It's been so long since I last posted, my front page has nothing on it. I can hear my 10s of readers calling to me in their unhappiness, "Content! We want content!" Ok, ok, here's some content on what's been keeping me busy lately. And this is just the developer stuff...
I think I've been suffering from a case of DADD lately, and, no, it's not my father's fault. I mean Developer's Attention Deficit Disorder, the problem of bouncing from one new technology to another without completely finishing anything.
I'm trying not to be too critical of myself, because it's such a normal state of being for a developer and I'm hoping that out of this chaos, I'll gain some new skills and know how to apply them.
The last time I posted (and a long time ago it was), I was working my way down the meandering path of C# and .NET 2.0 knowledge. From there jumped over to code generation, specifically CodeSmith, based on a very enthusiastic recommendation by a software architect I work with (Yo, Sven!). I was partway into that when I split down another path to explore Microsoft Patterns and Practices land in the form of the Security Application block, also on recommendation from that architect. And it was from a conversation with him that I went off to learn about .COM Interop and VB Fusion. Come to think of it, he may be a DADD enabler, I seem to be picking up tangents from him like a communicable disease.
And even though I have unfinished business in all of those areas, right now I'm onto something shinier and newer: Windows WorkFlow Foundation (.NET 3.0). This is after seeing a couple of presentations by Paul Mehner, leader of South Sound .NET (SSDotNet), my local INETA user group. Paul is a very enthusiastic proponent of this new technology and gave me a long list of links to follow for downloads, tutorials, articles and the like. He'll be presenting at Devscovery in August and also at the Portland Code Camp in July.
There is a common theme running through all of this and it's not just the pursuit of new, shiny things. I want new skills, I want to be ready for new jobs, new challenges. Right now, based on my skills and experience, I'm well suited for maintaining and improving applications and systems based on older technology – Visual Basic, SQL Server, Access and the other Office applications. I'm well suited and bored. I'm currently working on the trailing edge of technology, and I'm worried that the need for my experience in those areas will continue to diminish along with my earning capacity. I need to move on, I need to find work in .NET and related technologies. The challenge I face in this situation is getting a .NET job, while not having on the job experience in .NET. And how do you get .NET OJT without already having that experience? I need someone to take a chance on me. In the pursuit of that experience, I'm actively looking for projects I can talk my way into through my current assignment or volunteer for with anyone who will take me. Yes, I'm even willing to work for nothing (for a short time) in order to pave the way for a more interesting and lucrative future.
Posted by buggy at July 6, 2006 08:11 AM