Before picking up this book, I had never heard of Jon Huntsman (or his son Governor Jon Jr.). Unbeknownst to me, many well known plastic products are produced by his company. However, his book doesn’t really focus on his business conquests. Instead, it focuses on one man’s value system and how he applies those values in the business world. This book isn’t necessarily anything new. Most of the guidance is common knowledge, the author even says so himself. »
Gadgets are awesome. But if you are like me and have too many, you quickly run into gadget hell. My backpack is filled with tangled wires, dongles, ear pieces, and chargers. Finding the exact device I need can be challenging. Then a few weeks ago I saw Grid-It’s Cocoon on Lifehacker and quickly purchased one. I just finished filling it out and really like i so far. It is a quick and easy way to organize all your gadgets and cables. »
One of my coworkers, Mike Dellanoce, just started his own blog (after 2 years of coaxing from me). I encourage you all to subscribe. »
It’s been a little over a week since I installed Windows 7. I tried the upgrade route, failed, and re-formatted the whole machine (every now and again you need to give your PC a good scrubbing). The real question is, what software did I put on the machine? Chrome - Chrome is the new Firefox. It is fast, and the UI is just phenomenal. What sucks about it? Extensibility, which leads to… Firefox - Developers still need Firefox. »
The Harmony One is easily the best buy of the past 6 months for me (even though someone bought it for me). For anyone with more than 1 home theater device, get this remote. Since I bought this remote, I have lost all my other remotes, and it is a good thing. It is a universal remote that focuses more on user actions that devices and inputs. For example, you can create a Watch TV action that turns on the TV, Receiver, and cable box together, and sets everything to the right input. »
My laptop recently got re-imaged. On login, my eyes started to bleed, almost. I realized a tool I use everyday was not in my list of Tools, ClearType tuner. This XP Powertoy helps make text more readable by using ClearType technology. I know nothing about the technology itself, except that I love it. »
“A picture is worth 1000 words” Most blogs that I read integrate media, specifically pictures, into their posts. A video can be avoided. Text can be skimmed. But pictures can’t be overlooked. Good pictures draw you into an article, or website, and add to the story the author is trying to tell you. Last week, I posted a setup guide for NHaml with nearly 25 screen shots. Surprisingly, I was able to grab all the screenshots, cropped and everything, in about 15 minutes. »
How many times have you tried to open a file in Windows, only to see it is already in use by some another program? Thus begins the witch hunt of process destruction, until you can open the file. Process Explorer gets rid of this problem. Just search for a file name, and it tells you which process has a hold of it. This is only a small piece of its functionality, but a huge piece of my sanity. »
My dad was early adopter of webcams. I was not. Looking back on it, he understood their power to bring people together that aren’t geographically close at all. During that time, he experienced the pain of bad internet connections, terrible drivers, and installation hell. I waited until all that disappeared. I bought the Quickcam Pro for Notebooks because I have an increasingly growing number of people I want to talk to that aren’t anywhere close to me. »
Refactoring to Patterns provides some of the glue that Design Patterns (GoF) and Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (PoEAA is missing. The concept of the book is very simple: to provide examples of how to use design patterns to refactor code. A side product of this is the reader should really have an understanding of the two books previously mentioned before reading this book. If GoF and PoEAA is the bible, then Refactoring to Patterns is the Sunday school teacher. »