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Sunday, July 13, 2008 11:07 PM

Toastmasters? What for? I’m a developer…

Toastmasters? What for? I’m a developer… Excellent idea. If you are at all uncomfortable doing presentations I'd strongly suggest Toastmasters.
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Sunday, July 06, 2008 10:16 PM

Controllers and Doers

"So, it's my belief that the people working in IT fall into two broad categories (with occasional cross-over and hybrids). " Controllers and Doers An interesting blog posting. And where do I fit in? Well, in the past I've most definitely...
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Monday, June 30, 2008 12:06 AM

Silly, silly HP printer driver software

Ok, so this is a bit of a rant. On my slightly older laptop I turned it on so a family member could use it to print some airplane tickets. Well, I didn't have my latest printer installed on it so I copied the 300 or so Mb printer driver from my main...
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008 7:06 PM

Ensure the user can update the data

"One judge, however, accidentally punched in a mark of 8.7 instead of 9.7. While the mistake was immediately admitted, officials refused to change Fréchette's official score and the champion swimmer was relegated to second place. " Canada's...
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Saturday, June 07, 2008 3:07 PM

Deploy! Deploy! Deploy!

"It was the calm before the storm. Brokers were sitting at their desks in silence, watching the clock." ... Deploy! Deploy! Deploy! (Very nice attention grabber the initial paragraphs.) Why you should always do some testing especially of core...
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Tuesday, June 03, 2008 1:30 PM

Data belongs in your tables -- not in your code

Duane Hookum, fellow Access MVP, posted a link to a very useful blog posting - Data belongs in your tables -- not in your code . One of my #1 mottos is "When in doubt add more tables." A corollary is "and add more fields."
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Sunday, June 01, 2008 8:13 PM

Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen

TED Talks: Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen . Fascinating content as well as superb animations of numbers. At about the 16 minute mark note his display of boring columns of numbers. Contrast that with...
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Sunday, April 27, 2008 7:59 PM

Fixed prices for IT projects are unethical

Fixed prices for IT projects are unethical is an blog posting with a provocative title. It in turn links to Why Fixed Bids Are Bad for Clients . That article explains quite well my philosophy of doing software development for clients. I start delivering...
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Sunday, April 20, 2008 5:08 PM

The Truth About IT Consultants: Some are great but most are not.

The Truth About IT Consultants: Some are great but most are not. in particular, read the second paragraph about American LaFrance, a respected manufacturer of fire engines.
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Thursday, March 27, 2008 9:49 PM

Revisiting The Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering

Revisiting The Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering An excellent summary of the pitfalls. That sounds like a very interesting book that I should read Real Soon Now (TM Jerry Pournelle). However I disagree with point 30. I'm using the best platform...
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Friday, March 07, 2008 9:47 PM

CodeSOD: Pretty Simple

CodeSOD: Pretty Simple - A horror story on how not to do things. If'n I was the CIO I'd normalize that table ASAP and rework the system.
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Saturday, March 01, 2008 6:29 PM

What Does “Sold Out” Actually Mean?

What Does “Sold Out” Actually Mean? "You’ve probably heard that next week’s MIX08 conference in Las Vegas is sold out. But do you know what that actually means? Does it mean that we decided months ago to cap registrations at an arbitrary number of...
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008 6:26 PM

How Do You Find Programming Superstars?

A very interesting SlashDot discussion - How Do You Find Programming Superstars? However they really need to do a better job with their comment posting software. It's confusing at best.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008 9:13 PM

The value of work

An interesting parable The value of work So someone has a brilliant, to them, idea and wants you to develop the software. Who should own the software? The idea guy or the person who spent months developing it? I've had people approach me with interesting...
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Monday, December 24, 2007 12:25 PM

Write a list and check it twice

A very interesting post on relating drastically reducing hospital infections and smooth code check ins. Write a list and check it twice . Now how does this apply to us Access folks? I'm not quite sure. I do testing as I add new features to Access...
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Thursday, December 20, 2007 6:51 PM

Microsoft Terminology: PM (Program Manager)

I felt this was an interesting blog posting as this helps clear up some Microsoft terminology. My understanding is that sometimes one PM works with a developer and a tester. By the way a PM doesn't program and doesn't manage. What Program Manager...
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Friday, December 07, 2007 5:02 PM

Sharing The Customer's Pain

Sharing The Customer's Pain - An excellent posting explaining why developers, and their management, should spend a day or two every year doing software phone support. Or sit with their customers for a few hours and really, really listen.
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Saturday, December 01, 2007 1:50 PM

Defining tables and fields

I do not have a university degree or college certificate. I learned to build databases by doing. There are the various normal forms, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. But sheesh some of the terms used are not intuitive. To me it comes down to even simpler rules. And...
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Monday, November 26, 2007 10:02 PM

The Two Types of Programmers

The Two Types of Programmers I hope a good mix of both are reading my blog.
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Sunday, November 18, 2007 5:47 PM

Software quality at 10,000 feet

There are a number of rather interesting problems mentioned in the blog entry. "An interesting issue with system integration causes all seat power(electronic controls on the seat as well as reading lights) to be off-line until the [entertainment...
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