back Why this page exists
I have plenty of questions that I would very much like to get answered, but just don't have the time to research. I'm thinking that I could eventually setup an expertise exchange as described here. You answer some of my questions, I answer some of yours, depending on what our areas of expertise are. We document the answers so that nobody has to ask them again, as long as they find this site, or perhaps yours. If enough (as in a few) people are interested, I will write the database and web pages for this expertise exchange more quickly.
Contact me if you have questions you think I could answer, or answers for any of my questions: labreuer+qna@gmail.com . Note that as I've recently created this page, I haven't put nearly all the questions down that I have. So, some of the below are not so much questions as requests, but the idea of an expertise exchange is still quite valid.
Miscellaneous- Dictionary list I would like a better dictionary list for my Boggle program; this list would probably have other uses too, like in my spell checker.
- Computing tips I'm all for this type of thing. You have probably gotten a decent idea of the sort of tips that would help me out by now...
- LaTex I need to start writing my homework up in this instead of MathType. Tutorials, tips, and software related to LaTex would be greatly appreciated.
- Information Science I think this stuff is really cool, and would like to know more about it!
- Scalable Vector Graphics I want to write software that uses this (for generating timing diagrams), probably in .NET, so links and/or tips in this area would be quite welcome. The software will be either free or very low priced.
- Cross-web application user system
As you can probably see, I have written a number of websites. What I would like
is a centralized user management system so that users would [hopefully] only have to login once to use any of
the various websites I have written or will write (WebMark,
foreign language e-flashcards, blog,
forums, upload center, XmlHttpRequest
chat, etc.).
- Is this a reasonable idea?
- Would there be a good method for making this work cross-domain (in a given domain, I can just use cookies)?
- CSS: Advanced guidelines I would like guidelines for writing CSS code, as currently I haven't standardized on any formats or anything like that. I like standards, as things are more readable and machine-processible when standards are adhered to.
- Colorizers Might anyone have pre-written code to nicely colorize (using css, not <font>) ASP.NET, CSS, JavaScript, etc?
- General web site design I personally think I'm pretty abysmal at designing websites, so any advice is definitely welcome.
- Connecting with other software developers I would very much like to find other developers with whom I can chat and perhaps exchange information.
- How to represent records in a table in code What I currently do is have a class which can generate select sql: other code takes this, applies any sorting and filtering required, then constructs a DataReader. It then passes the DataReader to the constructor of my class, which loads private class-level variables, which are accessible through properties. Any methods (delete, etc.) are implemented as public functions in the class. Is there a better way to do this?
- Flexible query system Following from the above question: I want a better method of filtering and sorting. I can think of some hacks to do this, but I'd like a really elegant solution that still allows me access to nested boolean grouping of filter terms and such. Perhaps you might have some experience or suggestions in this area?
- Response.Redirect("http://url", bool) I don't completely understand what happens when bool == true: does thread execution simply get aborted? Where is this exception raised?
- Spell Checking I would like to be able to spell-check HTML. Optimally, I just pass it a string and it returns an array of objects telling me what's incorrect, and suggesting corrections. A custom word list is definitely required.
Free is nice, but I will pay if the product is excellent and the price is decent. Ultimately, I want to build up an awesome software toolbox so that I have a piece of software or know where to get it, to do just about anything I want to do. I want the best file explorer, the best FTP client and server, etc. Efficiency!
- Software you use Chances are, you know about software I don't and vice versa, software that would be good for both of us to know about. How about sharing?
- Internet connectivity monitor At the bare minimum, this tool would ping multiple websites and log when the computer it is running on gets no responses to any of the pings. More advanced features are welcome.
- FTP server I want to be able to modify anything and retrieve all stats from another program (which will probably be written in .NET). Users and groups, granular access rights, virtual directories, etc., are all features that are pretty much required. Any other common-sense FTP server features are required...
I have so much software I want to write that I'll probably only get to the stuff that other people would be willing to help with, or at least would find useful.
- Text editor I've been wanting a text editor with features that no existing text editor has, so I'll probably write it myself. Click here for specifications.