Social Network Precedents for Connecting and Friending
As are we all, I too am active on a bunch of social networks. But I too do not connect or friend everyone on every network. I think we all want some semblance of control as to what we share and with whom we share it. To help me decide, I created my precedents, a set of guidelines as to whom I will connect with on which network and what I share there.
Rebooting OmniFocus
I’ve been using OmniFocus forever to record and track my personal and professional actionable to-dos and ideas. But over the past year, I have been using it less and less, getting less and less tracked and done, and it’s all my fault. You see, I started to experiment with what could be done with OmniFocus and messed up the whole concept of actually getting things done. My primary experiment was to create scripts to automatically load actions in from my project files and to merge the company-wide Asana.
It's that process that is the magic
CRINGLY: What’s important to you in the development of a product? JOBS: One of the things that really hurt Apple was after I left, John Sculley got a very serious disease. It’s the disease – I’ve seen other people get it too – it’s the disease of thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work. And if you just tell all these other people, you know, “Here’s this great idea,” then of course they can go off and make it happen.
How I use OS X Tools to build a Linux-only Product
OS X really is a developer’s dream platform, a solid UNIX core on which almost everything compiles with a brilliant graphical environment hosting the most amazing developer tools. It’s the “almost” in the above sentence that has recently tripped me up. I have a new vendor library that does not compile or run on OS X (yet!). As this is a big project which I will be working on for months, I want to set up my development environment so that I am comfortable and productive.
Open Source Compiles in an Xcode 5.1 World
So today I needed to work on an older, open-source based C++ application on my Mac and there was no way to compile it under Xcode 5 even though the development tools were installed and working perfectly. The issue, it seems, is that Xcode 5.1 has finally removed and deprecated a lot of old C++ stuff that is still required by older, popular libraries such as boost and quickfix. It emulates g++ 4.
Develop Locally, Stage Nearby, Production Anywhere
One of the things that surprised me as I moved back into the land of corporate software is the number of developers I talk to that commute and work in offices and yet develop on remote computers. I thought, as you probably do, that by now all software development would be local, as in on the developer’s own computer. Instead, it is not uncommon for corporate developers to rely on remote shells or desktop virtualization to access remote development computers and use them to code.
From Tool Maker to Tool User
Abstract: Programming is still seen as a single-language, single-platform tool-maker role. That has not been true for a long time. Over the years, the platforms, tools and libraries available have multiplied. We’re tool users now, where a programmer can pick up a new platform with ease, and use the tools available to create complex, reliable products a lot quicker. That which was impossible then is commonplace now. The role of the programmer has changed over the years, from being a certified single language, single platform tool-maker into a master of application styles, technologies, use cases and platform tool-users.
Easy SSH to local linux VM
TL;DR: Run avahi on the VM, ssh to the VM name dot local. Many of the Simple C++ Projects I work on, whether I use Xcode or not, land up needing to be recompiled on a Linux Virtual Machine prior to being deployed to the production Linux server. I do this because I want to be sure the I know what needs to be set up in the Linux environment, that the compile succeeds without errors in a production-like environment and the code works properly before deploying.
I Choose not to be Anonymous
A simple premise. I always post from my own domains or accounts, all of which are traceable back to me. I sign and add my true byline, which is me, to all my work. I always use my name, hiltmon, when commenting or responding on other sites or services. Anyone can always get in touch with me via this web site, email, Twitter, App.Net, Facebook, Google+, Linked-In and other services, I am not hiding.
Magical Migrations
As I am writing this, I am using magical migrations to perform a full data transplant across three servers, each with 100+GB of data, with a single command. Yep, I’m chilling and writing a blog post while replacing the entire data scaffolding of my firm as if it were just another cold Saturday. Magical indeed. TL;DR: Rails migrations and Capistrano deploys create a stable, reliable, testable, reversible and no-fault way to manage and execute production database changes, no matter the platform size or complexity.