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7/17/2008

"The Pragmatic Programmer"

This week I began reading the “Pragmatic Programmer” by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas.  I’ve only made it through the first chapter and already I can tell this book is going to impact my view of the business of programming tremendously.  My favorite part of the book is the quick reference tear-out inside the back cover summarizing all of the “tips” the authors offer throughout the book.  Each day, I plan to read one of those tips and keep it in mind throughout the work day.

Like today for example I started with tip 1, “care about your craft”.  This is a very appropriate first tip because if I wasn’t passionate about programming, I probably wouldn’t be reading books like these in my spare time.  The authors put it best, “Why spend your life developing software unless you care about doing it well?”  To me, programming is not just a 9 to 5 gig that pays the bills; it’s a passion and a commitment to building solutions that help my client’s do their job more efficiently and effectively.

Posted at 2:12 PM by Matthew Glace | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)
Life without wheels

One big concern my wife and I had leading up to our move to New York was how we would adjust to life without a vehicle.   Mass transit in Baltimore is worthless so we were both highly dependent on our cars to get us around.  But the thought of paying anywhere from $300 to $600 a month for parking just one of our vehicles in New York made me sick to my stomach.  So we decided to sell one of our cars and leave the other behind in Baltimore making us carless in NY.  

I may be a little pre-mature in making this statement but I haven’t missed my car one bit and I can’t imagine ever really desperately needing or wanting it in the city.  My wife and I are lucky to live in a quaint little area of the city called SoHo (stands for South of Houston St; since I know your wondering) and have the luxury of being able to walk to all kinds of awesome areas.  But even if we lived off the beaten path a bit, we could take the subway or a cab. 

Subway

My only exposure to a real subway system was when I was working on a client site in Northern Virginia and taking the DC Metro through the city.   The DC Metro system was built in the 1970’s and designed by architects to have a very open feel.  The stations have high cathedral like ceilings and are relatively clean.

With that picture in mind, was shocked the first time I descended into the New York subway system.  The stations are dark, dingy, and hot (in the summer time).  With a little research I discovered that the subway system in NY started more than 100 years ago as a series of disconnected rail lines that were later united when the city took over control. 

If you can get over the fact that the stations and railcars aren’t the cleanest areas of New York, then the subway is one of the best modes of transportation.  You can buy a pay-per-trip card and pay $2 per trip, or buy an unlimited trip card that is good for 1, 7 or 30 days.

* TIP: You can use a pay-per-ride card up to 4 times in a station.  That way you can share a card with friends or family and everyone doesn’t need to buy their own.  This doesn’t work with the unlimited card though; darn!

If you’re not sure how to get from point A to point B using NYC mass transit, I’ve listed a couple of useful websites below:

·         MTA Trip Planner (http://travel.mtanyct.info/)

·         Cool Google Map of the NYC Subway System (http://www.onnyturf.com/subway/)

ZipCar

So what about those times that you absolutely positively must have a car?  Even though these times will be few and far between, they will still occur.  Don’t pay all the money to park your car in the city just so you can use it on these rare occasions; consider ZipCar (http://www.zipcar.com).  ZipCar is like renting a car only 10 times better.  They offer two forms of membership; one for the frequent driver and another for the occasional driver.  I signed up for the occasional driver plan so I’ll focus on explaining that plan.  There is a onetime $25 signup fee then a $50 per year membership fee.   I used to spend about $100 for gas every week back in Baltimore so I made up that fee my first week in New York.   Once you are signed up, they will send you a ZipCard.  When you want to reserve a car you logon to their website, look for available cars in your area and reserve the car of your choice for the period of time that you need it.  The cost to reserve a car is between $15 - $25 per hour or between $100 - $150 per day depending on the car you reserve.   Here’s the best part, the rental fee includes insurance and gas!  That’s right; ZipCar pays for your gas by providing a gas card right in the car.

*TIP: If you need a car for the entire day, reserve it at least 2 weeks in advance.  Cars get rented for 1 hour blocks quickly making it impossible to find a car available for the whole day.

Your ZipCard is also a proxy card that locks and unlocks the doors of any car you reserve during the period of time you reserve it.   Finally, the cars all have their own parking spaces so when you are finished with the car, you just return it to the spot you got it from, lock the doors and walk away.  This is the best alternative to having your own car if you ask me.

Posted at 1:11 PM by Matthew Glace | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/29/2008

.NET 3.0 Rules Engine

I gave a presentation on the .NET 3.0 Rules Engine at the last software architecture group meeting.  I stumbled upon the technology when a project I recently worked on called for the use of a rules engine.  A fellow developer suggested I look in to the .NET 3.0 Rules Engine.  I was completely confused; I had been working with the 3.0 framework for several months with no knowledge of a rules engine.  After a couple hours of research, I uncovered the rules engine embedded in the Workflow Foundation.  I had no idea that it was possible to leverage this technology independent of workflow.  There is very little content on the rule engine itself.  Most information is buried in articles about the Workflow Foundation.  In my opinion, this technology is worthy of its own namespace.  Below is a link where you can find several samples of the rules engine.

 

http://wf.netfx3.com/files/folders/rules_samples/default.aspx

 

I have attached the PowerPoint slides from my presentation and a sample application demonstrating a simple implementation of the technology.

 

Code sample:

http://www.infusionblogs.com/mglace/Code%20Samples/SimpleRulesEngine.zip

 

Presentation:

http://www.infusionblogs.com/mglace/Presentations/RulesEngine.pptx

Posted at 11:40 PM by Matthew Glace | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)
Empire State Building - Lighting Color Schemes

In our new apartment my wife and I have a spectacular view of the Empire State Building.  We noticed over Labor Day weekend that the lighting atop the building was changed to red, white, and blue.  This was quite obviously a patriotic act for the American holiday.  It was a nice change from the white lighting that normally decorates the top of the building. 

 

The following Tuesday however, we were quite confused when the lights where changed to orange, purple, and red.  This color scheme was not nearly as obvious as the last but I knew it must symbolize some occasion.  I decided to Google “Empire State Building lighting” to see if I could solve this mystery.  Much to my surprise, the first result was the official internet site of the Empire State Building; more specifically, the lighting schedule page.  Here you can find out what lighting schemes are scheduled for what dates and what they symbolize.  The orange, purple and red colors symbolize the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. 

 

So if you ever find yourself walking down the streets of New York wondering why the Empire State Building is lit up in some funky color scheme, check out the URL below to find out.

 

Empire State Building : Official Internet Site

Posted at 11:40 PM by Matthew Glace | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

7/19/2007

Wash -n- Fold

When I learned that we didn’t have laundry facilities in our apartment building I thought it was the end of the world.  The last thing I needed was to schlep all of my dirty laundry to the laundry mat and sit around waiting for the dryer to finish.  Then one day at lunch, a co-worker of mine mentioned that he had to pick up his laundry.  I asked him where he took his laundry to be washed and he proceeded to tell me about wash and fold.  This is a laundry service offered at virtually every dry-cleaner in the city.  Now, for those of you that don’t already know, there is a dry-cleaner on just about every block of the city.  The price for the wash and fold service is approximately $8.00 for up to 8 pounds of laundry.  If you look around the city a little you can even find it cheaper than that.  And the turn-around time is great.  For stores that ship out your laundry, it’s generally a 24 hour turnaround if you drop off your laundry before 9:30 am.  Stores that launder your clothes in house will generally have them back to you the same day!  This is the best thing since… well since living at home and having your mother do you laundry for you.  One warning though, if you are looking for your mother's crisp neat folding job, you won’t find it here.  You get your clothes back kind of haphazardly folded and stuffed into a plastic bag.  But you get what you pay for so I’m happy and I think you will be too!

Posted at 2:50 PM by Matthew Glace | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)
Introduction

When my wife and I moved to New York we asked a lot of New Yorkers for the “insider” tips and tricks to New York living.  No one person provided a complete list, however after two weeks of asking around I’ve accrued my own list by talking to several different people.

For starters, if you choose to do so, you never have to leave your apartment; except to go to work at that awesome new job with Infusion of course.  You can have virtually everything delivered right to your doorstep.   I don’t recommend taking this approach to NYC living though because you will miss out on a lot of cool stuff.

Also, New York doesn’t have to be as expensive as everyone says it is.  You can get anything as inexpensive or as expensive as you would like.  You just have to look a little harder for the inexpensive stuff.

I'll be posting here any time I find something I believe to be useful for a New York newbie like myself.

Posted at 2:49 PM by Matthew Glace | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

7/16/2007

GrandCentral; Google’s newest acquisition

I started using a service several months ago called GrandCentral (http://www.grandcentral.com).  The idea is great; using voice over IP technology (VoIP), this company has created a virtual switchboard to all of your telephone numbers.  Here is how it works.  When you sign up for an account with GrandCentral they assign you a phone number from the area code of your choice.  You then provide GrandCentral with all of the phone numbers where you can be reached, work, home, cell, even a Gizmo (http://www.gizmoproject.com/) number.  Give out your GrandCentral number and when your friends and family call, it will ring any combination of your phone that you specify.  You can also customize settings like the ring that your callers hear by uploading mp3 files.  GrandCentral also come equipped with a centralized voicemail box so you don’t have to manage three voicemail boxes.  You can check your messages over the phone or online.  And if that’s not enough, you can actually customize settings based on groups and even individual numbers.  So say you set up a friends group and a family group, you can have each group ring different phone numbers, have different ring tones, and hear different voicemail greetings.

 

One of the features that I like the most is the options I’m presented when I receive a call through my GrandCentral number.  I can choose to answer the call, send it to voicemail, send to voicemail and monitor the message, or take the call and record the conversation. With the voicemail monitoring feature should the message sound important, you can interrupt the message and take the call by pressing the # key.

 

One feature that GrandCentral clearly needs to work on however, is the ability to make outbound calls using your GrandCentral number.  So many times people look in their recent call log to return phone calls.  If you call someone from your cell phone and your cell number appears in their call log, chances are they will return your call to your cell phone, not your GrandCentral number.  The process for masking your real phone number with your GrandCentral number is tedious right now and involves several steps.

 

Some of the great things about this service are that it’s free and it was just bought by Google so it’s bound to get better!  Imagine someone that around moves a lot (like Infusion employees).  While your home, work and cell phone numbers may change, you can have the same local number for all of your friends and family back home.

 

I do volunteer work back home with the local volunteer fire company.  For a while before I moved to New York I was the network administrator and was getting a couple calls a day for computer support.  The calls would come in on my cell phone and my home phone and even email; I had messages all over the place.  I eventually gave the firehouse my GrandCentral number and set up a custom message that would play for any calls from their number that said something like, “Thank you for calling the firehouse computer support line…”  Managing my calls from then on out go a lot easier and all of my messages were is one central place.

 

So check it out, I’m sure you will find some creative use for this service like I did.

 

Posted at 10:25 AM by Matthew Glace | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)