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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

rds
Posted on AWS Tour

Amazon RDS – Put Your Database in The Cloud

The list of Amazon services includes several database options.  We have covered Aurora in a past article but now move to Amazon RDS.  It is a service that allows you to move your database into the cloud without worrying about a server.  As usual, Amazon has that covered. Free Tier Eligible Although you can always place a relational DB on your free EC2 instance, you can also use RDS to get additional free resources.  The first year of your AWS account allows for the following (taken from their site). 750 hours of Amazon RDS Single-AZ db.t2.micro Instance usage running MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle BYOL or SQL Server (running SQL Server Express Edition) – enough hours to run a DB Instance continuously each month 20 GB... Read more

Posted on Podcast

Version Control – The Key To Modern Development

When best practices are considered for development, version control has become a normal facet of any modern coding.  Many integrated development environments now include integration to some version control by default.  In fact, Git is often assumed as the tool of choice.  That being said, we still need to use these tools properly. Version Control Requires Regular Usage The most common failing I find with new developers is a lack of actually using the tool correctly.  Although committing code is rarely more than a few button clicks and providing a comment, it still seems too much for many coders.  I say this because may shops have code commits on a weekly or less frequent basis.  I also see comments that are empty or... Read more

Posted on Podcast

Burnout and How To Avoid It While Staying Productive

Burnout is a big stumbling block to productivity. It is a bit like clinical depression where you are not sure it is coming, but when it hits, recovery is painful.  In this episode, we look at some of the signs of burnout and even some warning signs.  However, we do not stop there.  We also look at ways to stay productive, push hard, and still avoid burnout. Burnout Comes in Many Forms There are many ways that burnout will appear.  It may be a lack of getting up in the morning and a constant feeling of exhaustion.  However, it often is much more subtle.  The ability to focus may become difficult and productivity slumps rather than crashes.  There may also... Read more

Posted on Podcast

Business Communication – Critical For Success

Of all the skills I have learned, business communication has paid the greatest dividends.  This is not a difficult skill to learn.  However, practice, experience, and honest feedback are the key ingredients to become a master. Business Communication – Short and Sweet The old phrase “short and sweet” is a great way to sum up what I have learned.  The audience for any business communication (email, documents, presentations, etc.) value time and clarity.  They start with the assumption that you know what you are talking about.  Thus, it is up to you to confirm that assumption or prove them wrong.  Of course, that is not the only measure of successfully communicating your ideas.  There is also a need to convey the... Read more

blogging tools
Posted on General

Blogging Tools To Help You Be Productive and Successful

As we start a new year, it is an excellent time to look at tools that can help your blog.  Of course, there is always our Launch Your Internet Business series of tutorials.  However, we are going to look at some specific tools to help once your site is live instead of just launching it. Blogging Tools Come In All Forms We start by considering all the ways tools can help our blogging.  There are some that help us write faster, better (SEO and grammatically), communicate to our audience, and more.  For this article, we will look at a wide range of tools and how they can help. Write Better – Grammarly The best tool I have come across personally is Grammarly.  You can... Read more