Living in the Tech Avalanche Generation

I can’t name the number of times I have downloaded material for learning from MSDN. My problem is this: I don’t want to have to print out a logical sequence of pages and have to collate them myself. For example recently I wanted to get all the documentation on Entity SQL together and put it in a single document (PDF) so I can easily refer to the material as a whole and not separate resources on the web. So off I go doing the ‘user friendly print version’ thing and printing that to separate PDF files only to have to merge them. Microsoft would be doing the community a huge favour by making that available online by default. Look at the Entity SQL MSDN pages for example.

What I normally do with a tree full of documents like this, is to print all the friendly versions to PDF individually and then merge as one PDF document. So for the above I have the entire Entity SQL Language reference material from MSDN all in one physical document - easy to read and print all in one action. Ok so perhaps they would prefer to provide and XPS version - that’s great with me too, I wont discriminate on document type. Do Microsoft have a suggestion box? Yes they do!

As we approach the new year and many of us reflect on the one that just passed, I find myself compelled to ask the question - are we as human being’s becoming spiritually (not in a religious sense) lost in the after glow of technological advance? Certainly technology has changed my life in a most profound way. I was once a musician and recording engineer and to execute my job required some technological expertise coupled with some artistic flair (I hope). After changing careers and moving into software development, I find that my creative desires are to some extent still fulfilled however my sense of shared experience and the actual amount of time I spend developing my skills ‘with others’ is not comparable at all. No more rehearsals, recording sessions, writing groups, all of which required much human interaction and debate, a lot of which took place in social settings. These days I do most of my learning in isolation, sitting in front of the very computer screen that I see now as I type this post. It is clear that even in my constant education and expression via this blog that I am communicating, however it is still seems to lack some of the interpersonal aspects that traditional face to face interaction can bring.

The Question:

Sometimes it’s not clear whether technology is improving our general quality of life or not. Any thoughts?

Regardless, I hope that 2009 brings an abundance to .NET goodness to one and all. My aim is to be a little more socially inclined next year.

Strange title for a post huh! This post really isn’t anything to do with .NET per se it’s really just me needing to let off some steam about some of the nonsense that the current economic situation seems to be encouraging. This blog is strictly a technical one however it’s my only outlet to spout and I cant contain the urge any longer on this issue.

The stock market is one place that renders me sad and more so by the day. I check the ASX at the end of every day (something I have never done in my life) and although I have no personal stake in the market except for the portion of my superannuation (401K in the US I think) that is invested there. Each day I watch with horror as the index drops further and further, hopefully soon to find it’s bottom and then sit steady for a long while.

What saddens me? I feel sorry for all the investors who are selling to all the sharks that are buying up their stock and rubbing their hands with glee, these investors who are dumping their stocks are panicking as they try to stop their bleeding and have for one reason or another been scared into this position without seemingly knowing any better. Shame on the media for trying to make bucks out of this with sensationalism and over playing the situation. The Governor of the Reserve Bank (Australia’s) has even come out and said that we run the risk of talking ourselves into a recession which would be a sorry state of affairs. Again I cannot believe the culpability of the media and the politicians for talking up the negative and scaring people into panic, if  we create enough negative mental energy around the economy we will surely all begin to  behave in accordance with those negative thoughts (which has already happened) and the rest will undoubtedly follow. My families accountant of many years recently said this, “the science of economics is a study in the behaviour of sheep”, I am sad to say it looks like his cynicism was somewhat warranted.

So all you developers, put a breakpoint on that line of code, dig into that collection of coins your stockpiling in your desk drawer, get off your seat, go to your favourite coffee shop and put a few bucks back into the economy. Come on, do it NOW!