Nonetheless, I am very excited about the book and I hope you guys like it too and learn something from it.  Of course, reviews on amazon.com would be appreciated – specially positive ones :-)

Thanks to Wrox, here is a free chapter – download it here.

So, I need to start/create a new product or service and need your opinion on what to do next.

I created a very short questionnaire (only 1 required question and no email address is required).  Can you please take 5 seconds and guide me in the right direction?

It is located at http://bit.ly/hIk1p

If you decide to fill out your email (optional), I will use it to send you a free copy/subscription of whatever I (we) decide to create.

I will announce the results of your votes on twitter after I close voting. 

Thanks for your help in advance.

PS: You can also help by re-tweeting – http://bit.ly/1uIuvI my request for feedback.

PSS: I will make the results public once voting is closed.  I just don’t want the current results to influence your vote.  I will also make public the ideas suggested by you – some are really fantastic (thanks).

PSSS: Some related discussions here

Since it is still in beta, I have reduced the price to $19.99 but only for a LIMITED time.  The price will go up as soon as the bugs are ironed out and we get out of beta (very soon).

So what can SimpleDb Manager do for you?

• Create and delete domains
• Edit-In-Place item attributes (select the cell and start typing or hit F2 to edit)
• Delete items (select row and hit the delete button)
• Delete attributes (edit cell and delete its content)
• Add new items (just start typing in the last row)
• Execute queries (type query in query box and click the execute button)
• Save connection information for easy management of multiple accounts

There are a ton more features coming, so stay tuned.

Get SimpleDb Manager NOW before the price goes up – I am serious.

I ran these tests http://mootools.net/slickspeed/ on IE, Firefox and Chrome.

Here are the results:

It looks like Chrome is about 13% faster than Firefox and 82% faster than IE 7.

All browsers are running on the same computer, so the hardware/os settings are irrelevant.  But if you are curious, it’s a Windows Vista 64-bit machine with 6 Gigs of RAM and a quad core chip.

[Update] If you are reading this in Chrome, the embedded document is broken.  I guess Google didn’t test there own sites.  It should look like this:

Instead it looks like this:

Since 1991, the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) has been Microsoft’s premier gathering of leading-edge developers and architects. Attend the PDC to understand the future of the Microsoft platform and to exchange ideas with fellow professionals. You’ll learn about upcoming products, meet Microsoft’s leaders and top engineers, write some code, and be inspired! Unplug for a few days and think about the future.

Unfortunately, it is freaking expensive and I got an engagement and a wedding to pay for, plus I have an interesting employment situation.

What should a dedicated/fanatic geek do?  Well, I am selling myself.  Get your mind out of the gutter, that’s not what I am talking about.

To clarify, I am asking you to sponsor my trip to PDC.  “What do I get out of it?”  I hear you ask yourself.  Well, here is what you get:

1. I will add your name (or company’s name) and a link to your site to an online list of sponsors.
2. I will blog about the conference and mention your product/company/service frequently (free publicity)
3. You will have my sincere gratitude

So why not be charitable, get some cheap publicity and be happier than I am (it has been proven that givers are happier than takers).  So you want to find happiness?  Give me some money.  It’s all for a good cause.

All you have to do is click the “Donate” button above.

List of sponsors will show up here:

Jane Doe from http://www.janedoe.com (example)

As a .net developer, I read these blogs:

1. Scott Hanselman – very ALT, check his tool list
2. Phil Haack – Great MVC content and a cool last name :)
3. Scott Gutherie – the alpha dog and must-read blog
4. Rob Conery – MVC storefront series kicks ass
5. Matt Berseth – the best looking demos and loves jQuery

There are a lot more but these are the ones at the top of my stack.  You can see all the dev feeds I subscribe to over here.

My point is that a lot of people read the above blogs and are influenced by them.  The problem is that many of these bloggers were not affiliated with Microsoft and some actually were very critical of Microsoft, but now they work there (Matt doesn’t).  To be honest, for the most part, they all seem objective and to an extent critical of Microsoft.  But how long will that last?

It’s ok for me to say something negative about the IE team, because I don’t work for Microsoft.  But if I work down the hall from the entire, that will make for a very uncomfortable elevator ride.  So, I might be inclined to tone down my criticism or even entirely eliminate it (and that is not a good thing).

I am really glad to have the likes of Rob Conery and Scott Hanselman working for Microsoft and helping the company innovate.  But it just seems that lately Microsoft has been hiring a lot of the dissidents.  So if you want to work for Microsoft, create a blog and start criticizing.  Don’t get me wrong though, these guys are very talented (VERY), so you have to have something of value to say.

I got a job offer from Microsoft several years ago and as much as I would have loved to work for them, I couldn’t.  I couldn’t do it because it required moving to Redmond.  Several of the guys mentioned above don’t even live in Redmond – Rob Conery lives in Hawaii (how lucky) and Scott lives in Oregon.  This just tells you that Microsoft is bending backwards to acquire these alpha geeks.

So, who will be hired next?  Ayende Rahien?  Jeff Atwood from Coding Horror?  Is this a good strategy on Microsoft’s side?

And if you guys are reading this post, I would like to hear your opinion.  How will you stay objective?  Will you still call out Microsoft publicly?  Or are you going to be on the defensive and be a mouthpiece for the mothership?

Off topic: Why the hell are 109 THOUSANDS people reading coding horror???

Fine Print: I am a huge Microsoft fan but have been disappointed by the lack of recent innovation (except for asp.net mvc)

I already share this knowledge through my blog, writing and speaking as much as I can.  In order to take this a step further and contribute directly to the community, I am offering my services for free.  Wait a second though, let me add some fine print…

If you are a business owner in the Washington DC Metro Area, then you should take advantage of this opportunity.  You have nothing to lose.  An expert consultation could easily cost you over $1000 – but you get it for free.  Sorry, I sound like a telemarketer.

Here is what you get:

1. I will come to your business (with current gas prices – this is a big one)
2. We will discuss your IT issues for half a day
3. If I don’t know the answer, I will say so.  I don’t waste my time or your time.
4. I will email you my recommendations within 2 business days
5. I will not try to sell you anything or solicit any business.

Why talk to me:

1. I have 10 years of IT and software development.
2. I am a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer.
3. I believe I am a .NET expert developer and architect
4. I have lead and managed teams, local and remote.
5. I understand the business implications of technology decisions.
6. I don’t just code and write software, I can help you shape your online strategy and hopefully improve your business.
7. I have worked for small, medium and large companies. 
8. I have worked with the private and public sector as well as government and DOD.
9. I am very good at what I do and not because I am smarter than other people but because I passionately LOVE what I do and strive to learn and do better every day.
10. Take a look at some of my work to get an idea.  Most of these projects were done in my spare time and my most recent project is www.yonkly.com

Why am I doing this:

1. I love what I do
2. I want new challenges
3. I want to help my immediate community
4. I want to expand my professional network
5. I am bored of working from home – I need to see people
6. Almost every job and contract that I have been involved with was through word of mouth, so this, in the long run will help me.

If you are interested, then contact me through the contact page.  I am looking forward to meeting al of you.

The book is ABC3D – even the name is clever – and you can pre-order it at amazon.com over here. 

I ordered mine after I saw this video.

Here are ways to help:

1. Blog about it and spread the word – if each one of you blogs about it, the network effect could be huge.
2. Donate some money to a reputable organization, such as:
1. unicef
2. American Red Cross
3. World Food Programme
4. AmeriCares
5. Relief International
3. Lear more
1. CNN Coverage
2. BBC Coverage

Over 100,000 people may die, that’s a HUNDRED THOUSANDS – link.

Remember “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”.

Myanmar Cyclone Videos

BBC Video – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7387877.stm

Myanmar Cyclone Pictures

I haven’t played with it yet because it wants me to turn User Access Control (UAC) before I can install it – which SUCKS. I don’t know about you but I don’t want a freaking popup confirming every action I need to make.

Anyway, leave a comment and get an invitation.

[update] I am out of invitations, you can try sharemesh.com

I use Gmail through IMAP so my emails are synced.  I use Google’s calendar sync, so my calendar is synced with Google’s calendar.  I sync with my iPhone, so my contacts are synced but there is no way to sync my tasks.  So, I wrote this simple tool to sync to Remember the Milk (RTM) task manager with Outlook tasks.  It is not 100% working yet and has some bugs, so I decided to release as open source and hopefully someone will start hacking at it and take it to the finish line.

The project is released under the Microsoft-Pl license.  I have no idea what that means, I just picked a license from the list.  It was all Greek to me.

You can find the source code and more information at http://www.codeplex.com/rtmos

I hope that helps and let me know if you have questions understanding my self-explaining, self-healing, undocumented code and remember they are not bugs, they are undocumented features ;)

PS: This is the first time I release an open source project, so let me know if I am doing something wrong.

Consultant

My name is Emad Ibrahim and I am a consultant specializing in .net development. I architect, design and create software. I can do it faster and better than the competition. Unlike other consultants, I don’t want to milk a contract to make more money. I want to finish on time and under budget, so I can have a happy customer and repeat business. Call or email me for a free consultation – I would love to help you even if you get someone else to do the job.

Entrepreneur

My name is Emad Ibrahim and I am an entrepreneur specializing in web development and new media.. I create software applications and web services using the latest technologies and embracing new web and social trends. I understand the online landscape and stay up to date on what is hot and what is not and how to tap new technologies to improve your business and your life. Contact me for partnership opportunities. I have learned that I can’t do it all alone.

Superhero

My name is Super-E and I am a super hero. I can read and write computer languages incomprehensible to humans. I also have the ability to create self-healing programs and an expert bug exterminator. I like to guide people and business on how to use computers to improve their work and personal life. If you have any questions that only a superhero can answer, then call on Super-E.

photo credit: zukker

Create your own 15-second pitch for free at http://www.15secondpitch.com

If you have read anything about LINQ, I am sure you already know about LINQ’s deferred execution.  Deferred execution basically means that your query will not execute until you actually try to use it.  By "use it", I mean anything from looping through it, accessing the "Count" property, and so on. 

The idea behind deferred execution makes sense for LINQ to SQL, since the idea is that your SQL query will only be run when it is absolutely needed and can be optimized at the time it is needed – specially if you try to nest it within another query.  This could indoubtedly produce optimized SQL queries.  Like I said, this makes more sense for LINQ to SQL but doesn’t make too much sense for LINQ to objects.

Maybe an example would make more sense.  The LINQ query below is trying to find all the Outlook tasks that are not in my list of tasks.

Dim results = _

   From myTask In myTasks _
   Where Not (From outlookTask In outlookTasks _
             Select outlookTask.Subject).Contains(myTask) _
   Select myTask 

To clarify, if this was a SQL query it will be something like

select * from myTasks where name not in 

            (select subject from outlooktasks)

I think what happened was that the nested query selecting the outlook tasks was executed on every iteration in my loop which means that the Contains method ran on the entire outlook tasks list in every iteration.  I was kind of disappointed that the nested query didn’t get cached somehow or that the LINQ engine was smart enough to run it once.

Luckily I found a really neat trick to speed this up by orders of magnitudes.  I am talking minutes to seconds here.  And it was very simple.  By calling the ToList method on the LINQ query, I cause instant execution of the LINQ query and if I store the results in a variable then the query is ran only once.  So I got rid of deferred execution and I got rid of multiple executions.

My final LINQ query looked like this:

Dim outlookTasksName = (From outlookTask _
                        In outlookTasks _
                        Select outlookTask.Subject).ToList

Dim results = _
    (From myTask In myTasks _
    Where Not (outlookTasksName).Contains(myTask) _
    Select myTask).ToList

What do you think of this solution?  Do you see any drawbacks or issues?  Do you have other LINQ optimization tricks  or way to improve LINQ query performance?  Do  you think deferred execution is necessary for LINQ to objects?

NOTE: As I was writing this, I just realized that one drawback for large collections would be memory utilization.  But I think the gains in performance outweigh the cost in memory.

So, I took a look at the stats and noticed something very strange.  Most of the traffic is coming from Japan.

What’s going on?  Is the iPhone out in Japan?  Where are they getting it from?  Why aren’t Americans using my site as much? :)

This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world’s few savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone. He also meets the world’s most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar winning film “Rain Man“.

PS: Increase your blog traffic. Get a blog rush.

Part One

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Part Two

Six ways to make people like you

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

Part Three

Win people to your way of thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2. Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

Part Four

Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

A leader’s job often includes changing your people’s attitudes and behavior. Some suggestions to accomplish this:

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

PS: Increase your blog traffic. Get a blog rush.

Increase your blog traffic.  Get a blog rush.

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