Sorting through the site

The MSDN Magazine Web site is one of my favorite places on the web. That’s because I like to sort and resort. It’s like an obsession. And one really good way for me to get my fix is to click over to the magazine search page, https://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/find/Default.aspx, select title, exact phrase, and the letter 'a' and pull up a list of pretty much every article we've ever put up on the site (or at least all of the ones that contain the letter 'a').

Then the fun begins. I sort by rating: high to low, then low to high. I sort by number of raters. I sort by issue. Then I stare at the screen hoping to divine some significant piece of information from all that sorting. Sometimes I get lucky. Sometimes I just get some interesting, but not too significant, detail.

This week’s clicking resulted in a stroll down memory lane. When I sort by number of raters, high to low, I am reminded of a couple of sleepers—articles we knew were interesting, but that we never expected to be the blockbusters they were. If you haven’t read them, you’ll want to. There are three in particular that I’m thinking of and, if you do the sort the way I just described, you’ll find them.

No, I’m not telling what they are. That’s your assignment for this week.

So go to the Web site and get sorting. It’s a fun little obsession that’s guaranteed to turn up some useful information you can put to work right away.

Nancy