On the Floor

Last year, against my better judgement, I joined a ball hockey team.   I've always liked hockey, but as a small kid who couldn't skate well and hated mornings, playing it just seemed to be one of those things that wasn't for me.   Still, when my friend told me he was starting a team that played on Sunday afternoons and didn't require any skating I figured "why not" and signed up. Read more...

Of paramount importance to designer-programmer harmony is an understanding within each camp of the other's capabilities. It is not enough for a designer to know what websites look like in order to design websites, despite where the bar may appear to currently rest. The designer has to know what capabilities the programmers have, what features are possible, what is worth the time and effort and what isn't, and how all of this can change overnight. Read more...

If you're anything like me, you're easily distracted while reading on the web. I try to stay informed by reading a number of design blogs, cycling publications, music reviews and general news stories. However, I have a very hard time reading anything longer than about 140 characters without being distracted by a flashing ad, a compelling photograph, or another headline altogether (if you've made it this far, you're already more focused than I am). Read more...

One of the the best ways to improve your programming skills is to study other people's code.   When your work revolves around open-source technology, you can study the code you use every day. This has several advantages: you get to study code written by the very best programmers out there, you have an excellent idea of the problem it solves, and you gain a deeper understanding of your tools. Read more...

 When it gets busy in the office (and it's always busy in the office) it's easy to lose track of what your fellow workers are working on. Forming ad-hoc teams to work on projects - a great way to get things done and promote project ownership - also causes isolation. When you run into this situation, it's frustrating. Read more...

I didn't know what to write about when I realized it was my turn to write a post. I looked through my RSS subscriptions for ideas. I tried thinking about the various things I've learned in the past few months but random code samples didn't really seem interesting enough to warrent a post. Read more...