Peachpie Radio

As some of you may know, I've been running this online radio station for few years. It's unique in a way that you are listening to a radio that plays listeners' requests and everything is automated. We have a big collection of Korean albums, ranging from 90's to today's. The site is at http://www.peachpie.net/. For past few years, I've gotten many positive emails and comments about the service and I just wanted to compile them into a single list. So following are the comments from listeners:

Guest (ip:*30.137 on 04/29/2009 10:30am): "fantastic find for me. please continue broadcasting, I'm loving the playlist."

Keith Harris (ip:*198.23 on 04/21/2009 11:44 pm): "Hey everyone. I donated to PeachPie couple days ago. It's definitely a good service and it's free so we should all help out since there's so much work put into it. It's worth a couple bucks if you listen to it as much as I do. PeachPie Forever!"

Guest (ip:*.177.172 on 03/15/2009 1:57 pm): "Thank you for peachpie radio. Wonderful Radio Station witha vast library of Korean Jams. This is my favorite online station cause it's got brand spanking new songs as well as songs I listened to years ago. Love the variety. Please keep up the good work!"

nees (ip:*.198.128 on 03/15/2009 1:58 pm): "and yes, I also thank everyone behind Peachpie Radio, its amazing, with wide variety!! Thank you!"

Guest (e-amil on 03/03/2009 11:46 pm) : "hi! first of all, thank you so much for making peachpie radio. i listen to it all the time..."

a fan (ip:*.80.205 on 02/19/2009 7:41 pm): "i love this site and i love the radio! big thx for it!"

Guest (e-amil on 02/19/2009 5:24 pm): "I don't want to complain! I just want to thank you guys for making such a great Radio station. I love the music streamed here and being able to request songs makes it epic! Thanks a lot! Greetings from Germany :) "

Lisa Atolia (ip:*.12.202 on 02/06/2009 9:07 pm): "all the way from Singapore! To peachpie, 만세!!!"

David Rhee (thru e-mail on 01/08/2008 4:15 pm): "Thanks for the radio station. Your playlist rocks. I listen it to it all the time."

George Song (thru e-mail on 12/30/2006 12:06 am): "Hello!My name is George Song and I am a Korean-American living in New York City. I came across your site through Shoutcast.com and I think your concept is great. "

Stay a Tech Savvy IT Consultant, Part 1

Being a seasoned IT consultant means you are expected to know many technologies that are out there today. You are also expected to be an expert in few of them. Working with Microsoft technologies for past 6-7 years, I found it overwhelming with number of new technologies they are coming out with and trying to keep myself up-to-date with them. I've always been struggling to find out what would be the best way to keep myself up-to-date and how I should go about mastering new technologies. I've sought advice from many seasoned developers. But what worked for them many not necessarily work for me. So I put down few points to help other IT consultants stay tech savvy and in the long run, become a great consultant.

So first thing first. What technologies are out there today? What are the purposes? How do they solve our business needs? There are number of ways to keep yourself in the loop. You can subscribe to magazines like MSDN Magazine (online is free), CoDe Magazine, asp.netPRO, or SQL Server Magazine. There are podcasts that you can listen to while driving or commuting to and from work. DotNetRocks is a great podcast show that will keep you informed of latest Microsoft technologies with interviews from many known figures in the community. You can also attend local .NET usergroups. How about attending MSDN Developer's Conference (PDC)? You can find out if there is one coming up near your town from MDC Website.

You can read blogs by some of the known people in the community. I enjoy reading Scott Guthrie's blog, Scott Mitchell's blog, and Rick Strahl's Weblog to name just a few. Just subscribe to their RSS and have the content emailed to your Outlook as new contents get published.

How about online communites? There are number of great communities out there for learning .NET. Starting with ASP.NET Site and MSDN Code Gallery, you can get very good tips and tutorials about .NET from 4 Guys From Rolla, 15 Seconds, Code Project, DotNetJunkies, ASP Alliance, and ASPFree. Believe me, there are more great communities, but those are what I came up with at the moment. As I come across other ones, I will add them here.

So for the first part of the article, I listed some methods and sources that will help you become a top-notch IT consultant. Above all, you should have the curiosity and desire to learn a new technology. If you happen to drive a lot, podcast is your friend. In part 2, I will talk about how to best master a technology.