Thoughts on Hiring Developers

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Ray Houston

Gabriel posted this rant regarding his frustration with trying to find the right developer talent for positions that we were trying fill. At the time, I was the final decision maker regarding these interview candidates, so I thought I would … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Big Software Rewrites

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Ray Houston

It is well known that big software rewrites are often failures. They fail because they always look easier than they really turn out to be. To replace a system that has been around for years is likely to take years … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

.NET Software Developer Position in Austin

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Ray Houston

  We’re currently looking for an outstanding individual to fill an open position on our development team. You can find the ad on our web site at http://www.topazti.com/company/topaz-jobs. I’ve also posted it below for convenience: TOPAZ Technologies is an established leader in … Continue reading →

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Fluent Silverlight – Auto Wiring INotifyPropertyChanged

Posted on June 3, 2009 by Ray Houston

In Gabriel’s introductory post for Fluent Silverlight, he showed that the code typically associated with implementing INotifyPropertyChanged can be reduced to a simple auto property. This can really improve the clarity of a large class as well as save some … Continue reading →

Posted in Dynamic Proxy, Fluent Silverlight, INotifyPropertyChanged, MVVM | 4 Comments

Simple Code Navigation with ReSharper

Posted on April 11, 2009 by Ray Houston

Here’s a quick 5 minute screen cast that demonstrates how you can use ReSharper to get where you want to be in your code. If you haven’t tried ReSharper yet, I highly recommend that you download the free trial and … Continue reading →

Posted in .NET, ReSharper, Tools | 3 Comments

Don’t Waste The Time We Have Now

Posted on March 15, 2009 by Ray Houston

I almost titled this “Get Things Done” but this post is not about how to do things. This post is about minimizing waste associated with distractions from non work related activities. I’m talking about things like Instant Messenger, Twitter, Skype, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Pablo welcomes Gabriel Schenker

Posted on January 10, 2009 by Ray Houston

I’m happy to announce that Gabriel Schenker has accepted an invitation to join Los Techies. You may know Gabriel as the man behind the NHibernate FAQ Blog or contributor to many of the software related community lists. He is an … Continue reading →

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PTOM: The Composite Design Pattern

Posted on November 18, 2008 by Ray Houston

The Composite Design Pattern This post talks about the Composite Design Pattern and is part of Pablo’s Topic of the Month – November: Design Patterns. A Composite is a tree structure where each node can be represented as a common … Continue reading →

Posted in Patterns, Principles, Programming, PTOM | 1 Comment

Pablo’s Topic of the Month – November: Design Patterns

Posted on November 5, 2008 by Ray Houston

Pablo’s Topic of the Month – November: Design Patterns Back in April, we announced we would be doing a PTOM on Design Patterns. It turned out that April was a busy month for all of us and we didn’t live … Continue reading →

Posted in Patterns, Principles, Programming, PTOM | 1 Comment

Udi’s SOA Class Made Me Smart

Posted on October 26, 2008 by Ray Houston

Chris challenged me to write a post showing how smart I am after taking the class. While I know that “made me smart” is completely unbelievable, I did manage learn a great deal. I’m slow to getting around to this … Continue reading →

Posted in SOA | 1 Comment