Category: Technology

Some Differences Between Computer Servers & Workstations

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by Misty S Bledsoe

A computer server and a computer workstation are different in several ways including what each is designed to do. Each is different in the amount of storage it is built with and the maintenance it receives.

 Set Up

Computer servers come prebuilt with enough memory to support anywhere from two to several hundred workstations and a hard drive large enough to store applications that are large enough to support the same. Workstations come with enough memory and hard drive space to support just that one workstation.

 Applications

One computer server will store internet capability, databases and intranet hosting that the other workstations will retrieve information from. One computer workstations houses a portion of the application found on the server enough to manipulate smaller projects.

 Uses

Servers support banking, education, governmental and private home networking structures. Workstations manipulate the information or data found in those structures.

 Operating Systems

Servers can run off a Windows, Linux or UNIX based operating systems. Workstations typically run off the same operating system the server does.

Access

Only network administrators, system administrators, or other system security personnel are allowed access to business servers. Workstation access is granted on an individual bases by network administrators.

Self-Documenting Code: The Approach

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by Misty S Bledsoe

Document your code consistently to improve the lifespan of the code. Photo courtesy of ardelfin/Morguefile.com

Beginning programmers are taught during their coursework to get into good programming habits. One of them is to do everything in your power to have what is called “Self-Documenting Code.” Some things that can be helpful are to remember:

  1. Comment Everything. Begin every section with comments that begin with commenting slashes “//” at the beginning of every module or the end of each module significant ending point of functions and modules. For multiple line comments you want to begin and end with “/*” and “*/”.
  2. Consistently choose meaningful variable names. For example, name a color variable “colorBlue” and not something like “color1” etc… The first choice reads better and tells other programmers what the variable means and what its purpose is.
  3. Keep naming conventions consistent. Decide what naming conventions you will use and stick to it throughout the entire program. For example, name your variables using all lowercase then uppercase with each additional word or start all variables with uppercase. Sometimes the languages you choose will determine the casing rules for you.

No matter what kind of project you work on, keep in mind if stay consistent on your comment practices, variable and naming conventions it will keep your code as self-documenting as possible. It will also be easier to read and to maintain over the long haul. 

How to Change the Name of the Application File when Programming in C#

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by Misty S Bledsoe

Changing the default file name of your program is not difficult.//Photo courtesty of ppdigital/Morguefile.com

Changing the default application file name when working on a project in C# gives the code more readability and increases the cohesiveness of the overall program. For example, if you leave the default program name as “program.cs” it can apply to just about can C# application. Instead, if the name of your program is “Time Clock,” consider renaming the program name “Timeclock.cs.”

  1. Open VisualStudio.NET. You’ll see the starting page. Open a new project.
  2. When the new project opens the blank screen, click on the “Solution Explorer” tab. If you do not see this tab, go up to “View” in the menu choices and click on it. Navigate to “Solution Explorer” to have it appear in the workspace.
  3. Click on the file “program.cs.” Click on the Properties tab. If you do not see the properties tab, go up to “View” in the menu choices and click on it. Navigate to “Properties” and click on it.
  4. Scroll down to the “File name” field and change the file name to match your project name and leave the “.cs” after it. Hit enter when you are finished.

How to Change the Default Code Indention Settings in VisualStudio.Net

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by Misty S Bledsoe

Keeping your tab indents uniform will enhance code readability. //Photo courtesy of mantasmagorical/Morguefile.com

Keeping your application’s programming code uniform while writing computer code for yourself or for an enterprise operation is important to keep readability simple and uniformed. Each company has their own rules that may determine certain settings when it comes to programming such as naming conventions, comment requirements and layout requirements. Setting the default code indention in Visual Studio.NET will prevent you from making indentation mistakes while programming and keep your code easier to read.

  1. Open VisualStudio.NET. You’ll see the VisualStudio’s starting page. Ignore the information.
  2. Navigate to the top where you see the menu choices of “File,” “Edit,” “View,” “Tools,” “Test,” “Window” and “Help.” Click on “Tools.”
  3. Scroll down to the last option called “Options” and click on it. This populates another window with several choices both in a left hand column and in a right hand column.
  4. Select the arrow next to “Text Editor.” If you want to make these changes for all languages, click on “All Languages.” If you want to only change it for one specific language, then click on the language you want to change it for.
  5. Click on “Tabs.” Select “Insert spaces” to make sure it is checked. Enter the same number for both “Tab size” and “Indent size.”
  6. Click “OK” and close the dialog window. VisualStudio.NET will now use that number of indentation for each new level of code as you program automatically.

Consider commenting in the beginning of your code that you’ve pre-set the indentation levels for your code as part of good comment habits. It may seem inconsequential to you as the programmer, but if your code is passed on to others in the organization and you are no longer available to maintain the code, having this comment in your code will tell the new person how that portion of your code is set up. It is not necessary to change the default settings in VisualStudio.NET for the purposes of indentation. The option is there to comply with business needs and increase readability. 

Practical Hands on Programming Experience

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By Misty S Bledsoe

Working on open source projects is meaningful and worthwile. //Photo courtesy of ppdigital/Morguefile.com

Working on open source projects is meaningful and worthwile. //Photo courtesy of ppdigital/Morguefile.com

Many companies today need you to have some sort of hands on programming skills in a language of their choice in addition to your educational background. Surf many job listings you’ll see phrases like “strong,” “experienced,” “provable” and more when it comes to the type of programmer a company is aggressively seeking. So how do you jump in and gain the hands on experience beyond school that you need?

Open Source Projects

Open source projects are projects that you register to work on. You volunteer or get assigned a piece to work with based on your experience levels. Open source technology allows anyone with coding experience (from the person who does it at home as a hobby to the PhDs that use smaller simpler programs to relax), to tweak and modify the code as they see fit within the bounds of proper code of ethics. Although it’s physically possible to turn open source code into something malicious, that violates every single last code of conduct that exists for proper and respected programmers and other IT professionals. Do a quick search for “beginning open source” or “(language choice) open source.” There’s tons of stuff out there to get you started. Don’t be afraid and dive right in.

Bug Fixes & Plug-ins

Several sites out there programmers the ability to fix bugs in current code and make plug-ins for existing applications. These can be less intimidating to start out with and take less time. Using these can be helpful if you’re strapped with your current job or other obligations.

Either way, your skills can stay sharpened and useful to the rest of the world while you seek the all-perfect programming job. It can help you build a portfolio of work in addition to what you did in school and your name will appear in credits for open source project and bug fixes on the internet, helping to support your claims at being a legitimate programmer.

Sourceforge.net: a Resource Hub for Open Source Projects

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by Misty S Bledsoe

Open source projects can either be a pain or a joy to find. Sourceforge.net offers a full resource mechanism for finding existing open source projects in several languages. They have a platform for developing new open source projects and even a link to a career page. Free membership is required to access many of its features. Search for jobs, projects, help, code snippets and more. This is a great resource for developers at all levels. Find their site here: http://www.sourceforge.net/

Getting Started in the IT Industry

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by Misty S Bledsoe

Breaking into the IT industry doesn't have to be a chore. Photo courtesy of ariadna/Morguefile.com

Breaking into the IT industry doesn't have to be a chore. Photo courtesy of ariadna/Morguefile.com

You just graduated from college and you’re ready to find your new job in the IT industry. Great. Now what? You diligently search help wanted, craigslist, all the job boards you can think of and maybe even submit your resume to several places. You find you get very little interviews after months. What do you need to do to finally get your foot in the door?

Keep up to date on what is taking place with technology as a whole.

This can be done by reading trade magazines in your genre of technology. You can also keep up with reputable blogs and studying company trends of those that manufacture or work with information technology.

Study the companies you want to work for.

Ask the Headhunter.com is one resource you don’t want to be without. The author of this site is a professional headhunter and basically blows the lid off most corporate hiring procedures. Studying the company you want to work for is just one way of getting a job. The author of this site goes into a lot of detail on the subject. I highly recommend reading his work.

Change your attitude on job hunting.

You can spend hours and weeks working off the internet hunting for jobs. I can tell you from experience that most corporate entities are required to work this way now, pushing your paperwork through various software systems for legal and compliance purposes. The bottom line, however is that people are still people and working in Recruiting, we often scheduled those that called or stopped by in person interviews before we got to our “electronic” candidates. You would simply be amazed at how many people do not bother to make that personal connection with Recruiting or HR.

Get lots of hands on practice.

For one person I knew who was trying to break into networking and fixing the physical aspect of things, this meant buying old computer parts or getting them free from neighbors and relatives, and then putting everything together again. He would use these old models to practice networking, wiping hard drives clean, and more. For programmers that means learning as many languages as you can and learning how to integrate them into successfully working web and desktop applications, complete with a working database system. Yes, if you cannot afford to purchase more schooling, you will need to do all of these things in your spare time.

Keep your skills fresh.

This means all your skills, technology and otherwise. Brush up on corporate ethics and culture. Practice your people and customer service skills wherever you go, whether it’s to the grocery store or over the phone.

Keep up the persistence.

Don’t throw in the towel before your time. No one ever got a job in the IT industry because they quit trying.

How my Alphasmart NEO Word Processor Tripled my Productivity

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by Misty S Bledsoe

A keyboard

ronnieb/Morguefile.com: A Keyboard.

My Alphasmart NEO word processor is durable, sleek, smaller than my laptop, and above all, gets approximately 25 hours of battery life off only three AA batteries. That and the fact that it’s only a word processor convinced me to purchase one. Having to be aware of outlet availability and the risk of my laptop being injured more than often prevents me from taking it with me when I go out. I can never really just sit down somewhere and work on my regular laptop without being distracted by remaining battery life, potential damage happening from me dropping it or spilling something, or all the applications I just want to run like email or internet. 

In the past, I would take a notebook and pen when running errands, etc…but also ran into the dilemma of not producing content as quickly as I can when I type. How did I finally find the best of both worlds? The Alphasmart NEO word processor. It’s a portable word processor made specifically with students in mind, but since then, writer’s everywhere utilize the NEO and its sister processor the DANA. Currently, this machine is used in schools and classrooms with teachers for certain lesson plans. Many that register for National Novel Writing Month use the NEO to pound out their novels.

It has an application that can check your English grammar downloadable from Alphasmart website. Being able to just focus on my writing, without too much editing allows me to create pages of content that normally I wouldn’t be able to produce. When I’m ready, I simply use the USB cord that came with my NEO and plug it in to the NEO then plug it into my laptop and hit “Send” to empty out the contents of my word processor onto a Word document or Notepad file.

Alternatively, I could have purchased a small laptop now sold at places like Target and Costco, but I did not want to be distracted by the other applications available to me. Depending on your workload or applications you rely on, a small laptop maybe the perfect ticket. I just like knowing I can I can turn on my NEO, type and turn it off and not worry about losing my data as it saves everything automatically—and again, I’m not going to run out of battery life any time soon. You can get more information by visiting http://www.alphasmart.com.

Putting a Software Maintenance Plan Together

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caprisco/Morguefile.com

caprisco/Morguefile.com

by Misty S Bledsoe

Software Maintenance accounts for much of today’s work in the information technology industry as many businesses have older technologies they’re attempting to make work with current advancements. Many information technology professionals find a variety of cluttered, uncommented computer code with little or disorganized documentation when beginning to upgrade projects. The reverse engineering that takes place is costly to any organization. Having a well-defined maintenance plan can keep costs to a minimum going forward.

Document everything as much as possible.

Develop a handbook for future employees, preferably a protocol kept in a three ring binder or better yet as an editable PDF document stored on the company’s hard drive for the IT department. Include pages for definitions of roles and related responsibilities, chain of command procedures, disaster recovery procedures, documentation that exists for current software programs and documentation for all code changes made going forward.

Clearly define roles & responsibilities.

Begin by looking at the status of the information technology department and analyze the current workload of the staff. Select a team that will be dedicated to the software maintenance. Carefully decide who has authorization over things like gathering and examining past software documentation and who will be in charge of each portion of revising the code. Decide if the team will scrap the old and start over from scratch, will replace just the functions that are obsolete, or go with a third party software when necessary. Define procedures of how to deal with disagreements amongst the team. 

Develop a timeline.

Decide how often the maintenance will take place. Consider if you will have weekly team meetings, how incoming technical support tickets will be handled, and under what conditions relooking at the maintenance will need to take place. A work break down structure should be defined and a time line chart be developed. If a complete overhaul is necessary then benchmarks should be determined to ensure business deadlines are met. Some benchmark examples could be: having all classes and the class hierarchy defined and approved, class relationships being established, or prototype being started or completed.

Consider the budget.

The maintenance plan must not go over the company’s allotted budget. This may have a direct impact on the approach used to maintain the software in its current form and going forward. Some positions may have to take on increased responsibilities if the budget doesn’t allow for more staff to be allocated to the maintenance team. Often a compromise between the quality of the wants of the users and what the business needs actually are, will be met, and determined based on budgetary constraints.  

Other considerations.

Define ground rules for the team when rewriting the software. Consider agreeing on naming convention practices for variables and enforcing a policy where all code modules require specific comments describing what is happening in the module. The marks of good software maintenance is having a future employee with little or no knowledge of the project be able to pick up the documentation including source codes, and be able to tell exactly what is taking place within the application and exactly where the last crew left off.

Cookies: The other side of the story.

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rachjose/Morguefile.com

rachjose/Morguefile.com

by Misty S Bledsoe

Third party cookies on your hard drive have been a double edge sword for some time. I read an article on http://writersdepot.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/social-media-minute-how-social-networking-sites-are-selling-your-identity/ where the author discusses how social media websites are able to sell your personal information. One tip the article offers is to increase your security with browser detection.

I did this once on my own having a Vista operating system and saw just how many cookies places like Careerbuilder or Yahoo actually allow to crawl my computer and store information. Every time a third party cookie wanted access, I had to give it permission. Alerts were popping up every 10-15 seconds or sooner. I have no idea who these other sites are or what they’re for, but my understanding of a cookie was so that the site you are accessing could remember certain settings. I have a Bachelors in Information Technology, so for me to see all these “third party” cookies wanting permission to access my stuff for sites I’ve never heard of was concerning to say the least. It’s worth it to check your security settings and if you can to set your browser to delete all cookies and temporary files every time you log off the internet. It won’t affect your computer’s performance. Something to think about.

About

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Misty Bledsoe lives in the Puget Sound and holds a Bachelors degree in Information Technology with a concentration in Computer Programming from American Intercontinental University. She has been writing for more than 15 years for both offline and online publications both under her own name and psuedonyms.  Her primary blog is found on this site and chocked full of useful information on a variety of topics.

(c)2008-2010 Misty S. Bledsoe. All Rights Reserved including code manipulation. No part of this blog may be reproduced without the author’s expressed written permission.