Ever since Stanford University had announced online offerings for Artificial intelligence, I was interested in taking it. Along with it came 2 more courses on Machine learning and Databases.

Needless to say I enrolled for all of the courses. The courses started in October 2011. The delivery mode was thru online lectures of around 10-15minutes each. The lectures were by eminent professors who handles the same subjects in Stanford full time courses.

Each video was interspread with quizes you need to answer. Finally there were weekly homeworks which students had to complete. AI class had 2 midterms and 1 final exam. ML didnot have any. DB class had 1mid term and 1 final.

Pros:

• Totally free of charge
• Lectures by the best in the business
• Very good discussion board and a great frequency of updates
• Exposure to current industry trends in respective fields.
• Statement of accomplishment sent to successful students.I had received 1 for AI.
• Finally: the joy of learning!

Cons:

• Quite tough for professionals since time is limited.
• Needs discipline to continue through the rigour.

thanks for reading this lengthy post, if you are interested in joining the courses from January'12, do visit http://www.class-central.com/

There are 12 courses to enroll.

Best of luck!

I have been reading the blog of Pinal Dave which focuses on sql server related topics. Came across an interesting note about interview questions in sql server areas.

Link: http://blog.sqlauthority.com/sql-server-books/sql-server-interview-questions-and-answers-for-all-database-developers-and-developers-administrators/

ToC
Chapter 1 Database Concepts With Sql Server
Chapter 2 Common Generic Questions & Answers
Chapter 3 Common Developer Questions
Chapter 4 Common Tricky Questions
Chapter 5 Miscellaneous Questions On Sql Server 2008
Chapter 6 DBA Skills Related Questions
Chapter 7 Data Warehousing Interview Questions & Answers
Chapter 8 General Best Practices


Worthy to note are the non tech aspects of the interview like strengths, weakness, presence in social media etc.

Link : http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2012/01/01/sql-server-interview-questions-and-answers-perspectives-of-an-author/

One such tool is from jetbrains, the same people who have developed the resharper tool.

the disassembler tool is called "dotPeek" and is currently free to use.

Do give it a try

dotPeek Early Access Program - dotPeek - Confluence:

Understanding memory management in .net framework is a rather sticky one. There are quite a few terms that would intimidate the beginner. 


Here is a nice comical version of memory management in .net.  Neatly explained using illustrations, this would be of help in understanding this topic.

Link

Source

Introspection is the best solution

Source: 38 Life Lessons I’ve Learned in 38 Years | zen habits

Here is a useful tool Data Structure Visualizations that helps in presenting basic data structure and algo in a visual format.

Should be good enough to clear any queries on such topics

After redgate's announcement on reflector, there seems to be a race to make another .net disassembler.

Telerik has joined the race with their disassembler tool.