CBDi Forum - This is probably my
key source on Component-Based Development, service-based architectures, and a
lot of related topics including EAI. They have some pretty good free content,
including at least one of my papers, and a regular email newsletter. However,
I'd recommend a subscription if these are areas of interest to you.
EBizQ Network - A cross-industry
review group looking at issues related to EAI and message-based integration in
particular. They have some good free content, and a regular newsletter.
IBM's Patterns
for eBusiness - A useful catalogue of analysis, business and architectural
patterns for eCommerce systems.
Reliability Software Listing
- A useful listing of software and reference sources on the topic of
reliability assessment, for both hardware and software.
Bredemeyer Consulting Resources for
Software Architects - This is a first-class site for anyone interested in
the process of software architecture and the role of the architect, with a
substantial amount of free content.
Nucleus Research - An
unusual organisation, Nucleus Research concentrate almost entirely on
evaluating Return On Investment (ROI) for various software and technology
initiatives. It's an excellent place to start if you're trying to sell the
value of technology.
Blueprint Technologies
have a lot of useful whitepapers on Object-Oriented analysis and design, and
their relationship to architecture.
The Cynefin web site has
a number of useful articles on the use of stories, and the
Cynefin Framework which
describes different decision-making and problem-solving environments.
VRAPS.COM David Kane, David
Dikel, and Jim Wilson wrote an excellent book entitled "Software Architecture:
Organisational Principles and Patterns" It's about how to make architectural
changes across an organisation. It's very much about the softer aspects of
selling ideas, getting buy-in, and then seeing changes through. This site
presents a lot of useful material from and related to the book and their model
for architecture. You can also read my
review of their book.
The Code Project. This is a
great collection of articles on algorithms, coding strategies and
programming languages and tools. If you're looking for a clear algorithm to
solve a common problem, try here.
The Enterprise
Integration Patterns Site does what it says on the tin - provides a
comprehensive repository of patterns related to integration in general and
message-based EAI in particular. The author expects you to buy his book of
the same title for the details of specific patterns, but it's a good place
to start, and has a great collection of "doodleware" art created with
modelling tools!
The Veryard Projects site contains
a lot of interesting stuff on service orientation, and particularly how it
relates to patterns in business.
Cirrus Minor, a site/blog dedicated to exploring the detail behind the
"architeture" box on process diagrams.
I am a founding member of the World Wide
Institute for Software Architects. Their site has a great deal of
information on software architecture as a profession. If you're really
interested, you may even want to join up!
Chernoff faces are a great way of representing multivariate (i.e.
many-dimensioned) data. I use them s a way of representing the ratings in my
book reviews, but there are all sorts of other applications. The following
sites describe them in a bit more detail. I borrowed my Chernoff face applet
from John Wiseman's page.
I take an active interest in issues around user interface design, and how
people interact with computer systems. To my mind, one of the most important
initiatives in recent years is the Expressive Systems movement lead by
CSC's Richard Pawson. You can read my
review of his book, or visit the Expressive Systems web site:
Larry Constantine and Lucy Lockwood's site,
ForUse, is a very good source for lots of information on software usability
and how this can be defined through modern system development approaches such as
UML.
There's also a growing movement which is trying to apply patterns to user
interface design. I've been disappointed in the books so far, but the following
two sites have useful pattern catalogues:
The best source for drivers is without doubt the
Driver Guide.
Gibson Research Corporation - Steve
Gibson keeps a watchful eye on our behalf on issues of information security and
privacy. When he finds a problem, he often releases a small software utility
which you can use to check the state of your system. I don't agree with
everything he says, but I can only praise his watchful viewpoint.
The following are useful sources for Windows-related information and
utilities:
The Microsoft
Typography web site has a lot of useful reference material, and is the main
source for web font embedding technology, as used on this web site.