Software Dude
I wrote a guest blog post for RubyLearning and they posted it on their blog. Please go check it out: http://rubylearning.com/blog/2010/09/23/incorporating-web-apis-to-spark-computer-programming-exercises/
The blog post is intended for Ruby newbies. I hope people find it valuable as they learn a great programming language.
Presentation I gave at the Spokane Ruby User Group. Wednesday March 3rd, 2010.
For fun and to try out Gemcutter I turned AttributesSort into a gem and put it up on Gemcutter. I used Jeweler to do all the hard work for me. it was super easy! You can view source code and specs on Github.
I was looking at my old blog posts and saw this one (Flexible Sort) from about a year and a half ago. I thought I'd tweak it a bit and see if I could make it more useful.
Below is what you see I've come up with. I've made the calling code off of array instead of a static method on the class type. I like it better. If anyone sees improvements they want to do with it then feel free to fork the gist on github. :) I'll probably throw some tests on this bad boy, gemify it, and throw it up on gemcutter eventually.
So I was happily coding the other day and ran across some code new to me. Mind you we used to have something like 8 developers on our team over the last couple of years and now we have 3. So naturally there are parts of the codebase I have not seen before. Anyway, the code looked like this:
I saw the todos commented above each method and thought I could tidy these up a bit. It wouldn't take long. So here is what I ended up with:
It took me five minutes and was a nice confidence booster to keep me going on my regular task at hand. So the lesson for the day is follow the "boy scout rule" which is nicely described here by Uncle Bob Martin: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1235624&seqNum=6
In this video I test drive code to build a simple content tag class. This was presented at Spokane/CDA Ruby User Group on Oct 7th, 2009. Enjoy!
Code for the video is on Github: http://github.com/kblake/Code-Kata-Exercise
Tools used:
Click on link below to view screen-cast in High Definition.
Feel free to view in Full Screen (it looks better)
This is a proof of concept app I wrote for a client. It demonstrates the use of google maps, audio playback, and a cool slideshow.
View in Full Screen. Feel free to download and use.
| From Blogger Pictures |
Worked on awesome products such as:
Promotion Builder - http://www.wildfireapp.com
Social Media Monitor - http://monitor.wildfireapp.com
Page Manager - http://apps.wildfireapp.com
Messenger - http://messenger.wildfireapp.com
Team leader using Agile techniques to deliver high quality software. http://www.genetree.com
iPhone prototypes
Taught many different courses including Java, J2EE, PHP, Ruby, Rails, CSS, JavaScript, and AJAX. Involved in many leadership committees. Program lead over the Software Development degree which involved advising, scheduling, and curriculum development.
Ruby on Rails, Behavior Driven Development, Agile principles
As a motiviation to bring current technical skills to my classrooms, I eagerly seek temporary contracts. This is a good balance between teaching and doing the 'real' development work. I love both teaching and software development. I get to meet new people and make new contacts. Fortunately teaching gives me the flexibility to pursue these side job adventures.
Helped spearhead many network and internet projects for an unpriveleged school district. Managed the district website and web servers, Proxy and Exchange servers. Developed mass amounts of new policies regarding network and web usage for students and faculty. Taught computer tech support class at the high school where students did just that throughout the district.