Being candid, I possess a decent level of technical acumen and a handful of technical skills. Both the acumen and the skills are part and parcel to being a software engineer. They compose the foundation to "thought work" — in many ways, they are the barrier to entry. Emphasis on entry. There is no c...
There comes a moment in every tech-inclined person's life where they look at some service on the internet and think "Man, I could host that". My time is now. Why can't I hold all of these ~limes~ CAT 6 cables? Pi-hole Pi-hole — the place where ads go to die™ Or as they put it, and maybe with a litt...
A frictionless development environment is hard to achieve. It's harder to make that repeatable and idempotent on every developer's machine in an org. A few sticking points for any org of a particular size are: Onboarding new software engineers quickly, quietly, and with as little fuss as possible B...
Queues are the backbone to asynchronous communication and message passing in any application of consequence. And yet, they're not as understood as they should be. I had no exposure to queues or queueing technology in my university studies (and mind you, I don't mean the data structure — I listened t...
I read a book Which shouldn't be cause for celebration. I've earned a college degree which proves that on some level, I, Erick Diaz, can read a book. But something I've been learning for the past ten years is that reading as a kid and reading as an adult are inherently different. As a child I would ...
A factory in perspective There are two modern perspectives on factories. On one hand, there's a view that the factory is a paragon of efficiency, process management, and virtue. It's a black box and transmutation circle — you throw raw materials in one end and get a polished, finished product out t...
Staring out of the abyss You know how sometimes you have these ideas just surging through your brain? And you wish there was this Willy-Wonkian dream machine you could shove your head into, to show the world your thoughts; raw, unfiltered, and perfect? Or you know how sometimes you're devoid of any...
Integers Are Nice It’s been a while since I’ve had to worry about types and their nuances. JavaScript has been at the core of my stack for the past couple years now. Between Node and Vue (and wanting to dabble in ReasonML on the side), I’m immersed in the JS landscape. I never imagined that a dynami...
Why Build Software? If you would've asked me that question at the beginning of my software journey, I'd probably have said something about wanting to create cool new things, or solve difficult problems; essentially, it was about being at the forefront of technology. Those ideas and wants still hold ...
"Ideal" development isn't ideal Let me clarify; writing code and developing software under ideal conditions is nice. When everything aligns and a project goes off without a hitch, I'm spoiled. When everything goes as expected, I can take a step back. I can plan my code and be meticulous. This occasi...
I don't usually do this Pubicly self-reflect that is. I usually write about tech stuff and programming. It's what I do; it's easy enough to pump out, and it's compact and digestible on the web. It looks good on a resume and it makes me look like a pseudo-intellectual. Writing about programming doesn...
Frontend programming is hard Frontend programming is difficult to do rigorously. It's too easy to cobble together some frontend code that kinda works. Crafting a good user experience with a coherent UI is a craft and a science. And to be honest, a good UX/UI usually makes or breaks a product. The wo...
This is a loaded question; it hounds me in times of self-doubt. It's often followed by the question, "am I a good engineer?". Honestly, I already grapple with the concept and definition of the word "good". To deconstruct what it could mean to be a "good engineer" is beyond me. I like to sit and thin...
I Dig Node I remember when I was a fledgling programmer and Node was something I had just learned about; I remember thinking "Server side Javascript? That sounds like the worst thing ever". After tinkering with it and working with it professionally for about a year, I had a change of heart. Node ful...
Principles and Patterns (I wax lyrically a bit about software design; if you just want the code click here) My Principles and Patterns of Software Design class (what a mouthful) was one of the most important classes I took during my time at UVU. Most of the subject matter was based off of a modified...
C++ is weird Some people love it and others would rather remove their fingernails with pliers than program in it. I find myself falling in both camps; sometimes at the same time. I have an inkling that my software engineering journey has a lot to do with my feelings towards it. C++ is my... educatio...
Fall is here The weather is getting cooler; leaves are changing color, the wind is picking up, and people are cracking jokes about pumpkin spice lattes left and right. October is here, and with it, Hacktoberfest If you don't know what that is, here is a short snippet from the official Hacktoberfest...
Click me if you wanna get right to testing It is now 2017 Happy belated new year. Its been about nine months now. Change is constant and inevitable. In this year alone I have: Gotten a new and exciting job,...
It's been quite a year Turns out when school is in session, I'm not the best at keeping this thing updated; my apologies. I feel like that's okay though. I may not be great at keeping on top of this, but I still have a vested interest in maintaining this blog — at least, when I have some free time (...
Whoa, hey It's been a while right? I barely recognize you (or myself). It's been about four months now with nary an update or peep out of me. Not really good attendance. To be honest, I feel a bit guilty. Not too guilty mind you — just a bit. Life has been more unexpected than I expected. Things cam...
What to do One of the biggest issues I face when I get a new project-computer or toy is the dilemma of picking what to do with it. The computer itself is a blank slate; truly a paragon of hope, and possibility. It gets to the point where I get overwhelmed with all the choices I have. There are quite...
Free and Open Source Software Open source software is quickly becoming a necessary staple and cornerstone to software development itself and the advancement thereof. A recent(ish) study conducted by Black Duck Software (OSS logistics and legal problem solver) and North Bridge (venture capitalists th...
Python's Such a Pretty Language Revisiting old Python code is always such a treat. Its easy to see what was going on and what the code is actually doing. It is so simple to trace and read, rarely do I ever ask myself What idiot wrote this? Only to later find out through a commit or comment that I ...
Reflections on the past few weeks For the past few weeks I have been immersing myself deeply in the essential core of my 5 classes and studying diligently day and night. Was that convincing enough? I hope so. Its what I keep telling myself that I'm doing. In reality I've been panicking, mentally spr...
And so, with barely a chance to anticipate and prepare for it, the new year is upon us. Entering a new year has always been a reflective process for me; Usually I'm filled with equal parts determination and excitement punctuated with a hint of personal, not self-loathing, maybe self-disappointment i...
First posts deserve a look at my first projects, at least, that's the line of thinking and reasoning that has been bouncing around my head for a bit. I shall declare this my First Case Study. The first class that had me cobble together an interactive, non-console, and non-trivial project was my web ...
Hey! The name's Erick. This is my initial foray into using Pelican as a way to manage a 'blog'. I've always intended to start one up but never quite committed. I've built my own pseudo-blog in Django, I've dabbled with Ghost, and I have extensive experience using Wordpress to build sites for others;...