Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
-- Steve Jobs

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Designers vs Coding | via Frank

via Frank : Designers vs Coding
“Do I need to know how to code?” is a question that comes up with sure-fire consistency in design circles. I’ve seen it asked by so many, from uncertain design students in classrooms worried about their chances of landing a job, to seasoned professionals at conferences seeing their pool of print projects slowly evaporate. The question is being asked with even greater frequency as of late, because Adobe has launched their product Muse, which promises designers the ability to “create unique websites without writing code.” So, if a designer wants to work on the web, should they take the time to learn this dastardly “code” or instead rely on software like Muse?
Designing with Web Standards (3rd Edition) HTML5 and CSS3: Develop with Tomorrow's Standards Today (Pragmatic Programmers) Basics of Web Design: HTML5 and CSS3

Static vs. dynamic languages: Why choose one over the other | TechRepublic

Static vs. dynamic languages: Why choose one over the other | TechRepublic
Takeaway: A discussion with Chip Camden and Justin James about static and dynamic languages leads to talk of Haskell, refactoring, code contracts, and more.
We asked TechRepublic contributors Chip Camden and Justin James to sound off on why they would choose static languages or dynamic languages over the other. Read what the developers had to say about static vs. dynamic (and to clarify, by a “static language,” they mean “statically typed language”) in this back-and-forth email discussion, and then weigh in on this topic by posting to our forums.
Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!: A Beginner's Guide Real World Haskell Programming in Haskell

Google App Engine's new pricing model -- Guillaume Laforge's Blog

Google App Engine's new pricing model -- Guillaume Laforge's Blog
I'm quite disappointed by Google App Engine's new pricing model.

I was aware of the changes, the upcoming prices and quotas, but I wasn't expecting my small low-trafic apps to go beyond the free quotas, and force me to have to pay for those small Gaelyk apps!

The big problem is the cost of the "frontend instance hours". An app running all the time, with low trafic, but enough to keep a frontend instance running all day will cost you 30 bucks a month with this new pricing policy.
Programming Google App Engine: Build and Run Scalable Web Apps on Google's Infrastructure (Animal Guide) Google App Engine Java and GWT Application Development Developing with Google App Engine (Firstpress)

Knockoutjs for Grails

Grails - Plugin - Knockoutjs for Grails
Knockout is a JavaScript library that makes it easier to create rich, desktop-like user interfaces with JavaScript and HTML, using observers to make your UI automatically stay in sync with an underlying data model. It works particularly well with the MVVM pattern, offering declarative bindings somewhat like Silverlight but without the browser plugin.
Grails in Action The Definitive Guide to Grails (Expert's Voice in Web Development) Groovy in Action

GitHub Flow | Scott Chacon on the Interwebs

Scott Chacon on the Interwebs
At GitHub, we do not use git-flow. We use, and always have used, a much simpler Git workflow.
Its simplicity gives it a number of advantages. One is that it’s easy for people to understand, which means they can pick it up quickly and they rarely if ever mess it up or have to undo steps they did wrong. Another is that we don’t need a wrapper script to help enforce it or follow it, so using GUIs and such are not a problem.
Version Control with Git: Powerful Tools and Techniques for Collaborative Software Development Pro Git Pragmatic Guide to Git (Pragmatic Guides)

A successful Git branching model » nvie.com

A successful Git branching model » nvie.com
In this post I present the development model that I’ve introduced for all of my projects (both at work and private) about a year ago, and which has turned out to be very successful. I’ve been meaning to write about it for a while now, but I’ve never really found the time to do so thoroughly, until now. I won’t talk about any of the projects’ details, merely about the branching strategy and release management.
Version Control with Git: Powerful Tools and Techniques for Collaborative Software Development Pragmatic Guide to Git (Pragmatic Guides)Pragmatic Version Control Using Git (Pragmatic Starter Kit)

The 4 Characteristics of Highly Effective Developers | JW Tech Blog

The 4 Characteristics of Highly Effective Developers
It seems like everyone is busy these days. Especially when you are in IT. You are constantly being asked to do more and do it more efficiently. But, the important question is, how truly effective are you? In other words, you may work 100 hours a week and perhaps you do a particular task faster than anyone else, but that does not necessarily mean that you are effective.
Practices of an Agile Developer: Working in the Real World (Pragmatic Bookshelf) The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers (Robert C. Martin Series) The Agile Samurai: How Agile Masters Deliver Great Software (Pragmatic Programmers)