This started a trend of research that led me to LIMS and then to consulting.  One of my favorite research mechanisms was and is reading enthusiast magazines and I have subscribed to several over the years.  Many have transitioned from true enthusiast magazines to "computers in business" magazines.  That is precisely how my interests have transitioned too, so I have not been disappointed.

Whenever I would get a new issue, invariably the first thing that I would do would be to go to the opinion columns and read them.  In the good, long-standing computer magazines, these articles tend to either draw controversial conclusions (Dvorak, for example) or have some sort of detailed analysis of trends.

In fact, I would subscribe to trade magazines like InfoWorld just to get the opinion columns.  Some of the columns were available on the web, but I never felt comfortable with the idea of going to get the page I wanted.  I liked it being delivered to me.

My interest in analysis and opinion in the IT industry is the basis of why I love reading blogs that deal with IT.  The blogs that I read are a mixture of professional journalists and pundits as well as software and IT craftsman that have opinions that are valuable to me.  Many of the professional blogs that I read now replace my magazine subscriptions- at least the ones I had just to read the opinion columns.  My RSS reader satisfies my opinion fix when it notifies me that one of my favorite authors has published an article that is delivered directly to me. 

I like reading blogs so much more than email newsletters even though they are similar to each other.  An email newsletter makes me send my address to someone who then has to push the content to me.  I get it whether I want it or not- and that is the point of why people create them.  A blog is a more laid back approach.  A blogger puts something "out there" on the Internet without knowing if anyone will actually read it.  If people want it, they will come and get it.

Here are the blogs that I read regularly and why:

Software Development Blogs  - A large part of what we do at J&R Consulting is software development.  I like to understand the current trends and the best practices from the field.

• Larkware News, http://www.larkware.com/larkware2.xml, Mike Gunderloy, author of Coder to Developer, culls together links from all over the internet and provides both general and Windows/.NET specific reviews and commentary.  I have found many other relevant bloggers by reading this blog.
• Joel On Software, http://www.joelonsoftware.com/rss.xml, Joel Spolsky produces a famous blog on software development.  There haven't been many relevant posts recently, but historically, this has had many articles that really capture the essence of development and provide great insight.
• Project Aardvark, http://www.projectaardvark.com/rss.xml, Joel Spolsky has interns creating a "secret" project that they plan on shipping.  I am a sucker for immense and irrational hype.
• ChristopherHawkins.com Blog, http://www.christopherhawkins.com/clhrss.xml, Christopher Hawkins is a consultant/software developer who gives opinions on the craft of software development.  He often indicates that software developers need to improve their craft and provides ways to do it.  I just started reading this one and I like it a lot; Hawkins provides some valuable criticisms.
• Jon's Radio, http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/rss.xml, Jon Udell, a columnist for InfoWorld, often blogs about cutting edge web technology.
• Eric.Weblog(), http://software.ericsink.com/rss.xml, Eric Sink, principal of SourceGear, writes about configuration management (code repositories) and the business of being an Independent Software Vendor (ISV).

J&R Consulting Blogs - maybe someday this category will be LIMS industry blogs, but I haven't found any others yet.  For now, these are the blogs of my J&R colleagues. 

• Jason Boyd's Weblog, http://www.jandrconsult.com/blogs/jason/index.xml
• John Buletza's Weblog, http://www.jandrconsult.com/blogs/john/index.xml
• Rob Sullivan's Weblog, http://www.jandrconsult.com/blogs/rob/index.xml
• Jeff Vannest's Weblog, http://www.jandrconsult.com/blogs/jeff/index.xml

IT Blogs - These blogs are about Information Technology in General.  As peculiar as LIMS or Quality software development is, it is still part of IT work and it is good to get the perspective of the IT Executives.

• Chad Dickerson: CTO Connection, http://weblog.infoworld.com/dickerson/rss.xml, Chad Dickerson is the CTO of InfoWorld and publishes a weekly opinion column in the magazine that is also sent out in blog format.  Chad experiments with podcasting and uses his blog to post quick notes outside of his weekly column.  His blogs are usually pragmatic and present good business justification for IT moves.
• InfoWorld: Columnists, http://www.infoworld.com/rss/columnists.xml, All of the print opinion columns and some of the online only InfoWorld opinion columns are available via this feed that has updated columns each work day.  The columns cover the gamut from testing and development to storage. 
• Advice Line by Bob Lewis, http://weblog.infoworld.com/lewis/rss.xml, Bob Lewis is a former columnist for InfoWorld print magazine and former employee of Perot Systems.  Now he heads IT Catalysts (www.itcatalysts.com).  All of the posts to this blog are answers to questions that someone has posted.  Some of the questions come from InfoWorld discussion board topics.  Others come from Lewis' email newsletter (see below).  Lewis is the author of Leading IT: The Toughest Job in the World and has a deep insight into IT Leadership.

Misc Blog - I only have one Miscellaneous blog (to share) that is not really relevant to work, but it is cool anyway.

• Cool Tools,  http://www.kk.org/cooltools/index.xml, Kevin Kelley is the former editor of Wired magazine.  Kelley organizes, well, Cool Tools.  It is an interesting grouping of items.  Most are not technology based, but the collection is something the tech people can appreciate.

Email Lists - I prefer blogs to email lists as I stated above, but there are three main email newsletters to which I subscribe that I read regularly.

• Keep The Joint Running, http://www.issurvivor.com/, Bob Lewis sends out a weekly email about managing IT.
• Out on a LIMS, http://www.geometrick.com/, Gloria Metrick of GeoMetrickEnterprises, produces a monthly email pointing to a LIMS specific article on the website.
• Windows Secrets, http://windowssecrets.com, Brian Livingston, the former InfoWorld columnist, is the editor for this newsletter that provides insight into Windows.  On more than one occasion, I have used problem workarounds described in this newsletter to solve work issues.  There is a free version and paid version that provides more content.

I think staying informed on what is going on in the rest of the industry is important to learning.  I am happy with the sampling of opinions and information that I get from my list, but I am also always looking for another good source of information.  If anyone has found a relevant information source, I would love to hear about it.