Tech gadgets for (geek) kids

Our work area has been especially fertile over the past year or so. Perhaps this NYT article on appropriate tech for kids of different ages will be helpful. I don’t see any advice on whether vi or emacs is a better editor for the wee ones, though.

NYT: Basics – So Young, So Gadgeted

Short videos on new MS dev technologies

I see that Intertech – a local training and consulting company – has some videos up on YouTube. The look to be recordings of a classroom or user-group presentation. Right now there are videos covering WCF, WPF and workflows. Might be worth a watch…
Intertech “user” page on YouTube

Cartoon: The requirements process

Sometimes it’s just easier not to ask questions…

Geek and Poke: One year in an IT project, Day 21

Food: Sweetbreads

I mostly intend to post software and web development links here. I can’t ignore the other good things in life though.

So in what will likely be a recurring topic, here’s a blog post about sweetbreads – Mexican style!

Mexican on Jefferson: Tienda Hispana and Supermercado Monterrey
[See the 12th picture down if you must skip directly to the mollejas]

Developers wearing the Ops hat

Developing software (or webapps) is really fun. Even when debugging or implementing client “fixes”, coding is a blast.

Ops – configuring and managing servers, supporting software and apps – is often not so fun. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard “It worked on my machine” from a developer.

In this post, Edd Dumbill lists some reasons why developers (and all computer users) will need stronger Ops skills. He also talks about some tools that will make Ops management a little easier. Most of these are a ways out for us but suggest some features we should look for.

Tracking technical debt

Here’s a helpful tip for making technical debt visible to others on a project:
Make Technical Debt Explicit

While his mechanism is specific to agile, doing something – anything – to make others aware of the compromises made to get software out the door would be healthy.

[ via Johanna Rothman]