Out of Scope
The Legend of Zelda: The Time Travelling Salesman
The travelling salesman problem is a well-known problem in computer science. The salesman needs to visit a number of cities on a map and…
Shortcuts
Sometimes taking a shortcut means you know a faster way of getting somewhere.Other times, it means you save some time at the expense of…
Because or in spite of
When a project with unique characteristics works, it may be tempting to think it’s working because of these characteristics.The only way to…
Name with intention not implementation
If you’ve been programming for a few years now, you’ve likely come across this quote:There are only two hard things in Computer Science…
How to get 20,000 reputation points on Stack Overflow
I recently (October 16, 2015) hit 20,000 reputation points on Stack Overflow putting me, at the time of writing, in the top 2% of users.2…
Grid Framework
I woke up the other weekend and thought to myself, “there aren’t enough CSS grids in this world, how can I fix that”. Instead of simply…
Link drop: HTML and CSS coding guidelines
I’ve been reading a lot about coding guidelines lately, so I figured I would share the best resources I found. When working as part of a…
Don't sell your time
A lot of people struggle to put a price on their own work. The logic usually goes like this: 100 hours * $75 per hour = $7500. Then comes…
Upgrading Bootstrap from 2 to 3 (or between any major versions)
When software goes from one major version to another, it usually means one thing: things are going to break.For CSS/front-end frameworks…
Startup books reviewed
If you’re thinking of starting a business or are working for a startup, there are worse things you could do than read those books. Instead…
1 year with the Kindle
A year ago I decided to treat myself with the Kindle (Paperwhite). I wasn’t a huge reader back then, but I averaged between 2 or 3 books a…
3 little gems or how to start doing the hard work
I’ve been programming in Ruby (on Rails mostly) for about 3 years now, but until recently I had no idea how to create a gem (a Ruby plugin…
Not every hit has to be a home run
I’m not a huge baseball fan, but I thought this analogy for achieving success in whatever endeavor you pursue was pretty spot on. When…
“Sorry, that username is already taken”
Unless you were an early adopter or you have a very unusual name, being able to register your regular username on a website is a rare feat…
Now you're thinking with Bootstrap - Part 2
This blog post uses Ruby on Rails as the web framework, but most of the points should apply to your framework of choice. It also focuses on…
Reddit's empire no longer founded on a flawed algorithm
About a month ago on January 12 2014, reddit made a seemingly minor change to its algorithm. This algorithm is responsible for determining…
Link Drop - February 2014: Online Design Creators
Online design tools are getting more and more popular. I’ve gathered a few of the more popular ones. I haven’t tried any very seriously as I…
CSS only menu toggle - no JavaScript required
A lot of menus require JavaScript to toggle its visibility. However, it’s very simple to accomplish the same task without any JavaScript by…
Take the blame
Whenever something doesn’t go the way it should, try something new, take the blame. Whether it happened to you or a coworker, it doesn’t…
Legitimate uses of browsers' "porn mode"
Often labelled as porn mode, the incognito/privacy/anonymous mode on browsers can be very useful for web developers.First, it’s very helpful…
Now you're thinking with Bootstrap - Part 1
A lot of people complain that Bootstrap or Foundation are too bloated for a production app. But really, what I hear when people say that is…
How to survive with an endless to-do list
In our personal and professional lives, most of us have to live with a never-ending list of tasks. Just for example, on my list of personal…