Ever since 4.5 years ago when my team leader made me follow 3 blogs I have been an avid fan of reading blogs. I try to keep a system of 2/3 fun stuff and 1/3 development stuff just so I won’t loss interest. My blog list has changed over the years, I usually know when to quit following a blog – usually it’s 3 days after it becomes a chore reading that blog. Blogs that have a good chance of becoming a chore are either blogs with too many posts or blogs where you only get a summery of the post and you have to actually surf (shudder) to the post (and of course the content is important).
I use Google Reader for following blogs more because it actually became a social thing for me than that it is an easy system that can be used from everywhere (with an internet connection and a browser). Most of my friends use it and we share posts back and forth (for example a few days ago Rita shared this lovely post about abstract override, I am still in denial that it is possible in c#). I mostly share funny stuff like this (or Can you tell a coder from a cannibal?) but also development stuff like this.
So without further ado here is my blog list (as they are ordered in my account of Google Reader):
News-System:
- Microsoft Research News and Headlines – for all the cool stuff Microsoft has in their stack
- Official Google Reader Blog – just because I like to know what is new in any tool I use
Popular-Blogs: (fun stuff)
- Google popular – long ago Google Reader had a popular tab I just added it’s feed for my Reader, just to make sure I read it all…
- Mind Hacks – it is just amazing what the human mind is capable of…
ArcGis: (technical map related – not just ESRI)
- Inside the Geodatabase – new things by experts
- Mapping Center – good design tips about mapping
- ArcGIS Server Development Blog – I also have their old blog (they switched back in 2007)
- ArcObjects Development – it’s nice to know ESRI won’t support VS2008 before it happens…
- Geoprocessing – it has posts such as using Python with ArcGis
- GIS Programming – for example: Basic ArcSDE Commands
- Geospatial Integration – this is the not just ESRI
- SharpGIS – Silverlight ESRI API
- GIS Lounge - Geographic Information Systems – this is also the not just ESRI
- jeff germain's blog – ArcGis Server and ArcObjects
- Gal Systems - Oren Gal's GIS Website – Blog – general ESRI and Silverlight API
Programming: (just guess)
- Guy Burstein's Blog – some of it is in Hebrew
- Mareo Code – c# guy followed his old blog…
- Tess:If broken it is, fix it you should – advanced memory debugging and more
- Elegant Code – javascript and WPF
- Helper Code - TDD
- I used to have more like “MSDN: U.S. Local Highlights” but Microsoft changed the blogs system so now I only have the history… (thank god because it used to update like 10 times a day).
Silverlight:
- Silverlight Tips of the Day – though the tips have stopped 3 months ago…
- JohnPapa.net – need I say more?
- WynApse – he posts the Silverlight Cream
- Jeff Wilcox » Silverlight
- Method ~ of ~ failed by Tim Heuer
- Mike Taulty's Blog : Silverlight
- Silverlight Web Services Team
- Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek
WPF:
- Jaime Rodriguez – has some GIS stuff as well
- LearnWPF.com - Goodbye battleship-grey
.NET: (there are more…)
- Is This Thing On? – cool tips in VS2010
- Nikhil Kothari's Weblog – this days mostly RIA
- Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen
- ScottGu's Blog
- you've been HAACKED – MVC and NuGet
SQL: (much more…)
- Bob Beauchemin's Blog – a bit on spatial types
- Microsoft SQL Server Development Customer Advisory Team – I am a SQL Server guy
programming---good:
- MSDN Magazine RSS Feed: – great articles every month
- Sara Ford's Blog – she is here more because of her old blog with VS tips of the day
Programming-Joel: (yes, he gets a place of his own)
- Joel on Software – why? just watch this
Friends: (teammates and team leaders)
- YsA.Net – Yossi’s blog
- Doron's .NET Space – he was my team leader (the dictator who told me I must read 3 blogs…)
- Pair (of) Programmers - Matan and Barko
- Nati Dobkin – a teammate of mine
- Human-Debugger.net – was not my team leader but he was around…
- Code Covered - another teammate of mine
programming---processed: (this was from the days I thought about going over all the posts from the start – thankfully it passed and all that remains today is the name of the category)
- C# Edge – ASP.Net
- Kristof Verbiest - Good code, bad code – I liked the post on the stopwatch
Programming-Hebrew:
- MS Israel Community – one of the more demanding feeds the post of all blogs.microsoft.co.il
- Soluto Blog – not in Hebrew but it is Israeli
- Karmona Pragmatic Blog – another Israeli and also not in Hebrew
Programming-found-while-surfing: (for blogs I found while searching for stuff)
- Atombrenner
- Blogs
- CodeThinked
- Columns
- Professional Visual Studio
- CodeBetter.Com
- JetBrains .NET Tools Blog – on Jetbrains you can read about my Resharper experience here
Programming-good-webcasts: (for podcasts and webcasts)
- dnrTV – really one of the best
- Deep Fried Bytes – good podcast
- This Developer's Life – another good podcast
- DotNetS: Podcast – I have to admit in my more crazy days I followed the general DotNetSlacker feed, every week I would drown in 200 new posts…
- How Do I Videos – Security
- Webcasts
- WindowsClient.net
Funny: (just for fun, almost done – are you excited?)
- Dilbert Daily Strip – I cannot start a day without reading the daily Dilbert, I even have a tag named GoodDilbert for the days I need a pickup… (they are those Dilberts I share in Reader)
- This is Photobomb
- Probably Bad News: News Fails
- Fake Science
- Very Demotivational - The Demotivational Posters Blog
- Damn You Auto Correct! – is it just me or did any of you also canceled the auto correct after reading this?
- I used to follow LOL cats but it had just too many items a day…
Followers – this is where I put all those people that follow me and I follow them
Quotes: (for the days I want to change my current quote in GTalk (right now it’s: "Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live." - Martin Golding)
Japan: (for the crazy stuff, I am sorry but judge for yourselves if it’s crazy or not)
- Japan Probe – for example: Japan Hole-Digging Competition
- Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan – for example: LED lights in your mouth?
- TOKYOMANGO – for example: Handwarmers that make you look like a ninja
There is also my shared items if you want to follow it (warning some of them are in Hebrew):
I have more but most of them haven’t been updated in years, while others I consider deleting…
How did I find so many? I usually search for things on the web and if I like the blog I just copy it to my Reader in the category of “programming-found-while-surfing”…
When do I read them? Well I used to read them on the way to work on the train by caching them on my IPod, now I just read them between build, while running my unit tests or when I want to strangle the guy that programmed that $#!& of a framework relax a bit…
I am told I am pretty crazy with the amount of blogs I follow (if you also think so then leave a comment)…
