João Manso

My monitor configuration at Home

João Manso — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:52:46 GMT

Today I’ve decided to share with you my monitor configuration at home. I’ve a desktop with two 22’’ monitors and my work laptop with another 22’’. I’m using the same keyboard and mouse to control everything using a freeware program called Synergy. For the second toolbar I’m using also a freeware program called MultiMonitor Taskbar isn't better than Ultramon, but it’s free!

With this configuration I can have a single monitor for Tweetdeck and another for Outlook, the combinations are huge. My favorite combination is when I play WoW with full screen in my desktop and browsing WoWHead in my laptop without exiting the game or minimize.

It’s time to power off the computers and start reading a new book, see you later!

What I am Reading now?

João Manso — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:44:56 GMT

Hi! Below you can found the latest books that I’ve read in the last six months. Yes!! You are right only three.

C# 3.0 Design Patterns

ISBN: 059652773X
ISBN-13: 9780596527730

Test-Driven Development in Microsoft .NET (Microsoft Professional)

ISBN: 0735619484
ISBN-13: 9780735619487

Professional .NET 2.0 Generics (Programmer to Programmer)

ISBN: 0764559885
ISBN-13: 9780764559884

Since August I’ve started a new hobby called World of Warcraft (WOW) and I’m almost level 76 after 17 days of accumulated time.

Let’s do some math 17 days * 24 hours * 60 minutes * 60 seconds ... Lots of time lost but this game is awesome...

I started playing because I had this though, “I’m already listening a podcast every three day, reading lots of technical blogs and try to improve my developer skills every day, so I need to add more fun in my life with a great video game".

Two months later new problems appeared, the pile of books in my bookstore doesn’t stop growing and my wish list is greater than Great Wall of China.

So in order to read more, I decided to reschedule my priorities and the first duty was to get a new book from my bookstore. The name of the book is Refactoring – Improve the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler.

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series)

ISBN: 0201485672
ISBN-13: 9780201485677

Best Practices of Peer Code Review

João Manso — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:58:09 GMT

Last week my friend Pedro sent me a White Paper from SmartBear that i enjoyed reading regarding code review. I read this paper in order to find knowledge to improve my developer skills. Let me share with you some highlights of that White Paper.

- “The idea of “author preparation” is that authors should annotate their source code before the review begins.” ... “Our theory was that because the author has to re-think and explain the changes during the annotation process, the author will himself uncover many of the defects before the review even begins”

- "But you know that as soon as you say “I’m finished,” your peers – or worse, your boss – will be critically examining your work. Won’t this change your development style? As you work, and certainly before you declare code-complete, you’ll be a little more conscientious.”

- “While several methods exist for lightweight code review, such as “over the shoulder” reviews and reviews by email, the most effective reviews are conducted using a collaborative software tool to facilitate the review.” as developers we have some solutions that do analysis in our code like FxCop and StyleCop.

If you want you can follow SmartBear on Twitter.

Twitter

João Manso — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:52:01 GMT

Hi!

I’ve started using Twitter.

If you want to see what I’m doing!

Happy Anniversary!!

João Manso — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:18:38 GMT

One Year in the company and I continue to learn the meaning of the word Agile with capital A, every day with my colleagues and new challenges.

This past year I learned a lot with Bruno and Tiago (who I give a special thanks for keep punching me in the head to stay in focus :) ) on how I should evolve as a programmer and start using some best practices such as refactoring, unit tests, methodologies and software architecture. Also I had the opportunity to use some cool technology like Microsoft’s Team System.

I know that you thinking right know on “Who is this guy?”. Well, if you want to get to know me better check out my Linked in profile.

I’m the bald one :)