Pragmatic Geek

I wanted to create a rails app that authenticates against Google identities and uses the Calendar API for viewing calendar information. All the building blocks exist, including omniauth for doing OAuth authentication (works for more than Google) and the google-api-client for interacting with data services via ruby. Each project provides adequate documentation, but since they [...]

TL;DR Google offers two libraries for accessing their services, the gdata-api and google api The older one looks more complete, and with a promise to maintain it, it’s tempting Don’t give in – take the time to deal with the newer API A current project of mine involves using Google Docs and automating a workflow [...]

Part of the last project I did was to investigate ways that a legacy codebase could be rejuvenated. The legacy code had become bogged down in intermingled dependencies, bloated runtime, and a general fear of “if I change something here, what unexpected bugs will appear somewhere else?”. The project was done in the context of [...]

The project I finished last week was a proof of concept native iPad application. Given that I’m normally a web-based developer, this was a decent deviation from my normal routine. I want to jot down some impressions for others that may be considering a crossover. For context, I’ve been developing server-side web applications for over [...]

I have converted to a standup workstation. To be clear, this is a motorized, height adjustable desk, used mostly in the standing standing position. I won’t make this about why you should try a standing workstation, but I’ll share my motivations and lessons learned, on the chance that it may inform your own debate. Why did [...]

As a followup to an earlier post on focus, I want to share some of my initial conclusions. Hopefully my experience will encourage others to take the leap towards focus, and I can only hope some managers will read this and ponder what the lack of focus is doing to the productivity of their staff. My [...]

It’s so easy to let our web app performance degrade as it evolves, each architectural decision and framework adding a nearly imperceptible bit of overhead to the process until eventually people start asking “when did it get so slow?” After a while, we’ve reset our expectations of what “fast” is. I’ve been tinkering with the [...]

TL;DR Our lives can be divided into 3 major activities: Consuming, Communicating, and Creating. Only Creating adds value to the world Find ways to do more creating I frequently cite a blog post that describes our lives divided into 3 distinct buckets of activity: consuming, communicating, or creating.[1] Around the same time I read that, [...]

Today is a transition point for me: I officially start a new role tomorrow (same company, different division). What’s key about this  new role is how it fits into my growing awareness of the importance of focus, and how the lack of focus has been a source of stress and unhappiness. I used to describe myself [...]

A side-effect of telecommuting is that co-workers don’t get to see the working environment of the other voices on the phone. Here’s mine, with commentary on the things I choose to keep on my desk. The view, the winning feature Good ergonomics call for periodically giving eyes a rest by focusing on a distant object. [...]