get off my expanding seat and dive back into the fray, keeping up with my trench-level views of the industry in general, and making more commentary on some technology specifics.
You'll hold me to that pledge, right?
Welcome Back, Working Boy!
Good to have you back on the blog. I look forward to future posts.
Dan
New Reading
Thanks, guys.
I've actually kept my sub to Software Developer going for some time, but I'm less than thrilled with them right now after finding out what they did to Alexa (see Edward's most recent post).
I just renewed MSDN, after letting it go almost a year ago. I find that most of the articles don't really apply to things that I do or even would do, but it's still usually good info. The problem is that it tends to pile up very quickly.
But the really big move is that I just installed RSSBandit, and I intend to start tracking a lot more blogs, and to generally get on the RSS train. It seems that's where the best info is these days anyway.
Plus, I tend to prefer supporting independent voices (in whatever I'm interested in) and it seems like that's a more genuine way to do that than to worry more about published materials.
All that said, I'm open to suggestions!
Dr. Dobbs Is a Good One
Software Development is still good reading these days, though the influence of the giant media company that owns it is felt more and more every month (Alexa being only a recent case in point). I heard that a male columnist quit SD in protest also; I'm interested to learn who that is.
That said, I'm really enjoying another publication (which retains a very indie feel despite also being owned by CMP), Dr. Dobbs. They have the same free subscription deal that SD has, and it's sort of a yang to SD's yin. Whereas SD stays at a somewhat higher level, Dr. Dobbs gets way down in the weeds.
Welcome to the world of RSS! I predict that RSS will be your primary window to web content in a matter of weeks. I love it.
Dan
Dr. Dobbs = Bob Dobbs?
I've always wondered that...
Anyway, I have a subscription to Dr Dobbs now, but I usually find it just TOO detailed, and frequently out of my area of expertise. Which is not to say that I don't want to be challenged, or stay narrow-band w/r/t learning. It's more a question of cost/benefit ratio in reading the mag. It's thick, but it doesn't yield much useful info for me. Do you ever find that to be the case?
Still, it's free, so I renewed the last time it came up.
Less Relevant Technical Detail
Indeed, Dr. Dobb's Journal (using the proper spelling and full name, which I fudged earlier) does get technical at a low level on a variety of technologies, many of which are not relevant to me directly in my daily work. However, I've enjoyed reading them to the extent that they communicate something general, either explicitly, or as subtext.
For example, I recently read an article about a home-grown "TinyBasic" compiler that certainly has no direct bearing on my day job, but the article contained some cool stuff about language grammar and compiler design.
Dan
resolution to read
Andy: The personified Internet cannot hold you to your pledge, of course! But the readers here at dev*.* can at least encourage you with questions and comments.
So... What printed or online journals do you commit yourself to read?