When Neglecting Backups Becomes Costly
I recently had a setback in my work because I had failed to backup my system properly and it cost me dearly. The term ?dearly? is really relative and it could have been much worse.
I?m not Renewing Membership in the iPhone Developer Program
I think the title is pretty clear. The annual renewal to the Apple iPhone Developer Program is due and I have decided not to renew. Why do you ask? Well for a few reasons:
JRuby to live another day, moves to Engine Yard
Update: Charles Nutter posts about the move on the Engine Yard blog.
Programmatically Creating Website Thumbnails
I have been working recently on a project which I am capturing links to web pages and need to display a thumbnail-size screen shot of the web page being linked. For example, if I have a link to the Ruby on Rails web site, the thumbnail I need would look...
Plantronics Audio 995 Wireless Headset Rocks
I find myself using Skype more and more for both conversations with other Skype users or for taking advantage of the SkypeOut service so I can call any landline phone. I have been using a Logitech ClearChat Pro USB Headset, wired version, for the past 6 months. Overall the headset...
Finding Work as a Freelance Software Developer
The recent downturn in the economy has turned many more developers who were full-time employees into consultants to help pay the bills. This increased competition has led freelancers and contractors to find business in new ways we have not seen in many years, since the bubble in 2000, to be...
Kicking Your Coding into High Gear
I finished reading the great book by Chad Fowler, The Passionate Programmer. This is a fantastic read and got me thinking about various aspects of my professional life. One of the best pieces of advice in the book which too few developers actually follow is from Chapter 15: Practice, Practice,...
InfoQ: Rescuing Your Ruby on Rails Projects
Just a quick note: I recently purchased the Rails Rescue Handbook by Mike Gunderloy from his web site. The book gives a lot of great tips and best approaches to taking on a Rails project that may not be up-to-par.
Reflections on Ruby for Projects
Martin Fowler recently published an article recently looking back at projects which ThoughtWorks chose to use Ruby as the programming language.