Most Recent Stories & Articles for December 2006
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YUI and CSS Vertical Positioning
- Posted On: 12/29/2006
I had some difficulty using the YUI library while controlling vertical positioning. Specifically, how to position header text at the bottom of a 3-column grid containing images. Find out what I did...
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Five Classes in 5 months
- Posted On: 12/22/2006
It has been 5 months since I returned to school at Western International University and I have completed four courses in that time. The major difficulty has been balancing the responsibilities of a full-time job and family while getting good grades. I have taken MGT340 "Organizational Behavior and Theory", CRT201 "Critical Thinking", ACC301 "Introduction to Accounting", ACC302 "Managerial Accounting", and ETH201 "Cultural Diversity". Read on for a summary...
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C# Design Patterns: A Tutorial
- Posted On: 12/16/2006
- C# Design Patterns: A Tutorial
Outstanding! In 2002, I had attempted to read the original "Gang of Four" design patterns book and found myself quickly confused. To my shagrin, I proceeded to ignore the topic since, until I ran into Microsoft's .NET Enterprise Library, which talked about "patterns and practices". I knew the advancement of my career in computing largely depended on my understanding of this topic as well as fundamental computing algorithms (which I never took in college). So, I picked this design patterns book written for C# programmers up in my local Barnes & Noble bookstore. Wow! Crystal clear! Certainly, I had to re-read a few sections to make them stick, but I quickly bought the eBook version of it and began pouring over the content. After finishing the book, I knew I had to make the topic stick to my brain, so I jotted some notes, summarizing the patterns as best served my memory. If you want to learn design patterns, this may be the book for you! I suppose now I'll have to get back in the bookstore and try out the original "GoF" book again...
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Crucial Confrontations
- Posted On: 12/16/2006
- Crucial Confrontations
I cheated a little on this one... My work offers a free lending library of resources, including this audio CD set. Now that I have to commute to work, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity! I quickly realized that I retain much less from an audio book than paper. The same holds true with eBooks. I definately appreciate saving the trees, but the benefits of highlighting and in-context note-taking are valuable. Obviously it is difficult to take notes while driving and listening, so I simply used my rewind button whenever I had difficulty understanding a statement or found myself distracted from the points.
Much like the The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the concepts here should be basic to you. But, the excellent use of role-play examples were invaluable in explaining them. The authors reiterated their basic lessons throughout, which really helped solidify my understanding of how to approach, execute, and follow-up on confrontations in my life. Again, planning, listening, being open and flexible and honest, etc. are all fundamental to the author's approach on this topic. What really helped me were the reviews of particularly difficult confrontations; for example confronting your own boss or working through an issue with your spouse or children. Learning how to truly put effort into understanding the other person's perspective and making the only assumption that the other person could have a perfectly rational, reasonable perspective behind their side. In fact, the 7 Habits covered this through the example of the Young Woman/Old Woman illusion, by explaining that two people can see something completely differently and still be right. This is important in many aspects of our life, including crucial confrontations.
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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- Posted On: 12/16/2006
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
I had finished 80% of this book nearly 4 years ago and it has vexed me ever since. Well, I finally made it my one-and-only book to read for nearly a week and made it through. For those fast readers out there, do not fear, I am a technical reader and I take my time and am a paragraph philosopher, reviewing every declaration in my mind. For the slower readers, the book is a smooth read and you shouldn't have any problem; just keep at it! There is already a great deal of content surrounding this book's success, so I will not bore you with something you can read elsewhere. My main point in reviewing the book is this: plan, prioritize, be open and flexible, and constantly learn new things. Yes, most of us know these principles by heart and they lay festering in every bad decision we make or event we encounter. But, they are a reality that doesn't dissappear! No, you don't need to read a book to know you need to do them. But, why are they a problem? For most of us, we struggle with motivation behind these principles. Reading the book helps you take time to tell your brain "this is important" and help redirect your current life's patterns toward a better path; as do most meditations on value-based strategies for life. Put the time aside to read the book and, more important than the solutions that Mr. Covey provides, think through how you can stream-line your life to be more effective toward your own personal mission in life. This single, all-encompassing purpose will be a life-long struggle to define, but it's ultimately the only guiding factor we have, so write it down, review it, and stick to the plan as best you can!
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Wrox Rocks: A Trip Down Memory Strain
- Posted On: 12/7/2006
Wrox has been and continues to be an influential publisher for my career. It wasn't long after learning HTML and basic JavaScript that I found the need for reference books. I purchased my first Wrox book "Professional JavaScript" in 1999 for $50. Since then, this book has seen several editions as have most books I started with. Following is a summary of some fundamental books I purchased from Wrox with a review of the original editions and suggestions for would-be readers. Read on and enjoy a trip down memory pain and strain...
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Making a Habit of Success
- Posted On: 12/7/2006
- Making a Habit of Success
An oldy, but a goody. This book was originally published as two separate volumes; "How to Make a Habit of Succeeding" in 1966 and "How to Win With High Self-Esteem" in 1994. In the volumes, the author, Mack Douglas, pulls the reader back to traditional values. Although the book holds strong connections with "Christian values" and even quotes the Bible, the lessons taught are invaluable to everyone, regardless of their religion. You should always read critically anyways... The time spent reading this book was incredibly valuable and I highly recommend a trip back to "traditional success". Barnes & Noble Books republished the 400 page beast.
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Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Programming Inside Out
- Posted On: 12/7/2006
- Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Programming Inside Out
Incredible! Excel has a lot of quirks and you can crash it pretty easily and quickly. The combination of this book and places like Mr. Excel were invaluable. Though, I still ended up learning things that didn't seem to be documented... anywhere.
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Real World ASP.NET: Building a Content Management System
- Posted On: 12/7/2006
- Real World ASP.NET: Building a Content Management System
Started out great and then it started puking out worthless code for pages and pages and pages. I wanted a book with content! The book started sucking right at Chapter 5 "Basics of Web Architecture" (out of 15 chapters!). Once I had downloaded the source code and saw what the author was discussing in Chapters 1-4, I was good to go. Thanks for wasting page-flipping time. 
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The One Minute Manager
- Posted On: 12/7/2006
Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson teamed up back in the 80's to bring us a timeless management classic, "The One Minute Manager". This is an incredibly simple book that compresses some important management techniques into less than 100 pages of large-print content. My suggestion: Definately read the book, but read it at the bookstore (it will take about a minute) and then consider buying it for someone else.
