Nov
22
2011
Tips and Tricks

Success in today’s IT environment

Success in today’s IT environment requires you to view your career as a business endeavor. I have been working as a Software Developer in different companies for over 5,5 years and Software Design Engineer in Test (SDET) at Microsoft more than 8 months. I have learned a lot with the Microsoft and I am getting more comfortable with process, job and more confident with abilities in new projects every day. I like writing code and spend a good chunk of my time writing automated tests in fast changing environment on new technologies. Also I like to develop tools to help with work and to help the rest of my teams to create high quality software. I also love analyzing problems and coming up with brand new solutions, but most important that I am trying to ensure that investing time and energy in the right areas. More...

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An article by Slava Agafonov 1 Comment

Sep
1
2011
Tips and Tricks

Top 100 ways to motivate yourself

100 Motivation practiceThe lack of motivation can to a cancer that can build apathy, pessimism, cynicism, and can stifle energy stunting a company's growth and just like cancer if not treated can destroy the organization. Managers have the reasonability to examine every single individual and also the places they need to have improvement, apply motivational theories in their behavior modification plan. Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus. More...

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An article by Slava Agafonov 1 Comment

Aug
29
2011
.NET // Software products // Tips and Tricks // Tools

ILSpy versus .NET Reflector

ILSpy - open source.NET assembly browser, decompiler and software utility for Microsoft .NET combining class browsing, static analysis and decompilation. Tool for code internal assemblies code analyze or reflector tool for our applications to improve the performance or to know the internals of the assembly we have created. I was using Red Gate .NET Reflector earlier for same as it was free and with frequent updates. Now Red Gate has made that tool paid (about 35$) version so I found alternative tools from that I can see IL and C# code easily for free. Why we need to pay money if we can develop open source product like ILSpy? That decompiler tool almost giving same functionalities like .NET Reflector. More...

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An article by Slava Agafonov 4 Comments

Aug
16
2011
Books // Tips and Tricks

Yasiv is Yet Another Similar Items Visualization

Yasiv is Yet Another Similar Items VisualizationAt this article I am going to present yasiv. What is Yasiv? No, Yasiv is not populated place in Afghanistan :) This is a beautiful assistant in books search, a web site developed by Andrei Kashcha (aka Anvaka). Yasiv visualizes a relation network of books on Amazon, from the statistics data "customers who bought this item also bought", by digging related books again and again. You also can faster see description and google book preview,  if it is available for this book. More...

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An article by Slava Agafonov 1 Comment

Jul
7
2011
Tips and Tricks

Manifesto for Agile Software Development

Agile Manifesto Development What about Agile Methodologies? Is Agile (SCRUM) still popular in big software projects? Do we still have to implement bicycle with new name for software development process? I think nope, because  we are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions  over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more. More...
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An article by Slava Agafonov 2 Comments

Jun
14
2011
Tips and Tricks // Visual Studio 2010 // Visual Studio 2011

Debugger canvas

Debugger canvasDebugger Canvas is a new user experience for the debugger in Visual Studio Ultimate. It pulls together the code you’re exploring onto a single pan-and-zoom display. As you hit breakpoints or step into code, Debugger Canvas shows just the methods that you’re debugging, with call lines and local variables, to help you see the bigger picture. Code debugging with code bubble is easy now! :) If object change state we can see updates easily. The Debugger Canvas is built on technologies that only ship with Visual Studio Ultimate, such as IntelliTrace and the code analysis features in the Architecture tools. More...
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An article by Slava Agafonov 4 Comments

May
28
2011
Software products // Tips and Tricks // Visual Studio 2011

vNext - Microsoft Visual Studio 2011 IDE features

VS 2011vNext – is new version of Visual Studio 2011. First article about features was created by Weston Hutchins - Program Manager, Visual Studio IDE Platform Microsoft Corporation 19 May 2011. I am going to discuss new features presented by VS2011 IDE  vNext presentation in this article. What is cool about brand new 2011 Visual Studio? It is more organized, clean, nice look and feel. If you with VS 2011 it can save a lot of time, it is busy a lot of toolbars and buttons, especially in debugging. You can do each thing in different ways. For example search and replace changed from Find and Replace -> Find symbols -> Navigate to, few examples how to do same thing in new VS 2011 in demo from channel 9 below. Challenge for vNext release is simpler (reducing amount of buttons, setting UI to concentrate on your code) + faster (overall responsiveness, long running operations, memory utilization and better feedback / telemetry) = more productive. Project is fully supported between 2011 and 2010 solution projects.

Simpler + Faster = More Productive More...
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An article by Slava Agafonov 3 Comments

Feb
26
2011
Stack Overflow // Tips and Tricks

Careers 2.0 on Stack Overflow is free

Careers 2.0 is a great match for StackOverflow and it will really help employers find the right programmers for the job, plus it provides programmers with an interesting background showing their efforts in StackOverflow answers. “Everything is completely redesigned and rebuilt to look great, work fast,” says Spolsky. Careers 2.0 is free for developers with the catch that you have to be invited by either your peers or a StackOverflow moderator (before anyone with a credit card could sign up). Employers have to pony up $500 for weekly access. n the future, automatic robot recruiters will use mental telepathy and nuclear fusion technology to get people the perfect jobs. When that happens, rest assured that those robots will be wearing Stack Overflow insignia, but until then, Careers 2.0 is a big leap ahead.More...
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An article by Slava Agafonov 2 Comments

Feb
18
2011
Interview // Tips and Tricks

Interview Questions for Senior and Mid Software Engineers

I found these questions in Scott Hanselman blog. Certainly Scott Hanselman wasn't trying to boil all of .NET Software Development down to a few simple "trivia" questions. However, questions by Scott get folks thinking. Believe that really good ASP.NET (and for that matter, WinForms) is a little more than just draging a control onto a designer and hoping for the best. A good race driver knows his car - what it can do and what it can't. Scott Hanselman say his comments regarding to inteviewing process: "I do a LOT of interviewing here (Microsoft), and for a while we were hiring ASP.NET people.  Here's some of the questions that I asked them.  I came up with these questions because you'd "just know" this stuff if you spent time working on a REAL WORLD ASP.NET site - through design, development, debugging, production debugging, and deployment.". Check these questions out! More...

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An article by Slava Agafonov 5 Comments

Feb
15
2011
Algorithms // Big-O analysis // Tips and Tricks

Big-O (Theta) analysis

A good understanding of big-O analysis is critical to making a good impression with the interviewer. Big-O analysis is a form of run-time analysis that measures the efficiency of an algorithm in terms of the time it takes for the algorithm to run as a function of the input size. It’s not a formal benchmark, just a simple way to classify algorithms by relative efficiency.

In mathematics, computer science, and related fields, big-O notation (also known as big Oh notation, big Omicron notation, Landau notation, Bachmann–Landau notation, and asymptotic notation) (along with the closely related big-Omega notation, big-Theta notation, and little o notation) describes the limiting behavior of a function when the argument tends towards a particular value or infinity, usually in terms of simpler functions. Big O notation characterizes functions according to their growth rates: different functions with the same growth rate may be represented using the same O notation. More...

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An article by Slava Agafonov No Comments

Feb
14
2011
JavaScript // Tips and Tricks

Knowing what kind of programmer you are

All programmers are not alike. Knowing what kind of programmer you are is crucial to finding the right kind of job. While you can probably do many different kinds of programming tasks, they won’t all turn your crank in the same manner. Doing something you don’t really enjoy is fine on a short-term basis, but you need to be interested in and excited by what you’re doing to sustain you over the long term. The best programmers are passionate about their work, and you can’t truly be passionate about something that’s only moderately interesting to you. More...

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An article by Slava Agafonov 3 Comments

Author - Agafonov Viacheslav

Agafonov Slava site

Hello world! My name is Agafonov Viacheslav. I'm a software engineer at Microsoft located in Bellevue next to Redmond campus and Seattle downtown, state Washington. I was born in Ukraine. My passion for programming is in my ability to create tools that make people's lives easier.

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The opinions and information that expressed here do not represent my employer's view in any way. Information in this blog is my own opinion and does not reflect on employer. Content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 license.

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