STL ALT.NET gets three awesome new sponsors!

Starting in September, STL ALT.NET picks up three new sponsors that have generously offered to donate swag for our raffle each month!

TekPub

TekPubI am a huge fan of TekPub. Started as a joint venture between Rob Conery and James Avery, TekPub focuses on producing technical video content to help developers hone their skills and refine their craft. It has two major video “tracks” – Microsoft and Ruby – but there are also a smattering of other video series that cover general development topics like version control, mobile development, Linux skills, database tuning, etc. All videos are high quality, available in several different formats (including mobile formats), and meaty (no “Hello World” for you!). Videos are available in several extremely reasonable pricing models that are, frankly, incredible deals for both individual purchasers or teams of developers. I currently have a personal annual subscription, and before that, I purchased several series outright. TekPub will be donating the following raffle items for STL ALT.NET:

  • 1 annual subscription (valued at $279.00) to be raffled at our annual social event in September
  • 2 complete video series, to be raffled in November and December, respectively

PeepCode

PeepCodeBack in the day, when I was learning prototype.js (this was before the advent of jQuery and its wonderful, protofunctional goodness) I found a fantastic resource called PeepCode that had a tremendous two-part video series on prototype, JavaScript, and Ajax. I spent $24 for both videos and have been a regular PeepCode customer since. Unlike TekPub, PeepCode is focused on open source technologies exclusively, particularly in the web space (Ruby, Rails, jQuery, node.js, etc.), but they do have an awesome series on Git, several Linux-related series (including a two-part brain buster on vim), and several videos on database systems like Postgres and CouchDB. Like TekPub, PeepCode videos are very high quality and superbly priced. PeepCode will be donating one video credit per month as a raffle item for STL ALT.NET.

CleanCoders

CleanCoders“Uncle Bob” Martin is one of my personal heroes. I have learned more about good software design from reading his books and listening to his presentations than I have in seven years of real-world experience. I will be attending Ruby Midwest this year where Uncle Bob will be giving the keynote address. In an attempt to further expand his mind control over developers, Uncle Bob has produced a series of videos under the moniker “CleanCoders: Code-casts for Software Professionals“ (an obvious allusion to his terrific book, “Clean Code“). While I have not personally seen any of his videos yet, they are on my short list of investments to make, if for no other reason that I simply wish to see Uncle Bob go all ninja on bad code. Instead of focusing on specific technologies, Uncle Bob’s videos focus on writing code in general, e.g., how to name variables, classes, members, etc.; the structure and composition of functions; code length and the use of strategic whitespace; and other general development concerns. Like PeepCode and TekPub, CleanCoders videos are very reasonably priced, and may even be purchased for “community” use, as well as business use. CleanCoders will be donating three videos as raffle items for STL ALT.NET.