Blog details
Technology
This blog runs on WordPress, powered by PHP and MySQL and uses my own visual and minimalist theme designed for SEO and speed with excellent HTML compliance. The logo is a hand-crafted cut-n-paste using the Guardian Egyptian typeface.
Hosting
This blog is hosted at Site5 while Amazon AWS provide the DNS services and MaxCDN the content distribution network used to serve up image, stylesheets and downloads.
Licensing
Code
Code presented in blog posts is provided as-is, without warranty without restriction I know of and licenced under the BSD license. You should ensure the legal and technical suitability of any code you acquire before integrating it into your own code-base.
Code and programs available from the Development section of the site are subject to their own individual copyrights and licences.
Content
Site content is Copyright © Damien Guard. All rights are reserved. If you want to quote more than a fair-use extract just get in touch – just to avoid duplicate content on the web and hurts search ranking.
Responsible disclosure
I feel the opinions and views I express here are truly my own however it is only responsible to disclose payments or gifts in kind that could be construed to have influenced such views.
Attack Pattern
I am the Chief Technology Office at Attack Pattern and have a lot of interest in this company and it’s products such as Sticker Tales doing well.
Netflix
I was a Senior Software Engineer at Netflix between August 2011 and September 2012. I have not written about Netflix or any articles relating to my employment here. I hold Netflix stock options.
Microsoft
From May 2008 to July 2011 I was a full-time paid Software Development Engineer at Microsoft initially on the Object and Entity Frameworks Team (working on LINQ to SQL, Entity Framework and Code First) and then from March 2010 at Xbox LIVE working on the web marketplace. I own Microsoft stock and participated in their corporate employee discount programs with other organisations I mention on this blog including Apple and AT&T.
My role at Microsoft did not include blogging and Microsoft is not involved with the content of this blog other than when I have personally sought technical details (LINQ to SQL changes for 4.0) or a wording review (Future of LINQ to SQL) from my team. A draft about the features I personally want in LINQ to SQL was abandoned when a team member drew my attention to the likely chance that people would construe this as future direction given my position at that time.
VMware
I received a free copy of VMware Fusion 2.0 directly from VMware which I could just use or write a review of. I used it until version 3 where I paid for an upgrade but now use Parallels instead. I mention both on my blog but have not specifically reviewed either.
FontLab
I talk about FontLab software often and while I did join the affiliate program I did not earn any payments and paid full regular price for both FontLab Studio and BitFonter for Windows and an upgrade price for Fontographer for Mac.
NDepends
I was offered and accepted a free copy of NDepends which I initially used to try and identify IL-level changes between my LINQ to SQL templates and the SQLMetal generated code. It was not well suited for this use and so I haven’t reviewed or used the software since.
Clarius Visual T4
Clarius Consulting offer Visual T4 which adds syntax highlighting and IntelliSense to Visual Studio for T4 template (.tt) files. Clarius offered me a free Pro licence as a thank-you for the T4 community work I have done – specifically the T4 multi-file helper and the LINQ to SQL templates – which I accepted and intend to use.
Affiliates & advertising
I have experimented with affiliate programs and advertising. To date (30 October 2012) approximate revenues from these are:
Amazon Affiliates $1,238 (various recommendations)
Google Adsense $610 (sidebar graphic advertising)
Commission Junction $1,334 (Crucial products in MacBook Pro SSD article)
Hosting currently costs $25 a month via Site5 with some additional charges of around $100 a year to both Amazon AWS and about $40 a year to MaxCDN to serve static content and binaries.
Everything else
I have received a number of free gift offers which normally come with the suggestion a review would be a nice idea. In all other cases than those described above I either did not accept, did not use or did not review/recommend them.
[)amien