crazed monkey » links

What to do when PyPI goes down

Ian Stevens — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:31:16 +0000

Avichal’s Blog – Focus on building 10x teams, not on hiring 10x developers

Ian Stevens — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:40:09 +0000

Avichal Garg argues that hiring a well-rounded, well-coordinated team which plays off its members’ strengths goes farther than hiring a single well-rounded developer.

I like the concept, but it’s light on evidence. Is there supporting data, not anecdotes, that hiring such a 10x team is more economical than hiring a smaller group of so-called 10x developers? How much more likely is it that one could find 6-7 complementary developers than a handful who just get shit done? And that their increased quality and output outweigh their extra cost? Without evidence, the argument Is just a lot of hand-waving.

Still, hiring complementary team members is something to keep in mind. But how does one gauge the personalities required to complement an existing team? How does one spot a “Pinocchio” in an interview? What about rebalancing the team as each individual grows or others leave?

David Mark’s Essential Javascript Tips – Volume #8 – Tip #47E – Attaching and Detaching Event Listeners

Ian Stevens — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:29:39 +0000

David Mark, that JavaScript curmudgeon, wrote a detailed approach in comp.lang.javascript to the attaching and detaching of event listeners, depending on context and browser. It’s quite possibly more information than you require, but a great resource with no doubts to its accuracy. I’m bookmarking this so that I may confirm the existence of prior volumes … Read more

mxcl/homebrew Issue #899: readline should build a ‘universal’ binary

Ian Stevens — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 02:55:58 +0000

If you ever get an error message of “configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables” when executing brew install readline, then do what’s suggested in a related Homebrew issue:

brew edit readline
Comment out the line which starts with ENV.universal_binary.
Re-execute your previous brew install command.

The above also applies to the following packages:

jpeg

Apparently the configuration specifying a Universal or PowerPC build target for libraries is in the library itself, not passed to it. If the library author wants to stop people using it on PowerPC, he/she can.

Da Vinci kept to-do lists too

Ian Stevens — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 02:50:26 +0000

I like to-do lists. Every day I’m either making one or maintaining one. I don’t trust my brain to remember lists, so I write them down. Big whoop, you say, and so do I. Lists are nothing special. And yet, many people don’t take advantage of lists and instead keep their to-do items in their head.

Leonardo da Vinci also made lists. A sample of one was translated and illustrated for NPR’s Robert Krulwich. While it’s a daunting to-do list, what strikes me is that, with the exception of “Draw Milan”, each item is un-ambiguous. Da Vinci details what he wants to do, and who he must speak to or where he must go to get it done. Each item is so precise, da Vinci could easily delegate most of them to someone else and have them report back to him.

The other interesting thing about da Vinci’s list is how he addresses himself in the second person. “Get Messer Fazio to show you about proportion.” Each item speaks to him, orders him even.

I wonder how many of these to-do items da Vinci finished.

Martin Fowler on how to safely grow a development team

Ian Stevens — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:23:48 +0000

How to swap your laptop for a tablet+VPS for development work

Ian Stevens — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 06:09:29 +0000

Recently I’ve been debating between a Macbook Pro and a Macbook Air for developing on-site. They’re nice machines. I like the portability of the Air but want the power of the Pro. I also want a tablet device for its portability and to explore touch interactions. Ideally, I’d have all three for leisure use (iPad), remote work (Air or a netbook) and a beefier machine for more involved use. If only I could develop properly on a tablet.

Mark O’Connor is suggesting just that—to use a tablet for development. A command-line over SSH on a tablet with a keyboard makes a great dumb terminal.

Most of my work is in the shell anyway, so that’s not much of a stretch. All I need is a decent VPS (micro EC2 instances are just over $100 a year with cash advance). I can have that for a few dollars more than what I pay now for limited hosting. Throw in a keyboard, and you have yourself an expensive thin dumb terminal. Oh sure, it does other things!

An iPad as development machine? Could be worth a try. The only downsides I see so far: no wifi, no work; and requiring the keyboard to swipe to and refresh an app on UI work. That first problem can be solved by tethering to a phone. There must be a way around the second.

PyPy Development: Speeding up JSON encoding in PyPy

Ian Stevens — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:37:11 +0000

Maciej Fijalkowski made JSON parsing in PyPy (pure Python) faster than in CPython. Here’s how he did it, with lessons which can be applied to other optimizations.

Mark Down Isn’t a Discount

Ian Stevens — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 08:01:27 +0000

Server crashes mean so much more than lost data; it’s lost income, loss of reputation and lost time spent cleaning up the mess. Availability is crucial. But not all availabilities are equal. Should a loss of a data store mean goods can’t be sold?

Dan Pritchard argues that in the absence of data, replies to requests are predictable and robust. Queue data updates, delay all data access, and for goodness sakes test the damn thing. Pritchard goes into enough detail, but don’t expect a HOWTO. Those steps alone are worth a book.

Questions to ask when reviewing a design – (37signals)

Ian Stevens — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 23:43:25 +0000

At my previous job I dabbled in critiquing wireframes and designs of others—mostly basic questions such as “What does this do?” or “Why is this here?”. This list of questions to ask when reviewing a design is a lot more exhaustive and could be useful for those looking to tighten up their designs.