books
gnu make
Whenever I can I try to read Chromium‘s source code. Even if all I have are 40 minutes between Sunnyvale and Millbrae. Poking Chromium’s source code is an educational hobby of mine so I am in no rush and I take a lot of detours diving into subjects related to the project. The most recent [...]
Restful web services
This one has been laying on my desk for quite too long. Time to make a post about it and get it back to the shelf. I first started reading Restful Web Services by Leonard Richardson & Sam Ruby one year ago. April 2009. I know that because of the Amazon receipt. I read the [...]
Mailserver and Postfix
In order to keep this diary blog updated I should add a small note about mail servers. I’m still doing some sys admin work for about 2 hours a day. After a lot of experimentation I finally have one mail server up and running with Postfix and Dovecot. Besides the official documentation I usually try to [...]
Wearing a sysadmin hat
In the past weeks I’ve been doing some temporary sysadmin work for my day job and this new role extended to my night-time job. Yeah, I joined a startup but I’ll talk more about that some other day. I had to move one of the web services we offer in my regular job to its [...]
Masters of Doom
I have just a few posts per month but also have a lot of drafts waiting to be completed. A few of these drafts are almost complete and most are just short notes about subjects I want to write about in the future. I wish I could post more often, but not only is my [...]
A matter of guidance
Cloudy days are perfect for productive leisure, so in March before moving to the US I spent a lazy-cloudy-Sunday afternoon packing. Moving is always exciting and a good chance to get rid of everything that is not necessary in your life anymore. You can even leave bad vibes behind if you are spiritual. We tend [...]
Apprenticeship Patterns
I was randomly checking the titles available from Safari’s web site when I found Apprenticeship Patterns by Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye. The book presents several patterns to improve your learning experience as a software developer apprentice. Evaluating how you you learn is key to excel and achieve mastery in any form of art. Yes, I’m [...]
Learning MySQL
I’m trying to keep track of the books I read on this blog. It will be fun to check the posts a few years from now. I just finished reading one more book from the O’Reilly learning series. Learning MySQL by Seyed M.M. (Saied) Tahaghoghi and Hugh Williams. I picked this book up for two [...]
Writing GNU Emacs Extensions
I’m not an Emacs Lisp programmer. In the best case scenario a wanna-be Emacs Lisp hacker. A few months ago I decided to have an introduction to this world full of parenthesis to solve a few problems I was having with Emacs default settings. When I first started using Emacs I had a hard time [...]
JPod
It didn’t take long for me to read another book from Douglas Coupland. I first read Microserfs and since I liked the book I ordered JPod from the same author. The text form is pretty much like Microserfs, an epistolary novel according to Wikipedia. JPod has one different thing though, a subtle dark humour. People [...]
Learning Python
Write, run and throw away scripts are the excuse I need at my job to try different languages. One of the first languages I tried some years ago was Python. I really like the language but never had a proper introduction to it until now. I just finished reading Learning Python by Mark Lutz. It’s [...]
Windows Day
I’ve been involved in a C#/ASP.NET project for a few weeks now. It is my “Windows Day” during the week. It is exciting to be in a completely different environment and trying different things. I feel refreshed when I’m back to Ubuntu and getting things done for my employer in Brazil. The learning curve is [...]
Producing Open Source Software
I have just finished reading a really good book: Producing Open Source Software by Karl Fogel. The text is enriched by examples taken from the Subversion project where the author used to be involved. The book covers a wide range of topics found in Open Source Projects including Technical, Social and Political Infrastructures, Money, Packaging [...]
eLisp and buffers
I finally decided to devote some time to learning elisp and get rid of the shame I have every time I copy and paste code into my .emacs file. I’m now reading Programming in Emacs Lisp (Second Edition) by Robert J. Chassell. It is really good reading. Not only to learn elisp but also because [...]
Microserfs
I like tech novels but I’m not always on the cutting edge of the books. I just finished reading Microserfs from Douglas Coupland. The book is from 1995 so I’m almost 15 years late. Shame on me. The narrative is in the form of diary entries which guides you into a very personal and introspective reading. The [...]
New Project arrives
Back from Germany! Had 15 days to rest. Lovely company, places to visit, great food and beer. Oh beer!! Das Bier und das Wasser. Neutral liquids. I wish if I will ever find a bottle of Erdinger here for only 85 cents. Well, I must admit that it was not 100% fun. First my flight [...]
Programming PHP book comments
One of the books I’m reading now is Programming PHP, 2nd Edition by Rasmus Lerdorf, Kevin Tatroe and Peter MacIntyre. Really nice, specially if you have in mind that Mr. Lerdorf invented PHP. After facing a few mistakes along the text I decided to write down a few ideas. Exercise my writing skills. You can [...]