Yesterday Microsoft released a new plug-in for WordPress that uses Bing Search to improve your 404 pages. It works by grabbing keywords from the missing URL string and then uses the Bing API to search your site for those keywords.
Update: The creator of this plug-in just added a quick start video… go check it out!
So, your 404 page can go from this… 
(boring WordPress Default 404)
To this…
This post is the 6th in a series that started with the 10 practices that every developer needs to start right now
The first time that someone taught me about Software Design Patterns it went something like this:
I find that is how a lot of people react when they first learn about patterns. “So a pattern is just giving a name to good software development” Well, yes and no. On the one hand – yes, a software pattern is recognizing common software challenges and the approaches that have worked in the past to over come those challenges – and naming it. On the other hand, don’t underestimate the power of giving something a name.
Last week I had the privilege of attending Microsoft’s Global MVP Summit in Bellevue Washington. While I can’t talk about most of what was covered (NDA) I wanted to mention two projects that I learned about while there and mention some of my thoughts from the event.
This post is a part of a series that I started with “10 Practices that Every Developer Needs to Start Right Now“.
Update: This post was picked up by DZone, go vote it up!
Ok, before you dig in to the post, let’s get two things out of the way first. 1.Go read the authority on SOLID principles from the man himself, Uncle Bob Martin. 2nd.Go get the very cool Inspirational SOLID images from the guys over at Los Techies. They released them under a Creative Commons License which I think is pretty cool! Alright, got that out of the way? Good. Let’s get started.
Few things have come a long OO history that resonate so well with so many developers than the SOLID principle. One of the reasons they resonate with so many developers is because they communicate several practices that many developers have been doing all along. The beauty and power of the SOLID principals in in there ability to communicate, what I call code architecture, in such a memorable and practical way.
Like any good thing, however, taken to an extreme can become a hindrance on any project. So, I’m going to tackle these principals like I tackle everything in this series… give you my take on it. So here you go: SOLID according to Caleb.
I’m starting off this series talking about Object Oriented Programming. It’s amazing how many people write C# or VB (.NET) with long, procedural methods with really no understanding of the true fundamentals of OO design.
I know, I know – it’s not you, and know what? I’m not talking about you.. but check out the code from the person next to you. See what I mean?
Just because you’re writing in an OO language, doesn’t mean that you’re writing OO code, or taking advantage of the Object Oriented benefits. An Object Oriented language is more than classes with methods, properties and events (even VB 6 had that!).
Learn the Fundamentals.
If you are going to read through my “10 practices that every developer should start right now” series, then you probably want to know where these 10 practices came from, why I chose these 10 – really, what so important about secure coding anyway? 
– I think that it’s important to know that these aren’t just 10 random items to fill a couple of blog posts. These are all practices that have been thoroughly thought out. This list is something that I started to formulate over a year ago based on my experience as a consultant, working as a technical editor, and discussions with countless MVPs, other consultants and in my interviews with potential consultants… Read more »
Update: Since technically a DI Container could be considered part of SOLID, I’ve swapped it out for Secure Coding… more on this soon!
If I ever right a book on becoming a .NET Ninja, these are the things that I want to cover.
Eventually, I’d like to write a book and dedicate at least a chapter to each of these (although any one of these topics could be a book in and of itself) In the mean time, I think that I’ll start with a blog post on each one, and maybe make it a goal to eventually do a User Group talk covering each topic? I’m looking forward to flushing these out as posts. I hope that you will enjoy them too!
What sort of things would you add to the list?
Last month (November 4th, 2009), I had the privilege of speaking at Microsoft’s “The New Efficiency” Launch for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in Dallas. While no one was there to record *my sessions* specifically, Microsoft has posted similar session from other parts of the country. I wish I could link (or embed) them directly since it takes some clicking to get to them. Instead, here’s a quick walkthrough. Enjoy!
1. Go to Microsoft’s “The New Efficiency” website http://thenewefficiency.com *
Last Thursday I posted my thoughts about Microsoft’s OSS announcements (go digg it: 3 Reasons Microsoft Needs an Open Source Officer), namely the formation of the CodePlex Foundation (awesome) and the departure of Sam Ramji (bummer). My take is that this is a great opportunity for Microsoft to take open source projects at Microsoft up a notch and raise the stakes with a big bold move by bringing in someone like my friend whurley (William Hurley – currently the chief architect of open source strategy at BMC).
This morning I turned on my computer to see that Todd Weiss and the folks at Linux.com had featured this idea on their home page. Go check it out the full article!
While I was out at the MVP Summit this summer I had a chance to catch up with Brian Prince from Microsoft and we talked about using Dependency Injection for better code level architecture. Check out the full video on Microsoft’s ARCCast.
When you’re done. Check out my Dependency Injection on Silverlight presentation.
Caleb Jenkins, is a recognized Silverlight expert, Software Mentor and Coach; he is the Founder and Principal Mentor for Proaction Mentors, he is also a National Speaker for INETA, a Technical Editor for Wrox Press and is a Microsoft MVP. You can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his blog updates.
Caleb lives in the Dallas, TX area where he continues to date his beautiful wife and busy himself playing Candy Land and xBox 360 with their four incredible children. Eventually he’ll post some of the gazillion interviews that he's recorded on CommunityCast.tv or blog more... or stop speaking of himself in the third person. more...
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