Tag Archives: development

Playing with C# – Made A Client-Server Remote Monitoring Tool

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Well, as usual things have been a little more hectic than I was expecting but I am enjoying most moments of the days past. Work has been really busy as we have been trying to launch our new platform, which I think I had mentioned is a full-fledged Microsoft environment consisting of Commerce Server, CRM, and SharePoint.

Personally, making the jump from PHP to C# has been a bit of… a bag of mixed emotions? At times I love it, hate it, want to kill it, marry it, etc… You get the point. There is quite a learning curve, as there is with any programming language, but my mind seems a bit reluctant to leave PHP behind. I have, however, been forcing myself to learn it; and fast! I have been building some necessary web parts at work that we need to help build microsites on the new platform.

Along with programming with C# at work, I have been spending some of my nights developing proof of concept pieces of software as a hands-on learning experience. So with that; I have successfully built a (simple) Client-Server monitoring tool utilizing Lidgren Networking Library for .NET (to handle my network communication between client and server). Continue reading →

Work and Life

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Work has been pretty great so far, 2 weeks in and still surviving. One major thing that has been a bit of a twist is the dress code change; suit and tie is quite a bit different than jeans and a polo. Though, I have been skimping on the tie as much as possible, I am a rebel. The work environment is good though, everyone seems pretty welcoming, even though I am the “temp” -which is apparently a term that does not bode well with me, but I am what I am at this point, I guess.

So I have been working and improving on the existing code for the site and I am going to just go ahead and say it… osCommerce has to be the worst thing I have ever developed on top of, not to mentioned how hacked together the whole system is, i.e. talking to the back-end ERP system. At the end of the day, it is functioning, but it is basically at its limit for what it can do without spending hours of development time to add new features. Basically, I can see why they want to ditch this shit and move to a more proprietary platform.

I am at a bit of an impasse with the work at times because after a couple days of looking at the code I realized working with osCommerce has no plus side for me. I do not learn anything and I sometimes want to kick my own teeth out. Maybe I should place some blame on the former developers as well, some of the hacks they put in place are just irritating. But, my goal is to fix this pile of shit while they transition and I will take my down time and do more prototyping with C# so that in a few months I may be an asset for them in regards to the new system.

On a non-work related note, I have been pretty much relaxing after work, it’s draining, I told you. I started watching 24 again from the first season, it is enjoyable. Something exciting and cool is that my brother and I picked up a new site from Flippa yesterday, we are in the escrow process, currently waiting for the transfer on the server to us, already have the domains. This has been a quick and smooth transaction thus far and I am very pleased with the process and the seller.

We are ready to revamp the site and take it to the next level, we are hoping that at a minimum to keep the existing income but obviously if we can increase it, that is ideal. The current income does not cover all the server expenses so the possibility of a loss exists. I am working with my current provider to possibly transition the site to their system, where the current income level would make it a wash.

Time to crunch the numbers and figure out the best plan of attack!

January Was Development Month (Apparently)

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So it has been a crazy month. Like I wrote about in my last post, the job situation is dire and I had since been looking (sparingly) for a replacement job; while wrapping up things at my current job and developing another project at home, pulling 14 to 16 hour days. I am used to that though. As it turns out, the project I have been developing, for what seems like a year, with a friend/business something or other of mine hit a milestone and we are ready to launch, market and sell.

It has been quite a process because the project has gone through a few iterations over the 10 months of development (I’m sure it’s been at least a year!), due to service provider changes, market research differentials, some other big words, etc. What this means for us is, if it works, we are back in business for ourselves and the awesomeness of the new-age startup attire and other cool things shall ensue. And if it doesn’t work out, it means that I will be looking (not so sparingly) for a new job.

I am optimistic for the project though, otherwise I would invest this much time into it. So much time, in fact, that I have not had enough time to play around with C# any further. I miss it, and hopefully once we settle everything in the next week and do the full launch, I will be able to dedicate some more time to expanding my horizons.

Time will tell.