Five for Fighting… err… Friday
Greetings, campers. Different kind of post today. I have some posts on deck that are one topic only, but my list o'links is piling up on me…
1. Sara Ford’s blog and book – go read it, go buy it. The tips ended December 19th on the blog – there’s so much fantastic information there, and Sara has a knack for explaining things in layman’s terms. The book is the first 251 tips from the blog, and the author’s proceeds go towards helping send Hurricane Katrina survivors to college. So, yeah, so you could just read the tips online, but go get the book – much easier to highlight your favorite tips (or mark them with sticky notes as I did one night when I couldn’t put it down).
2. Visual Studio Hacks. Again, there’s a blog and a book, but the content between the two is different. James Avery is the name on the cover, but there are quite a few contributing editors. The difference between James’ and Sara’s work is that James is more code-centric, often showing how to write add-ins to Visual Studio, while Sara highlights things that are already in place but rarely seen.
3. National Day of Service – Seth Godin lists 18 ideas for giving back to the community. Here is #14:
“Use Copilot to diagnose and fix computer problems for people or causes that can't afford fancy IT support. It's free on weekends”
I’m guessing that anyone who’s made their way to my blog or any other Atalasoft blog knows their way around a computer. This would be a fantastic way for us geeks to give back. And, no, fixing your Aunt Mildred’s computer does not count. You should be doing that anyway.
4. 5 Whys – A way to find the root cause of a problem. Sometimes the cause is only 3 questions deep, and sometimes it goes far beyond. Ever have a small child ask you “why?” The answer is never as simple as the surface level, and if you are satisfied with that, you will never fully have a solution, only a band-aid. The 5 Whys approached was developed by Sakichi Toyoda, founder or Toyota. There is some criticism to the method, but I’m not sure that author isn’t dismissing the technique for advertising his own system.
5. I’m presenting a talk on Blueprints at our Western Mass .Net Users Group next month. If you’re going to be in the area, stop by and introduce yourself.