BrockYork

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Correctly organising if statements can improve code readability and also on processing time. It mainly helps for writing clean better code, because on today’s hardware processors spend most of the time on idle but if you were writing a extremely hardware intense program then organising if statements correctly is going to improve performance greatly.
 * Handy Hint 1**

Lets get started by looking at the following code: Dim test As Integer If test 90 Then “Do something” Elseif test > 100 Then “Do something else” Else “Do this instead”

It is blatantly clear that in the code about you should test to see if “test” is greater then 100 before testing to see if it smaller then it. Also in the first line of code “If test 90 Then” If correctly organised you would not need to test if “test” is smaller then 100. The first line of code requires two tests firstly the program must see if “test” is smaller then 100 if so then it will test if “test” is greater then 90 if both of these tests come back true then it will run the code assigned to it in this case “Do something”. Well the second test is a waste of processing time because it isn’t required at all. The next code is the same as above but rearranged to make it more optimised.

Dim test As Integer

If test > 100 Then “Do something else” ElseIf test > 90 Then “Do something” Else “Do this instead” In the newly written code there are only two tests instead of the three before this cuts down on processing time. We only have to test if “test” is greater than 100 and greater than 90 because when a if statement equals true it will execute it's code and then jump out of the if statement block so it will not go to the greater then 90 test unless it has passed the greater then 100 test.

Although very simple this caused me a few problems before I figured it out and a couple of people have asked me how to fix this. That is when you open a project there is no Form view in other words you can't see the forms tab so you can edit the form.
 * Handy Hint 2**

Normally going to the solution explorer tab and then double clicking on the form will reopen it. if not then goign to the view tab which is the third button to the left of "file" the clicking on designer will then open the form


 * My presentation on a IT topic**

Certificate IV programing Presentation on a IT subject I chose shell scripting as my topic to present on here are the uploaded notes and power point presentation plus code I used.

PowerPoint presentation

Microsoft Word notes

Rip PSX games shell script

== == For my report I went to a DOT net meeting. It is held in Perth at the excom convention centre once a month. These meetings are for DOT net developers in the Perth region to get together and share their knowledge. This was the second DOT net meeting I have been to. I decided to go to these meetings because we are studying a DOT net language so it seemed a good idea to see what the Perth DOT net community is developing. This months meeting was about getting rich and working from home. The speaker was Joseph Albahari. Joseph Albahari is the developer of linqPad a query tool used to query SQL databases using linq querying language. The talk he gave was about his experiences while developing linqPad it was a basic overview of how to setup a Micro-ISVthe pitfalls to be aware of and the benefits.
 * Report on a Conference**

== The talk giving by Joseph Albahari was about setting up your own Micro-isv. It was based on his own experiences from developing and selling linqPad. Although the presentation didn’t go indepth on the creation process of a Micro-ISV this was because of course he only had a hour to speak. A micro-isv is a Micro Independent Software Vendor they are extremely small usually made of only one person. Joseph spoke about : · Idea incubation - what works and what doesn't · Marketing strategies, bootstrapping and how to get free advertising, including a simple trick to increase your sales 30% · Traps in dealing with domain experts & business partners · How programming best practices differ for Micro-ISVs · A rarely-used but easy deployment mechanism to maximize downloads · Handling automated payments · Designing a licensing system that works · Web site design and search engine optimization · Monetization options & establishing a price, and why a micro-ISV does well in a recession

Starting out Joseph stated that a Micro-ISV developer needs to have strong programming skills because there is no one to pick up the slack. Get as much UI design in as you can. Get in on business analysis. For ideas you need to always have your mind open. When a problem comes up don’t just go I wish there was “x” program and then forget about it. You need to harness these ideas and use them

The product doesn’t need to be big and shiny with lots of buttons that just confuses people it should be small, simple and easy to use and solve a problem that people are encountering. During a recession like the current times people are after cheaper software so for a Micro-ISV this is a perfect time to setup shop also because of the economic down turn things become much cheaper like advertising space and office space.

When building a Micro-ISV you need to stay away from big business practices because they are largely inefficient because of the amount of meetings and planning. Where as a Micro-ISV is only comprised of one person.

Marketing is a large part of your product being a success. Getting it out there is important and how you market it. Your target is viral marketing not making a virus but making that niggling feature that would make the program so much better a premium feature. So that people will eventually go I’ll pay the 19$.

You need to get involved with the people you are trying to market to. Setup a feedback system and bug reporting. Add a optional email field so that you can email the person who sends the feedback because they may be doing something you may not even know of then you can implement new features and bug fixes. == The talk was quite long but it was crammed with information it was a great learning experience. Even though I have reported on only the basic parts of his talk these were the most important parts. These are simple things that as a starting out Micro-ISV doesn’t think of or doesn’t know the answer to so as aspiring developer it was a great eye opener on how to develop and sell my own software. After going to the DOT net meeting I was invigorated to continue my learning journey on Visual basic as this developer was using a DOT net language and was able to make his own Micro-ISV by selling this product. This was the second time I have been to a DOT net meeting and I hope to go to many more as it is interesting to help me learn and also a great way to get into the DOT net community.