Randomness in Tests
Wouldn't it be cool if a few uses of the random module in your unit tests
could discover bugs in your code? Meh.
The problem is that random tests are non-deterministic, meaning they lack the highly desirable property that if they pass in my local development environment, they'll also pass …
The Impossible World
Sometime when I was a teenager, my step-dad gave me a box full of sci-fi and war novels. I'm not sure where he got them -- maybe in bulk at a garage sale or something. Years later, many of them are still sitting on a shelf, mostly unread. I thought I'd …
Origin of the Name of the City of Lehi
Most people believe that the city of Lehi, Utah was named after Lehi, the first prophet and patriarch of the Book of Mormon who fled Jerusalem with his family prior to the city falling under siege to the Babylonians around the beginning of the 6th century BC. Both the …
UI Baffler: Outlook Reminders
Why is it that in the Outlook reminders dialog, the "Dismiss All" button is disabled if there are no reminder items selected?
Well clearly it is because that button is supposed to dismiss all of the selected reminders, right?
No, because if there is any selected reminder, clicking "Dismiss All …
I'm concerned about using Python
Python is slow
Review of "Don't Make Me Think"
Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think is a quick, easy to read introduction to usability, especially as it relates to web design.
Some sections are very web-specific, but you'll also find plenty of things that apply to any kind of user interface. He also doesn't try to be comprehensive, often …
The Feedback Meeting Game
We hold lots of meetings with the intent to gather feedback from members of a team. These can be architecture reviews, requirements walkthroughs, sprint or release retrospectives, and others. How do you conduct meetings like these in an efficient and productive way?
Some challenges that arise in meetings like these …
PyCon 2016 - Day 3
Wednesday was the final day of the main PyCon 2016 conference in Portland, Oregon.
One of the interesting talks was about Web accessibility. It isn't always top-of-mind for me since I do little Web front end currently, but the speaker mentioned the Accessibility Developer Tools for Google Chrome …
PyCon 2016 - Day 2
Today's PyCon was a lot about meeting people. I hadn't really anticipated that, but it was a nice surprise nonetheless. But first things first...
There were two sets of lightning talks today, book-ending the rest of the events. One interesting one was about using Minecraft to teach …
PyCon 2016 - Day 1
PyCon is in Portland, Oregon this year, which is not only more accessible to me than eastern Canada (the previous location), but also the area where most of my extended family lives. Those facts combined to make it a great time to attend for the first time.
In a way …