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CodeMash 2010
New Laptop – I’m a Mac
Posted in: Programming by Steve on February 1, 2010
After going back and forth between getting a Dell, HP Envy or Asus, I decided to go outside of my comfort zone and bought a Macbook.
The reason I got it was because I wanted to learn a new programming language and to see how the other side lives. Codemash taught me that if I want to get better as a programmer, I have to widen my experiences to more than just .NET.
So this is the first step to jump start my learning. I hope to upgrade it so a better hard drive (SSD), more memory and to get the new Speck soft satin case (and a travel case too). I will be blogging more about the experience of OS-X vs Windows along with attempting to learn Ruby on Rails.
CodeMash 2.0.1.0.
Posted in: Programming by Steve on January 12, 2010
CodeMash is just around the corner and thanks to the good folks at telerik, I will be one of about 700 people attending the conference. I will be tweeting from the conference and posting recaps of sessions and happenings with an occasional picture or two. I might blog from the lazy river, who knows!
As of now, here is the list of sessions I would like to attend, along with backup sessions:
Thursday Sessions
9:45 AM: What Makes Ruby Different (Joe O’Brien, Mark Peabody & Leon Gersing) or Agile Iteration 0 (Ken Sipe)
11:00 AM: Maintainable ASP.NET MVC (Chris Patterson) or User Stories: Closing the Agile Look (Barry Hawkins)
1:45 PM: Ruby and Rails for the .NET Developer (Matt Yoho) or Seeing Constraints: Kanban Explained (Jon Stahl)
3:35 PM: Domain Driven Design: An Introduction (Barry Hawkins) or Refactoring the Programmer (Joe O’Brien)
4:45 PM: Testing ASP.NET Applications Using Ruby (Ben Hall)
Friday Sessions
9:30 AM: Software Design and Testability (Jeremy D. Miller) or Testing the Enterprise (Leon Gersing & Charlie Baker)
10:45 AM: 0-60 with Fluent NHibernate (Hudson Akridge) or Leadership 101 (Jim Holmes)
1:45 PM: IronPython with ASP.NET (Chris Sutton) OR Credit Crunch Code: Time to Pay Back the Technical Debt (Gary Short)
3:35 PM: Analyze and Optimize your .NET Web Application (James Avery) or SOLID Ruby (Jim Weirich)
This will be my first large conference. I’ve attended a few other conferences like the Iowa Code Camp and Chicago Code Camp. This will be a new experience for me and I hope that I will get a lot out of it. I am looking forward to meeting the people I follow on twitter too. This should be a great time.
See you in Sandusky!
Building out a new Laptop
Posted in: Programming by Steve on January 11, 2010
In March of 2009, I decided it was time to get a netbook. I wanted to have something that was portable and fast. I decided to go with the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE Blue Netbook
After using it for 9 months and trying to show videos and do more programming on it, the netbook route isn’t working for me. I need to have a laptop that is able to handle the load of video since my son, Conner, loves to watch the Muppets. I am looking to upgrade to a new laptop.
The first step is to clean house. I am what you would call a “pack rat”. I have all my old computer equipment and other miscellaneous electronics stored in my closet, stacked to the ceiling (my wife can attest to this). With all the stuff I have, I couldn’t possibly use it all, so I am selling it on eBay.
The second step is to determine which laptop to purchase. Here are my requirements for the laptop:
Core i7 CPU - 4GB RAM
- Discrete graphics card
- Between 12” and 15.5” High Resolution LED screen
- Bluetooth
- capable of handling an Intel X25-M SSD upgraded hard drive
- 3 year warranty
- no more than $1,700
- 0% financing for at least 6 months
ASIDE: Originally, I was looking to purchase a MacBook Pro, but since the refresh hasn’t happened and I’m well invested in the Windows environment (.NET, Windows Home Server, gaming, knowledge), I am not looking into one currently. Maybe in the future I’ll investigate a Apple, but for now, I’m sticking to Windows laptops.
I’m still investigating the best choice from these:
Right now, the Dell seems to be winning on pricing point at $1,500 with tax and shipping and 9 months of 0% financing with the following load out:
- Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Quad Core Processor @ 1.6GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
- 3 Year Basic Service Plan
- 15.6” Full High Definition (1080p) High Brightness LED Display with TrueLife™ and Camera
- 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
- 320GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
- 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
- 8X Slot Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
- 85 Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
- Intel 5300 Ultimate-N Half Mini Card (3×3) with MyWiFi
- Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Internal (2.1)
- Back-lit Keyboard
With this load out, I can do all my development and show videos to Conner (like this one, his favorite) without any problems.
The HP Envy comes out closer to $1,700 with a 3 year warranty and only 6 months of 0%. It’s too bad the HP Envy 13 doesn’t come with a Core i7 CPU because that would be the perfect replacement for my netbook. I’m wondering if I should just get the Envy 13 since the processor is still such a better upgrade to what I have now. I did see one of these at Fry’s the other day and it definitely is one sweet laptop.
The Asus is out of stock and I haven’t seen one in person to make an informed decision on this one.
I will update on any further information or if a purchase is made. If you have any other thoughts or ideas for me, please feel free to comment.
Xbox Live
Posted in: Shopping by Steve on January 6, 2010
So after owning my Xbox for almost 2 years, I finally got a RROD. Unfortunately, it was out of warranty. I thought I was completely screwed, but for this specific failure, they extended the warranty to 3 years. Lucky me!
So after I sent it away, I saw that Amazon is offering a subscription to Xbox Live for $34.99 – pretty decent price for a year of Gold online gaming, especially since I’m playing Modern Warfare 2 a lot.
Amazon.com – Xbox 360 Live Subscription Gold Card
Winter Blowout
Posted in: Shopping by Steve on December 30, 2009
In an effort to declutter the office, I am selling a bunch of computer stuff that I no longer need on Ebay.
http://shop.ebay.com/getblaked/m.html
Take a look to see if anything meets your needs!
Merry Christmas
Posted in: General by Steve on December 25, 2009
I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
My First Mashup – Bust a Ghost N’ Stuff
Posted in: Music by Steve on December 16, 2009
Be kind, it’s my first try. I give you “Bust a Ghost N’ Stuff”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Bust a Move originally performed by Young MC
Ghosts N Stuff originally performed by Deadmau5
Safety First follow up
Posted in: Family by Steve on December 15, 2009
After our first incident with Conner climbing out of his crib, we had a few choices to make regarding our safety layout of the 2nd floor. The first was to get Conner into a toddler bed and completely baby-proof the whole upstairs. This included the baby gate, door locks and other safety gear. Knowing how Conner behaves when he wants something, we knew that this was going to take a lot of time and a lot of patience. With my wife in school and interning under her principal, the time factor would have been a large strain, not only on us, but on Conner too. He is too active to sleep in a bed on his own right now.
Our second option (which we ended up going with) was a crib tent. This would solve our issue of Conner climbing out of the crib, and not having to teach him to sleep in a new bed. Besides, this is what he was used to sleeping in at daycare. He was already used to this so this was also a plus.
Now, the problem we ran into with the tent was that it did not fit on his sleight style crib. We ended up buying a new crib for him so that the tent would fit.
He now has gotten used to sleeping in the new crib and we haven’t had any incidents at all. Thanks for all the suggestions,
Marion Hossa is good at hockey
Posted in: Sports by Steve on December 14, 2009
Attending CodeMash 2010
Posted in: Programming by Steve on December 5, 2009
Thanks to telerik, I will be attending CodeMash 2010! I was selected as the winner of their Facebook contest.
I would like to thank telerik for the opportunity to attend this wonderful conference.