What’s The Value of College?

Not long ago I found myself working alongside a brilliant college dropout–A young junior programmer who was just plain gifted when it came to software development. I was very surprised that he hadn’t completed a degree of any kind. It made me wonder why I had, without much consideration, put such high value on a…

Code Puzzles

This is kind of fun… In a very software nerd way. StackExchange: Programming Puzzles and Code Golf

On Writing Tickets (Part 1)

(Right-Sizing Tickets) Spoiler alert: I’m going to tell you right up front what my conclusion is: Tickets should be large in scope. Also, tickets should be medium in scope. Finally, tickets should be very small in scope. Tickets, tickets, tickets! Tickets for everything! Imagine a ticket with the instructions “create user login.” Cringing? Me too.…

Developer@Life

Since SDJ tweeted it today, I suppose it’s okay to announce… I’m pretty excited to have a regular column appearing in Software Developer’s Journal. My first column will contain an introduction–who I am, what I do, and what I hope to write about. Along with it, there will be a column on interview advice, including…

Coding Horror/The Software Career

I don’t like to just post links to another blog or article. Anyone can do that, and there are far too many blogs out there that create no original content. So I try to write original thoughts and articles. That said, sometimes this is a rule worth breaking. Jeff Atwood has a great post over…

Where Are the Females?

I have an idea for an article, but I’m not entirely sure how to approach. It’s a subject that I believe some have written about, but as a male, it isn’t a subject that I have given much though to until recently: Where are all the female software engineers? I suppose the only reason I’ve…

Mistakes

The other day my daughter wanted to heat up some soup in the microwave. She insisted on doing it herself. The lid of the Campbell’s Soup can the type with a tab that can be opened without a can opener. She stood in front of her mother as she attempted to open the can, wrestling…

The Truth of the Matter – The Daily WTF

When Ben found this block of code, he had some questions: who wrote it, and what was it supposed to do? if (showOptionsButton == true) showOptionsButton = false; if (showOptionsButton == false) showOptionsButton = true; via The Truth of the Matter – The Daily WTF Hilarious.

Google the New Microsoft?

Techspot: Microsoft Launches Youtube App, Google Demands it Taken Down Come on, Google. I thought you were bigger than this.

Boss vs. Leader

I’m not sure where this image originated from, but I like it.

The World’s First Web Site

Here is the world’s first web page. Much has changed, and much hasn’t. We are still making HTML do things it was never designed to do. But we’ve done some pretty cool stuff with it. http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html  

Do Not Flounder (Stay Un-bored)

The following is an article that I am working on for a yet-to-be-determined publication. Having done this before, I will say that getting an article published in a journal/magazine isn’t as difficult as one may think (as long as you have something to say). This hasn’t been proofed, so please forgive any typos or errors.…

Java “Losing its Mojo?” I Think Not!

Wired has an article titled Is Java Losing Its Mojo? While the article seems to contradict itself in some ways, I have to take issue with the general theme. As someone who pays attention, I simply haven’t seen this happening. On the contrary–It seems to me that Java continues to grow. Just peruse the job…

Exercise Boosts Productivity

Software engineers aren’t the only ones who spend much of the day sitting. But we certainly do a lot of it. This is just one case, but I can certainly attest to this: Being physically fit absolutely helps with focus and productivity at work.

Let Developers Choose Their Keyboards

Reading the Google workplace article a while back, it struck me that what works at Google likely doesn’t work in most workplaces (for a number of reasons). Cost, physical work environment, supported platforms, workplace culture–all of these are reasonable barriers to allowing employees choose their work environment. As I type on my home computer, using…

HTTP Resource Test – Must Have Add-on for Firefox

For any developer testing web service calls, this is a very handy Firefox Add-on. Its much easier than relying on curl. There are others like it, but this is my favorite. HTTP Resource Test :: Add-ons for Firefox

Everything about Java 8 – TechEmpower Blog

Everything about Java 8 – TechEmpower Blog

Life at Google

NY Times has an article about working at Google: Looking for a Lesson in Google’s Perks. Among them: private reading areas comfy chairs (take your laptop elsewhere for a change of environment) custom workspaces (let employees choose their equipment) fitness classes in-house courses (on a range of subjects) free food/snacks All of this is designed…

Java 8/Lambas

ZeroTurnaround has a post about lamba expressions in Java 8 with some examples. Really cool. That last time I even really heard of a lambda expression was in college while briefly learning Lisp. Lambda expressions can be tried out now for anyone wishing to take a look. I’ll be trying it out when I have…

Success as a Technical Lead – Article

I stumbled upon this article today. Its a little dated (from 2008), but still relevant. I don’t think the list is comprehensive, and I certainly think other technical leads would have varying opinions on things. All of the points listed are good, but there are a some points that really stand out: 6. Be part…

C Overtakes Java in 2012

Interesting. I was surprised to see man of the entries on the list, especially MATLAB.

Version Control/Wiki Control

I FIRMLY believe that documents related to a project should be managed in the same version repository as the source code. This gives us a snapshot in time of all items related to a project. The problem with this comes when using a wiki (and I love using wikis, so don’t get me wrong). There…

Java to Objective C Translator

Google Open Sources Java To Objective-C Translator [i-programmer.info]

6 Developers, One Room

Under an extremely tight deadline one team member decided that it would be best if the developers took over a conference room. On a long conference room table there are 6 computers, and 6 extremely talented developers chat, joke, brainstorm and work away. The manager of the team is there too, explaining requirements and helping…

Staying Current

During nearly ever job interview I’ve ever had, on the phone or face-to-face, I’ve been asked some form of the question, “How do you keep your experience current?” Sometimes (emphasis on sometimes) this is asked by someone who seems impressed that I have such knowledge on a fair amount of “new stuff.” More often this…

The care and feeding of software engineers – Link

I really like and agree with this article:

http://www.nczonline.net/blog/2012/06/12/the-care-and-feeding-of-software-engineers-or-why-engineers-are-grumpy/

The Diamond Problem

The Diamond Problem “Fun” with multiple inheritance: Multiple inheritance – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Programmer Interview: What is the diamond problem? Does it exist in Java? (nope)

10 programming languages that could shake up IT – JavaWorld

10 programming languages that could shake up IT – JavaWorld.

Apache Commons Configuration with JBoss 5

Here’s a problem that frustrated me for a bit: When using Apache Commons Configuration under JBoss 5, I kept running into the following error when attempting to save to my configuration file (which was a resource under the deployed /classes path): ERROR [org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[jboss.web].[localhost].[/xxxx].[xxxx]] (http-0.0.0.0-8080-1) Servlet.service() for servlet flint threw exception java.net.UnknownServiceException: protocol doesn’t support output…

Programming Trends to Watch

This was an interesting article: [JavaWorld: 11 Programming Trends to Watch]