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Seth Godin: Big in the IT Business

Richard Morris — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Seth Godin has transformed our understanding of marketing in IT. He invented the concept of 'permission marketing', sees the end of the "TV-Industrial complex" and the techniques of 'interruption-marketing' Instead he sees a sunny future, one where the consumer has the power to drive sales on merit

Geek of the Week: Don Syme

Richard Morris — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

With the arrival of F# 3.0 Microsoft announced a wide range of improvements such as type providers that made F# a viable alternative to their other .NET languages as a general purpose workhorse. So what exactly are type providers, and why are they a killer reason for using F#? Why should we be considering F# for data-rich applications? To find out, we caught up with Don Syme, F#'s creator, to ask him about the latest developments in F# 3.0 and canvas his views on functional programming in general.

Scott Shaw: DBA of the Day

Richard Morris — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Scott Shaw was one of the finalists to the 2011 Exceptional DBA Award (XDBA). The award was founded in 2008 to recognize the essential but often overlooked contributions of DBAs, the unsung heroes of the IT community. In this interview, Scott describes the challenges of being a DBA in a busy Healthcare company, and his work for the DBA community.

Chuck Moore on the Lost Art of Keeping It Simple

Richard Morris — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Chuck Moore is still the radical thinker of Information Technology, After an astonishing career designing languages (e.g. FORTH), browser-based computers, CAD systems and CPUs, he is now energetically designing extremely low-powered 'green' multi-processor chips for embedded systems. Behind everything he does is a radical message: 'Embrace the entire problem, Keep it simple'.

Pakistan: Cyber Warfare and Internet Hacking

Alamzeb Khan — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The extent of malicious hacking on the internet, in pursuit of political or economic advantage, crime or just plain mischief, threatens to escalate the cost of even basic IT infrastructure. In the emerging economies, organised hacking is now beginning to impede economic growth so much that organised counter-measures are now required. Our Pakistan correspondent describes the problem there, and suggests some solutions.

The Marmite or Miracle Whip of Computer Languages

Richard Morris — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

What is it about C++ that makes it one of the most important computer languages for systems work, yet so reviled by so many? Like Marmite, or Miracle Whip, nobody seems to take a neutral opinion of it. We asked the languages' creator, the great Bjarne Stroustrup.

The Developer's Progress

Red Gate Books — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

With apologies to the famous print of 'The Drunkards Progress' of 1846, we track the plight of the application developer to serve as a warning.

Jeff Moden: DBA of the Day

Richard Morris — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Jeff Moden's election to the Exceptional DBA of the Year award for 2011 was a popular one. Although all the finalists were exceptional, Jeff has impressed everyone with his energy, stamina and wit, particularly with his work on SQL Server Central. In conversation with Richard Morris, Jeff comes up with several nuggets of advice and opinion that are valuable for any DBA or database developer.

The DBA in Space Videos: A Film Critic Writes

Hugh Bin-Haad. — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We invite the distinguished film critic Hugh Bin-Haad to examine our DBA in Space videos and give his opinion as to their artistic merit.

On Organising Technical Community Events

Jonathan Allen — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

SQL Relay was a great success. The UK SQL Server community managed to pack thirteen SQL Server User group events into one week, and they were on offer absolutely free, It gave everyone a great opportunity to get involved in the SQL community in their local area. Jonathan Allen lists the lessons that were learned by the organisers, so as to help anyone else who is planning this sort of community-based event.

Michael Pilato: Geek of the Week

Richard Morris — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

For a large number of .NET developers, Subversion is Source Control. The book they go to to find out how to use it is O'Reilly's 'Version Control with Subversion'. Both Subversion and the book owe a great deal to the Subversion open source development team, including Michael Pilato of CollabNet, who has worked on the project for many years, almost since the project was founded in 2000 by Collabnet.

Anatomy of an Acquisition: Inside Cerebrata / Red Gate

Bob Cramblitt — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The sale of a favourite software company can be disheartening for users, creating concern that the tools and team you love will vanish. Red Gate’s Luke Jefferson and Matt Dickens, and Cerebrata’s Gaurav Mantri, discuss how they plan to avoid acquisition pitfalls.

A Simple-Talk exclusive: Stars of the DBA in Space webisodes - Revealed!

Bob Cramblitt — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

A lot of the buzz around the DBA in Space campaign has centered on the hosts of the snazzy, 60s space-noir webisodes created by Red Gate and The Mill. Simple-Talk sent intrepid reporter Bob Cramblitt to the Rodenberry Launch Center to interview the two hosts, Brad McGehee and the fetching Miss Friday.

Geek of the Week: Linus Torvalds

Richard Morris — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

For Windows programmers, Linus Torvalds work has suddenly become relevant. No, we don't mean Linux, but Git. This distributed Source Control system now works sweetly as a nut on Windows. We contacted Linus for a second interview; this time to talk mainly about Git, but also to catch up with his thoughts about computer languages.

Jez Humble: Geek of the Week

Richard Morris — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Jez Humble and David Farley achieved fame through a book that tackled the least glamorous but most intricate part of the application development cycle, Deployment. It was no accident that the book achived so much attention, since it was a lively and iconoclastic take on a vital but neglected aspect of development upon which the ultimate success of software projects so often depend. We found Jez to be an interesting guy, too!

On Remembering Secure Passwords

Troy Hunt — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Troy Hunt believes that it is time that we stopped kidding ourselves that we are capable of remembering different secure passwords for all the sites we use. We can't use the same password in more than one site, and passwords must be fit for purpose. So what's the solution?

Benjamin Pollack: Geek of the Week

Richard Morris — Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Benjamin Pollack is well known for his work on Fog Creek Copilot, and Kiln. He is famous amongst young geeks for his role in a documentary film and website 'Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks with Geeks', which plotted his internship with Fog Creek back in 2005.

Eric Sink: Geek of the Week

Richard Morris — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Eric Sink became well-known for his work with the Spyglass browser, which was acquired by Microsoft and morphed into Internet Explorer. Since then, he has succeeded at the difficult double-act of combining programming and the software business. He is living proof that it is possible to master both skills.

The Framework Myth

Mike Mooney — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

If ever there was an irresistible programmer’s platitude, it is that code-reuse is invariably a good thing. Unfortunately, even the best of advice can be taken to a ludicrous extreme, the construction of generic frameworks within organisations. Mike Mooney gives a warning, based on painful experiences.

A Developers' Guide to Refactoring Databases

Nick Harrison — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

When Agile meets 'Big Design', the result can be frustration on both sides. Is it possible for database development to to easily coexist with Agile methodologies for application development? Nick suggests that the technical solutions already exist, and the dissonance is more due to cultural and organisational problems