Personal

I ended my last post — twelve years ago this month — with a joke: If the next time you see me and all my hair has turned grey and fallen out you will know why. Some of the hairs went grey. Some of it left entirely. I want the record to show that I called it. What I did not call was the twelve-year gap between that post and this one. I never sat down and decided to stop writing. There was just always something more urgent than the blog, and then one day I looked up and the “something more urgent” had lasted over a decade. That is how these things go. Nobody announces a hiatus. You just get busy, and the getting-busy compounds. ...

I hope your have a Happy New Year! Over the next year I plan to increasing my rate of posting to my blog and keep it growing in the right direction. Be on the look out for a new design, new logo, and in a couple days my 2008 Year End Review, like what I did last year. Update: Got in trouble with the wife for not saying in this post that she also wishes you guys a Happy New Year, like last year.

I would like to congratulate the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON™), it is the largest student-run philanthropy in the world, and this past weekend they raised $6,615,318.04 for children with cancer. And a special congratulations to my fraternity Alpha Phi Delta, Chi Chapter, for participating and helping to raise money for this great cause.

Every developer has their favorite tool collection that they must have in order to survive while developing software. The list below is indispensable in my day-to-day activities and that is why I am sharing it with my readers. My list was inspired by Scott Hanselman’s own list of tools that he uses. However I would be really interested to see what Scott’s actual list is since it would be almost impossible to touch each and every tool once a week as he claims. Because many of them serve the same purpose. ...