Category: Programming

  • Making and Questioning Assumptions: Falsehoods WordPress Developers Believe

    Making and Questioning Assumptions: Falsehoods WordPress Developers Believe

    When building software you need to constantly make and question assumptions. You make assumptions since you can’t operate with perfect information and waiting for that perfect information would take an infinite amount of time. These assumptions can lead to falsehoods. Akin’s 33rd law of spacecraft design: A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next…

  • Moving Fast is not a quick thing

    Moving Fast is not a quick thing

    “Move Fast and Break Things” has become a popular catchphrase in the tech industry. It’s a call to action to take risks and move quickly, even if it means making mistakes along the way. While this mindset can lead to breakthroughs and disruptive innovations, it’s important to recognize that moving fast without proper planning and…

  • Reverse Proxy Cache Comic Strip

    Reverse Proxy Cache Comic Strip

    Reverse Proxy caches are something I have explained a number of times over my career, and thought perhaps a simple comic would be a good way to explain it. I have purposely made this a simple example, but using a Reverse Proxy Cache is something that is potentially extremely powerful. They allow for many different…

  • Ten Commandments for Automated Testing

    Ten Commandments for Automated Testing

    Though Shalt Write Tests If you are not writing tests, none of the rest of these matter. You must always start somewhere, and getting some tests is better than not having any. Though Shalt Prove Bugs Exist With Tests Before Fixing Them A bug report is one of the best times to write a test.…

  • Potential Tech Conference Talks

    Potential Tech Conference Talks

    I am constantly thinking of new potential talks that I would want to either give or convince others to give. Some of these have been on my list for almost a decade, while others are relatively recent ideas. Roles on a web team There is a big difference between roles, jobs, and titles. I cosider…

  • My developer interview questions

    My developer interview questions

    I have interviewed over 100 candidates for developer positions over the last decade. In that time, there has been one consistant refrain on twitter: “Interviewing is broken”. And as someone who has been on the other side of the interview, I agree. I’ve evolved my developer interview questions with this in mind. I’ll note that…

  • __DIR__ vs dirname( __FILE__ )

    __DIR__ vs dirname( __FILE__ )

    Calling a constant should always be faster than a function call, right? PHP contains two different ways to get the directory that a file is currently in. __DIR__ is a magic constant added to PHP in 5.3. The official PHP documentation specifically states: “This is equivalent to dirname(__FILE__).” Equivalent in return doesn’t necessarily mean equivalent in…

  • Art and Commit Messages: Volume 2

    Art and Commit Messages: Volume 2

    Last year I published volume 1 of Art And Commit messages and sold nearly 50 copies! For my first zine, I was ecstatic that so many people were willing to spend $3 on something so unknown. I have already started thinking about Volume 2 and think that it will be a great thing to publish…

  • Four Short Things – 16 February 2019

    Inspired by O’reilly’s Four Short Links, here are some of the things I’ve seen, read, or watched recently. Git for Ages 4 and Above My friend Adam recommended this talk as a good deep dive into git. One thing I often preach is the importance of understanding the tools you use on a regular basis.…

  • Four Short Things – 9 February 2019

    Inspired by O’reilly’s Four Short Links, here are some of the things I’ve seen, read, or watched recently. The Value of Good Design MoMA’s spring exhibition includes a show featuring everyday objects, the types that it’s feasible to find in our homes. Brooms, Rakes, Chairs, A Slinky. With an emphasis on work that appeared in…