Author: Nick Cosentino

This author has written 432 articles
C# / .NET / dotnet / Programming

Refactoring For Interfaces: An Adventure From The Trenches

Refactoring: Some Background If you're a seasoned programmer you know all about refactoring. If you're relatively new to programming, you probably have heard of refactoring but don't have that much experience actually doing it. After all, it's easier to just rewrite things from scratch instead of trying to make a huge design change part way through, right? In any mature software project, it's often the case where you'll get to a point where your code base in its current state cannot properly sustain large changes going forward. It's not really anyone's fault--it's totally natural. It's impossible to plan absolutely everything that comes up, so it's probable that at some point at least part of your software project will face refactoring. In my real life example, I was tasked with refactoring a software project that has a single owner. I'm close…

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July 15, 2014
Articles / Leadership & Management

Leadership: What Does It Mean? – Weekly Article Dump

Leadership Everyone has their own variation of what leadership means. For me, leadership means empowering others to accomplish their goals and providing assistance when they need it. There were a few articles that came up on LinkedIn this week that I wanted to share with everyone and discuss how they fit into my perspective on leadership. Articles Does Your Team Work With You Or For You?: Kwame Manu-Antwi opens up the article in an interesting fashion. When I read the title of the article, I figured this was going to be the typical leadership vs management debate. However, Kwame goes into describing a scenario where he had a humbling experience from one of his team that made some sacrifices for him. This was truly an example of working for him. The entire second half of the article shares a bunch of…

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June 21, 2014
Startups & Small Business

Techno Security 2014

Techno Security... What's it all about? Techno Security is a conference that was hosted by NUIX this year in Myrtle Beach. As that first link suggests, this conference has been bringing IT security professionals together for 16 years now. Techno Security doesn't aim to be the biggest conference of it's kind--just the best. At the Myrtle Beach Marriott Resort this year, Techno Security capitalized on a lot of the hotels real estate. There was a large banquet hall style room that was opened up for a great host of exhibitors. There were so many exhibitors that there was even overflow into the hallways surrounding the main exhibit area. On the other sides of those hallways there were rooms and smaller halls for training sessions. Even the halls in the basement of the hotel were packed with IT security and forensic-related sessions. First Conference…

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June 8, 2014
Articles

Back On The Radar

No More Silence. I've been pretty quiet over the past month and a bit, but that doesn't mean that nothing is going on behind the scenes. I've been busy (maybe a little bit too busy?) and I haven't really put in the time to create or share any content online. When I over commit, something has to give, unfortunately. Okay, so what's been happening? New Hires! We've brought on some amazing talent to help at work, and that's always incredibly exciting. We had Chris Sippel return to us after finishing up his final portion of school. Chris is a bit quirky (and that's really why we love him) and started with us in the early days. Pumped to have you back, buddy! We brought on board Jason Gregory and Matthew Beamer who bring a host of skills that are truly…

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May 31, 2014
IronPython logo for python in C#
C# / .NET / dotnet / CodeProject / Programming

IronPython: A Quick WinForms Introduction

A few months ago I wrote up an article on using PyTools, Visual Studio, and Python all together. I received some much appreciated positive feedback for it, but really for me it was about exploring. I had dabbled with Python a few years back and hadn't really touched it much since. I spend the bulk of my programming time in Visual Studio, so it was a great opportunity to try and bridge that gap when looking at something like IronPython. I had an individual contact me via the Dev Leader Facebook group that had come across my original article. However, he wanted a little bit more out of it. Since I had my initial exploring out of the way, I figured it was probably worth trying to come up with a semi-useful example. I could get two birds with one…

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April 7, 2014
Articles / Leadership & Management / Startups & Small Business

Happy St. Patty’s Day – Weekly Article Dump

Happy St. Patty's Day! I hope everyone who was celebrating St. Patrick's Day was able to not only have fun but stay safe doing so. Of course, when there is drinking associated with a holiday it can be easy to get carried away. It's always a great idea to have driving arrangements or the option to sleep at a friend's place set up before you head out to celebrate. This year I was able to celebrate with a handful of my university friends that I don't get to see as often as I'd like. I haven't been drinking much at all now for nearly half a year, so I stuck to my one Irish coffee to meet my liquor allowance. We all had a blast discussing where our lives have taken us so far, and it's great to see everyone…

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March 16, 2014
Articles / Leadership & Management / Startups & Small Business

Snow Tubing with Team Magnet – Weekly Article Dump

Snow Tubing First off... If you haven't ever gone snow tubing, get off your computer and get to your nearest snow tubing park. Now that you're back from that, we're all on the same page. Friday was another one of Magnet Forensics' staff events and we were fortunate enough to go tubing at Chicopee Tube Park. I hadn't been snow tubing before--only water tubing--and I haven't even been on a ski hill or anything for years. To be honest, snow tubing to me seemed like a bit of a glorified crazy-carpet experience which would be fun, but get boring after a couple of runs. I'll be the first to admit I was dead wrong. Snow tubing was probably the most awesome way for the entire Magnet family to cut loose this quarter. Most people either love or hate the snow,…

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March 3, 2014
Leadership & Management / Startups & Small Business

Recognition: One of Team Magnet’s Masterminds

Background At Magnet Forensics, I lead an awesome team of people with the mission of creating forensics software to help investigators around the world solve crimes. We're stacked with incredible people--and not only on the team I'm on, but company-wide. We do a great job of recognizing our achievements as an organization and as a team, but also on an individual level. If someone has gone above and beyond, we don't keep that a secret. I've been trying to make more of a conscious effort to recognize the people I work with, especially in ways that are unique to my own style. I think recognizing people in person is important, but you also need to consider your setting. Sometimes recognition in a public forum isn't actually appreciated or isn't nearly as effective as appreciating in a one-on-one setting. I find…

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February 24, 2014
Miscellaneous

Swamped But Ready To Push Forward

Mini Update Just thought I'd get a quick one out there to say I'm still here. To be honest, I haven't kept up to speed with my weekly updates or even sharing articles on social media like I try to do on a regular basis. But that's just how life has been the past few weeks, and there's no sense beating myself up over it. Time to acknowledge it, and time to push forward. Work has kept me swamped with things to do. I've been busier than normal the past few weeks and it's largely due to things going on at work. But I'm not complaining. I actually prefer times at work when I feel nearly overwhelmed. The added pressure (whether artificially inflated by my own doing or not) really helps me buckle down and become productive. It's a great…

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February 16, 2014
Articles / Leadership & Management

Article Dump #24 – Weekly Article Dump

Article Dump #24 Welcome to the 24th issue of my (nearly) weekly article dumps. I don't have a theme or an update this week, so it's kept pretty short. I hope you find the following articles interesting though! Leave me a comment if you have any opinions on these Articles The 7 Values That Drive IDEO: In this article, the CEO of IDEO Tim Brown talks about the various values that his organization embraces to have a creative culture. Some of the ideas in the slides seem really high level or like generic fluff, but try thinking about what they would mean in your organization. It's one thing to glance at IDEO's list and say "Yeah, yeah... That's nice..." but when you actually think about how that fits in with your organization, you might actually realize you don't embody those values. Do…

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January 21, 2014

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