Radical Development

February 1, 2010
by Steven Swafford
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Tools of the Trade: February 2010

As a software engineer there are a number of tools that I use on a daily basis to both increase productivity and make my job easier. Each month I will discuss products that I either currently use, have used in the past, and what I am hearing is the next best product. Products may include but are not limited to shareware, freeware, commercial, and open source. I will not be targeting any on aspect of software engineering rather I will suggest tools and products that can also make you much more productive in your day to day activities. Redgate .NET …

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January 30, 2010
by Steven Swafford
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Printer Friendly Web Pages

While I personally do print a great deal of web pages I do find myself from time to time running across an article that I want to to keep and a bookmark is something I do not want to use. Print is something that you can file away to ensure that the information is available to you at any point in time. The one thing that drives me nuts is those sites that do not provide printer friendly versions of content or if they do it contains logos and other unnecessary images. Everyone has their own idea when it comes …

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January 23, 2010
by Steven Swafford
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Best Practices: Visual Studio .NET Project Naming Standards

If you have not adopted a best practice when it comes to naming your solution and projects within Visual Studio .NET, I urge you to take a moment a think about this subject. As anyone will tell you best practices are worth their weight in gold and why would anyone not want to review what others has determined that works? By doing so you are not doomed to make the same mistakes. I believe a great place to start is the .NET Framework Class Library itself. By looking at this framework you will notice that the namespaces are grouped by …

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January 14, 2010
by Steven Swafford
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How To Achieve Website Optimization

Why should you care about optimization when it comes to your website? Should it really be a surprise to learn that your visitors are impatient and wants what they want immediately? I think not. We have become a society of faster is better therefore you should take every approach possible to get your data rendered as quickly as possible to keep the visitors attention. By doing so you can feel proud of your work while at the same time increasing your user base. When it comes down to it isn’t the goal to generate as much traffic as possible? Now …

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January 13, 2010
by Steven Swafford
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Software Architecture Questions and Answers

Software architecture serves as the blueprint for both the system and the project developing it, defining the work assignments that must be carried out by design and implementation parties. The architecture is the primary carrier of system qualities, such as performance, scalability, and security, none of which can be achieved without a common vision. Architecture is an artifact for early analysis to make sure that the design approach will yield an acceptable system. Architecture holds the key to post deployment system understanding and maintenance. Basically, it is the conceptual foundation that binds every phase of the project together. (Q) What …

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December 20, 2009
by Steven Swafford
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Snazzy File Uploading With .NET and JQuery

I must admit that more often than not when I run across an option to upload files the interface leaves a lot to be desired. Why is this? Should end users not be presented with eye candy as well as immediate feedback when it comes to uploading data? Simply JavaScript – Free 150 Page Preview! Learn how easy it is to use JavaScript to solve real-world problems, build smarter forms, track user events (such as mouse clicks and key strokes), and design eye-catching animations. Then move on to more powerful techniques using the DOM and Ajax. World-renowned authors, Kevin Yank …

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December 2, 2009
by Steven Swafford
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PowerShell 2.0 Under Windows 7

It is important to note that Windows 7 is the first operating system which shipped with PowerShell as part of the operating system. Visit the Windows PowerShell Blog for a listing of versions and downloads as well as a wealth of other information. To access PowerShell all one must do is open the Run dialog or press Win+R and type PowerShell and press Enter. If you will be accessing PowerShell frequently then you may way to pin it to your task bar for future access. To tell the truth I have not worked with PowerShell in the past however the …

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