2015-01 on Funky Si's Test

Podcasts

funkysi1701@gmail.com (funkysi1701) — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 20:00:45 +0000

For a while now I have been listening to podcasts. For those that don’t know a podcast is an audio file that you can download and listen to, usually about a topic you are interested in. The topics that interest me are obviously Star Trek, Science and Technology and IT stuff. I mainly listen to them in the car when I am driving, but sometimes it will be at home when doing jobs around the house.

I think the first podcast I listened to was Trekmate . Trekmate as the name suggests is about Star Trek, it’s a few guys talking about Star Trek. It’s very similar to those conversations you have in the pub with your mates. Trekmate do lots of podcasts, one for almost every flavour of Star Trek out there, I don’t keep up with all of them, but the ones I listen to I really enjoy.

My favourite podcast that is work related is RunAs Radio . If you are a SysAdmin or have an interest in servers or IT you should listen to this. The host Richard Campbell interviews IT experts about a particular piece of technology, one week it will be Exchange, the next Security, and then SQL Server. Often I will learn something that I will want to try out, some weeks I won’t learn something specific but will give be an insight into which way IT for businesses is going. I think it was probably only after listening to RunAs Radio that are started having more of a long term plan for my IT infrastructure at work.

As I have blogged about before I am learning Development so obviously I listen to .NET Rocks . This is hosted by Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell (yes the same guy that does RunAs Radio) who talk to developers about code, learning and IT from a more Developer point of view. This is released 3 times a week so is a bit hit and miss sometimes, but most weeks there will be something relevant to me or worth listening to.

A few days ago I did something for the first time, I was a guest on one of the Trekmate pods, TenForward. I reviewed 5 Star Trek episodes. This was a bit of a leap for me as an introvert I don’t like to be the center of attention and I certainly don’t like how my voice sounds recorded. Hopefully when released people will like it and I will do lots more of these in the future. Once it has been released I will put a link up here so you can all have a listen.

Pair Programming

funkysi1701@gmail.com (funkysi1701) — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 20:00:45 +0000

So I have been working through the challenges on the freecodecamp website and one of the unique things that this site does is give you the chance to program with another person.

I am an introvert and if you were to ask me to pick up the phone and ring someone I will procrastinate a lot before doing it (if I do it at all), I also am not good at speaking with strangers but I have been enjoying the pair programming I have done so far.

I have only pair programmed a couple of times so far, so I am no expert. The first time was with someone from North America, it was weird to begin with talking to your computer and hearing an american voice respond, but you soon forget that as you concentrate on the problems you are working on.

The second time was with someone from the Netherlands. This time we tackled some trickier problems. Both times I took more of a back seat but I think contributed useful stuff and I certainly learnt a lot from the other person.

I think that is the key thing about pair programming, you learn so much about how to look at a problem from another angle, or learn about a function you haven’t heard of before. If you are reading this and it was you that I pair programmed with a big thank you for spending the time with me, I learnt a lot.

I was trying to pair program again tonight but technical problems prevented me. One problem I have found is finding a partner, was hoping to do some yesterday but no one else was around to partner with.

I would be interested to learn what companies use pair programming. I imagine a pointy haired boss would say why pay two people to do one job, when you could get them working on different things. However if you want to build up your team and give them loads more skills then pair programming would be great. I also think there are probably some problems that are crying out for pair programming.

Javascript progress

funkysi1701@gmail.com (funkysi1701) — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 20:00:45 +0000

I got excited earlier this week as I started playing around with the javascript I have been learning.

I thought I would try and create useful javascript that could be applied to an online filestore. Somewhere that you could upload, delete, edit files and folders and various options to do with your files would popup via javascript or jquery code.

So far I have created a static HTML page which lists a few dummy files. I have added a button which adds a new row into my table and I have used jquery to highlight any selected files and also when the mouse passes over.

If you want to follow my progress I have put my files on github . It’s very basic stuff and I have already got a few lines I would like to refactor but not bad for an evenings work. I have lots of feature ideas to add to this page which should help me learn the basics.

The trouble with learning all this javascript is that I am starting to get all my programming languages confused. Earlier this week I started writing a for loop in javascript, only problem was I was working on an MS Access ADP (Don’t ask!) which requires the code in VBA. That is never going to work. Oh well.

If anyone knows good ways to stop myself getting my programming languages all confused do let me know.

My Year of Code

funkysi1701@gmail.com (funkysi1701) — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 20:00:45 +0000

There is no escaping the fact that we are in 2015 now. My new years resolution is to do more coding.

Over Christmas I thought I would have a go at https://www.codecademy.com I completed the javascript course and I was just wondering what I should try next when I saw a tweet about freecodecamp

Since then I have been addicted to doing the exercises that they have, almost everyday I have made a bit of progress.

But this site is not just about teaching you how to code, it has an active forum where you can ask questions and understand more about what it takes to become a developer.

Before I started these exercises I didn’t know much javascript or jquery but I am starting to learn quite a few commands that hopefully I can put into use at some point. Whatever development I end up doing I am sure I am going to need javascript at some point.

One of the tips I have learnt is that you need to practise daily. Did you ever use flash cards to help pass exams? Well there is an electronic version of them now called Anki. Just add a question/answer pair to your deck of cards and review them each day, the ones you find difficult you review more often than the ones you have learnt.

Hopefully I can keep this up and later in the year I will be well on way to writing lots of useful code.