It’s always nice to get a new tool. Some tools can fundamentally change the way you work, others merely take away a bit of friction from your process. This week I got a new monitor. It’s an Acer H277HU. Acer isn’t paying me to say this, but it’s the best monitor I’ve ever used. The screen quality is great, but it’s the USB-C connection that is the true standout feature. By connecting a single USB-C cable from the monitor to my laptop, I get a second screen, charging, and two standard USB connections. So one cable, lots of possibilities. Technology is good. At 27”, the 2560x1440 image is crisp and clear. The speakers are perfect for watching videos at my desk and offer all the noise I’ll ever need. The monitor doesn’t revolutionize the way I work, it does iron out a number of rough edges. That’s all that can be asked from it.

Pluralsight delivers something new to be excited about almost every week. This week is no exception as they added a new Cory House course titled Creating Reuseable React Components. It’s a deep look into how to build a reusable component library that can be leveraged on multiple projects. The best part of the course so far has been how to setup your React project for self-documentation using the react-docgen package. It’d be nice to create a set of distributable React components that I can apply to all future projects.

I didn’t finish any Pluralsight courses but did finish watching all the videos from the Sabermetrics course on edX. The quiz and homework components for the course are no longer functional so it’s pretty much video only at this point. It’s possible to setup the Lahman Database on your own machine though. With that database, you can complete many of the applied exercises. All in all, the course has a wealth of information and was time well spent gaining a deeper appreciation for a game I’ve always loved.

Finished

MOOC(s): Sabermetrics 101: Introduction to Baseball Analytics

Book(s): On Writing Well

Currents

PluralSight Course(s): Implementing and Securing an API with ASP.NET Core, Domain-Driven Design Fundamentals, Creating Reuseable React Components

Book(s): Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns, Man’s Search for Meaning

On the Next…

I’m going to write some code on the IdeaListz project this week. I’ve been letting it slip lately as other things always seem to take the priority. Side projects are one of those things where if you don’t make the time for them, there’s not going to be any time for them. I’m thinking about spinning up the most basic version of the web service possible and using it as a prototype. It would only need the most basic CRUD operations. Once the prototype is in place, I’d be able to use it to implement the React-based user interface.