Matt

  • Server Security: Lesson #1

    A recent project I have been working on involved a custom built Linux distro running on an ARMv6 piece of hardware. We figured we were fairly immune to getting hacked based on obscure old hardware and pared-down Linux distro. Unfortunately, early in development for ease of working on things we chose a guessable root password.…

  • On Taking Action

    Many years ago I started reading and taking advice from a dating guru. One of the most important things I got out of the material was the frame of mind that being the guy who actually does things and leads by example is critical.  I changed from the guy who doesn’t dance to the one…

  • Next Generation Productivity

    Computers have a long history of replacing the work of humans.  Before mainframes large businesses would have armies of people with punch calculators to do the work that is now in a single spreadsheet (each person performing just a cell of that sheet). Over the past 60 years the primary productivity benefit from computers has…

  • The Bots Are Coming

    Slack is the fastest growing startup in history, and it is starting to drive a new kind of interface for users to make things happen within their businesses. If you remember way back the only way you could interact with a computer was through a command line.  With this interface you form very specific commands…

  • Productivity of higher level languages

    I recently had an experience where I was given the same programming problem as a handful of other software developers.  My advantage was that I was using Python while the other people were forced to write their solution in Java or C. The difference in the amount of time it took to solve the same…

  • Being A World Class Programmer

    A year ago I started on a goal to write and publish code every day to my github account.  That streak lasted for 250 days.  It was a learning experience that gave me time to broaden and deepen my knowledge of Python.  Though the actionable goal was to maintain a streak of activity, the underlying…

  • Going Mobile

    Over the last couple weeks I’ve had a growing concern that my office is just not functional any more.  A standing desk in a room pulling double duty as a spare bedroom. So over the last week I have pulled out all the office equipment and turned the room back into just a bedroom.  The…

  • Making Longterm Plays

    In an age where we expect everything quickly it seems that it can be harder to have the patience to endure long term investments. People are career hopping between companies and entire job types more today than at any time in history.  Employees who want to progress up the ranks find that a quicker route is…

  • Overbuilding From the Start

    A project I have been working on for the past couple of months has suffered from a critical planning error that early on has resulted in time and budget overruns as well as a product that has performance and stability issues.  It’s all because the decision makers at the top decided to take on risky…

  • Success and Confidence: The Trump Effect

    With election activity heating up in the USA, and the prominent Donald Trump attracting a lot of media attention as well as leading positions in the polls it is interesting to think about what a crazy world we live in that someone like him has accumulated so much wealth and power.  It begs the question,…