Starglider Systems Blog
The Healthy Programmer, by Joel Kutner, is an interesting book that covers health issues as they relate to programmers.
It covers topics such as diet, exercising, preventing back pain, eye strain and more.
I didn't get a chance to apply much of the book, but it seems sound and aligns from what I've learned from medical professionals or elsewhere.
I just finished the TPL Async course on Pluralsight. It covers some ways on using the Task Parallel Library on .Net 4.5 to get responsive software.
Overall, pretty interesting. I had learned some of it on books such as Essential C# 6.0, but unfortunately I never got around to using it so had forgotten much of it.
I have recently started using DevExpress' MVVM WPF Framework.
I really like it. The amount of code you get to skip vs regular MVVM is huge. For example (I use the POCO ViewModel based system), to add a command just add a public method. Need it be on/off based on some conditions? Just add a bool method with Can*CommandName* to your class.
Behind the scenes it generates a new class with everything it needs.
This applies to many other things, including a bunch of services that are very easy to use including, including reporting, file and folder dialogs, wizards, navigation and much more.
It is also free (without support), or included with support on their WPF components (which are pretty nice too).
There are a couple of videos that show some of the basics and the nice advantages:
Please note that so far I have not used other WPF MVVM frameworks other than plain MVVM, so I can't compare them to DevExpress.
I've just finished Effective C#, by Bill Wagner.
There is an interesting mix of tips. Some you should already know if you learned C# from a good book, others are more obscure and very interesting.
Either way, well worth reading. My version was from Safari, as usual.
I have been using Photoshop on and off for many years, but I wouldn't in any way say that I was proficient on it.
So since this course/book is included on Safari, I thought I'd try it out.
It was pretty interesting. It is based on many exercises, where you start with a base file they provide, and keep doing what they you to till you get to a end result.
This is actually somewhat entertaining, and I learned quite a bit I didn't know. Exercises are easy to follow (I had a couple of instances where things just didn't work – in some cases looking online solved it).
You will not get out of this course/book being a master in Photoshop, but you will probably learn quite a bit. You would probably want to do the exercises – I doubt reading them will have anywhere near the same effect.
One thing I did not like is that mostly shortcuts were not mentioned. There is a table at the end of the book (also for the tools), but that won't get you into the habit of using them.
There is also a site you can sign on (Peachpit) which has not only the files to download, but a web version of the course, with video and quizzes. It was nice enough, but felt unnecessary for the first chapters, and was offline a couple of times I tried to use it, so I stuck to the Safari version.
Overall, I felt the book was useful and even entertaining. Most chapters are supposed to take an hour, but it usually took me around 40 minutes each, so it was around 10 hours for the whole thing.
This talk by Cory Doctorow was pretty great (unfortunately, this is the short version, the long version actually covers the important stuff).
It covers the many problems we are going into because of DRM and close restrictive devices.
I don't really see things getting better any time soon, though – most people just don't care, even as they are deeply affected by it (as an example, just see the VW software that made everyone end up breathing more pollution).
I really like the new Safari Learning Path interface.
It is a bunch of small things – specially the time marker on the top and the section time on the right.
The clean design is nice too, and the video player works well.
One thing that still didn't change is that a whole lot of stuff in Safari (including a lot of conferences videos) have no closed captions. Given how many AI services support this, I'm little surprised that this didn't change…
Learning Path: Java Professional Developer is a Learning Path in Safari. These usually have sets of book chapters or videos from different sources.
This one is from Paul J. Deitel Java video courses, alone. It covers a lot of Java, from the basics to Swing, some JDBC and the start of Java FX.
I felt it was interesting, but the absence of closed captions/transcripts, and the overall slow approach meant that I did a whole lot of skipping (even at 1.75 speed). A clickable transcript like some of MOOCs would be wonderful here – you can just read along for most of it, skipping to any parts where the visuals are important.
A lot of the video is given to explaining code. Sometimes this useful, but most of the time for me, the code was pretty clear and I had to skip around to not waste a lot of time.
The coverage seems good. Having a single part of Java FX was reasonable, as it gives you a taste of it without wasting too much time. Personally, I was a bit interested, but support in IntelliJ seems a bit primitive compared to WPF/UWP or even old Delphi, and I constantly hit on annoying bugs (such as disappearing sections on the in IDE version of Scene Builder).
It seems silly to mention it, but all the code in the repository worked and matched the one in the video. Sadly, that is not always the case.
Overall, interesting, and good coverage, but a little too slow.
As a mildly funny tidbit, while reviewing the course I noticed that a paul.deitel user gave the course 5 stars. Well, it makes sense that he'd like it…
The Single Founder Handbook, by Mike Taber, is an interesting book focused on simple startups, not the kind where you try to get funding. It is also mostly about software developers.
I've been selling software online for 20 years (see my site for most of my software), and this was still full of interesting ideas.
In particular, I liked this version of how to generate and validate product ideas, and the chapter on how to outsource.
I also thought there were some useful insights in Routine Maintenance section, about how health, personal retreats, mastermind groups and the like.
I got the simplest version – just the ebook. I didn't see the other assets as particularly useful for the price.
Overall, pretty good, and I can recommend the basic version.
WTF? What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us, by Tim O'Reilly, is a book about how things are today, and how they can be, in several important areas.
It also has a lot of memories of the author in major events in technology, which I felt were quite interesting to read about (not sure how much interest younger people will have in those – being there probably makes a difference!).
There were a lot of important insights, that I wish leaders in all areas would read. I highlight every interesting idea I see, so in the end huge areas of the book were yellow.
I particularly like the reflections on why services like Uber work, and how we could make better regulations.
Overall, strongly recommended.
As usual (and since the author is the owner, not surprising) I read the book on Safari Books.