While I’ve learned more than a dozen different programming languages in my three decades of using computers, I’ve been focusing on Ruby for the last one. At my company, we automate our hosting infrastructure with Chef, we build our websites with Rails or Jekyll, and even for more complex command line scripts, Ruby has replaced Bash for us. But lately, I’ve actually added another programming language to my roster that I wanted to learn for years: Javascript. With StimulusJS, it was really easy to add a bit of client-side logic to our hosting dashboard. There’s a lot to learn and I’m really looking forward to doing more frontend development!
Icons for everything
Talking about frontend: Iconography is an important part of every user interface nowadays. Of course, the internet offers endless supply of icons but many of these collections are of low quality, have unclear licensing policies or are of a quality that doesn’t justify their price. Discovering the Noun Project has solved this problem for me completely. I’ve started using their icons on web sites, in my talk slides and even to give my Stream Deck a more consistent look:
Live stream for remote workers
With so many more people now working from home (and struggling with the change), I thought I’d share my 10 years of experience with remote work. I’ve started doing a 30-minute live stream over on my live coding channel every morning at 9:30am (10:30 on the continent) where I chat with viewers about how to make remote work… work. The stream is titled “The Daily Bootup”. How about you join me Monday morning and we start the day together? Simply click “Follow” to get a notification when we start!
I’ve always been struggling to use the right name and email address, separate between work and personal projects, for each of my Git repositories. Micah Henning solved that problem nicely by removing the global settings but making a repo-specific configuration mandatory. And a handy alias is the icing on the Git identity selection cake.
There won’t be many conferences in the next few weeks, at least not the sort that you need to attend in person. However, with COVID-19 handing out lemons, people start to discover the lemonade of online conferences!
I’m happy to be part of an initiative by The Live Coders, a community of people broadcasting their software development on Twitch. On 9th April, we’re going to broadcast more than 12 hours of presentations on a wide range of topics. With my talk about burnout prevention, I’m probably going to have a slot in the (European) afternoon.
For my first Retro Saturday live stream, I chose working with a PDP-11 minicomputer. I don’t own a PDP-11, nor can I afford to buy or run one, but I can simulate one realistically usingsimh, the simulator for historic computer systems.
After successfully installing Unix V7, the original Unix operating system from 1979, I ran into unexpected issues with entering source code. One of the problems was the lack of a full-screen editor combined with my lack of ed skills. Another problem was that the Backspace key didn’t work as expected; an issue I first encountered 27 years ago trying out an early version of Linux. And then there was the strange behaviour that I had to escape the number sign at the beginning of #include <stdio.h> with a backslash; otherwise it would disappear.
After the stream, I found out what the problem was: V7 was simply still geared towards being operated from a teletype, basically a typewriter with a serial port. (It would take many years until typewriters actually came with correction ribbons that enabled you to erase and overwrite. But by that time, teletypes had been replaced by serial terminals with CRT screens.)
On an input device that prints each character you type immediately on paper, it’s impossible to do what Backspace does. That’s why the Unix developers assigned special meaning to the # and @ signs.
The # sign tells the V7 shell to ignore the previously typed character. Correcting a typo would look like this: cat memp#o.txt.
For larger errors, there’s the @ sign. It tells the shell to ignore everything before it. For example: rm mem@mv memo.txt memo.bak.
Exploring historic operating systems has become a passion for me lately. Not only do I learn a lot about early computing technology. It also makes me appreciate so much more the achievements of pioneers like Thompson and Richie who didn’t have any of the conveniences software developers enjoy today.
2.11BSD seems to be a more user-friendly OS for the PDP-11, so that’s what I’m going to try next!
In “geewiz explores computer history” news, I’m now an official member of DECUS, the Digital Equipment Corporation User Society! The reason is that HP (who bought Compaq who bought DEC) issue a Hobbyist License to DECUS members who’d like to install OpenVMS for funsies. And I have to admit, working with an old-school operating system that isn’t unixoid has been a great experience so far. I’ll do a live installation of OpenVMS on my Twitch stream tomorrow.
As I’m pretty much Epoch years old, I celebrated a special birthday this week. It’s interesting in this context that my interest in historic computer systems has never been higher. I want that PiDP11 so hard. I’ve just applied for a hobbyist OpenVMS license. And on my live stream today, I installed the ancient Unix V7 from a virtual tape.
I mentioned in my last weeknote that I was trying out Brain.fm to put focus-improving background noise into my head. During one of my uses, its selection page for choosing a style of music made me remember another familiar page: the “Music” page that Calm added to their mindfulness app last year (I think?). While I’ve been using Calm for meditation for years, I’ve been using its music feature only for falling asleep easier. But since there’s also a “Focus” section, I won’t need to add another music app to my already long list of subscriptions.
That list still did get a new entry recently, though. Despite the fact that I’m fortunate in that I don’t have to schedule many meetings and calls, my calendar is one of my most important productivity tools. Most of the entries there are appointments with myself that I schedule every morning. By time-boxing my most important tasks for the day, I make sure that I actually have the time to get them done. That’s why I’m among the first subscribers of Fantastical 3 Premium, my calendar app of choice on all my devices.
My usual table at Starbucks where I sit to plan my day in the morning has a raised platform in the middle. Because of its more ergonomic height, it’s the ideal place for my iPad. The downside: It makes touching the screen inconvenient because I have to lean in and reach out with my arm. Even though there are people who started using a mouse as soon as iPadOS 13 came out, I dismissed the iPad’s mouse support because it was “only an accessibility feature”. Now that I finally decided to try connecting a Logitech Master Anywhere mouse, I am wondering how many times my “doing it the proper way” has been getting in the way of actual improvement already. Setting up the mouse (with all its 5 buttons, no driver installation necessary) took 2 minutes and it’s working perfectly. I can tap things easily, and with just a single click, I can go back to the home screen, switch to a different app or display the control center. With the iPad, the Happy Hacking Keyboard and the new mouse, I think I’ve found my mobile work endgame.
Josh Wood’s article resonates a lot with me. I’ve chosen a humble amount of “fuck-that money” over the chance of getting lots of “fuck-you money”. www.honeybadger.io/blog/f-ck…
On one of my recent live coding streams, a viewer asked what my abe script does. I showed that it simply launched a Ruby command in my project’s application container. Since I’m using Docker Compose to spin up most of my development environments, I have to run all development tasks within the application container. Typing abe rake test is much faster than typing docker-compose exec app bundle exec rake test, so I added this script to my project’s bin directory:
It’s a nifty time-saver, but the smart part of this isn’t the script itself but how I make helper scripts in the bin directory of my projects easy to launch without having to prepend every command with ./bin/.
If you’re familiar with how a Unix shell finds the right program to execute, you ’ll probably suggest just adding ./bin to the environment variable PATH. But that’s a risky move because you don’t want to accidentally launch a malicious script after checking out a repository that happens to have an executable ls command in its bin directory.
Once again, it was the talented devs over at ThoughtBot who found a better solution. Instead of adding ./bin to PATH, they recommend adding .git/safe/../../bin. With this entry, the shell descends into .git, further down into safe, all the way back to the repository root and only then into bin. What makes this seemingly roundabout way to find your helper scripts secure is that it only works if you’ve first manually created the subdirectory safe within .git. The latter is, after all, git’s data directory which normally doesn’t contain a directory named safe.
There you have it — easy access to your project’s helper scripts is simple to achieve. And without any additional effort, it’s safe as well!
I’ve been using DuckDuckGo as my default search engine for a while. TIL that DuckDuckGo also has practical shortcuts called bangs for searching on a specific site.
In my experience, the value of getting enough sleep can not be overstated. I feel like I got more work done on Tuesday alone than in the entire previous week. And the main difference was that I started last week already tired and didn’t get enough rest to change my state until the weekend. I highly recommend the Focused podcast on this topic. Apart from discussing sleep schedules and good tactics, it also briefly mentions taking sleep headphones on trips. I have some of these in my nightstand but it never occurred to me that they could save me from lying in a hotel bed frustrated by noise outside again.
And on the topic of focus, I’m trying out two apps that might help me maintain it: One is Freedom for making sure my Pomorodo sessions are distraction-free, and the other is Brain.fm for creating a neutral work soundtrack.
After two weeks with the HHKB Hybrid, I can report that it’s a great travel keyboard. Typing feel and sound is excellent, and its weight and plastic cover make it very portable.
My live coding stream is jugging along nicely. Having scheduled broadcasting times has put me into a steady pace of freistilbox dashboard development. Finishing at least one issue queue item each session is very satisfying. I also enjoy being a member of the burgeoning Live Coders community. It’s a small but diverse bunch of people who have visible fun sharing their expertise and helping each other. I’m looking forward to my next session this afternoon!
Lack of sleep was the theme that ran through this week. For various reasons, I didn’t get into bed early enough a single night. The immediate result of not having slept enough for me is a lack of focus. Even while writing this, I’m getting distracted by watching flocks of birds in the sky through my office window. I’ve successfully established my work routine after coming back from the holidays. I’ve also started a writing routine this week. Now it’s time to get back into a sleep routine.
The writing routine I’ve just mentioned is related to a goal I’ve set myself for this year: I want to write a beginners course for Ruby programmers with an accompanying video series. Having written a Perl programming book back in the day, I know that I have the necessary skills. But I also know how much time it takes to write a whole book. Therefore, what will make or break this project is taking the time to write. By scheduling writing time every time I plan my day in the morning, I’ve accomplished a few hours of writing this week already. It’s a good start, and it’s how I’d like to continue. If you’d like to follow along, I’m going to publish preliminary versions of the book on LeanPub and I’ll post a link here.
On the keyboard building side of things, I’ve finally received the HS60 PCB I had pre-ordered in September. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it was packaged. After all, unboxing stuff that is broken because of its flimsy packaging isn’t unknown to me. Unfortunately, the PCB is defective nonetheless. A few hours after taking delivery, I received an email apologising for a manufacturing error. A diode had been soldered on the wrong way, which renders the connected key switch unresponsive. Since the email also said that it’s okay if I try to resolve the issue myself (I can get a replacement in any case), I’m going to take a stab at replacing an SMD diode the size of a pin head this weekend. It’ll be a challenge for my shaking hands and deteriorating eyesight, but I do love challenges! Mad props to Mechboards for both their careful packaging and their transparent and hobbyist-friendly issue resolution!
Effortful study means constantly tackling problems at the very edge of your ability. Stuff you may have a high probability of failing at. Unless you’re failing some of the time, you’re probably not growing professionally. You have to seek out those challenges and push yourself beyond your comfort limit.
—Jeff Atwood, “How to Stop Sucking and Be Awesome Instead”
Happy New Year! I’m back from my holiday break. We spent Christmas at home and had my brother-in-law flown over. Of course, as soon as I left the office on my last work day, a cold knocked me right out and I spent most of the time until Christmas Day in bed. The next day, we went to Germany to visit family. I’m happy to report that we had a very relaxed stay.
I’m glad to be back at work. Wednesday was my first day in the (home) office. During my two-week break, I had time to develop new ideas and I’m eager to get started implementing them. I was also excited to get back into live coding. Sadly, my first stream of the year didn’t yield too many results, but I guess I should cut myself some slack; it’ll take a bit of time to get my head back into the game. Skipping lunch wasn’t the best idea either, I guess…
Generally, I wasn’t too productive over my first three work days. I got distracted too quickly too many times. I’m going to consider this my warm-up phase. Next week, I’ll build myself a better basis for getting shit done by getting back into a routine of setting myself concrete goals. I’ve also realised that deadlines create accountability and focus. Perhaps it’s time to pull this SMART method out of the drawer!
On the hobby front, it’s all good. I’ve joined a new World of Warcraft guild a few weeks ago and did a great dungeon run with my new buddies last night. And typing this post, I’m enjoying the “good feeling of oneness with cup rubber”; in other words, I’ve added an original Happy Hacking Keyboard (the new Hybrid model) to my collection.
In addition, German children merrily walk home from school on their own through the forest. Everybody knows that it is extremely unhealthy for Irish children to walk anywhere, especially to or from school, never mind through forests.
Adopt technology because it’s helpful to you, not just because it’s hot. Or, as Mattias Geniar says, “get satisfaction in knowing that you’re making a difference for the business & its developers because your servers are running as best they can.” sysadvent.blogspot.com/2019/12/d…
What a lame excuse for corporate greed. Die like the dinosaur you are, Irish Rail. “Irish Rail ban on reusable cups angers passengers” www.irishtimes.com/life-and-…
