I tend to err on the side of caution and wanted to see an actual error in action. Fortunately, IIS makes this pretty easy. If you have a form, enter a ‘tag’ in a field and submit the form. Something like `<script>` ought to do it.

tl;dr: Submit a form with a tag (eg `<script>`) in one of the fields.

To get inspiration for my first post, I decided to read other bloggers first posts.

One of my favorite blogs is Coding Horror by Jeff Atwood. He is probably the only person who can get me to read a 650 word blog post about his new wallet and wallet pen; He is a good writer, especially for a programmer. Jeff’s first post on Coding Horror is a short and up-to-date About Me page and his second post is a list of Recommended Reading for Developers. These both work well as first posts, because as I mentioned above, when I go back and read the first post(s) on a blog, I am looking for context. These two short and simple posts give great context.

The next blog I checked for inspiration is Joel Spolsky’s Joel On Software. If you don’t already know, Joel Spolsky co-founded StackOverflow with the aforementioned Jeff Atwood. I didn’t find anything particularly of note in Joel’s first post, he briefly mentions taking a sabbatical after leaving his last job and finishes his post by saying

“I plan to write several articles about software development in this weblog. Keep an eye out for discussions on managing teams of developers at high tech companies; how to motivate and excite people; strategies for software firms, and more”.

Reading that made me realize how foolish it is to put a “mission statement” in the first post. Sure, his blog has dealt with those topics, but only because it’s a very broad, blanket statement. It’s not informative, so it’s a waste of the readers time. On the other hand, being specific brings it’s own set of problems, if I started this blog a year ago, I would have said I’ll definitely write about PHP, today it would be Python and Django.

I did find it interesting that his next post came 3 months later. It gives me hope to know that even the venerable Joel Spolsky got off to a slow start.

Next stop, Seth Godin’s blog, he blogs prolifically about marketing and has even written a few books on the subject. His first post, Boring, was just that and it made me almost certain that an about me post is the way to go.

Last but not least, the 37Signals blog. They also dove right in to writing content with the following

Gizmodo reports on a fridge that keeps food warm. Here’s more from a story at Yahoo News. Sharp thinking.

It works, but only because I think it’s funny. I wouldn’t be laughing if everyone had a warm fridge in their house though.

I’m currently working as a Software Development Engineer in Amazon.com’s Kindle Group. Prior to joining Amazon.com in the summer of 2010, I worked in the SharePoint Business Intelligence Group at Microsoft. With my spare cycles, I develop iPhone and Android applications. I attended the University of California where I studied applied mathematics and cryptography (and got into trouble with Mr. Mills). I started programming for the web in high school and haven’t looked back since. I’ve been really lucky to get to work in different languages across a wide variety of platforms and applications. I hope to continue to learn, and hopefully capture some of my findings in this blog.

I’m Enrico Mills. I currently live in London. I started programming while studying Mechanical Engineering at UCLA in 2006 – I use the word “studying” loosely. On the advice of Andrew Budker, I took an introductory C++ course and got hooked, so it will be his fault if I end up living under a bridge, staring at a concrete pillar and typing on a ergonomically designed sharpie and cardboard keyboard. In early 2009 I started MyLifeIsG.com and MyLifeIsAverage.com with a co-worker and friend, Guru Khalsa. I am currently working on a website to place motivated students in project driven internships.