You've got a trip scheduled, say a vacation or technical conference, and you're looking forward to it. If the company asks you to cancel it because now's not a good time to be out of the office, should you? Is there ever a good time to be out of the office? When do you bend, … Continue reading Thought of the day: Where to draw the line?
A nice little refactor
I was in some code I haven't visited in a while. And I came upon something I coded months ago. It used a list comprehension to test every element of a list. If the result was empty, it signaled an error. Otherwise, it used result[0]. Gah! That's so retarded! Was I asleep when I wrote … Continue reading A nice little refactor
Replacing Redis with a Python Mock
tl;dr When writing tests, mock out a subsystem if and only if it's prohibitive to test against the real thing. !tl;dr Our product uses Redis. It's an awesome technology. We've avoided needing Redis in our unit tests. But when I added a product feature that made deep use of Redis, I wrote its unit tests … Continue reading Replacing Redis with a Python Mock
I’m still looking for a great UI Developer
I've filled my Senior Developer position. Whew! I'm still looking for a Senior UI Developer. If you're a front-end developer who wants to work on a site with cool data visualizations, contact me! ——— Title: Senior UI Developer Reports to: CTO Location: Seattle, WA About IP Street Founded in 2009, IP Street develops and markets … Continue reading I’m still looking for a great UI Developer
Seattle startup scene: More of the same, all the time
Either I'm the most curdled curmudgeon in the world, or the most insightful person in the world. It's a bimodal graph with no middle ground. I lurk on the Seattle Tech Startups list, follow GeekWire and TechFlash (which went downhill after Bishop and Cook left), keep abreast of what's cooking in NWEN, and occasionally attend after-work local tech … Continue reading Seattle startup scene: More of the same, all the time
An awesome engineer makes me scratch my head
I know an awesome software engineer. He's very smart and a joy to work with. He's platinum-grade material, and I'd work with him again in a femtosecond. On rare occasions, this Pythonista among Pythonistas and Djangonaut among Djangonauts writes code that makes me scratch my head. He'll do this: The one-line function that only does … Continue reading An awesome engineer makes me scratch my head
First diagram made with Noteshelf: Not spectacular
I made my first non-trivial diagram using Noteshelf. It was a "learning experience." I organized the diagram into three sections. On the left are database and cloud storage symbols. In the middle are representations of background tasks, both periodic and invoked. On the right are our production server farms. All totaled, there are four db's, … Continue reading First diagram made with Noteshelf: Not spectacular
Can’t find a good iPad case with a stylus holder
I trawled the web for an hour today and couldn't find a decent iPad case with a stylus holder. The cases I did find were too bulky, didn't include a stand, or had some other glaring defect. A work friend jokingly suggested that I Velcro or tape a Baggie to the outside of my stm … Continue reading Can’t find a good iPad case with a stylus holder
My Wacom Bamboo Stylus
My new Bamboo Stylus arrived today! It's just long enough so that the upper inch or so rests in the space between my index finger and thumb, and hefty enough so that I feel it there. I don't have the specifications handy, but I'd say it weighs slightly more than a typical rollerball pen, but … Continue reading My Wacom Bamboo Stylus
iPad diagramming II
I'm playing more with Noteshelf and thinking about how I use a whiteboard. And I'm noticing aspects of my sketching for the first time... My drawings mutate a lot as I create them: I'll start out leaving space for objects (e.g., server boxes, database symbols), and then decide the objects need more space. (For practical … Continue reading iPad diagramming II
Seek Nuance 