Patrick Curtain

 

Recording!

Been having a BLAST recording with Christopher Worth http://worth-music.com/. Here's a tiny snippet:

 

Standup! (Update)

(download)

Just realized, I haven't updated that post to show you all the Ikea solution i found. $150. :-)
Filed under: standingdesj
 

Dark Horse needs YOU!

Coders! Dark Horse Comics Needs YOU!

We're doing *our* part to make the world safe for Digital Comics [1][2]  and we need bright engineers to keep up the fight.

Join us if you:

  • Have a bright mind and a passion for software
  • Have been coding in an OO language at least a year
  • Know mobile (iOS and Android) or want to learn [2]

We offer

  • An Agile/XP development environment
  • Pairing and collaborative interaction
  • Test-driven culture (still growing)
  • FREE COMICS!
  • Mobile and Digital Media experience
  • Low stress, sustainable pace

To apply, send me an email with the URL to your LinkedIn profile.  If you have links to Github/Bitbucket repos, portfolio sites and other examples of your work, also good.  Tell us about your passion for software and one idea for how to make the comics reading experience better.

Oh!  More specifics? Uh... Well, we're really more interested in finding bright intelligent people that will work hard and fit our tightnit team than in any laundry list of specific buzzwords, but...

All our developers mix tasks cutting across our project and tools so you'll be expected to work in:

  • Python/Django for current web work, many frameworks and libs
  • Javascript and HTML5/CSS (have you seen our Web Reader!?[1])
  • Objective-C for our Dark Horse Comics reader app [2] and other iOS efforts
  • Java for the Android version currently in development
  • PHP for legacy apps waiting to be re-tooled [3]
  • Linux/*nix and AWS for servers, comfort with the shell is a must
  • Various tools in our stuck including fabric, puppet, hudson, mercurial, , raw SQL (still!) and more

We practice facilitated code reviews (using reviewboard currently).

We use Pivotal Tracker for planning and during sprints.

We provide Macs with second monitors decked out as each of us prefer.  (Dark Horse is a top to bottom Mac shop)

Most of our development happens collaboratively, so being on-site in our offices in Milwaukie is the norm, but hours and work styles are flexible. Style is very casual, come as you are.

(Did I mention the FREE COMICS!)

Links

[1] http://digital.darkhorse.com/

[2] http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dark-horse-comics/id415378623?mt=8

[3] http://www.tfaw.com/

 

skimming node.js

 I know I'm late to this, but maybe still early enough to have fun.  This question, "What are the benefits of developing in node.js versus Python?", on Quora sent me off on a reading spree last night.  Some of those links:
My excitement, of course, goes back to the Newton and it's wonderful NewtonScript development environment.  NewtonScript was one of the first follow-ons to the Self language (evolving Smalltalk) to take advantage of "instance-based object inheritance" (prototypes) that javascript has now popularized.  Great stuff, man.  :)

I'm definitely excited to poke around in server-side javascript and a more async.-model programming style as well as seeing how the proto-inheritance idea would change system models in design.  Fun stuff.
 

What ONE thing can help the most?

Aiming for a more equal (more just) society.  

Yup.  That's it.

Some more info, should you want more than just my say so on that...

And you can find lots more from 

Headquarters for the authors and the movement is at "The Equality Trust"

And yes, there are naysayers.  Read em all!  I can tell you which side I find more common sense and more believable.

 

Standup! It's better for you....

I stand up when I code.  

(Standup update has updated pics of the desk I'm using for standing now)

(download)
I read this article in the NY Times about the effect that constant sitting for work has on the modern worker.  All of our "at the computer keyboard" time, thought work, programming, analysis, writing, etc. is killing us.  And that's happening even to the active among us, those who actually find time to go exercise before and after work.  They still die younger than those who don't live at a desk.

So, as I stepped back into a coding role (software developer here) I knew I didn't want to spend 8+ hours each day sitting in a chair.

More specifically, my own physiology has been changing and I'd feel it at the end of the day.  In my hips, knees and back, I'd have pains after sitting all day writing software.

For me, then, the answer was to stand UP!

Stuff

At home, this just meant setting my laptop on a box or anything else convenient and stable

Once starting at Dark Horse Comics in the Fall (2010), I mentioned that it's something I'd like to do, and "could you help me with this"? I'm really grateful that Marty Carter here found me an Anthro Cart that had been abandoned and was in storage.  That's the two-level desk you see to the left in the picture.  I just put my monitor on a big box (filled with packing peanuts for stability). I use the Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad so i can easily shift to sitting mode.  Takes less than 2 minutes to slide over to sitting down.

Sitting

In Action

What I can't easily show is how it feels.

I actually move almost all the time.  Programming isn't primarily typing.  It's reading thinking (a lot!) and then typing before observing the outcome (tests run, builds, etc) so... any time my hands aren't on keyboard or mouse, my legs are moving, shifting weight back and forth, bending and walking around.  You'll be surprised, once you try it, just how much you move.  And yes, even while coding.

Filed under: standupdesk coder darkhorse
 

Carousel Pains

Okay, likely to say this in longer form later, but...

I think the main image to carry, when starting as the new coder in an existing, high-functioning development team, is this....

You're a five year old and you walk up to the already spinning carousel in the playground

Angular velocity

You run around and keep trying to jump on, but whatever it is that's spinning that carousel is doing their job well.  :)  Ya kinda have to keep running and hope that you eventually hit a velocity that will let you join the team at speed.

 

Desiging for iOS

 It's quite fun to work through the design issues around the iOS user interaction. All kinds of things are well set by expectation now, but there's still the question of how much makes sense, behaviorally. Fun stuff. :)
 

First Test Post

 Just testing the posting for now.
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