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2017

Programming to Interfaces

·439 words·3 mins
Yet another article from the archives. Hope it’s useful. There is a common Object Oriented axiom that says “Program to the Interface and not to the Implementation”. But what does that mean and why is it useful?

A Couple Pointers

·375 words·2 mins
This is an article I wrote a while ago, but is still relevant to many languages still in use. Figured I’d repost it to this blog. Many of you may have learned the following in Java 101, but I thought I’d repeat it just in case.

2016

Being a Craftsperson

·673 words·4 mins
I used to play role playing games in High School. Namely, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Role Playing game. I was the GM. I played almost every weekend with my brother and my best friend–the center of the football team. I loved those games. I think we ignored half the rules, but the stories we created are still some of my best memories from that time.

Don't fear the frustration

I’ve always been a little more tenacious than most people I know, willing to spend the time to flail before making the breakthrough that gets the results I’m looking for.1 I think part of that has to do with the fact that I do most of the flailing in private, at a computer where no one can point out my failures or see what I’m working on before it’s ready. But as I’ve taught other people programming over the years, I’m always surprised at how quickly they throw in the towel on problems that I know are solvable.

2015

Don't make these three mistakes in your technical interview

I’ve been running a few tech interviews for the consulting company that I get work from and I’m realizing, most people aren’t very good at it. But that’s understandable. It’s not like we do it very often and it’s hard to get practice in on the interviewee side (interviewers do this all the time). Here are a couple of mistakes I’ve seen recently:

The New World of Work

·662 words·4 mins
When my Dad got out of the Army in 1971, he got a job with AT&T as a repairman. He worked there his whole career for 41 years until he retired two years ago. This was normal for his generation and the generation before his. You got a job at a big corporation right out of college (or the Army) and they took care of you, treated you like one of the family and carried you through your career to a safe, and funded, retirement.