Although I am officially a “Technical Specialist” on paper for Microsoft technologies, the ability to pass an exam is pretty much useless when faced with real world development decisions.
People sometimes ask me what it’s like – being a software developer – usually with regard to their children who are flirting with the idea as a [...]
After several years working with the Microsoft .NET platform, I have finally been afforded time at the beginning of this year to sit down with the books, study, and hit the exam trail. After taking two exams in the past couple of weeks (detailed below), I am now officially a “Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist”.
Here’s the [...]
I’ve been working away for the last couple of evenings to design and build a new theme for Wordpress. It’s name thus far is “Subminimal” – I have no real reason for the name – it just sounded good when I thought of it. At the moment, my freelance work site “Beckett Web Design” has [...]
Every few years, I find myself returning to a project I have had kicking around since leaving college – writing a “chess engine”. For those who are casual readers of my blog, it might be worth explaining what a “chess engine” is.
A chess engine is a computer program that can play chess. Simple. The term [...]
I debated about writing this in a different place on the internet, but seeing as this blog has become a drop box for anything and everything that enters my head and exits via my fingers, I thought “what the hell”.
I tripped over something in programming today while wrestling with an insanely complex problem – something [...]
I’ve spent the afternoon drawing digital artwork for use as background for powerpoint slides. It’s good to have such diverse skills and experience.
It’s opening my eyes to the skills I hold, and the huge breadth of knowledge expected of a modern web developer though. You’re expected to know not only how to wrangle HTML, but [...]
Several things occurred to me recently;
I am a pretty good software developer. I fall into the “natural developer” end of the double bell curve, being the sort of person that brings invention, rigour, elegance and simplicity to the creations I conjur.
I am a pretty good web developer. I write neat, compliant, easily readable HTML, CSS, [...]
Next on my commuting reading list while taking a break from fiction is “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”.
If you’ve not heard of it before, it’s perhaps the most famous account of the origins of open source development, and a look at the reasons it has swept like a wildfire across the software development landscape.
Amazon has [...]
At some point tomorrow a nice man sent from Amazon will deliver a large box to our doorstep at home containing a Nintendo Wii, and several games for it. The decision was not an easy one to make. For the first time in months we had some “play” money, and I thought long and hard [...]
I’ve recently had several people asking me to help them build websites. Given that it’s kind of “what I do”, and that my employer only pricks their ears up if numbers far in excess of those being suggested are mentioned, I am probably pretty safe earning a few beans here and there.
It opens another can [...]
© Cheese and Beans. Say something clever here. Or not. You decide.
