Things I Learnt The Hard Way (in 30 Years of Software Development)

This is a cynical, clinical collection of things I learnt in 30 years working with software development.

Again, some things are really cynical, others are long observations on different jobs.

Read more...

Don't Diminish Types

In a previous life, I had a long discussion on why adding booleans was a bad idea. And just recently one of the core Python developers suggested the same thing -- adding booleans, that is. This is a long rant on why such things are bad.

Read more...

Hands-On Microservices with Rust - Denis Kolodin

GoodReads Summary: A comprehensive guide in developing and deploying high performance microservices with Rust.

Read more...

The Where, the Why, and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries of Science - Matt LaMothe, Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski, David Macaulay

GoodReads Summary: A science book like no other, The Where, the Why, and the How turns loose 75 of today's hottest artists onto life's vast questions, from how we got here to where we are going. Inside these pages some of the biggest (and smallest) mysteries of the natural world are explained in essays by real working scientists, which are then illustrated by artists given free rein to be as literal or as imaginative as they like. The result is a celebration of the wonder that inspires every new discovery. Featuring work by such contemporary luminaries as Lisa Congdon, Jen Corace, Neil Farber, Susie Ghahremani, Jeremyville, and many more, this is a work of scientific and artistic exploration to pique the interest of both the intellectually and imaginatively curious.

Read more...

The Wolf's Hour - Robert R. McCammon

GoodReads Summary: Michael Gallatin is a British spy with a peculiar talent: the ability to transform himself into a wolf. Although his work in North Africa helped the Allies win the continent in the early days of World War II, he quit the service when a German spy shot his lover in her bed. Now, three years later, the army asks him to end his retirement and parachute into occupied Paris. A mysterious German plan called the Iron Fist threatens the D-Day invasion, and the Nazi in charge is the spy who betrayed Michael’s lover. The werewolf goes to France for king and country, hoping for a chance at bloody vengeance.

Read more...

Modern Java in Action - Raoul-Gabriel Urma

GoodReads Summary: Java 8 Lambdas in Action is a clearly-written guide to Java 8 lambdas and functional programming in Java. It begins with a practical introduction to the structure and benefits of lambda expressions in real-world Java code. The book then introduces the Stream API and shows how it can make collections-related code radically easier to understand and maintain. Along the way, you'll discover new FP-oriented design patterns with Java 8 for code reuse, code readability, exception handling, data manipulation, and concurrency. For developers also exploring other functional languages on the JVM, the book concludes with a quick survey of useful functional features in Scala and Clojure.

Read more...

Publishing Books on Zola

A long time ago I wrote a couple of posts on a WordPress, then moved them to GitBook. Unfortunately, GitBook changed its layout to something a bit more confusing and now I'm bringing them back to this blog, which runs Zola.

Read more...

One Week with Tiler

Tiler is a tiling split manager for VIM. Here is my experience with it installed for one week.

Read more...

Greek Mythology Explained: A Deeper Look at Classical Greek Lore and Myth - Marios Christou, David Ramenah

GoodReads Summary: Greek mythology explored like never before.

Fans of George R.R Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire series and the Game of Thrones TV series will love Greek Mythology Explained, a unique retelling of Greek mythological tales featuring love, betrayal, murder and ruthless ambitions.

Read more...

Modern Vim: Craft Your Development Environment with Vim 8 and Neovim - Drew Neil

GoodReads Summary: Turn Vim into a full-blown development environment using Vim 8’s new features and this sequel to the beloved bestseller Practical Vim. Integrate your editor with tools for building, testing, linting, indexing, and searching your codebase. Discover the future of Vim with Neovim: a fork of Vim that includes a built-in terminal emulator that will transform your workflow. Whether you choose to switch to Neovim or stick with Vim 8, you’ll be a better developer.

Read more...