Goals usually aren't worth doing unless you follow-up on them, so here is a quick update:

1: Learn more Boo.

This has been going fairly well and is a lot of fun. Some of the concepts are similar to Ruby and Python. I think a good approach to take is to rewrite a side project of mine in Boo so I can run into the problems that aren't covered in the tutorials.

2: Learn LISP.

I downloaded a screencast and watched it but I haven't spent a lot of time on this yet.

3: Code more at home without distractions. I also want to develop a couple of ideas I have in my head to make me faster setting up and developing .NET projects. Maybe this involves contributing to TreeSurgeon.

- I have thought about this a bit. I talked to Jonas who did something similar with NAnt that sounded cool.

4: Speaking of contributing, I would like to contribute more to OSS projects.

- I haven't contributed to any open source projects since writing the original blog post. I did notice that Ayende put out a call for help on his Reflector.BooLanguage tool which would be a great opportunity to learn Boo and help out the community.

5: I think the last thing on my list of becoming a better developer is to always try to be a pragmatic developer. If I find myself falling into a rut or believing the hype of the various communities then I am not being true to myself as a software developer. In my opinion the best thing a developer can do is keep an open mind.

- I subscribed to a ton of new blogs that aren't centered around .NET quite awhile ago and have been looking at concepts from other languages that aren't common place in .NET yet. This post on Higher-Order Functions was well worth the read.

This may be the final straw in switching over all of our tests to MbUnit or NUnit. I have also been experiencing problems with the vsmdi files not reporting the correct number of unit tests as well. Anyone else out there experiencing this with MSTest and have a workaround?

Update: Moments later...

When the tools that are supposed to make you more productive start doing crap like this it is probably time to stop using them!

In a earlier post I expressed my frustration about not being able to access the menu items of the front-most application in Mac OSX. In Windows, this is very easy to do by hitting the Alt key and using the underlined letters to access the menu items that you want. The good thing about owning a Mac is that if you are patient enough, you will soon discover a quicker way to accomplish the same goal.

Today I found the PragMactic OS-Xer (clever name), which showed how you can access the menu items of the front-most application by using QuickSilver. A common gotcha on this hint is to make sure QuickSilver is making use of the advanced features option.

Update: After reading through the blog a bit more Ctrl+F2 is the equivalent (superior?) to the Alt key in Windows.

I've been tagged by Justice on what i'm doing to become a better developer. Here's my list:

1: Learn more Boo.

2: Learn LISP.

3: Code more at home without distractions. I also want to develop a couple of ideas I have in my head to make me faster setting up and developing .NET projects. Maybe this involves contributing to TreeSurgeon.

4: Speaking of contributing, I would like to contribute more to OSS projects.

5: I think the last thing on my list of becoming a better developer is to always try to be a pragmatic developer. If I find myself falling into a rut or believeing the hype of the various communities then I am not being true to myself as a software developer. In my opinion the best thing a developer can do is keep an open mind.

Every once and awhile I get bugged to do a non-technical post so I created a Simpsons style Steve of myself here.

Ironically, this was found via a technical blog.

I love the close all but this menu option that Visual Studio gives you when you right click on a tab but I have been looking for a keyboard shortcut for it for awhile. To set one up go to Tools > Options > Environment and type in File.CloseAllButThis and enter in your shortcut keys, I chose Ctrl + Shift + Y for mine.

I can now use the Alt key to access the menu options!

I just noticed that ITunes has a new section called ITunes U. I checked it out and I was happy to see that they have a couple of Computer Science MIT Open Courseware courses available for download.

In addition to MIT there is a number of other Universities from the US offering courses for free download.

In the 4 hour work week Tim Ferriss talks about Parkinson's Law. Parkinson's law states that  "work expands to fill the time available" which seems to hold true for me. I figure that if I have time to spare I can read RSS feeds for just a little while or check email. 

To combat this I have been setting fake deadlines to challenge myself. In the morning I usually have a lot of meeting so setting a deadline of noon to finish things is really challenging, if I finish the task before then it is a lot more rewarding than if I let it swell to the time allotted for it.

A concept that I like from the 4-Hour Work Week book is that we are not naturally multitaskers but we convince ourselves that we are.

Try and take one task during your day and do it without getting distracted by anything else, I bet you can't. The distraction can include other people, outlook, or meetings try to eliminate it!

As a developer if I am working on a piece of code is there really a reason for me to have Outlook open? It is natural to say yes, but

The first thing that I tried to implement in my life from the book was setting times that I could check email and sticking to them. My times were 11:30am and 4:30pm. How did it go? It went really well and I quickly found out that email wasn't as important as I previously thought it was. I also found out how hard it was to change the habit of letting things like email take a backseat to the task I wanted to accomplish. My best advice is to disable the popup that comes up when you get email and to disable any sound notification. 

Last week I finished reading the book 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. The book is very motivating to say the least, I highly recommend it.

After I read it I stepped back and took a look at my profession and my life to try and find out what makes me happy professionally and personally. Over the next little bit while I am waiting for my foot to heal, I am going to post on various topics from the book that I have tried implementing in my life as a software developer. Hopefully they help out someone else as well.

Last year I had an unfortunate incident where my foot met a puck. Once again my foot has met a puck and I will be in a cast for a yet to be determined amount of time. If I have any advice for other software developers that need to get a cast it is to bring a book that you haven't been able to find the time to read. I guarentee you that getting a cast will take a lot longer than you expect and you will be able to finish your book.