I read blogs and listen to podcasts, and I own many of the "classic" programming books. For the money, what kind of printed material would you say is the most valuable to keep current in software engineering -- books, or magazines from professional organizations such as ACM and IEEE? Which organization has the best periodicals? ...
I'm sat here tonight bashing out some Project Euler with Python for virtually the first time and as a .Net developer, I am a little out of my comfort zone. (Maths is not my strong point and I am diving into python). Part of me wants to fire up Visual Studio and get the problem's solved but there is another side of me that wants to do th...
Hi, I am looking for some direction on finding a good open source project to work on. I am experienced in Java and PHP and am currently learning C, however, I don't know if I am comfortable enough in it yet to contribute anything. I tried looking at mediawiki but there wasn't really anything to do as it is such a big project with so man...
From my some of my previous questions it might be clear that I am looking to follow the road of web development. While, as I finish up school I do want to do web development and maybe for a little while once I graduate. Down the road, however, I'd the move into different areas of software like embedded systems or systems programming. Ho...
I was wondering if anyone had any experience of learning a new language (a human language not a programming one) and whether is has helped you get ahead in your career. I'm assuming that the new language is one other than English which I think is fairly essential to programming as most programming resources seem to be english. The reas...
As a web developer with zero formal training, my resume relies entirely on the "experience" portion. But I'd like to get some accreditation in the languages and skills I'm good at. And more than that, I want some feedback to know that I'm actually learning these things properly. So, what are good certifications for your standard web de...
I like dice.com and craigslist but I was wondering what the collective wisdom of Stackoverflow would produce on this subject. I'd like to know particularly about software developer/engineer/architect boards not so much administration or web design. NOTE: Similar Post Developer Employment Resources ...
Forgive me for asking a rather general question, but how do you psychologically deal with high levels of complexity in software projects? I'm working on a personal compiler project and am currently trying to understand the unmanaged .net metadata API (and before anybody mentions it, Reflection.Emit is not sufficient for my needs!) which...
A lot of graduates ask about getting into this field, but I know there are times when I (as well as many others) think about leaving, too. My issue is that I love solving problems and the act of creating something that people enjoy using, and that is what keeps bringing me back. Lately, though, programming has become less of the act of c...
Have to do a talk at Career Day at my kid's school & looking for ideas on how to make "computer programmer" sound cool to 8 year olds. ...
I work as a developer in a small digitial marketing company. I am actually the only developer there, so despite being junior (graduated in July 2007, did some freelancing), I am actually senior by definition/nature. Anyway, whilst my technical knowledge is ok (well I'm happy with it), one thing which I always wanted to and must master i...
Do you feel it's a good career move to learn multiple platforms, or do you think it's better to choose one, specialize in it, and learn it deeper than you could two platforms? ...
I'm about to go through and set a list of personal performance goals for a team of Developers (4) that I am now managing. They are in various stages of the Developer life cycle, from Intern through Senior. I'd like to get some feedback and examples of good SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) goals for any member...
I am a new programmer at my office. I just entered this workplace for about 2 months. I've been working with another senior programmer which is essentially my "mentor" during the introductory period. I've been studying a lot for the past 2 months and I believe I have a good grasp of the system already. And I feel that one of the design...
It's around the time of my annual career review and each year I get asked what position I would like to get: Management? Architecture? Technical Expert? So the big question here is what is the future for technical oriented people? I mean real engineers that understand 'engineering' as their life occupation. Are you a 'Dilbert' like ner...
In the course of my work as a software developer, I'm asked more and more often to evaluate patents (competitors' or ours), and I find that I lack the necessary skills to do that effectively. I'm used to reading scientific articles, but patents are deliberately vague, and seem to require a completely different know-how. I'm not trying t...
As a software developer, there are many aspects of our work that we find interesting. For your next project, what would you consider the most valuable to the advancement of your skills and career? A) using a new programming language B) using a new framework C) working in a different, exciting industry D) working in a well-known, well...
I've been having some problems with stress/anxiety lately, and I'm starting to think that's giving way to depression. While I originally thought it was just the workload (unrealistic timelines when I had just transitioned to a new team - QA - where I was the only tester for a large chunk of changes) or the job (large consulting firm, ex...
I don't really know who the players are in town, and I've been told that for the freedom I seem to need to enjoy my job I should try to find a smaller shop without all the "nickel and dime" time tracking bureaucracy. I've been here (Halifax, NS, Canada) for two years, but most of the software folks I know are people I work with or those...
Again I concede the great and wise S/O: I am thinking about putting together a personal project to help me learn Ruby better (!rails) and GUI programming. I am probably going to do MacRuby but could do wxRuby or something else as well. So I wanted to get some options on how to guys decide on personal projects. That aside, what are s...