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 to read... My Path To Evangelism Trisha Gee shares her journey to becoming a serious blogger and public speaker. It took years, but she stayed focused and worked hard. I found a lot of what she said relatable and inspiring. This is pretty much exactly where I'm at right now: "If you’ve ever started a blog, you know the problem is thinking of things to write »

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 I quickly read it and was like, oh cool someone found something I did with the Pi useful. And then, wait a sec... that name sounds familiar. Pete Lomas is a cofounder of the Raspberry Pi, having designed the final hardware for it, and is also a trustee for the Raspberry Pi Foundation. He had a hand in arguably the most versatile and innovative computer available today in its (ridiculously low) price range..... and he found something I did useful. That's a »

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 answer to some obscure IDE oddity, digging into a .NET class or teaching someone about a C# feature, I enjoy the challenge and opportunity to pass on some piece of knowledge I've learned. After all, what good is learning something if it's just locked up in your head? Stack Overflow has developed a rep over the years for being harsh. It wasn't always that way, and there »

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 hiccups along the way, but has steadily gotten better. It's a powerful tool for .NET developers, and given that I currently use Atom to develop Erlang I'd give anything for an equivalent IDE. But since I use a Mac primarily, using Visual Studio means firing up Windows in a VM, which is a phenomenal way to turn a Mac into a personal space heater. So when Microsoft »

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 projects done around the house. (Thank you to all those who serve bravely, so the rest of us have the freedom to pursue our own interests in relative safety and comfort.) McKinley Museum If you're in the Canton area and get a chance to go to the McKinley Museum, it's an interesting place to hang for a day. The kids loved it, and I found it pretty »

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 result, I have trouble even getting started. And that's poured into lots of areas of my life, including staying fit over the years. When I started working out in my twenties at college, I carried a notebook with me. When I got some of my own workout equipment, I taped a spreadsheet to the wall. When I went to the onsite gym at Progressive, I had my »

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. Considering a manager at the last place I worked (who left years before me) told a member of our team he wouldn't bother paying two developers for one job, this has been a significant change. It's one of the reasons I was interested in working here. I'd heard enough talk about it and wanted to see it in action. And this week was a really good one for pairing (at least for me, maybe my pair would disagree, lol!) so I thought »

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 I get paid to brainstorm and create. It's challenging and rewarding, especially when I see something I created working and being used. I've been working on a new product (well, a new version of an old product) for the last year and that's been awesome - most of what I do is new and interesting. But it wasn't always so. At my last job, I worked almost »