Voter Registration Fraud

June 4th, 2010

Fraudulent voter registrations from ACORN hit the air waves during the 2008 presidential election. The level of coverage made me start thinking about why voter registration fraud was portrayed as a serious threat.

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MODx Module Development Tips

May 3rd, 2010

This is an ongoing list of best procedures and tips for MODx module development. Modules are used in the MODx manager to help site administrators control custom functionality.

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Tort Reform Part 1

April 7th, 2010

Tort reform became an increasingly popular topic during the health reform debate. Tort reform is the legislative process of reducing outrageous payouts in civil lawsuits. This article is the first in a series and examines how tort reform works.

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Congress at your Fingertips

April 7th, 2010

I believe it is the responsibility of every American to familiarize themselves with major legislative actions of Congress. Unfortunately, the process of fact-checking, cross-referencing, and researching can be time consuming. I find most news outlets unsatisfactory, as most of them are pushing an agenda or are completely full of shit. Instead, I prefer reading the actual legislation. The process is a lot simpler (and much less boring) than you might think.

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Hospital Care for Illegal Immigrants

March 31st, 2010

President Obama gave his first State of the Union Address in 2010. Rep. Joe Wilson (R) shouted “You lie!” after Obama said government funds would not subsidize illegal immigrants. I’d like to walk through some scenarios that occurred before the new health reform legislation was passed.

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Taxonomy-Based Risk Identification

November 15th, 2008

Identifying risks associated with software development is vital for project success. In most cases, developers are aware of risks throughout development but potential problems are not communicated in a way that reflects uncertainty in project health.

Taxonomy-based risk identification is a loosely structured method for quantifying risks during the planning phase(s) of software development.

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Unit Testing Web Services

August 8th, 2008

Web Services allow web-based applications to communicate without operating system and programming language dependencies. Because Web Services are high-level, it is often difficult to diagnose problems when things go wrong. A programmer may have to inspect every layer between application code and WSDL contents before diagnosing a bug. Luckily, there are open source tools available to help test Web Services. InfoWorld has written a review of three open source Web Services unit testing frameworks here.

Using Wikis for Project Management

August 6th, 2008

Among the extravagant web-based project management solutions on the web (Basecamp, @task, Wrike, VeoProject, Clarizen, FogBugz, …more) lies an overlooked gem called “Wiki.” A Wiki is a website designed for collaboration. Wikis allow multiple authors to create, remove, and modify content. The inherent collaborative nature of Wikis makes it a perfect addition to the project manager’s arsenal. Wikis cannot replace software written specifically for PPM, but Wikis can assist organizations during development. This article reviews the following:

  • Some of the relevant features and uses of Wikis for PPM
  • Some overuses of Wikis
  • Possible risks associated with using Wikis
  • A list of articles that prompted me to try Wikis for PPM

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Using ASUnit with ActionScript 2.0

July 18th, 2008

ASUnit is a framework that allows ActionScript developers to create, build, and run test suites. This post demonstrates how to use the ASUnit Extension with AS2.0 and avoids the topic of why a programmer should use test driven development.

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Friday Wrapup Meetings

July 12th, 2008

Every Friday, developers and managers should meet briefly to discuss the successes of the previous week. A Friday Wrapup Meeting should include all team members regardless of their status, position, or present work-load. The meeting’s mood should be kept upbeat and the discussion should be used to highlight company successes and developer contributions over the past week. This article contains recommendations for conducting these meetings.

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