General
City Rankings
In looking for cities to possibly relocate to a new city we were constantly looking at city rankings. One of the rankings we looked at was parenting.com. Please explain this: Raleigh, NC – 2010 Rank #10 Raleigh, NC – 2011 Rank #57 Columbus, OH – 2010 Rank #61 Columbus, OH – 2010 Rank #22 So [...]
I Created A Book Page!
I decided to create a separate page for my books because I’ve started thinking about expanding the kinds of books I’m writing to include more than just books about robotics. Currently the books you will find on this page are just my robotics books, which have more detail at my Scott’sBots website, in the near [...]
RIP – Castle Preston
We lost our puppy of 6 years today due to complications from diabetes. We miss him a lot!
Don't use MVC
MVC (Model View Controller) design patterns all the rage, in fact, the MVC pattern is pretty much standard with every web framework. The idea is to keep code separate, the assumption is that with this separation comes ease of maintenance, and allows for developers of different skill sets to work in different areas. Here’s a [...]
Model 1.5 – An Introduction
What is Model 1.5? Well first it will help to describe Model 1 and Model 2. Model 1 – This is a web application design pattern for web scripting languages like JSP, ASP, or PHP, that take all the elements of a web application, business logic, data abstraction and connetions, and presentation/layout then puts them [...]
Eliminating Time Wasters
The key to becoming more efficient when you are at your computer is to eliminate low value activities and replacing them with high value activities. To do this I recommend you take the following three steps: Step 1) Identify One thing I did a few months back is install ManicTime. This software allows you to [...]
Limiting Distractions
How many times do you crave just an hour of being in the zone? By the zone, that moment of time where you and the code are one, you know what you want to do and it seems like your thoughts just flow and your productivity is at an all time high. How many times [...]
Use An Application Launcher
How much time do you spend using your mouse to open programs? I use the application launcher called “Launchy“. When I combine this with simple .bat files I save boat loads of time and don’t need to use my mouse for much.
Use A Virtual Machine
I have often found that one machine just isn’t enough, especially when testing my code or wanting more functionality. I primarily use two virtual machines. Windows XP – IE6 Testing, Software Installs, Developer Sandbox Ubuntu Linux Server – Scheduled Jobs, Bash Scripting, Build Testing, etc. There are many virtualization solutions on the market, I use [...]