I inherited some classic ASP code not long ago that needed some enhancement. The look-and-feel of the site is pretty nice, but under the covers there’s tons of the inline SQL I hate so much. But worse than that is the previous developer’s use of the SHAPE command. I’d never used it, even when I last wrote classic ASP with my own hands (around 2003). Once this project is over, I hope never to see it or use it again. I’m really struggling to understand how it works (and why things were done this way). I’m hoping this article will help me figure it out. I’m grateful that someone took the time to actually develop a formal grammar for this command. It reminds me a lot of the BNF notation we learned as 1st year computer science majors in college.
Month: January 2007
10 Years
I was in the middle of writing my self-evaluation for work (review time is coming up) when I realized that the end of 2006 marked my 10th year of working full-time in software development.
Goodbye 2006, Hello 2007
First, to my readers (all three of you), I hope that 2006 treated you well and that 2007 is even better.
2006 treated me pretty well as years go. I actually kept the “get in better shape” resolution I made last year by joining these guys. There’s 25 pounds less of me right now than there was at this time last year. I took up a new hobby (skiing). I bought a new car. I also got to do some traveling (Killington, VT for skiing and San Francisco, CA for vacation). I learned enough of a new programming language (Ruby) to try a startup idea with Sandro. A few months ago, I got a new job (and a nice raise as a result).
I haven’t made any resolutions for 2007 (outside of “get in better shape”). I’ve been seeing more of these “101 things in 1001 days” lists (like this one and this one) lately. While I don’t think I’m nearly as ambitious as my friends, there are some things I’ve been thinking about doing that would be good to attempt this year:
- Learn a new programming language. One of the consultants that works for me has had a lot of good things to say about Eiffel. So far, I’ve installed the development environment, read a bit of documentation, and written a bit of sample code. There’s a small product idea I’d like to try, and I plan to use Eiffel to do it.
- Incorporate. My friend Richard has been encouraging me to do this for years now, instead of being a regular employee for some company. He’s been working for himself as long as I’ve known him (at least 12 years now) and has done very well. So far, I’ve bought a couple of domain names and done enough budgeting to determine what my hourly rate should be if I were to go into IT consulting.
- Re-learn the piano. I was good enough at it when I was younger that my last piano teacher wanted me to go to school at the Peabody Institute. Spending the past couple of years as a sound engineer for one of the services at my church just made me miss being able to play even more. Since I can still read music, I need to do something more with it.
- Study the Bible more regularly. Some years ago, I took a Disciple Bible Study class at my church. We covered 75-80% of the Bible over the course of a year. It was a very spirtually-rewarding experience. I want to get (and keep) my life in enough balance that I can make some Bible study a part of each day.
- Take a two-week vacation. 2005 was the first year I’d taken more than a week off in a row since my undergraduate days (back in the mid 90s). I took a bus tour through western Europe for nearly two weeks with my dad (and about 50 other people) and had an excellent time. It really helped me disconnect from work concerns, and I’m positive I’ll need to do that again this year.