Software, Web and Database Developer
The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is a way to determine the rate of return for an asset, a single stock or the entire portfolio.
I wanted to see how this would be calculated in F#, so here you go, enjoy:
let capm (beta:float) (y:float) (z:float) = y + (beta * (z - y));;
– January 30, 2010
I’m really excited about 2010. Things are changing and I’ve never felt more sure about the direction of my career and personal life than I do now. So to kick things off, I’m posting a list of my 2010 goals and I’ll track them through out the year with the 2010Goals category.
The goal criteria is, it needs to be measurable and attainable within 2010.
This is a challenging goal because I have a ton of books I still need to finish or read. I love books and when I find a good one, I buy it. The problem is I pushed off reading a bunch of them, telling myself I would read them later. This goal will insure I finally get to them.
I’m into hobby robotics and my son loves robots as well. He seems to be into building things and this would be a perfect project for both of us. Maybe it will help pick up toys 
The abacus is amazing and it’s proven to improve mental capabilities, plus it’s easy and fun. If you want to know more, just do a search for abacus on YouTube.
I enjoy speaking about technology I’m passionate about. The challenge is I don’t speak enough and I should. So even though I set this goal at 5 presentations, I hope to do more based on time, availability, etc.
I need to become more active in the community, so this goal translates to, obtain a position within a .NET user group. I will contribute to the community in many other ways, however this will insure I consistently provide support to the community through out the year.
I recently became employed by Quicken Loans and this goal is to help me understand that domain and industry.
I find they are a great way to define and drive the direction of my career. The technology landscape is continually changing and I need to insure I do as well.
I need to get this party started. I’m looking forward to taking a ton of math, finance and business classes, however I need to start with my gen eds.
Almost forgot this one, but this year I’m going to get more F# in my life. I’ve had a small taste of functional programming and I want more. Also, F# seems to be the coming up language of choice for developing finance solutions.
Posted in 2010Goals.
– January 3, 2010
I’m currently working on an ASP.NET MVC project and I’m using LINQ to SQL to manage my data. One of the fields I’m working with is stored as a MONEY data type in SQL Server. I wanted to find the best CLR data type to use when I mapped the field in my LINQ Data Context. After some researching I came across a great MSDN article showing what types to use when mapping back to the database with LINQ. There is even an awesome grid showing the best types to use and the expected data loss.
Here is the link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb386947.aspx
Posted in Data, LINQ, SQL Server.
– November 27, 2009
Here is a quick tip on how to remove elements with empty values. All you have to use is the array_filter($myarray) function. Here is an example.
$myarray = array();
$myarray[] = 1;
$myarray[] = '';
$myarray[] = 'a';
print_r($myarray);
Array
(
[0] => 1
[1] =>
[2] => a
)
When you use array_filter() this is what you get:
$myarray = array_filter($myarray);
print_r($myarray);
Array
(
[0] => 1
[1] => a
)
Of course you can use array_filter with a callback function to intelligently remove elements, but if you just want to remove empty values, this is the best way.
Posted in PHP.
– November 25, 2009
After going through the Oxite hosting issue on Godaddy, I decided to look into the hosting issue further. Basically with Godaddy, unless I had a VPS with them, hosting Oxite is a bunch of hoops I don’t want to jump through just to get a blog going. So, to give Oxite a fair chance I’m going to get a hosting account with Discount ASP.NET, who I hear has great support for ASP.NET.
Posted in ASP.NET, Oxite, Web.
– November 16, 2009
Time for another GiveCamp. This time it will be in Grand Rapids at the YMCA. I’m looking forward to this event and being able to help non-profits in any way I can. I’ll try and keep the posts coming during the event, you may see a couple 3AM posts, you were warned
The GR GiveCamp organizers setup Assembla for us to use during the event for task tracking, document management, etc. This will be cool, since everyone will be using the same system to track everything.
Well, I’m off.
Posted in Events.
– November 13, 2009
Looking good as in tasty, yummy, delicious. Not as in, hey nice hair or where did you buy that shirt.
I’m a Qt kind of guy when it comes to OSS GUI frameworks and really Qt is more than that. However lately I’m spending some of my time in PHP. I really enjoy developing in PHP and I’m always trying to find new and fun ways to use a language I spend time in. Since PHP is primarily a web development language, I wanted to see what libraries/frameworks were out there to support desktop application development with PHP.
I looked at PHP-Qt, however I feel that project still has a ways to go before I can start using it. Keep in mind, I work on a Windows box all day and I didn’t want to have to jump through the cygwin hoop. I think they will have good support for Windows soon, but I want something that I can use now.
I did some more research and came across the PHP-GTK project. The first thing I look for in a framework project is the documentation. I was surprised to see the amount of documentation and with some code samples. The docs are not perfect, but they provide me with what I need.
Demos are the second thing I look for. I want to see how it will work, how the code is compiled/ran and if I can run it on my system. Within a couple minutes of unzipping a folder, I was up and running.
So, if you are a PHP developer looking to develop a desktop application, I would consider taking a look at PHP-GTK.
– November 7, 2009
If you want to add a module directly into an article just follow the steps below:
That’s it!
Posted in Joomla.
– November 5, 2009
php|architect is running a contest called The Great PHP on Windows Contest. Basically you can tell from the title, this is a contest about PHP and Windows. The challenge is to develop a PHP application, desktop or web, that runs on Windows. You get bonus points for using Microsoft technology, like SQL Server, Azure, etc.
For more details you can check out the contest page.
I signed for the contest and they accepted my entry! My project is Task HUD, a task management web application, should be awesome. Not just for the contest, but because this is something I need. Even though nothing is up yet, you can keep track of the progress of Task HUD at http://www.taskhud.com.
I’m excited to be a part of this contest and I look forward to what the other entries are developing.
If you use twitter, you can follow what people are saying, using the #winphp hash tag and you can follow @phparch.
If you are a PHP developer, you should sign up, because by the way, did I mention the sweet prizes? no? well, you need to check them out for yourself.
One last thing, I would like to thank Applied Innovations for hosting my entry on their servers, rock on.
– November 5, 2009
Well, I tried to move my blog over to Oxite and because my hosting provider is an average run of the mill providers, I wasn’t able to get it up and running. Honestly, the process to get Oxite up and running is way too much effort for a blog. Wordpress works great and is a lot easier to install. So, I’m sticky to Wordpress for now.
Posted in Web.
– October 27, 2009
