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, Facebook, Google+, Linked-In and other services, I am not hiding.
- There is only one hiltmon, and it is I. Google me.
I choose not to be anonymous. Here’s why.
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.
View on an Insider as CEO for Microsoft
Today, Microsoft announced Satya Nadella as its new CEO, a 22-year veteran of the business and a true Insider. I wish him the best of luck and success. But is choosing an Insider as CEO good for a mature Microsoft or bad?
I think its a bad call based on documented history of other mature companies and my own selfish (and very positive) wishes for the firm.
And then there’s this, which makes no Outsider sense and means nothing to anyone, from his first letter to employees:
First they came for...
A Modern Version
First they came for the record stores
and I didn’t speak out
because I used iTunes online.
Then they came for the bookstores
and I didn’t speak out
because I used Kindle online.
Then they came for the technology stores
and I didn’t speak out
because I used Amazon online.
Then they came for the grocery stores
and I didn’t speak out
because I used FreshDirect online.
Then they came for the restaurants
and I didn’t speak out
because I used SeamlessWeb online.
More TextMate 2 Basics
Previously, I wrote about the TextMate 2 Basics that I use all the time, and I recommend you read that post first. This post follows up with a mish-mash of more tools, ideas and tricks that I also use surprisingly frequently.
Text Tools
TextMate 2 tries to reduce the number of keystrokes you need to make to generate good code. There are many ways it does this but today I want to talk about auto-pairs and completions.
Reminder: Update your Tools
At the start of every new year, I spend a the time to update all my tools and recompile all my products with them. At the cost of a few hours (or at worst, days) work, I get rid of most the maintenance hassles I faced before I used to do this and gain the benefits of all the new features and performance from updated tools.
I understand that, for all of us, updating our tools is surprisingly hard. Things that used to work now fail, incompatibilities have to be addressed and it takes time, perceived as unproductive time, to do. And then there is the risk that updating production servers will cause downtime for no valid reason. It’s easy to feel that we should wait for the next release, or when we have some mythical down-time, or when we’re forced to do so as the versions of our tools become obsolete. And it’s hard to justify updating tools when there’s real work to be done and no current perceived benefit in changing tools.
Python: It's a Trap
TL;DR: Python is the best language for quantitative scripting (because of its libraries). But it’s a trap. Almost all programmers and libraries require Python 2 when Python 3 is out and way better. Choosing to use an old language for new project traps us into supporting old languages, libraries and platforms. And that’s not smart. The intent of this post is to point out this odd stagnation and encourage the migration and adoption of Python 3, or, as it has happened in the past, we’ll have to look elsewhere for a solution.
Can't innovate anymore, my ass
Over the past few days I have seen so many references to the Quartz post 2013 was a lost year for tech that it has become a meme. “Innovation is dead”, “2013 proves it”, “RIP Innovation”, it screams.
Rubbish!
2013 was a great year for innovation in the tech space.
in·no·vate /ˈinəˌvāt/ verb
- make changes in something established, esp. by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.
Remember, innovation is not about creating something completely new (that’s invention), it is about making changes to established products that significantly improve their abilities or experience. And we got that in spades in 2013.
Writers: Thank You
I want to say thank you to a bunch of writers, to people who do what they do because they love to do it, from an anonymous one that reads and appreciates what they do every day.
They may never see this, but, in no particular order, a huge thank you from me to you all.
Tech and Opinions
Matt Gemmell at Matt Gemmell is owed free drinks at my house forever. He may be well known for his tech, tweets and speech making, but the depth, emotion and soulfulness of his recent writing has touched us more deeply than he knows.
Cannot find File
“Can you please send me that file again? I cannot find it”
“I’ll have to get back to you, I don’t know where I saved the file I need.”
I hear this every day. Even now, in 2013, more than 20 years after hierarchical file systems became the core and the norm of computing, users still struggle to understand something as simple as knowing the location of their own files in their own computer systems.