I just downloaded the publicly available beta of Google Talk. They are using your gMail credentials which makes a lot of sense, and made it even easier to get up and running. They are also promising Skype type functionality, but it is not in the beta, which could be pretty cool also.

The really interesting thing from my point of view is that they are embracing XMPP from the beginning, which opens huge possibilites for developers wanting to do something interesting with their service. I guess this should be no suprise by now based on their track record with Search API's and Google Maps API's which in a relatively short period of time have led to some really interesting applications like the Pedometer.

I have just gotten back from a week of rest and relaxation in Ireland and so am still easing back into the Eastern time zone. My appetite for blogging seems to be inversely proportional to the amount and quality of my circadian rhythms. I guess you could say, I am knackered and am still readjusting, so I will keep this one pretty straightforward.

There are some things in Software Development which at first seem hard for us to grasp but with very little thought and practice they can become second nature. I guess it is true what they say, if you know the answer to a question or problem, its easy. If you don’t, well, it’s hard. I have, on occasion come across the one thousand yard stare on the faces of developers who come across events and delegates for the first time C#. I am also reaching the point now in my app for monitoring public companies announcements, earnings and price, where I am putting in some events to synchronize between my UI and background threads.

Every so often I come across an issue where I end up having to use Regular Expressions. My problem is that it is typically not that frequent that it happens, so I always end up scratching my head for twenty minutes trying to figure out what exactly I am telling it to look for.

Well I have have just run into such a situation and I had so much fun, I wanted to share.

Right, so what am I doing? Over the last couple of years as the market has slowly been getting back up on its feet I have been getting into investing whatever spare cash I have had lying around (seriously small amounts). Anyway, I just started working (in my spare time) on a Stock Monitoring Tool that uses publicly available web resources (both html pages and web services) to pull down all sorts of information about the Companies I am looking at. Can you guess where Regular Expressions come in?

Well this is my debut blog on Applanet. I feel like I should start out with a quick auto-biographical piece about who I am, why I am here, where I am coming from and ultimately where I would like to be going. Don’t worry, I will keep it short.

So, I have worked for the past eight or so years on Windows technologies as a developer/software engineer. I have spent many many hours alone in front of a monitor in a cubicle staring at C++, C#, and DHTML code. I have recently decided to go out on my own as an Independent Consultant. It is something I have wanted to do for quite a while now and I have just experienced the perfect storm of circumstances to push me towards making it happen. I believe that I can add a lot of value to the projects that I will be working on, but I guess if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have any business being here.

The reason that I have chosen this moment in time to start blogging is two fold. Firstly, I am hoping to record experiences, challenges and triumphs that I encounter along this completely new and exiting (and more than a little scary) path that I am taking. Secondly, I would like to think that some of my experiences will resonate with others who have been there or inspire those who have wanted to do this but haven’t taken the leap. Or to put it another way, I would be thrilled if others got even a little from what I “put out there”.