Software Development Podcast List

I spend a fair amount of time in my day.  I work in an organzation that has many office workers and warehouse as well.  In fact, my office is next to the warehouse and you can probably guess that it is not as quiet as it could be.  It's difficult to concentrate sometimes with all of this "white noise" around me. 

I therefore turn to podcasts to get rid of the useless noise and add some good content to my day.  I find listening to podcasts gives me better concentration and I can also learn a thing or two.

Anyway, I wanted to put a list together of the podcasts I listen to on a frequent basis.  I also watch some shows as well.  I know these aren't really categorized as podcasts but they cover the same topics.

• The MicroISV Show – not really directly software development related but a show about software developers making it out on their own.
• .NET Rocks – the first show I started listening to put on by Carl Franklin.  As of this writing they were up to show #173.  They include all types of guests including Don Box, Chris Sells, Scott Hanselman, Ted Neward and others.  This one is probably my favorite.
• ARCast with Ron Jacobs – Ron is from Microsoft and has talks manly about software architecture and best practices.  He has had some great guests on there including Martin Fowler, Jeffrey Richter and Ivar Jacobson.
• Audible Ajax – You probably guessed it.  This podcast is all about Ajax, those using it and different companies supporting it.
• Hanselminutes – a podcast put on by Scott Hanselman where Scott talks about being a more efficient and well-informed developer.  Topics include code generation, debugging and testing.
• Polymorphic Podcast – hosted by Craig Shoemaker.  This is also one of my favorites as Craig's style and voice is very soothing to a stressed developer.  Topics include Ajax, ADO.NET, disassembling DLL's among others.
• ASP.NET Podcast - produced by Wally McClure.  I am up and down on this podcast.  It has great topics and Wally interviews some interesting people but Wally tends to talk too much about his personal life and not about technology.  There is good stuff in here but they podcasts can be cut in half with the useful content.
• Ruby on Rails Podcast – focuses on developers who use Ruby and Ruby on Rails in particular to create applications.  I am not aware of another Ruby on Rails podcast as of yet.
• The Web 2.0 Show – talks about how people are creating companies using Web 2.0 technology and being successful at it.
• DNR TV – a video version of Carl Franklins .NET Rocks Show. This one shows a video of a developer giving detailed lessons on various topics.

I don't spend my days listening to these shows but listen when I can.  I have found something useful in all of them.

Technorati Tags : Podcasts

Microsoft Atlas Control Toolkit Released

Microsoft has made available a really nice set of extended controls for use with Atlas. The announcement was made by Shawn Burke, who is on the Atlas team. The toolkit is available form the Atlas site, here.

The toolkit is really a set of samples that show controls and extenders for the existing Atlas controls. There is also an SDK that assists developers to create their own controls and extenders. The controls out-of-the-box are pretty nice. My favorite is the Drag Panel which behaves much like the panels on my.yahoo.com.

If you don’t have Atlas which I mentioned the release here, then go get it. From the Atlas toolkit web site you can check out the samples included in the toolkit:

In the "Atlas" Control Toolkit, you'll find the following controls and extenders (click the links to see them in action!):

• CascadingDropDown: Easily link drop downs, complete with asynchronous population and no postbacks!
• CollaspiblePanel: This extender allows panels on your page to collapse and expand with no code.
• ConfirmButton: This extender adds a confirm dialog to any Button, LinkButton, or ImageButton control.
• DragPanel: Makes any panel into an object that you can drag around the page.
• HoverMenu: Allows UI to pop up next to a control when the user hovers over it.
• PopupControl: This extender turns any panel into a popup.
• ReorderList: This control is a full-featured data-bound control that allows its elements to be reordered on the client via drag and drop.
• TextBoxWatermark: This extender adds "watermark" prompt text to TextBoxes on the page.
• ToggleButton: This extender turns an ASP

I am planning on digging into these controls over the next week or so and I will report back on them.

Technorati Tags: ASP.NET, Ajax, Atlas, Microsoft

Microsoft Atlas April CTP Released

In case anyone missed it, Microsoft released the April CTP of Atlas, their Ajax toolkit.  I have been using the last build to work through some test projects and the took kit is fantastic.

I know it has been reported the amount of the data is large for Atlas-enabled pages but the performance is good.  I am sure Microsoft will optimize this as the debug code comes out and things will get smaller.

There are also some great sample applications available on the Atlas web site.   Is anyone using this framework?  If so, what are you building?

Rick Strahl has a great example of using Atlas for a chat web service here.

Technorati Tags: ASP.NET, Ajax, Microsoft

Ruby on Rails 1.1 Released

Ruby on Rails 1.1 has been released.  This is a much anticipated release that touts many new features and a ton of bug fixes, 500+ I hear.  Some of the major updates include:

• Ajax is easier with RJS, JavaScript in Ruby
• ActiveRecord – many new features including join models
• Third testing layer – integration, which allows for simulation of multiple concurrent users

Scott Raymond has a complete and thorough list here of 1.1 new features. 

I ran and update this morning to my Rails installation using gem update rails and tested the small apps I have running and all worked great.  I am sure for more complex applications that you want a real deployment plan.

Technorati Tags : Ruby, Ruby on Rails

Microsoft Atlas March CTP Available Now

The latest and greatest CTP of Atlas is available now. You can check it out here and download it.   This CTP also includes the “Go Live” license so you can use this version in your applications and produce production code.

I have been using Atlas in some test projects and it appears Microsoft is producing some nice AJAX features we can use without having to be a JavaScript expert.

This announcement came from MIX’06 and you can find more information here as well.

Technorati Tags : ASP.NET, AJAX, Atlas, Microsoft

AJAX Resources

I have been doing a lot of research with regards to AJAX technologies lately.  I figured I would share some of the more useful ones I have found:

• Wilco Bauwer’s Atlas Site
• Rick Strahl’s Weblog – browse through the posts and look at the AJAX ones, very insightful
• West Wind Hover Panel Control – a nice control by Rick Strahl
• Telerik RadCallBack Control

A very nice and thorough comparison of AJAX frameworks was done by Daniel Zeiss.  It gives some nice details as far as browser support, developer support and page rendering size too.  It’s well worth the read if you considering implementing AJAX in your applications.

Another nice piece from the Code Project covering the use of the open source AJAX project called Anthem.Net is worth a read.

One note or word of caution regarding some of these AJAX controls is these controls break down into two categories; the first group being those controls that require you to create your own JavaScript to handle the callbacks and the second set of controls are encapsulated and shelter you from the JavaScript.   The first group of controls include those from Michael Schwarz known as Ajax.NET Professional.  The second group of controls include those from Telerik with their RadCallback Control suite as well as the set of controls from Anthem.Net.  The problems I have been facing with using the Telerik controls relates to the fact that I don’t write the JavaScript myself so I rely on the Telerik controls working with the other intrinsic controls I am using.  On problem in particular that has come up is using Telerik callback controls with .NET 2.0 validation controls.  The controls get along fine until the callback occurs and the validation controls are reloaded, this causes some strange JavaScript problems and future events such as a button push no longer work.  Since I have no control over the JavaScript I have no way to fix this. 

When looking at using AJAX technology I think it’s key to understand the different offerings of controls and the pluses and minuses of each type.  The average user with very basic needs  probably doesn’t need or want to write JavaScript but to be most effective you will probably need to.  It will be interesting to see how the Microsoft Atlas project fairs in relation to this.  Atlas is being touted as not having to write JavaScript and hopefully will be able to get along with it’s own non-AJAX validation controls.  We will see.

Technorati Tags : AJAX, Atlas

Starting to use AJAX

The current project I am working on is an ASP.NET (C# 2.0) application that is a specialized eCommerce system. 

Our approach is to look at our system and determine where AJAX belongs and where it doesn’t.  AJAX is not a new technology but is a newly branded old-technology.  Any time you find a “craze” such as this it’s easy to think it’s an end-all solution to all problems.  This is not the case.  Rick Strahl has some great insight into AJAX in a post from August 2005.  All of his views are right on if you step back and think about AJAX as a technology and ignore all the “me too” people out there.

I believe AJAX can be used successfully in well-planned-out areas of our application used by your customers that potentially have the biggest impact.  The biggest impact in my mind is making a better user experience, not for marketing to use the term “AJAX” to help with a sale and make it sound like we are trendy.

We are implementing AJAX in simple items at first to replace the usual postback in changing a selection in a drop down list to remove the usual behavior of a postback to make the interface much smoother.  An example of this is choosing a country in a drop down and filling the states/province associated drop down behind the scenes.  This is a simple and subtle example but it really makes a difference.

I am planning on using AJAX in our shopping cart application when an item quantity is changed to update totals and such.  This can also apply when removing an item.  These types of nuances to make the user interface smooth with no postbacks is the perfect spot. 

Other areas we are considering using AJAX is to pull down panels to edit information.  The information doesn’t need to show until you want to edit it, so why show it.  I will report back later and show some examples of how we are using it in the future.

Technorati Tags : AJAX, Atlas