Friday, December 29, 2006

What this is all About

Welcome to my first blog ever, "Execution is Everything".

This site is about all things related to the discipline of software engineering and software development. You'll see an eclectic mix of process topics, front-end design and implementations, and database-related articles.

I feel that before I begin, I need to give you some promises.
  • No personal stuff. I won't be blogging on my vacations. You won't ever see baby pictures here. I won't be talking about my hair or "that really cute girl at work/on the Metro/etc".
  • No politics. I don't even care if you work for Globex Corporation -- I won't judge you.
  • I will moderate comments here. Constructive criticism is encouraged. I'll do my best to keep the signal-to-noise ratio here as high as possible, even in the comment section.
  • I will try to post once every week or two. I guess that's not really a promise. Hey, you get what you pay for.
To get all of this stuff out of the way, let me share with you some of my favorite blogs. You should check these out:
  • PluralSight's blogs: These are some of the most experienced folks in the industry. Keith Brown's security articles are always on the top of my must-read list.
  • TheDailyWTF.com: If you can't learn from your mistakes, at least learn from these guys. The content seems to be slowing down, but I still check it out from time to time. You should too.
  • Coding Horror: Jeff Atwood always has something interesting to say about the industry -- and more often than not, the folks commenting on his site can be quite thought-provoking.
  • Joel on Software: He may have jumped the shark, but we still love him anyway.
  • Doomed Engineers: OK, it's not really a live blog, but it's always nice to know that it could be worse.
  • SQLBlog: It's worth checking out periodically just because the illustrious Kalen Delaney posts there. If any one author has paid my grocery bills for the last five years, it's her. Inside SQL Server is one of my favorite technical books of all time, and gives an enormous amount of insight into what's inside the "black box" of SQL Server. I've come to believe over the last few years that if you haven't read this book, you probably aren't a SQL Server expert.