How do some people do it?

I was chatting with Yex yesterday, and we were both lamenting our lack of blog activity as of late.  My motivation to blog seems to come and go.  As Seth Godin said, I think you've got to at least have a "healthy respect" for your own opinions.

I seem to have a hard time blogging about original ideas and real programming, and that's a shame.  I probably have a lot to contribute.  I've been developing applications for more than 10 years, and I've had considerable success.  Yet I still feel intimidated for some reason.  My fear is that the things I would write about would generate reactions like, "EVERYBODY knows that already" or "that is definitely the WRONG way to do that," and look like a fool.

I play the guitar.  I don't think I'm too shabby at it, either.  But, I know there are a million other guitar players out there that can put me to shame.  Maybe 2 million.  Ok, surely no more than 4 million.  The point is, I don't play very often in front of crowds because I have this fear of rejection thing going for me.  Me and the F.O.R. are pretty tight.

So... I don't really know where I'm going with all this.  Maybe I'm fishing for some encouragement or affirmation.  I'll stop wasting your time with my little pity party now... and try real hard to muster up the courage to post some of my very own ideas, no matter how pitifully insignificant and wrong they may be... ;)

Bob Yexley has a great post on Examining Agile Software Development.  It appears to be a great place to start if you want to learn more about Agile development.

However... I'm still trying to build some community momentum for my WAD methodology ;)

The new version has Intellisense statement completion, improved debugging, collapsible code regions, and merge capabilities, among many other great new features.  Check it out!

http://weblogs.asp.net/ericjsmith/archive/2005/05/04/405673.aspx

I just got an e-mail from Apress announcing their new eBookshop service.  You can now purchase any Apress book as an electronic download (which I assume means PDF).  The biggest advantages I see are being able to take a bunch of books with you on your laptop (if you own one), and searching.  The searching capability alone would be awesome.

I think this is a great move for developers, but a very risky move for Apress since eBooks are so easy to "share."  I applaud them for taking the risk, and really hope it works out for them. 

I shouldn't have to tell you how good Apress books are.  I can't vouch for the other subjects they carry, but they've got some of the very best .NET books and authors in the market.

They are running a 50% off sale for the month of May for all eBook purchases.  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

But, you know... there's nothing like curling up on the couch with a voluminous 1200-page tome on the obscure intricacies of .NET  ;)

Lifeway has partnered with ChurchStaffing.com to come up with a job search site for organizations and job seekers.  A quick glance revealed there are some IT, design and media positions available.

(via Christian Computing Magazine)

For the last 15 years Christian Computing Magazine has been an invaluable resource to the Christian church, ministry and community on how to apply software, services and technology.  Their goal has always been to show how computers can be used in ministry, and their mission is to help its readers "Apply Tomorrow's Technology to Today's Ministry."

You can now get a free "digital" subscription to Christian Computing Magazine sent to your e-mail address in HTML format.  Simply go to http://ccmag.gospelcom.net/freesub/ and enter your e-mail address!

It should only take another 3 days to install ;)

A nice list of tips, plus links to other good resources.

• 8 Tips to Make You a More Efficient as an ASP.NET Developer (via CodeProject)

 

It appears that Microsoft is considering a board-level certification called the Microsoft Certified Architect. (via Eric King)

I think this is an awesome idea, and may put some credibility back into the certification program.  At least there would be one certification that you can't get by simply cramming a bunch of practice exams. 

If I remember correctly, there were several questions regarding this type of certification on a survey put out by Microsoft a couple of years ago.  I'm glad to see that Microsoft is at least pursuing the idea.

I ran across a couple of suggested web sites, and thought I'd pass them along.  I also added them to my list of online resources.

• Object Orientation Tips
• PatternShare

About 11:50 PM last night, my wireless router decided to give up the ghost.  I thought I was just having connectivity problems with my ISP, so I went on to bed.  When I got up this morning, there was still no Internet.  So, I went to the closet to restart my router.  My cable modem, firewall and Vonage adapter all appeared to be in a happy state.  However, my wireless router was lit up like a Christmas tree, and none of the lights were blinking.  All the lights were on, including the LAN ports where nothing is plugged in.  So, I powered it off and back on... same result.  Looks like I'm in the market for a new router.

The new Netgear RangeMax looks interesting.

I spent some time this weekend setting up MySQL and think that I now have it ready for public consumption (for my hosting customers, of course).  I'm running version 4.1.  Version 5.0 (now in Beta, version 5.0.3), is planned to support views, stored procedures, and cursors.

The ORMapper has been updated again today.

 The following important new feature is why this is a major update:
 
 * Added IsolatedContext Property to Create New Isolated ObjectSpace
 * Use IsolatedContext to Isolate all Tracking/Caching to that Instance
 
 Then there are these important bug-fixes as well that were rolled in:
 
 * Fixed Delete with Lazy-Loaded Many-To-Many removing Related Objects
 * Fixed StartTracking clearing any pre-existing Relations on Objects

Whenever Paul Wilson comes out with a new release, he updates releated questions/issues in the ORMapper Forum.  This can give you a better idea of how those changes apply or may benefit your own project.