I've decided to throw caution to the wind and book in my exam. I read this blog post about a week ago and was inspired to take advantage of the free second shot. I had a certain amount of pride at passing 70-315 on the first time, but on reflection I probably studied a little too intensively and left the self-testing a little too late before the exam. This time, I've decided to iterate more rapidly through the material with testing sessions after each block.

The appeal of second shot is I can accurately assess areas of weakness using the actual exam first time around. Agreed that not many examination formats allow for this but it seems nonsensical to pass up the opportunity. There remains the possibility that I might even pass (!), although with this weekend and a couple of work days remaining I'm pessimistic of covering enough ground in sufficient detail, although the intention is that I will at least read through everything.

My approach has been to cover the material according to the 7 individual exam objectives. I've used the 70-536 book and its lesson review questions, along with the eLearning material I've been using. I much prefer the style of the book and I alternate freely between the book and the .pdf so its not an online-phobic thing. After covering each objective, I've used the MeasureUp tests and selected the module in question to fire back all the specific questions in the bank. Then, on review I'll focus in on the incorrect answers and refer back to the information sources. I jumped the gun last night on serialization having missed out the XmlSerialization side of things and paid the price (58% and failure!). I'm keeping screen-dumps of all incorrectly answered questions just for later review closer to the exam.

Anyway, must get back to the grindstone.

I've just read this article on 'Learning Lessons' in my lunchbreak. I find Ellen MacArthur's attitude and approach to daunting tasks inspiring to me as a father, a software developer and as someone who committed themselves to sport well into their 20s. I would identify her humility, strength of mind and spirit as her key attributes which enable her to execute these amazing feats.

This post has nothing to do with one of my work collegaues who is currently in Kenya (SAP consultants obviously get far too much money!)

I've mentioned in previous posts about using Safari which is an online book service. Being able to search your bookshelf makes things so much easier, especially when you have a few books which cover similar technical areas you get different examples and viewpoints in the results of a quick search.

For a change I've been doing some JavaScript coding in the past few days and Danny Goodman's JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook has helped get me back in the swing of client-side quirkiness, but have also used the offline version(!) of DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith. Although I didn't create a new ASP.NET control to solve my app enhancement, this has pushed my interest towards digging into Kothari's Developing Microsoft ASP.NET Server Controls and Components (why do they insist on putting Microsoft in the actual book title? Reminds me of this funny YouTube video on Microsoft designing the iPod which I came across on a blog). I have the "..Server Controls.." at home already but it's still a worthy addition to get the most out of the service.

One improvement to the service would be if you buy a book from wherever (Amazon for instance) there should be a code which you can submit to Safari to access the same book online without consuming a book off your bookshelf allocation. Just a thought. Anyway, I attach my Bookshelf as a .PDF just as a reference point if nothing else.

bookshelf.pdf (128.89 KB)

I came across this blog post on the habits of aspiring software developers. Although I'm way past school I thought the point (#6) on emotional investment in pet projects compared to assignments rings true. In my experience, I have taken on voluntary work in my own time and developed a primary school website with a CMS to allow self adminstration. It's an ideal platform to try out new things like version updates to .NET Framework and coding styles and even though my kids are no longer there I keep in contact with the Head to progress enhancements - one of the reasons is the emotional investment in my software! Anyway the front-end is a little shaky in Firefox so I know that my CSS needs some attention.....

I've been working with Microsoft's eLearning packages on and off for a few months now. The Collection 5160 covers 7 Courses considered as part of a 'Core Development' skill set. In a sense, I find these courses useful as a starting point, but they really only serve to whet the appetite for more information. Anyway I've always found that reading around a subject is necessary for reinforcement and as a matter of course I've done some googling as well as referring to my Safari bookshelf and MSDN. Writing some console applications and getting them working really helps cement the ideas in place and are also good for later referral.

For example, last night I was working on delegates and events. I worked through the eLearning material but found some of the examples either too brief or simply error-strewn and poorly explained. A quick search on EventArgs on my Safari bookshelf and some really useful examples are described in Donis Marshall's C# book and some advanced stuff to get to grips with in Bill Wagner's Effective C#. This morning I've quickly followed up on the eLearning environment's online forums, however not a lot of peer review goes on here and the moderators are non-existent bar the obligatory 1st post explaining how happy they are to help!

In summary, my overall approach to learning new technologies is based on knowing that passing the exam is not really going to be the end of the road. Especially with v3.0 and v3.5 to learn on top. There is no substitute for really understanding your stuff. Microsoft eLearning could do with putting this approach into practice.

Having been training myself up in VS2005 and C# 2.0 it's interesting to note the current MSDN homepage pushing VS "Orcas" for download. Also, having come across the last episode of the .NET Show, LINQ is getting highlighted as a key part of the next raft of features for the platform. These events have focussed me to look around for resources on LINQ to get an appreciation of this new architecture for data access.

So far I am working my way through an MSDN webcast on LINQ from Nov 2006 (Google is still by far the easiest way to find anything on MSDN!) and the text-based resources for LINQ on MSDN are nicely set out although a little dry.

This got me looking further afield but there are not many books out at the moment which deal exclusively with LINQ, but "LINQ In Action" by Manning has an easy-to-read introduction which is free on their website - one great quote is, "You can think of LINQ as a universal remote control". Might Should Will invest in the eBook when the time is right.

Quite when I'll download Orcas is another matter. I'd like to appreciate VS2005 a little bit more first off (beyond the basic Console Applications which I've been running to consolidate my C# 2.0 learning).

I've persuaded my employers to allow me to undertake some online learning instead of a traditional lecture/tutorial-style course. I've opted to take the Core & Advanced Development for .NET 2.0. The pluses for me are: flexible study pattern and that it has plenty in common for the 70-536 exam.

I have decided to go for this exam first to firmly cement the enhancements to C# in my conciousness. With a better background of the fundamentals I think 70-528 will be a more natural progression. I was influenced by others on this matter.

I've registered for Google Apps in order to make use of Google Docs. This online application allows me to make ongoing notes on all topics wherever I may be and the basic version I have signed up for is free (you get 2GB online storage which is more than enough for me). The GUI is excellent for an online application and includes useful features such as auto-saving as you go along, straightforward image upload & insertion, and I can download and convert a document into another format in a couple of clicks. e.g. to MS Word, PDF etc. And, of course, being Google you can search through all of your documents too.