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April’s links.

Thoughts on Doing it All

One of the biggest challenges I’ve had to face with getting help is my own internal struggle with letting go and being okay with letting other people help me.

Parenthood, tech worker and business owner are all full time jobs.

Technical Blogging as Storytelling

An interesting way to layout blog posts. I learned something similar but this is might be a better approach.

Computer Science Degree Optional - Part 1, Skillset

While I did learn a lot in my undergrad program, I think it’s very important to again note some of what I didn’t learn:

  • DevOps (DevOps? Did I even know what that meant when I graduated?)
  • Using a version control system (Unless appending incrementing numbers to all of my file names counts?)
  • Thorough testing and test-driven development (No one ever has an apostrophe in their last name, right?)
  • Debugging in a production environment (The issue is only happening in production, but I can’t actually make any changes in production?)

I know my program didn’t go over any of these topics and I always wish it had.

Questions a Knowledge-Seeking Developer Should Ask at a Software House Job Interview

Where does your company rate in these questions?

IE Virtual Machines

Microsoft provides Virtual Machines that allow you access to older (and current) versions of IE. It’s helpful if you’re using a Mac but still need to test for those poor soles in IE.

Comic: CommitStrip - SHA-1 Collision

I wonder how many projects out there are still using md5.

9 Steps to Better Deployments

#9 (Allow engineers to deploy their own code) is super important and I would argue #7 (Push button deployments) should be automatic if possible. Right now when I push code on my project a full unit test is run and then it’s pushed to the various servers we maintain.

developer-roadmap

Below you find a set of charts demonstrating the paths that you can take and the technologies that you would want to adopt in order to become a frontend, backend or a devops. I made these charts for an old professor of mine who wanted something to share with his college students to give them a perspective.

Show Up For Work and Don’t Steal

I’m amazed at how often people don’t understand these two basic concepts of being a good employee.

The importance of documenting things

Another good reason to have good commit messages.

Podcast: {Ctrl+ClickCast} - Responsive Retrofits

The hosts of the podcast discuss how they take non-responsive sites and “force” them to work in a responsive manor.

Podcast: {Hanselminutes} - Vets who Code with Jerome Hardaway

An interesting discussion about a program to help vets learn how to code.