Due to sudden and unforeseen circumstances, last year I went from having several personal laptops to none at all. This is the story of how I ended up getting a Google Pixelbook and my take on it. Buying a beast of a laptop As soon as I could, I bought a powerhouse laptop. In
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My friend, Daniel Markham, just published a remarkable book called Info-Ops: Build the Right Thing. It’s the type of book which could easily be overlooked if you were to judge it by its cover. I was so impressed by the book that I decided to ask Daniel a few questions, and he kindly agreed
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I’m going to share with you what I see as “25” common pitfalls when learning to program (or working towards mastering programming). Many of these points affect both beginners and professionals alike — myself very much included. 0. Forgetting that programming is all about people. Yes, the machine will execute your code, but programming
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I regret to inform you that Programming Zen will be on hold for a good while due to tragic personal circumstances. On the evening of Thursday, October 13, 2016, an 18 year old girl having a domestic dispute with her mother allegedly set her own house on fire. The fire spread quickly to the
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Some programming languages become popular. Others don’t. Why is that? Are the popular languages better than the obscure ones?[1] It’s more complicated than that, so let’s grab a long stick and poke at this hornet’s nest. Define popular To start off on the wrong foot, there isn’t really a consensus on the popularity of programming
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Most professions require their practitioners to remain constantly up-to-date. Think about accountants learning about new tax regulations, or doctors studying new medical research. It’s a challenge. So much so, that many fail to remain current even when lives are at stake. In our profession, the challenge is particularly prominent. Specific knowledge, outside of selected
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As I mentioned in my previous article, I bought a Chromebook with the intention of using it as a portable machine for web development, writing, and general productivity on the go. Chrome OS is quite limited so, in practice, my goal requires installing a version of Linux on the Chromebook. And since I don’t
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In my previous post on laptops for developers, I shortlisted a few options. In this one, I share the story of how I will end up developing with a Chromebook. I almost bought a Lenovo After mulling it over, and taking into account the feedback I received, I was quite positive I’d be buying a
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Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been heavily researching laptops for software developers. Why I’m looking for a new laptop When shopping for a developer laptop, I usually stick to powerful machines with a relatively large screen. My main operating system is OS X, so my last few laptops have all been MacBook
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I’m a believer in learning by doing. Programming exercises are a useful tool to practice and improve your coding skills. After all, practice makes one, if not perfect, at least pretty darn good. (Yes, I know competitive programming differs from real-world programming.) Below is a list of high-quality sites for programming exercises. This is
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