The Stale Programmer As a software engineer, it is important that you keep yours skills fresh.  There are always new technologies and frameworks coming out at an alarming rate. These new frameworks may make our lives a lot easier… IF we know how to use them.  But a lot of us graduated college at least […]

Case Study: Web App Generates More Revenue than Desktop App I read an interesting post the other day about desktop applications vs. web applications: Desktop Apps Vs. Web Apps Note – this is a very old article (written in 2009, I believe), but the point is still there. This article talks about sales.  In particular, […]

Today I would like to talk about producers versus consumers.  I will then tie that into automation. Consumers Most people spend a vast majority of their time. We consume food.  Television content floods the house a large majority of the time.  Blog after blog is read with no action. There is nothing wrong with consumption.  […]

It’s a Friday morning and the schedule is crunched.  All the sudden, your manager drops the dreaded “O” bomb on you.  “Hey, can you work overtime to get this done?” Occasional overtime might be inevitable… maybe.  But consistently having to work over is the sign of an underlying problem.  Let’s discuss what impacts working more […]

This Is My Opinion! Before reading too much into this, this is simply my opinion of agile development.  While it is flavored towards software, it could be used for other creative processes. In addition, I am not an “expert” per se with Agile practices.  I very well could misrepresent a fundamental concept.  Either way, I […]

The Problem In my previous post, I outlined how Python makes development a lot faster. Unfortunately, Python’s lack of a static type checker can really hinder development in large applications. As a great example, I was working on some slightly older code just a few days ago.  This code had not been touched in probably […]

Python is a dynamic language.  In a nutshell, this means it is really easy to develop something quickly.  This fits in really well with a lot of the programming environments I have been in: we must have it finished yesterday! In addition, Python is quick to learn.  If you are familiar with an existing programming […]

If this post resonates with you, and you would like help becoming more proactive, send me an email (tim [at] developerautomation.com) or leave a comment!  This habit can drastically change not only your career but your entire life. What Does It Mean to Be Proactive? I have recently started reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  […]