Jon Hartmann - General

Learning UML

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:13:00 -0500

My recent job change has not only meant that I'm coding C# .Net rather than ColdFusion these days, but also brought with it a whole host of tools and concepts that I've been trying wrap my brain around. Case in point: UML. I learned basic UML back in college, but then spent 3 years in a development environment that was actively hostile to requirement gathering, so what little I knew was lost along the way. Now I'm trying to get caught up, and I'm finding that learning UML is a tricky thing. I've searched for just about every phrase, keyword, or concept I could think of that would yield a decent guide to crafting UML diagrams, and all what I got back were pages and pages of explanations of the symbols on a given diagram. I can tell you what a Use Case looks like, and what things are on it, but I can't tell you how to get form a Use Case to an Activity diagram. I finally found a quote that enlightened me as to what was going wrong:

As a UML instructor, I find that learning UML presents a paradox: UML is not a process, but rather a notation that can be used in a process; and yet without a process, students don't know where to start with UML.

Thats from this random page that references a "Five Step UML" process for teaching the use and power of UML in software development. Unfortunately, like most old pages on the net, the link to the full text is broken, and I've been left without a process on which to base my attempts at learning UML. Any one have any good recommendations on a simple process that would help illuminate the gaps between UML diagrams?

"How to learn WPF (or anything else)"

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:44:00 -0500

While searching up additional resources on WPF, I stumbled across a neat little article on Philosophical Geek titled "How to learn WPF (or anything else)". Its a short read, and it perfectly matches my own feelings about learning a new language, technology, or piece of software: I've always found that its your own interest in something that can make or break your ability to learn about it. If you need to learn a new language, do the following: get an idea about what you can do with the language from examples, pick something that you would like to see done with it, and figure out how to make it happen.

Strange New World

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:10:00 -0500

As of yesterday, I'm now a Windows Presentation Foundation, desktop application developer by day. I've not given up on ColdFusion or anything like that, its just a simple matter of the economy: I can't move, and there aren't any ColdFusion jobs around where I live. The new position will train me in WPF, and also the underlying .NET framework, and those are skills that I can actually use around here. I'll still be doing CF on the side, and hopefully moving back into a web based environment sometime soon, so I'm not going to stop posting on web topics. I just want to post some explanation for when the Adobe using ColdFusion guy starts making posts on .NET and Microsoft stuff.

New Hosting and New Job

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 09:55:00 -0500

Well, its been a little while since my last post, and I'm happy to say that things are going ok. I've lined up a 6 week contract gig that will buy me some time to find a permanent position, and I've also gotten new hosting squared away. In my last post a reader suggested Hostek for my hosting needs, and I'm happy to say that if you're reading this post, then you're doing so on their servers. The price is great, and although it took a little bit of work to get things up and running, the Hostek staff where very helpful and prompt to respond to my questions. So, I'm still Looking For Job, but I've bought myself at least 6 weeks to do it :)

LVL3 CFer LFJ and LFH

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:00:00 -0500

If you're not following my tweets, on Monday I joined the trendy new subculture know as "the unemployed". I've always had a note that I'm available for projects, but now I'm officially Looking for Job (LFJ). If you've got a project that could use an certified advanced CF developer with 3 years experiance, I'd love to hear about it :) Additionally, my current predicament leaves me Looking For Hosting (LFH) for both this blog and my Father's photograph website. I had been receiving free hosting from my previous employer, but thats going to run out in really short order. If you have a recommendation for cheap hosting, I'd love to hear about that too.

Ruby on Rails is a Dead Language

Mon, 18 May 2009 11:14:00 -0500

Matt Gifford, (aka ColdFuMonkeh) twittered an article that has lead me to a startling conclusion: Ruby on Rails is a dead language! Read more to find out why. [More]

Why No News?

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:21:00 -0500

Although I'm sure my list of loyal followers is small to non-existent, I do want to apologize for my silence over the last few weeks. Work has kept me coding 9 to 10 hours a day, so by the time I get home I'm not too interested in programming (if I even have time before I have to hit the sack). Once I get back in the groove I'll be working on the following topics:

Transparent rounded corners for images - Yes, I think I know how to do it now
BlogCFC Theming Updates - There are new versions of BlogCFC, and I want to try to see if Ray Camden is interested in incorperating theming into the core BlogCFC

Userability Podcast #2

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:44:00 -0500

I was lucky enough to get to be the guest a podcast with Jared M. Spool of www.uie.com and Robert Hoekman, author of Designing the Obvious and Designing the Moment. Userability is all about the world of design for the web, and Jared and Robert are experts in that field. Given that I've developed a strong passion for web design and usability, I put the question to them: How would I make the career jump towards design? Listen and find out why I now want to be an interaction designer.

Microsoft Virtual PC for IE6 Testing

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:38:00 -0500

Just in case you didn't know already, testing websites in Internet Explorer is annoying, especially given that you can't have IE6 and IE7 installed simultaneously. Enter a free tool from Microsoft: Microsoft Virtual PC. This program is a decent VMWare like setup, but it gets better because Microsoft has actually released images for you to use with them. You can find images with IE6, IE7, and even IE8 beta all on their download page. I know, a free tool from Microsoft that makes your life a little easier. It's weird!

Shortcut to My Hosts File

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:18:00 -0500

I don't know how often you need to edit your hosts file, but it seems like something I have to do on a daily basis, and its a pain. First the file is buried in Windows subdirectories, so you have to find the thing, and then when you do, it doesn't have an extension, so you constantly have to tell Windows what to open it with. Today, I finally managed to make a shortcut to launch it in Notepad.

Create a new shortcut.
Paste the following into the location:
%windir%\notepad.exe %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Use the wizard to name it, and be happy.

That should work for almost everyone, unless your host file is located somewhere else.

Vote!

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:10:00 -0500

Go out and vote. I don't care who you vote for, I just want you to vote.

Google Chrome Themes

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:51:00 -0500

Just a week or two back I was bemoaning the fact that Google's Chrome browser clashed with my shiny black Zune desktop theme, and now I can fix that too: http://www.itsalee.com/download-google-chrome-themes-skins-fre Has several skins and instructions on their installation. Look at the links off that post too, as there are 4 or more posts with skins. Right now I'm rocking a nice dark grey theme that looks just pretty with Zune.

Another program I can't live without

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:05:00 -0500

And I just installed it today! Taskbar Shuffle is probably something that only a software developer or someone that works at the computer all day would want to use. It might be my OCD, but I always end up opening the programs that I use all day first, and have them to the left in my task bar, while the things I open and close all day long like text files and web browsers tend to be center to right. It always annoyed me to no end if one of my long running programs crashed, because when I restarted t the app, it would end up on the right hand of the stack. Now with Taskbar Shuffle, I can just drag and drop it back where I want. I can also rearrange the running service icons, if I needed to do such a thing. Now if I could just figure out how to make the CTRL + T command to launch Chrome from the desk top I'd be very happy indeed. Well, I can launch Chrome with CTRL + ALT + T, but that isn't exactly what I want either. Good enough for now though.

Five Applications I Can't Live Without.

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:37:00 -0500

Its always hard to find something to talk about in my general blog (which is why it will be much less prominent next time I redesign the site), but I realized that I just had to post about the things that i have to install on all the computers I use frequently.

The Zune Theme
Ok, so this technically isn't an application, but its my list so I'll do what I want. The Zune Theme for Windows XP transforms XP into something you can stand looking at all day. The default "theme" of blue and green bars looks like it was designed for Playskool, not a work machine. The black and orange design is modern, slick, and wont make you feel like you are playing with Mega Blocks.
Winamp
If you need music, Winamp is your answer. Its simple to use, rocks solid, and it can play your CDs, MP3s, videos, whatever. It also includes a visualization plug-in that can keep you in supply of amazing visuals to accompany your tunes. Even better, the current theme matches well with the Zune Theme.
Launchy
Launchy is a "keystroke launcher" which means it can launch your programs based on key strokes alone. This may not sound like much, but it means you'll never have to dig through your Programs list trying to find what you want again, just pres "Alt + Enter" type what you want, and Launchy matches the cloest program, or lets you choose from a list of options if it didn't bring up the one you wanted. Also, the "Mercury" skin fits awesome with Zune.
Trillian
If you use any kind of instant messaging app, then Trillian is for you. Trillian lets you connect just about any instant messaging service all through one window. This means you can chat with your ICQ friends, your AOL friends, and your MSN friends all through one interface. Also, some of the optional skins have a black color that works well with Zune... see a... umm... theme here?
Google Chrome
Well you shouldn't have! My last application is Google Chrome, and at least so far, I've found no way to make it look black and orange at all! That doesn't keep it from being the best browser I've ever used though. It has some quirks, and things that simply don't work (spelling mistakes are highlighted, but you can't autocorrect them), but it has all the basics, and its FAST. Plus it uses WebKit, one of the most up-to-date rendering engines for the web ever. Top it with the intelligent "home" page, and I'm a happy camper.

Maybe one of those will be useful for you.

CFUnited 2008

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:34:00 -0500

So, I'm at CFUnited 2008 at the Washingto Convention Center here in DC. Its always a nifty experiance to be at CFUnited, and this year has thus far been no exeption, even though its just getting started. I'd bore you all with notes from the keynote presentations from Michael Smith of TeraTech and Ben Forta and Adam Lehman of Adobe, but I'm not sure many tech people even look at the blog, so I wont bore you.