Forcing myself to remain calm, I stamped up the stairs to the second floor of the building that the company I work for sublets. If ever there was a day to have a case of the Mondays, this was going to be that day. There are only five parking spots available to us, but all were taken. Visitors were in town, so I rolled into an adjacent unmarked spot in the morning, mistaking it as visitor parking. I was wrong. How did I find out? My car was towed — a gift from the gentlemen upstairs. Continue reading.
Traditionally trained copywriters are a dying breed in the development community. Designers and programmers are now being tasked with writing great Web content, both technical and creative. The Internet is giving voice to thousands who would otherwise remain silent, and the unfortunate side affect is a sea of incomprehensible and considerably dull content. Continue reading.
In college I had an English professor tell me that there are no original story ideas, and that it is only the personal interpretation of familiar themes that brings forth the illusion of originality. I am beginning to feel the same way about software development. Not a day goes by without another CMS rising to meet the needs of publishers, and I wonder, have we not perfected this yet? Too many programmers are riding on the coattails of the those who have gone before, and the results are staggeringly unimpressive. Continue reading.
As a software engineer I work with Java every day, and I enjoy the challenge of learning what the language has to offer. Although, there are those weeks when I envy the ease with which Rob, our systems architect, is able to whip out some crazy complex functionality using Ruby on Rails. This puts me in a bit of a pickle, and I am ill at ease. My goal this quarter is to learn the basic underpinnings of Ruby on Rails, but I have the sneaking suspicion that I have yet to master a mere tenth of Java’s core functionality. Continue reading.
Pushing yourself to learn a server-side language is an admirable goal. If you have a few years of JavaScript experience, or have dabbled in PHP, then the transition may not even be that difficult. For me, the process of learning Java has been an interesting adventure, and the ongoing education continues to hold my interest as a software engineer. Continue reading.
The pervasive myth among up-and-coming programmers today is that the fastest track to understanding a new programming language is to pick up a book and begin reading all about it. This can be instantly disheartening for many, since so few retain information only distributed in written form. Cognition is a very unique process, and learning how you learn as an individual can certainly be a barrier to learning to program. As counterintuitive as it sounds, that might mean putting the books back on the shelf. Continue reading.
If you are like the vast majority of programmers or Web developers, then the skills you obtained are largely self-taught — the results of hard work, persistence, and the constant pity of mentors more talented than yourself. They might be bosses, they might be peers, they might be friends, but whoever they are, they are there often to bail you out. Although you may not have consciously considered how this professional relationship evolved successfully over time, you are thankful it did. Continue reading.
Posted by Brian
October 10th, 2007
6 Comments
