coding standards
Posted on Become a Better Developer

Look More Professional With Personal Coding Standards

Coding standards are often left to a development team and not considered for small groups or individuals.  Of course, individuals have a style of coding which is virtually their unwritten standards.  Nevertheless, it is essential to create personal rules.  These best practices will help you write code that performs better and is easier to maintain.  That approach leads to a more professional looking (and working) end product.  Better yet, proper coding standards can be used across languages and environments. Naming Standards An outstanding place to begin is how variables and blocks (methods, classes, functions, etc.) are called.  A language has its syntax and commands, but developers can add complexity with a lousy naming scheme.  You should always conform to your company or... Read more

Posted on Podcast

Common Sense System Security We Can All Implement

System security is a big business.  We see hackers in the news all the time, and no one wants to be the next victim that has to admit to a breach.  This allows security firms to charge top dollar for their services and consultation.  However, there are a lot of simple and inexpensive steps we can take to dramatically reduce the odds of being the next victim System Security Through Smart Procedures The first thing to consider is that most security breaches come about through human error.  The well-known breach of the DNC started with a phishing email.  The victim responded and gave up important credentials.  No high tech skills were needed.  This is buttressed by most famous hackers highlighting... Read more

Posted on Podcast

Finding Your Rhythm For Better Productivity

We have looked at a few ways to improve productivity through the early podcast episodes.  However, we have only touched on the idea of rhythm and how it can make or break us.  Habits are hard to break, whether good or bad and those are the things that drive our natural rhythm Know When You Are At Your Best The first step in getting productive is to determine what works for you.  There are some variations each of us can embrace.  Unfortunately, what works for you, may cause me all sorts of problems.  In general, we need to determine whether we work better in the morning, mid-day, evening, or late night.  Then we need to determine the good “blocks” of work for... Read more

Posted on Podcast

Excellent Resources For Brand Design

I have to admit that the Develpreneur icon and banners are not designed by me.  I used a site called 99 Designs for this work.  I have a few skills and none of them are brand design.  Thus, I outsourced that work so I could have something that was effective. Brand Design: Play To Your Strengths Many (maybe even most) of us have passable design skills at best.  We are visionaries or technicians, but not very good at creating appealing artwork.  There is no shame in this.  We all have our strengths and weaknesses.  In fact, the sign of a good manager and leader is the ability to delegate weaknesses to those that can offset them.  If you are great... Read more

Product Catalog Selenium Appcelerator web services Customizing WordPress Plugins Report
Posted on Become a Better Developer

Commercial Software Launch – Did You Forget Anything?

Commercial software is a great way to earn a living as a developer. Unfortunately, there are many details we have to cover before releasing our “baby” to the public.  Many of these features are well known.  However, they are quickly forgotten in the excitement of completing a project.  This presentation goes into some of the common areas we leave off our checklist before launching that product. Commercial Software is Unique A software product is the same no matter who you release it to, right?  Wrong.  Commercial software has expectations and unspoken requirements that are very different from other types.  Your software for personal use can be very sloppy and still useful.  The next step up is internal software for a company. ... Read more