Noob goes to school

In the Digital Distribution group at IGN Entertainment we’re diversifying our toolset to not only include .NET applications but also extending ourselves the flexibility to choose the right tool for the job.  One of our first targets is the implementation of a wildly feature rich and mature PHP ... [More]
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Transactions in Integration Tests

I was working with some integration tests recently and had an epiphany: Why don't I use transactions in a test to reset data?  I'm referring to a case where an integration test does something like write a new row to a database table.  If I'm running these tests over and over those rows add... [More]
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Work and Life Balance

CNN.com has an article today called Welcome to the 'weisure' lifestyle.  It's about the balance between work and life (leisure in the article)... or the lack thereof more precisely.  It's not that people are becoming increasingly chained to their desk at the office but more of their desk i... [More]
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Save a Buck and Learn Something New

This is an exciting moment for me. I've been doing software dev for over a decade and I've never ventured in to the electronics aspects of assembly. Sure I've put my own computers together but that became old hat in the late 90s. Today I broke out of my comfort zone and I replaced a capacitor on the main board of my Panasonic DVP642 DVD player.. [More]
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ASP.NET MVC Action Filter for Localized Sites

This post details an ASP.NET MVC Action Filter to assist with localized site development. If you've got or want a site which supports multiple cultures using ASP.NET MVC localization you need to be familiar with setting CultureInfo values for the current thread and UI. The .NET Framework uses this info to do a few key things. First, if you're using resource files the framework knows which to pick up because the resource file name specifies the culture. Secondly the culture is used as a formatter argument for various methods such as ToString().. [More]
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Git er Done or Do it Right

Programmers are paid to create, fix, and innovate. How you go about these tasks comes in two flavors - the quick and dirty method or doing it right. The typical reaction of a programmer is to strike down the quick and dirty route with eyeball laser beams because they want to have the time to do it right. Who can blame them? Nobody wants to write code they're not going to be proud of.. [More]
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The Dilemma With Multiple Versions of Source Code

Supporting multiple version of source code can be tricky. Here's one versioning pattern you might find helpful.. [More]
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IGN Entertainment is Hiring Software Engineers

IGN Entertainment is hiring .NET (C#), Java, and C++ programmers.. [More]
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Betting on Story Points

Something we're looking at adding to our agile tool belt is estimating stories using story points. If you're not familiar with story points think of them as an estimation using a relative level of effort/complexity.. [More]
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Hulu.com is that Cool

I've heard of Hulu, but until now I hadn't checked it out.  This TV season started a few weeks ago and I've already had DVR mishaps with the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Heroes series and I needed a way to get caught up.  Hulu allowed me to search for the episodes I've misse... [More]
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