Programming Classroom is the result of this effort.

Rex is well known throughout the programming community, especially in the standards world. He is also highly regarded for his live programming seminars where he teaches classes in C, C++, C# and more.

We thought it would be a great service to offer the seminars that Rex uses in his live classroom teachings to the general public in electronic format. These are the exact same materials from documentation to example source code. It is just that it is at a much lower cost than a classroom setting because it is self-paced learning. You will find seminars on C#, C++, Java, Visual Basic, and C. You will also find some freebies like sample chapters and tips.

So check out ProgrammingClassroom.com and let us know what you think. Needless to say, I am very excited while very nervous at the same time.

I am in the market to redesign my company website.

A few months ago, I put version 1.0 of the Twin Roots website out to the public. It is based on a free template that I thought was interesting and relatively unique (for something that is free). But I knew all along that it was only a temporary stopgap until I decided I wanted to get serious and get a more permanent design for Twin Roots established.

Well that time has come, and you know what, I am as confused and perplexed as ever on where to begin. Here are some things I know:

• I am not a good front end or graphic designer. I have no shame in admitting that. Thus, that’s why I am looking around for a “3rd party” alternative.
• I am open to free templates, free templates that can be modified, paid templates, or a real life person doing the web design
• I am willing to pay money for the website design (whether template or web designer), but I am not willing to break the bank. For what I currently want, I have a top threshold price that I know I shouldn’t go over.
• I want a clean, crisp look (see below for examples of sites that I really like)
• I have no e-commerce need yet; this is currently a purely informational site
• I like my logo; simple, clean, yet unique. So I want that incorporated into the site.

But, where to start is actually quite mind boggling. There are an infinite number of template websites, tons of “Bid For Design” sites, many individual website designers offering their services (but whom I don’t know personally), etc. Do I use a Wordpress CMS theme or something else? Many questions are running through my mind.

Here is what I found in my research:

• Site Designs I like: Slicehost, Datamartist, ReliableSite.net (no they are not my host), Kirix, Panopta, GoalComposer, MacRabbit (I get a lot of my impressions from the sites of the good people at the Business of Software forum).
• Templates: TemplateMonster, Open Source Web Design, WooThemes, Design Offers at WebhostingTalk
• Bid For Design: 99designs, DesignOutpost,
• Website Designers: Design Offers at WebhostingTalk, Craigslist

And I have just hit the tip of the iceberg.

Any advice on a sane, coherent process to get a new website for my company would be MUCH appreciated.

Thanks.

In my seemingly never ending quest to find comparable applications on the Mac that I have on my Windows PC, I searched for a personal finance package that could replace Microsoft Money.

It was actually a harder task than I thought, and I can’t definitively say that any of the software I looked at blew Microsoft Money out of the water.

As I have said before, I am looking for a program that:

1. Allows for online download of transactions from institutions
2. Keeps track of both bank and investments accounts
3. Looks like a genuine Mac application (not a Windows port)
4. Can generate simple invoices for business and keep track of accounts receivable (for my company Twin Roots).

But below are my findings. I didn’t have a ton of time to do an exhaustive check and review of financial applications for the Mac, so first impressions became *very* important.

Winner

• iBank 3.3.2: Well, this is the best of the bunch in my opinion. Not perfect by any stretch (e.g., not intuitive on manually entering securities in an investment account – have to currently use the “Move Shares” transaction, which is weird). But the interface is absolutely gorgeous in my opinion. Blows all of the other ones out of the water on that front. It handles investments. It downloads data automatically from some institutions (but not all major ones). It DOES NOT have simple business invoicing. I could get iBiz to do that if I want, and the cost would not be much more than Microsoft Money Plus Home and Business. It takes some getting used to, but this is what I consider a true Mac application.

Up and Coming

• Moneywell 1.4: From a potential curve, Moneywell wins. I love the “Envelope Budgeting” method. The interface looks nice. But, it currently cannot not track investments. No way to enter stock holdings, for example. This is coming, I think.

Mysterious

• Quicken Financial Life (QFL): Not out until Summer of 2009. And they would not allow me to be part of the beta, for whatever reason.

The Rest

• MoneyDance 2008 (build 629): I think this would do what I want it to do, but, selfishly, I did not like the user interface. It felt too “Windows-ee” on the Mac, and if I am going to go to the Mac, I want to go all out.
• Cha-Ching 1.2.3: Interface had some nice appeal, but it does not support the tracking of investments.
• Fortora Fresh Finance: Does not support investments from what I could see. The interface seemed fairly nice though.
• SplashMoney: Again, does not support investments
• Liquid Ledger 2: This actually had some potential, but I could not find a way to download transactions from banks, get quotes online for investments and there were bugs seen when deleting accounts (like this mysterious 0 folder that appeared). The interface was fair.
• GnuCash 2.2.8: I could not locate the Mac binary since their wiki was down. First impressions, remember. So I might not have given this one a fair shot, but I had to move on.
• Quicken Mac 2007: I refuse to use any software that does not give me a free trial (at least one readily available on the Quicken Website). Plus knowing that QFL is coming out, there is something just not right about using this version, which, by all accounts, people don’t like anyway.

So, in summary, iBank will be my Mac financial application, as imperfect as it may be. But it is by far the best and most complete financial software package out there for my needs (and if you include iBiz, it would match Microsoft Money in most, if not all, facets). I will wait and see what happens with Moneywell, and I am intrigued by the upcoming release Quicken Financial Life (although I am disappointed I cannot be a part of the beta).

If I am wrong about any of my impressions, I would appreciate you letting me know.

My company website is now publicly online.

Twin Roots, a software and technical consulting, contracting and development company has been active for about a year now. And while I have had an initial website up for the last month or so (basically so that I didn’t have to have the GoDaddy start page as the website), I have never really publicized it.

However, I have found what I consider a pretty good theme for my website and am happy enough with it publicly announce it here. I am using a *free* theme from Six Shooter Media (credits maintained on the web site, of course). I just liked the theme. It is simple yet different enough to where I think it can stand out quite nicely. I see an easy maintenance path for the site, being able to highlight current developments, work or products very easily.

I know a free theme is sometimes frowned upon for a business website. And it could be down the line that I have an original site created. But for my first go around, I feel this will do quite nicely.

I invite you to visit the site and comment on it, either through my email address provided there or right here on my personal blog.

Some items I am looking at adding in the near future are:

• A company blog
• Maybe a quick comment section to talk about items such as the site or its content

I am happy that I can get a presence for Twin Roots finally out there.