Jekyll2021-07-13T07:07:17-05:00http://dev-eryday.com/feed.xmlDev-erydayDev-every is a personal project created by Joshua Niederer to aid in becoming a better software developer. The concept is to develop myself and my skills every day. This site serves to log my efforts and to share knowledge, creations, insights, and whatever else I discover along the way.
Recreate It If We Had To2020-04-03T02:35:00-05:002020-04-03T02:35:00-05:00http://dev-eryday.com/lists/2020/04/03/Recreate-It-If-We-Had-To<p>Wow, it’s been a while since I published anything on here. All is well, and I’ve been busy in the meantime. The world has changed over the last six months, but one thing that has stayed the same is that I’ve continually been following the philosophy of Dev-eryday. I may not have published any posts or released any code, but I’ve been creating and growing this entire time. Today I want to take a moment out to share something I wrote over this past weekend. It’s unrelated to software development, but I feel like it’s relevant to any problem solver out there. I hope you enjoy it.</p>
<p><strong>Recreate It If We Had To</strong></p>
<p>Drop yourself into the world of 500 years ago. What are some of the luxuries of today that you’d miss there? For me, there are many things. The internet, computers, modern medicine, electricity, the automobile, and flight are all things that spring to mind that I’d greatly miss. Now imagine that you’d have the potential to bring a few of these things back into the past. They wouldn’t just magically be there, but you’d know of them to at least express the possibility. What does that world look like? Would you even be able to modify that world to have the advancements that we now take for granted? What knowledge would you need to have to bring the concept from the initial idea to implementation? No matter what the advancement is, you’ve got your work cut out for you. It’s going to be a long road ahead, even with the insight of knowing the future.</p>
<ol>
<li>Modern Medical Practices - I think that you must start by bringing back the advances in medical practices. Washing hands, sterilization, and simple medicines like penicillin would save a fantastic amount of lives. Sharing the basic medical best practices with the global community should help move the world further. As far as how to make this happen in the world of the past, I’m not sure. There’d need to be a book written summarizing the best practices of today, and then you’d have to advocate to medical workers and the general public how valuable these techniques are.</li>
<li>Electricity - You know electricity works, and you don’t even have to fly a kite in the middle of a thunderstorm to discover it. You would have to be able to explain the concept of power generation, delivery, and the components to integrate the system. This is probably something you could build out the framework for and pass off to others to work on.</li>
<li>Computing - Computing enables progress. The impossible problems are solvable with enough computing power. There’s a lot to computing, but it would be possible to share the basic ideas and their application to the mathematicians of the time and be able to trust them to run with them. You could even share the high-level ideas from programming languages that come 100s of years into the future of computing.</li>
<li>Assembly Line - Bring on the advances in efficiency early. The productivity gain from establishing factories and the assembly line would enable faster growth in the future. While you’re at it, make sure that there are safety standards in place to ensure the safety of everyone working on the line.</li>
<li>Battery - What if we skipped the combustion engine entirely and went straight to using batteries and motors for everything? Would climate change be as advanced as it is today? Get the world all in early on batteries by bringing back the know-how for building them efficiently. Electricity would be a prerequisite for making this happen. Lots of physics and electronics knowledge would be needed here.</li>
<li>Harmful Mistakes of the Last 500 Years - Having the details of how history will play out would be a huge advantage. You could potentially stop wars, end slavery, prevent plagues, and countless other things. Back in the late 1990s, there was a TV show called <em>Early Edition</em>, where a guy would get the newspaper a day early and would do everything he could to stop bad things from happening. That would mainly be the goal here except instead of acting a day ahead; you’d be setting up plans to prevent situations that will occur 100s of years in the future—being able to do this would require an intricate understanding of history, how to motivate people, and how to sell your vision of the future.</li>
<li>Social Programs - Free education. Free healthcare. Guaranteed jobs. The earlier these ideas are talked about, the less radical they will seem. Let’s say you’ve delivered on the items that came before; people will likely be willing to try these out too.</li>
<li>Commercial Farming Techniques - With all the advances in health, we’re going to need to feed more people. To do that, you’re going to have to bring the advancements in farming from the last 500 years. Irrigation, tractors, planters, pickers, grain bins, and food treatment programs will be essential to feeding the world.</li>
<li>Transportation - Share the concepts of cars, trucks, and flight with the world. Elaborate on the improvements that can be made to trains and boats. Lay out the plan for global networks of airports, shipping lanes, rail, and road systems. The physical connection will push all of these items to happen faster than they would otherwise.</li>
<li>Internet - Connecting the world will start the spread of ideas at a rapid pace. The more connected we are, the more likely others are to take notice of the progress that’s happening and do what they can to take advantage of it. You’d have to be able to share the concepts of networking, data transmission, and encoding, and be able to demonstrate how to present and create digital content.</li>
</ol>Wow, it’s been a while since I published anything on here. All is well, and I’ve been busy in the meantime. The world has changed over the last six months, but one thing that has stayed the same is that I’ve continually been following the philosophy of Dev-eryday. I may not have published any posts or released any code, but I’ve been creating and growing this entire time. Today I want to take a moment out to share something I wrote over this past weekend. It’s unrelated to software development, but I feel like it’s relevant to any problem solver out there. I hope you enjoy it.Weekly Update: October 7 - 13, 20192019-10-13T17:36:00-05:002019-10-13T17:36:00-05:00http://dev-eryday.com/dev-eryday/2019/10/13/Weekly-Update-October-7-13<p>It’s going to be a short update. I didn’t complete anything this week; it was time to take it slow. You have to reset every so often. I did spend some time solving coding problems on CodeWars.com. On days I don’t feel like reading, building anything, or learning something new, coding challenge websites are the perfect activity to still build skills.</p>
<h2 id="finished">Finished</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> None</p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> None</p>
<h2 id="currents">Currents</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/entity-framework-enterprise-update/table-of-contents">Entity Framework in the Enterprise</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Get-Programming-guide-NET-developers/dp/1617293997/">Get Programming with F#: A Guide for .NET Developers</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/MASTER-MARGARITA-50th-Anniversary-Penguin-Classics-ebook/dp/B01DJZWALO/">The Master and Margarita</a></em></p>
<h2 id="on-the-next">On the Next…</h2>
<p>I’m thinking about taking it easy over the next week too. I’ll keep on learning each day, but just might refrain from pushing out an update at the end of the week.</p>It’s going to be a short update. I didn’t complete anything this week; it was time to take it slow. You have to reset every so often. I did spend some time solving coding problems on CodeWars.com. On days I don’t feel like reading, building anything, or learning something new, coding challenge websites are the perfect activity to still build skills.Weekly Update: September 29 - October 6, 20192019-10-06T18:15:00-05:002019-10-06T18:15:00-05:00http://dev-eryday.com/dev-eryday/2019/10/06/Weekly-Update-September-30-October-6<p>It’s always interesting to dive into a new technology you haven’t used before. Over the last week, I spent some time learning about Microsoft’s <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cosmos-db/">Cosmos DB</a>. For anyone else who is new to the technology, Azure Cosmos DB is a cloud-hosted, managed database. The main selling points of Cosmos DB are that it’s insanely fast (single-digit millisecond latency), scalable, supports many multiple API protocols, and it’s geographically replicated across the globe. I got my feet wet with the database through <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/azure-cosmos-db/table-of-contents">Learning Azure Cosmos DB</a> on Pluralsight. The course provides an overview of the technology from a general point of view and then shows how to use it in code with the SQL API, the .NET SDK, the Table API, and the Gremlin API. Cosmos DB is an exciting technology, and I’m looking forward to watching it evolve and finding ways to integrate it into my creations.</p>
<p>My reading this week came from <em>[Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind][smbm]</em> by Shunryu Suzuki. The book is a short, profound set of thoughts on meditation. My main take away is the focus on the beginner’s mind where we continually try to improve. Beginners know that they have work to do and there is room for them to grow. The person who thinks they’re an expert is susceptible to overlooking details that the vigilant beginner will undoubtedly find. The beginner’s mind can be applied anywhere.</p>
<h2 id="finished">Finished</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/azure-cosmos-db/table-of-contents">Learning Azure Cosmos DB</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Informal-Meditation/dp/1590308492/">Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice</a></em></p>
<h2 id="currents">Currents</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/entity-framework-enterprise-update/table-of-contents">Entity Framework in the Enterprise</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Get-Programming-guide-NET-developers/dp/1617293997/">Get Programming with F#: A Guide for .NET Developers</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/MASTER-MARGARITA-50th-Anniversary-Penguin-Classics-ebook/dp/B01DJZWALO/">The Master and Margarita</a></em></p>
<h2 id="on-the-next">On the Next…</h2>
<p>I’m going to attempt to approach everything I do with a beginner’s mind over the next week. I’ll also read, learn some stuff, and write some code. You know, the basics.</p>It’s always interesting to dive into a new technology you haven’t used before. Over the last week, I spent some time learning about Microsoft’s Cosmos DB. For anyone else who is new to the technology, Azure Cosmos DB is a cloud-hosted, managed database. The main selling points of Cosmos DB are that it’s insanely fast (single-digit millisecond latency), scalable, supports many multiple API protocols, and it’s geographically replicated across the globe. I got my feet wet with the database through Learning Azure Cosmos DB on Pluralsight. The course provides an overview of the technology from a general point of view and then shows how to use it in code with the SQL API, the .NET SDK, the Table API, and the Gremlin API. Cosmos DB is an exciting technology, and I’m looking forward to watching it evolve and finding ways to integrate it into my creations.Weekly Update: September 23 - 29, 20192019-09-29T18:05:00-05:002019-09-29T18:05:00-05:00http://dev-eryday.com/dev-eryday/2019/09/29/weekly-update-September-23-29<p>I viewed a lot of the content coming out from the <a href="https://www.dotnetconf.net/">.NET Conference</a> hosted by Microsoft this week. I’m by no means got through everything, but have been working my way through Microsoft’s official <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLReL099Y5nRd04p81Q7p5TtyjCrj9tz1t">playlist</a> on YouTube. The .NET Conference brought with it the release of .NET Core 3.0, updates to Visual Studio products, and C# 8.0. Below is a rollup of two videos that discuss the new features from C# 8.0 and how to use each of them. The</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2BvrXnaOy0" title="C# 8.0"><img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/L2BvrXnaOy0/0.jpg" alt="C# 8.0 Overview" /></a></p>
<h2 id="finished">Finished</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/supercharging-git-workflow/table-of-contents">Supercharging Your GitHub Workflow</a></p>
<h2 id="currents">Currents</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/entity-framework-enterprise-update/table-of-contents">Entity Framework in the Enterprise</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Get-Programming-guide-NET-developers/dp/1617293997/">Get Programming with F#: A Guide for .NET Developers</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/MASTER-MARGARITA-50th-Anniversary-Penguin-Classics-ebook/dp/B01DJZWALO/">The Master and Margarita</a></em></p>
<h2 id="on-the-next">On the Next…</h2>
<p>The 2019 baseball regular season is now complete, and I’m going to have some significant time on my hands. All of the time spent setting up fantasy baseball lineups, tracking team news, watching games, and reading analysis posts about the game will take a backseat for a few months. As a Cubs fan, I’m glad to see the end of the 2019 and welcome an offseason of change. I’m envisioning that a lot of the newfound time will be devoted to reading, possibly with a particular focus on getting back into the swing of Dev-eryday.</p>I viewed a lot of the content coming out from the .NET Conference hosted by Microsoft this week. I’m by no means got through everything, but have been working my way through Microsoft’s official playlist on YouTube. The .NET Conference brought with it the release of .NET Core 3.0, updates to Visual Studio products, and C# 8.0. Below is a rollup of two videos that discuss the new features from C# 8.0 and how to use each of them. TheWeekly Update: September 16 - 22, 20192019-09-22T18:55:00-05:002019-09-22T18:55:00-05:00http://dev-eryday.com/dev-eryday/2019/09/22/weekly-update-September-16-22<p>This week marked the unofficial end to the 2019 Major League Baseball season for me. The season still has another full week of games on the docket, but I’m checking out early this year due to the rough finish the Chicago Cubs have experienced. PECOTA said they’d only win 84 games before the season started and they’re at 82 wins with six games left to play. These grim predictions didn’t seem right but have proven to be remarkably accurate. I’m not shaken up in the slightest about the outcome of the season, and I feel like it’s a sign of the seasons to come. The 2015 through 2019 Joe Maddon led Cubs teams were the best Cubs teams of my lifetime and it was a joy to get to see them play out.</p>
<p>I read <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Irresistible-Addictive-Technology-Business-Keeping/dp/0735222843/">Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked</a></em> by Adam Alter. <em>Irresistible</em> looks at the growing problem of technology addiction. This is a remarkable, almost too high to believe, but half of the developed world is addicted to something. Part of the reason why we’re so addicted is that technology is engineered to get as much of our attention as it possibly can. The book covers a lot behind the general occurrence of addiction and weaves that into how it applies to addiction to technology. I enjoyed the book a lot and will try to be more mindful of the tactics used by companies to gain as much of my attention as possible, avoiding them where I can.</p>
<h2 id="finished">Finished</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/ethical-hacking-social-engineering/table-of-contents">Ethical Hacking: Social Engineering</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Irresistible-Addictive-Technology-Business-Keeping/dp/0735222843/">Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked</a></em></p>
<h2 id="currents">Currents</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/entity-framework-enterprise-update/table-of-contents">Entity Framework in the Enterprise</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Get-Programming-guide-NET-developers/dp/1617293997/">Get Programming with F#: A Guide for .NET Developers</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/MASTER-MARGARITA-50th-Anniversary-Penguin-Classics-ebook/dp/B01DJZWALO/">The Master and Margarita</a></em></p>
<h2 id="on-the-next">On the Next…</h2>
<p>It’s here, the <a href="https://www.dotnetconf.net/">.NET Conference</a> is taking place this week. That and the release of .NET Core 3.0 should be more than enough to keep me busy now that baseball is out of the picture. I’m excited for all of the content that the people from the .NET team will be pushing out this week and can’t wait to learn more about their latest release.</p>This week marked the unofficial end to the 2019 Major League Baseball season for me. The season still has another full week of games on the docket, but I’m checking out early this year due to the rough finish the Chicago Cubs have experienced. PECOTA said they’d only win 84 games before the season started and they’re at 82 wins with six games left to play. These grim predictions didn’t seem right but have proven to be remarkably accurate. I’m not shaken up in the slightest about the outcome of the season, and I feel like it’s a sign of the seasons to come. The 2015 through 2019 Joe Maddon led Cubs teams were the best Cubs teams of my lifetime and it was a joy to get to see them play out.Weekly Update: September 9 - 15, 20192019-09-15T18:41:00-05:002019-09-15T18:41:00-05:00http://dev-eryday.com/dev-eryday/2019/09/15/Weekly-Update-September-9-15<p>I’m going to get a quick update out before I get to sleep. There’s nothing like looking up and realizing that it’s Sunday at 11:00 PM and I haven’t even started the weekly update post. Luckily, there’s not much to update. I watched a lot of baseball, ran, and read for the most part. On the code side, I started playing with the <a href="https://developer.okta.com/blog/2018/07/02/build-a-secure-crud-app-with-aspnetcore-and-react">.NET okta</a> authentication/authorization library. For anyone unfamilar with <a href="https://developer.okta.com">okta</a>, it’s a popular auth as a service platform. ASP.NET Identity is nice and has a ton of features, but services like okta are going to get more and more important as security moves to the forefront of the general public’s minds.</p>
<p>On the reading front, I raced through <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214484/">Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World</a></em> by David Epstein. The narrative on focusing on generalization rather than specialization is refreshing. It makes a lot of sense that if we focus on picking up a lot of skills upfront then specializing later after we’ve already accumulated a lot of knowledge, we can apply the general information in novel ways within our specialty. Sometimes, I worry that I’m focusing on learning things that won’t help me achieve my goals, but this dabbling can lead to unexpectedly good results.</p>
<h2 id="finished">Finished</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/aspdotnet-authentication-big-picture/table-of-contents">ASP.NET Authentication: The Big Picture</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214484/">Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World</a></em></p>
<h2 id="currents">Currents</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/entity-framework-enterprise-update/table-of-contents">Entity Framework in the Enterprise</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Get-Programming-guide-NET-developers/dp/1617293997/">Get Programming with F#: A Guide for .NET Developers</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/MASTER-MARGARITA-50th-Anniversary-Penguin-Classics-ebook/dp/B01DJZWALO/">The Master and Margarita</a></em></p>
<h2 id="on-the-next">On the Next…</h2>
<p>I’m thinking about taking it easy this week. I’ve been working a lot on a personal project that isn’t software related at I’m wanting to focus on pushing it through to completion. It will eventually make its way to being a code project, but for now, it’s not.</p>I’m going to get a quick update out before I get to sleep. There’s nothing like looking up and realizing that it’s Sunday at 11:00 PM and I haven’t even started the weekly update post. Luckily, there’s not much to update. I watched a lot of baseball, ran, and read for the most part. On the code side, I started playing with the .NET okta authentication/authorization library. For anyone unfamilar with okta, it’s a popular auth as a service platform. ASP.NET Identity is nice and has a ton of features, but services like okta are going to get more and more important as security moves to the forefront of the general public’s minds.Weekly Update: September 2 - 8, 20192019-09-08T18:41:00-05:002019-09-08T18:41:00-05:00http://dev-eryday.com/dev-eryday/2019/09/08/Weekly-Update-September-2-8<p>I’m getting excited for the upcoming release of.NET Core 3.0 and the <a href="https://www.dotnetconf.net/">.NET Conf</a> that’s happening September 23-25. Since they’re taking place the week of September 23, I spent a reasonable amount of time diving into the <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/whats-new/dotnet-core-3-0">features</a> and <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/migration/22-to-30?view=aspnetcore-2.2&tabs=visual-studio">migrating</a> some test project to the updated version. The update process seems to be fairly straightforward but could be tricky for large projects. Be sure and check the <a href="https://www.dotnetconf.net/Agenda">agenda</a> for the .NET Conf, looks like a lot of great content coming down the pipeline. The only thing bad about the work going on around .NET Core is finding enough time to master it and stay up to date with everything else that’s going on with technology.</p>
<p>Speaking of .NET Core, I worked through <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/aspdotnet-core-tag-helpers/table-of-contents">ASP.NET Core Tag Helpers and View Components</a>. It’s an excellent course covering the ASP.NET Core Tag Helper and View Component features. Tag Helpers and View Components remind me a lot of how components are developed in React. For my reading this week, I breezed through <em>This is Marketing</em> by Seth Godin. It’s a whirlwind tour of some of Godin’s popular ideas on marketing. I’m not an expert on the subject but I have read a couple of books by Godin in the past. It’s nice to review topics like marketing a couple of times a year to gain some perspective on the subject. It’s a quick, entertaining read that recommends you find a small audience and over-deliver for them.</p>
<h2 id="finished">Finished</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/aspdotnet-core-tag-helpers/table-of-contents">ASP.NET Core Tag Helpers and View Components</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/This-Marketing-Cant-Until-Learn/dp/B07DKN7DG2/">This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See</a></em></p>
<h2 id="currents">Currents</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/entity-framework-enterprise-update/table-of-contents">Entity Framework in the Enterprise</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Get-Programming-guide-NET-developers/dp/1617293997/">Get Programming with F#: A Guide for .NET Developers</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/MASTER-MARGARITA-50th-Anniversary-Penguin-Classics-ebook/dp/B01DJZWALO/">The Master and Margarita</a></em></p>
<h2 id="on-the-next">On the Next…</h2>
<p>I’m going to keep on preparing for the launch of .NET Core 3.0 in the week ahead.</p>I’m getting excited for the upcoming release of.NET Core 3.0 and the .NET Conf that’s happening September 23-25. Since they’re taking place the week of September 23, I spent a reasonable amount of time diving into the features and migrating some test project to the updated version. The update process seems to be fairly straightforward but could be tricky for large projects. Be sure and check the agenda for the .NET Conf, looks like a lot of great content coming down the pipeline. The only thing bad about the work going on around .NET Core is finding enough time to master it and stay up to date with everything else that’s going on with technology.Weekly Update: August 26 - September 1, 20192019-09-01T17:41:00-05:002019-09-01T17:41:00-05:00http://dev-eryday.com/dev-eryday/2019/09/01/Weekly-Update-August-26-September-1<p>I’m going to keep this ultra brief this week because it’s a three day weekend and I want to maximize it. I read a book, watched a course, and learned a number of things–a typical week.</p>
<h2 id="finished">Finished</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/refactoring-csharp-developers/table-of-contents">Refactoring for C# Developers</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Competing-Against-Luck-Innovation-Customer/dp/0062435612/">Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice</a></em></p>
<h2 id="currents">Currents</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/entity-framework-enterprise-update/table-of-contents">Entity Framework in the Enterprise</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Get-Programming-guide-NET-developers/dp/1617293997/">Get Programming with F#: A Guide for .NET Developers</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/MASTER-MARGARITA-50th-Anniversary-Penguin-Classics-ebook/dp/B01DJZWALO/">The Master and Margarita</a></em></p>
<h2 id="on-the-next">On the Next…</h2>
<p>I’ve started up a new challenge called “Intentional Browsing” where the goal is to spend less time aimlessly consuming content. Outside of a 30-minute free period each day, I must record each web page that I visit along with the intended purpose of the visit. The overhead of browsing and recordind intent should help prevent idle browsing. Beyond taking on that challenge, I’m working on cleaning up some content for a future web project. At the rate I’m going, the content clean up will take a month or so. I’m excited about the project, but there’s a lot of work to come.</p>I’m going to keep this ultra brief this week because it’s a three day weekend and I want to maximize it. I read a book, watched a course, and learned a number of things–a typical week.Weekly Update: August 19 - 25, 20192019-08-25T17:41:00-05:002019-08-25T17:41:00-05:00http://dev-eryday.com/dev-eryday/2019/08/25/Weekly-Update-August-19-25<p>It seems like I’ve been working to improve my skills with CSS all year. The reason it’s been so stretched out is that I typically only spend an hour a week on it. It’s difficult to master anything if you aren’t putting in the time required to make it come together. This week I pushed forward more than ever through reading <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/CSS-Depth-Keith-J-Grant/dp/1617293458/">CSS in Depth</a></em> by Keith Grant. The book provides an excellent overview of CSS through examples. I coded along throughout and had an enjoyable time working through it. The book covers the basics like specificity (inline -> ID -> class -> tag), the box model (concentric squares, Margin - Border - Padding - Content), layouts, and advanced subjects like transitions and animations. My favorite content in the book is its coverage of the different ways to position elements on a page. CSS has had many techniques to layout elements over the years from tables to floats to flexbox and grid. The state of laying out elements today is a dream compared to the methods used in the past. I’m glad to have worked through the book, and I’m feeling great about where I’m at with CSS. I’m going to continue to test and improve my skills, and I’m looking forward to creating lots of useful, functional applications with my newfound abilities.</p>
<h2 id="finished">Finished</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/react-prototyping-ux-design/table-of-contents">Prototyping Your UX Design in React</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/CSS-Depth-Keith-J-Grant/dp/1617293458/">CSS in Depth</a></em></p>
<h2 id="currents">Currents</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/entity-framework-enterprise-update/table-of-contents">Entity Framework in the Enterprise</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Get-Programming-guide-NET-developers/dp/1617293997/">Get Programming with F#: A Guide for .NET Developers</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/MASTER-MARGARITA-50th-Anniversary-Penguin-Classics-ebook/dp/B01DJZWALO/">The Master and Margarita</a></em></p>
<h2 id="on-the-next">On the Next…</h2>
<p>The last week of August is upon us. That means it’s time to enjoy what’s left of summer. Outside of that, I’m want to create this week. I’m going to think about what I can create to make my life easier. If that line of thinking goes anywhere, I’ll create a quick prototype and see how it goes.</p>It seems like I’ve been working to improve my skills with CSS all year. The reason it’s been so stretched out is that I typically only spend an hour a week on it. It’s difficult to master anything if you aren’t putting in the time required to make it come together. This week I pushed forward more than ever through reading CSS in Depth by Keith Grant. The book provides an excellent overview of CSS through examples. I coded along throughout and had an enjoyable time working through it. The book covers the basics like specificity (inline -> ID -> class -> tag), the box model (concentric squares, Margin - Border - Padding - Content), layouts, and advanced subjects like transitions and animations. My favorite content in the book is its coverage of the different ways to position elements on a page. CSS has had many techniques to layout elements over the years from tables to floats to flexbox and grid. The state of laying out elements today is a dream compared to the methods used in the past. I’m glad to have worked through the book, and I’m feeling great about where I’m at with CSS. I’m going to continue to test and improve my skills, and I’m looking forward to creating lots of useful, functional applications with my newfound abilities.Weekly Update: August 12 - 18, 20192019-08-18T16:45:00-05:002019-08-18T16:45:00-05:00http://dev-eryday.com/dev-eryday/2019/08/18/Weekly-Update-August-12-18<p>Before this week, I don’t think I’ve ever completed a book about JavaScript. I’ve read parts of several books, many documentation pages on MDN, and tons of questions/answers on StackOverflow about the language, but never had I finished a book about the popular programming language. Now I can say that I’ve read one as I completed <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-JavaScript-Ninja-John-Resig/dp/1617292850/">Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja</a></em> by John Resig, Bear Bieault, and Josip Maras. The book appealed to me because it targets intermediate JavaScript developers and John Resig’s affiliation with the book. I don’t think I’ll ever be a fan of the title of “ninja” for developers, but this is a solid book on JavaScript.</p>
<p>The part of the book that I enjoyed the most was its coverage of prototypes. The way that JavaScript uses object prototypes to allow for object-oriented programming is similar to using classes in C# or Java, but not identical. It’s these minute differences that have held back my JavaScript programming on occasion. All in all, the book was a solid investment because it uncovered several details that I might not have found otherwise. Language documentation is excellent, but books and deep dives into the source code can offer insights beyond what’s found in the literature.</p>
<h2 id="finished">Finished</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/nodejs-big-picture/table-of-contents">Node.js: The Big Picture</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-JavaScript-Ninja-John-Resig/dp/1617292850/">Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja</a></em></p>
<h2 id="currents">Currents</h2>
<p><strong>Online Course(s):</strong> <a href="https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/entity-framework-enterprise-update/table-of-contents">Entity Framework in the Enterprise</a></p>
<p><strong>Book(s):</strong> <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Get-Programming-guide-NET-developers/dp/1617293997/">Get Programming with F#: A Guide for .NET Developers</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/MASTER-MARGARITA-50th-Anniversary-Penguin-Classics-ebook/dp/B01DJZWALO/">The Master and Margarita</a></em></p>
<h2 id="on-the-next">On the Next…</h2>
<p>I’m excited for the week ahead. Summer is coming to a close, and I should be spending more time indoors, which will lead to more time reading, learning, and creating. I’ve got a lot of things I want to develop, but one of the problems of having so many things to create is that you have to pick only one to focus on a single project. Hopefully, I can pare down my list and identify the essential projects and get to work on completing them.</p>Before this week, I don’t think I’ve ever completed a book about JavaScript. I’ve read parts of several books, many documentation pages on MDN, and tons of questions/answers on StackOverflow about the language, but never had I finished a book about the popular programming language. Now I can say that I’ve read one as I completed Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja by John Resig, Bear Bieault, and Josip Maras. The book appealed to me because it targets intermediate JavaScript developers and John Resig’s affiliation with the book. I don’t think I’ll ever be a fan of the title of “ninja” for developers, but this is a solid book on JavaScript.