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Welcome the ctrl-D blog. ctrl-D blog is a simple blogging engine created with ASP.Net and XML. It lists entries to favorites stories with occasional blogger comments.
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Design 10 UI Design Patterns You Should Be Paying Attention To

In short, design patterns are solutions to recurring problems. By extension, UI design patterns are solutions to common user interface problems. This article goes over 10 interesting UI design patterns that you can use in your own projects. In fact, you may already be using them now without knowing it.
6/24/2009 1:03:23 PM
Developer $timator - Real Website Value Estimator

Calculate a website's value. I just wish it explained some of its metric better.
4/7/2009 1:53:37 PM
Programming.Flex Creating more secure SWF web applications

Adobe frequently updates the Flash Player software security model to improve the security of the Flash Player environment. However, that only addresses half of the overall solution to help securely deploy applications that run in Flash Player. As the web developer, you must also correctly leverage the tools provided by the Adobe ActionScript language and the Flash Player platform to help ensure that your SWF files are more secure. Poor programming conventions can expose SWF files and the sites that host them to web attacks. Adobe provides many resources for developers—such as the Flash Player security section of the Programming ActionScript 3.0 for Flash documentation—to assist with developing more secure code.
3/25/2009 5:23:12 PM
Programming Back to Basics: Interfaces

When it comes to object-oriented programming there are few concepts as basic and important as interfaces. Only recently though, and at a snails pace, have .NET developers started to take advantage of the simple benefits interfaces have to offer. This interest stems from the core role interfaces play in some pretty hot topics, including: dependency injection, unit testing and mocking (to name a few).
3/5/2009 3:59:15 PM
DIY Magazines (and Websites) About Homesteading and Self-Sufficiency

Title speaks for itself.
2/27/2009 5:48:15 PM
Programming.Net Creating a Simple Windows Service in C#

Nice to check in with some fundamentals. Defined: A Windows Service is a long-running executable that's designed to work without user interaction. [They can be configured to start when the system boots and they can be run without any users logged into the system.]
2/25/2009 5:34:49 PM
Freelance 15 Tips for Freelancers Starting Their Own Business

1) Move Out of Your Back Bedroom
2) Dress for Business
3) Centralize your Data
4) Be the Person Your Customers Like
5) Reply to Emails Promptly.
6) Always Return Voicemail Messages.
7) Maintain a Verbal/Email Relationship.
8) Express Interest in your Client’s Business Sector.
9) Welcome Customer Complaints.
10) Don’t be Afraid to Pass
11) Work on your Sales Technique
12) Build ’stock’ proposals.
13) Always be On Time.
14) Learn About Personality Types.
15) Use a Notepad to Take Notes.
2/13/2009 3:30:27 PM
Programming.Flex Form Validation for the Lazy Programmer in Flex

FTA: Every form I've written carries the same structure for validation, so as a dedicated lazy programmer I wrote a simple FormValidator class to handle the boilerplate.
2/9/2009 4:03:01 PM
Career Muhammad Ali's Top 5 Tips for Punching Through the Wall

1. Take a risk: "He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."
2. Steer clear of self-sabotage and creating inner obstacles: "It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe."
3. Keep your self-talk positive: "It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen."
4. Don't make a big deal out of it: "It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up."
5. Use your emotional leverage to succeed: "Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even."
2/6/2009 12:11:12 PM
Career 10 Ways To Explain Things More Effectively

#1: Keep in mind others' point of view
#2: Listen and respond to questions
#3: Avoid talking over people's head
#4: Avoid talking down to people
#5: Ask questions to determine people's understanding
#6: Focus on benefits, not features
#7: Use analogies to make concepts clearer
#8: Compare new concepts to familiar ones
#9: Use the concepts of subsets and supersets
#10: Confirm that your explanation makes sense
2/5/2009 3:00:21 PM
Entrpreneurial Solving a different problem

FTA: ...If the telephone guys had set out to make something that did what the telegraph does, but better, they probably would have failed. Instead, they solved a different problem, in such an overwhelmingly useful way that they eliminated the feature set of the competition.
2/5/2009 12:09:54 PM
Programming.Net Tips for becoming a faster developer

Jon Kruger lists some helpful hints:

Become a keyboard ninja
Create easy-to-use frameworks
Use code generation tools
Control distractions
Buy ReSharper
2/2/2009 2:24:43 PM
Programming.Net A Guide to Learning ASP.NET MVC Release Candidate 1

So far I've heard good things about ASP.Net MVC -- I was almost willing to give up ASP.Net with its handholding. This link had a lot of great examples to check out.
1/29/2009 1:27:40 PM
Career 6 Words That Make Your Resume Suck

1. Responsible For
2. Experienced
3. Excellent written communication skills
4. Team Player
5. Detail Oriented
6. Successful
1/22/2009 3:16:57 PM
Object-relational Mapping Introduction to NHibernate, Part 1

NHibernate is an open source ORM, derived initially from the Hibernate project. NHibernate supports persistence ignorance, your object classes don't have to follow a restrictive programming model. Persistent classes do not need to implement any interface or inherit from a special base class.
1/22/2009 10:18:21 AM
Career 20 blunders I committed in my career which I realised during recession

19. 3 Years Experience doesn’t matter if you don’t have experience in good projects If you are working on random projects doing things which a high school kid can do with certain training, you are not building experience. You are wasting your time.
1/22/2009 10:03:59 AM
Security Interview with an Adware Author

...we also made a virtual process executable. I've never heard of anybody else doing this before. Windows has this thing called Create Remote Thread. Basically, the semantics of Create Remote Thread are: You're a process, I'm a different process. I call you and say "Hey! I have this bit of code. I'd really like it if you'd run this." You'd say, "Sure," because you're a Windows process-- you're all hippie-like and free love. Windows processes, by the way, are insanely promiscuous. So! We would call a bunch of processes, hand them all a gob of code, and they would all run it. Each process would all know about two of the other ones. This allowed them to set up a ring … mutual support, right?
1/14/2009 2:03:38 PM
Programming Summing a Sequence

Bill the Lizard uses the triangular numbers formula as a programming lesson. "Loops are always suspect", or more accurately, programmers should always take the opportunity to discover if a better way exists.
1/5/2009 12:41:20 PM
Career How to get really, really rich

I really liked the part about negotiating: "You want experience. And you want an empty, Zen mind. ... You have to persuade yourself that you absolutely don't care what happens. If you don't care, you've won. I absolutely promise you, in every serious negotiation, the man or woman who doesn't care is going to win. ... No deal is a must-do deal."
12/30/2008 10:39:02 AM
Tech Everything You Need to Know How to Do in Windows

The most popular Windows tutorials from Lifehacker.
12/30/2008 9:57:55 AM
Humor If programming languages were religions...

Good list. I suspect many pseudo followers of C and C++. They decry the modern languages of C# and Java, but practice the modern languages. They might as well do VB...
12/17/2008 11:51:46 AM
Tech Windows XP Speed Hacks

Some good tips. Most of the services listed were ones that I had turned off already -- yes! Still Windows XP needs lots of help.
12/17/2008 10:30:11 AM
Entrpreneurial How to make money using the Internet

Seth's Blog article on ways to use the internet to -- Connect!
11/20/2008 10:22:59 AM
Design Terrific Tables with CSS

Comprehensive. Goes into column and row groups.
11/18/2008 4:45:26 PM
Finance Fed hires ex-Bear Stearns risk manager to oversee U.S. bank safety

Recycling kills green in the financial industry. FTA: What is there in this person's experience and skill package that qualifies him for the Fed position?
11/11/2008 1:57:56 PM
Programming 91 Guaranteed Ways to Become an Even Greater Developer

If you are a web developer, study these and other websites that every web developer should know by heart: UseIt Alertbox, A List Apart, "Getting Real" from 37Signals, Web Design from Scratch, ReadWriteWeb, Meyer Web
11/7/2008 11:57:35 AM
Developer Protect Your Email from Spiders

Two web development tricks to prevent your email address from being harvested.
11/6/2008 12:16:45 PM
Career 3 Days To Building A Perfect Resume

Helpful tips for refining a tech resume, which will make your technical interview much more productive.
11/5/2008 11:20:49 AM
Programming.Net IIS 301 Redirection While Preserving the Query String

This is the coolest thing I've seen all week. Why code a URL preservation routine in ASP.Net when IIS will do it for you?
11/4/2008 3:56:33 PM
Developer 10 Most Sought-after Skills in Web Development

1. Framework knowledge
2. Widget development
3. Custom CMS themes
4. CMS Customizations and plugin development
5. PSD to XHTML services
6. Javascript Plugin creation
7. Facebook/MySpace applications
8. iPhone applications
9. Ecommerce integration
10. Flash and Actionscript Knowledge
10/30/2008 9:57:30 AM
Programming.Net Essential Visual Studio Tips & Tricks that Every Developer Should Know

In this blog entry, I list the essential tips and tricks that every developer who uses Visual Studio 2008 should know. I wanted to keep this list brief. I also wanted to focus on only those tips and tricks that I use on a daily basis. Almost all of these tips and tricks are just as useful regardless of whether you are building an ASP.NET Web Forms or ASP.NET MVC application.
10/24/2008 10:03:56 AM
Networking How to Come up With Good Conversation Topics

Even if you know how to start a conversation and make it a good one, there's still the issue of choosing what you're going to talk about. Some topics are inappropriate in some situations, and some are just plain boring. Here are some topics to keep the conversation alive while keeping your foot out of your mouth.
10/22/2008 5:26:33 PM
Tech Learn to Profit from Piracy

Piracy is a new type of business model, says journalist and best-selling author Matt Mason. An expert in cheating the system, Mason advocates piracy as a way to force old laws to catch up with the new ways information is being used.
10/22/2008 10:44:07 AM
Education 100 Free College Rides You Don’t Need Daddy to Pay For

Believe it or not, there are many colleges and universities that offer students free tuition. Many of them are funded by endowments, state programs, or even student workers. But they all offer an incredibly affordable way to get a quality education. Here, we’ve listed 100 real colleges and universities where you can go to school for free.
10/14/2008 5:32:04 PM
Developer 6 Scripting Languages Your Developers Wish You'd Let Them Use

Since every programming language is a tool suited to solve a particular problem, it behooves each IT shop to use the best tool for the job. So in this article, I share a few up-and-coming scripting languages that really ought to be on your company's radar, with a few passionate arguments from developers who have adopted them.
10/14/2008 11:14:26 AM
Deals 15 Ways to Watch TV Online Free

Does anyone remember the old school television sets with the out wooden cover? It looked like a large coffee table with a picture. You had to get up and actually walk across the room to turn a knob to the few channels you had after you adjusted the rabbit ears. TV hit our home as a small black and white. There was no color, no digital, no stereo sound. Best of all it was free! Those days just like Model T Fords are gone. Now without further wait, here are 15 ways to watch TV online free.
10/8/2008 6:29:48 PM
Career Office Inspiration Quotes

* Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they did it by killing all those who opposed them.
* If you can stay calm, while all around you is chaos… then you probably haven’t completely understood the seriousness of the situation.
* Doing a job RIGHT the first time gets the job done. Doing the job WRONG fourteen times gives you job security.
* Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.
...
10/8/2008 1:17:20 PM
Programming.Net 30 Common String Operations in C# and VB.NET

Decent reference though it doesn't mention which version of the .Net framework it uses. I'm using ASP.net a little less frequently right now, so this will be a good article to get me back up to speed.
10/6/2008 11:58:14 AM
Sports Waiting for Manny

An interesting article written about Manny from 2007. Offers some background as to the origin of Manny being Manny.
10/3/2008 10:58:38 AM
Programming.Net Microsoft's Anders Hejlsberg reveals the history behind one of the most common programming languages, C#, and what the future holds for C#4.0.

In this interview Microsoft's leader of C# development, Anders Hejlsberg, took some time to tell Computerworld about the development of C#, his thoughts on future programming trends, and his experiences putting out fires. Hejlsberg is also responsible for writing the Turbo Pascal system, and was the lead architect on the team that developed Delphi. -- I'm so glad they went with C# and not COOL.
10/1/2008 11:26:56 AM
Career The Quickest Route to a Six-Figure Job

FTA "4. Computer software engineers may often begin their careers after completing a two-year, online associate degree in programming or IT systems. Starting salaries actually can reach the $90k range. But to grab the top-end $130,850 salaries earned in 2007, you'll probably need a bachelor's degree, on-the-job experience, and some professional certifications."

Yeah, you'll probably need to continue your education. Probably...
9/25/2008 12:23:45 PM
Finance Everything You Wanted to Know About the Credit Crisis But Were Afraid to Ask

The crisis occurred (to greatly oversimplify) because the financial system allowed entities to place bets on whether or not those mortgages would ever be paid. You didn't have to own a mortgage to make the bets. These bets, called Credit Default Swaps, are complex. But in a nutshell, they allow someone to profit immensely - staggeringly - if large numbers of subprime mortgages are not paid off and go into default.
9/24/2008 5:27:56 PM
Programming A pragmatic approach to writing a mp3 crawler in perl

A pragmatic approach to writing a music crawler.
9/20/2008 7:46:13 PM
Developer 10 questions every software developer should ask himself after every project

These 10 questions should not take more than 15 minutes to answer and you can always come back and update your answers. Just be honest with yourself.
9/18/2008 11:40:15 AM
Career Eight barriers to effective listening

#1 - Knowing the answer
#2 - Trying to be helpful
#3 - Treating discussion as competition
#4 - Trying to influence or impress
#5 - Reacting to red flag words
#6 - Believing in language
#7 - Mixing up the forest and the trees
#8 - Over-splitting or over-lumping
9/16/2008 10:46:20 PM
SEO Copywriting for the Busy

Copy doesn't need to be long to be effective. ... Remember that the right words carefully chosen do the trick and that we pile on more and more because we don't actually know what people are looking for...
9/16/2008 3:32:34 PM
Design 10 Smart Javascript Techniques to Improve Your UI

Javascript is typically used as an aesthetic language in web development. This means that web developers should almost always be using Javascript for one thing only: Improving the visitor's experience. There are many clever and useful ways to improve a site from the user interface perspective. A developer can find nearly any snippet of Javascript to achieve what he or she wants to accomplish.
9/16/2008 10:35:58 AM
Security Protect Your Privacy When Downloading

Whether you're downloading copyrighted material or not, no one likes to have their activities online monitored. Let's take a look at ways you can protect your downloading and file sharing privacy, and prevent the big media companies and other anti-P2P organizations from spying on your file sharing habits.
3/28/2008 10:06:24 AM
Humor 20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life

What follows isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s one that I hope proves useful to at least a few people.
2/20/2008 4:42:09 PM
Health Caffeine: A User's Guide to Getting Optimally Wired

Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant in the world, but few use it to maximal advantage. Get optimally wired with these 5 tips.
2/12/2008 2:27:11 PM
Design Curvy Corners JavaScript

curvyCorners is a free JavaScript program that will create on-the-fly rounded corners for any HTML DIV element, that look as good as any graphically created corners.
2/6/2008 3:37:00 PM
Programming Why C Is Not My Favourite Programming Language

Brian Kernighan, the documenter of the C programming language, wrote a rant entitled Why Pascal is Not My Favourite Programming Language. I can picture him thinking to himself smugly as he repeatedly strikes facetiously at Pascal by describing a few of its small flaws over and over again. Unfortunately, time has not been kind to Kernighan's tract. Pascal has matured and grown in leaps and bounds, becoming a premier commercial language. Meanwhile, C has continued to stagnate over the last 35 years with few fundamental improvements made. It's time to redress the balance; here's why C is now owned by Pascal.
1/10/2008 11:05:42 AM
Programming 8 Ways For A Programmer To Stay Sane

With all of the rewards that come from being a programmer, the job can still be overwhelming. Dealing with the stress that our job creates is an important skill. I've compiled a list of ways for you, as a programmer, to keep your sanity.
11/28/2007 2:03:36 PM
Sports FASTBALL REACTION TIME

Test whether you could react in time to hit a baseball. Really tests if you're awake or not.
9/13/2007 4:48:39 PM
Health Forgetfulness is a tool of the brain

According to a new study, the brain only chooses to remember memories it thinks are most relevant, and actively suppresses those that are similar but less used...
6/5/2007 10:02:53 AM
Networking The Real Story of JPG Magazine

1. Make no assumptions when it comes to roles and responsibilities. Like my dad says: Someones gotta call quittin time.
2. Communication between partners is mandatory. And you cannot communicate with someone who is not communicating with you.
3. Decisions arent decisions if you have to keep making them. Set on the course and stick to it. If you keep talking about things that have already been decided, nothing will ever get done.
4. When someone says one thing, but acts in a contradictory way, you have a choice between believing their words or believing their deeds. Believe their deeds.
5. Never let anyone tell you what you want. When someone says, You dont want that, what they really mean is, I dont want you to have that.
6. Dont stay where you're not wanted, respected, or happy. Even if it’s your company.
5/15/2007 1:42:37 PM
Programming The seven sins of programmers

Inside the average programmer’s psyche are several demons that need exorcising. By Steven Goodwin
4/3/2007 10:58:52 AM
Programming How do I decode an encoded URL?

This page was quite a find. Written in Classic ASP, it wouldn't be too hard to update it to .Net. For those of you who like to extract encoded url parameters from within urls, thus bypassing tracking or other nonsense.
1/29/2007 3:36:43 PM
Programming How To Become A Hacker

In case you were wondering how. Good article that "truly" explains what it means to be one.
10/24/2006 3:41 PM

webtopus consulting web design
webtopus consulting web design