In pursuit of continuous improvement regarding my programming capabilities, I have done much reading, both online and in books and magazines. There is good information to be found, for sure, but all that reading can get tedious at times. Some audio/visual or interactive learning can help break up the tedium, making the learning process more engaging.

One such resource is called DimeCasts. It was conceived by Derik Whittaker, having grown out of a multi-part series of screencasts about NUnit. The idea was the new site would host videos, created by various authors, to cover various aspects of programming techniques and practices. The videos are meant to provide bite-sized looks at such topics, generally being around ten minutes in length.

The concept was greatly welcomed, as indicated by the week one retrospective. Since then, new videos have been added at least twice a week. Programming is a huge subject, so the subject material won’t run out any time soon!

When you are on the site, and choose a particular topic, you can choose to watch the video online, or download it to watch later. The videos are all in Windows Media format. You can choose from different video sizes, medium or large. They are divided by skill level, and also by subject. This makes browsing the site quite easy.

Some of the videos I have enjoyed include:

Overview on how to use NUnit

Setting up a Project for Source Control

Creating an Automated Build for your Application

Setting up a Project in Subversion

Learning how to resolve conflicts within Subversion (SVN) using TortoiseSVN

Introduction to IoC/DI - The art of Decoupling

App.Config & Creating Custom Configuration Sections

Logging to the Database with Log4Net and ADO.Net

Setting up Continuous Integration for your Application with Team City

This is only a sampling of all the episodes available, but these are the ones that I found most useful. I think there will eventually be something for everyone. If you are serious about keeping up your programming skills, this site is really worth your time.