It's All Perspective
A few days ago I wrote an article about being positive that ended up getting quite popular and generating a lot of reader email. Since then, I’ve had the...
Sacrifice
One of the problems I (and apparently a lot of other people) have is that there are a million things I’d like to work on at any given time, and not nearly...
The Positive Programmer
Is it just me, or is the technical community developing a more and more negative outlook in recent years? I hate to complain, but it seems like every week...
API Company Mistakes - Part 1 - Serialization Formats
Over the past few years I’ve been spending more and more time building and working with web APIs. To me, APIs are absolutely fascinating, and they’ve quickly...
A State of Exhaustion
Over the course of the past month, I’ve been completely exhausted. Last month I packed up all my stuff and moved into my friend Alven’s spare bedroom with my...
Heroku Dynos (in Depth)
NOTE: This article is all about Heroku. If you’ve never heard of them, you may want to skip this one >:) So, I’d like to talk about dynos with you (not...
Productivity and Calmness
While there are certainly many productivity hacks available to you, I can think of none greater than calming yourself. I can’t tell you how frequently I find...
Building postgression (an API Development Story)
Last week my friend Alven and I launched a new service for developers using PostgreSQL: postgression. postgression is a simple web service that allows you (a...
:(
Yesterday I came across this post, written by a really great programmer, and it immediately struck a chord with me. If you haven’t read it already, I’ll sum...
postgression - A PostgreSQL Database for Every Test Case
The following are some facts about me: I write a lot of software. In order for me to write good software, I often write tests for my software. Code that...
Being Awesome
If you want to be awesome, then go be awesome. Code the stuff you want to code. Build the business you want to build. Lift the weights. Lose the weight. Go...
Why You Might Enjoy Using DNSimple
Practically everyone I know involved in the tech industry has a preferred domain name registrar / DNS provider. I’ve used quite a few different companies...
A Year in Bakersfield
For the past year, I’ve been living in a relatively small city in central California: Bakersfield. Last year (a week before Thanksgiving Day), my wife’s...
Time Off
This year for Thanksgiving, I did something I don’t normally do: I took some time away from the computer. Since both my work and hobby involve programming,...
Improvement and Perfection
I just finished watching a truly excellent movie, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. If you haven’t seen it, I’d highly recommend you watch it (it’s available on Netflix...
Sometimes You've Got To Kill It
I’ve noticed that sometimes, doing the things you enjoy just isn’t enough. Sometimes you need to do more. I often get that feeling deep down that I’m not...
Ambitions
It’s about 1am right now, and instead of sleeping I’m thinking about all the things I want to accomplish, and what I need to do to get there. While I’m...
Too Short
Some quick thoughts about how life is just too short to do stuff you hate. If you’re an engineer working on a product you can’t stand, it really isn’t worth...
Hack Things at the LA Hackathon
I know several things about you right now: You are more than likely a programmer. I know this because most of my writing here on this site is dedicated to...
Freeing Up Your Time
I’m a huge proponent of being lazy. And of course, by being lazy, I mean being smart. In my line of work (building tech companies), there are constantly a...
Some Constants
Everyone has their constants–a spouse, a ritual, parents, friends, whatever. Even with shit gets crazy in your life and you’ve got a million things going on,...
My Bane - Multiple Projects
This topic is something that’s been floating around in the back of my mind for the past several years. My weakness, fatal flaw, bane, whatever you want to...
No Regrets
I’ve always been an extreme person. My internal motto has always been to either do something all the way, or not do it at all. When I was getting to know my...
Don't Panic! Frustration is an Anti-Pattern
Frustration and programming seem to go hand in hand. When solving problems with code, there are an unlimited amount of things that can go wrong, and very few...
Dangerous People
There are lots of people on earth–some big, some small, some famous, some unrecognizable, and some dangerous. Out of all the people I can think of, the most...
Programming and Motivation
Writing software can be pretty draining work. It is insanely fun when you’re in the zone and feeling good, and insanely dull when you’re not feeling your...
Service Oriented Problems
In my last post, I discussed some of the benefits of writing service oriented web applications. In this post, I’d like to discuss some of the problems...
Service Oriented Side Effects
There are two primary ways to write web applications these days: By building a single, monolithic web application (where all your code is in a single project...
The Simplest Question
Improvement is something nearly everyone craves–you want to be better at your job, better at your relationships, better with your physical fitness–the lists...
My Heroku Book is Finished
I wrote a book on Heroku! It’s called The Heroku Hacker’s Guide, and you can buy it (right now!) in both e-book (PDF) and paperback formats on the new book...
Become a Better Programmer - Monitoring
Becoming a better programmer is hard work. Luckily, there’s one foolproof way to improve your programming skills while simultaneously getting real world...
Two Months In
Approximately two months ago, I started working on my startup full-time. More than anything, I wanted to get some of these ideas out of my head so I have...
A Developer's Conundrum - Dev / Prod Parity
As a passionate developer, I constantly try to write the best code possible. I love my craft. For me, this means that I: Read lots of books on new and...
Choices, Choices
Something that is a constant source of inspiration for me, particularly in difficult (or high stress) situations, is the knowledge that I have the ability to...
Hack Everything ... To Pieces!
Hack. HACK! Programming is awesome. It is, without question, one of the most enjoyable things you can do with your time. That said, there is one thing you...
Heroku Isn't for Idiots
WARNING: This is a bit of a rant. I’m going to assume you have a basic understanding of Heroku, and web application architecture. Heroku isn’t for idiots....
How to Have Fun Programming
I may not be a great programmer, but I have a ton of fun programming. As a self-taught hacker, I’ve always enjoyed programming to a great extent–but everyone...
Django and SSL
I’m a huge proponent of encrypting everything. Why make it easy for the government (or other nasty organizations) to snoop on your personal data? As such,...
Automation as Motivation
For the past two weeks, I’ve been having some serious programming motivation issues. Despite the fact that I know what’s causing the motivation issues, I...
Never Stop Hacking
This is a quick post, something that I have to get out of my mind and onto paper (err, the internets!). I was thinking earlier today about what makes me...
Successful GitHub Development
I’ve been using GitHub for several years now, and it has drastically changed my development work flow, mindset, and collaboration efforts. Over the time I’ve...
I'm Working on a Startup
For the past several months, I’ve been working with some really great friends of mine on a startup, OpenCNAM. As some of you know, I have a lot of experience...
Why I'm Learning Node
As many (if not all) of you know, I’m a Python guy. I program every single day, and most days, that involves using Python. I write Django code for fun and...
Do Stuff, Have Fun
I’ve got a new philosophy–on life, work, adventures, whatever: do stuff, have fun. Even though I’m a very easy going fellow, I tend to spend a lot of time...
Do the Right Thing
While I devote a lot of time, energy, and effort to making myself a better person–I sometimes think I make the whole thing too complicated. What does...
Writing Habit -- Thoughts (continued)
For the past two months I’ve been writing for at least 30 minutes a day. I’d like to quickly reflect on what I’ve accomplished so far, and my thoughts on the...
The Simplest Way to Compress HTML in Django
NOTE: Since writing this post, it has been brought to my attention that as of 2013, there is a new potential attack vector on sites using gzip. Please read...
Merciless
I’ve been working on myself a lot the past few years. I’ve been trying to become stronger, faster, smarter, more honest, and better (overall). The process of...
How I Learned to Program
Programming is, without a doubt, the most mentally rewarding thing I’ve ever done. Programming taught me that life should be fun, filled with creativity, and...
My Ideal Life
As a strong believer in personal development, I realize that I will never be perfect. Despite this, a big part of the fun in life is working towards making...