I've been following Jason Franks' blog on GeeksWithBlogs and his recent theories on developers and big companies in "Dev.Culture" got me thinking. Here's two of the bits that stand out in his post: We want to build new things, we want to make an impact...and we don't _need_ tens of millions of dollars to accomplish anything. In software, we can built anything we imagine from nothing but keywords and logic...The story of the hero developer is never about a dude who joined a big company and worked his way up from the mailroom; it's about the guy who founded a company that grew...

Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think is a thin book that packs in a lot of good stuff. After reading only a few pages the strong points of the book stand out: easy to read, lots of practical examples, often funny, and technology-agnostic. I like good writing and Steve's style alone makes the book worth reading. However, the bottom line is that the content is fantastic and I think the brevity of the book works in its favor. The book is not the be-all and end-all of web usability but it's a good start that will appeal to designers and developers -...

The other day I passed Microsoft Exam 70-229 Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000. This was the second exam on my way to world domination (and my MCAD.NET, which I first blogged about 2 years ago). Before I do the one exam remaining on XML Web Services for my MCAD, I'm thinking of taking a "side road" and doing the MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist) for SQL Server 2005. I thought I'd do this quick diversion given that I recently studied up on SQL Server (albeit 2000), MCTS requires only 1 exam, and a while back I completed...