10 Tips on How to be a Great Programmer

I was recently asked in an interview about my opinion on how to be a great programmer. That's an interesting question, and I think we can all be great programmers, regardless of our talent, if we follow a couple of rules that - I believe - should be common sense. In fact, these rules don't … Continue reading 10 Tips on How to be a Great Programmer

Infinite Loops. Or: Anything that Can Possibly Go Wrong, Does.

A wise man once said: Anything that can possibly go wrong, does -- Murphy Some programmers are wise men, thus a wise programmer once said: A good programmer is someone who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street. -- Doug Linder In a perfect world, things work as expected and you may think that … Continue reading Infinite Loops. Or: Anything that Can Possibly Go Wrong, Does.

Top 10 Very Very VERY Important Topics to Discuss

Some things are just very very very VERY very important. Such as John Cleese. The same is true for Whitespace: Whitespace-Shedding Yes. 1080 Reddit Karma points (so urgently needed!) in only 23 hours. That's several orders of magnitudes better than any of our - what we wrongfully thought to be - very deep and interesting … Continue reading Top 10 Very Very VERY Important Topics to Discuss

The 10 Commandments of Programming

Patterns 34:29 As Turing descended from Mount Compute - with the two iPads of the testimony in his hands as he descended the mountain - he did not realize that the skin of his blog shone as a result of his Compiling the Code. Patterns 35:1 Turing assembled the entire Geek community and said to … Continue reading The 10 Commandments of Programming

Do You Want to be a Better Software Developer?

Bloggers are a different breed. They're spending a lot of time investigating issues in a systematic way that is presentable to others. And then they share - mostly just for the fun of it and for the rewarding feeling sharing gives them. Whenever we google for a technical issue, chances are high that we stumble … Continue reading Do You Want to be a Better Software Developer?

This Beats Everything: Koding in the Cloud

OK, now this beats everything I've seen so far. I can now code in the cloud with Koding.com. From a first, very quick glance, I get: A VM with a terminal (looks like a Debian distribution) PHP and all sorts of stuff that is already installed An app store for apps like PostgreSQL or MySQL … Continue reading This Beats Everything: Koding in the Cloud

Will Another Play-Style Framework Make its Way to Java?

I've just discovered the Ninja Web Framework. This one isn't "yet another framework", it's actually heavily based on the very popular Play Framework ideas. It seems to provide a substitute for the latter, since Zenexity and Typesafe have formed an alliance to further support Play primarily in the Scala ecosystem. Some people may feel that this … Continue reading Will Another Play-Style Framework Make its Way to Java?

PostgreSQL 9.3 Released!

A great database has just gotten better. PostgreSQL 9.3 has been released today. While improved reliability and availability is certainly quite a thrilling addition, from the jOOQ perspective, the most interesting features are new SQL syntax elements. These include: Better support for JSON LATERAL JOIN (or as SQL:1999 calls it: lateral derived table) Materialised views … Continue reading PostgreSQL 9.3 Released!

Heavyweights Martin Odersky, Erik Meijer and Roland Kuhn Team up for a Coursera Course

Erik Meijer (famously known for LINQ, lots of other .NET goodies, and tie-dye shirts of timeless beauty) teams up with Typesafe's Martin Odersky (Scala Language) and Roland Kuhn (Akka) to bring you a 7-week-course on the Principles of Reactive Programming, starting on November 4, 2013. This cooperation of sharp minds can only mean good things, far … Continue reading Heavyweights Martin Odersky, Erik Meijer and Roland Kuhn Team up for a Coursera Course

Leap Seconds. Will our Understanding of Time Change in 2015?

No matter what programming language we choose, we programmers all share one big misery: Having to deal with calendars. We all get it wrong dozens of times in our working lives. And when we think we finally understood calenders, we get taught better. While some take the time to delve into the misteries of calendars, … Continue reading Leap Seconds. Will our Understanding of Time Change in 2015?