Why Are All These Idiots More Successful Than You?

You’re so damn smart — I’ve told you how awesome I think you and the solutions you’ve built…they’re amazing. You have so many awesome things on your hard drive you built that it would blow the world away if only they knew. You created Facebook before there was Facebook and PayPal before there was PayPal. But recently I’ve heard you ask, “how can this junk software out there be so popular?...

January 2, 2014 · Nicola Iarocci

We Need Coding in Schools, but Where are the Teachers?

Maybe instead of Coder Dojos for kids, we should run them for their teachers. We must build a team of dedicated teachers to support school coding programs. We do not rely on our students to absorb math from textbooks, online videos or math clubs; similarly, we cannot depend on every student to learn to code on their own, by using online tutorials and afterschool clubs. If coding becomes as fundamental as reading and writing, we need to create a system where everyone has an opportunity to learn, not just the few who probably would have learned it on their own anyway....

December 31, 2013 · Nicola Iarocci

Alex Gaynor — About Python 3

A very interesting read if you’re into Python. Eve has been Python 3 compatible for a while and honestl, I would be surprised to find that somebody is running it in production under Python 3. Why aren’t people using Python 3? First, I think it’s because of a lack of urgency. Many years ago, before I knew how to program, the decision to have Python 3 releases live in parallel to Python 2 releases was made....

December 30, 2013 · Nicola Iarocci

Microsoft’s New Systems Language

Number #3 on Praeclarum’s list hits home for me, but all his points are both valid and strong. As a programming language nerd I had mixed feelings when Jon Galloway tweeted about Microsoft’s new programming language. “Why are your feelings mixed?” I kept asking myself. I love new programming languages. I took an internship at Microsoft just so I could be closer to the people who made C#. I read language specs for fun....

December 30, 2013 · Nicola Iarocci

What Happens When One of Your Coworkers Dies

I barely knew Colin. He sat two offices down from me, but we never worked on anything together, never laid eyes on each other after 5 p.m. Our relationship consisted, in its entirety, of work-related small talk in the break room, his lunch rotating behind us in the microwave. Ding, stir, have a good rest of your day. via What Happens When One of Your Coworkers Dies | The Billfold....

December 30, 2013 · Nicola Iarocci

A basic guide to when and how to deploy HTTPS

Many web developers know about SSL, but it is very common to see it only partially deployed, or not deployed where it should be. This basic guide on when and how to deploy SSL will help you avoid the most common mistakes. via A basic guide to when and how to deploy HTTPS — Erik Romijn.

December 29, 2013 · Nicola Iarocci

WarGames Magazine Identified

On seeing WarGames for the first time in the 1980s, I wondered which magazine it was. Later, after seeing it on TV and on VHS/DVD, the same question kept nagging at me. I believed that I would one day get to the bottom of this matter. I correctly assumed that the magazine was a real world magazine with a fake advertisement added to it. Through some effort and persistence I finally achieved my goal on 2013-02-24 at 5:30pm....

December 29, 2013 · Nicola Iarocci

Why Good Programming Projects Go Bad

Fred Brooks wrote the software development classic The Mythical Man-Month almost 40 years ago. In this interview, Brooks explains why managers still make the same mistakes. via Why Good Programming Projects Go Bad.

December 29, 2013 · Nicola Iarocci

You Should Change Your Python Shell

If you write Python code, switching to IPython is the number one thing you can do to immediately improve your productivity. Bold words, I know. Let’s look at how IPython can make you a more productive programmer. via You Should Change Your Python Shell | GrokCode.

December 29, 2013 · Nicola Iarocci

Cerberus 0.5 is out (and it breaks stuff)

The new release changes the way validation errors are reported. Please note that these changes will also affect future releases of Eve, the Python REST API Framework. What we had before was basically a list of human-readable errors. Each item in the list, while perfectly fine for human reading, wasn’t really ideal for algorithmic parsing. Why would you want to parse the errors with an algorithm? A common case would be when your client is using business objects to represent API resources (think a client-side ORM), and would have a hard time binding validation errors to the objects themselves. ...

December 10, 2013 · Nicola Iarocci