Design Patterns - Decorator Pattern
The Decorator Pattern: wrapping a building in upgrades like turrets and lasers instead of a class for every combination, with the Open/Closed Principle.
Design Patterns - Observer/Event Pattern
The Observer Pattern the .NET way: replacing the subject and observer interfaces with an event and a custom EventArgs class.
Design Patterns - Observer Pattern
The Observer Pattern: game screens subscribe to units through IObserver and ISubject, so new displays need no changes to the unit.
Design Patterns - Strategy Pattern
The Strategy Pattern, explained with a Command & Conquer-style game: shooting behaviours as interchangeable classes instead of copied or overridden code.
Long Absence - Design Patterns
Back after a break, reading Head First Design Patterns, and starting a series with one post per pattern.
SQL Tips
Various SQL-oriented tips discovered during work, written down to remember them.
Obfuscation - Making Reverse Engineering Harder
A strong name doesn't stop anyone from decompiling your .NET assemblies. Obfuscation goes a long way towards keeping your code safe.
Party Game Guitar Hero for PC
Frets On Fire, a free PC take on the PlayStation's Guitar Hero, and why it turned out to be so addictive.
Efficient Compound Index Usage
How the column order of a compound index decides between an index seek and a full scan, tested on a 6.5 million row table in SQL Server.