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Ramping up for a great 2016

Happy New Year, it’s 2016

As I do every year, after doing my year in review I tend to put my goals my goals and objectives for the coming year, so 2016 should not be an exception.  I do this for multiple reasons, to take a few moments and think through what I would like to achieve, complete or begin in the coming year.  It also forces me to to put down some concrete objectives, and make a plan to go through with it.

 

Professional

I have a few goals for my professional career for 2016, both for the company I work for, as well as my start-up initiative Bushido Dojo Software.

My goals for 2016, for my current job, including instituting some new practices; help put in place some new training and knowledge sharing practices to bring some new ideas and solutions to a strong and competent team, that just hasn’t yet been exposed to them.

For my startup, my goals are slightly more lofty and begin with signing ten more clients, an aggressive, yet possible achievement.  Each client signed, Continue reading “Ramping up for a great 2016”

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2015 Year end review

2015 end of year image
2015 year end review

2015 year end review

It’s that time of year again, well ,I’m a little late doing my annual review, as I was overworked trying to get a few things out of the way before year end, so here it is, my 2015 year end review.

New Job

2015 was an eventful year for me, at least professionally speaking.  I changed jobs at the end of the summer.  There are many reasons why, but the principal reason, there was no longer a work life balance that was maintainable for me.  I prefer not to dwell on it and instead focus on the choices I made, and the changes associated to them.  I joined a Montreal tech firm, that sits halfway between a true “agency” type of job, and a software development shop.   Continue reading “2015 Year end review”

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The risk in cutting corners in software deliveries

The risk in cutting corners in software deliveries

Agile Software Development Lifecycle
The software development life cycle

We have all been on a project or two, where the delivery date was fixed in time, due to dependant companies, public launch announcements.  Now hopefully those dates are planned around the work that needs to be done, with at least some buffer room for the eventual things that can go wrong.

Continue reading “The risk in cutting corners in software deliveries”

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My goals for 2015

My Goals for 2015

Happy new year everyone, may 2015 bring you joy, happiness, health, love and success.  I choose the word success as opposed to prosperity, because success implies having a goal, and working to achieve it, where as prosperity can just happen for a lucky few.

As most do, I spent some time reflecting on 2014 yesterday, and realized I had a pretty good year, nothing to truly complain about, but it also had some shortcomings.  Stuff that I don’t feel like I achieved, yet were well within the realm of possibilities.

This year, my resolutions, will all have something in common, an accountability factor.  If I don’t achieve my goals, it will be because I didn’t work hard enough on them, or I didn’t make time for them.  Nothing is out of reach, nothing is impossible, and the important one, nothing relies on anything but me and my effort towards them. Continue reading “My goals for 2015”

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2014, year in review

2014, year in review

Happy New Year everyone. It is again that time of the year, when we look back on our accomplishments, failures, dreams and hopes. site down check Well this is my 2014, year in review.

This time last year, I had a certain set of goals, and things that I hoped to achieve in 2014. I wanted 2014 to be a year that included some firsts, and some changes. If nothing else, 2014 taught me a lot about myself, both good and bad.

First lets recap some of the goals I had set for myself

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The Open Office Layout

The Open Office Layout

I have over the past couple of years had the privilege of working with some wonderful companies.  I like to think myself a lucky person as each and every one of those companies had decidedly different views and approaches to taking care of its employees.  I came across this article on the New Yorker, and it make me stop and think about my experiences.  I decided that I would share those here, and my options about them.
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First Android app

My First Android app

Part of my goals for 2014, was to find the time to publish my app.  I have been working on the idea over the past 18 months, and have in fact tried out a couple of versions of it.

The main problem I faced, is that I lacked the time to learn how to do it right, and being the type of person that wants it done right when my name is on the line.

Over the 2013 holidays, I decided this was it.  I was going to give it a go, and see what would come of it.  If it turns out, great, if not at least I tried.
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2013 in review

2013 in review: taking a moment

Well its the new year, so Happy New Year everyone.

I try to do this every year, not always on this blog, but at least in general to review how things went in the previous year, what happens and such.

Social/community involvement

This past year has seen a few milestones, I changed companies, leaving a fantastic organisation that was SidLee Technologies, and joined a new startup with some old friends.  I will write in the coming months about the startup, but this isn’t the time for it.
Continue reading “2013 in review”

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Words of wisdom

Words of wisdom

I was lucky enough to have a wise uncle who taught me a whole bunch of interesting and useful things, ranging from picking up women to choosing what’s important to you, and giving those things the attention and effort they require. Perhaps some of those things will appear as entries at a later time.

One of the most important words of wisdom I learned from such a great man, is that there are 3 things in life, you should always spend good money on, they are the 3 things between you and the ground, and they will have a major impact on the quality of your life, if not the longevity of your life.
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Deploying websites with a git post-receive hook

I have been looking around for quick and easy ways for deploying website content from our version control system, without having a build process ( the site is ninety nine percent static html and has nothing to build ).  The only aspects that are interesting from a build process is a minifying resources and less compilation.

I have seen a few posts around the web suggesting a git post-receive hook.  The idea of pushing the desired codebase to the desired server is desired, is in fact quite appealing.  I have worked a lot in the past with solutions such as Jenkins, that work great for build solutions, but seemed like overkill for this context.
Continue reading “Deploying websites with a git post-receive hook”