The Point of Knowledge
We read. We watch. We learn. We gain knowledge. What’s the point? The point of knowledge is to allow our imagination to make unexpected connections between more and more elements.Continue reading
Login Tokens In Email Links
Your system is probably sending some emails. Sometimes these emails contain links to the public part of the site, sometimes they have links to the authentication-protected part. Either way, ifContinue reading
Database Migrations And Java
There’s a trivial problem that every project has – keeping the database structure in sync with the application. That is, when your code relies on a new table or column,Continue reading
Why Not Emacs?
Every now and then a “hardcore” programmer comes and mocks you for using a “sissy” tool like Eclipse or IntelliJ. Real programmers use emacs and vim. If you are luckyContinue reading
What Is Challenging For Developers?
In a previous post of mine I asked the question: do programmers get bored? And yes, sometimes they do, especially if there are no challenges. And the usual software projectContinue reading
Not All Optimization Is Premature
The other day the reddit community discarded my advice for switching from text-based to binary serialization formats. It was labeled “premature optimization”. I’ll zoom out of the particular case, andContinue reading
Generating Music
Recently I’ve undertaken a personal project (computoser) that is a bit strange. I tried to write software that generates music at random. Good music, that is, because “random” usually generatesContinue reading
Don’t Use JSON And XML As Internal Transfer Formats
You have a system that has multiple components and they have to communicate. They do that either via internal web services or using a message queue. Normally, you would wantContinue reading
Do Web 2.0 Companies Really Have The Best Technical Talent?
There are a lot of cool companies with products on the web that millions of people are using. I’ll wondered whether I should label them “web 2.0”, “silicon valley”, “coolContinue reading
Do Programmers Get Bored?
Programmers are people who create computer programs. (I’ll skip the discussion whether it should be “programmer”, “developer”, “engineer”, “coder” or whatever. You know what I’m talking about). What makes programmingContinue reading