Technical and Developer Podcasts Worth Listening To

A fellow member of the IE .Net User Group asked me what podcasts I listened to.  He expressed taht there are so many it’s hard to sift through what is actually good quality, both in content and actual production.  Some podcasts are great sound quality, however have very little content that is worth while.  In contrast, some podcasts have great content, but are so hard to hear or are of such poor audio quality that it is really frustrating to ferret out what they are actually talking about.

Here’s the list I usually listen from:

The two I listen to the most and are of very high quality (both in production and content) are .Net Rocks (http://www.dotnetrocks.com/) and Hansel Minutes (http://www.hanselminutes.com/).  Both can be subscribed to via iTunes.

ASP.Net Podcast (http://aspnetpodcast.com/CS11/) is another one I will listen to if they have a good topic but the quality is pretty lousy so they have to have someone really good for me to bother.

If you’re interested in good podcasts that aren’t necessarily just .Net development, but all around technology check out TWIT: http://twit.tv/.  I haven’t listened to them in a while but they are all very high quality (Leo Laporte, the main host, has been in radio for 30 years) and they have a lot of very good content.  Almost anything technical you’d want, other than .Net development, is covered by one show or another.  Here are just a few that I’ve listened to (not in any particular order):

  • net@night is a good all around what’s happening in tech this week.  A little more of a social bent but a lot of good info and a very open topic of conversation.
  • The Tech Guy is Leo’s actual call-in radio show helping users.  Lots of good general information on anything tech, but probably more for the general consumer.
  • Security Now is a good in depth security podcast.  I think that Steve Gibson is a little too proud of himself but the actual knowledge and explanations of complicated subjects are quite good.
  • MacBreak Weekly is a really great podcast if you are a Mac guy or have Mac friends.  It’s funny and has wonderful content. 
  • TWiT (This Week in Tech) is a very good open discussion podcast with a few regular experts.  Really interesting with the different viewpoints given.  Very good listening.
  • FLOSS Weekly is an complete open source driven podcast.  Usually on things Linux and such but on fairly broad open source projects that do appear in the Windows world.  Very good interviews, however, despite the name it is not weekly.

I don’t listen to every edition of these podcasts, only those that are actually interesting.

If you come across any others that you like let me know!

Baaaaad User!

I’m in the process of installing ArcGIS Server 9.3 and moving all our GIS data over to ArcSDE.  It’s been 6 months since the last ESRI UC so most of the time I’m reading over docs trying to remember all that I learned.

 

Anyway, our data is now in SDE.

 

I attempted to publish a locator service to the web.  Here’s what I got:

clip_image002

Baaaaad login user!  No, no!

I’m getting scolded by GIS!

Verifying code with Pex

I’m a very TDD yourself type guy. I don’t like generated tests, which totally conflicts with the first D in TDD, Test Driven Development.

 

Anyway, Maarten Balliauw had a really nice short post on using Pex

 

Stealing from Maarten’s post, here’s an abstract from a recent session on Pex:

“Pex is an automated white box testing tool for .NET. Pex systematically tries to cover every reachable branch in a program by monitoring execution traces, and using a constraint solver to produce new test cases with different behavior. Pex can be applied to any existing .NET assembly without any pre-existing test suite. Pex will try to find counterexamples for all assertion statements in the code. Pex can be guided by hand-written parameterized unit tests, which are API usage scenarios with assertions. The result of the analysis is a test suite which can be persisted as unit tests in source code. The generated unit tests integrate with Visual Studio Team Test as well as other test frameworks. By construction, Pex produces small unit test suites with high code and assertion coverage, and reported failures always come with a test case that reproduces the issue. At Microsoft, this technique has proven highly effective in testing even an extremely well-tested component.”

 

In the simple example Maarten used he showed how Pex may be a great tool to run after your TDD tests are finished just to possibly catch any edge cases you missed. 

 

However, make sure you refactor after including any code Pex suggested.  In Maarten’s post the last check ( if(length < 0)) is never entered because it is included in the check by Pex ( if (length < 0 || current.Length < length)).  This entire block can be removed.  It’s not harmful in anyway, but can be a little confusing and should be cleaned up.  ReSharper probably would catch it.

 

I’m going to have to give Pex a try!

Budget cuts for schools, what to do?

My wife just sent me an email from her Moms Club.  One of the mothers is a teacher at a local district and sent a request for suggestions to all the members of the club.  Apparently her district, in light of the budget crisis in California, is forming a committee of community members and is soliciting applicants or simply suggestions from local individuals.  This is basically a search for ideas from the community on how to save costs and improve schools.

I thought this was great.  As an employee of the Val Verde Unified School District and a father of 2 (soon to be three!) I am very interested in what happens to the state of our schools.

Simply put there is no money.  So, I won’t get on a soapbox and demand that education doesn’t get cut. That’s simply not realistic.

I am the poster child for doing too much with too little time, but this may be one committee I’ll look into being a part of.

Here are some of the suggestions I sent back with the email.  If any of you have some thoughts on these, for or against, or some other additions yourselves feel free to chime in. 

Thanks!


I’m really excited that the district is looking outside for public suggestions.  This is great.  Usually districts (including ours) think they have all the answers.  I always hear people saying "they waste too much money doing X.  If they just did Y it would be better and cheaper."  It would be great to get these ideas into actual consideration and action.

I would say the first two high priority issues for me are class sizes (I.e. keeping teachers) and class days.  At work this morning we talked about the thought of closing the schools for 5 days.  It sounds like David heard some news that this may not happen.  It wasn’t entirely thought through (it really was just one of the suggestions) and there may not be any real savings in it (and a whole lot of opposition!)

So that brings me down to the one priority of class sizes.  Simply put, there isn’t enough money right now to keep that many teachers on staff or pay for the cost of physically having a school open (electricity, custodians, etc).  So, if teachers are to be kept and building are to remain open you have to find MAJOR savings elsewhere.

As a technologist there are several low cost solutions that I can think of that would replace some more expensive practices that are in place right now.  I’d like to see these explored.  It would be a great way to save money with little loss of quality.

Here’s just a bullet point of ideas I have.  Again, most of them are on technology but there are a few others in here.  For the technology ideas I would extremely encourage seeking the assistance of the IT staff or a knowledgeable person.  Some inexpensive and flashy solutions that are getting a lot of press late just aren’t ready for the market yet or simply do not save money.  The ideas I present below are simply suggestions and may or may not fit all situations.

  • Alternatives to SMART Boards
    SMART boards are very popular, and extremely costly.  A project started by a student (Jonny Lee) at Carnegie Mellon allows you to use the wireless controller for the Nintendo Wii and a projector in place of SMART Boards or similar technology.  If you already have a projector and a computer (many classrooms have these) the cost is ~$50.  Very comparable to a Smart board and in some ways better.
    Here is a video talking about the Wiimote whiteboard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ
    Here is the project webpage: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/
    Here is a comparison (by a school) comparing this solution to smart boards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSDxc2kFjms
  • Alternatives to new computers
    Everyone wants computers in their child’s classroom.  This can be very costly.  Fortunately technology is incredibly powerful these days and most school applications don’t need state-of-the-art computer systems.  This has created a market where schools (and other organizations) can purchase high quality computers that are slightly used for as little as $100 each.  Computers coming off of 1 or 2 year leases are called "off lease" computers.  Some companies do extremely intensive work and constantly need to purchase high-end new computers for their employees.  This creates a large market of quality computers that are only 1 or 2 years old.  At Val Verde we commonly purchase these types of computers.  There are some pros and cons to this but largely getting computers for $100 has been a real cost savings and has allowed us to purchase many more computers than we normally would have been able to.  Just make sure to go with a reputable vendor who has several hundred in bulk (rather than your local small business getting rid of 2 or 3).  This way the vendor can easily guarantee the machines and replace any that may fail to work.
  • Laser printers instead of Ink-Jet
    Do not buy ink-jet printers.  This seems counter intuitive for some people since they are very cheap and in some cases free.  However, you spend a fortune on ink and they often breakdown much more often with paper jams, dried up ink, broken plastic parts, etc.  They are pretty much considered disposable these days.  When you have 25 students in a classroom this can be quite a lot of abuse for a home type ink-jet printer.  These have become a black hole for expenses.
    Instead purchase inexpensive but economical laser printers.  These often cost more initially but their toner lasts much longer, thus being much less expensive in the long run.  They are also usually intended for businesses and as a result can withstand much more use.
  • Classroom supplies
    Basic supplies like paper, pencils, pens, crayons, rulers, notebooks, etc can be quite costly.  It’s fallen on the teachers themselves to personally pay for any supplies they cannot get from their district.  I say it would be great for the teacher to have a fundraiser in their own classroom every so often, such as during back to school night.  If each parent would donate as little as $5 (maybe like sponsoring their child :)) in a class size of 25 students this would create $125 for supplies .  That’s not a whole lot but if you shop at warehouse stores like Costco or discount stores you can purchase a huge amount of supplies for very cheaply.  $100 at Costco goes a really long way in their office supply section.
    If you have the ability to make use of a computerized whiteboard, such as my first bullet point, then you can cut way down on any "presentation" supplies such as dry erase markers, chalk, etc.  The teachers and students can easily use the computerized whiteboard without any consumable costs.
  • Textbooks
    I’m not sure about all schools but our high schools (and many others near us) have gone to the point of purchasing 2 textbooks for every student.  This is so that one textbook stays in the classroom and the other permanently goes home with the child.  With the amount of textbooks kids need these days and the removal of lockers at some sites this was a solution so that kids wouldn’t have to lug around books or forget them at home.  Unfortunately this effectively almost doubles your textbook costs.  I had to lug around books when I went to school.  I think most of us did.  At high school we used our lockers (normal or PE) and cars to stash books between classes.  When finances become real slim I think this is a solution to a problem that doesn’t take priority. 
    Even more encouraging is many of the textbook publishers now offer the entire textbook as an Adobe Acrobat file.  Many students in our area come from low income households and may not have access to a computer.  However, there are a majority of students who do have a computer or some other device such as an iPod Touch, iPhone, Palm Pilot, etc that can read PDF files.  They can take advantage of having their entire textbook in an electronic form.  Purchasing only one textbook per student would be a great cost savings while still offering the ability for most students to have multiple electronic copies.  With the ability to search, index, cross-reference the book in Acrobat Reader, along with no torn pages or defacement from a previous student I wish electronic versions were available when I was a student!
  • Music/Art
    We were just talking about this in my department this morning.  It’s most likely that music will be cut entirely across our whole elementary level.  This is very sad and will obviously be protested by many music lovers.  But I won’t join them on my soapbox because there is no money.  That’s it, plain and simple.  The question is what are we going to do about it (besides demanding money that isn’t there)?
    There are three experienced musicians in our department (that IS unusual) but I was thinking there are probably several dozen in a decent sized district.  If it’s possible and can be worked with administration I think it would be a great idea if staff could volunteer their time.  Yes, it would be unpaid and have to be worked into your schedule.  But I think it would be great to keep our music programs running if a few people would adopt the program at their site.  They could take a few hours out of their week, or work out some sharing program where maybe they only took one hour out of the week.  Then they could run the music class at the elementary level.  This would require a basic knowledge about music and working with kids.  For the most part you are working with beginners so you wouldn’t have to be a well seasoned music instructor, just someone who liked working with kids and could teach music fundamentals.  This may be an economical way to keep the program going in these hard times. 
    This same idea could be applied to any of the "creative" areas that are in danger of being cut.
    When I was in elementary school we had one parent who was really creative and also knew how to play guitar.  She would come to our school entirely on her own time and visit classrooms on Fridays for a half an hour.  During that time we either learned songs, music fundamentals like clapping rhythms or basic notes, would work on various art projects, etc.  It was all volunteer and unfunded but was a great time that I remember.

Those are just a few suggestions off the top of my head.  I’m sure there are many other people here that have wonderful ideas in many different areas.  I am encouraged that this district is looking for suggestions like this and may be considering putting some of them into action.


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World’s first flying car prepares for take-off

Check this out:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article5489287.ece?print=yes

I think an idea like this is a bit far off yet.  Sure, the technology and physical product may be ready fairly soon, but I doubt the FAA is ready to let any person just jump in the air flying over buildings and roads.  If I run out of gas right now I coast to the side of the road.  You run out of gas in one of these things and you may be wishing you topped off before you left for the last time. 🙂

However, think of what the world would be like without traffic?  I live in the Inland Empire (southern California) and commonly travel to Orange County and Los Angeles.  The only three freeways between the IE and OC/LA are the 91, 60 and 10, which are 3 of the highest traffic freeways in the country.  If I could fly from my house to OC and avoid the entire freeway system it would make the commute a thing of pleasure rather than frustration.

It is set to list at $200k.  Maybe to pay for it I’d initially shuttle business execs from IE to OC/LA.  Get to work in 30 minutes!  Just $50 a trip! 🙂

Let’s see, supposed I did 3 runs in the morning and three in the evening.  That’s $300 per day.  5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, that would be 75,000 a year.  After overhead for gas I could have it paid off in 5 years. :)  Of course, it may cost $1 million a year just for insurance.

In all seriousness though think of what transportation would be like if these really did take off (no pun intended).

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Computer geeks learn to flirt

Just saw this great article from Reuters (via Yahoo News):

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090109/od_nm/us_flirting_odd_1/print


BERLIN (Reuters) – Even the most quirky of computer nerds can learn to flirt with finesse thanks to a new "flirting course" being offered to budding IT engineers at Potsdam University south of Berlin.

The 440 students enrolled in the master’s degree course will learn how to write flirtatious text messages and emails, impress people at parties and cope with rejection.

Philip von Senftleben, an author and radio presenter who will teach the course, summed up his job as teaching how to "get someone else’s heart beating fast while yours stays calm."

The course, which starts next Monday, is part of the social skills section of the IT course and is designed to ease entry into the world of work. Students also learn body language, public-speaking, stress management and presentation skills.

"We want to prepare our students with the social skills needed to succeed both in their private life and their work life," said Hans-Joachim Allgaier, a spokesman for the institute at Potsdam University where the course is being offered.

(Writing by Anna Brooke; Editing by Nick Vinocur)


In all seriousness this is a great idea.  It’s really a class on social skills in the work place.  I’ve never seen this in any of my courses in technology at college and some of my fellow students severely needed them.  If you’re going to get ahead any place you work the ability to be comfortable talking with peers, management, customers, giving presentations, etc is a required skill.  It’s nice to see some institutions are addressing this area.

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Multiple Displays on a Laptop

Two of the main reasons why I’ve never switched to a laptop as my main platform is performance and multiple display support.

 

With today’s laptop performance is almost nil.  The cost compared to desktops is almost trivial and the performance a laptop can offer these days is absolutely incredible.  Unless I am a performance nut, such as someone working in film or audio editing and you need quad-core processors, four hard drives and 8 GB of ram a laptop can usually fit all your needs these days.  If you’re a gamer they even have laptops with SLI on board (although these are still fairly expensive).

 

However, multiple displays has always kept me back.  I love my dual 20” displays.  I also don’t want a 17” screen on my laptop.  The whole point of a laptop to me is portability.  When I go to a presentation or a conference I don’t want to lug around a 12 pound machine and then fight for chair space when I try and open the behemoth in the audience.  So I want a lightweight laptop with a 15.4” screen.  That causes a problem when I’m home at my desk.

 

In the last few months USD-DVI cables have started coming out and the performance is pretty amazing.  Here’s a company allowing you to run three simultaneous displays as 1600×1200.  After a firmware update coming out in the near future you’ll get even more performance and resolution.  Amazing!

 

Check it out:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/usb-dvi-lcd-display,6777.html

Back to Postin’!

It’s been a while since I wrote a blog post.  The problem is I see a lot of cool little things and think, oh, everyone’s probably seen this already, and never post about it.  Well, that will change.  Not everyone has seen everything and my co-workers and I share lots of great links and such about cool things we find.  So I’ll start posting this stuff.  If nothing else, it should make a fun set of links for people to check out.