All entries of my technical and business blog

Lessons for Managers

Nov 13, 2012 business

I’ve been a manager before. I’ve lead teams before. However, it’s important to understand the difference between the title of ‘manager’ and someone who actually manages. This time around, I’ve been putting much more effort into managing, not just being the figure head. And, I’m learning things. I think these things not only apply to technology related teams, but teams in general.

PHPStorm: My new editor

We’ve just migrated to the PHPStorm IDE in my team. Commercial licenses are $200, personal are $100. I believe that the investment was well worth it. If you’ve been following my entries, you know I have a love affair with Eclipse PDT. It has been hard for an open source programmer like myself to want to buy software. But, we did it.

What I Look For in a Code Review

Oct 18, 2012 business programming

A few days (ok, a bunch of days) ago, someone asked me on twitter what I look for when I do a code review. Pretty certain I was tweeting that I was either… a) doing a code review or b) annoyed at doing a code review. heh. I thought for a bit, and I think I’ve distilled the list of things I look for. Now, mind you, I don’t set out with my checkbox list or a manual, I just look at the code and “feel” it. Yes, that sounds crazy. I understand. But, subconsciously, I think I’m doing the following things when I do code reviews:

Intelligently combining Javascript

Oct 2, 2012 javascript performance

One debate that the guys on my team have been having revolves around the combination of Javascript and CSS files. There are two schools of thought. The keep them separate and the BFF - Big Fun File system. There are pro’s and cons to both… but as with everything, one particular way may not always be the best - we don’t always have to stay in extremes-land. Here are some thoughts. Feel free to weigh in.