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Standard Markdown
update: the name’s been changed to Common Markdown Yesterday, Jeff Atwood announced that Standard Markdown, a project he had been working on for some time, was finally completed and ready for public review. Like many a Markdown enthusiast, I have struggled with the fact that Markdown doesn’t have a standard. It does have an ambiguous…
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Amazon’s e-book hubris
Amazon’s starting to play some hardball negotiation with Hachette, and it’s got Amazon’s critics worried. They envision this drab world where the only way to enjoy a book is on Amazon’s terms. People have formed this impression that because Amazon is by far the leader in selling e-books, that they somehow have consumers in some…
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You won’t believe this blogger’s New Year’s Resolution
I’m done clicking links to Upworthy and similar linkbait-y sites that show up in my Facebook feed, and I think you should too. Usually the links are mildly interesting, but sites like these aggressively A/B test different techniques for titling them to end up with this exaggerated, sensationalized title. The link title, instead of being…
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Review: Remote: Office Not Required
37signals released their long-awaited third book today to much fanfare. It’s an incredibly quick read. My biggest worry was that it was going to be another Rework, which basically was a manifesto that talked up how 37signals works and it conveniently points to 37signals as an example of success. Rework often would point to a couple…
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Don’t make perfect modularity the enemy of a good refactor
I often find myself reviewing pull requests and I will find classes that contain a lot of domain-specific logic that aren’t relevant to the class itself. I’ll point it out and the response is often “I plan to extract this out into a gem, but I just haven’t had a chance/I’ve been busy.” Extracting the…
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It was a Friday
It was a Friday, and I was in second grade. I got up that morning eighteen years ago, had breakfast, and my brother and I went to catch the bus. It’s interesting how many school days I’ve been through and I don’t remember what went on in many of them, but I remember that on…
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Nailing the interview
Since my post on making a great resume was so incredibly well received on Reddit, I don’t want to leave you hanging now that that kick ass resume got you an interview. Bottom line: the best interview is going to flow a lot like a conversation between new friends. Mixed in with this conversation will…
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Making a good engineer résumé
I routinely review résumés for engineering candidates and I wanted to share some practical tips that are guaranteed to help get you an interview in the instance of at least one person who might be reviewing it. First and foremost, proofread the living shit out of your resume. You probably rolled your eyes at the English…
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My favorite things Issue 1: Backnobber II a.k.a. the Forever Alone Massager
I love things, especially things that are well made. In fact, I love things so much, I decided to start a new series right here on icanthascheezburger just to tell you about a few of these things. I don’t get any kickbacks from any of the things I recommend (check the links for affiliate codes;…
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So you want to make excellent popcorn
I’m really not sure how people who microwave a bag of popcorn seeds mixed with some butter-resembling ooze can live with themselves. Of course, who am I to judge you for having such low standards? There is a better way, and it’s more within reach than you think. You just need a few things. The…