A Reflection On Adopting Zend Framework – One Year Later
About a year ago, I was introduced to Zend Framework as the framework I was going to be working with almost every day. And for nearly a year now, every day I have worked closely with Zend Framework,...
View ArticleThe Five Tools I Can’t Develop Without
Every developer has a toolkit of favorite tools and applications that help them develop more effectively. Being individuals, developers often differ (and in some cases, argue) about the tools they use....
View ArticleWhy Recruiters Are Bad For Your Career
At some point or another, every technical person will conduct a job search. And either by design or accident, they will encounter the nemesis of job searching: The Recruiter. These individuals are...
View ArticleFinding A Job Without A Recruiter
Last week I wrote about all the reasons that recruiters are bad for your career. For a variety of reasons I highlighted the reasons job seekers should avoid enlisting the services of recruiters that...
View ArticleValidation Blind Spots Hurt Real Users
A friend of mine lives on Bonieta Harrold Drive. I live on a Windsor Hill Drive. Both of us have a problem in common, which is that poorly designed software is incapable of accepting the length of our...
View ArticleWhy I Love Being An Engineer
Laura Thomson posed a question on Twitter, asking what do you like most about being an engineer? I spent a good part of the morning thinking about it, and it’s an interesting question to answer. My...
View ArticleWhat do you want the web to be?
Five months ago, I had an opportunity to accept a contract to work at Mozilla as part of the webdev team. There was a match for my skills on a contract basis, and even though it meant leaving permanent...
View ArticleDiversifying This Blog
When I began writing this blog back in August of 2008, I stated that I wanted to write about the things that I cared about. At the time that list included a slice of technology, largely focused on the...
View ArticleFlight Time Tracking In The 21st Century
Every pilot works hard to maintain good records of their flight time. Besides being expensive to obtain, the FAA requires that flight time of a certain nature be logged and available for inspection,...
View ArticleThe Value In Offering “Time To Tinker”
Years ago, I worked for a company that had a strictly governed bug fixing process. The bugs to be fixed per release were specifically regimented, right down to the amount of hours available to fix each...
View ArticleLanguages Don’t Matter
Two craftsmen make chess sets. Beautiful chess sets. One craftsman uses old style tools: chisels, files, hammers of all sizes. His preferred material is stone; he carefully carves the pawns, the queen,...
View ArticleA better personal biography
For as long as I can remember, writing a personal bio has been a tough challenge. You know how this goes: you’re applying to a conference, writing a resume or creating an “About Me” page on your...
View ArticleThe Problem With Paper Books
When you buy a book on Amazon, the transaction ends when the book gets packaged up and shipped (or delivered wirelessly over Whispernet). There are no updates (typos are corrected over Whispernet, but...
View ArticleIs Your Site Hacker News Ready?
Years and years ago, somebody coined the term “slashdotting.” In essence, it’s the experience when your website is linked to by a larger website, overwhelming your servers with a crush of traffic....
View ArticleWhy You Should Write Clean Code
Developers discuss and debate clean code all the time. They even debate what constitutes clean code. The discussion about clean code is as old as languages themselves; entire languages (I’m looking at...
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