api What's an API? To define it, an API is an Advanced Programming Interface.. whatever that means. In a more practical sense, it's one programmer hiding the (possibly messy) details of their own code behind a nice
timezones A few tips for handling and manipulating timezones Some issues transcend programming language, equally tripping up developers across the board... Regular expressions (try validating an email address...) SQL injection (NEVER run a user's input through your database without sanitizing it) Using
visual studio How to Unit Test using Visual Studio for Mac (it's easy!) Last month at the AkronCodeClub they selected the magic square kata, which was a new one for me. Basically, you arrange 9 unique numbers in a 3x3 grid such that they add up
SocialMedia The Culture of Likes and Hearts and Faves I rejoined Facebook a couple weeks ago after a long hiatus, and though I haven't posted much yet, it's been fun to see what everyone's up to. I'm terribly horrible at keeping in
#30DaysOfBlogging Tech is fun, tech is amazing... but it's not the end-all be-all One of my coworkers tweeted an important question a few weeks ago. She asked, what about "techies" who just do what they do to survive? After all, why do most of us work,
erlang Comprehending "List Comprehensions" in Erlang (a comparison with C#'s LINQ) Any time we learn something new, we tend to make sense of it in relation to what we already know, one thing building on top of another. Since I started learning Erlang a
#30DaysOfBlogging Maybe building a robot..? Four magic words... It's For The Kids! Short post tonight. My 10 yo came to me the other day and said she'd like to build a robot. This is good for two reasons. I've been meaning to do something like
#30DaysOfBlogging Finding your niche is figuring out what drives you and letting the world know There are some phrases that come up so often that I tend to reject them as if they're "dirty" or have some negative connotation. "Networking" used to be one. Before I had ever
quoting Quotes 'n Notes #8 Just a few of the inspirational and thoughtful stories and quotes I ran across this week. Come across any of your own that you'd like to share? I'm always looking for something interesting
#30DaysOfBlogging Unable to renew LetsEncrypt certificate using certbot - 404 for HTTP-01 challenge request When I woke up this morning, I decided to hack away at a blog post for a little bit. As soon as I opened the site, my heart sank. This is the PITA
#30DaysOfBlogging Doin' Manly Stuff (kids are so funny) Manly stuff. That's what my 8yo son said he wanted to do yesterday, lol. We were getting ready for my daughter's bday party and he told me he wanted to help out with
#30DaysOfBlogging GitHub... a tool for collaborative list making GitHub is beyond doubt the number one place for sharing code and collaborating on projects right now. I share a lot of my code on GitHub when I'm writing a more technical post,
#30DaysOfBlogging The Curse of Knowledge TIL the phrase "The Curse of Knowledge" from a 10-year old article by that name. The article focuses on leadership, discussing how executives tend to summarize years of knowledge and experience into vague
quoting Quotes 'n Notes #7 Just a few of the inspirational and thoughtful stories and quotes I ran across this week. Come across any of your own that you'd like to share? I'm always looking for something interesting
#30DaysOfBlogging No code is too short or unpolished to inspire others Was geeking out a bit yesterday. I got a ping from Twitter that someone had mentioned me, and as I quickly read it and thought "oh cool, someone found something I did with
#30DaysOfBlogging 8 things you should consider when (and before!) asking a question on Stack Overflow I don't write this post as some representative of the Stack Overflow community or whatever, just one guy who's found enjoyment in providing nearly 1600 answers over the years. Whether it's finding the
visual studio A briefly longish tour of Visual Studio for Mac Although I don't use Visual Studio daily anymore, I still fire it up now and again to try something out or help with a project. It's a great IDE that's had a few
gardening A busy Memorial Day weekend, playing and working This weekend was a great one for getting things done. I took Thursday and Friday off, so the fam got a chance to do some stuff together, and I even got a couple
#30DaysOfBlogging Forget the fitness apps, charts, wearables... just get out and have fun My first instinct is to overanalyze whenever possible. I'm pretty sure.. I mean... maybe I should think about that more. If I can't plan something out beforehand, track it during, imagine the final
pairing A few random thoughts after a year of pair programming At work we do quite a bit of pair programming. Not 100% of the time, but a lot. I once had a manager who told a member of our team he wouldn't bother
communication We get paid to sweat the details The cool part about being a developer is getting to solve new and interesting problems. I feel extremely lucky, in a world full of mundane jobs that quickly fall into repetitive routine, that
parenting One-on-one time with my kids means a recharge for both of us I was talking to one of my coworkers yesterday, about how much better our kids seem to be when they get some one-on-one time with mom or dad. It's like a recharge for
#30DaysOfBlogging Committing to #30DaysOfBlogging I'm committing to 30 days of blogging. Every day for a month I'm going to write something about my life, as a developer, father, husband, whatever. I hope they're all fantastic and riveting
quoting Quotes 'n Notes #6 Just a few of the inspirational and thoughtful stories and quotes I ran across this week. Come across any of your own that you'd like to share? I'm always looking for something interesting
books Book Review: Spaceman by Mike Massimino Everyone needs a job. For many of us, it's a means to an end, something to pay the bills. For some, it's a career path that challenges us and helps us grow. I
