I can appreciate the usefulness of Python, the simplicity of Go, and the mind-expanding nature of Haskell. Yet, anything that isn’t Ruby felt like a usability downgrade. It’s all highly subjective, ça va sans dire, but Ruby was always my favorite.

It’s not every day that a language comes along and genuinely excites me to the point of putting Ruby aside (within the scope of what it’s great at doing).

I <3 Elixir

That language is Elixir. I’ve been using it on and off for a few years now. I first talked about it back in 2016 and even managed to convince my team at IBM to adopt it to an extent. It’s working out well for us so far and I have a hunch we might double down on it soon.

Since I have a little more time, due to being stuck inside, I’ve been on a “study anything in sight related to Elixir and Phoenix” kick lately.

I am a big fan of Mike and Nicole Clark of The Pragmatic Studio and in the past have highly recommended their Ruby and Rails courses. So I decided to start taking their Elixir courses as well. In this post, I’ll give you a fairly detailed review of their largest course on the subject, Developing with Elixir/OTP.

Who is it for?

Developing with Elixir/OTP is aimed at programmers. It’s so well explained that beginners can give it a shot, however, they are not the target audience.

The course assumes you have zero knowledge of Elixir itself but it’s not going to explain basic programming concepts when they are not novel or unique to Elixir.

Experience with Ruby is not required nor assumed, but it’s beneficial. This isn’t so much due to the way the course is presented (though there are a couple of nods to Ruby programmers). Rather, it’s the similarity (on the surface) between the two languages.

How much time do you need to invest?

Developing with Elixir/OTP is a 6.5 hour course divided across 30 modules. There is no way for you to take this course in 6.5 hours and get anything worthwhile from it.

In fact, the secret sauce is that each module has a Notes section dedicated to expanding on the topic, providing tips and tricks, as well as exercises. 

I would estimate that it took me around 20 hours or so to finish, despite being very familiar with the subject matter. Mind you, I do like to experiment quite a bit within IEx to veer off the beaten path.

Estimate 30 hours of your time, an hour per module, if you intend to fully absorb and experiment with the material presented.

Unlike their Rails course, you won’t develop two applications (one while watching the videos and one in the Notes section). In this course, there is only one application that is mostly developed in the videos and then enhanced in the Notes through exercises.

This will save you a lot of time at the small expense of having to pause and resume the video to type along.

Another time-saver is that the code for each module in the course is provided so that you’re never lost. Particularly useful to copy and paste the more tedious parts (e.g., sample data and template code).

What will you build?

The course starts off by developing a simple web server. Think, high-level transformations of requests into responses. It builds it from the ground up and then layers a simple RESTful API for a fictitious wildlife reserve on top.

They start off with the simplest thing, a function that transforms one specific request into one specific response, and then move up all the way to actually serving the API over HTTP.

The goal, as often stated in the course, is not to replace an established and much more robust web server like Cowboy or a framework like Phoenix. At all.

Instead, it serves two pedagogical purposes. First, it teaches you how to use the language to solve a fairly complex problem. Second, it gives you a deeper understanding of how the production-ready tools you are going to adopt actually work within.

This approach is endemic to their teaching method. For example, they’ll develop a simple web server and API from scratch and then show you how similar it is to the equivalent Phoenix version. By the time you hit module 17 on Phoenix, you don’t quite know Phoenix but it should feel oddly familiar. After all, you built a naïve/simplified version of the same controllers, router, templates, etc. from scratch. This is, of course, a deliberate choice.

The same is true when they implement a simple GenServer from scratch and then are able to seamlessly replace it with the real deal (with use GenServer). Yes, you developed the Fisher-Price version of the production-ready tools, but you now understand how they work under the hood. All before Mike and Nicole proceed to teach you how to use the battle-tested ones.

I’m a fan of this didactic approach and I think it will serve most people well.

What will you learn?

It might be surprising to some but this course does not provide the typical tour of data types and data structures available in the language.

Instead, it uses the language to build something from the beginning and, in the process, it quickly exposes you to a variety of concepts, including how to use common data types.

It doesn’t cover them thoroughly, however, so reading the Elixir tutorial on the official site would be very beneficial prior to or after taking this course.

The course starts off with several modules that are heavily focused on pattern matching. This is a good choice because pattern matching is one of the most valuable and pervasive features of Elixir.

As you would expect, there is also quite a bit of emphasis on immutable data structures, the pipe operator, recursion, and the Enum module.

In the process you’ll also learn a lot about IEx, Mix, organizing your code in a logical and idiomatic manner, defining Structs as the safer alternatives to maps, and comprehensions. 

Testing is covered adequately but not extensively in its own module. Not in a TDD manner from the very start of the course like they did in some of their previous courses. This has, again, didactical advantages even if you choose to adopt TDD in your actual work.

In the second half of the course, things get a little more serious courtesy of OTP, delving deeper into working with sockets, the actor model, Task, GenServer, and linking and monitoring processes.

Other points worth making

In more or less random order:

• The course is up to date to Elixir 1.10.x, somewhat rare among Elixir courses. Some of the videos show Mike and Nicole using a previous version (i.e., 1.5), but the Notes use the latest version and the rare differences are noted.  For example, the video shows the old mix new project format which included a config folder. In their hands-on notes for the video, they have a comprehensive “I don’t see a config directory” section to address it. You’re basically never lost or confused due to version discrepancies.
• The overall quality is excellent. It’s a really polished product in terms of audio, video, text, and visuals used to aid in explaining the more conceptual parts.
• They answer the overwhelming majority of your “wait a second” questions and objections. Either later in the video or right in the notes for that particular module. They genuinely anticipate most questions, which is the hallmark of a great course.
• Most modules have a single 5-15 minute video, but some modules include two videos. So the modules are… well, modular.
• Although this course will equip you to start studying Phoenix, it doesn’t really cover the subject. There is a module, as I mentioned, which is just enough to whet your appetite for the framework.
• Erlang interoperability is at least in part addressed in module 20, where sample code from the documentation of gen_tcp is converted from Erlang to Elixir code.
• The course is full of small tips like enabling command history in IEx (with export ERL_AFLAGS="-kernel shell_history enabled"), speeding up unit tests by making them asynchronous (i.e., use ExUnit.Case, async: true), using flush() to clear a process’ mailbox, etc.

Is it worth the price?

At $89, Developing with Elixir/OTP is not your average Udemy course that’s routinely discounted to $12. That’s because it’s not your average course.

If I had to rate it, I’d give it a 4.5 out of 5. I highly recommend it to working programmers who are interested in picking up Elixir quickly.

I would argue that it’s a great, current resource that is well worth the price of admission if you favor learning from videos.

The post Developing with Elixir/OTP Course Review appeared first on Programming Zen.

Unlike a briefcase, they distribute the weight evenly. Ergonomically sound backpacks will allow you to carry a decent amount of weight without too much effort. They also tend to be spacious enough to carry other tech equipment and necessities.

In short, I’m a fan of backpacks. Having lost my Everki to the arson fire, I recently found myself itching to get a new laptop backpack.

Backpacks are awesome but dorky

Now, here is the thing about backpacks. They are incredibly useful but they are also quite utilitarian. Being less charitable, you could say that backpacks are downright dorky.

It can be argued — and has been (to death) — that backpacks make you look like a student. In fairness, CEOs have historically carried briefcases, not backpacks.

I think this perception is shifting as we become more causal in our attire and attitudes towards business. Still, there is no denying that showing up for an important business meeting in a suit and your average backpack may make you stand out and not in a good way.

I’m not an executive, but I still wanted a backpack that looked stylish while wearing a suit or meeting with clients. I’m also a fan of good style and design. (I live in Canada but I’m still Italian, after all.)

So I concentrated my research on so-called executive laptop backpacks.

What is an executive laptop backpack?

The best definition I can come up with for executive laptop backpack is, a laptop backpack that looks stylish and isn’t out of place in the boardroom.

In practice, executive laptop backpacks tend to have the following characteristics:

• Relatively small. Say, in the 15-25 liter range. You’re not climbing a mountain, you don’t need a 60 L backpack.
• Sleek, streamlined, minimalistic designs with easy to access pockets. You don’t want to spend five minutes rummaging through your backpack to get a pen out.
• High-quality materials, such as leather and ballistic nylon.
• Good hardware such as zippers that don’t break easily, for example, the excellent YKK self-healing zippers.
• Somber colors. A dash or accent of color can fit in, but nothing too extravagant. You don’t need to be rescued by a helicopter in the middle of the woods, so there is generally no need for fluorescent yellow.

There appears to be a shift towards modernizing laptop backpacks. While researching which one to buy, I came across a large number of Kickstarter projects for super fancy tech backpacks. They’ll often have built-in power banks to recharge your phone on the go, security measures to curb theft, and even solar panels.

The trouble is that they usually do not have the refined style I was looking for. More often than not, they look super techy and futuristic. They belong on the set of the IT Crowd, not on Suits.

It’s all subjective, of course. Executive backpacks are a bit of an I know it when I see it case. So I’m going to list several executive backpacks I encountered while doing my research and ultimately tell you which one I ordered for myself.

My top 5 executive laptop backpack choices

I don’t claim these to be the only executive backpack choices. There are a huge number of backpacks available on the market. It’s quite overwhelming actually.

These five are simply the ones that I most considered up until the moment I pulled the trigger and bought one of them. They all meet my requirements and wouldn’t look half bad in a more formal setting.

Aer Tech Pack

Key pros:

• Water-resistant, great materials;
• Excellent organization of the space available;
• Just the right size (18.5 L, 3.3 lbs);
• Handle to carry it like a briefcase;
• Lifetime of the product warranty;
• Reasonably affordable (US $200).

Key cons:

• It’s sleek but it’s definitely an unusual look.

Briggs & Riley @work Medium Backpack

Key pros:

• Briggs & Riley is a favorite among frequent flyers;
• Lifetime warranty;
• Great materials, including nice leather accents;
• Refined, professional look;
• Great organization of the space available;
• Compact and lightweight (2.5 lbs for 20.5 L capacity);
• Hidden water bottle sleeve;
• Several variations available (e.g., all leather, slimmer, and larger).

Key cons:

• Somewhat pricey (US $319).

NOMATIC Backpack

Key pros:

• Water-resistant, great materials;
• Lifetime warranty;
• Excellent pocket organization;
• Cord pass-through to charge devices on the go;
• Expandable from 20 to 24 L;
• The techiest/most innovative on this list;
• Handle to carry it like a briefcase;
• Less expensive than most mentioned here (US $250).

Key cons:

• Bulkier, longer and heavier than most (4 lbs);
• Longevity is in question according to some reviews;
• A bit too techy-looking. It vaguely reminds me of the Peak Design Everyday backpack (which I also considered and may buy as a camera bag at some point).

Tumi Alpha Bravo Davis Backpack

Key pros:

• Tumi is also a favorite among frequent travelers;
• Great materials, including leather accents;
• Refined, professional look;
• Great organization of the space available;
• Lightweight (only 2.7 lbs) and compact.

Key cons:

• Although still high, Tumi’s quality has reportedly gone down since their acquisition by Samsonite.
• They no longer offer a lifetime warranty. The warranty is limited to 5 years and quite a few people reported fighting to have it honored.
• Expensive (US $375).

Waterfield Pro Executive Laptop Backpack

Key pros:

• Waterfield is one of the most respected brands for high-end laptop backpacks and bags;
• Lifetime of the product warranty;
• Professional and distinguished-looking;
• Gorgeous full-grain leather, available in several colors;
• Lightweight for a relatively large backpack (2.9 lbs at 25.5 Liters).

Key cons:

• Expensive (US $350), particularly when shipped to Canada (i.e., an extra US $60). The cheaper alternative is their Sutter Slim option which is arguably sleeker, but too small for my needs (11 L capacity).
• Slightly bulkier than the rest on this list (sitting at 25.5 liters) with 7″ of depth.

My executive laptop backpack choice

Can you guess which one I picked?

All things considered, I ended up choosing a Briggs & Riley @work Medium Backpack. I liked the look, features, lightweight nature, and the legendary brand that offers a lifetime warranty.

Which one would you pick? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

I also ordered a tablet messenger bag

One more thing, as Steve Jobs used to say. I was also in the market for a crossbody messenger bag (aka a man bag).

Not because I’m jealous of my wife’s purses (okay, a little) but because I’m one of those people who are into EDC (everyday carry).

Between wallet, keys, pocket knife or multitool, flashlight, extra-large phone, tissues, etc, my pockets are overloaded.

Plus, I like the idea of being able to have my eReader (a Boox Nova Pro) or the new iPad Pro (when it comes out) with me at all times when I head out sans laptop. (If I’m taking the laptop, then it’s backpack time.)

As you can imagine, I also had many choices for tablet messenger bags. Waterfield Muzetto was quite tempting but with shipping and the conversion rate, it was a little too rich for my blood (more than CDN $500 for a satchel).

I could have bought the Briggs & Riley counterpart to my backpack. In the end, however, I liked the Tumi Alpha 3 Organizer Travel Tote the best. It wasn’t cheap either but I liked it enough and it’s something I’m going to use every day.

As I said on Twitter a few days ago:

Spend good money on items you use every day. If they are a delight, they’ll delight you daily. If they are a disappointment, they’ll disappoint you daily. You don’t want the latter. Small disappointments compound and end up affecting the quality of your life.

The post Choosing an Executive Laptop Backpack appeared first on Programming Zen.

Three caveats

Before we start, I’ll offer three caveats:

1. I’m using a loose definition of the word gadget. The more accurate term might be the less catchy, electronic devices, or even more broadly, tools.
2. This isn’t a my programming setup post. It’s about hardware gadgets. I’m not going to discuss editors, shells, et cetera. Though, I’ll go on record here as favoring Visual Studio Code, despite knowing how to exit Vim. 🙂
3. Most of these links have my affiliate ID. It’s not the reason for this post but they help offset the cost of my technology addiction. 😉

Good gadgets but not necessarily the best

The set of gadgets I currently use is the result of an evolutionary process.

The technology itself evolved over the years, but so did my ability to acquire it. Furthermore, the worst gadgets didn’t last or I replaced them with better alternatives.

So the gadgets below might not be the best in their respective categories, but they are sensible options. They offer the kind of quality that would please most readers. (Perhaps, even fellow maximizers.)

Laptops

I currently have two laptops. The first one I bought wasn’t really useful as a laptop (as I’ll explain below), so I ended up with two.

Mac laptop

I use a MacBook Pro 13″ (2018) as my upstairs, as well as on-the-go, laptop. Of the two, it’s the laptop I actually use on my lap.

If I’m on the couch, in bed, or at a coffee shop, I’m using my MacBook Pro. It shines for programming and writing, but it’s only adequate for video editing. 1080p videos are not a problem, but 4K proves to be a bit of a challenge for it.

The improved butterfly switch keyboard is actually pleasant enough to write on now that I’ve gotten used to it. I have not experienced stuck keys (though, I don’t eat on my laptop and I clean the keyboard from time to time).

I have experienced crackling speakers in the past (my video was even featured on MacRumors) but recent updates appear to have fixed the problem. Further, I experienced video card issues that also vanished with recent updates.

I find the touch bar useless and the lack of an SD card reader (or USB-A ports, for that matter) frustrating on occasion. Somehow, I always find myself out of space as well. Though I can’t blame the laptop per se. (I have the 512 GiB model.)

I like it enough, but it’s not a problem-free laptop.

PC laptop

Speaking of imperfect things, let me tell you about my Lenovo P51. I use this laptop as a de facto desktop in my office downstairs.

It’s heavy, noisy, and the touchpad is significantly worse than my Mac’s. Conversely, it has a beautiful 4K matte display, a fantastic keyboard, and more ports than you’ll ever need. Including a handy SD card reader.

The great keyboard and the lackluster touchpad balance out for my use case. The laptop is semi-permanently attached to an external keyboard and mouse, so neither really affect me.

The external keyboard I use is a mechanical one. A Filco Majestouch 2 Ninja with Cherry MX Blue switches. It looks cool and has very satisfying feedback. However, it’s quite loud as you’d expect from blue switches. I occasionally get it in my head to go down the customization route, but it’s a rabbit hole I have not explored to date.

The mouse I use is a Logitech MX Master wireless. It’s somewhat prone to interference if I clutter my desktop, but it’s otherwise a great mouse. I experimented in the past with the Magic Trackpad 2 by Apple and I found it to bother my wrist. I don’t experience that issue with either the Logitech or laptop touchpads.

Back to the laptop itself, I love that it’s very powerful. With four Xeon cores, 16 GB of RAM (upgradable to 64 GB), and 2 TB of fast PCI Express NVMe Solid State Drives, this thing is a beast.

It runs Windows 10 beautifully. Now that I started making videos, it’s my preferred option for editing them with Adobe Premiere Pro. (My video editing skills are currently rudimentary, but I’m learning fast.)

Yet, I would not recommend this laptop to many. If you want the same power or more, buy a desktop. If you want an actual laptop, maybe get a Carbon X1 instead.

Since I’ve already bought it, and it serves a purpose in my arsenal, I’m keeping it. I’ll likely replace it with a desktop when it becomes too slow to edit 8K video or whatever video resolution we’ll have by then.

Monitor

I attach my Lenovo laptop to a BenQ 32-Inch IPS 4K monitor. It’s a good display that works well when connected to either of my two laptops via Mini DisplayPort.

I don’t love the way it looks when connected via HDMI. It’s not just a matter of refresh rate. It seems to affect colors as well. I haven’t investigated the issue much and simply use Mini DisplayPorts.

The productivity offered by so much real estate is hard to beat and, for the money, you could do a lot worse.

Headphones

I love music so I tend to like nicer headphones, without breaking the bank. My desktop headphones are the Massdrop x Sennheiser HD6XX, coupled with an admittedly weak amplifier (i.e., a FiiO E10K Olympus). They are open-back cans, so they offer no privacy but they objectively sound pretty good.

I wish I could say I love them as much as the HiFiMAN HE-500 planar magnetic headphones that I used to have. Not even close. The HiFiMAN’s sound was in a completely different category as far as I’m concerned. I miss them.

My on-the-go headphones are the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 2. They are closed-back, noise-canceling headphones and they sound great. Their noise cancelation is not as good as the Bose Quietcomfort 35 that I used to own, and they are less comfortable. On the plus side, they sound quite a bit better.

For working out, I have a pair of Bose SoundSport Wireless headphones. They sound fantastic for gym headphones, they are fairly comfortable, and they stay paired with my phone.

I actually prefer them over the more expensive Bose SoundSport Free Truly Wireless headphones that I previously owned. If one of the earphones was to dislodge from your ear mid-exercise, the cord on your neck would prevent them from falling off entirely.

Perhaps more importantly, they are not affected by audio lag while watching videos like the Free Truly Wireless are.

In the past, I even gave the Apple Airpod 2 a shot and the audio quality was appalling in comparison. The difference was night and day. I returned mine and I’m glad I did.

I love the Bose SoundSport Wireless and have no reservations in recommending them for sports.

For video calls, I have a pair of, now discontinued, Jabra UC Voice 550 Duo headphones. Great bang for the buck. I actually received compliments on their audio quality during conference calls. After several years of heavy use, their cable is now fraying.

Soon enough, I’ll likely replace them with a newer model by the same company.

I also have a desktop microphone, a Blue Yeti. Very good as well. (You can hear it in this video I made for my outdoor YouTube channel.)

Other Apple devices

Over the years, I flip-flopped a lot between Apple and Android when it came to phones. I like them both, for different reasons, but I can’t justify having two phones. So I currently have an iPhone XS Max and don’t expect to switch to Android again going forward.

I pair my iPhone with an Apple Watch 4. I used to have the first-generation and I was not impressed at all. This fourth iteration gets a lot of things right and I love it.

It’s good enough for notifications (not perfect, mind you). Useful enough for some key apps I use (e.g., Things). Pretty decent as a fitness tracker. Great at tracking sleep with a third-party app like SleepWatch.

It’s disappointing that AFib detection and the ECG feature are not available in Canada. Otherwise, I have no other complaints. It genuinely enhances the experience of having an iPhone. They are a match made in Cupertino. 😛

I have owned almost every fitness tracker and gadgets under the Sun. If you just want a fitness tracker, get a Fitbit with the heart rate monitor. If you are very serious about training, get a high-end Garmin (like the Fenix line). Want both a fitness tracker and a tiny computer on your wrist? The Apple Watch is the way to go. (Provided you have an iPhone to pair it with, of course.)

Speaking of Apple devices, I gave my iPad to my wife as I didn’t use it enough to justify keeping it for myself.

I’m not saying never again to owning an iPad. The newer, fancy models with the pencil cast a certain spell on me.

Still, I reached a point where gadgets are only added to my collection if they get used. So I’ll only get an iPad if I can find a workflow that makes it a necessity.

E-reader

I’m an avid reader and over the years I discovered that I read less when I’m limiting myself to physical books. I do most of my reading when I have an e-ink device (coupled with audiobooks when driving or exercising).

So I recently bought a Kobo Forma. I explained my reasoning for going with a Kobo instead of Kindle and why it’s a smart move for Canadians, in this post/video.

I still stand by my statements about the ecosystems, but I ended up returning my Kobo. The screen had a distracting light band near the border. The issue was systemic and not limited to my specific device. It was also the first e-ink device that caused me headaches.

So I returned it and replaced it with an Onyx Boox Nova Pro, which allows me to take notes as well. I just received it so I can’t offer a reasonable assessment of its merits and downfalls yet. I will share my review either as a post or as a video. (Subscribe here or on YouTube to be notified when it goes live.)

Networking devices

I have a NAS connected to my network. It’s only 3 TB and it turns out video takes a ton of space. 😉 So I’m quickly running out of storage and might have to invest in a larger NAS system.

At the moment, I’m using an inexpensive WD My Cloud device, backed up to the cloud via Backblaze. I’ll likely opt for a better, more expandable solution when I run out of space.

My internet connection is excellent (1 Gbps via fiber optic) but I have impenetrable walls in my house. The WiFi signal from the router downstairs struggled to reach the rooms upstairs.

I tried various methods to extend its range (including so-called range extenders). Nothing worked until I bought a mesh network.

The setup includes 3 Linksys Velop nodes. One downstairs near the WiFi router and the other two, strategically located to propagate the signal everywhere else in the house.

I cannot recommend this setup enough if you are struggling with the WiFi signal in your house or office. I now get up to 600 Mbps upstairs, which is impressive. It used to be 3 Mbps.

Video recording equipment

As I announced in a recent post, I started making videos on YouTube. I, perhaps too ambitiously, launched three channels: one on tech, one on self-improvement, and one about my outdoor hobbies.

I don’t have the best video setup in the world, especially after my full-frame camera died, and I ended up borrowing my wife’s Canon Rebel for the time being. Nevertheless, it’s a workable setup, so I’m sharing it here.

The camera sits on top of a Manfrotto 290 Tripod. I got a pair of Neewer Dimmable Bi-Color 660 LED Video Lights with Barndoors. They produce a serious amount of light and can be powered by either AC or batteries. The stands are not award-winning, but for the price, I’m impressed with the lights themselves.

I also got a super cheap background stand support system (a Neewer 8.5ft X 10ft one). It’s fine for the $100 range. The fabric backdrops that came with it are thin, wrinkly, and a bit transparent. I tend to use the black one, putting the other two behind it to prevent light from passing through. It’s not fantastic but it’s workable.

The audio I was getting, even with a RODE shotgun microphone mounted on top of the camera, was fairly bad. It would pick up a ton of environmental sounds. With such a high noise floor, removing noise in postproduction led to serious distortion.

So then I invested in a Zoom H4N Pro audio recorder and a Countryman B3 lavalier microphone and my audio drastically improved overnight. Two fantastic audio gadgets, in my opinion.

Compare a clip I made with my old setup, and one with the new setup. I think it’s a dramatic difference.

I picked that lavalier microphone because it offers great sound for the money. It also connects to my Zoom recorder via its balanced XLR input.

The Zoom records great audio on its own, but without spending significantly more money, you’d be hard-pressed to top it when combined with the Countryman B3.

Conclusion

Truth be told, I’m not exactly sure who this post is for.

If you were curious about which gadgets I use, now you know.

If you came here through Google, searching for an opinion between two different devices, I hope you found my comments useful.

I absolutely did not make this list to brag. Yet, looking at the length of this article, listing all these gadgets in one place, it feels rather indulgent.

Let’s all agree that, maybe, I have a tech gadget problem. I can quit whenever I want. 😉

The post 19 Gadgets I Use and Love appeared first on Programming Zen.

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 hindsight, I should have bought a MacBook Pro, but I wanted to save some money (roughly $1,000) and opted instead for a Lenovo P51, which I purchased with my employee discount.

My Lenovo is a beast. It has a Xeon quad-core processor, 16 GB of ECC RAM (expandable to 64 GB), 2 TB of NVMe drives, 4 GB Quadro graphic card, 4K display, and so on. It’s a mean laptop that can run the heaviest IDEs, Virtual Machines, and work with my large catalog of photos in Lightroom like a champ.

Unfortunately, at the time I erred a little too much on the side of power, sacrificing portability and usability on the go in the process. It’s a fast laptop alright, but it is also super heavy, noisy, has lousy battery life, and can get quite warm.

It’s a great quasi-desktop. You place it on a flat surface and it’s nice. You hook it up to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard and it’s amazing.

Unfortunately, if you try to use it on your lap while sitting on the couch, balancing it on your body while lazing around in bed, or carrying it anywhere, you’ll suddenly understand why people obsess so much about sleek ultrabooks.

I don’t worry about this laptop getting stolen when I’m at coffee shops, because few petty thieves would be able to run off with this thing under their arm. Besides, the charger alone makes for quite a capable defense weapon. 🙂

It’s hard to regret buying such a powerful machine, but boy, it’s frustrating to use it as an actual laptop.

The Google Pixelbook as a secondary lightweight laptop

So after putting up with the Lenovo as my primary device for almost a year, I decided to look for a small laptop as my secondary device.

The idea is that my Lenovo would live downstairs in my office, almost always hooked up to an external monitor. And the lighter laptop would be with me when I’m not in my office downstairs, whether upstairs on the couch, in bed at night, or on the go (e.g., at the library, cafes, or while travelling).

I started looking for alternatives and stumbled upon the Google Pixelbook, the best Chromebook that’s currently available on the market.

I used to have a Toshiba Chromebook 2 prior to the house fire that we experienced in 2016. By and large, that Toshiba was quite nice to use, so I was willing to give a new Chromebook a go.

Reviewers took issue with the Pixelbook

The reviews from people I respect were not encouraging. Marques Brownlee found it weird. Linus couldn’t bring himself to recommend it. Dave Lee liked it but thought there were much better options in that general price range.

I decided to try it out for myself. First in store, and then by purchasing one.

It’s not a laptop for everyone and there are compromises (especially on the software side). And yet I can’t help but feel that many reviewers missed the magic that this misunderstood laptop brings into the computing world.

Its hardware is characterized by an elegant design with fantastic build quality. Its high resolution screen is beautiful. The keyboard is crisp and a joy to use despite the limited key travel. The touchpad is buttery smooth glass that I find to be on par or slightly better than the MacBook Pro touchpads.

It even act as a respectable tablet thanks to its 3:2 screen ratio, highly responsive touch screen, and excellent (purchasable as an add-on) Pixelbook Pen. The battery life is terrific as well, lasting up to 8 – 10 hours, depending on usage.

The Google Pixelbook is fast

Then there are the specs. Easy to overlook. i5 dual core processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of disk for the base model which costs $999 USD (now on sale for less in the US).

For that amount of money, you could find laptops with better specs. Allow me to let you in on a secret, however: most aren’t going to be any faster.

Do not underestimate how lightweight ChromeOS is. This laptop is incredibly snappy. As far as browsing goes, it feels faster than my Lenovo and the 15″ MacBook Pro I use at work, and neither of them are slouches. I also ran a web-based benchmark for the fun of it, and it came out on top.

It accomplishes all this, while managing to stay completely silent and produce virtually no heat. To me, this is what the future of laptops look like.

Possible competitors in a similar price bracket will typically run Windows 10 and feel significantly laggier, despite having a faster processor or more RAM. If a lot of what you do is browsing-related, it’s hard to beat this little laptop.

ChromeOS is great

But let’s address the elephant in the room: the limits of the operating system. After all, ChromeOS is supposed to be a toy of sorts; the OS you have on the cheap Chromebook that you give your kids to play with while dad or mom is busy doing real work on a real laptop.

Well, here is the thing. The operating system on the Pixelbook is actually a strength not a weakness. It is fast, lightweight, secure, and effortless to maintain.

It’s not Windows or MacOS, so there will be a slight learning curve to figure out the cloud first approach to computing, as well as the occasional workaround for an app that doesn’t exist on this system.

I readily admit that ChromeOS is not for everyone, especially if you are heavily into gaming, video editing or even photography (though Polarr is excellent).

I came in with reasonable expectations however, and was pleasantly surprised by how little there is that I can’t do on the Pixelbook.

The Google Pixelbook runs Android apps

Let me tell you what it can do. It can run Android apps out of the box and that is a game changer. After only a couple of days of using Android apps on the laptop, I really missed this functionality when using Windows or Mac.

I never realized how much I switched between my laptop and my phone, specifically because of Android apps. With the Pixelbook I don’t have to.

Android is also part of the reason why the Pixelbook’s specs, which might appear to be overkill for a Chromebook, are actually quite useful.

Now, not every Android app will work or scale properly to the larger screen, but I haven’t had a problem with the overwhelming majority of apps that I use (and Google is pushing for more and more developers to adapt their apps to larger screens).

The Google Pixelbook runs Linux apps

Then there is Linux. Without many of the hacks from the early days of Chromebooks, you can now easily install Linux apps. Even GUI apps (unlike the Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows 10).

The year of Linux on the desktop might be here and we haven’t even noticed! 😉

To enable Linux apps, all you have to do is set the channel for the operating system to the Dev branch and enable the Linux (Beta) option in the settings. You can then install whatever you want via apt (or by compiling from source if you wish).

Linux runs in a container and you can also access your Linux filesystem directly from Files, the ChromeOS file manager. The Linux experience is seamless and I prefer it to WSL on Windows 10 by quite a large margin.

Interestingly, it also looks like the Pixelbook will be able to run Windows 10 in the future. So you could theoretically run apps from 4 different OSes on the same machine!

My colleagues were impressed

I brought my Google Pixelbook in to work to show a few colleagues and they were blown away by how nice it was.

“I’m really trying to find flaws, but I can’t find them”, said one who tried to “trip it” by asking me to do various thing a Chromebook is not really supposed to do well, only to have it pass with flying colors. “Antonio, I’m trying to make you regret your purchase decision, but I really can’t”, he said jokingly.

I overheard two colleagues who are in the market for a new lightweight laptop ask themselves, “Should we drive to Best Buy at lunch or wait until after work?”.

This laptop might not be for everyone, but I think it’s becoming increasingly relevant to a large number of people. Casual users on one end, developers and other advanced technical users on the other end.

My only concern with this machine is the size of its screen. At 12.3″, it might be too small for my eyes, and that’s the only reason why I’d ever consider returning it.

I suspect my ideal screen size is 14″ in a compact body, so 12.3″ is a bit of a stretch. But that’s on me, and not a flaw of the laptop.

Google Pixelbook alternatives

I seriously considered alternatives to the Pixelbook, many of which were mentioned by some of the reviewers I discussed earlier.

They all took issue with the price, arguing that better options were available. I’m not sure I agree, at least in Canada.

Most of the commonly mentioned alternatives are actually more expensive than the Pixelbook.

Then there is the issue of performance (despite better specs on paper) and build quality (with an exception made for the much more expensive MacBook Pro).

Google Pixelbook vs. MacBook Pro

The obvious Pixelbook alternative for me was the 13″ MacBook Pro. I didn’t buy it for several reasons:

• It’s very expensive in Canada and I wasn’t looking to spend that much;
• It’s overdue for an update, so buying now doesn’t make much sense;
• I hate the new butterfly keyboards. I know a few people who love them, but I’m not personally a fan.

Google Pixelbook vs. Dell XPS 13

The new Dell XPS 13 came close. However, not only was it more expensive — especially in a suitable configuration that would allow you to adequately run Windows 10 — but it had a pretty lame keyboard that felt mushy and sort of annoying to type on. (I also fought with the touchpad, but maybe the store model had issues.)

It also comes with a stupid location for the camera. It’s at the bottom due to the thin bezels, so it unflatteringly looks up straight at your nostrils! In fairness, the camera is a shortcoming of the Pixelbook as well, being limited to 720p. Still, it’s located in the normal position at the top.

The Dell has a gorgeous display and a great design in general, though, particularly the new Rose Gold model. A tempting choice despite its shortcomings.

Google Pixelbook vs. Microsoft Surface Laptop

The Microsoft Surface Laptop is quite nice, too. A new version is supposedly coming out soon so I’d be a little hesitant to buy the current one now.

The keyboard is sort of spongy as well, it lacks USB-C ports, and Windows-S is so locked down that you can only run Edge as your browser and apps from their store. All in all, I think it’s more limited than ChromeOS + Android.

A paid upgrade to the full version of Windows 10 is possible, of course, but the laptop itself will then need more than the basic configuration with 4 GB of RAM to run Windows 10 properly.

It has a beautiful design, though, and was also a serious contender for me.

There were more expensive alternative, as well as more affordable ones like Asus, Acer, etc., but I didn’t feel they offered the same quality and gorgeous design as the Pixelbook, the Dell XPS 13, or the Surface Laptop.

Pixelbook vs. Tablets

Some people will recommend an iPad Pro or other tablets, instead of the Pixelbook. I don’t quite get it.

Have you ever tried using those things on your lap? They fall off their standing position all the time. They are really meant to be used on a hard surface.

The lack of a touchpad also drives me nuts. I think they are great tablets, but not a suitable replacement for laptops for my use cases.

The Google Pixelbook is actually amazing

The Google Pixelbook might not be for everyone, but it’s definitely a great laptop if it meets your needs. Especially as a secondary, ultra portable machine.

It has surpassed my expectations. The Pixelbook is in fact one of the best laptops I have ever had.

More importantly, I think Google is really onto something with the ChromeOS + Android + Linux combo.

It’s been less than a week since I got this laptop, and already I’m not sure I’d be willing to give up that combo going forward with future laptops.

The post Google Pixelbook Review: The Little Laptop That Could appeared first on Programming Zen.

Amazon Books is a retail outlet located in University Village, an upscale mall in Seattle, Washington.

The type of shops in the area.

As soon as you enter the store you’re greeted by a sign that answers the question most of us would have: yes, store prices are the same as Amazon.com. Buying in person is therefore handy for those who live in the area, assuming one can find the book they’re looking for. In this regard, Amazon Books is at a strong disadvantage over Amazon’s own site (naturally), but also against other physical bookstores such as Barnes & Noble.

Book selection is in fact severely limited, even considering the modest dimensions of the retail area. Bookshelves are mostly reserved for best sellers in highly popular categories. Technical books are all but excluded from their physical bookstore, as admitted by a clerk with whom I spoke to see if by chance my own book was available onsite (in my defense, I prefixed the conversation with a, “I know it’s a long shot”).

The available books are best sellers, new releases (a service I offer myself :)), and books with at least four stars on Amazon’s website. Specifically, there are bookshelf areas dedicated to books that have more than 4.8 stars, four stars, books of the month, staff picks, and highly reviewed books about current topics (e.g., being February, Black History Month).

I found it to be a nice touch that their online “customers who bought this…” narrative has been brought down from the cloud to the physical world. Some shelves were in fact dedicated to books similar to a given author (i.e., John Grisham) or a particular bestseller (i.e., Zero to One by Peter Thiel).

Books don’t have prices on them or on the shelves. Instead the public is supposed to download the Amazon app and use it to scan the barcode available on the shelves next to each book (or on the back of the book, naturally).

For those with a dead battery or who are not inclined to take their smartphone out of their pocket, there are a few scanners around the bookstore, which you can use to scan books and discover their prices.

I asked how to check if a book was available in the store, and was told that the only way to accomplish such is to ask them. This strikes me as a rather low-tech solution from a company like Amazon. I suspect this might change, including listing current in-store inventory through their app, once more stores are added and Amazon Books becomes a chain.

On the shelf labels for each book there is often a quote from a review on Amazon.com, or some statistical tidbit (e.g., 91% of reviewers give this book five stars).

As you’d expect from the name, the shop is mainly a bookstore. The central section however is dedicated to various gadgets, mostly created by Amazon itself, such as Echo, Fire TV, Kindle Fire, etc. In this the shop reminded me a little of the Apple Store, which clearly inspired the layout of this section.

Tucked away there was even a tiny section dedicated to Amazon Basics, for those who’d like to buy an HDMI cable or similar accessories, without splashing out much.

There is a decent selection of mainstream magazines, but nothing too impressive (I’d say inferior to that of most large bookstores in America or Canada). And towards the end of the store there is a fairly large section for children’s books, complete with small tables and chairs so that kids can browse/read on site.

Adults can sit as well, though their padded bench area is located by the largest window, which is near the magazines. As well, a few secured-in-place Kindle Fires are available for those who’d like to play with them.

Employees were friendly and ready to greet you at the entrance, and the general environment was fairly inviting. Overall it wasn’t what I expected, but it was a positive experience and they even managed to sell me a book (Elon Musk’s biography). With my purchase they included a complimentary orange bookmark, branded with their logo.

At the checkout you can insert your Amazon.com email and your order will automatically be added to your account, on top of emailing you a receipt for your purchase.

In conclusion, I see a couple of strategic advantages in Amazon Books. Such stores offer to Amazon.com, what Apple Stores provide to Apple.com. Namely a showroom where customers can try products such as Amazon Echo, Kindle Fire, Fire TV, and whatever new products they might produce in the future.

The second advantage is actually a side effect of their limited selection approach. They are essentially offering a pre-selection service to the public. The average user could enter the store, grab a random book from the bookshelf of their interest, and they’d be almost guaranteed to go home with a book they’d enjoy. (Yes, there are fake reviews on Amazon, and bad books with high ratings, but manual filtering is almost certainly at play here.)

What the bookstore is not, at least in its current incarnation, is a monster that would justify the accusation of having first destroyed retail bookstores through their online site, only to turn it around and eliminate the leftover competition with physical stores of their own. The Amazon Books store I visited is a bit Apple Store, a bit Starbucks in terms of atmosphere. In some ways it tries to lift the Amazon brand from utilitarian to almost a luxury brand. It has a boutique-like charm, rather than the utility of a warehouse. In this choice, it leaves ample space to offline competition (a good thing, of course).

An offline Amazon that would have caused serious trouble not only to bookstores but also to other types of shops, would be an Amazon modeled after a Costco warehouse with the addition of high-tech automation. Amazon Books is the exact opposite. Nevertheless it is an interesting bet on Bezos’ part, and one I suspect will ultimately bear fruit (particularly if they evolve the concept further based on their data analysis of what people purchase in-store).

Unlike some pundits who mocked Amazon for going offline, I personally admire Amazon for trying new things (even if it can be argued that we’ve come full circle over the course of the last 20 years).

They are not afraid to experiment and fail fast, and I can’t help but suspect that, ultimately, that is their proverbial secret sauce.

The post A Review of the Amazon Books Store appeared first on Programming Zen.

Here’s why: ever since I discovered the BrydgeAir keyboard, I wanted to get ahold of one. The gold keyboard would match perfectly with my iPad, almost transforming it into a tiny touchscreen laptop designed by Apple. Unfortunately it’s not available yet and — particularly for Canadians — it looks like it might take a month or more before it will ship. [1]

So I got a little impatient, did my research, and bought a Logitech Type+. I hoped it would suck so that I could tell myself, “OK, you tried it, but it sucks. Let’s just return it and wait until the BrydgeAir becomes available”. Fortunately or unfortunately, such wasn’t the case.

The Logitech Type+ acts as both a protective case for the iPad and as a bluetooth keyboard.

As a case it’s fantastic. The materials are sturdy and well made. Fit and finish are perfect. You can tell that this cover would allow the iPad to take quite a beating before any damage would be likely to occur.

The case, which also embeds a keyboard, is fairly lightweight considering the materials employed, but it definitely adds some weight to your iPad.

The cover is “smart” in the sense that closing it will put the tablet to sleep, and opening it will wake the tablet up.

The design allows the case to fold in on itself in a way that covers the keyboard when using the iPad in tablet mode (A in figure). The keyboard is automatically disabled in such a mode, so there is no need to turn the keyboard on or off.

Turn the cover in landscape mode and you’ll be able to magnetically snap the iPad in place (B in figure, of course). The iPad is securely in place and lays on a rigid base which can be used on your lap if needed. The magnetic connection is strong enough to carry the iPad around with just one hand on the base of the keyboard, but I wouldn’t tempt my luck too much.

The keys are nicely spaced and are very easy to type on. I had absolutely zero fatigue writing entire posts on it. The somewhat concave key shape and slightly rough surface make it very nice to type on. Your fingers never slide by accident. The extra iPad buttons are genuinely useful and often save you from reaching out to touch the screen.

Pairing the keyboard to the tablet via Settings -> Bluetooth was quick and surprisingly painless. Moreover that setup process was required only once. After that the keyboard automatically connects to the iPad. There is no visible latency between a keypress and the character appearing on the screen either, which is really nice.

I can’t speak firsthand about battery life because these keyboards last for months and I’ve only owned mine for a few days now. However, Logitech tend to be pretty good at delivering on their declared specs, which would be three months per charge, assuming a daily average of 2 hours of typing, so I’m optimistic.

If I’m willing to split hairs, for the sake of giving it to you straight, I’ll admit that having a backlight, like Zagg has, would have been useful. Likewise there is only one viewing angle when used as a keyboard, unlike some of the other keyboard cases out there, but it’s a very sensible angle I found, so no complaints there.

In summary, the Logitech Type+ just works. It works as a case, and it works as a keyboard. It’s an all-around joy to use. It performs well on hard surface and can also be used on your lap, in a pinch. Thanks to the Type+, I don’t think I’m ever taking my laptop out to a coffee shop again.

In case you are wondering about the whole Logitech Type+ VS Logitech Ultrathin, let me tell you my opinion. Obviously while researching iPad Air 2 keyboards, I came across the Ultrathin which is another popular keyboard case by Logitech. I considered and wondered about which one was better.

I tried them both in the store and was very underwhelmed by the Ultrathin. [2] It felt cheap and plasticky, and typing on it was not nearly as comfortable. It has multiple viewing angles, but somehow manages to make you iPad not feel very secure when in place. I also disliked that it’s more akin to a smart cover, than an actual case, so your iPad back can still get scratched, and receives very little protection in general.

In summary, the Type+ for iPad Air 2 rocks. It makes me question whether I even want the BrydgeAir when it becomes available here in Canada next year. At this point I’m leaning towards no. I genuinely like this keyboard case as it transformed my iPad in the ideal computing device on the go. [3]

The post Logitech Type+ for iPad Air 2 Review appeared first on Programming Zen.

After a few weeks of use, I affectionately call it my “dumbwatch”, because I find it to be a lot dumber than what you might expect from an electronic device in 2014, yet it still manages to be useful. More specifically, I found the following pros and cons.

PROS

• Plenty of Pebble Faces are available to customize the look and feel of your watch. Some are very cool looking and innovative. You can even create your own.
• Easy to use, intuitive interface with a back button on the left, and up, enter/menu, down buttons on the right.
• When you receive a message, it instantaneously appears on your watch. Useful when you can’t quite fish for your phone in your pocket.
• Calls can be answered and rejected directly from the watch.
• Music control is instantaneous as well. As soon as you hit pause, play, or next, the music plays accordingly on your phone (the pebble itself is only a controller and doesn’t have any built-in speakers or microphone).
• Notifications can be customized on your smartphone, so that you’ll decide whether you want, say, Gmail alerts on your watch.
• The watch is truly waterproof and you can shower with it in the morning.
• Waking up to a vibrating watch on your wrist still beats by far annoying iPhone alarms blasting full volume while you are half asleep.

CONS

• Battery life is poor. I found myself essentially having to recharge it overnight as I could only get about 1.5 days worth of battery life from it and hated seeing it die in the middle of the day. I don’t mind recharging my iPhone daily, but somehow it feels annoying to do so for a watch. As a result there are days when I forget to recharge it and end up with a dead watch at 1pm. Or whatever time it is, not sure, since my watch is dead. 😛
• The magnetic USB charger doesn’t feel particularly secure in place once you snap it to your Pebble. Furthermore, to verify whether it’s fully charged you need to enter the main menu, as it’s not displayed on your regular face of choice.
• Some of the best looking and most downloaded user contributed faces on My Pebble Faces have limited functionality. For example, the second most downloaded face (i.e., Smartface) includes among others, number of unread emails, messages, and phone calls. What you’ll discover installing it is that these are just mocked up and not actually implemented.
• Most of the weather-based faces I tried will disconnect frequently from the phone. So you’ll know that it’s –10 and cloudy for an hour, and see an error until you manually disconnect and reconnect the watch via Bluetooth.
• The screen is not bright enough to see it in dim conditions. You need to shake it to get the display illuminated. This can be not-so-easily accomplished with a rapid wrist-dislocating move.
• When you answer a phone call, the Pebble doesn’t tell the phone to set the call in speaker mode automatically. This kind of defeats the purpose. If I can’t get to my phone and use my watch instead, I want to be able to speak hands free. So it’s only a big advantage over reaching for your phone to answer the call if you are using earphones.
• You can only receive messages and calls, not initiate them.

All in all, my Pebble Dumbwatch is still useful. The most common use cases for me have been:

1. Tell me what time it is. Yes, I can reach for my pants and fight my pocket to get the phone out. But the watch is just faster and easier.
2. Control music playback when I’m showering or at the park in freezing weather.
3. Immediately glance at who is calling to see if it’s worth pulling over to answer the call or just let it ring all the way to voicemail.
4. When it works, knowing right away what temperature is outside.

Do I regret getting it? Not quite. I would however caution anyone interested in getting one that it comes with several shortcomings. I’d give it a 5/10 at best. It feels like you are testing out an early prototype of technology that might become actually useful in the future (or be entirely replaced by other gadgets like Google Glass).

Update (2014-02-02): Using a “dumber” watchface that doesn’t include weather information, my Pebble will keep charge for a very long time (easily over a week).

The post Pebble Smartwatch Review: A Useful Dumbwatch appeared first on Programming Zen.

I looked into several devices that could aid me with my goal, and found that the two most accurate, appealing, and convenient trackers were Fitbit One and Jawbone UP. The latter’s most recent version is slated as “coming in 2013”. Cool as the Jawbone UP is, I opted for the Fitbit One due to its discreet and comfortable nature, as well as the reputation of the company behind it.

If you prefer a bracelet (much like the Jawbone UP) to a clip on tracker, Fitbit recently announced that you can now pre-order an alternative to the One in the form of a bracelet/wristband form called Flex. Same features, different format. It will be available to ship come spring 2013.

While reading reviews about the Fitbit One I noticed that the same generic information was being rehashed all over the place, so I decided to write a very in-depth review myself. In this post I’m going to tell you everything you need to know before deciding if this device is for you or not. The bad, the good, and the ugly.

The products I will be reviewing today are:

1. Fitbit One: the activity and sleep tracker.
2. Fitbit Aria: a wi-fi enabled scale that automatically records your weight and body fat % on the Fitbit.com website.
3. Fitbit Premium: a paid section of the otherwise free Fitbit.com website. (This link brings you to a side-by-side comparison of the free and paid services, if you’d like to see a comparison of the features.)

Fitbit One Review

I ordered my Fitbit One from the official site. They offer free shipping, but I opted for the standard (inexpensive) shipping, as I was very eager to start using my Fitbit, and it reached me here in Canada in four days (in the midst of the holiday mail rush). Check your local Apple or Amazon site if Fitbit won’t ship to your country.

What’s in the package?

When my Fitbit parcel arrived it contained the following items:

• The Fitbit Tracker, which is surprisingly tiny. I got the black one with a blue display, but there is also a gorgeous burgundy one with a pink/purple display, which may appeal more to some women.
• A clip on holder that enables you to clip your tracker to your pocket, belt, or bra.
• A wireless dongle that allows you to synchronize your activity and sleep data with your computer.
• A USB charger.
• A sleep band that you put on your wrist at night before going to sleep.

Fitbit is a company that understands what a polished hardware product is. Everything, starting with the packaging has an “it just works”, Apple-like simplicity and feel. After unwrapping your Fitbit, you need to charge your tracker (charging is really quick and should take less than an hour) by plugging it into the USB charger and installing a software called Fitbit Connect on your computer. This software, along with when the wireless dongle, will allow you to routinely synchronize your data.

Tracker features

The Fitbit tracker has the ability to collect the following information:

• Steps taken
• Distance covered
• Floors climbed
• Calories burned
• The exact time all these metrics took place
• An arbitrary activity score (out of 1000)
• Hours, initial time to fall asleep, and number of times you woke up during the night

The daily stats for all but the last item can be seen directly on the tracker’s led display before you even synchronize them by pressing on its sole button.

You can also enable alarms (including weekly schedules such as Monday to Friday wakeup alarms that don’t go off during the weekend) to gently wake you up through a vibration against on wrist (instead of the dreaded alarm nightstand alarm clock). This is a feature I found to be surprisingly nice. The vibration definitely grabs your attention enough to wake you up, but I never feel annoyed by it. It’s a gentle process, and above all else, it doesn’t wake up my wife, who is an incredibly light sleeper, like an alarm would (I work in EST while living in PST, so I essentially have to be up by 5:30 am during the workweek).

Accuracy and durability

When you setup your tracker, you create a Fitbit.com profile in the process as well. The procedure asks you personal questions such as your height, weight, gender, age, etc. So the calories burned in relation to your recorded activity level can be better estimated. It’s worth noting that the calories displayed on your tracker include both activity calories and the basic metabolic rate (BMR). Essentially this means that even if you’re in bed still and don’t bat an eye, the tracker will slowly increase to account for the energy expenditure required by your body to keep you alive.

Based on my home tests, the tracker is very accurate when it comes to steps, distance covered and floors climbed.

All in all, I’m pretty confident about the numbers this little device spits out. It’s also very robust for its size, and water resistant. This means that it can come in contact with sweat or the occasional drop of water, and you won’t damage it. Just don’t shower with it, submerge it fully in water, or put it through the washing machine. Other than when I’m showering in the morning, it’s with me at all times.

I found the clip on part to be less durable however, given that the bottom part came off after a week, though it is possible I received one that was defective and was just poorly glued on. My Fitbit is still usable without that end cap, it’s just more likely to snag on fabric as you clip it on. Either way, I contacted Fitbit support and they promptly replied, telling me that a complementary replacement clip on was on its way. That’s good customer care and another notable plus for this company.

Synchronizing Fitbit data, and battery life

There are two ways to send the information the device tracks to your profile on Fitbit.com: through your computer (wirelessly via the USB sync dongle), and through your smartphone (via bluetooth). So far I’ve found that the smartphone route (via my iPhone 4s) works every time.

The same cannot be said for the wireless computer sync which will fail sometimes if the tracker is not in clear sight of the USB port where your tiny wireless dongle is plugged in. (Or it could just be that my belly is in the way :-)).

When it fails, you’re told so and can try again, which is nice because it means you’re not left with a frustrating “I’m not sure if it synced” type of situation. Nevertheless, I find myself more inclined to use the smartphone option, as it will automatically synchronize the data as long as the free iOS Fitbit app is running.

The estimated battery life of the tracker, even with my multiple synchronizations each day, is about a week. I usually get a warning on the Fitbit.com site that I’m running low on battery power every five days or so. When this happens, I remove it, charge it as I sit working at my computer, and then place it back in my pocket where it’s invisible to onlookers. I find its battery capacity to be both adequate and convenient.

Sleep tracking

Sleep is one of the most determining factor for your health, energy, and mood throughout the day. I know for a fact that I, like many other programmers and entrepreneurs, don’t get nearly enough of it. So I was excited about the ability to track my sleep.

I wasn’t disappointed by the sleep tracking capabilities of the Fitbit One; here’s an overview of its workflow:

1. Remove the tracker from your clip on or pocket, and slip it into the arm/wristband provided.
2. Place your arm/wristband on your non-dominant arm (in my case my left wrist).
3. When you are ready to try to fall asleep, hold the button on the tracker for a second or two. A timer will start.
4. Sleep.
5. When you wake up in the morning, hold the button on the tracker for a second or two, as this will stop the timer and thus cease recording how long you were asleep for.

The tracker will log the first time you pressed the button as the time you went to sleep. And the second time your press it, as the time you woke up. Meanwhile it will calculate, based on the movements of your arm, how long it actually took you to fall asleep. It will also record how many times and when (in one minute intervals) you woke up during the night.

Once this data is synchronized on the Fitbit website, you’re able to see the sleep data for a given day, as shown below (my mouse pointer was on a particular red spot to display the time):

Empirically, I found that a bathroom visit at night appears as a series of red rectangles next to each other in the middle of some blue rectangles. A simple waking up, rolling over, and falling back to sleep again will show up as just a rectangle or two in my case.

With this data at hand you can start to spot patterns and correlate your lifestyle with your sleep. Since the site allows you to log mood, you can even compare how your sleep pattern affects your overall mood (keeping in mind that correlation doesn’t imply causation and all that jazz).

By observing your sleep data, you may be able to answer questions that you have such as, does drinking coffee during the day affect how many times I awake at night? Whether I get a fairly uninterrupted night of sleep? How long it takes me to go sleep? What about reading at night? Or exercising during the day? And so on.

The obvious shortcoming is that if you’re really tired, you might fall asleep before you press the tracker button that tells the tracker you are ready to fall asleep in the first place. Thankfully you can log sleep manually if you remember the approximate times for when you went to sleep and when you woke up, (the red spikes within that range of time will still be shown as times when you woke up, because your movements are recorded whether you’re in sleep mode or not).

iPhone app

I would rate the iPhone app as a 6/10. It’s bare boned and gets the job done (most of the time), but the cool reports available on the website are nowhere to be found on the app.

I think the basic idea is that you can use the app as a way to track food or synchronize your data on the go, but if you really want to do some serious analysis, you’re better off grabbing a computer.

Truth be told, I also find the iPhone app somewhat slow at times, particularly when I haven’t retrieved data from the site for a while. We are talking a few seconds tops for the wait time though, nothing too annoying, but I have seen more responsive apps for sure.

The food tracking section of the app doesn’t have the ability to scan food labels like many weight loss and food logger apps do, which is certainly a shortcoming.

Sadly there isn’t an iPad app either, which could really shine given the greater real estate that an iPad screen affords. Instead you can use the iPhone app on the iPad and enjoy the eye straining or pixelated (at 2x magnification) experience. It’s a missed opportunity for Fitbit, and one that we can hope they’ll pick up on in the future.

While I’m happy that there is an iPhone app at all, I find it to be one of Fitbit’s weakest links. (An Android App and a mobile site also exist, but I can’t comment much on these as I haven’t personally tried them.)

Conclusion about the Fitbit One

I absolutely love my Fitbit One and I have already recommended it to a couple of family members and friends. So far both my mother-in-law and my friend Marco have purchased one, and they immediately fell in love with theirs.

Of the three products I talked about here, to my mind, the Fitbit One is the most indispensable one. At $99.95, it’s worth every penny, and I think most people would enjoy — and could benefit from having — a greater awareness about their activity level throughout the day.

Fitbit Aria Review

I went all out with my order from Fitbit. I got the tracker, and also decided to buy their wi-fi scale. It’s gorgeous. If Apple designed scales, this is what they would look like.

The setup is done through software on your computer, so there aren’t any buttons on the scale and don’t have to enter your wi-fi password with your feet. 🙂

You can configure it to recognize up to eight different registered users. Once you step on the scale, it shows you your weight, body fat %, and your initials. If two or more people using the scale have a similar weight, the scale will show the one person it guessed and allow you to tap it with your foot to select a different user if its guess was mistaken.

After the weigh-in, the scale will automatically use your internet connection to communicate with Fitbit.com and update your profile with your weight and body fat % for the day.

Realistically, if you already have a quality scale (which I did) this is more of a convenience than anything else. You can very easily weigh yourself with your existing scale and then manually log that date into the Fitbit system either on their website or through a smartphone app.

Perhaps surprisingly, I ended up giving the scale away to my lovely mother-in-law who was considering buying one (and who by the way, hardly needs one as she is in great shape), just two weeks after purchasing it.

My mother-in-law likes the scale a lot, however, I did not. I appreciate the beauty and simplicity of the scale. I also really enjoyed the convenience of stepping on and having your weight recorded automatically. What I didn’t like, and the main reason why I gave it away, is the fact that I didn’t find it to be accurate.

Let me explain. When my mother-in-law and my wife used the scale, the accuracy was great. They could step on the scale multiple times and get the same reading virtually every time. It was consistent. When I did the same thing though, being much much heavier, the location of my feet and my balance really affected the pressure value of each of the four springs at the base (that was sitting on hard floor). So depending on how I positioned my feet, as well as my posture and balance, I got different values. And I’m not talking about a fraction of a pound here, I mean up to 3 lbs difference between one reading and another taken just ten seconds later.

As such my trust in the scale was tarnished, and when you are trying to lose weight, it’s unnerving to not be able to trust your scale. Which value do I go off of? The one that said that I lost two pounds or the one that said that I gained a pound? The body fat % estimates, which are already known to be inaccurate on bioelectrical impedance based scales, was also variable (sometimes by as much as 5-10%) between readings.

I don’t care if a scale doesn’t give me a value that is actually my weight to the exact pound. What I do care about is the delta, as it’s harder for me to believe in the numbers I’m seeing and to figure out how the changes I’m making to my diet and lifestyle are having an effect on my weight and body composition.

In my case I have a bad knee due to osteomyelitis (which I contracted at birth), so my weight tend to be distributed unevenly between each of my feet. This might have something to do with my bizarre results. Still, the older scale I have (a Tanita BC-554) tends to give me consistent values between consecutive readings that differ at most by only 0.2 lbs. If I step on the Tanita scale trice, I’ll get two values, if not three, that are identical each time.

Conclusion about the Fitbit Aria

My conclusion is that the Fitbit Aria works best if you are not too heavy and you have good balance. If you’re a heavier weight, I have a hard time recommending this scale to you based on my personal experience. This is a shame because it’s a sleek, beautiful looking scale and a great concept. Down the road, I might buy a new one, or a 2.0 version, once I’ve lowered my weight to below 200 lbs. But for now, I feel less stressed dealing with a scale that I trust.

Fitbit.com Basic and Premium Review

The Fitbit.com website is where you get to analyze your data in all of its glory. It’s also the easiest place to log all sort of measurements and, of course, the food you ate (if you decide to track calories).

The basic site is free, but there is a Premium section with extra reports and tools. A very short free trial version of the Premium service is available (it only lasts for a day for most reports), but let’s first take a look at what the free version has to offer.

When you log in on the site, you’ll be directed to the Dashboard which prompts you with key information about your stats. By default most of the information displayed pertains to the current day and your progress in relationship to your goals. By default you’ll have goals set by the site which can be customized to your liking, as I did, for example, for the number of daily steps (which I reduced from 10,000 to 3,000).

You can select if you want to see the same information on an arbitrary date.

The chart at the bottom of the first section of the dashboard, also reveals interesting information about the amount of activity you did in a given day.

You hear the words sedentary and active tossed around rather lightly sometimes, however here you actually get to quantify them in relationship to your daily life and activity level.

The dashboard also include a section for your Food Plan, something that allows you to specify how many pounds you want to lose and how aggressive you want to be in doing so (there are four intensity levels spanning from easy to hard).

Once it’s set up, the dashboard will tell you how many calories you have left to eat for the day (or how many you ate on a previous day, if you want). This number automatically adjusts based on your activity level, so as to ensure that you don’t go too “underboard” on the amount of food you consume if you are working out really heavily.

The dashboard can also display statistics for the week (which are also sent by email), month, or even year. For example, the weekly view of your Food Plan section in the dashboard will appear in the form of the following type of calories in vs calories out chart.

Make sure you disable “Calorie estimation” in your account settings. Otherwise during days when you log very little activity (e.g., you spent your day sitting at your desk for twelve hours), the site will assume a default average sedentary lifestyle (as it thinks you forgot to wear your tracker for a while), which is actually higher than the level of activity you did. So the daily expenditure will be estimated to be higher than it actually was. This happened to me one day. It was my “laziest” day ever while using Fitbit and yet the calories reported were on par with some of my most active days (yes, that tells you that I’m pretty sedentary).

Aside from all these details and many others (your weight, body fat %, sleep, etc), the dashboard features badges when you achieve milestones, as well as a friendly competition with your friends, based on the most logged steps in the past 7 days. The My Achievements tab will also tells you lifetime stats and personal records (e.g., the day you walked the most steps).

Friends only get to see the details you intend to share. And that can range from as little as your daily steps all the way to making your entire profile available to them (or even to the public at large, if you’re so inclined). The site gives you full control over your privacy settings, as well as sensible defaults (in the past these defaults weren’t too sensible).

I find the gamification aspect of the site to be very compelling. You really want to push yourself to surpass your friends, while collecting badges for both activity and weight loss (assuming you’re trying to lose weight).

Joining groups

The dashboard will also display a list of the groups that you belong to for quick access. These thematic communities (e.g., Canadian users) provide a discussion forum and a leader board of the most physically active participants in the group (as well as your ranking amongst group members). Sadly, there is no search function to find groups (short of using external tools, and the groups aren’t indexed in Google either, to further complicate matters), so you are forced to go through pages of groups starting with !!! in their name in an effort to appear first. Joining groups is frustrating. This is a major oversight by the Fitbit team, and one that should be addressed as soon as possible.

A complete list of communities can be accessed via the Community tab at the top.

Logging data

Aside from the Dashboard and Community tab, the site has a free Log tab. From there you can log food, additional physical activities that aren’t recorded by the tracker (e.g., swimming, cycling, or weight lifting), weight, body measurements, sleep, mood, allergies, journal entries, heart, blood pressure, glucose, and custom metrics of your choice.

Along with logging, these sub-tabs act as reports of sort with charts and useful information.

Realistically the charts get the the job done, but I have seen prettier and smarter ones on other sites before. I’d like for example to see a trend line and have the chart zoomed in on the area where the current values sit.

Logging food

Logging is generally all fine and well, however the Achilles’ Heel in this case is the food logging system. The database is pretty limited compared to other applications and websites of this nature, so you’ll have to manually enter quite a few foods (depending on your eating habits of course). The US database also contains different nutritional information for some products that are also sold in Canada. So sometimes I still need to enter a custom food even though the same product name and brand already appears in the system.

The most annoying part when it comes to food logging is that you need to enter the name of the product carefully and in a certain order or the search function will occasionally fail to show you the most obvious product. I would expect the results to place user entered foods at the top, but they don’t. So if I enter “Dark Chocolate” I won’t even see the delicious 88% Endangered Species Dark Chocolate entry I’ve created earlier on at all. There are favorites, recent, and custom foods lists from which to pick from to speed up the process of logging foods, but it would be nice to have a larger database and a more polished search feature.

Some users opt to use the free (excellent, may I add) site MyFitnessPal (MFP) and synchronize the information they log there with Fitbit.com. In practice, you log foods on MyFitnessPal and the nutritional information is sent over to Fitbit.com. In turn, data regarding your weight, body fat %, etc, gets taken from Fitbit.com and placed into MyFitnessPal as well.

I linked the two sites, but I don’t bother logging food on MyFitnessPal, as I prefer to use a single site (i.e., Fitbit’s). Others might find Fitbit’s logging system too frustrating and thus welcome the MFP option. If you do, keep in mind that MyFitnessPal’s huge database is user contributed and as a result sometimes has incorrect nutritional information. Double check how many people confirmed a given entry before blindly trusting it.

Where Fitbit absolutely nailed it is the way they handle different units. Very often you can just specify the quantity in your preferred unit (e.g., g, oz, tbsp) and the system will do the proper calculation for you. In fact, when you specify custom foods, you can provide alternative units that are not directly convertible. For instance, you can provide the nutritional information for both 50 g and 5 slices of a given ham, and you’ll be able to specify grams, kg, oz, or slices next time you want to log that food.

The Food Log section also provides you with a bare bones report of what your macronutrients are and what you ate at different times throughout the day.

In the sample screenshot above you’ll notice net carbs. That’s something I added in with a basic Google Chrome extension I created, as I’m eating low carb these days and need that information. If you are not on a keto, primal, or low carb diet in general, you probably won’t need my Google Chrome extension. Stock Fitbit.com doesn’t have Net Carbs (which are the total carbohydrates minus indigestible fiber) in the daily total, and by the same token it has Sodium instead of Net C. in the table.

Premium features

The Premium tab has six sub-tabs: Benchmark, Food Report, Activity Report, Sleep Report, Trainer, and Export. These optional features are available for $49.99 a year.

Benchmark compares the number of steps performed against other users in similar demographics (and among all demographics).

Food Report gives you a wealth of information about your weekly macronutrients. (The image below is intentionally shortened with the black band in the middle.)

Activity Report is like Benchmark, only based on calories. This report also includes details about how you’re meeting the goals set by the automated trainer program. The trainer program is activated through the Trainer tab and helps you increase the number of calories you burn on a weekly basis, by increasing this goal gradually each week.

Sleep report does the same comparison with other users, but based on sleep time. The blue area tells you the recommended amount of sleep you should be getting, and the green bar points out the typical amount that other Fitbit users got. It also provides details on whether your sleep levels are improving or getting worse over time.

Finally, the Export tab allows you to be in charge of your own data by exporting it and then analyzing it with the software of your choice.

Conclusion about Fitbit Premium

The reports, export, and trainer are nice features that enrich the Fitbit experience. Are they indispensable? Not by a long shot. But in my case I find them to be worth the less than $5 a month (paid yearly) that Fitbit charges. For the same price of a Starbuck visit, which I’m not doing anymore to begin with, I get an extra boost of motivation.

In my case I find the statistical distribution for my demographic to be very telling of how much I need to improve my fitness level. There is a certain sample bias at play here, given that you’re amongst a group of people trying to improve themselves and not the general public. Still, I find that being so much on the left hand side of the distribution has been a strong motivational factor to improve and slowly reach a point where I’ll do better than the typical user on all the performance variables that matter.

Likewise the trainer has been a great feature for me, as it promotes behavior altering thoughts. For example, now I’ll park my car further than I used to, so as to get in those extra steps. I will happily shop with my wife for hours on end, and will take the longest route possible when walking somewhere, so as to do better in these stats.

In fact, the following graph from last week tells an interesting story.

As you can see I wasn’t meeting my goal for the week, so I really gave it my all on Saturday in order to compensate. If the trainer wasn’t in place, I wouldn’t have had a reason to try to go the literal extra mile.

General conclusion

In conclusion of what is now a huge review, I’d like to point out that as cool as data is, awareness without action is pretty pointless. I’m finding the whole Fitbit ecosystem to be a catalyst for my weight loss and overall fitness improvement.

Over the past month I’ve lost over ten pounds, gotten my blood pressure and heart rate to a desirable range down from some rather dangerous levels, and also been able to drop my blood glucose drastically to, practically, within normal levels without taking any medicine. Things are improving and doing so quickly. I attribute 80% of the merit to my diet, and only 20% to the increased activity level. Thankfully, Fitbit has been helpful with both for sure.

The most important tool is always going to be my willpower and a desire to pursue a healthier lifestyle, but I find Fitbit to be a rail upon which my hand can rest as I embark on this huge uphill climb. If you are in the same situation or simply want to improve your health, I highly recommend giving Fitbit a try.

Note: Links within this review include my referral id. I do not let this affect my judgment of the items and services I review. Whenever I felt there was a shortcoming or issue, I had no problem pointing it out for the sake of my readers.

The post An In-depth Review of Fitbit One, Fitbit Aria, and Fitbit Premium appeared first on Programming Zen.

In some ways it still is, but things have slowly improved, as I conjectured at the time. Startups have garnered much wider mainstream coverage, the news has an unhealthy fascination with Twitter, and you can’t walk in a reputable bookstore without finding several titles about startups.

At the time, I also mentioned that I’d be very interested in watching TV shows and documentaries about startups and other high-tech companies. If you’re running your own startup or are into the startup world in some capacity, such productions would be definitely interesting, useful, and entertaining.

Thus I was very excited when I discovered that a new show about Silicon Valley had kicked off on Bravo. The show is called Start-Ups: Silicon Valley and has none other than Randi Zuckerberg (Mark’s sister) as an executive producer. (She joined the team at a later stage, so she was not involved with selecting the cast.)

I must prefix my review by mentioning that I am not a TV snob. I watch a wide range of shows, including top-notch programs like Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men, Dexter, Breaking Bad, Top Gear, but at the same time, I don’t mind some of the sillier, “just for fun” ones either (e.g., South Park, Family Guy, The Big Bang Theory, and How I Met Your Mother), as well as some reality shows, too (such as Pawn Stars, American Restoration, Storage Wars, American/Canadian Pickers, and Tanked). I don’t watch shows like Jersey Shore, Big Brother, Honey Boo Boo, and so on, but I won’t shy away from the occasional episode of Maury if nothing else is on.

That is to say that I can appreciate a multitude of styles and am okay with reality TV being somewhat scripted for comedic or dramatic effect.

I watched the first episode of Start-Ups: Silicon Valley recently and my initial reaction was, “Are you freaking kidding me?”. Nobody expects reality shows to accurately represent reality, but I feel that in this case, they grossly missed what it means to run a startup. As well as bypassing most of the culture that makes the tech world unique.

It’s hard to generalize, as there are all sorts of people running startups, but you can rest assured that the majority of them are up late writing code, not frolicking at glamorous toga parties as depicted in the first episode. The misrepresentation doesn’t end there however. Not by a long shot.

The cast members are not your typical group of startup folks. For starters, not many of them are actual programmers. They most prominent ones are depicted as social butterflies trying to use their connections to succeed. Who you know does matter, but it’s definitely not the focus in the disruptive environment of startups. However the show portrays this as pretty much being the only goal and requirement one needs to succeed in Silicon Valley.

Critical components of running a startup, such as customer discovery and acquisition, implementing a great product, and ramen profitability are practically ignored throughout the show. Instead we’re shown a world where startup founders are all extremely good looking and often in various stages of undress. They party, have cat fights over an email (see, they’re so nerdy), get spray tanned, spend hours getting ready, mostly sleep in glamorous places, drive exotic cars, discuss dating (Silicon Valley is apparently 1/3 gay, 1/3 geek, and only 1/3 dateable), and try to pitch to investors in atrocious ways (OK, this last point is not unheard of in real life either).

(Incidentally, this is also what Start-Ups: Silicon Valley’s producers think nerdy guys look like.)

The startup people depicted in Start-Ups: Silicon Valley might look like the cast of 90210, but they are not professional actors. And it shows. So most of the scenes come across as contrived, disingenuous, and more scripted than Chumlee’s shenanigans on Pawn Stars. At some point Hermione (one of the good looking kids on the show) heads over to Dave McClure’s office with her brother Ben (whose relationship is, to my mind, depicted with somewhat incestuous undertones throughout the show).

She is wearing tight Tetris print leggings (see again, so nerdy!) and ends up sleeping under Dave’s boardroom table before the pitch (because she’s exhausted from being up partying the night before). Dave of course randomly wanders into the office to find her sleeping there.

So you are either a completely unprofessional moron who got away with too many things in life because of your decent looks, or this is bizarrely scripted to show how relaxed, laid back, and easy this whole startup game supposedly is. And when Hermione and Ben inevitably get turned down (they couldn’t articulate what their company does in 30 seconds and reveal that they are involved in another 42 startups), one cannot help but sense that the desk and/or similar future incidents will no doubt be used for some extra drama between the two siblings.

There is being creative, hustling,and thinking outside of the box, and then there is being inappropriate and childish. Did I mention that Hermione is not the most surreal character? Wait until you meet her ex-friend turned nemesis, Sarah, a so called social media expert/blogger who lives in a hotel room, and feeds on artificial drama and tweets for breakfast. O.M.G., in the next episode she live tweets a video during a date with a model. How will he react? Will he be OK with it? Don’t miss that episode. How else are you gonna know if it’s socially acceptable to do so the next time you date a model after a hard day of work at your startup?

Even when computer screens are shown, they’re often a caricature of what an actual programmer’s screen might look like. At some point you can see a terminal scrolling (almost reminiscent of The Matrix), yet upon closer inspection, one sees that it’s just a listing of directory and files with a dir command in Windows to make the setting look more impressive than it really is.

Overall this show is an utter travesty and a complete misrepresentation of what the startup world is really like. It is to the startup world what porn is to real sex. It’s Hollywood’s misunderstanding of what the nerdy neighbors in Silicon Valley are doing.

The sacrifices, risks, low profile, and 70+ hours workweeks of most actual startup founders are mocked and trivialized by a show that portrays a carefree world where you can easily make it if you’re connected enough and can pull the right strings. Where partying and looks come first, and where they are virtually never shown, you know, actually doing any hard work.

Look, I get it, coding is boring to most viewers, but surely there must be a middle ground between the fantasyland portrayed in this show and a more documentary-like approach that captures some of the real struggles behind running a startup and what it takes to succeed in Silicon Valley. There is plenty of real drama when you start running out of savings, VCs are turning you down, and your churn rate is going up fast. So much so, that you don’t need petty high-school fake drama to make a show about startups action packed or interesting.

Come to think of it, imagine a show that actually explained to the general public, Mythbusters style, what churn rate, SaaS, and other startup terms mean as they go about following and documenting the journey of a few founders.

Aside from the missed opportunity of producing something entertaining and useful, this show risks further propagating the myth that launching and succeeding at a startup is easy. And that is something we as a community certainly don’t need.

Going into it, I had hoped that Start-Ups: Silicon Valley would be akin to, at least, American Restoration meets the startup world. In reality however, it’s a perverse sprinkling of scripted scenes and a farce of what the life behind most startups truly is. So that when all is said and done, what we’re left with is a Silicon Valley version of The Hills.

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Those who read the Gang of Four (US | UK | CA) several years before, may have expected a highly technical reference book with examples translated from C++ to Ruby (whenever patterns applied to Ruby as well). And in theory Olsen’s book was very much like that, as it was a list of 14 design patterns extracted from the Gang of Four and applied to Ruby.

In practice though, Design Patterns in Ruby really wasn’t anything like Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. To start with, it wasn’t much of a reference. It was more akin to a cookbook of recipes that related to the idiomatic use of Ruby patterns.

Upon starting that book, readers may have expected a cold, dry, tough-to-fully grasp treatment of the topic at hand. Instead they were greeted with a tone that was friendly and entertaining; you could read and absorb the whole thing in a matter of days. While some people may have thought this book was aimed only at Ruby experts, it turned out to be incredibly accessible to, and suitable for, Ruby beginners as well.

Eloquent Ruby (USA | UK | CA), Olsen’s newest book, doesn’t veer much from the same description. This time the focus is not on specific design patterns, but rather on the style and essence of Ruby as a whole.

In the three plus years that separate Olsen’s two books, we’ve witnessed the language and its community mature as we’ve moved away from Ruby 1.8, and we’ve seen plenty of new tools and idioms emerge. Eloquent Ruby tries to capture the essence of writing beautiful Ruby code in this modern idiomatic manner, by focusing on Ruby 1.9 (while providing footnotes for those who are still using 1.8).

There is a certain “Ruby way” of approaching problems and elements of style that reveals if a developer is an experienced Ruby programmer or not. This book will no doubt help you better understand not only the “how” but also the “why” of this distinctive Ruby way.

The 31 short chapters in Eloquent Ruby are logically organized and easy to follow, but can be read independently from one another, too. By focusing on practical examples, these chapters cover everything from basic style considerations to object oriented design, and delve into such topics as testing, metaprogramming, DSL, packaging and deploying gems, different Ruby implementations available, and monkey patching considerations.

This useful book assumes that its readers have a basic knowledge of Ruby, yet aren’t complete and total experts yet (and indeed such experienced Ruby users may not pick up too much new information from this book). For those who consider themselves to be novice to moderately well versed Ruby programmers, this book is a delightful read that’s likely to help you further your Ruby skill set considerably.

I would classify Eloquent Ruby as a “second Ruby book”, to be read after you’ve worked your way through a canonical introduction. Yet, if you’re a bright developer who’s coming from a different language, you may consider jumping right into it as your first Ruby book.

This great title is called “Eloquent Ruby”, but I feel it could just as easily have been called Idiomatic Ruby, Elegant Ruby, or Beautiful Ruby – as all of those descriptions fit it to a tee, too.

Book giveaway: I will randomly draw one person from among those who share (retweet) this review on Twitter, and personally ship that person a free copy of Eloquent Ruby. All you have to do to be entered in this giveaway is to tweet about this post. I will announce the winner tomorrow morning on my twitter account and in the comments below.

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