Basil Vandegriend: Professional Software Development

I have added a new WordPress plugin called Version Information to my Software page. This plugin displays version and configuration information for WordPress, PHP, MySQL, and the web server. A summary is displayed in the Site Admin dashboard and more details are displayed under a Version Information page under the Site Admin Plugins menu
This plugin […]

I recently upgraded WordPress - the software that runs this site - to version 2.3. New in this latest version is support for tags. Each post can be associated with any number of keywords or key phrases called tags, and navigation elements can be added to display the set of tags. Probably the most commonly […]

I am happy to announce that this is the one-year anniversary of my website! I wanted to take this opportunity to share my observations and lessons learned since my last retrospective after the first three months. Running my website has continued to be an incredible learning experience. I have learned more about building web traffic […]

I’ve recently updated my vision for this website, which I’ll restate here:

Help software developers learn and grow as professionals.
Increase the level of professionalism in the IT industry.
Make the IT industry a more enjoyable and rewarding field to work in.

Why did I create a vision statement for my website? When I started my website I created […]

I recently had an experience that reinforced for me the value of seeking feedback. When I first started creating my website, I invested much time and energy into developing the look and feel. When I finally launched, I was quite pleased with my work. But I didn’t let that deter me from making improvements. A […]

I’ve added a new Resources page to my website (the link is located in the navigation bar above). This page contains links to useful information for software developers as an aid for perpetual learning. Of particular note is the separate Book Recommendations page, where I list and review the best books I have read. All […]

On the surface, a blog appears to be nothing more than a personal website, and those have been around since the web started. So why has blogging exploded in the last six years? I think the reason can be summarized in two words: usability and community.
Blogging software is typically used to create blogs. Once past […]

My website has been operating now for three months, and it has been an incredible learning experience. I thought I’d take the opportunity to share my observations and lessons learned - especially since some of them are applicable to operating and maintaining software applications of any type. If you’ve read my articles on learning (starting […]