Category: Technology

Thoughts on TypeScript

Over the past few months I’ve started working pretty extensively with TypeScript. For those of you who don’t know what TypeScript is: TypeScript is a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript. It provides strong types to JavaScript. It allows for the creation of classes and enforces those classes in your code. If you define a Redpill.Widget class, you can then use that class in your code and the editor enforces the rules you define within that class. For example, if you define a findFoo method that accepts a string. If you attempt to pass a number to findFoo your editor will complain about it. To me, TypeScript feels

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Over the past few months I’ve started working pretty extensively with TypeScript. For those of you who don’t know what TypeScript is: TypeScript is a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript. It provides strong types to JavaScript. It allows for the creation of classes and enforces those classes in your code. If you define a Redpill.Widget class, you can then use that class in your code and the editor enforces the rules you define within that class. For example, if you define a findFoo method that accepts a string. If you attempt to pass a number to findFoo your editor will complain about it. To me, TypeScript feels

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Posted in JavaScript, Technology, TypeScript

Web Component Thoughts….

The past 1.5 years I’ve been working exclusively with Web Components and specifically Polymer. The more I use this technology the more convinced I am that this is the technology I should be using. Now, I’m not saying that Web Components and Polymer are hammers and every problem/project is a nail. However it’s quite refreshing that Polymer’s goal is to make itself irrelevant. What does that mean, Polymer is there temporarily until the browsers decide upon common standards and implement those standards. Which, they’re doing. The Custom Elements 1.0 spec has been released. As far as complimentary technology goes, I’m still a little on the fence about which technologies are the

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The past 1.5 years I’ve been working exclusively with Web Components and specifically Polymer. The more I use this technology the more convinced I am that this is the technology I should be using. Now, I’m not saying that Web Components and Polymer are hammers and every problem/project is a nail. However it’s quite refreshing that Polymer’s goal is to make itself irrelevant. What does that mean, Polymer is there temporarily until the browsers decide upon common standards and implement those standards. Which, they’re doing. The Custom Elements 1.0 spec has been released. As far as complimentary technology goes, I’m still a little on the fence about which technologies are the

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Posted in Polymer, Pontification, Technology

Just…. NO,NO,NO

This week I attended MWLUG in Alexandria, VA. This was an awesome event, so many good speakers, good content and excellent camaraderie. I can’t say it enough, but Richard Moy and his team put on such a good event. So, I spoke to a couple of developers who are writing client JavaScript in Domino Designer. While Domino Designer is capable of allowing you to write JavaScript, all I can say is STOP! Stop torturing yourself, Stop making it harder on yourself to write good JavaScript. There are way too many good to excellent editor choices for writing JavaScript, and I would have to say even the worst editor is better than

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This week I attended MWLUG in Alexandria, VA. This was an awesome event, so many good speakers, good content and excellent camaraderie. I can’t say it enough, but Richard Moy and his team put on such a good event. So, I spoke to a couple of developers who are writing client JavaScript in Domino Designer. While Domino Designer is capable of allowing you to write JavaScript, all I can say is STOP! Stop torturing yourself, Stop making it harder on yourself to write good JavaScript. There are way too many good to excellent editor choices for writing JavaScript, and I would have to say even the worst editor is better than

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Posted in Designer, JavaScript, Rambling, Technology

Goodbye Evernote

I’ve been using Evernote for a few years now and have enjoyed it’s feature set and the ability to plan and document a complex project (namely home/shop projects) with shopping lists, ideas, etc. But recently every time I attempt to use Evernote to create a quick note or maybe just jot something down, I’m presented with a request to upgrade to a pay plan, or to update or just general advertising. I can no longer just open it and create a note. Because of this, I have now backed up anything I need and uninstalled Evernote from all my devices. I guess I’ll have to use Google’s Keep or Microsoft’s One Note.

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I’ve been using Evernote for a few years now and have enjoyed it’s feature set and the ability to plan and document a complex project (namely home/shop projects) with shopping lists, ideas, etc. But recently every time I attempt to use Evernote to create a quick note or maybe just jot something down, I’m presented with a request to upgrade to a pay plan, or to update or just general advertising. I can no longer just open it and create a note. Because of this, I have now backed up anything I need and uninstalled Evernote from all my devices. I guess I’ll have to use Google’s Keep or Microsoft’s One Note.

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Posted in Misc, Technology

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!! I hope everyone is having a great holiday. I thought now might be a good time to look back over the year and review some of the technology I’ve dealt with. Surface Pro 4: Last year I got a Surface Pro 4 tablet. I started the process of switching to it instead of my aging MacBook Pro. While I REALLY like the hardware and how everything works there were just a few issues which got on my nerves so bad I couldn’t ever completely make the switch. As far as performance, I experienced about the same performance as my MacBook. It performed very well and was a solid machine,

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Merry Christmas!! I hope everyone is having a great holiday. I thought now might be a good time to look back over the year and review some of the technology I’ve dealt with. Surface Pro 4: Last year I got a Surface Pro 4 tablet. I started the process of switching to it instead of my aging MacBook Pro. While I REALLY like the hardware and how everything works there were just a few issues which got on my nerves so bad I couldn’t ever completely make the switch. As far as performance, I experienced about the same performance as my MacBook. It performed very well and was a solid machine,

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Posted in Family, Misc, Rambling, Technology

Visual Studio Code Editor

I’ve been using the Visual Studio Code editor for the last couple of weeks and thought I would share my experience. I’ve mainly used this in a plain ‘ole polymer application which consists of html files. Using the editor this way has shown some of it’s shortcomings. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a fine editor and has a lot of features I really like. However with CSS, HTML and JavaScript all residing in the same file, a lot of the typeahead features just don’t work, which is my biggest complaint. So onto my review, I’ll first start with my dislikes: JavaScript intellisense doesn’t work with JavaScript embedded in an

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I’ve been using the Visual Studio Code editor for the last couple of weeks and thought I would share my experience. I’ve mainly used this in a plain ‘ole polymer application which consists of html files. Using the editor this way has shown some of it’s shortcomings. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a fine editor and has a lot of features I really like. However with CSS, HTML and JavaScript all residing in the same file, a lot of the typeahead features just don’t work, which is my biggest complaint. So onto my review, I’ll first start with my dislikes: JavaScript intellisense doesn’t work with JavaScript embedded in an

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Posted in Microsoft, Technology

What is Modern?

I've been working a lot lately towards the concept of a modern application. What exactly makes an application modern? Is it the UI? What about the platform the application runs on? Is modern just a feeling the user experiences? If so, what determines that the experience is modern? These questions make me think that what determines something is modern is all of the things questioned above. A modern application must have a modern user interface that runs on a modern platform. OK, that's fine, but what exactly is a modern UI? If you take a look at the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library they define almost every type of pattern that you may

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I've been working a lot lately towards the concept of a modern application. What exactly makes an application modern? Is it the UI? What about the platform the application runs on? Is modern just a feeling the user experiences? If so, what determines that the experience is modern? These questions make me think that what determines something is modern is all of the things questioned above. A modern application must have a modern user interface that runs on a modern platform. OK, that's fine, but what exactly is a modern UI? If you take a look at the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library they define almost every type of pattern that you may

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Posted in Domino, Technology, XPages

Feeding Innovation and rewarding success

Over on Tim's Blog he made a post about being at Lotus 911/GBS for 5 years (Congrats Tim) and in that post he stated: I've learned more, had more fun, been more inspired, and been witness to (and, occasionally, even integral to) more amazing innovation in the past few years than I even imagined possible. This got me to thinking on just how does a company drive innovation and foster an innovative environment that makes people want to be a part of it? In my career I've seen both sides of the coin. Companies that squash innovation because they either aren't interested in hearing what lowly worker bees have to say.

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Over on Tim's Blog he made a post about being at Lotus 911/GBS for 5 years (Congrats Tim) and in that post he stated: I've learned more, had more fun, been more inspired, and been witness to (and, occasionally, even integral to) more amazing innovation in the past few years than I even imagined possible. This got me to thinking on just how does a company drive innovation and foster an innovative environment that makes people want to be a part of it? In my career I've seen both sides of the coin. Companies that squash innovation because they either aren't interested in hearing what lowly worker bees have to say.

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Posted in Innovation, Technology

Samsung Galaxy S II

As an early christmas present my wife got me a new Samsung Galaxy S II from T-Mobile. This is by far the best gadget I've ever owned. My initial impression is WOW! It's very fast, much faster than my old myTouch or the LG that replaced the myTouch when it started over-heating. The T-Mobile version of the Galaxy S II is a little different than the stock Galaxy S II. It sports a 1.5 GHZ Dual Core Processor (as opposed to a 1.2 GHZ Dual Core), a huge 4.5" Super AMOLED screen (as opposed to a 4.3" screen) with Gorilla Glass and a very slim, light case (it's lighter than my

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As an early christmas present my wife got me a new Samsung Galaxy S II from T-Mobile. This is by far the best gadget I've ever owned. My initial impression is WOW! It's very fast, much faster than my old myTouch or the LG that replaced the myTouch when it started over-heating. The T-Mobile version of the Galaxy S II is a little different than the stock Galaxy S II. It sports a 1.5 GHZ Dual Core Processor (as opposed to a 1.2 GHZ Dual Core), a huge 4.5" Super AMOLED screen (as opposed to a 4.3" screen) with Gorilla Glass and a very slim, light case (it's lighter than my

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Posted in Technology

Cool Chrome Debugging features

This week while troubleshooting various issues I came across some cool features of the Chrome browser. While not really all that jaw dropping they may come in handy none-the-less. Click the wrench icon in the top right corner and then pick “View Background Pages” this will bring up a dialog which shows you how much memory and cpu the browser, each tab and each extension is using, which is pretty handy. You can also end these processes from this window. Now click on the “stats for nerds” link at the bottom left of this dialog. This will show you more of the same information but with much more detail. Open up

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This week while troubleshooting various issues I came across some cool features of the Chrome browser. While not really all that jaw dropping they may come in handy none-the-less. Click the wrench icon in the top right corner and then pick “View Background Pages” this will bring up a dialog which shows you how much memory and cpu the browser, each tab and each extension is using, which is pretty handy. You can also end these processes from this window. Now click on the “stats for nerds” link at the bottom left of this dialog. This will show you more of the same information but with much more detail. Open up

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Posted in Technology