Top 10 Google & Technorati “Software Development” Sites–Part 1

Disclaimer:

The first Death Star was flawed … wait on … The first draft of this article/post was flawed. That is … i wrote to much before saving, and then lost it all.
What this did was flick a little switch in my brain as to the auto-saving of WordPress documents … I haven’t yet looked into the plugins dbs, but if something doesn’t exist, then I wonder how hard it will be to create it.
Anway … on with becoming an Investigatory Journalist.

In an effort to better understand what is happening in the world of Development, I took out my sleuthing suede hat, pipe, magnifying glass, and got to work. It was rough at the beginning, fighting villian’s of the calibre of Professor Moriaty … wait on.

All dream-sequences aside, I began my search with to of the greatest tools at our disposal today. Google, and Technorati.

Disclaimer #2:

These lists may alter from time of publication to time of reading. Hopefully not by much.

What follows is a shocking tale of greed, murder, mystery, … heh heh. Can’t you tell I’m a frustrated story-teller.

Read on to see what I discovered. Part 2 (the Technorati bits) is forthcoming.

Google on "Software Development"

  1. http://www.sdmagazine.com/ — SDmagazine

    sdmagazine_001

    Number 1 on Google. That’s a pretty awesome view.

    SDmagazine is a busy site. It’s part of a larger conglomerate, at least one more appearing in the top Google sites. And with good cause I imagine. There is a wealth of information here.

    It’s got some pretty cool articles up there now, but most of the info is not for the faint hearted. If you’re looking for a picture book, look elsewhere.

    Of course, registration hampers the casual reader from pushing further. This is a quandry everyone faces. They’ve done it pretty well. You get to actually read some of the article.

    The more I look around the front page, the more I find that is likable. The Jolt Awards caught my eye, but alas, they’re not actually done yet.

    Synopsis

      It’s a good site, great hardcore nerdy content. Once you get past the free registration, freeing the content, it would be quite a valuable tool, for any developer, even if it’s just seeing what’s going on. Web stuff, Desktop stuff, Opinions, Podcasts, …

  2. http://www.developer.com — Developer.com

    developer_001

    At first glance, developer.com is similar to SDmagazine. The layout has a few more menus, etc etc. Pretty much you can tell for yourself. This isn’t neccessarily a bad thing.

    It’s got the Newest Articles at the top. Centre stage. This is good. It’s like the main attraction at the carnival. And the rest of it doesn’t detract too much. Whereas SDmagazine gave almost equal footing to a few different sections, this place feels like the articles are your main port of call. And my eyes like it.

    Moving down, Tutorials! Aha. From my early newb days I have loved tutorials. Even now, as I’ve progressed to Nub (that’s the latest slang, so my peeps have informed me), I still hunger when I see the word "tutorial". It’s like the learner process kicks in, highjacks the thread, and pushes my brain onward. Nice.

    And then, not to be finished, they’ve got a direct link to the forums down below. Awesome. This is, as said, a direct link … into the minds of other folk like me. People in the wilderness, wanting to get and give info. Of course, it’s never so black and white, but still, generally this is the case. Forums are one of the best places to go to find out info. You get snapshots from a legion of brains. Nice and nicer.

    Synopsis:

      Nice site. Busy, but not as much as others. Gone for a simpler "Texty" feel, no graphical supremacy tones. Great content. You get Articles, Tutorials, and Forums, all on the front page. Excellent.

  3. http://sourceforge.net — SourceForge

    sourceforge_001

    Ahhh. This baby is gold. I’ve been blessed to know of this place since starting one of the bazillion failed "let’s make a really cool tile-based rpg that will catapult us all into the realms of Blizzard-like gaming jobs" SourceForge projects.

    They’ve really worked on the front page since I last saw it. Nice minimalist icons and colors. Not too much on the page, and reminds me of the old SourceForge look’n’feel.

    The best things about the site are the Statistics and the Project of the Month. Both great, GREAT, pieces of functionality that enhance the user experience. Even if you’re a hardened traveller across the many downloading paths we tread, there’s something that grabs the eyes about seeing "Most Downloaded".

    SourceForge.net Changes. This is nice. Giving back to the community. Well, you could argue that SourceForge are part of the community. But you get where I’m headed. It’s an excellent way of creating trust amongst the community, to let them have a look at where you are going, where you’ve been, what changes have been made.

    Synopsis:

      ‘Nuff Said really. It’s SourceForge. They have yet to fail in this boy’s opinion. For the people. By the people. Something like that. You can find just about any kind of project on here. It’s easy to get involved in stuff, participate, become part of a dream.

  4. java.sun.com/j2se — Java 2, Standard Edition

    java2_001

    Sun Java 2 Platform. Java had something to do with the Internet. Involved in some … way.

    This site is specific, obviously. You are going here to learn more about Java, to download the latest build, to see what other Devs are doing, to giggle at the word "NetBeans". No? It must be just me then, heh heh.

    Even though I’ve read Soothsayers telling me they’ve heard the death-nells of Java, the beginnings of the death rattle, I’m not so sure. The site is clear, with a fair bit on it. The left-hand sidebar is pretty easy to navigate, with the keywords all being there. Documentation, Tips, Code Samples, FAQs, …

    Synopsis:

      Not much to say except, if you want a beginning place to find out more about Java, this one is alright.

  5. http://www.sdexpo.com — Software Development Conference & Expo

    sdexpo_001

    Here’s the next SD site. Software Development Conference & Expo.

    This site is not really a resource as much as a portal to a resource. I’ve never been to this particular conference, never having stepped outside of the kingdom of aus, but from what I can tell, there’s some cool stuff going on here. Nerd-cool, no doubt, but a chance for learning in anyone’s book.

    I’d like to hear about other conferences. In fact, that’s not a bad idea. Software Developer’s Conferences … maybe we should get together a big gaudy webpage devoted to calendaring conferences around the globe. Hmmm.

    Anyway.

    Synopsis:

      It’s a Conference. No experience there, but maybe you have … so leave me a comment bout it.

  6. http://agilemanifesto.org/ — Manifesto for Agile Software Development

    agilemanifesto_001

    No dissin’ any of the other sites, but this baby is King. If you read any of the sites, read this one. It’s gold Jerry!

    After reading the front page, go to their Principles. Awesome stuff. I can honestly say, without hyperbole, that this site is the best by a trillion times.

    Why?

    Well, I was making a funny just then, but Manifesto get’s to the heart of Development. Of course, it’s subjective, or objective, but it’s the heart. They’ve gotten past functionality, past problems with support, with sales … here it is. The beating core, the beginning, the foundation.

    Synopsis:

      Everyone needs to read this, even if you disagree, because it will get you thinking about the basics.

  7. http://www.developers.net/ — developers.net

    developers.net_001

    A slightly different take on what is the same content as other sites. They’ve branded it a little better, I like the "latest content". And they’ve given a "career index", which is new, for the sites I’ve looked at.

    As with the other big sites, the more I take time to read the front page, the more there is to recommend it. The sections in the left-hand sidebar are simple. Want to go further, they’ve got … Tutorials! Waahoo. That fills my belly … but there’s more; Whitepapers, Downloads, Blogs (this one is good, moving with the times).

    Synopsis:

      This is a good site. They’ve got their categories clear across the site. You want Articles, go there straight away. You want Web Development .. bam. Click and you’re there.

  8. http://danny.oz.au/freedom/ip/aidfs.html — Development, Ethical Trading, and Free Software

    freesoftwareadvocacy_001

    This one’s a little different. And this is nice, refreshing. It’s plain text. Plain text can be Retro Cool at times, and here it’s blended with just enough italics, font size and color changes, and even a table or two, to make for some heavy, but interesting reading.

    Of course, one of the best things about this site is that the author is a fellow Aussie. Nice.

    Synopsis:

      This is a specific paper, putting forward the case for the adoption of free software by certain businesses, being applicable to others. It’s something you would read to further your understanding of what goes on in the different political (for want of a better word) spheres of Software Development.

  9. http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/secid;611908207 — Computer World, Software Development

    computerworld_001

    Another Aussie site, this is obviously a little sibling from the main site, Computer World, which is, amongst other things, a news aggregator. So you would come here specifically to find out about news in regards to Software Development. There are some other little bits of functionality, Jobs, a Quickpoll, and you can join the Mailing List.

    Not much more than this, although the entire site bears looking at, it’s got some interesting looking sections.Synopsis:

      A place to find news mostly.

  10. http://aosd.net/ — Aspect-Oriented Software Development Community & Conference

    aosd_001

    In looking around this site, I tried to find a short explanation of what Aspect-Oriented Software Development was. The FAQ led me to a post on The Aspects Blog, which pretty much proved to be a blankety blank blank. The JRoller site is pretty cool, and from there you can search for "aosd" which brings up a bunch of posts.

    The end result, after 10 minutes of browsing … I still don’t have a simple explanation. So I went back to the main page. Reading further, as I should have, I found some more help … which led me, after some more searching, here. Which is login locked.

    Ahem.

    So I did what I should have done … visited Answers.com. I found, within seconds, their page on Aspect-Oriented Programming.

    Taken directly from their page (if I’m breaching copyright, I’ll take it down straight away) :

    In software engineering, the programming paradigm of aspect-oriented programming (AOP), also called aspect-oriented software development (AOSD), attempts to aid programmers in the separation of concerns, or the breaking down of a program into distinct parts that overlap in functionality as little as possible. In particular, AOP focuses on the modularization and encapsulation of cross-cutting concerns.

    Synopsis:

      So, my little (ha) journey was pretty cool. The site itself is just to pimp the AOSD Conference, which is cool. However, the experience told me that perhaps they could update their site with some easy to reach links on what AOSD is.

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