Month: January 2016

A Good Shave

January 29, 2016August 16, 2016 Kevin HallThings I Like

I thought I’d try something new here. I’ve found the it’s very helpful when reading other blogs when people mention products and other things that they personally use and enjoy. So I thought I’d share some of those things here as they come up. Today I’d like to mention the Braun Series 7 790cc-4 Electric Foil Shaver (affiliate link). I just bought this after 2 of the 3 cutting heads on my 10 year old Norelco stopped working. And this thing is amazing. Apparently the slow, awful decline of my old razor had reached a point where I regarded razor burn and ripping rather than cutting hairs as normal. Apparently you can actually get a nice, smooth, pain free shave […]

Dumping SQL from Coldfusion Query Object

January 19, 2016 Eric StevensColdFusion, Design

Dumping out the SQL from a query object, even more so if it’s been passed around through some functions, can be a pain. Usually you can wrap the query in a CFDUMP and call it a day, however for very large queries or if you want it more concise use this <queryname>.getMetaData().getExtendedMetaData().sql

Peer Review

January 15, 2016 Kevin HallProject Management

We use Peer Reviews during coding for a variety of reasons. The three main reasons are: Quality Assurance – checking other developers work to make sure everything is done correctly and works as it should. Cross Training – the reviewers going over what was done ensures that at least two people have a good understanding of everything that is built and changed. By rotating reviewers for different tasks in the same part of a system many people will be looking at what is built as it is happening. Education – the developers and peer reviewers learn from each other during the review process – new tricks or techniques are shared and developed. Peer Review Checklist We use a detailed checklist […]

Stagnation

January 6, 2016 Kevin HallBusiness, Software

It is hard to avoid stagnation. It requires pushing yourself and the people around you out of your comfort zone. As you get better at what you do it actually becomes even harder – you know the “right” way to do things and become even more set in your ways. So how do we keep growing ? The Comfort Zone When we start learning something new we don’t have much of a comfort zone. I’ve been teaching my son to play basketball and I’ve been realizing that simple things like not pushing your knees together when you jump are not yet simple to him. It’s a good reminder not to take things that seem obvious to me for granted. I […]