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IT Reference Posters?
bighead314 asks: "Maybe I haven't had enough coffee, or my brain power has gone down while working through my lunch break, but I cannot seem to find a good source for getting command/syntax reference posters for our office. We are looking for some SQL, UML, Oracle 10, and other reference posters to plaster on the walls for quick reference. However, the search for a site/company that sells more than just one poster has yielded nothing. Anyone out there have some good links or know of places were these can be purchased without having to buy 10 accompanying SQL Server magazine subscriptions just for the insert?"
You know, the best method I've used to come up with what you're looking for is to just use a search engine and either blow up what you find or post it as normal size or put it in a binder that's always available. You can find some nice PDFs here if you want to take that route or you can look all over the place and mix/match. I personally only print out those I find myself using over and over again.
If you absolutely just want high quality print and don't have time to do this yourself, just visit Learn & Thrive which, to my recollection, has some decent sized posters available. They don't have the very particular kinds of posters you're asking for but then again, I don't know anybody who would do Oracle 10 specifically.
My suggestion is to get a high quality PDF from those first two links and just blow it up and have it laminated at Kinkos. Cost? Probably a lot less then buying something online.
If you really really want to do it yourself, I would suggest using The Gimp (or your favorite image editor) to capture images and text and make your own 'cheat sheet' with everything specific to where you work that would be pertinent. Share it with everyone else if you do and make sure to export as a high quality file format. Have it printed and keep it updated and specific to your workplace. If it's worth that much for productivity, you can probably convince your boss that the ROI is there for your time and money to get them printed.
My work here is dung.
I would prefer to Marker Board Walls, Like the ones that Google supposedly has draped inside it's campus.
I've found that there are alot of things that are lacking in the IT world, especially in the way of quick reference documentation for specific industries (healthcare, finance, etc.) that have standards which only someone with experience in those industries would know about. It would be nice to have a quick reference guide (like a data dictionary but a little more in depth) that explains some of this ESPECIALLY where standardized data is concerned. This could be a nice little side project/business for you if you can find someone to team up with who knows about syntax. Throw up a small website or pitch it to a publishing company and you could have yourself a good second source of income. Think of those little laminated cheat sheets sold for high school calculus or physics classes.
I've seen this kind of response a lot when people are reviewing or asking about books.
Frankly, while I can sometimes find something I need quickly enough, the books and posters and quick reference cards usually end up being more than worth their cost. I could give specific annecdotal evidence, but don't want to get off topic. Suffice it to say that I've discovered that I can find a lot of things within minutes (if I had a quick reference, it would have been more like a minute or less), and there are some things that I just couldn't find, or were out of date, or simply wasn't clear (because someone without technical writing experience wrote it). A $50 book has saved me hours and hours of wasted time.
All I'm saying is that these posters and quick reference cards and books are still certainly quite useful, IMO.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
There's also some very nice stuff at http://visibone.com/
The value of whiteboards can't be overstated, and on-line reference material is very helpful, but we don't all have multiple 36" monitors, and as Bob ("Mr. Visibone") Stein points out, "The easiest thing to find in your office will always be your wall".
-=Maggie Leber=-
ILoveJackDaniels.com has some in PDF format, although they are geared to ward LAMP stuff.
Dark Reflection
Do Yourself It?
Master Yoda, is that you?
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Like another responder mentioned, the increase in productivity from a poster (or books) is definetly worth the cost. Even if you buy one for $20, that is incredibly cheap for what you are getting. Lets say it is a poster of the .Net 2.0 framework. You will probably be able to use it for at least 3 years until you start using the next framework. That is less than $7 a year, or $0.56 a month. If you pay a programmer only $40k a year, that is $120k over 3 years. $20 is a small price to pay.
That $40k programmer is making about $20 an hour. If that poster saves him 1 hour over 3 years it is worth the money. That means that if he saves himself only 2 seconds each week for 3 years, the poster was worth it.
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-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Actually there are .net framework diagrams, and they're cheaper than $20
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Poster Pack : $19.99 before discounts, but I've seen it given away when you buy 2 MS Press books.
Of course MS also supply class posters in the Visual Studio box, but in case you're using the Express editions you can download and print your own copy from Bard Abrams' blog.
Don't forget the Perl Periodic Table of the Operators at http://www.ozonehouse.com/mark/blog/code/PeriodicT able.pdf