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StructureTooBig - amalgamating design, architecture, and personal content.
development focused
Welcome to StructureTooBig! It's a bizarre name, for sure, but I think you'll find that it fits. My name is Brian Hitney, and I've been developing software for a long time. From Basic, Pascal, Ada, VB, to now C#, software and design is my passion ... particularly in the areas of developing pragmatic solutions.

why the name
StructureTooBig has several meanings: it's a play on my belief that overly-complex software solutions are as bad as poorly-written and over-engineered ones; it's also fitting because this site has a lot of content, including software, pictures, blog, chess games, etc. But the real origin came in 1989, when about 8 or so programmers sat down to create a blackjack game. It was the first real collaborative project of mine that involved integrating different components. The result? Failure. While all the components were successful, the final code was too much for our poor TRS-80 Pascal compiler to handle. The only message we got from the compiler: 'Error: Structure Too Big.'

As funny as it was and still is to remember that day, the humor has a lesson that holds true today. As we break large projects down into smaller and smaller pieces, we need to remember that size is a measure of complexity. Software solutions must always answer the question: what is the value we're adding with this feature? Can we see the forest for the trees?

about the content
You'll find a little bit of everything on this site. There are end-user solutions (in the products section), developer tools and code samples (both in my blog and in the development section), lots of personal content for family and friends, and a bit of scattershot content here and there. In the end, though, it's all about the same thing: loving what you do, and doing it well.

about me
I graduated in mid 90's from Plattsburgh State University (New York) and have worked for major companies including Group W Network Services, Scholastic, Inc., and Coldwater Creek, Inc. Currently, I'm a developer evangelist (DE) for Microsoft, working in the Carolinas region. You can meet me at various locations around North and South Carolina, where I'll be interacting and presenting content to developers, communities, and companies. Prior to my DE role, I worked on a Windows Vista team in Redmond, Washington.
Copyright © 2004-2009 Brian Hitney www.structuretoobig.com > home