Radical Development | 2011

January 31, 2011
by Steven Swafford
Comments Off

Low Drive Space Notification Via PowerShell

The more I work with PowerShell the more I realize its true potential. Maybe one day I will be able to sit down and look closer, but for now I thought I would share a script that some may be able to make use of. Do you have a server farm? How about a home network? In either case you often may monitor how much free drive space is available and we all want to be proactive when it comes to disk space. The last thing you want is for the machine to crash and impacting your user base. If …

Continue reading →

January 16, 2011
by Steven Swafford
Comments Off

The Game Layer On Top Of The World

I watch probably more TED Talks than I should, but these talks are so informative and insightful that more often than not I find myself thinking differently about the subject the speaker has presented. Seth talks about how game layers are built into the world via social networks and you begin to understand just how much control these layers have over our life than many of us would like to admit. Seth is a “Proud Princeton dropout” and runs SCVNGR, a mobile start-up trying to build the game layer on top of the world.

January 10, 2011
by Steven Swafford
Comments Off

Looking Back At Computers In 1960

I admit that I did not own my first first computer until 1991 and even in the early 1990′s I affectionately refer to the 386SX-25 and CRT as boat anchors; they were huge, well so I thought. Who would have ever thought just 40-50 years ago that we would be walking around with a computer over our shoulder or even placed securely in a pocket? I’m sure not any of the folks in the following videos. Be sure to check out the Computer History Museum YouTube Channel for more history on computers. Now, this next video explains logic, rules, and …

Continue reading →

January 8, 2011
by Steven Swafford
Comments Off

Microsoft Academic Software Discounts And Programs

If you’re currently a student pursuing your education in hopes of landing the job of your dreams then pay attention. Microsoft provides a number of wonderful programs that will help you to purchase much needed software such as Word that might otherwise be to expensive for you to purchase at you local computer store, obtain certifications, and even participate in a program that allows you access to development tools for free. If you’ve been in need of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office products you may be surprised to learn that you can grab Office Professional Academic 2010 for a …

Continue reading →

January 6, 2011
by Steven Swafford
Comments Off

Product Review: Diskeeper 2010

Listen up, if you own a computer, then I want to share a problem that everyone encounters and fortunately the solution is easy and cost effective. The problem is hard disk fragmentation which is a one of the major causes of performance bottlenecks. Fragmentation may result in crashes, slowdowns, freeze-ups and even total system failures; therefore it is important to understand what you can do to be proactive. Many people are aware of the defrag utility that Windows comes with, but it is a manual process to defrag your disk and it is slow. At the very minimum you should …

Continue reading →

January 5, 2011
by Steven Swafford
Comments Off

WordPress Functions Hack To Open External Links In A New Window

Are you wanting to a mechanism to open all external links on your WordPress site in a new window? If you’re not familiar with functions.php as with anything make a backup before you begin any modifications and store this backup in a secure place. What functions.php does is let you create functions you can reuse. It works similar to a plugin, being loaded when the WordPress theme is first loaded. You can then use the functions inside for anything you wish. Just take the following code and save it inside your local functions.php: There you have it. One word of …

Continue reading →

January 1, 2011
by Steven Swafford
Comments Off

Visual Studio Snippets and Visual Studio Templates Productivity

I can think of no better way to start off 2011 by addressing productivity. It always amazes me that Microsoft has provided code snippets that allow a developer to quickly insert a specific piece of code very quickly and with little effort only to see that individuals take the time to physically enter the code themselves. Say for example you need a try/catch/finally statement, entering this code is not time consuming, but consider using the snippet and save yourself those precious seconds. I can hear you say seconds, are you kidding me? No I am not, if it takes you …

Continue reading →