I'm on the ground floor, but we still had to evacuate when one of the windows burst. This section is all Macs though :)

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000771.html

"The certification alphabet is no substitute for a solid portfolio; you should be spending your time building stuff, not studying for multiple choice tests. But that doesn't mean they're worthless, either. I don't think certifications get in the way, as long as you can demonstrate an impressive body of work along with them."

I couldn't agree more. I find that there is a misconception MS certifications are software development qualifications. Many budding developers think of this as a must have and expect to get programming skills through the certification program. They fail to realize that the MCP/MCSD/MCPD certifications are product certifications rather than programming certifications.

Inside the Intel tower at Second Fest :)

I was playing with Redgate's SQL Dependency tracker yesterday. The balloon tree view sort of shows how modular the db design is. I'm working on a project where I'm implementing "pluggable" modules of functionality.

The two circular clusters at the top left corner are the db objects for the module I'm working on. The view shows how the cluster relates to the ASP .Net membership provider tables. The clusters which go diagonally across the view are the aspnet db objects.

I've got my new laptop mostly working my way. Spent last weekend installing all what I need. I skipped VS 2005 and went straight for Orcas. Got most of the applications I need installed. The laptop came with Vista Home. I had to upgrade it to Vista Ultimate before I could do anything useful with it.

The keyboard feels a bit clunky compared to my old laptop. Maybe this is because the keyboard area is larger and the base of the laptop is much thicker. Winamp crashes when trying to play http streams.  Can't figure out yet how to enable Integrated Authentication in IIS 7, to debug web apps with Orcas (works fine with the built-in web server though). Orcas needs to run as administrator. HD content plays well after installing the K-Lite codec pack.

File copy is DEAD slow in Vista. Doesn't seem to be able to re-connect to a wireless network after resuming from hibernation when DHCP is enabled. Haven't had any major show stopper crashes yet. I'll give it a spin for a few more weeks, and probably install XP.

And yes Live Writer froze 3 times while writing this post.

My programmer personality type is:

DHSC

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.

You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.

You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There's no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.

You are a Conservative programmer.
The less code you write, the less chance there is of it containing a bug. You write short and to the point code that gets the job done efficiently.

Ordered a new laptop over the weekend, current laptop is getting rather old (almost 3 years). Waiting for it to be delivered tomorrow.

Specs :

Toshiba P200-156

• Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo (T7200 ) 2. GHz 4MB cache.
• 2 GB RAM and 250 GB hdd
• 17.1 inch screen
• Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 with 256MB ram.
• DVD+- RW etc..
• builtin web cam, bluetooth