it's going to be an off topic post,
so if you are seeking for some cool code topics & examples, this is not the post fo you...

lately i found myself surrounded with overdozed hardware and rigs,
i currentlly own :

1 workstation
1 HTPC
1 downloads server
1 laptop
1 Huge CRT
1 Huge LCD.
1 KVM switch
1 Router
6564536 Wires (Help ?)

Ok, this is alot of hardware, do i really need all of this ?
so, what am i planning to do ?

1. get rid of the HTPC rig, and the CRT screen (a new computer for my mom...)
2. convert the workstation to an HTPC (this includes some minor hardware changes)
3. work mainly from my cool new laptop
4. work wireless as possible to get rid of these nasty wires.
5. install all the rigs with proper hardware

this is lots of work to be done.....

Months after shani tagged me for this issue, it's time to pick up the glove, and write a post about it.

a little note on that matter,
i think that if a developer whats to become better, he should aknowelange it mentally to always strive for self improvement.

Things I should do.
to answer that question, i must ask myself what are my goals, where do i see myself in 3-5 years ?
well, as far as i remmember myself, my goal was always to become a solution Architect, the dude that can design "dreams" to reality.
to achive that, you must work your way from the buttom, get femilier with all the bits and bites, design practices, practice software development and after few years in the field, emerge your own opinion about software development process, devolopment methodoligies, and create new consepts.
once you have done all that, you can start becoming an architect.
after defining that, lets ask this question again :
What things should i do?

• read alot about development methodologies, and when/where to apply them (Scrum like development is not always suitable for every organization)
• upgrade my skills to current technologies (.Net 3.5)
• Apply new learnt stuff to daily tasks

Things I want to do

• Write a book on software development (it won't be published in the next year)
• create a perfect development process (is it possible ?)
• enter the BDD world.
  

Things I won't do
as much as it is tempting to leave what i am doing now, and persue my dream becoming a solution architect,
the next few years seems as a good time to gain more expirience at the development section before advancing to the next level.

Tagging this dude :
  Micky Shriber

well,
I've been working here for a month now, so it's about time to write a post about it.

888.com A.K.A "random logic" is a ".com" company that started it's way back in 1997.
the company business is online gaming such as casino-online, poker, backgammon and so.

I've joined their development department as a part of the "application infrastructure" team.
my initial impression (working a month there...) is that it's a great company working for.
something like google style company, things like : indoor Jim under construction, Nintendo wii/Sony play-station 3 on each floor, personal medical insurance, cool trips and so ...

on the professional side, I've joined a team which i have things to learn from, both technical and architectural.
thus contributing my knowledge and experience.
I'm sure that will be a great place to evolve to the next level (Pokémon ?).

wish me luck .

After Three years, i have left my workplace where i started  as a new programmer, and after a while became a senior developer.
got to say, it was a lot of fun working with some gifted developers like Shani , Avi , Nati , Doron , Oren , Yossi
thus not forget my teammates : Gabi, Assaf, Tanya, Amihay (Please create a blog somewhere, it's about time...)
and many more (I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, apologies in advance...)

I must say that i gained tons of experience in Web development, Server side engines, project management, Requirement Analyzing, Enterprise development,Software design , Database development and many other issues in software development.

wish you luck and all the best for those who i "left behind".

what is next ?
thats a good question, planning to finish my Bsc degree in computer science (third and last year).
and getting a job that won't mess up my studies :)
So basically I'm in search for the right job.

No, I'm no retiring from the coding field...
actually I'm in the opposite direction.
the last few months I've been working on a new system thats about to go online in the next few months.
busy as hell in architecture issues, coding issues and more...
i decided to take the opportunity of this project and Finlay get into the asp.net 2.0 .
so i tried to do some coding here

Convert.ToDotNet2(Shimon);

but that only returned an exception of InvalidCasting.
so, i sat on my bottom and started to learn all that is to know to introduce myself to the new features (yes, i know it's about time).

from what i can see, asp.net 2.0 will introduce to the world a lot of "drag&drop" programmers.
take for example the login controls that come built-in:

• it's great for the beginner programmer.
• this is one well of a !#@#!!# for an architect.

i mean, they coupled a GUI to a "generic" DB structure, Why ???
what if i want to manage my roles and permissions in other manner (say hierarchical roles...),
or just manage the user in my DB with all the other tables so i can do some easy data mining ?
to do that i need to write some providers to the controls that equals to implementing the business logic from scratch.
i will extent later on that matter (some other post...)

building this project as a one man show gave me an oppertunity of a vast view on a system besides playing with one module.
from now on, i'll continue update here the progress of the project.

just to be clear, I'm not talking about computer process .
I'm talking about the daily processes that we do every day.
have you ever stopped for a second to wonder, what are the things that you enjoy the most ?
i mean what are the daily processes do you enjoy the most, what defines them ?

think about that for a second, a person spends a great part of his time @ work (if not most of his time),
so it is imperative to do something that you enjoy from,
otherwise you'll suffer most of the month to accomplish things with your paycheck at the end of the month.
this kind of deal is not such a great bargain, not for me anyway.

so, i began thinking, what sort of things i like or dislike.
to be honest, i thought about this for a long time (couple of months to be exact), and came with some sort of list of things.

i want to share this list with you.

• Playing on the guitar - OK, i know this is a vast subject, I'll try to be more specific...
  - i enjoy creating my own songs(although most of them not really worth hearing them).
  - i enjoy improvising as a lead guitar or just as a solo.
  - i really don't like playing other people songs (even if those songs are really good, scorpions for example).
• Do some hacking (Ethical only), and finding solutions to various security problems.
• Building computer systems (Hardware), i know this sounds a little bit stupid,
  but new hardware stuff and creating some systems with it to meet some user demands does the trick for me.
• Designing software systems.
• Finding solutions to problems that no one could solve ( not necessary software problems).
• Creating a software infrastructure architecture.
  - knowing that your design/creation will be used by many of your colleagues.
  - knowing things will work efficiently,oriented by performance, flexibility and even security.
• Giving lectures about subjects i like to do and have some expertise in it.
• I hate doing repeatable work, I'll give some examples :
  - solving lots of math problems of the same kind.
  - writing software programs that require the same solutions over and over.
  - working at a factory like jobs
• I like reading about new stuff on the web - i guess that updating yourself is a must for everyone.

here is some conclusions after looking over and over on this list :

• i like to preform creative tasks that stimulate the brain
• i like doing things that i can express my self.
• i like receiving a positive feedback and a respect from the society ( who does not ?).

now, all i have to do is finding a job that suits the mentioned above :)

what do you think about the subject ?
how would you summerize does list of things ?

btw,
i've added a file of a record i've done with a friend just before i got drafted to the army.
anjoy

Let me tell you some story thats happening now.
couple month ago i hired some folks to do a part of some project due to time limits that i have.
now, i know those guys personally and checking thier technical backgroung seemed to be irrelevant (mistake no' 1).
i thought, how hard can i be to make some GUI to an application that all the other layers are done (3 tier architecture).

So, instead of 1 month development it turned to more than 3 months already, (30% progress)
god knows how long it will take them to finish it .

and now, when i finally see some progress, i see code like this :

if (!Page.IsValid)
{
}
else
{
    InsertNewCustomer();
    lblClientMessage.Text = NewClientText();
    ClearText();
}

ok, who are does guys ?
you think that a skilled programmer with 3 years of expirience would not write such crapy code like this (those things just get me mad.)
why they think that i allow such code to go on production ?
not speaking about the XSS holes that they made (just by the book....)
looks like they didn't read this guide

i mean look at this thing, how many mistakes you can do as a single code :

        privatestring NewClientText()
        {
            string strNewClient = txtName.Text +" "+ txtFamily.Text +" "+"הוזן בהצלחה";
            return strNewClient;
        }

        privatevoid btnAdd_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
        {
            lblClientMessage.Text ="";

            if (!Page.IsValid)
            {
            }
            else
            {
                InsertNewCustomer();
                lblClientMessage.Text = NewClientText();
                ClearText();
            }
        }

        privatevoid InsertNewCustomer()
        {
            Customers newCustomer =new Customers();

            newCustomer.Name = txtName.Text;
            newCustomer.LastName = txtFamily.Text;
            newCustomer.Notes = txtNotes.Text;
            newCustomer.isStudent = chkStudent.Checked;
            newCustomer.Phone = TxtPhone.Text;
            newCustomer.Cellular = txtCellular.Text;
            newCustomer.Email = txtEmail.Text;
            newCustomer.Address = txtAddress.Text;

            if (txtBirth.Text.Trim() !="")
            {
                newCustomer.BirthDate = Convert.ToDateTime(txtBirth.Text);
            }

            custDal.Add(newCustomer);
        }

• writing data to the page without validating it first
• some logical twists - (if page not valid, dont do anything, else do something...), why on earth ? why ?
• inserting to the database without validating the input (for those who are femilier with my architecture, validating is a single line "entity.Validate();"
• no exception managment what so ever.
• no code comments
• Client side input validations

here is some more goodies from the same author :

lblAddress.Style.Add("text-align","right");

what happened to CSS files ?
thier are lots of lines like this defining the style for every object.
i dont wanna know what are they planned to do when they need to change the style one by one .

man, this is a little piece of code, i'm affraid to see whats going on , on the rest of the code.

this is some lessons that you learn on the hard way....

"i will never hire people without checking thier technical background"
"i will never hire people without checking thier technical background"
"i will never hire people without checking thier technical background"
"i will never hire people without checking thier technical background"
"i will never hire people without checking thier technical background"
"i will never hire people without checking thier technical background"

i should better get some things to my own hands before it gets to late .
anyone wants a job to create some gui ?

i got to the conclusion that timing is everything.

no matter if you are the best at what you do,
if you wont do it at the right time, it's useless....
sometimes it's better to wait a little while for the right moment, and only then do your magic.
by the way, it's a very tricky situation, because you cam miss the momment too ...