Education the Arcane Way

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you will know I’m a fan of podcasts. They are an opportunity to learn with what Tony Robbins refers to as NET time (No Extra Time). I listen while driving, shopping, cutting the grass, or doing other activities that don’t otherwise involve heavy use of my ears.

One of the complaints I often hear though, when I recommend podcasts as an educational opportunity is “I can’t afford an iPod”. Well, iPod’s are nice, but I don’t have one either. There are other brands, but they can be a bit overpriced from some stores.

So, you want something to play MP3s, but don’t want to shell out big bucks. E-bay is a bit scary, because you don’t know if that seller is really being upfront about that item. As an alternative then, may I suggest keeping an eye on Woot?

What’s Woot you ask? Well Woot ( http://www.woot.com ) has “one deal a day” (although often times they have more deals, if they sell out early). Of late, they have had a huge flood of MP3 players.

Last week on “2fer Tuesday” my wife bought TWO 512 meg MP3 players for 15 bucks. Of course, they were bright pink, but since they were for my daughters that was perfect. Just today they were selling a SanDisk player, 1 gig ram, for 25 dollars. It’s probably a refurb, but since it comes with a new warrenty and Woot has good customer service, you’re not risking anything.

My point is, even if you are a poor, struggling type, you can afford one of these cheap players (even if some of them *are* pink, ugh). Skip that movie rental, pack a lunch a few days, whatever. Getting one of these along with a set of rechargeable batteries will allow you to take advantage all these great educational opportunities, which will pay you back in spades.

Now, I’m sure some will point out that 512 meg or 1 gig is not a lot of ram. You’re right it’s not. But even a small 256 meg player will get you by. Remember, you’re not trying to store your music library on these, you want to load a few podcasts to listen to on the way to and from work, or while exercising.

In looking over my latest MP3 downloads, it looks like 40 meg is about the average size of an hour long podcast at decent quality. That’s 12 shows for a 512 meg player, or 12 hours which should be more than enough even if you listen all day long. Even the 256 meg unit would give 6 hours, plenty even for a long commute plus an hour work out. Then just reload each evening. Most units simply look to the PC like a USB drive, so they should work with any type of OS, such as XP, Vista, Ubuntu, or OS-X (Apple).

A word of safety, most places outlaw driving with headphones on. If you want to use yours on the road stop and pick up a cable to plug it into your car stereos AUX port, or if it has a cassette player you can also use a cassette adapter.

Keep an eye out, and one day you’ll be able to snag your own Woot deal, and be able to take advantage of your NET time to get an education.

If you are looking for a list of podcasts, be sure to check out my Arcane Links page (https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/arcane-links/ ) in the Netcasts area, or my post from August 23^rd of last year (https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2006/08/23/ ).

Standard Disclaimer: I have no financial affiliation with Woot, other than having spent a bunch of my hard earned cash there.

Arcane Fun Fridays – Step away from the keyboard

It’s been a long week, so I thought today I’d share a little link love, and point you to some of the sites I like to visit when I want to relax.

One of my hobbies is digital photography. I’m on my fifth digital camera (or maybe sixth, I’ve lost count). It’s a Nikon Digital SLR, the D-80. My favorite thing to take photos of is architecture, especially old buildings, and especially old abandoned buildings. There’s something about the effects of nature assaulting a building that just fascinates me.

The site that got me started is called Hours of Darkness ( http://www.hoursofdarkness.com/ ). The site specializes in both night photography and photographing abandoned things like buildings, cars, airplanes and the like.

Another site I love is Opacity ( http://www.opacity.us/ ). This site also focuses on the exploration of abandoned places. The site owner, Mr. Motts does some excellent photoshopping to create some stunning effects. Both Opacity and Hours of Darkness have very active forums, and a lot of great photos can be found there so be sure not to miss the forums on either site.

A few more sites I frequent with the same themes are Art In Ruins ( http://www.artinruins.com/index.php ), Bleeding Shutter ( http://www.bleedingshutter.com/main.php ), and Urban Desertion ( http://www.urbandesertion.com/ ).

When I’m looking for a deal, I check out Woot. http://www.woot.com/ . They only sell one thing at a time, but it’s usually a good deal. Earlier this week I bought a wireless network card for an old laptop I plan to convert to a Linux machine. (Don’t worry, I already checked, it does have drivers.) Even if you are not interested in the deals, the write ups are a riot, some will leave you in stitches.

When I’m in the mood for a podcast, something educational but having nothing to do with computers, I listen to Astronomy Cast at http://www.astronomycast.com/ . Good show, lets me relax and at the same time learn a little something.

When I need a good laugh, I really enjoy the on-line comic, Being Five ( http://beingfive.blogspot.com/ ).

And finally, when I really need a good laugh or a meaningful story, I read the blog of my own sweet wife. You can find the Southern Tinkerbelle at http://southerntinkerbelle.com .

Arcane Holiday

Today in the US we are celebrating Memorial Day, where we remember all of the soldiers who fell in battle. So let me first start by thanking the families and those men who sacrificed themselves for the greater good.

In keeping with the holiday theme, I thought I’d take a brief holiday from the Windows Services series and catch up on a few things.

First, there’s been an update to my favorite Windows add-on, TouchCursor. The new version fixes the issue I mentioned with Virtual PC’s. The only issue since I’ve run across is in using it with Visual Studio and DevExpress CodeRush add-in. CodeRush also wants to use the spacebar for activation. However, I was able to easily change the activation key from CodeRush to something else, and problem was solved. Check it out at http://touchcursor.com/ or see my initial review at http://shrinkster.com/pf4 .

Next, about a week ago I mentioned some great music to program to by a group called Midnight Syndicate. Shortly after posting I found out the Haunted Voices Radio podcast did an entire weekend of Midnight Syndicate, including playing their music and complete interviews. Check out Haunted Voices Radio at http://www.hauntedvoicesradio.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=6 or http://shrinkster.com/pf2 . Each banner ad is to a separate MP3 (the weekend was broken up into 2 hour chunks for easy downloads). I believe there are 17 in all.

Finally I have to confess to a guilty pleasure. I recently received a gift certificate to a book store, and used it to purchase “Windows Developer Power Tools” by James Avery and Jim Holmes. (Amazon link: http://shrinkster.com/pf5 )

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know I’m a “tool freak”, I love add-ins and tools for Windows and Visual Studio. As such I’ve been wanting this book for a while, but since I’ve already got a huge stack of books I’m still reading through I was having problems justifying yet another book. The gift certificate gave me just the opportunity I needed to get this cool new book. At over 1200 pages it’s chock full of toys, can’t wait to dig in!

Arcane Music to Program By

Most of us aren’t lucky enough to have a private office. Instead we are condemned to cubical life, often with noisy co-workers nearby. Coding, serious deep coding, requires intense concentration with a minimum of distraction. Thus a really good pair of headphones (preferably noise canceling) and some good tunes are a necessity of life.

When I’m really trying to get into the “zone” I find audio with words too distracting. Some jazz is nice, but often winds up being more relaxing than stimulating. For those times when I really need to get the code flowing I fire up something orchestral, like a movie soundtrack. Anything by John Williams or Danny Elfman is great. But for those times where I really need to crank out the code, I turn to my Midnight Syndicate collection.

I once heard Midnight Syndicate (http://www.midnightsyndicate.com) described as a group that writes “gothic horror soundtracks to movies that were never made”. Their music is an eerie, spooky, haunting, but most of all it really gets my creative juices flowing. It’s intense, without being too intense and burning you out.

I guess the description isn’t as accurate as it once was, since there are several films due for release in the near future they will be scoring, namely “The Rage” (http://www.theragefilm.com/) and “Sin-Jin Smyth” (http://www.sin-jinsmyth.com/).

A third film, “The Dead Matter” (http://www.thedeadmatter.com/) is being written and directed by Edward Douglas, half of the Midnight Syndicate. Gavin Goszka, the other half of Midnight Syndicate will serve as musical director and together they will create the soundtrack. If the title seems familiar, it’s actually going to be a remake of the 1996 version of “The Dead Matter” which Douglas directed, scored and produced.

I didn’t mean to turn this into a film and music review, I was just listening to my collection while sitting here on my back deck and working on this week’s posts, and decided to toss in a bonus post for the week.

If you are curious, head over to their website and click on “The Music” link over on the right. They list each album, and there’s a “listen to tracks’ link which takes you to their MySpace account where you can get a sampling from their albums. “Gates of Delirium” is probably my favorite, but “The 13^th Hour” runs a close second.

Now, get back to work.

Standard disclaimer: I have no financial affiliation with Midnight Syndicate or Entity Productions, other than being a customer. I receive no consideration of any kind for this mention. I just think it’s some awesome music and wanted to share.

Arcane Fun Friday

Just thought I’d share a bit of fun today, I’ve found a cool website called InterfaceLIFT. (http://interfacelift.com/). It has wallpapers, icons, themes, etc to enhance your system. You can specify the size of wallpapers, and it includes sizes for the oddball laptop screens like mine, 1440×900. If you are looking for a way to spice up your install, or just get a few really nice looking wallpapers, this is a great resource, and even works with Vista!

Arcane Recommendation: Coding Horror

I’m on the road again, so sporadic posts this week, but wanted to recommend something to you. I’m a big fan of Jeff Atwood’s Coding Horror site, http://www.codinghorror.com. Jeff has some really great insights into the coding process.

Recently Jeff was a guest on a great podcast, Dot Net Rocks. May I suggest it’d be well worth your time to listen to episode 232 (http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=232)? Jeff has some great insights, and some great lines as well. I intend to expound on a few of these, so consider this a little “homework” for my upcoming post.

Arcane Software: TouchCursor – For us keyboard geeks!

I hate to sound like an advertisement, but I recently found some software that absolutely rocks and I just have to share. I have to confess that I’m a “keyboard freak”. I hate having to take my hands off the keyboard, so much so that I bought a Lenovo keyboard with the touchpoint mouse cursor to use on my desktop, just like what you’d find on an IBM Thinkpad.

Now I’ve found some software that even further reduces the number of times I have to move my hands away from the home position to reach for those awkward keys, such as the cursor keys. It’s called TouchCursor, available at http://touchcursor.com.

What they do is use your space bar like another shift / ctrl / alt key. They then combine the space bar with the letter keys to emulate the odd keys like cursor, page up, etc. For example, space bar + I moves up one line. Space bar + K moves back down, space bar + J moves left, and so on. Here’s the default mapping (graphic courtesy of their site):

This is wonderful stuff, no longer do I have to move my hands off the “home” position to move the cursor around. And even better, the software is completely configurable. I can change the key combos to anything I want, and even add new ones. It also works perfectly with existing key combos like ctrl, shift, and alt. For example, SHIFT + SPACEBAR + L is the same as SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW.

Now, you may think “well what if I have that odd program it doesn’t work right with?” No problem, the software allows you to turn off the functionality for specific applications. For example, I found it behaving a bit oddly with Virtual PC sessions (probably had something to do with both the guest and host OS wanting to look at the keyboard), so I disabled it for Virtual PC and just run it inside the VPC guest. Or you can take the reverse tactic, and only enable it for certain apps.

It really looks like they have thought of everything, all the little tweaks you might want to do with the software are available for you to do. I’ve been testing this with both Vista and XP and it works great on both platforms.

TouchCursor is shareware, you can download a copy and try it out for 30 days with no nag screens or any other crippling feature. The cost is only 20 US Dollars though, well worth the investment (I just sent in my 20!). For your money you get tech support, lifetime upgrades and permission to run on all of your computers. Not to mention the good feeling of helping out a worthwhile product. All that for 20 bucks? Count me in.

This is a really creative solution for increasing productivity at the keyboard. Rarely do I fall in love with a piece of code, but this product has made my very short list of “must have won’t operate a computer without it” software. I highly recommend trying it out, and using it for the full 30 days. It does take a little getting used to, but once you get the hang of it you won’t want to operate a keyboard without it!

Standard disclaimer: I have no financial affiliation with Rare Pebble Software, the folks who make Touch Cursor, other than being a customer. I receive no consideration of any kind for this mention. I just think it’s some awesome software and wanted to share.

PS Sorry for no post yesterday, it was a business travel day and I got home much later than I anticipated.

Arcane Thoughts: Honorable Mentions

In reflecting on Friday’s post, I realized there are a few people who I consider “heroes” in the tech world, but aren’t programmers (or at least it’s not what they are primarily known for). I thought they deserved a mention, hence today’s post.

Leo Laporte

You may remember Leo from the MSNBC, then TechTV channels doing shows like Call for Help and The Screen Savers. Today Leo runs the successful TWIT Podcast network (http://twit.tv), producing many helpful shows on the state of the tech industry. His relaxed but informative style is a pleasure to listen to.

Patrick Norton

Patrick was Leo’s co-host on The Screen Savers. This guy knows hardware. Today he still has a TV show, only you can download it and watch it at your leisure. At DL.TV (http://dl.tv/) Patrick, with co-host Robert Herron puts out a bi-weekly show reminiscent of the Screen Saver days. They look at the latest tech, answer viewer questions, and provide useful info.

Steve Gibson

What a treasure Steve is. Each week he and Leo have a show on the TWIT network called Security Now (http://www.twit.tv/SN). I have learned so much about the way networks work, ways to secure your computer against attacks, each week it’s like attending a doctorate level course in networking and security.

If his name sounds familiar, Steve is the same Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation (http://www.grc.com), the guys who do Sheild’s Up (for testing your computer’s security) and SpinRite, the disk recovery tool.

And there you go, a few guys who deserve a mention for their contributions to the tech community.

Arcane Thoughts: Programming Heroes

When Jeff Atwood was on DotNetRocks recently, he mentioned his programming heroes. It got me to thinking back on some of my own heroes, and thought what the heck. So if you’ll indulge me as I head down memory lane…

My Dad

I guess my earliest hero was my own dad, Ron. He brought home a TRS-80 Model 1 when I was around 12. He wrote a little Star Wars game on it (all ASCII graphics) in BASIC. His downfall was letting me, an clueless kid and geek in the making get his hands on a 2000 dollar (US) computer to play the game.

And not just that, but letting me go in and look at the source! I wound up having more fun tinkering with the source code than playing the game. Primarily I hacked it to make it harder for my sister to win. 😉 But it set me down the path of software development, and so for being crazy enough to let a 12 year old kid put his hands on one of the earliest of the home computers, Dad makes my first coding hero.

Mark Westbrook

I mention Mark’s full name in hopes he’ll find this and give me a shout out. I knew Mark when we lived in southeast Alabama together, he was the first guy I ever met who was really passionate about programming. He ate, sleep, and drank computers. His house was just a place to keep his computer, an IBM PCjr.

Mark was the guy who reinforced my belief in software as a craft, an art form, and not just a 9 to 5 job. To say he was an enthusiast was something of an understatement.

Ethan Winer

For those who don’t remember Ethan (http://www.ethanwiner.com/index.htm), you may recall his company Crescent Software. Crescent made all sorts of really cool libraries to work with QuickBasic. His stuff rocked, and made it possible to do really serious (and cool) things with QuickBasic. I remember writing several TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) programs with one of his libraries.

Dan Appleman

Most people include Dan Appleman because of his Win32 API book for VB Coders, but for me it was his book “Developing ActiveX Components With Visual Basic 5.0: A Guide to the Perplexed” which put him into the hero category. It was after reading this book I felt like I’d turned the corner into true understanding of a lot of the guts behind VB and COM.

Carl Franklin

Back in the early days of VB there was one place to go for all your really good VB Tips: Carl & Gary’s. My memory is a little foggy, but about the time I found the site Gary took a sabbatical and Carl picked up the bulk of the work. (I don’t have anything against Gary, he just wasn’t around.) At any rate, I learned so much and got so many cool coding tidbits Carl makes the list as one of my early heroes.

Dan Fox

Dan Fox wrote a book called Pure Visual Basic (http://shrinkster.com/opa), back in the VB6 days. This was a great book, because it contained everything you needed to know to write professional level applications. It was great both for teaching and as a reference.

I used it to teach a series of VB6 classes that started at the basics and went all the way through to advanced topics, and for the entire series Dan’s book was all I needed. At work, I used it as a reference to look up the “how to” for those things I didn’t do on a daily basis.

Bill Vaughn

No list would be complete without the original database Hitchhiker, William R. “Bill” Vaughn. His books over the years have taught me and many others the ins and outs of programming against the database, primarily SQL Server. His early works combined with his current (and fabulous) version of the Hitchhiker guide and SQL Server Compact Edition E-Book make Bill a hero, and a good transition from my early heroes to my current ones.

Deborah Kurata

Much like Bill, Deborah has been around a little while writing books since the VB5 days. She has turned out many books on objects, and still continues with one of my favorites, her “Best Kept Secrets of .Net’ book (http://shrinkster.com/oph). I’ve also heard her speak at conferences, and was impressed with her depth of knowledge and instructional capability.

Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell

Carl gets to make the list twice, this time with his cohort Richard Campbell. Their work on Dot Net Rocks (http://www.dotnetrocks.com) has taught me an incredible amount on the .Net world. I also have to get shout outs to Rory Blyth and Mark Dunn, Carl’s earlier co-hosts, as I’ve been working through the older shows. When I started listening though, Richard had taken the co-host helm.

Through the podcasts I’ve been exposed to so much good info, and gotten to do it while stuck in traffic or stopping at my local grocery store. Great job guys!

Mark Miller

My final, and most current coding hero is Developer Express’ head of developer tools, Mark Miller. I first saw Mark at VSLive in Orlando. He wasn’t just enjoying himself, he was excited about writing code. Not since my old friend, the afore mentioned Mark Westbrook have I seen anyone that passionate about writing code! (Maybe it’s something about the name Mark?)

His presentation was also one of the more useful I’ve ever seen, it was on practical ways to measure the user experience. Measuring the number of twips a mouse had to move to click various user elements, for example.

After the show I went and watched him at the DevExpress booth, and wound up standing for an hour watching Mark and his coworker (can’t recall if it was Julian or Dustin, sorry) interact with the crowd.

Again, Mark’s enthusiasm continued, you could tell he was thrilled to be there demoing CodeRush and cranking out code. It was his enthusiasm that rekindled my own tech interests, and led me down my current career path. I became inspired to start blogging, and speaking at code camps and user groups.

And there you go

There’s my list, starting in my youth and working toward today. I thank you for indulging me in my trip down memory lane, and hope it brought up some fond memories for you as well. As for tomorrow’s heroes, who knows? Maybe it’ll be you.

Arcane Review: Don’t Make Me Think

I just completed Steve Krug’s classic “Don’t Make Me Think!” book on web usability. (http://shrinkster.com/onw to see it on Amazon.) This was actually his second edition, published in 2005, a follow up from the original done in 2000.

I thought this was a nice fit with an earlier book I read called “Why Software Sucks” (see my review at http://shrinkster.com/onx). In “Why Software Sucks” the author concentrated on bad web sites / software, what was wrong, and how you could demand it become better.

In contrast, Steve Krug looks primarily at good, well designed sites (although he does throw in a few bad ones for comparison purposes). “Don’t Make Me Think” is written from the developer’s point of view, and shows what works. More importantly, Krug explains why a particular design works. That kind of insight was well worth the cover price alone.

But even better, Krug covers the concept of usability testing, and explains how you can do usability testing on your own website at little cost (or even no cost if you have a few friends and family members you can victimize!). If the insights I mentioned previously weren’t worth the cost then this one chapter alone, with it’s scripts and suggestions, certainly justify it.

Finally, this book was a quick, enjoyable read. Right around 200 pages and many, many illustrations made this a fast book. Steve Krug’s humor and writing style made it an enjoyable way to spend an evening or two, and I even managed to learn something in the process.

Standard disclaimer, I make no money off sales of the book, yada yada yada. Just thought it was a good read.

The New Yankee Programmer

I don’t watch much TV. By “watch” I mean step away from the computer and turn on the big screen and stare at it without interruptions. By “much” I mean 3.5 hours a week. 1.5 hours is basically one long show, the This Old House / Ask This Old House / New Yankee Workshop block my local PBS station shows on Saturday afternoon. (Although thanks to my DVR it’s usually Saturday night when I watch.)

Of the three I think The New Yankee Workshop is probably my favorite. For those unfamiliar with the show, each week master carpenter Norm Abram takes on a new wood working project that is both beautiful and functional. Some of the things he says though lead me to believe that Norm Abram would make a great programmer.

“…as you can see in the prototype…”

Norm starts every episode with a prototype piece. He uses it to work out the kinks of the project he’s building. He refers to the prototype while he builds the main project, shows you what he did. How much better could your programming project be if you created a prototype before starting your main project.

“…this stain really makes the details pop out…”

Norm understands that so many times it’s the small details that make the difference in the success of your project. I can’t tell you the number of times I go use an app and try to tab to the next field and instead my cursor jumps elsewhere. Small oversights like not setting correct tab order can really make an impact on how your application is perceived.

“…while the glue dries, I’ll work on the lower half…”

Norm’s great at multitasking. When he gets to a point where he has to stop working on something, he has something else ready for his attention. How often have you gotten stuck, waiting on a DBA to make a change, or someone to supply critical information? Always have a backup plan, something else you are ready to work on while you wait.

“…for now I’ll just dry fit these pieces…”

Frequently during the project development Norm will fit the pieces together, without glue, just to be sure they are going to fit together. In the software world this clearly parallels the concept of continuous integration. Check in your code regularly, do daily (if not more often) builds to make sure everything will fit together.

“…here in my well equipped workshop.”

Norm has tools. A lot of tools. He’s got a huge drawer with nothing but routers! The point is, he uses the right tool for the job. Make sure your coding toolbox is well equipped. I don’t know any .Net coder who can use just Visual Studio to get his job done. Check out add-ins, third party components, etc. to make sure your toolbox is full.

“…we’ll make the cut using our home made jig.”

When Norm can’t buy the tool he needs, he builds it. Over the years he’s shown how to build many types of jigs in his workshop. If you can’t find an add-in or control that does what you want, build your own. Take time to learn how to write macros, Visual Studio Add-Ins, or your own reusable controls and code libraries. Like Norm you’ll use these tools over and over.

“Be sure to read, understand and follow the safety instructions that come with your power tools…”

Norm starts each show with the classic warning to be careful. Visual Studio is one of, if not the most powerful programming tools around. Take some time to learn how to use it. Spend an afternoon and go through all the menus. Use online help to look up the commands you aren’t familiar with. You’ll save yourself a lot of effort by investing a few minutes in learning the commands available to you.

“And remember, there’s no more important safety rule than to wear these, safety glasses.”

Norm reminds us each week of the importance of safety. While I’m not likely to cut off a finger or poke out an eye using a mouse, it is important to remember to use your computer safely. Take breaks about once an hour. Get up and move around. Save your eyes, look up from your monitor, glance out a window. Flex your hands, move them around.

I don’t know how many times I’ve been doing some heads down coding, not realizing 3 hours had flown by until I took that sip of cold coffee (yuck!). Not good though, my back gets stiff and eyes get tired. Listen to Norm, wear your safety glasses.

Norm Abrams, New Yankee Programmer

Each week Norm uses his creative skills to craft a beautiful, yet functional item out of wood. As developers, we (hopefully) craft (and I do think coding is a craft) beautiful yet functional applications for people to use. Norm would have made a great programmer. I’m just glad he sticks to wood working, I don’t think I could handle the competition.

Arcane Thoughts: Tips for Daily Blogging

Last Thursday I wrote a post on The Benefits of Blogging, which has turned out to be quite popular. One of the comments mentioned how easily you can become overwhelmed trying to create posts daily. I thought I might share a few of the tips that I’ve picked up to make life easier.

Use tools

I use a variety of tools to create my blog. My first pass is done in Microsoft Word. By using an editor I can keep copies of my blog posts locally, should something happen with my blog. (Backups are always a good thing.)

I then use a posting tool to help with the pushing of my entry to the site. Currently I’m using Microsoft Live Writer Beta (http://get.live.com/betas/writer_betas). I cut and paste what I’ve done in Word over to it, and add in embellishments such as graphics or additional HTML. I can swap back and forth between presentation view and html easily.

To do my graphics I use two tools, WinSnap and Paint.Net. I’ve already blogged about WinSnap (http://shrinkster.com/oif), and you can get Paint.Net at http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html. Both of these are free tools.

Finally, if you plan to paste Visual Studio code samples into your blog, an indispensible tool is the “Copy As Html” add-in. I’ve blogged about this as well at http://shrinkster.com/oig.

Write in advance

Using the tools above also allows me to write my articles in advance. Often I’ll pick one or two evenings a week or a quiet Sunday afternoon, and write several articles at once, then post them as each day arrives.

This allows me to take a little bit of the daily stress off, as I don’t have to worry about a post every day. Second, it allows me to write a series of posts much more coherently. You can break large subjects up over multiple days, which means you avoid posts that are too big and won’t overwhelm either your readers or yourself.

Obviously there are times or blogs who are not suited to this. Daily tech news sites, for example. But for most of us, having a week or so worth of posts ready to go is a reasonable balance to achieve.

Write Now. And Later!

Another benefit to writing in advance is that it gives you time to review what you’ve done. You can write the post, then walk away for a bit, several hours at least if not days. Once you’ve had that break, you can come back and re-read what you’ve created. Make sure it still makes sense.

There have been many times I’ve gone back and revised entries I’d written several days earlier, prior to posting. I think it only makes your writing stronger when you can have a break so you can look at your creation with fresh eyes.

Use a Reviewer

When I’ve written something I’m not sure about, or have an especially long piece I want checked for accuracy and consistency, I will ask one of my co-workers or on-line friends to act as a reviewer or editor. I’ll e-mail them the post, and let them make comments. I’ll then incorporate their feedback into the post.

It’s important though to select someone who you have a good relationship with, someone who will give you honest feedback. One way to get good feedback is to use a technique I picked up in Toastmasters: Ask the person what three areas could use improvement, and what three areas did you get right. People aren’t so reluctant to criticize when they know they will also be able to say something positive.

It’s also important to pick someone who is knowledgeable enough about the subject to be able to provide worthwhile feedback. I recently did a series on SQL Server Compact Edition in C#. A coworker, who is good with C# and SQL Server but new to SQL Server Compact Edition, was a great choice to act as a reviewer. In contrast my lovely wife, who is good with computers but doesn’t know a thing about C# or SQL Server, would not have been able to provide the quality of feedback I needed.

Use Illustrations

While not every post is a good fit for a graphic of some sort, many can benefit by having a simple picture or code snippet included. These are pleasing to the eye of the reader. Be careful not to make them so big they dominate the page though, unless you actually need them to (such as in a ‘step by step’ set of instructions).

Use Categories (Tags)

Most blogging tools I know of allow you to add tags or categories to your posts. Use them! And don’t be afraid to use a lot of them, you never know how your readers will need to find the information you are providing.

Additionally, it makes it easier to help others who are interested in a particular topic. Remember the point I made about mentoring in my benefits article? I’ve been surprised at how many times I’ve said “just got to my blog and look at my posts under the XYZ category.”

Be Flexible

Sometimes you need to be able to change what you had originally planned to post. Perhaps some company makes a new announcement you feel the need to respond to. Or perhaps a comment on your blog inspires thought, such as this post. I originally had another post ready for today, but when I read a comment made last night inspiration struck, and this post came to life.

Set Reasonable Goals

My final piece of advice is to set a reasonable posting goal. For me, for various reasons one post per weekday seemed a reasonable goal. You will notice I don’t usually post on the weekends or holidays, to give myself some time off.

Your life though is not mine. You may find three times a week to be enough, or even just once a week. It’s important though to set a goal and stick with it, make it a commitment, just as if it were a job. Just be careful not to set your goal too high, or else you’ll wind up burning out and growing to hate or resent your own blog. Consistency though is the key, again select a goal and stick with it.

Well there you go, a few of the techniques I use that allow me to keep up the pace of daily blogging. Please feel free to leave a comment below with your own tips and tricks.

Arcane Thoughts: Benefits of Blogging

This week marks six months of serious blogging for me. Nearly every weekday I’ve tried to provide some new piece of information. A couple of important milestones have been achieved, as well. Last week this blog rolled over 50,000 hits, and also got its first day with over 1000 hits in a single day.

To celebrate I decided to give the blog a little face lift, and picked a new look. I thought all the blue looked somewhat Microsoftish. I also liked the 3 column look.

Over the past months I’ve been surprised, pleasantly, by some unexpected benefits to keeping up this blog. I thought I’d share some of them with you, should you decide to take the plunge.

Meet and Greet

Through the blog I’ve met some interesting new people, and it’s made a good tool for introducing myself to others.

Self Documenting

I’m sure you’ve heard the notion that well written source code is self documenting. Well this blog has let me document a lot of the things I’ve done in the past, so I can go back and reference it later. Not unlike a personal wiki.

Self Promotion

Like most folks I have an exaggerated sense of self importance. Blogging just reinforces my narcissistic streak and inflates my ego even further. Seriously, if you have an interest in writing, speaking, etc., a blog serves as an important tool in promoting your skills and desires to others.

Mentoring

I guess the biggest surprise has been the ability to use the blog as a mentoring tool. When someone asks a question, it’s been great to be able to say “oh yeah, I wrote a post about that on such and such date, go take a look”. A real time saver too, and it means I don’t overlook telling someone a critical piece of information.

Education

OK, I admit it, some days I’m just blocked. Not a clue what I want to write about. On those days I pull a book off the shelf, open to a random page, and read something. Try some code, and next thing you know I have a post, and I’ve managed to learn something new in the process.

Giving Back

Finally, but I think most importantly, blogging gives me a chance to give back. I’ve learned so much by reading the contributions of others, I feel an obligation to “pay it forward” (so to speak).

Well, what can I say? It’s been a lot of work, but a lot of fun as well, and quite an education to boot.. Thanks for the nice comments and the visits, I look forward to see what the future has in store.

Arcane Education: Alabama Code Camp IV

Yes, it’s spring time, when the flowers are in bloom, and a young man’s fancy turns to… .NET!

Alabama Code Camp IV is coming up quick, April 14th is just a few short weeks away. For those in the south-east, this one will be held in Mobile AL. See all the details at:

http://www.alabamacodecamp.com/

If this is anything like the previous ones it’ll be great, tons of great speakers and lots of good swag. If you have never been to Mobile before, there’s a lot to see and do. My family is coming along and we’re going to make a weekend of it.

Top on my list (after code camp of course) is seeing the USS Alabama (http://www.ussalabama.com/), a WW II Battleship. At the same location they have the USS Drum, a submarine, a B52, an A-12 Blackbird, and tons of other exhibits.

If battleships aren’t your thing, Mobile is loaded with opportunities, check out Yahoo’s top 16 list at http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2833565-mobile_things_to_do-i, or the Mobile city guide on AL.com (http://www.al.com/mobile/cityguide/index.ssf?attractions.html).

And for the beach goers, Orange Beach is right next door to Mobile (literally). Check out the fun in the Gulf of Mexico at http://www.gulfshores.com/things-to-do/attractions/.

So there you go, a whole day of geeky fun for you, and plenty of ways for the family to be out spending your money, oops I mean having fun while you are getting an education. Well, at least Code Camp is free!

So quit sitting on your duff and start making plans today!

Arcane Thoughts: Ze Frank’s Web

Ze Frank has had me thinking about the role of creativity on the web. A lot. There’s a great deal of talk about Web 1.0 versus Web 2.0. Certainly there are some compelling new technologies that some might consider falling into the 2.0 field, such as AJAX.

I don’t think Web 2.0 can be defined by technology though. I think it’s more about the way people use the web. Web 1.0 became strongly driven by business. Sure, individuals had pages, but it was business who dominated Web 1.0.

With 2.0, it seems the individual has moved to the forefront. Blogs, podcasts, videocasts, twitter, all examples of the individual extending his or her creativity to the web. Not only does it give a place to host, but to communicate. An artist can get immediate feedback and interaction with their audience. A global, world wide audience.

In the interest of extending my own creative streak, I’m branching out, trying some of the new services. I’ve setup new twitter and tumblog accounts. Twitter, well I’m not sure why, to be honest I’m not 100% sold on the usefulness, but what the heck.

My tumblog will host my pictures. I’ve had a long interest in digital photography, and I’ll put some of my favorites here for you to enjoy.

http://twitter.com/arcanecode

http://arcanecode.tumblr.com/

Don’t worry, I’ll still be posting .Net magic here, but everyone has to find ways to be awesome. How about you?