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development

When Git ignore doesn't

01 September 2016

Imagine this: You have a file in your Git repository that you need to modify. Perhaps it is a settings file for your CMS. The settings file works perfectly for your QA or production environment, but you need to modify it for your local environment to run off of a different port or to enable developer logging or to do whatever else. These local changes are critical to your local environment, but they will not work on production. No matter what, you must not commit these changes.

development

4 ways teaching code made me a better developer

11 May 2016

Late last year, the good folks at General Assembly hired me to teach one of their part-time Front-End Web Development courses. I have been coding for years and, more recently, have given a few one-off guest lectures. However, I was never completely in charge of the education of a group of people for any extended period of time… until now.

development

A few of my favorite (dev) things

22 December 2015

I started teaching a web development class and I have been thinking a lot about what happens after class is over. My students will learn a bunch of HTML and CSS and a bit of Javascript over the course of 10 weeks. After that, development gets harder.

life

Living Dangerously: 12 Thoughts on Windows 10 After Day 1

31 July 2015

I like to live dangerously - at least in terms of upgrading my technology.  Call it reckless.  Call it crazy.  I just like playing with new things.  This is exactly why I decided to upgrade my 3-year old Windows 7 machine to Windows 10 the day it came out

life

I need a job!: 4 tips from a hiring manager

18 July 2015

The job market has been really fantastic for developers, so much so that technical immersion programs, like General Assembly and the Iron Yard, have become increasingly popular. More developers than ever are entering the market, yet unemployment (at least in DC) is near zero (according to several local recruiters I have spoken to).

life

About This Tech Girl

22 April 2015

There have been a lot of stories in the news about gender issues in the tech world. The Ellen Pao case. Gamergate. The dongle joke at Pycon.  The gender gap in the tech industry.  The list goes on and on. And now today, an LA Times article came out asking why women are leaving the tech industry.

life

Cleaner Gmail sent folder

25 January 2015

I just started a new job where all communication is managed via Google – e-mail, calendar, and chat. This being my first intensive experience with Gmail, I quickly discovered that the sent folder will drive me crazy.

development

How to write code: Kid edition

03 December 2014

I was recently asked to do some research on how to teach an 8-year old about mobile app development. This made me happy on a bunch of levels. This kid is interested in something that is pretty complicated for adults. And she’s a girl. Not to go into gender issues here, but this fact made me even happier. Women in STEM are still so grossly under-represented it is ridiculous.

development

Reverting remote commits in Git

07 November 2014

I had a “git” of a problem this week. (Ha… see what I did there?) I committed a bunch of changes to a remote branch, merged them to master, and then needed to back out those changes. (Why this need occurred is another story for another time.)

user-experience

Talking to clients about mobile

22 October 2014

I recently moderated a discussion with UX designers and developers that focused on “adaptive” vs “responsive” websites and how to talk to clients about these terms. We started out by establishing common definitions for each term:

development

Adventures in IE: A story of Javascript dependencies

03 June 2014

I have never really been one for developing in IE. To be honest, I usually exclusively develop using Chrome and save my cross-browser testing for the end of the project. This is very likely a debatable practice, and I may write a blog article about that in the future, but that is not why I am writing now.

life

30 Things I Learned After Moving To DC

20 March 2014

I moved from Boston to Washington DC in the summer of 2012. It was somewhat (mostly) random move, but one that was completely necessary for me. I recently came across a blog post by another transplant to DC - 24 Things I’ve Learned After Moving to Washington DC - and was inspired to create a list of my own.

development

Hybris: Create components manually

09 July 2013

I have spent a large part of this year working in a system called Hybris, which is a Java-based e-commerce platform.  The Hybris back-end seems to be very robust and includes a decent amount of documentation.  The Hybris front-end also seems to be very robust - but it is not the most user-friendly thing on the planet and includes very little documentation.

user-experience

Mobile should not be an afterthought

02 July 2013

I grew up watching the Jetsons, with their flying cars and video calls, and Star Trek, with their tricorders and communicators. Looking back at these shows, there is a common theme here. Sometime in the future, we could have technology that connects people over thousands – or even millions – of miles. Pretty cool right?

development wordpress

Taming my Frankenstein monster of a website

24 May 2013

It was a disaster. My website, that is. I started my site with good intentions. All I wanted was a simple site with some basic information about me. Maybe my resume, too. After all, any serious web developer needs a website. So, I created my simple, static website and published it using Fastmail’s file services. I was already using Fastmail for my e-mail and using a single service for my online needs was completely logical at the time.

life

February Photo a Day #28

28 February 2013

And last but not least… the 28th!  Today’s photo subject was “upside down”, which gave me a great excuse to hang around… well… upside down.  Seeing my office upside down was the most fun.  My apartment does not have a whole lot of storage space, but it has high ceilings.  So to help with office storage, I built up.

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