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So, we've reached the end of another year and it's time to take stock of my achievements this year. Let's start with what I actually wanted to learn this year - DirectX - I really wanted to master it this year. Sadly, I'm not much further forward at the end of the year than I was at the start of the year; life got in the way - specifically, four months of my life either preparing for, or taking part in, Intel's UltimateCoder competition. Okay, so that finished just before May, but then I continued on with my journey into Perceptual Computing, as well as trying to help Chris and CP out with an entry for the recent AIO competition - there was a lot of work in that, which ended up keeping me busy until the middle of November.
So, here we are in December. Am I disappointed that I didn't push forward with DirectX? Heck no - I got to work with Intel a lot, and they are really cool people (hats off from me to Bob Duffy and Wendy Boswell at Intel for being such great sports). On top of that, I've finally managed to start something that I promised I'd work on for Chris a while back. It's actually proving to be a huge amount of fun, and there will be a very big article from me about this. On top of that, I'm exploring new opportunities that I'm pretty excited about - more if, and when, they come off. Plus, I'm now learning Haskell - my brain is melting with how subtle things can be in it.
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It was really bad if you where disappointed with the your achievements in 2013 - it's a very impressive list even without DirectX...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is (V).
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Thank you.
Add 2013 to another year wasted. Check.
"Bastards encourage idiots to use Oracle Forms, Web Forms, Access and a number of other dinky web publishing tolls.", Mycroft Holmes[ ^]
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I'm sure you haven't wasted it. If you look for the positives in the year, they will be there. I could have focused on the fact I didn't achieve the one thing that I said I wanted to at the start of the year. On the other hand, there were so many great things happening that were too good to miss.
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I am alive and not in jail is one positive. Other than that, professionally, a really disappointing year. Personally, I accomplished a lot of things I always wanted to. So that was great.
"Bastards encourage idiots to use Oracle Forms, Web Forms, Access and a number of other dinky web publishing tolls.", Mycroft Holmes[ ^]
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Wasn't Eddie Haskell the smart ass you couldn't trust in Leave it to Beaver? I mean really, how stable could such a platform be? 
You got a lot of cool stuff done this year, even if it wasn't what you planned. I'm somewhat familiar with that experience.
Apress called me out of the clear blue sky about writing for them again and before you know it, I had a two book deal that was nowhere in my plans for 2013. I had intended for this year to be all about getting back into music again but the books were what occupied my time for the most part. However, I got them wrapped up by September / October and have finally been able to fiddle around a bit with the original project I had in mind.
There's been very little music going on, but I now have the infrastructure and tech stuff set up, which is its own kind of fun. Over the holidays I plan to grab that beat up six-stringed thing in my living room and try to remember how it works. I'm sure there's a manual lying around here somewhere.
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Yes it has been a very interesting year for me too.
conversion from vb.net to c# completed in the early part of the year.
Learnt alot things to a good level about c#.
Did courses on MVC for an upcoming project next year to go across the group. In the downtime I am learning angular.js.
Which I hope to use in a couple of personal projects also.
Looking forward to the fun of 2014 and learning how to write techincal specifications 
Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians.
Help end the violence EAT BACON
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Two years ago, I saw an answer(with a nice link) in Q/A section. I forgot to bookmark that one on that day. After somedays I forgot that answer too & everything(like what it's). After sometime I had same thought frequently to find that link. I remember only that's a .NET question. Without any clue(s) I tried some search using some keywords(changed frequently) but no luck. Many times I did the same thing like monthly twice/thrice minimum. Same thing continued till recent time.
Even the link was not much useful or important for me, I wanted to find that. It's just like finding answer for CCC or MQOTD.
Finally today I found that answer(link). This question[^] helped me to find that.
And the answer here[^] by Carlo.
I know it's a silly thing but now I got a special feeling by achieving this.
And the wonderful thing is the date of that answer is exactly 2 years ago(19-Dec-11)
The end.
thatrajaCode converters | Education Needed
No thanks, I am all stocked up. - Luc Pattyn
When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is - Henry Minute
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It's a nice link but to spend two years to search for it? 
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is (V).
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Very Paraphrased for the very lazy:
"Q: Which is the best collection class?"
SAK: None is better than the other, otherwise MS would not add the worse solution. All the classes serve some purpose*. Generics collections have effectively obsoleted non-generic collections for new code.
Carlo: Each serves it's own purpose,here is some guidance**. None is better than the other, otherwise why add the worse one to the framework
SAK's anaswer is the higher rated, despite providing less actually useful information IMHO. Then we have the real kicker, we have a comment on Carlo's answer: "voted 5 for this answer, but there is a bit more to it: I explained why not non-generic non-specialized collection classes should be avoided in favor of the generic ones. Please see my answer."
* Note the purpose isn't defined.
** Provides helpful MSDN link showing the intended purpose of each collection class
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Seems like a fairly normal SA response to me... 
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My belief that these are automated comments is increasing day by day. Why else would someone keep on doing same thing everywhere? I am not questioning his knowledge but it's like some kind of attention seeking activity.
"Bastards encourage idiots to use Oracle Forms, Web Forms, Access and a number of other dinky web publishing tolls.", Mycroft Holmes[ ^]
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That's the problem: he does know a lot, and he is good at what he knows. But he doesn't work well with beginners, and he always insists on the "perfect" approach, which isn't always the best...
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True. Sometimes, people just want some bug to be fixed. They are not really after in-depth knowledge of the defect or a solution that potentially means: "All you did is wrong. Redo everything this way.".
"Bastards encourage idiots to use Oracle Forms, Web Forms, Access and a number of other dinky web publishing tolls.", Mycroft Holmes[ ^]
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Most SAK's comments are by the template of you-are-right-but-i-know-better. So it's just normal with him...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is (V).
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As a self taught Hobbyist, I concur. But as I have come to understand more, His answer's are usually a Best practice.
David
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SAK walks the fine line between minimally correct and confusing, to me. He's a Big Name so he always gets lots of 5s, though. On complex questions he is brilliant, but on newbie questions I don't think he can bring his brain down to that level.
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OK, someone explain to me how SAK's answer is higher-rated? How is four votes of 5 higher than six votes of 5? 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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The votes are weighted by reputation . SAK'S answer is currently still higher when ordered by score. Also, I've upvoted Carlo, so he's had at least one extra vote since I opened it.
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Ah, that makes sense. It's just not exactly obvious when you look at the page.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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There is absolutely no truth to the rumors that SAK is a super-computer being field-tested by the Russian State Security Services for mass brain-washing of programmers to turn them into zombies under remote control.
If you seek to aid everyone that suffers in the galaxy, you will only weaken yourself … and weaken them. It is the internal struggles, when fought and won on their own, that yield the strongest rewards… If you care for others, then dispense with pity and sacrifice and recognize the value in letting them fight their own battles." Darth Traya
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I've listened to a number of productivity experts say you should let go of email, or at the least, don't do email as your first task in the morning.
This advice always comes across, to me, in the same way that people say you shouldn't eat carbs, or you shouldn't watch TV, or you shouldn't eat gluten. Great advice if you put it in context and if it applies to you (ie you're gluten intolerant) but otherwise a pointless and misleading generalisation if applied at face value.
I was just going through my morning email and realised that if I *don't* do my email rounds then I have about a dozen people waiting on me to get back to them, which in turn means there are people waiting on those people etc.
I get that you don't want to be a slave, but when you're in a position where others, as part of due-process, actually require an answer, a confirmation, or even simply an acknowledgment before they move ahead then ignoring email is about the most unproductive and selfish thing possible.
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If I don't do email, then there is every chance that I could miss out on something important from a client. It doesn't look very good to them if I were to say "oh, I don't do email until 2.30" - it's an excellent way for me to miss the email where they say they no longer want our services because we never reply to their emails in a timely fashion.
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Another stupid fad idea by someone who has never had to work in the real world.
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And yet, to be honest 85% of the mails are unnecessary. To filter out the other 15% ishorrible 
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