Mac Startup Chime/Badfinger’s Day After Day

The other day I had an epiphany. Okay, epiphany may be a bit of a strong word for this little discovery, but I did suddenly realize why I often get the song Day After Day by Badfinger stuck in my head many mornings at work. It all has to do with the first note of…

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…

Ack! Singular Nouns with Plural Pronouns

When Thomas Jefferson wrote “…all men are created equal,” was he deliberately excluding women? Of course he wasn’t! In his time, ‘men’ was a gender neutral and acceptable reference to mankind–male and female. Okay, I grant you that given the state of women’s rights, including voting rights, in Jefferson’s time, some may argue that he…

The (un)Healthy Developer (Part 1)

Assertion #1: You may not like me. (Not immediately.) My Fellow Software Developers, Architects, Designers, Engineers, Leaders, Quality Assurance Analysts… Whatever your job title (and whatever your real role, as a job title says little). I have a prediction: You will either read this article and agree wholeheartedly or read this article and take offense.…

My Fellow Software Developers (we’re in bad shape!)

As a group, we’re out of shape. I’m working on an article on this subject, but I want to do so in a motivational way, not with a lecturing or accusatory tone. More to follow.

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day! I’ll be celebrating by eating too much, watching fireworks, and staying up late to work on a new article for SDJ!

RedHat/Downtown Raleigh

RTP is cool and all, but, honestly, there’s lots of space around here, and we don’t all need to be driving the same direction.  I’d love to see more companies build in downtown Raleigh. Hopefully the RedHat move gives it a kick-start. NewsObserver: Red Hat workers bring energy to new downtown Raleigh headquarters

iOS 7

Yesterday I saw iOS 7 for the first time–on a coworkers phone (beta version). Looks very different. Looks like iOS is taking some queues from Android, which is a major shift in the way things have been in the past. Not sure what I think of it. TechRadar: iOS 7 news

How About a Book Club at Work?

The other day I had a thought–Why not start a book club at work? I read a lot, and I generally like to have two books going at a time. One book is fiction (just for fun). The other book is something related to my career, whether it is technical/software, business, or leadership related. A…

Cutest Text Ever

Not long after my daughters got iPod Touches for Christmas (from their grandparents), I received this text message from my youngest. It’s difficult to get your sister in trouble when being so unintentionally cute.

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…

Mac OS: Keyboard Shortcut to Change Wallpaper

I have my wallpaper set up on my Macbook to change images every 5 minutes. It shows images within a particular event that I have set up in iPhoto. This is all fine and nice, but what if I get bored with the image that is randomly chosen? I found this Applescript by Googling the…

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.

Computer Science Starting Salaries

According to this recent article (Canadian HR Reporter), the high starting salaries are still in fields related to software and other fields of engineering. The careers with the highest starting salaries for graduates with a bachelor’s degree in the United States are software engineering ($71,666) (all numbers US$), industrial engineering ($62,245), chemical engineering ($57,500), electrical/electronic…

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.

Wired: Tech Time Warp

Fun. (Found via Eric Crane.) Tech Time Warp of the Week | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

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  

Interview Advice

I’ve been on countless interviews, and I’ve learned a few things along the way. I don’t consider myself an expert by any means, but I’ve learned how to interview well. It took a while to figure it out, but I’ve learned that interviewing isn’t difficult. On the contrary, if you are focused and willing to…

Sonicwall Netextender VPN Strangeness – MacOS

If you get the following strange message when attempting to connect to the VPN using Sonicwall Netextender on MacOS: FATAL: An immediately fatal error of some kind occurred, such as an essential system call failing, or running out of virtual memory. (1) …Take a look at the permissions in /etc/ppp. Something mysteriously changed mine, removing…

YouTube to MP3

I’ve gotta plug this tool: MediaHuman Youtube to MP3. A while back a friend sent me a link to a video of this guy, Shakey Graves, playing a song called Late July. I immediately loved the song, as well as all the other Shakey Graves songs I found on YouTube, and I purchased both of…

SDJ Article

It is a thrill and an honor to have an article published in a journal, especially Software Developer’s Journal. This is the second time I have had such an honor. My article, Do Not Flounder, appears in the June, 2013 issue. “Do not flounder!” by Matthew Rupert will surely leave all software engineers entertained and…

Serial Comma

A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook, “Having a change of heart. Thinking of adopting the Oxford comma.” It got me thinking (and distracted).

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.

Doctor Mac

My grandfather was, in a number of ways, larger than life. He was physically large–a massive man with a huge belly and equally huge appetite (an appetite which I seem to have inherited, and battle by running). His involvement in the lives of many people was even larger–He was very well respected by the folks…

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