08.29.10
Posted in Agile, BDD, Iterative Development, Pair Programming, Software Development, TDD, Teams, Uncategorized at 7:41 pm by Pablosan
Recently I was honored to have the opportunity to work toward being approved to teach Ron Jeffries’ and Chet Hendrickson’s Agile Developer Skills course. I had my first opportunity to co-teach the class last week. It was a great class and I very much enjoyed working along side Chet and Cheezy, two software craftsmen I respect highly.
If you follow the links above, you’ll notice a theme and, though it’s not explicit in the class’ title, Extreme Programming is a significant influencing factor in the course content. Like most software developers, XP has had a major positive impact on my pursuit of the craft, and it’s great to see the practices hold up so well over time.
The ADS course utilizes some lecture, but it is primarily a hands-on workshop giving participants the opportunity to experience developing high-quality, working software using Agile principles and practices. This is the second time I have experienced the class (the first time was as a participant back in May) and it has remained an intense, thoroughly enjoyable way to either learn the practices for the first time or to delve deeper into Agile. I find it hard to believe that anyone could leave the course without learning a great deal. It is both challenging and insightful.
I think my favorite part of the class are the questions and how they help shape and guide the content. That feedback is crucial to the success of the course (maybe any course) and, as an instructor, I find the questions leave me thinking about these principles long after the class is over.
Next time, I’ll share a couple of the questions and some of those thoughts. For now, though, I encourage you to take a look at Agile Skills Network and consider taking the course. Regardless of where you are in your software craftsman journey, the ADS course will encourage you to push further down the path!
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02.15.09
Posted in Apple, Journal, News, Travel, Uncategorized at 12:40 pm by Pablosan
Leading up to Christmas and her birthday, my eldest daughter had been asking for a new computer. She has been using a hand-me-down Titanium Powerbook (the G3, 500 MHz version), which is still in perfect operating condition, but runs a bit slow. So, for her birthday and not knowing for sure how I wanted to handle it, I gave her a “Free Computer Upgrade” coupon. Yes, it was a bit of a copout, but I had my reasons: primarily I wanted to wait for MWSF, to see what Apple might have up their sleeve.
A couple weeks later I had made my decision: buy her a netbook. So Karyssa and I sat down together to order an HP Mini 1000. Over the next week or so, Karyssa and I looked for an email informing us it had shipped. The email finally came and we watched the progress of the package as it made its way from Shanghai, China to Dallas, Texas.
I was a little worried: concerned that maybe this wouldn’t work out. Once the netbook actually arrived, I was disappointed that it did work out. I knew within the first hour of her using it, Karyssa was very happy with her new computer… and I wanted one. I mean, there are a couple concessions (the screen can be a bit small for some things, and the keys on the keyboard are a shade smaller than standard keys), but it would easily handle the vast majority of my needs. And HP has done an incredible job putting a very slick UI on top of the standard Ubuntu Linux distro. The fit and finish of both the hardware and software — the way they complement each other — reminds me more of Apple than of HP.
My move to The Cloud will be complete when I switch to an HP Mini 1000. And at one third the weight and 40% the size of my 17″ Macbook Pro, it will fit incredibly well with my plans to travel light.
It’s time to start saving my pennies!
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