goals

Summary on My Month of Writing

Writing (and clicking submit) every day for a month has been an interesting experience. It's been fun, exciting, frustrating, and time consuming. With this post I can say that I have met my goal to post every day for a month. I have a new appreciation for people

goals

Goals for the week starting 11/30

Results from last week: * I finished reading 'The Tipping Point', and started my next book * I did poorly on the Erlang front - I only read a few pages and installed the Erlang package for Windows. I need to do better next week. * I did finish Java Puzzlers

reading

Next in my reading list

The next book in my reading list is: Pragmatic Thinking & Learning: Refactor Your Wetware [http://pragprog.com/titles/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-learning], by Andy Hunt. I started reading it early in the week, and it will be part of my nightly reading until I finish. I'm always interested in

code

Programming Puzzlers, Reading, and Practice

I've had Java Puzzlers [http://www.javapuzzlers.com/] for a long time. I kept it on my desk at work, and sometimes during a full rebuild, I would read and try to figure out the next puzzler. I'd usually drag a coworker into it, too, which

Uncategorized

Technology I'm Thankful For

As it is Thanksgiving, I think I will write about what technology I am thankful for. I'm really glad MySQL [http://mysql.com/] exists. It's just really pleasant to develop against.  It couldn't be simpler (well, maybe it could be - but I challenge

eclipse

Eclipse Plugins Galore

I saw  link entitled 30 Best Eclipse Plugins [http://www.ajaxline.com/best-eclipse-plugins] on dzone [http://www.dzone.com/links/index.html] today and thought it merited sharing. I've been a long time Eclipse user, but most of these plugins are new to me. There's all

windows7

From XP to Windows 7

I've been using Windows 7 at home since the public beta came out in January, followed by RC1. I recently transitioned two of my home PCs to the retail Windows 7 Home Premium a couple weekends ago. I made the transition on my workstation at work last week.

goals

Goals for the week starting 11/23

Results from last week: * My emphasis on fast tests has gained some stickyness in the office. I have a way to go personally, but progress is being observed. * Read another 50-60 pages of 'The Tipping Point' * Did 2-3 more Java Puzzlers (in the last, 'advanced' section)

jvm

Make Your Brain Hurt With a LOTY

I believe it is The Pragmatic Programmer [http://pragprog.com/titles/tpp/the-pragmatic-programmer] that recommends learning a new language every year. With an emphasis on something that will make you think in a different way.different. If you're in Java, moving to C# is not a big enough

java

Practice your TDD

Misko Hevery [http://misko.hevery.com/] made a great blog entry [http://misko.hevery.com/2009/11/17/how-to-get-started-with-tdd/] Tuesday. He posted a sample project for practicing TDD [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development]. We know that Beginners Need Steps [http://agileartisans.com/main/blog/171], and that'

java

Silent JDK Deployment on Windows

It's pretty easy to find documentation on how to silent install JREs [http://java.sun.com/javase/6/webnotes/install/jdk/install-windows.html], but for some reason it's hard to find a full example for silently deploying recent JDKs. Today I needed to deploy 20 JDKs

build

A Quick Look At Gradle

I'd say up until a month or so ago, I knew about Gradle but I had no real idea what it offered. I knew it was more elaborate than Gant, but that was all. It's about time I took a closer look at Gradle [http://www.

build

Some Maven 3.0 Info

I do intend to investigate Gradle [http://www.gradle.org/], but I can't shake the feeling that Maven 3 will really rock. On that note, about all I have time for tonight is to pull together a few links. Nothing a couple minutes of searching couldn't

build

Java Build Tools

There are a lot of build tools for Java. More than I have seen for any other language I've used. When working with Java, I've used Ant, Maven 1, and Maven 2. I know of at least a few more, and I recently found this post

goals

Goals for the week starting 11/16

Results from last week: * Much of my week was reactionary, so I didn't write much new code and I fail on the 'test more' front. * I read another 100 pages of The Tipping Point * I did a couple more Java Puzzlers (on 83 or 84 of

carpal tunnel

Using a Vertical Mouse - 4 Months In

Earlier this year, I started experiencing frequent and worsening wrist pain in my mouse hand. It seems to be a result of keeping pressure on my wrist when using a mouse. I bought some wrist straps, and decided to invest in a vertical mouse. What's a vertical mouse,

apache

TortoiseSVN no longer remembers password

In my workplace, we've been plagued with this issue since switching from http to https (maybe a year ago). At least, I think that's when it started. Whatever the reason, TortoiseSVN constantly forgets my svn credentials. I want to get to the bottom of why. Here

bookreview

Book Review: Career 2.0

It's about time I posted a review of Career 2.0 [http://www.lulu.com/content/5925115] - by Jared Richardson [http://agileartisans.com/] and Matthew Bass. [http://www.blogger.com/] In particular, I purchased the print version of the book. There is also a digital version, and

eclipse

Hidden Eclipse Search Feature

Eclipse has some really handy search options when you right click on member variables, butfor some reasonthey are disabled by default. You can enable the extra options by **unchecking **the checkbox for: Preferences -> Java -> Use Reduced Search Options Here's the before (with appropriate part

Uncategorized

Afterthoughts on Upgrading My PC

When I was younger, it seemed like I needed to upgrade my computer constantly. Before college, and before my professional career started, the only aspect of my computing experience was at home. It makes sense that it was more important then. For a time, every year or two it seemed

gui

Shout Out to Model View Presenter and Passive View

I mentioned last week that I'd talk about GUI testing, so I suppose I should. GUI testing is generally regarded as hard. In my case, I've mostly had to deal with Java GUI code. There are a few things I can think of to aid in

goals

Goals for the week starting 11/9

Results from last week: * My test-writing improved, but still isn't where I want it to be. I did write some tests, but not enough. * I didn't get around to trying Guice * I finished reading the Career 2.0 appendix, so now it is officially complete * I

display

The Hunt for a Good LCD

After keyboard and mouse, the next most important important part of a computing experience for me is monitor. I've been a dual monitor user since 2002, when I bought a Viewsonic P95f 19" CAD-quality CRT. This CRT pushes unbelievable refresh and resolution for it's time.

testing

More on testing (part II)

In my latest push to test more, I've been learning some things. Namely, just how much testing can show you. Testing really illuminates bad code. Bad code is hard to test. It might not have been that bad, but just some slight rule bending is enough to make

java

Szczepan Faber is my bartender

I've known about Mockito [http://mockito.org/] for a little while, but I've only just now officially tried it today, and Sczepan Faber [http://monkeyisland.pl/] (and friends) are now my bartenders, and when it comes to mocking, a nice cold mockito is my new drink